Back in the driver's seat

Hi everybody. Yeah I'll use the default greeting. Well, we're back from vacation in Florida, and I might be ready to go back. No I am glad to be home I just need another week to recover. Took about two hundred picture and over 2 hours of video. We hit the Zoo, Ripley's Believe it or Not, the Treasure Ship Restaurant, went snorkeling and swam with the dolphins, and even went through a human size maze. No cheese at the end though. I mean if you are going to have a giant maze you should at least have a little piece of cheese at the end, am I right? I thought that was a neat attraction as apparently they are pretty popular in Japan and Europe and the one in Panama City was the largest Maze in the U.S. Actually it might be the only maze in the U.S. Oh yeah, did I mention my niece got married. They didn't ask if anyone objected though, smart very smart. Anyway congratulations Amanda and Rich hope you have a long, healthy life together. That was kind of the reason for the whole trip, Samson got to be in the wedding, he was the ring bearer, although technically all he did was hold a pillow, actually drop a pillow, twice. Wow that was way too many commas for one sentence. Next month is Peach's birthday, she'll be two. Seems like she's been in the terrible 2's for about a year and half already. Some day I will post on important matters like global warming, health care and the like, but in the mean time if go to Panama City check out the maze and let me know what you think.

Also click on some adds.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - A review

2.5 out of 5. The adaption of the book was terrible. I would say about 40% of the book is left out, and not the normal no ghosts and stuff. I mean no quidditch, no mention of the prefects, not Rita Skeeter and the quibbler, but other than that. It was a lot of flash, smoke and mirrors if you will. The battle at the end was well done and there were a lot of effects throughout the movie, but I thought the plot was really thin. Having read the book and remembering how much I had hated Umbridge, I didn't have the same feeling during the movie. Yeah she was played well, and I thought the acting was well done over all, just short on what they were acting towards. The plot didn't really build around the viewer absolutely hating Umbridge for about 3/4 of the movie like the book did. At best it was moderate dislike. There was no real connection to the past books or movies, no Dooby, no real explanation as to what an auror was or did (the group of people that come to get Harry in the beginning of the movie are aurors - they are like the Marshalls of the wizarding community) and Harry didn't even get to express his interest in becoming one. The other things I didn't like about it were the way Harry came to start taking occlumency, completely different from the book, and (SPOILER ALERT) the way the prophesy was done. In the book Harry never heard the whole prophesy while at the ministry he heard it through Dumbledore's memory, and it was Treelawney's prediction which is never mentioned in the movie. Also Harry had to break the prophecy to hear it at the ministry in book. I blame the problems with this movie on the director and the screenwriters. It was silly to try and cram the longest book thus far in the series into a 2 hour movie. This movie should have been at least 3 hours and it would have been worth it. People that just follow the movies will think it is OK or GOOD but the folks that read the books will score this movie much lower. Especially after seeing what all was crammed into the last movie the Goblet of Fire and it was excellent. Also I think if you only follow the movies you will be missing out on certain details that will be important down the road. So for a full break down

Adaption of the book 1 out of 5
Effects 4.5 out of 5
Acting 4 out of 5
Story and Plot 2.5 out of 5
Rank in the Series 5th best

Advice: If you really must, see it in the theatre. If you can wait, I'd wait 'til the DVD comes out.

Good Day, Bad Day or Neither

Surprisingly Friday was neither a great day or a bad day. It seemed like something would happen and then it would get canceled out. First we went to the doctor's office, but we were at the wrong one. We didn't know he had multiple offices, so we spent 20 minutes driving to the other office. Get there and the Doctor is tied up in emergency surgery so he won't be in until 10:00, the appointment was 8:30. That's OK we ended up finding out that the stuff in Sofie's neck didn't grow, so that's great, but it still isn't enough to justify a PET scan and just to be on the safe side he wants her to get another MRI in 6 months to make sure it doesn't change. Went to work, it was all right. I jammed as much into 5 hours as I could. Changed oil transfer, GC on N650H, ran the results for it and the N660 from yesterday, input the daily daily data and did 2 run summaries, made the July yield report and checked out the government web site for saving energy in industrial plants. Whew. So only 5 hours, but tiring. Then we went to the Harry Potter Movie, and it wasn't that good. So we were hyped up for the movie and then a little disappointed afterward. Then we went to eat afterwards at a wing place, which I like wings, and the wings were good, but the honey BBQ was stinging the crap out of my lips. Mango habanero, no problem, spicy garlic good too, but dang honey BBQ was kicking my butt. Oh well still better than being a bad day. Thanks for the Prayers and please keep praying.

