Ow.ly is 4RAPE

So I was on my Facebook stream and came across a story about the Indiana Government and Planned Parenthood.  The story itself was not important, but they used ow.ly as the service to shorten their URL for the store.  The shortened URL was this  ...

http://ow.ly/4RAPE

Yes.  You saw that right.  4RAPE for a story about Planned Parenthood!!  I'm not sure if this story will still be there after word gets out, but damn that's a quirk of technology and fate.

Omeeeega

Let me take you on a journey, if I may, that leads to the ultimate destruction of my soul.  It won't be short, and I'm sure parts of it will not be worth the trip - like the recent end to Stargate Universe.  I mean, come on!  You knew you were ending the series, why couldn't people die tragically, or get stuck for 3 million years in stasis only to find out a race of beings evolved from your cat and your only companion is a holographic representation of your dead bunk mate.  I admit, I was happy to see where it was going as a show, but FRAK!  I wanted more.  Anyway, where was I.  Oh yeah. Journey, not the band - although they do have some good songs.  Did I mention my mind tends to wander?

Anyway, please join me as I express my feelings and thoughts in small pieces -for better or for worse.

Actually, this will probably be my last post as I get distracted easily.

Dark Passenger

In following in the footsteps of my anti-hero Dexter, I have come to terms with the fact that there is a Dark Passenger inside all of us.  It pushes us, urges us, and even dares us to do what some may say is unspeakable. Unfortunately my Dark Passenger is an accountant.

The Last Airbender

So, I went to see Avatar…. I mean… The Last Airbender last night.  I was looking forward to this movie, which is never a good idea.  My partner is a huge fan of the series and I thought the concept was cool.  But when we say that M. Night Shyamalangadingdong was going to write it and direct it - we threw up.  I’m not saying M. Night Shyamapoopoopeedo’s movies are terrible, I’ve liked a few - but those types of movies don’t tell the kind of epic story that Avatar needs.

The writing was aaaaaaaa-hhhhhhhhhhhh!  It was wooden dialog, even worse then George Lucas (all hail George!), and they kept repeating themselves as if they were trying to constantly tell us what was happening.  Some of the actors are very good - I actually like Aang - but others were Twilight level actors.  Little emotion, little skill.  Oh I wait for the day when a movie will SHOW us the story instead of TELL us.

And what was with Aasif?  I couldn’t take it.  It wasn’t that he was bad, he did the best he could with poor writing.  But I’ve only ever seen him on Jon Stewart’s show and I was waiting for the punch line everytime he talked.  That’s the stigma you get when you’re really good at comedy and try to get serious.

Anyway, I enjoyed the final confrontation, thought there were several insights into how good the movie could have been, and have wanted to shoot myself for the writing.

The worse part of all of this is that I’m looking forward to the new Tron movie.  Please don’t suck.

That’s the way I see it; sorry you had to read it.

Die Potter! Die!

The new trailer for the final 2 Harry Potter films hit the interwebs yesterday (and was attached to the new Twilight movie).  Now I haven’t read any of the books, but I have seen all of the prequels and I can say this - the movies have made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever and I have no idea what the hell is going on.  I know there is this kid named Harry Potter (who I thought was a character on M*A*S*H), some girl who I couldn’t consider hot until she was 18, Gandolf the wizard, a quiz show cheater, the voice of God, and, um, a great white shark, I think.  Other than that, the rest is confusing. But one thing that I know for sure - for these movies to truly be epic, people have to die.  Not just any people; the people in the movie.  And not the actors, the characters - although…. Never mind.

Where was I? Oh yes, death to Potter! (Not you Colonel).  Now I know from reading the Wikipedia summaries (SPOILERS! SPOILERS SPOILERS! STOP HERE!) that some characters are going to die, which is cool, but unless Harry permanently kicks the bucket - I don’t believe he will achieve the true hero status.

This is a problem with most series, whether it be movies or television.  I spent seven years watching Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG for you trek geeks) and one of the largest issues with that show was no matter what happened, you knew the main characters are never going to die.  It’s a rule of TV, keep the main characters because that’s why people watch.  Would the show be the same if Jean Luc was killed?  Who could replace Worf? Or Troi?  Wait, strike that last one, she’s replaceable. But if you really want to show a hero, you need to kill them.  But it was stupid because they had a duplicate of him.  Anyway, I want to see the hero save the day by sacrificing themselves for the greater good.  Spock did it in Wrath of Khan and it was heroic, that was until the next movie when they fucked up the entire situation, and Data did the sacrifice in that last TNG movie, but again, fucked up because they had a copy of him saved on a floppy.

The TV series Angel had a great heroic moment in the first season, when, *sniff* Doyle *sniff* - I can’t talk about it, it’s too emotional.

There are only 2 instances of a TV series succeeding on the death of the characters, at least that I can think of.  Doctor Who and James Bond.  Even though we don’t see James Bond die, he is replaced constantly (which may give credence to the fact that James Bond is a title more than a real person) but Doctor Who actually dies and then regenerates.  Recently David Tennant did just that.  We witnessed his heroic effort, his sacrifice and ultimately his death, but then the regeneration took place and BAM!  Matt Smith is taking off and we follow while still mourning our previous loss.

Anyway, somewhere I got off track about this Harry Potter trailer.  The trailer was absolutely awesome and the movies look beautiful to watch - I just won’t count on them making any sense to me.  Let’s just give Harry two to the head and move on.

And yes, I do know the picture in this post has nothing to do with what I wrote.  That's just what I do.

That’s the way I see it, sorry you had to read it.

Technical Difficulties

RegisJack.com is experiencing some rather harsh database issues, causing the site to slow down to crawl, or even slower. I have been unable to resolve my issue with my hosting company yet. Until then, the site may be very sporadic and at times may not respond at all. Oh well, for now, I'll just try to leave it like it is.

Hopefully in the future I'll add more blogs and podcasts.

Thanks,

Regis Jack

The Podcast WILL Return Soon!

Don’t fret my regular listeners.  There will be a day I return to podcasting, but not quite yet.  Back in December 2009 I took a break from podcasting and I presented a myriad of reasons why.  Well, I missed a few.  So here is a fully updated list: (the bullets probably don't look good, but hey, I'm not an html/css expert).


•    There is a holiday like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Independence Day, Arbor Day, etc and I’m spending time preparing for them and spending time with the family. This includes some birthdays (significant ones, not the piddly little ones).
•    I’m on vacation in some remote location with no internet access with a beautiful woman and she demands all my attention.
•    I’m having some alone time.  Alone time means alone time. Unless there’s someone else there.
•    Sometimes it’s best to get away from the online world and live in the real one.
•    I’m in jail. Hey, shit happens.
•    Work. Any work that involves getting paid will take priority over podcasting which pays nada.
•    I’m sick, injured or dead. I might be able to podcast from beyond the grave – I’ll work on that.
•    A family member is sick, injured or dead.  I find it difficult to podcast during those times.
•    Technical difficulties. This includes computer malfunctions, software issues, internet issues, hosting issues and/or website issues.
•    Personal difficulties.  Includes painful urination, stubbed toe, need to shave (my back), or it’s too bright outside.
•    I’m attending some really cool event, con, or award ceremony where I am the center of attention.
•    There’s a naked girl.
•    There’s two naked girls.
•    Sometimes I just don’t care.