How I succeeded with taxes without really trying

I used OnlineTaxes. It was cheaper than TaxCut, and TaxCut didn't work for me. It was far cheaper than TurboTax, so if you haven't done your taxes and your taxes are fairly simple, I suggest you use OnlineTaxes. The state surrended my money in around 6 days and the feds surrendered my money around 10 days.

World Trade Center

I'm not a good American here when I write, "this movie wasn't very good". While it showed the trauma on a body when a building is slowly crushing people, it is for drama purposes only. I'm not a big fan of Nicholas Cage and you get to hear quite a bit of him. He and his partner are port authority officers and the story is really about a small team that enters tower 1, it colapses, crushing many ... you see the slow death and terror of a building on people. The story is not much on the towers themselves or other people per se. You see the families of victims, but mostly the two families of the two "featured" officers.

It was better constructed than Ladder 49, but was mostly drama. I thought it was something different, so I was disappointed with it. I guess if you watch it expecting nothing, you'll be surprised to get "something". The acting is, so-so, and the ultra drama of how does this affect our relationship. That to me, seems, chick-flick. You know, if I'm trapped under 300 pounds of rubble, my knees broken and only my bust exposed, I wouldn't think deeply into relationship issues. Gosh, if I die, how will that help or hurt my marriage? That's a stupid question. Never once was it, man ... I wish I could be with the kids again. You knew Cage's character he had four kids, but you really only saw two.

Peña's character had a dispute about an unborn child's name, Alyssa, no Olivia, and again. That was the nagging question in his mind? I've never been at death's door, seeing a glowing Jesus carrying, what looks like a water bottle. I would like to think if I were dying and really nothing could stop it, that I would think about what I'd like to do if I could remain around the people I love. I don't think I'd continue arguments about names, numbers, dates, politics. I'd be angry and sad that I would like end my time on Earth and would then only be able to watch them and not able to interfere -- helping in my own flunky way.

Strange as it is ... World Trade Center is 64% chick flick. That is how it made it through the gamet of would-be and batting cirlce protesters.

Robots

Robots, while having some interesting quotes, didn't entertain me. It had some bugs to work out of it. Bolts to riches story with robots and evil villians. Follow your dream, but you probably, like me, won't watch this movie twice.

Thanks to MR, I got to see this movie. Thanks for the beer MR!
We later watched COPS and HOT PURSUIT. Sadly, there weren't too many suspect deaths, despite their aiming at civilians and officers.

Death's Acre

Well, the book was more of an autobiography, but contained some anecdotes, cases and defined the basis and development of the body farm in Tennessee. In the book, the author, in his seventies now, mentions his third marriage. His first two wives died. He is a heavy smoker and didn't develop too much trouble from the habit, but his first wife developed aggressive cancer. This was worsened by smoke. His second wife died, as then did his faith. I suppose the lesson is, treat others well.

book review

Death's Acre, forensic pathologist Dr. Bass recalls the development of the "body farm". His book is interesting because he points out his errors lead him to excellence. The body farm, a thought in his mind, decades later comes into being. His work in interesting, detailed and he includes history, annecdotes, and humor. I would certainly reccomend this book to those who find forensic study intersting.

House of Flying Daggers was Over the Hedge

House of Flying Daggers started with dance choreography, featuring the accomplished dancer Ziyi Zhang. If you remove the beauty of the dance, you are left with a sloppy Bazooka Joe comic of a story. While the themes are culturally specific and the lust curtailed by duty and implied love, it is nontheless a sour mash of bad dialogue and circumstances. The Spy Kids animation in the movie takes away from the already weak story. It was all visual, so, technically you could strip away the soundtrack and replace it. I saw the English version, which was weaker still. Overall they did an alright sound remaster, but sound is intrinsically valuable in a movie about a blind woman/girl who uses sound. It was like watching an aquarium, while you were entertained visually, in the end you wonder why you sat that long.

Over the Hedge slipped into the area of one half of an idea with thirteen other ideas glued together for a miss. I like Wanda Sykes, but she wasn't enough to save it. When your star line up is Gary Shandling and Bruce Willis, well disaster looms. Hammy getty loopy on caffiene, where have I seen that before, oh yes ... in a better movie, Hoodwinked. Thomas Haden-Church as an overstuffed terminator -- nice touch. The movie's conclusion was just terrible. I tried to put it in perspective for a child, but the bear, "I'm going to kill you" and a few other adult references make me rate this one poor. The link of this to the comic strip is a S - T - R - E - T - C - H. I doubt that anyone watching the movie would hurry to start reading the comic.

