I Hope You Will Come Check It Out!!!

I’ve been playing around with a new edition of my blog at this site: http://codecrackx15.blogspot.com/  

So why the new blog when I already have a pretty good following?

Well, Blogger is owned by Google and almost everything I do online uses something from Google. From my hub on G+: http://gplus.to/codecrackx15 to using Docs for writing; so making the switch has been fairly easy. Blogger just works better for sharing and design now. Not to mention I can control the ads on my blog to an extent over there as opposed to over here where wordpress can throw ads on my blogs but I don’t get a cut of it.

I know what you will say, “but this is free so why should you get a cut of the ads?” To which I will reply, Blogger is also FREE and over there I can get a cut of the ads. Come on, it just makes more sense.

I’m not saying I won’t be using this site still but the bulk of my posts will now be showing up over there.

So I hope everyone will come on over and check out the brand new blog. See you there!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2011
11/12
CATEGORY
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Chromebook, Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, anything else coming that I will NEED to buy?

 I’m still planning on buying my Acer Chromebook by the end of the year to satisfy all of my cloud computing needs and as my new machine for writing my book via Google Docs. I have an aversion to Microsoft although Windows 8 is looking good and is supposed to have a 17 second boot so that might be the best version of Windows to come along since Windows 95.

 Today we have the unveiling of the new Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet and it wraps up all of my amazon cloud services into a nice bundle. Nothing I won’t already have on my Chromebook but I’m thinking my wife might like this especially for downloading her magazines in color since we are both trying to end all print/ paper magazine subscriptions. Amazon was really brilliant with this because they are offering 1 month of Amazon Prime (free streaming movies and TV plus free 2 day shipping on everything). Once people get Prime hooked into them you can be sure they will be paying the $79 yearly subscription to keep it. The device itself is $199 and the Prime service is where they will really make the money to subsidize that low $199 cost. Brilliant I tell you!!!

So is there anything else coming? I hope not!!!

2011
09/28
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Andy Whitfield 1972-2011 (Spartacus: Blood and Sand)

Andy Whitfield 1972-2011

I wasn’t really prepared to read that headline early this morning. I mean… I knew he had to stop doing the Spartacus part for the second season because he was sick and fighting cancer but I had no idea that the non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer was anywhere near these stages that would take this great actors young 39 year old life.

He really made the part of Spartacus come to life and the new actor ( Liam McIntyre) has some very big shoes to try and fill. When you watch the Spartacus: Blood and Sand extras on the Blu Ray you can see that Andy was a great person in addition to being the actor that kept drawing us into the character he played.

May Andy Rest in Peace and may his family be strong and carry on.

Let the Heavens know that a warrior is on his way home.

2011
09/12
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Infoquake: v. 1 (The Jump 225 Trilogy) – David Louis Edelman – 5 out of 5 Stars

 Infoquake by David Louis Edelman is a pseudo cyber/gene punk corporate industry thriller. With this book you get a lot of different things that come together into a great story that you have a hard time putting down. Characterization is deep but the story still flows fast. It turns out that the level of character development is perfectly balanced to the action that takes place.

The story revolves around Natch, an entrepreneur that is pushing his company ahead in an industry known as bio/logics.  In this future the human body has millions of nanotechnology computers inside that can be programmed using bio/logics. The race for number one is fast and furious and bio/logic programming is the biggest business. Natch is presented with a new technology called MultiReal and the layers of story all come together brilliantly. It sounds confusing but it isn’t so if you think you need to have a high understanding of technology to get into this book then you would be wrong. The author lays out the technology and makes it very interesting in the process. I must say, it is very innovative at that. This is without a doubt a very interesting world filled with innovative technology, corporate maneuvering, and political intrigue. The book is hard to be defined but if you like Sci-Fi, Cyber Punk, or even a good corporate Thriller your time with this novel will be well rewarded.

I read this on my Kindle and I found that even when I was getting real tired late at night I wanted to keep reading and pushing through. It literally draws you in and it excels at keeping you there. Right after I finished today I downloaded the sequel (MultiReal) from Amazon and I’m excited to get lost in this one too.

1 Star – Bad/ 2 Stars – underwhelming/ 3 Stars – Good/ 4 Stars – Very Good/ 5 Stars – Excellent

2011
09/07
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Conan the Barbarian (2011) – 4 out of 5 Stars

 As far as I am concerned this is the Robert E. Howard version of Conan the Barbarian brought to life on the big screen. Sure, some things were different but overall it is the REH character and probably the closest that Conan fans will have to him. To start off, I am a fan of the Arnold movies but after reading the REH stories the Arnold movies really did not portray Conan very well. Jason Momoa perfectly fits the bill of Conan. He has the correct body style, movements, and face for the part. OK, his eyes are not blue but who the hell really cares? For the most part he is Conan and a damn good one at that.

Leo Howard plays young Conan and his look perfectly matches that of Jason Momoa so unlike some movies that cast a young actor who does not look like his older version Conan does not fall into that trap. As a matter a fact the scenes containing young Conan were very powerful and a great set up for introducing Jason Momoa as the adult Conan.

