Turbo Tax

Alas, tax season is here. Doing taxes for Liz and me is actually pretty easy since we live a very simple life, however, StateFarm insurance made things a little easier this year. If you have StateFarm you can get TurboTax for free online. Just log into StateFarm and click the Turbo Tax link on the left. It is sweet.



Also, I watched Karate Kid the other night and let me say, that movie is like a fine wine, it gets better with age.

A crack in the armor

So I saw this article posted on CBSSportsline, since I've removed ESPN.com from my favorites and don't go there anymore (except for TMQ).

Apparently Urban Meyer may get his first recruiting violation for one of his current recruits. He lured the recruit by recruiting the guys girlfriend, a gymnast at a college in California. It's only a minor infraction (even if he is reprimanded), but I think this will be the first of many "minor infractions" that could be coming out in regards to Urban. We've all heard the rumors and hearsay about his bad tactics; there's only so much you can write off as "envy" and "libel/slander" before you've got to start looking into things. Apparently, that's what has happened.

Speaking of Religion...

Okay, so Scientology isn't really a religion as much as it is a money-making scam created by a failed science fiction writer, but whatever. I'm sure you've all seen the recent Tom Cruise/Scientology videos that were leaked on the internet recently where Tom stammers, gestures dramatically, cryptically refers to "do[ing] something", calls Scientologists "the authorities", and laughs maniacally. Two recent videos have popped up as a result. The first is a spot-on, hilarious spoof of the Cruise videos by Jerry O'Connell (yes, the fat kid from 'Stand By Me') and the second is a pretty sweet video put together by a group calling themselves Anonymous, who claim to be taking on Scientology. View away...






And just because it's the best commercial of all-time...

ESPN Is Dead To Me

We all know the party line. ESPN hates Notre Dame, tries to create the news and is more about entertainment than sports (the E does come first). As Notre Dame alumni, we put up with it. Deep down, I always felt it was just an act to get ratings. ESPN is always first to bash the Irish, but they never fail to make ND success the lead story as well. I just thought they were pandering for ratings by playing good cop, bad cop with the New York Yankees of college football. Surely, when Mike Golic, Lou Holtz and Digger Phelps are all featured contributors, there is no anti-ND bias, right?

WRONG!

Last week, Mike and Mike were roasted in Atlantic city. You know, the old celebrity roast style with a roastmaster, lots of guest appearances, inappropriate and vulgar jokes, and plenty of drinks! This would be awesome! Well, apparently Dana Jacobson took things way to far. Obviously intoxicated, she stepped up to the mike and did her best Jimmy the Greek, Don Imus, Mel Gibson, Kelly Tilghman impression:

"Fu@% Notre Dame."
"Fu@% Touchdown Jesus."
dramatic pause...
"Fu@% Jesus."

Now let me get some things out of the way. Jacobson is Jewish, and she graduated from Michigan. This was an informal roast, not aired on ESPN (although I'm sure they filmed it planning to do so in the future as with all celebrity roasts). Jacobson was very drunk. ESPN has confirmed the "foolish and insensitive" comments, but does not address them publicly. Jacobson has been suspended for one week. The story is only now starting to hit the press, as ESPN and the people involved have tried in vain to suppress the issue.

That said, I am outraged. At first I didn't believe it. Then it was confirmed by multiple sources. The first two comments are no big deal. I would expect nothing less from a drunk Michigan grad. They are in the spirrit of the venue, a roast. The third comment, well I guess that is from a drunk Jewish woman who hates Christianity? Can you imagine the firestorm if she had said "Fu@% Mohammad"??? I think a fatwah would have been issued and a few American buildings would have been blown up by now. She would also be out of a job. I feel that in society, it is okay to bash Christianity and Catholicism in general. Big deal, nobody cares. But if you mention the word "lynch", or discuss race, or deride Judaism or Islam - then you pay the price.

ESPN has shown silent agreement with Jacobson by refusing to address this issue. I can't take their garbage any longer. I once was only annoyed with their game, but now I am taking action. I sent an email to their VP of communications and urge you all to do the same. I don't want them to fire Jacobson. I just want them to appropriately deal with this in a manner that would be used for some of the other examples of bigotry I mentioned. Just let me know that you know this is wrong and do not condone it. Treat Christianity with the same respect you treat racial and other religious issues. Unless ESPN appropriately addresses this issue, I am completely done with their TV, radio, print and internet services.

