Let me preface this review by quoting a line from the movie.
"Nobody giggles at the Zohan."
Zohan wasn't that great of a movie. I just wasn't attracted to all the screwing of the old ladies. The best parts were done before Zohan gets to New York, and most of them were in the trailer. Too many sexual references, most of them crude, simplistic plot, and the best action was too early in the movie.
3/10
WiredForStereo
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Movie Review: Get Smart
Okay, I went into this with the expectation that I'd be seeing some cross between Michael Scott and James Bond. It turned out to be more like all of Michael Scott's best traits crossed with Johnny English.
This was a great movie, I do recommend seeing it. There was not much swearing, but what there was was not TV acceptable which was interesting, a few a*holes and a few s words here and there, and most to comedic effect. There were no sexual situations, no blood, no graphic violence. There was however, Steve Carell's naked butt or maybe it was a stunt butt, I don't know.
I'll give this movie an extra point just for having a Patrick Warburton cameo, so it will come in at 8/10. I did really enjoy it, it was funny, but I think I should have seen it in a digital theater for better visual experience, I think the conversion to film kinda messed it up. My advice is to go see it in a digital theater.
WiredForStereo
This was a great movie, I do recommend seeing it. There was not much swearing, but what there was was not TV acceptable which was interesting, a few a*holes and a few s words here and there, and most to comedic effect. There were no sexual situations, no blood, no graphic violence. There was however, Steve Carell's naked butt or maybe it was a stunt butt, I don't know.
I'll give this movie an extra point just for having a Patrick Warburton cameo, so it will come in at 8/10. I did really enjoy it, it was funny, but I think I should have seen it in a digital theater for better visual experience, I think the conversion to film kinda messed it up. My advice is to go see it in a digital theater.
WiredForStereo
Monday, June 23, 2008
Back from Honduras!
Let me tell you about a big problem in the Opalaca Mountains of Honduras. Well actually, this is a problem anywhere there is subsistence farming on hillsides.
It goes like this. A farmer needs more land to grow whatever, so he clear cuts a hillside. He then plants beans, corn, coffee, bananas, or more likely a combination of two or more of these. After a few years, the hill will no longer grow corn, and production of other items is likely declining as well. Eventually, the hillside will likely be abandoned to the forest once again. However, the damage has been done. The hillside will likely have lost several inches, even feet of topsoil, and perhaps may have even been subject to landslides.
Enter SALT farming. That's Sloping Agricultural Land Technology to those acronym lovers out there. Using leguminous trees and a few new farming tactics, a farmer will create terraces that not only allow permanent use of a piece of hillside land, but also reduce and even reverse the loss of topsoil and other erosion-caused problems.
Here, I have a picture of exactly what I was talking about. A hillside has just recently been cleared to plant coffee. You can even see some small areas where there have already been small mudslides. The yearling coffee plants are in the foreground.
This activity touches so many facets of the things that I am interested in. First, the people. Clear cutting a forest hillside is backbreaking labor when you only have a machete. This time, and time spent traveling to newer fields at increasing distances from the home takes away from time better spent farming or building a family. Secondly, the washed topsoil makes silty streams and the fertilizer used to try to maintain corn production destroys streams and lakes at lower elevations. I believe we can help these impoverished farmers and their families have better lives, and that's really for me what it's all about. I hope to have more info regarding this stuff later on, but for now, look into SALT farming. It's good stuff.
WiredForStereo
It goes like this. A farmer needs more land to grow whatever, so he clear cuts a hillside. He then plants beans, corn, coffee, bananas, or more likely a combination of two or more of these. After a few years, the hill will no longer grow corn, and production of other items is likely declining as well. Eventually, the hillside will likely be abandoned to the forest once again. However, the damage has been done. The hillside will likely have lost several inches, even feet of topsoil, and perhaps may have even been subject to landslides.
Enter SALT farming. That's Sloping Agricultural Land Technology to those acronym lovers out there. Using leguminous trees and a few new farming tactics, a farmer will create terraces that not only allow permanent use of a piece of hillside land, but also reduce and even reverse the loss of topsoil and other erosion-caused problems.
