Air New Zealand Has Nothing to hide

Okay, it got MY attention!

The Semi-Annual Terror

We do this twice a year, like clockwork, almost exactly six months apart. There’s no way around it. We have no control over it. It will happen no matter what we do, where we go, how much we beg or plead or get angry.

It’s only one of the three. The other two don’t care, but the one I have to keep an eye on. Her behavior is predictably unpredictable, but there is one constant: terror.

Every 4th of July and New Years, my Border Collie reacts badly to fireworks. She’s scared to death of them. She hates thunder and gun shots, but fireworks really get to her. They usually start just after sunset, and can go for hours. If dogs can have nervous breakdowns, Em will have a nervous breakdown.

So we have The Ritual. In the afternoon, Em gets a bath. This seems like a strange thing, I know. She gets a bath because she’ll end up crawling up in my lap. She only does it twice a year, and I only let her twice a year. She gets it early, so she’s dry by dark. Then she spends the evening inside, and when the foreworks start, she comes over and lays under my feet. Once the noise starts getting bad, she starts by laying her front paws in my lap, and finally crawling up on the couch with me.

She’s not a lap dog. She’s not even a little dog. She’s 40 lbs. She’s make my feet fall asleep and I’ll have to move her off because she’s sitting on my bladder and I have to pee. She’s six years old, not a puppy anymore, but that doesn’t change anything.

We passed a budget

Mississippi passed their budget with 2 hours and 32 minutes to go!

Way to go, politicians!

Marijuana Causes Cancer

Scientists have found that smoking marijuana causes cancer…

And they needed a scientific study to realize that inhaling burnt plant matter into your lungs is bad? Anyone with half a brain knows that. Hell, we’ve known for years that inhaling burn tobacco plants into your lungs causes cancer. Why would pot be different?

Go Big or Go Home

Please

At the local Regions Bank

Happy Memorial Day

Now go hug a veteran!

Star Trek Movie Part Two

I was very leery of a Star Trek movie where the original character were recast. It seemed almost… blasphemous. I went to the movie expecting something horrible. I hadn’t read the reviews, but I had seen the previews. They looked interesting, but didn’t show much, of course.

Cast: The casting was well done. They retained the flavor of the originals without trying to match them exactly. I particularly enjoyed Karl Urban as McCoy, but I don’t have anything negative to say about any of them.

Plot: Overall, I found the plot enjoyable. It flowed well and only had a few glaring details that I thought were stupid. Kirk getting ejected onto a frozen planet was dumb. It was unbelievable that he’d get fired off the ship to potential death versus just getting thrown in the brig. I would have liked a different method of introducing Scotty and Spock the elder. It seemed a hash-in way of introducing two characters that was poorly planned and executed. I was iffy about the character of the elder Spock at first, but I have warmed up to it. Nostalgic, definitely. He did tie in the whole evil Romulans from the future thing, so I guess it had merit.

What is red matter? And why, if it only takes a drop of it to black-hole a sun, does Spock have a cubic meter of it on a tiny little ship? Where did it come from? Who developed it? Yeah, it’s from the future, but a few details would have been nice.

The Kobayashi Maru test was great. I’m glad they included it. It showed well Kirk’s history of doing something audacious and beyond the rules, and slipping out of demotion by saving the day. I also like that they touched in Kirk’s tendency to sleep with everything that moves.

I didn’t care for the Spock/Uhura relationship, or Spock’s breakdown. I don’t think “humanizing” Spock was a good idea. He’s  Vulcan. If he was that unstable, he’d never have made it this far. Of course, having your entire race wiped out would send anyone over the edge.

I’m glad they didn’t go back in time to save the planet Vulcan. It was horrible that it happened, yes, but it would have been a massive cop-out to change it.

Just a few opinions.

The New Star Trek Movie

This pleases me.

More later.

It’s Done!

Dobby is freeeeeeee!