Mozy On Up

I swear I received no payment to write this post. In the course of investigating some off-site backup solutions for work, I stumbled across an online service called Mozy. What it does is allow you to schedule automatic system backups that are stored off site. It supports a free version, which limits you to 2gb worth of backups or, for only $5/month, you can get unlimited backup space. I opted for the latter.

The process is fairly simple. After signing up for an account you download a small client that runs in the background on your computer. It allows you to specify your backup categories, e.g. videos, music, pictures, documents, etc., or you can just backup everything. The client works by securely uploading all data you've flagged to a remote server, where it is stored and protected with 448-bit encryption. The backups are differential - meaning the first one takes a bit of time (about 5days in my case), but after that it only backs up files that have changed within the datasets you have specified.

It's pretty good peace of mind for less than $60/year. I know that with all the photos and videos we've taken since Zoe was born, I'd be devastated if my drive crashed. I've tried to be good about backing up to DVDs, but I just can't do it on a consistent basis. I've also looked at NAS solutions, but anything worth its salt costs a fortune, so this was an ideal solution for me. Anyway, definitely worth checking out if you find yourself in the same boat...

Is There a Super Bowl This Year?

Watching last night's NFC championship game on Fox, I counted no less than eleven(11) advertisements for the Bridgestone Super Bowl Halftime Show™ featuring Tom Petty. I counted one(1) commercial for the actual Super Bowl football game. They are actually planning on sneaking a game in between the 6 hour pre-game show, commercials and Bridgestone Super Bowl Halftime Show™ featuring Tom Petty, aren't they? Or is this the year that the event finally outshines the game itself? Actually, considering it's the Patriots v. Giants, it's probably an ideal year to just skip the game. I simply cannot stomach another Boston v. New York pissing contest...

An Open Letter to Quentin Tarantino

Dear Mr. Tarantino,

This weekend allowed me to finally get around to viewing your latest cinematic effort, Death Proof. To be polite, let's just say I was extremely disappointed. I was quite excited when I first heard of your collaboration with Robert Rodriguez for the Grindhouse double feature, and after having viewed and enjoyed Rodriguez's Planet Terror I had high hopes for your half. I admit, I'm a sucker for zombie movies, so Terror may have been more my speed, but you had an ace in the hole - one Mr. Kurt Russell, aka Jack Burton, aka RJ MacReady, aka Snake Plissken. In other words, you had an actor who I hold in the highest esteem starring in your film. And you blew it. You had a 105 minute film that contained 90 minutes of exposition that did nothing to move the story. Just 90 minutes of your "signature" dialog. Mr. Tarantino, you can only make so many references to "Big Kahuna Burger" before it's no longer funny nor cute.

I'm a man. I enjoy scantily-clad women as much as the next guy. What I don't enjoy is 3 minutes of dialog between two characters debating whether or not they should perform a dangerous stunt on the hood of a car (As an aside, when performing said stunt at high speeds and someone comes up along side your vehicle, attempting to run you off the road, why would you attempt to remedy the situation by speeding up!? Why not simply stop the car, allowing your friend to safely rejoin you inside the vehicle? It's not like your heroines were afraid of the other driver - as evidenced by the film's conclusion. So why would they try to extricate themselves by speeding up? Why wouldn't they simply stop? Your entire film was predicated on a ridiculous, flawed premise.) . You know the last time I actually fast-forwarded through a movie? Never. Until I watched Death Proof, that is. And I fast-forwarded through about 20 minutes of dialog without missing anything. That's not a good sign for your film.

One other thing, please stop inserting yourself as characters in movies you write, direct, or produce. You have a chin that would make Rocky from Mask blush. Add to that your lisp and your complete inability to deliver lines in the least convincing manner and it makes for a poor decision. You, sir, are a terrible actor. Your delivery is as formulaic as Chandler from Friends - mumble, mumble, mumble, SHOUTQUICKLY! mumble, mumble, mumble, SHOUTQUICKLY! The only film in which you were semi-watchable was From Dusk Til Dawn, and that's mainly because you played a retarded pedophile, which I'm sure was not much of a stretch.

I remember watching and enjoying Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and True Romance and truly enjoying the direction you were pushing films. You were making graphically violent movies with developed characters you actually liked that spoke clever, if kitschy, dialog. Now you're simply rehashing the same thing time after time. Here's an idea, instead of paying "homage" to films of the 70's (Jackie Brown, Kill Bill vols 1 & 2, Grindhouse, et al.), why don't you try innovating for a change? There's a reason why the movies and trends of the 70's died in the 70's - people got tired of them. And although it's nice to reminisce now and then, there comes a time to move on. Unfortunately, that time should have been about 2 months before you began work on Death Proof. But since my time machine is still not operational, let's make that time now.