Here, I have a picture of exactly what I was talking about. A hillside has just recently been cleared to plant coffee. You can even see some small areas where there have already been small mudslides. The yearling coffee plants are in the foreground.This activity touches so many facets of the things that I am interested in. First, the people. Clear cutting a forest hillside is backbreaking labor when you only have a machete. This time, and time spent traveling to newer fields at increasing distances from the home takes away from time better spent farming or building a family. Secondly, the washed topsoil makes silty streams and the fertilizer used to try to maintain corn production destroys streams and lakes at lower elevations. I believe we can help these impoverished farmers and their families have better lives, and that's really for me what it's all about. I hope to have more info regarding this stuff later on, but for now, look into SALT farming. It's good stuff.
WiredForStereo
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
GM Closing Four Truck and SUV Plants!
In a move that I have been waiting for, for a long time, GM is closing four plants according to the Associated Press in a story out this morning.
Rising gas prices have precipitated a dramatic switch from larger vehicles to smaller ones, and American car companies have been left out in the cold in a sense because their gas sipping options are far less populous than those of foreign car makers.
GM, the one responsible for attempted murder of the electric car not five years ago can now be seen as making amends for that. It now appears that the Chevy Volt just may actually happen. The shift away from bigger vehicles is even more dramatic when you understand that switching from a 10 mpg vehicle to a 20 mpg vehicle saves approximately 600 gallons of fuel per year while switching from a 50 mpg to a 100 mpg saves only 120 gallons. Think if someone switches from a Hummer to a Prius, they would save approximately 750 gallons of fuel a year, and at current prices, that's a hunk of change.
Speaking of Hummer, GM has decided to reevaluate the brand, possibly even selling it. This is the thing I am glad of the most, because Hummer means so much more than just a big SUV, it really represents something to the rest of the world. The rest of the world sees Hummers as small tanks, and here our moderately wealthy drive them as family cars or commuters.
GM says the change is permanent, let's hope so, and let's hope that other car manufacturers do the same. Toyota needs to get rid of Sequoia.
I think with the right impetus, we can transition away from fossil fuels without having a huge crash.
WiredForStereo
Rising gas prices have precipitated a dramatic switch from larger vehicles to smaller ones, and American car companies have been left out in the cold in a sense because their gas sipping options are far less populous than those of foreign car makers.
GM, the one responsible for attempted murder of the electric car not five years ago can now be seen as making amends for that. It now appears that the Chevy Volt just may actually happen. The shift away from bigger vehicles is even more dramatic when you understand that switching from a 10 mpg vehicle to a 20 mpg vehicle saves approximately 600 gallons of fuel per year while switching from a 50 mpg to a 100 mpg saves only 120 gallons. Think if someone switches from a Hummer to a Prius, they would save approximately 750 gallons of fuel a year, and at current prices, that's a hunk of change.
Speaking of Hummer, GM has decided to reevaluate the brand, possibly even selling it. This is the thing I am glad of the most, because Hummer means so much more than just a big SUV, it really represents something to the rest of the world. The rest of the world sees Hummers as small tanks, and here our moderately wealthy drive them as family cars or commuters.
GM says the change is permanent, let's hope so, and let's hope that other car manufacturers do the same. Toyota needs to get rid of Sequoia.
I think with the right impetus, we can transition away from fossil fuels without having a huge crash.
WiredForStereo
Monday, June 2, 2008
Chapter Look: 2 Peter 3, Jesus is Coming.
[ESV] The Day of the Lord Will Come
3:1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, [1] not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies [2] will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. [3]
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Final Words
14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
I get the idea by the way he talks about "you" waiting for the day of the Lord that he believes he will not see it. Poor guy. 30 years of serving the LORD in the Lord's absense, and now he realizes that he won't see Jesus return. But still, he encourages the church on in Christ, anxiously awaiting the day of Jsus return. I think we actually see here that the return will not be for quite a while, but Peter tells us that we should always be waiting for it.
Verse 16 and 17 are extremely important as we listen to today's teachers. Put the Bible first, not angels, or preachers, or anything else. Think critically about what you hear.
WiredForStereo
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