JamesSavik

Well- in any case with the world ending, we're all screwed.

The best stories combine these elements in equal parts. Plot without character is narrative. Character without plot is... Lost.

HISS!

I miss Vance. He was good people.

Way back in 8th grade, (or the late seventies) I did a whole semester on the Metric System (SI). We were told that its adoption was imminent. The jolly old US was the only major country still using the old English system. I've been waiting ever since. The metric system is so elegant. Grams, meters, liters. Milli, centi, deci, hecto, kilo, mega, giga, tera- it all makes so much sense. Factors of 10. It just doesn't get any better or easier than that. Not so arbitrary as 16 ounces in a pound or 1760 yards in a mile. Sigh. I've been waiting a long time. I've used the metric system in chemistry and physics and even professionally. What is the problem? It works so much better but there so damned many ignorant people in the United States. Whats worse than ignorant is they don't give a damn about learning anything new. Every time the metric system makes gains, it was attacked by hordes of ignorant, dickless hillbillies to whom using the metric system was the first step to the new world order. Well screw it. I like the metric system. Hence forth, I'm going to USE the metric system. Have meter stick will travel. I will drink by the liter and have my kilo-gram of flesh. I'd walk 1.609 kilometers for a Camel. Granted- the temperature in Celsius will take some getting used to but its worth it. What is it with this fucking country and progress? We go to the moon. We build super carriers. We build supersonic stealth fighters but we're either too arrogant or scared to make changes that will amount to real social and scientific progress. How much time, money and productivity is lost to business and industry because we sell in English tons and the rest of the world deals in metric tons? How many people have been scared away from the sciences because the first thing they are taught are English unit conversion factors? It's time to join the world.

Then only Batman is Michael Keaton and the only Joker is Jack Nicholson. Skip the rest.

Battlestar 2003 did something unique in its remake of the original Battlestar (1978). They improved it in every way- writing, cast, production quality. Unlike most remakes, they actually improved it rather than simply regurgitating it. I'm not excited about the upcoming Dune and BSG 3.0. Unless you are fixing a very flawed production or making a MUCH better mousetrap, remakes are a sign of a lack of imagination. Why remake something mediocre when screenplays for classics like Citizen of the Galaxy or Neuromancer are sitting around gathering dust.

Tired of remakes. Spiderman, et al has been done to death. Please God, give it a rest. I don't want to see re-made, re-packaged, re-imagined, regurgitated films. If it wasn't a classic the first time, why the hell would you do it again? The Hunger Games looks interesting. Prometheus by Ridley Scott will be awesome. Really looking forward to Peter Jackson's two part rendition of the Hobbit. World War Z should be interesting if the production company doesn't screw it up.

Explains it all.

I think that the Patriots receivers drops were the difference in the game. All in all- one of the closest, most competitive super-bowls. One of the few that went down to the last play.

People can be too beautiful for me to rationally deal with. For instance: were Rupert Grint to ask me hand me the soap in the shower at the gym, my reply would be something like...

Sorry. I don't do religion.

Actually- you are barking up the wrong tree. They are two different schools: one bulkshit and the other corporate music.

The super bowl is a excuse for a huge party: good fattening food, good drink, lots of friends. If its a good game, great. If not, shut up and have another plate!

Soundgarden: rusty cage Black Hole Sun Staind: So Far Away Puddle of Mudd Blurry Pearl Jam Light Years Green Day Wake Me Up When September Ends Stone Temple Pilots Plush Interstate Love Song ________________________________ This music clusters around 2004 and would be typical of an FM rock stations play list.

Seen at Wal Mart

This is an ugly one that has nailed a lot of people who should know better. It is difficult to get rid of and can make a real mess of your system. Be careful about what you download or agree to load on the net. If it seems too good to be true, it is.

I went to see Red Tails Saturday and was impressed by what I saw. George Lucas has made an excellent film that does a very good job of telling the story of the Tuskegee Airmen without trying to rewrite history. The Tuskegee Airmen were all college educated men who participated in the Army Air Corps great experiment: could black men perform as pilots? They answered that question with a resounding yes. There was a great deal the film actually left out. Operation Shingle- the units "Big Break" that gave the brass the confidence to use them was a little affair called the Anzio Landings. You may have heard of it. It started in January 1944 and fighting continued almost all year. It was the backbone of the Italian Campaign. Where the Red Tails actually earned their fame was when they were given P-51 Mustangs and allowed to fly bomber escort missions. They excelled at this role and brought home more bombers than any other escort group. It was during the raids of 1944-45 that the Red Tails escorted B-17 bombers of the 15th Air Force based in Foggia, Italy. My father was a flight engineer on one of those planes. The integration of the American Armed forces is a much longer story but the Tuskegee Airmen were the pioneers that proved that blacks could excel even in highly technical realm of flying. There would be more tests to come in places like Korea and Vietnam and even into modern times as we settle the question that men should have a right to fight for their country regardless of their color or sexual orientation. The one and only one factor isn't race or sexuality but heart.

YES!

The Naked Lunch is awesome. I like Burroughs stuff. He's one of the original gay hippies that had the guts to write about his sexuality- WAY before Stonewall and it cost him. He lived outside the United States for many years before it was safe to live here.

Shortlist.com The 50 Coolest Books of All Time SourceLink: http://www.shortlist...lest-books-ever Away with thee Harry Chamber-Potter Films you can quote for cheap giggles down the pub; records (vinyl, natch) earn you kudos among a select coterie of like-minded obsessives; but nothing – absolutely nothing – says understated cool (always the coolest cool) like a well-thumbed copy of A Confederacy of Dunces. Want in on the action? Get yourself down to your local bookstore immediately and get acquainted with the following 50 tomes. Gallons of cool guaranteed. American Psycho Less Than Zero A Clockwork Orange On the Road Naked Lunch Catch 22 Slaughterhouse 5 Gravity's Rainbow The Smartest Kid on Earth The Dice Man Generation X A Confederacy of Dunces Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Everything is Illuminated A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Fear of Flying Crash Money On A Winter's Night A Traveler The Sun Also Rises Perfume Nuromancer Factotum The Wind Up Bird Chronicle Atlas Shrugged Trainspotting Black Hole One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest The Wasp Factory The Fountainhead Morvern Callar Nineteen Eighty-four Fight Club The Secret History Middlesex In Cold Blood The Crying of Lot 49 Watchmen Diary Ghost World Bonfire of the Vanities Last Exit to Brooklyn Howl The Dharma Bums The Great Gatsby Blood Meridian The Corrections The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay American Tabloid Underworld ______________________________________ How many have you read? I'm down for 14.

If you're looking for a thriller ripped from the headlines: http://awesomedude.com/jamessavik/Twilight/index.htm ____________________ Disclaimers: despite the title, this story has nothing to do with vampires and the name has since been changed to Shadow of the Dragon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNwqa-QzAec