In conclusion, you suck.

xxoo,

Ian

1.18.08

I'm going to see Cloverfield at midnight tonight. Opening night for what I hope turns out to be an awesome ride. I'll update this post tomorrow to let you know if it was worth sacrificing a good night's sleep. Then again, Molly has a cold, so the concept of a good night's sleep is relative...

**************************************************************************

So after seeing this flick and thinking about it this morning, I will give it 4 out of 5 stars. It is not in the pantheon of movies that I love, but it is certainly one that I would love to watch again and again.

Like most Hollywood movies, this movie is a victim of its own hype. It burst onto the scene last summer as an unnamed trailer before Transformers. I think the trailer was more exciting than Transformers, and that is a lot for a movie to live up to. Since that time, J.J. Abrams has played his audience perfectly to build up the perfect storm of hype in a relatively dull time of year for movies. Thus, there was almost no way that the movie could live up to the hype. If this movie had zero promotion and I saw it on a recommendation, it would probably get that extra star.

As for the film itself, I won't give any spoilers to ruin it for you all. The monster is awesome. The mayhem is amazing. The first person perspective is perfect to give the feeling that you are involved in an unfolding tragedy. It also is extremely well written and acted. I think Abrams must have had to work extra hard to make his story unfold using the handy cam style. It works brilliantly. I was surprised at how much emotional attachment toward the characters came from using this technique. Even the back story was very poignant. I think that serves to make the horror unfolding that much worse. It's not like Aliens when just another Marine gets picked off (most people don't know all their names like we do). When these characters die, it really hits home.

Anyway, I strongly recommend this flick. You will not be disappointed. Just don't expect it to be a revolutionary cinematic experience. It is certainly a great flick, but it falls short of the hype. Sure it will make tons of cash for Paramount, but it will get beat out at the box office when the next blockbuster hits in a week or 2. Go see it in the theater for the experience. Plenty of "audience bonding moments" both funny and scary. This will also be a great flick on Blu-ray when it comes out for Christmas (my prediction).

By the way, I mentioned that our first intro to Cloverfield was as a trailer that outshone Transformers. It is ironic that Cloverfield itself was perhaps outshone by a trailer that was attached to it: Star Trek!!! That's right, Abrams is relaunching Star Trek this Christmas, and the trailer was amazing! I may be in the minority, but that old music just gets me fired up. I'm watching Khan this weekend!

Ich Bin Ein Blu-ray

Read Kevin's good post below and then watch this video about why it's finally time to get serious about high def home theater...

The HDTV rollercoaster

So let me tell you my story of buying an HDTV. It all started just after Thanksgiving…

I wanted an HDTV for Christmas. Teresa had given me the green light, and while she didn’t give me a set price limit, I sort of knew the constraints: Try not to spend over $1500 for the TV. I’ve been HDTV shopping with Teresa’s dad when he bought a 50-inch Vizio Plasma (720p), so I kind of knew what to do: narrow your TV list online, read some reviews (user and expert) to gauge the performance, and then go to the store and determine if what you see corresponds to your research. That was my plan, and my hope was to be able to get a TV during my week off after Christmas. I started my researching early, in the hopes of finding the perfect TV.

Perfect TV 1:
Optoma HD70 ceiling-mounted projector (projector, 100-inch, 720p, 4000:1, $800)

When I saw the Optoma, I was transfixed. I wanted it. Here was a nice little device that could project up to a 250-inch HD image on a screen/wall. Teresa kept saying, “I see projectors in bars and they never look good. Why is this one any better.” And I responded with Heffernan technophile boy-logic – “Because it will.” Also, the price tag for this little baby was only $800, and after the rebates I could potentially get it for $650. This TV was going to make my basement a cinema; all I’d need would be the stadium seating (which I had experience with thanks to my sophomore year dorm setup).

Why it failed:
Heffernan technophile boy-logic couldn’t defeat Heffernan my-husband-is-an-idiot girl logic. Also, I realized that since my couch sat 13 feet away from an image that was going to be 7-feet across, I’d be turning my head to see the right and left portions of the display. Lastly, the bulb life was, at best, 4000 hours, but more likely to be 3000 hours. With replacement bulbs being $250-300, it was an expensive HDTV in the long run. So the Optoma was removed from consideration.