Summarized:
House of Flying Daggers, visually interesting and that's where it ends. Over the Hedge, overdone with some samples of clever scenes.

Poseidon 06

Unlike the "Adventure", this one is 90 minutes. I think the new version did a nice job of reminding you of the terror and mess involved with the moments after the ship flips. There was a scene where the survivors heard hundreds of screams, then they were silenced. The pace of the movie was quick, but the characters were all expendable. There was a messload of fire all thing considered. I have to submit the following criiques that bugged me.

Overall I think it was around 50-50, so you could watch it in the background doing something else. If you watch it hoping for a good-great movie, you'll be sorry.

[WARNING: SPOILER]

The small band of people were traveling up. They actived a pump that was manual. At the rate of filling, the person in a ship, rightsize up would drown almost instantly. There also isn't a real application regarding daisy chain effect. If the ship is upside-down and is taking on ballast ... where is it drawing ballast, the top?

I liked seeing Andre Braugher as the Captain, though he was used little in the film. Richard Dreyfuss, an old distraught gay man replaces (vibrant old guy who finds a seventeen year old quite attractive -- from Posseidon Adventure). Kevin Dillon as the ass who I thought was going to boink or rape one of the ladies.

The ship was completely sunk, with a ridiculous action scene with propellers moving. There wasn't as much story as flash here.

The survivors basically setting up the ship to sink did provide them with incentive to leave the dead where they were, no matter who they were. The raft with beacon sitting nicely near the ship regardless of explosions -- huh?

going Berserk

Berserk was an odd combination of graphic violence and timidity. It had your typical ridiculous violence. The protagonist Guts weilds his 200 pound sword as ably as others would a dagger. He goes berserk during his campaign to bring justice. In episdoe one, four vile men kick in the door to a bar. The occupants don't stir, not even to save the poor girl -- their captive.

I thought that they'd imply or worse have a rape scene, but thankfully no. No one in the bar came to her rescue as her face is planted into the table. The men want her to clean the table with her tongue. Then the killing begins.

I liken it a bit between two lesser scenes from American movies: Heavy Metal, the last story the barely clothed woman walks into the bar and slays three would-be gang-rapists. She wiped the blade on their newly decapitated bodies. Blood went much of everywhere making quite a mess.

The big evil guy in Berserk changed into his "real" appearance as a monster. He was twenty feet tall, but very similar to the lizard-like creature in Dreamscape. Berserk fell into one of the blunders so well discussed in Incredibles, monologuing.

At the end of this show, it did entice me to wonder ... what now? There was a scene from earlier in his life, before branding, where he was a more typical swordsman.

Another plug for new blogger

I used a new template. True, it has a gayer color and does not use a widescreen base. Setting up the template was so much more of a breeze than before. It wasn't too bad grabbing and moving code, but now it found the code and moved it, making it faster. I now have to put back a couple of things, but changing templates is so much easier, however limited.

Thanks blogspot/blogger!

New Blogger

It runs fluidly, so a big "yes" for that, but I can't edit a post when it's a draft. That's just odd.

More glitches in the matrix

I was looking for Cosmos, a series by Carl Sagen, aired on PBS decades ago. I found that there is a pron star with that name. Huh. I suppose next there will be Bill O'Reilly Sexfactor or CNN Hardballs or something. Can you all in the porn industry just cut it out a bit so a search is less of a chore, please? I shouldn't have to go to page 2 or page 6.

I'll look for Antiques Roadshow and see if it hints to porn. Guys, just stop it, okay? I've got it. Yank the porn out of every other channel ... each and everyone by just putting on cable, like some far-out number 92, with porn. Then Nip/Tuck can fold out and so can 99% of "supsense thriller with R near X rating", staring beautiful persons A-E with acting abilities of carpet. I could then turn to regular channels and not have to see it.

That would be nice to not have to have ogligatory sex scene in movie about the AIDS quilt or how Advanced Auto Parts started or any other show. I understand, from my sister, that According to Jim actually had a fart (and sound on it). After nakedness, rape, sodomy, graphic violence, puking, spitting, gutting, fecal matter handling, now, in 2007 they finally allowed the word and the sound, "fart". Boy! I thought getting tax code approved took a long while.

The channel I mentioned I would remove from my surfing. I removed the shopping channels, Spanish channel, music video channels and others. It would be just fine, fine, fine.