The story contains action, topless women, blood, sorcery, and all the trappings of a good Conan adventure. True to character Conan is the misogynistic male that he should be. In other words Hollywood didn’t tone him down for the sake of that shitty term called “political correctness”.

 I’m a bit bummed that the movie hasn’t done so well at the box office because I would love to see a sequel. This isn’t some comedy sword and sorcerer movie here. There is a seriousness to it and I think the acting was well done and the characters stay true to the overall theme and style of the movie. I really don’t have any complaints as it is a great summer action/adventure flick that kept me interested all the way through.

The 3D was rather a waste and if the 2D had been playing at the time I had gone I would have seen it instead but unfortunately the 2D showings were fewer and I would have had to wait another 2 hours so I went in for the 3D. The 3D doesn’t really add anything to the pic so if you can catch the 2D then go for that one.

All in all a very good movie and hopefully it will do good on Blu Ray and DVD and get a sequel.

1 Star – Bad/ 2 Stars – underwhelming/ 3 Stars – Good/ 4 Stars – Very Good/ 5 Stars – Excellent

2011
08/28
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Venus

The Above image is from the surface of Venus taken by the Soviet Venera -13 in March of 1982. I myself find this picture more unique and interesting than all of the Mars pictures we have received. Maybe it is because there are so very few pictures taken from the surface of Venus and all were taken by the Venera series of probes.

The probes both lasted longer than the 30 minutes that they were expected to last. One lasted over an hour. The intense heat from the Greenhouse effect in essence fried them.

The amazing thing is, since the Soviets sent these probes there has been zero attempts at more surface exploration. There was a satellite sent to orbit Venus but nothing in the way of a lander. With advances since 1982 we should be able to land something that has a better chance of withstanding the sweltering heat and last longer on the surface in order to gather more soil samples for analysis and better surface photographs.

It is unfortunate but I do believe that the current society and human populace has lost its way for space exploration. We refuse to think beyond the now to see the tomorrow.

When I was a kid I used to imagine colonized bases on the moon, Venus, and Mars and that we would be getting somewhere. I’m not quite sure why we hit the wall with exploration but it is a real shame that we did.

2011
08/24
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Ionized Thought Process 2

Packing for our move to the new house has shown me the cloud…

We’re packing up our current house and moving to our new house inside the perimeter of Atlanta and I have to say that packing quite literally sucks. You just don’t realize the amount of stuff you have until you have it. This move has convinced me to go cloud with music and books because I’m really tired of lifting boxes of CD’s and Books. I’ll give movies (Blu Ray and DVD’s) a break because I still like my collection even though they are a hassle to move. They are on notice though for when complete and personal cloud storage for HD quality downloads is available then the days of buying movies in stores will be over too. I’m using amazon for MP3 and Ebook downloads from now on. Amazon has a cloud player for the music which you can then download or even upload to and the new Kindle cloud reader has been great. It sure beats packing up more books and CD’s to move.

The goddamn lying RINO…

Governor Deal, why are you supporting a 1% raise in the Georgia sales tax? Why don’t you cut some waste and chop some social programs to pay for the infrastructure that the current tax money should be used for. Do you really think that the 1 penny increase will vanish after the 10 year limit? If you do then I have a mish-mash of bridges called Spaghetti junction I’d like to sell your RINO ass. See, I recall when politicians enacted the Georgia 400 toll to pay for that road and swore up and down that when it was paid off the toll would go away. The road is paid off you morons and yet you continue to steal money through the toll. Honestly, if the majority of Georgian’s pass the 1% increase then the majority of Georgians should be considered to be pretty fucking dumb. What kind of people would actually vote for more tax to be laid upon them? That will push most counties into the 9% and 10% range when collecting sales tax. Come on Georgian’s, fight this political thievery and demand that these damn politicians work within current budgets.

Shout outs…

I’d like to give a big shout out to the Starbucks crew at the North Druid Hills location. Specifically 2321 N Druid Hills Atlanta, GA 30329. They are always super friendly and show excellence when it comes to customer service. The location of the store is perfect and honestly this is the best Starbucks in Atlanta hands down. Keep up the good work!!!

If you have to pause to think when using the drive through at McDonald’s then…

Then you are a grade “A” idiot. The drive through is for getting your food quickly. It is not for people who want to look at the menu and “decide” what they might like to eat. It is not for making a custom order, this is Micky D’s not Burger King and NO you can not have it your way!!!

Economists do not live in the EU…

Apparently Economists in the EU are hunted down in the dead of night and taken care of. Then they release nut cases from loony bins into the general public and give them the title of economist. News is just coming in that Sarkozy has just announced plans for a law that puts a tax on financial transactions. Is it all EU transactions? What kind of transactions? Talk about plain stupid. People will be going back to renting safe deposit boxes and storing their money that way. Not to mention a new cash underground would sprout up just to circumvent yet another tax…

Was that a breeze???