Perfect TV 2:

Panasonic PT-56LCZ7-B (LIFI rear-projection, 56-inch, 1080p, 3000:1, $1291)

So I patiently waited until after Christmas for the post-Christmas/New Year’s sales. I kept looking online, and not knowing what I wanted, browsed lots of different sites. I was leaning away from DLP and LCD rear-projection, because you have to buy new bulbs every 3000-7000 hours, which roughly computes to every 2-4 years depending on your TV watching (bulbs costing around $250). But I liked the size and cost of the rear-projections HDTVs. So I finally saw the Panasonic LiFi (Light Fidelity); it was big, great picture, and in my price range. However, it was also a brand new technology, with few reviews from experts or users, and I’d also have to buy a Sam’s Club membership to get it, since Sam’s was the only place that had it. I was convinced this was the perfect TV for something like 63.78 hours. I never actually got in to Sam’s to see it because I didn’t want to buy a membership and waste the money if I didn’t want the TV.

Why it failed:
I wasn’t about to buy a TV without seeing it first, and the fact that I still had to replace bulbs was a turn-off. In the end, the new technology and minimal reviews doomed this TV for me.

Perfect TV 3:

Toshiba Regza 42HL167 (42-inch, LCD, 1080p, $1399)

Teresa’s constant suggestions about one day moving the HDTV upstairs finally broke me after the Panasonic. Our family room is not big enough for a huge HDTV, so I started to scale my thoughts down to the 42-47-inch range. Another thing, at that size I could seriously look into LCD HDTVs, which are usually rated as the best HDTV type for picture and quality. But there are a LOT of 42-47-inch LCD TVs out there, and narrowing this field was not easy. At first I wanted the biggest (47-inch), but I’d have to sacrifice on the picture, and in the end, the desire to play Halo 3 in true 1080p won out, and I firmly entrenched myself in the 42-inch LCDs. So now I had only about 10 brands with 5 models each in the 42-inch LCD category. I went out to Best Buy and stood in front of their “HD Wall” and watched TV for about an hour, comparing, contrasting, and evaluating. Luckily Teresa wasn’t there, because I just tuned the world out and submitted to the bliss of HDTV. I had a checklist with me, and I crossed off those TVs that I saw that didn’t look good. (NOTE: I made sure to ask no fewer than 3 salesmen if the TV were on the same HD feed, as that can greatly affect the picture.) The Samsungs looked great, but you paid for it. The LGs, Westinghouses, Insignia’s, and Sonys did not look as good. The Toshibas, Sharps and Samsungs were my favorites. It came down between the Sharp Aquos and the Toshiba Regza. Both were 42-inch LCD at 1080p. Whether it was the Sharp or the Toshiba didn’t matter, because I felt they were co-equal. The next step was to find the best price online, and go buy the TV.

I saw the Toshiba that day (Saturday), online at CircuitCity.com, for $1299. As I don’t have a car big enough to transport the TV, and I didn’t want to buy it without talking to someone at CC, I called and asked if they would honor the online price if I bought it in to the store. They told me to bring the order in and they would match it. I could not make it in that day, but I went the following day (Sunday). When I presented the printout I had, they came back to me and said (and I quote because I was so pissed off hearing him say it), “We can’t give you that price. That was yesterday’s price.” The sales guy then tried to tell me about other models he suggested. I didn’t even respond, I just turned and walked out. The only thing I could think about was Mr. Furious from Mystery Men - “Anger… RISING!”

So my hopes were dashed, but I kept looking, because somewhere always has the TV cheaper, right? Well, I soon found that $1299 for the Toshiba (or the Sharp, for that matter), was a damn good price. I could only find it at $1299 from OneCall.com, and I wasn’t about to go through a sketchy online site. Than a buddy of mine from work, a self-styled HDTV expert, suggested I look at Crutchfield.com. I already had and told him the TV was $1399 at Crutchfield. However, my buddy pointed out that he didn’t think Crutchfield charged tax on their online sales. I promptly called and found that not only was it tax-free, but delivery was also free and guaranteed within 5-7 days. So I bought the Toshiba Regza TV then and there.

I’m now patiently awaiting delivery of my new HDTV and Home Theater system. Oh yeah, since I had a budget to buy the TV, and I saved by getting the smaller size, Teresa said I could also get a Home Theater system. After as much debate as the TV, I settled on the Onkyo HT-SR700 (black). It does not have the built in DVD, but since I’ll upgrade to Blu-ray later, and I already have an Xbox 360, I figured I didn’t really need it anyway. Man, am I an awesome shopper or what?!

Onkyo HT-SR700 (black, 5.1, 680 watts)