Silent Reviews

Prince Caspian (Blu-ray) -Yes
The Elfish Gene – Yes
Symphonic Shades – Yes
Mamma Mia! (movie) – NO
Bridge To Terabithia (Blu-ray) – Yes
Hellboy (Blu-ray) – Yes
NASCAR Awards Banquet – No

Sunday Riddle

What is this man doing? Click on the image to find out.

NCK Road Race

Every year, on the weekend after Thanksgiving, the Northern California Karters hold their season closing race at Infineon Raceway. This event hold a special place in my heart for two reasons: in 2004, this is where I first met Victoria’s family, when she brought me to watch her dad Michael race. That day also marked my first ever visit to the racetrack, which has developed into a pretty intimate affair. This year, two of Victoria’s aunts and five cousins were in town for the race. And Missy upheld the tradition by introducing her boyfriend to the track to the meet the family for his first time.

I made a pretty elaborate music video of the entire day of 2007. This year, I didn’t have as much time, so I just filmed some racing action from good shooting spots (having a hard card for the track and having filmed the 2008 NASCAR and IndyCar races certainly helped!), and edited it into a small montage. Enjoy! These guys easily reach over 100mph in their little karts as they race down the esses. Most impressive, and always a lot of fun to watch. Just as impressive: Michael got first place in his class!

Blockbuster’s Little Secret

Ever since Blu-ray, I have started renting more movies again. In Sonoma, that means Blockbuster Video. At this point, it probably means “Blockbuster” in every other part of the country as well. I remember the olden days back in Virginia when I frequented alternatives like the (now assimilated) Hollywood Video, but Blockbuster seems to be taking over the business completely.

Not that they don’t have their own problems, of course. Under constant assault by mail and download services like Netflix, Blockbuster has been trying to reinvent its retail chain pretty aggresively. One major change came a few years ago, when Blockbuster happily announced “the end of late fees”. Which was obvious bullshit, of course – Blockbuster just tried to pass itself off as a “try before you buy” outfit: the traditional late fees became a “restocking fee”, and late movies were automatically converted into a purchase. Highly misleading, and several states would have none of it.

Even so, the basic policy still stands. Movies are due after 5 days, late rentals are converted into a purchase that can be negated within 30 days for a restocking fee. Except, that’s not really the truth. Blockbuster movies aren’t due after 5 days, as they boldly proclaim on stickers and store windows.

It’s actually 12 days.

[Read more]

Silent Reviews

Hellboy II (Blu-ray) – Yes
Australia (Trailers) – No
AT&T “thumbfaces” texting commercial – No
Valkyrie (Trailer) – Maybe
Pinks All Out in Sonoma – Yes
Kota, The Triceratops – Yes

Happy Thanksgiving!

I’d like to wish a happy Thanksgiving to all my of American readers! I hope you have family or friends to celebrate with, and still find plenty of things to be thankful for in these rather difficult times.

Europeans might find it hard to understand what all the fuss is about. When I first arrived in America, I didn’t appreciate how momentous this holiday is. So let’s just cover a few basics: Thanksgiving is bigger than Christmas. Everybody tries to celebrate this holiday with their family – and because America is such a big country, that means a lot of travel. In Germany, I was used to the idea that you can get pretty much anywhere by car in a matter of 8 hours. In the US, it takes 5 hours by plane to go between the east and west coast. On Thanksgiving the roads are packed, and the airports are busy.

But really, the best way to understand the magnitude of Thanksgiving is to be single, without a family in the US, and trying to do anything on Thanksgiving evening. Like me when I first got to America. Thanksgiving might be the only day of the year that America shuts down. No stores are open, no restaurants (or even fast food chains) serve food to the unprepared newcomer. Xmas is a walk in the park compared to Thanksgiving.

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Silent Reviews

Kung Fu Panda (DVD) – Yes
Star Trek XI Trailer -  Maybe
Wall•E (Blu-ray) – Yes
Playstation Home – Maybe
Bailout for US Auto Makers – No

I stole the format from Charlie’s page, which is currently in reconstruction mode (so I can’t link to his previous Silent Reviews). I’ll probably do one every Monday, to quickly comment on any media and events that didn’t warrant a full post.

Finish The Sentence

Early Sunday morning, with the 49ers – Cowboys game playing in the background. Good time to catch up on a post that Victoria made last September.

I AM … currently trying to do three things at once.
I WANT… Americans to realize that not politicians, but hard work and responsibility will end the economic crisis.
I HAVE … finally caught up on sleep. I think.
I KEEP … finding new projects before I’m finished with old ones.
I WISH I COULD … relax more on weekends.
I HATE … drivers who slow down as soon as they see a cop at the side of the road, even though they were going the speed limit.
I FEAR … people who think that Sarah Palin is the future of the Republican party.
I HEAR … Victoria talking to my parents on the phone.
I DON’T THINK … it’s close to Christmas yet, no matter how much corporate America wants us to believe it.
I REGRET … not blowing up Megaton in Fallout 3.
I LOVE … exploring the area with Victoria.
I AM NOT … going to watch Quantum Of Solace.
I DANCE … whenever Victoria grabs me.
I SING … in the car.
I NEVER … lose hope.
I RARELY … laugh during movies that I find funny.
I CRY WHEN I WATCH … the ending of “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill”.
I AM NOT ALWAYS … sure we will be able to afford a house this year.
I HATE THAT … responsible people are caught in the mess that irresponsible bankers and home buyers created for us.
I’M CONFUSED ABOUT … wildly varying Feedburner subscriber stats.
I NEED … to feed the birds.
I SHOULD … finish my Quake level.

This isn’t one of those chain letter type posts, but if you’re reading this and have a blog, you should do your own version and let us know!

Impressions From Maui, Part 2

To round out the vacation, here’s a few additional nice pictures from our Maui trip. Looking back at it now and comparing the experience to Kauai last year, I liked Kauai a little bit better. But that’s personal preference, the more rural nature of Kauai just suits me better. Maui had a few touristy hotspots that were missing from Kauai, though. I think my ideal island (“Kaui”?) would be created by transplanting Lahaina onto Kauai.

The New XBox Experience

So here it is: Microsoft’s complete redesign of the Xbox 360 user interface. So far, my reaction has mostly been one of indifference. I don’t need the Avatars, and the card system that is used to navigate between menus isn’t any better or worse than the old blade setup. Streaming Netflix over the net might be nice, but it isn’t something I’m likely to use anytime soon. My backlog of DVDs and Blu-ray discs is too big to worry about renting new stuff. So, it seems like NXE is nothing to write home about, right? Yes… except for one single feature, which single-handedly justifies the upgrade: hard drive installation for games! I’m absolutely loving it. Sure, ultimately Microsoft is just fixing a 3 year old problem: their console is so incredibly loud during use (especially on stream-heavy games like Fallout and GTA) that you can always hear it humming in the background. To the point where I haven’t been able to play 360 games in my office.

In our house, we have both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 hooked up to the big TV in the living room. But I have duplicate cables for the small TV in my office, as well. So if Victoria wants to watch something on the nice TV, I simply snatch the console and take it to my room. That always worked great with the PS3, which is very quiet. But the 360 was so loud that I could hardly hear the games’ music and dialog! Consider that I’m only sitting four feet away from the screen, as that smaller TV dictates. But now that I’ve installed Fallout 3 on the hard drive, the 360 is just as quiet as the PS3. And I can actually hear myself think!

So thank you for NXE, Microsoft. I’m just using one of your new features so far, but it’s heaven sent.