There was actually a breeze in the air today and the “hot” wasn’t so bad because for the first time in a long time there wasn’t a lot of humidity. Hopefully this year we can have a longer fall season than normal.  We sure didn’t get a spring. Fall is good, fall is a great time for writing. If writers have a season then fall is it. That’s not to say that the other seasons are not good to write in but rather to say that fall is just a little bit better to set the mood and tone for writing.

2011
08/16
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The Indy Movie Review featuring – FREE SPIRITS – 4 out of 5 Stars

 Free Spirits is the story of various characters who are trying to launch a Reality TV show based on a Medium and an established TV star as the host of the show. All of the characters involved are pulled into going to a New Orleans haunted house to shoot the pilot episode of the show whether they are part of the film and production crew or just tagging along to see a ghost.

The haunted house is really secondary to the character interactions. The characters themselves are for the most part broken in some way. One writer had a thing with his editor while he was married but he loves his wife and he is trying to get back to her while she doesn’t fully trust him. There is another guy who dumps his 6 month relationship with a total hottie because he is afraid he won’t be good enough but then who is to say who is good enough? The point being, Free spirits isn’t really about ghosts and a haunted house as much as it is about independent people searching for cohesion and trying to make those puzzle pieces that are life just fit and work together. Even when the situation calls for cohesion it is the Free Spirits within each individual that have to overcome the inevitable feelings of compromise in order to keep the ship sailing smoothly.

There is a comedic rivalry for attention and star power which plays out between the Medium and the established star. Both find themselves stuck working with the other in order to get the approval to do the show. The established star is played superbly  like a snarky, big headed, and ego driven ass and it works because as the viewer you really can not stand the guy. The part of the Medium is played by Ed Cox who is also in the Indy movie Vixen which was also written and directed by Peter Beary. Ed Cox has this natural ability to nail lines and timing down to perfection. I was just as impressed with his acting in Free Spirits as I was with his acting in Vixen and the characters he plays in these two movies are 100% different.

Style wise the movie has a very Clerk’s (Kevin Smith) feel to it and maybe a dash of comedic humor in the vain of Mike Judge (Office Space). I like that Peter Beary’s libertarian beliefs are playing in the movie even though most will fail to pick up on the various subliminal messages that are there and on display.

Two things do come up that I would change if I could. One would be the camera swings from one speaking person to another and back again. This is where cuts to each actor/actress who is speaking would work better. There were a couple of vertigo moments. The second thing would be that I am still waiting for Peter to throw in a good ole’ fashion choreographed fight scene. OK, so this movie probably didn’t call for a fight scene but Pete, we’re waiting on one!!!

All in all a great effort and a good movie so open a beer and kick back and enjoy the show.

1 Star – Bad/ 2 Stars – underwhelming/ 3 Stars – Good/ 4 Stars – Very Good/ 5 Stars – Excellent

2011
08/15
CATEGORY
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Indy Movie Review
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Whatever Happened to Earthlink???

 Earthlink was an old dial-up provider that I had back in the old days. I believe they had bought mindspring and at one time they were the dial-up company to beat when it came to getting on the internet. Their home offices at one time were in Atlanta and I have no idea if they still are but I remembered the name today and wanted to find out whatever happened to them?

I went to their site and found that they are still offering dial-up at 56K and some sort of satellite service at 5Mbps along with web hosting services. How far the mighty have fallen is the phrase that comes to my mind. This once powerful company that had many employees is pretty much a pointless business venture now. I’d imagine that most IT folk would steer clear of taking a position there on the basis that it isn’t really an innovative or even technology driven company.

It comes down to the point where innovation and technology basically passed them by and they either could not adapt or refused to see that they were being passed by. The same can maybe soon be said for brick and mortar stores like Gamestop. Soon games will be 100% downloadable and the need for the middleman like Gamestop will be no more. The plans they put forward; carrying download content in-store for those that do not have download capability or internet will not be enough to keep them in business. Much like Earthlink they will be passed by too. Maybe someday in the future someone else will be writing an article on “Whatever happened to Gamestop?”

 

2011
08/11
CATEGORY
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Lawrence Fishburne as Perry White

 Lawrence Fishburne has been cast as newspaper editor Perry White in the Zack Snyder Superman reboot and I find that I really like this casting choice. Whoa there… But you said in a prior post that you were angry about the new Ultimate Spider-man being a new character that is half Black and half Latino… so what gives???

Well for one thing this isn’t changing the main character in the story. Number two is that Lawrence Fishburne is just freaking cool and an amazing actor to boot. Samuel L. Jackson plays an excellent Nick Fury and that character is the Nick Fury from the Ultimate Universe being used in the main movie universe. Sometimes a change in casting can work as long as the character is not the main character or main focus.

The reader must still identify with what he/she has already known of the main character and that is the reason that a drastic switch is usually met with derision. In the case of Perry White I believe that Fishburne’s acting talent and ability can really add to that character and maybe even make it into something more than the hollow Perry White’s we’ve seen in the past. With the exception of maybe Lois & Clark on TV; Perry White has not really ever been fleshed out decently on screen.

I do admit that being a Zack Snyder fan I could be biased with his casting but really I think some people are blowing this up a bit much. I for one anxiously await Mr. Fishburne’s performance.

2011
08/09
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