Need Some Prayers

Tomorrow will either be a very good day or a very bad day. Sofie goes to the nuerosurgeon to see if the stuff in her neck has grown. If it has grown it might be the "C" word. So if you get a chance we would appreciate a prayer.

Thanks.

Also HP Movie tomorrow, 1/2 day of work, common it has to be good, right. Fingers crossed, hands pointed towards the Lord, I pray it is a good day.

A Lil' Thursday night Reality

So you think you can dance:

1. Cat Deeley - English not French. Some dancer on the show kind of hit on her last night and called her French. English people hate being called French. I think pretty much everyone in Western Europe hates being mistaken for French people... except maybe Belgians.

2. Mary - She is more anoying than Paula Abdul and no where near as good looking. Not that Paula and her drinking or non-drinking problem are that good looking, but regardless Mary is very unnattractive. There is absolutely no reason for her to be on every week. Except I guess she does do something dumber every week.

"Just when I think you couldn't get any dumber, You go and do something like this. And TOTALLY REDEEM YOURSELF"
-From Dumb and Dumber

Prediction - Cedric gone, and I can't seem to remember any of the girl's names. Wait is there a Jessica, oh no she already went. Onya then.

Big Brother 8

I called it, Carol went home. Oh wait I didn't post that. Son of a.. I say Nick and Joe go on the block. Either way Jen is safe for a week. So no Jenviction this week, because she won the HOH.

Procrastination

Hey, I was going to write on the subject of procrastination, but I think I'll wait to do that...

But don't you procrastinate on clickin' those adds....

Seriously. Go ahead and click on the old adds. Seriously.

Rules for Gambling

Here are some rules for gambling that I thought were useful and should be passed on.

1. Don't Gamble. Seriously it is called gambling for a reason, and that reason is there is a good chance you will lose.
2. They didn't build all those fancy casinos in Las Vegas because they were giving money away. Casinos and gambling establishments will always, ALWAYS take in more money than the give out. They have to or else they will go out of business.
3. Never gamble with more than you are willing to lose. Gotta give props to Marty W. on that one. One of the wisest pieces of gambling advice anyone can give.
4. When someone asks if you want to bet, always say no. If they are asking you to bet, then they know something you don't and that always puts you behind in the percentages.
5. If you know something that someone else doesn't always ask them for a bet. (Bwaah hah, hah, hah) {Evil Laugh}
6. Lotteries are a joke. I heard one person refer to it as a dumb people tax, sounds about right. If you spent $5 dollars a week for 20 years on the lottery you would spend $5,200 dollars. And, statistically speaking, your chances of winning would never change unless they add more numbers to pick from, then your odds would go way down. Think about it, if the government wasn't making money on the lottery they wouldn't do it. Well maybe the government isn't the best example when it comes to losing money. Hey, wait a minute. I'll finish this up later I am gonna go buy some lottery tickets!!! Whoo Wee. Dang I should have bought some on 7/7/07, I know I would have won then.

Slots rumor

I heard that on July 7, 2007, slot machines were supposed to double their pay out percentages due to some creative and funny programming. 7/7/7. Hope you were able to cash in.

NASCAR Fun Fact

On July seventh, 2007, Clint Bowyer drove his car to seventh place at Daytona in the Pepsi 400. Which means the '07' finshed 7th on 7/7/07. O lucky day.

Transformers the movie - A review

Took Samson to see the movie "Transformers" with my brother-in-laws and nephew. AWESOME AWESOME movie. This is what movies are supposed to be like. It takes the wonder from the cartoon and puts it into live action, or CG, whatever. Either way it looked great and it was funny. The comment that Shia said to that Megan Fox when she asked if he thought she was shallow, "No, I think there is more to you than meets the eye." Hilarious. Also the action and capabilities of the robots were spot on, except for Megatron not being a gun. That was a little disappointing, but would have been difficult to work into the movie. Much easier to write it in if he is a jet. It was also surprisingly fast for 2.5 hours of movie. Some people would say that the plot was thin or the connection between Sam and whatever the girl's name was, wasn't that strong, but this isn't a romantic comedy it is freaking TRANSFORMERS!!! You go to this movie to see robots tearing stuff up, turning into sweet cars and flying. In the first 5 minutes I knew I wanted the video game, just because the weapons and abilities are going to be like nothing before. I am going to wait though until I get back from FL. So wait for the game review, plus you don't want to pay $60 for that just yet. Anyway awesome movie, awesome effects, if your a "story/romance" person probably not for you, if you like crap getting blowed up and huge robot fights definitely the movie for you. I would rate this movie in the epic category, because it isn't like anything before. This is original in the way it was taken from the TV series to the big screen. Very unique for the type of content in it. Any time a helicopter turns into a giant robot and annihilates an army base that is epic. 10 out of 10.