So, Roger Ebert (the only movie reviewer I pay much attention to) has this hilarious bit to say about zombies

I think zombies are defined by behavior and can be “explained” by many handy shortcuts: the supernatural, radiation, a virus, space visitors, secret weapons, a Harvard education and so on. I suppose it would be a “spoiler” if I revealed why the Crazies are on the lurch, but come on, does it matter? What if I revealed they got that way because of, oh, say, eating Pringles? Would that spoil things for you? What difference does it make? All that matters is that they got to be zombies somehow. Before that, they were your friends and neighbors. Then they started in on the damn Pringles.

He is a bit tired of zombie movies, if you can’t tell.

The police had to shoot and kill a pitbull that was attacking a cuffed burglary suspect. The homeowners had released the dog, not knowing the police were out there. The policeman didn’t have a choice here. The dog was latched onto the guys neck, the guy was cuffed and on the ground, so his ability to defend himself was impaired. The officers ability to control the dog was impaired, because he had a suspect to control, and couldn’t risk either the dog or the suspect hurting him. The officer did try to identify himself (which the guy with the dog latched onto his neck probably wasn’t fond of).

So, the homeowners did two things wrong – really one extended thing. Number one – if you release your dog to go after something, human or otherwise, make damn sure you know what is going on. Second, go with the dog. A dog is an animal. Even the brightest are not very bright. A dog plus a human is a far more potent combination than just a dog. Third, if your dog is outside going after something, and there is a lot of yelling going on…. don’t stop to put on your damn shoes before going out there.

You might be depending on your dog to protect you, but its a two way street. Your dog is depending on you to protect it. (Mind, if push comes to shove, sacrifice the dog to protect your or anothers life…. but if you can protect the dog with minimal risk, do it).

First, I have no idea why its called Chocolate. The title makes no sense.

Chocolate is the martial arts movie about the autistic girl “A special needs child with a special need – to kick some ass”. Anyway, overall its a “meh” movie, except for a couple of interesting tidbits. Though I did rate it four out of five stars in the “late night Kung Fu” movie category. That is however, a pretty darn limited category.

From a gaming perspective, its interesting because of the wide variety of fight locations. They fight in lots of places, and use the environment extensively. At one point they fight crouching under a metal grill area, which is pretty extensive. There is a traditional dojo fight, an ice cutting factory fight, a big fight in a pig slaughtering factory, and the final fight. The final fight is vertical. Its on the side of an elevated rail track, about 30 feet above the ground, and extends over to the ledges outside the windows of a cheap hotel. These ledges are a foot wide, at most, with a small fire escape. I think a system like FATE captures this better than a more traditional system, like D20. Because really, the goal is “leap onto the sign, and race over it before it collapses, while launching off it to kick a guy in the face, then land spread eagle against the wall, dropping a foot or two to the ledge”. In FATE, you just add a couple of modifiers to the roll. In a more traditional system, those would be several rolls, and thus really slow.

The other interesting thing, is watching her fight. She uses a lot of Taekwondo, so you see a lot of elbow and shin strikes. That was the most interesting part of the movie to me. I was like “Is she striking with her shins, not her feet? (She does use both)”. And sure enough, she was. So I started paying more attention to the fighting style. It was quite interesting.

Roger, a coworker, got an African Grey about a month ago, and has fallen under the spell of “Fred” (the grey). So, since I had to work some today (which sucked), I took Harley down this evening to eat dinner in the work breakroom. Roger joined us, and now Harley has a new friend.

Harley ate one almond in the shell, an english walnut in the shell, a single french fry with some cheese stuck to it, and about half of Roger’s Ham and Cheese sandwich. So he was one stuffed Macaw – and filled about the next six months of his junk food quota too.

He was quite well behaved. No screaming, no lunging, no biting, no being a pain in the ass. And, Saturday, while visiting his former home, he was quite good too. He had a fun time there, wolf whistling at the girls (He will wolf whistle at five through twelve year olds. I keep telling him he needs to add 12 years or so to all those ages, but he doesn’t listen to me). And he showboated about eating a hazelnut. People like to see how easily he opens the nuts. He didn’t get a chance to visit Jen, his former owner, because she was swamped with customers the whole time we were there. He was patient for the first forty five minutes or so, and then we had to leave. His patience was at an end, and that single loud squawk made half the store jump. I was surprised he lasted that long, actually.

So the Lightning Thief has Uma Thurman as Medusa?

Alright, now I have to see it. Uma has been in my top five for 20 years now. I saw her in The adventures of Baron Munchausen at the Lefont Tara in the late 80′s. I noticed her as the bit dancer Rose, before she showed up in the movie as Venus (an apt role for her).

I haven’t seen most of her movies, but I’ve always liked her. And Medusa is one of my favorite mythological creatures.

Joe Stack crashed his plane into an IRS building. Here is his manifesto.

What in the world did Tiger do that is news worthy? There is no scandal here – his messing around is strictly a personal matter between him and his wife. Why in the world is anyone else even paying any attention to it? It doesn’t diminish his ability as a golfer, nor does it diminish him as a human being.

People need to get lives.

I have no idea why the dogs expect sympathy from me when Harley bites them. They are only around him when he is in his cage. If they can’t avoid getting bitten by a caged macaw – well what hope is there for them?

Harley Macaw: Bad Bird!
Me: No, good bird! (start to give him a head scratch)
Harley: (CHOMP) Bad Bird!
Me: (Rubbing arm) Alright, I’ll give you that one.

(For the record, I’ve never called him a bad bird. Nor did Jen, who had him before me. Whatever SOB had him prior to 5 years ago has a lot to answer for….)

Me and my friend Matt were arguing about whether the Amish are religious Fanatics. I maintain they are, he maintains that they aren’t (for the odd reason that they “don’t violate any laws, etc” – which to me is nonsensical. What do laws have to do with fanaticism?”). Anyway, here is a quote attributed to Winston Churchhill

A zealot can’t change his mind. A fanatic can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.

In one month, Harley macaw will have been with me for 3 years!

Below is a picture of him in July of 2005 (almost two years before I got him).

and now on October 19th, 2009.
Notice any difference?

Several times per year, I make bird bread. I’m lazy, so I don’t do it as often as I should. Even though, its really easy to do.

You don’t follow any specific recipe. You take cornbread mix, and a nice base – either pumpkin, or sweet potato. Then you toss in whatever you have handy, bake it, and serve. This last batch that I made was very sparse, ingredient wise, compared to what I normally do.

Organic corn bread mix.
Organic sweet potato puree
Cooked Brown rice
Asparagus
Turnip greens
Bright red hot peppers
Carrot/Orange juice mix

And that, was it. Normally I include a goodly bit more ingredients, but I was economizing. You toss all that into a blender, turn it into gunk, toss it into bake pans, and bake. Freeze most of it, and then break it out to feed on whatever time basis you want. Hermit crabs also love it – dogs, not so much.

Notice the amount of brightly colored foods I have in there. Sweet potato, red peppers, and carrot/orange juice. I know that Hermit Crabs really benefit from a lot of beta carotene, and I believe parrot feathers also benefit. I know that all of my birds have unusually bright, iridescent feathers for their breeds. Even Kermit the Blue Crowned Conure, and Kiwi the Red Lored Amazon, who are mostly green birds.

Speaking of which, Kermit was my self appointed helper for mixing the ingredients. She isn’t comfortable flying, so she didn’t fly down to the counter to get closer to the food. Instead she hung down the front of my shirt, claws gripping my collar. That way I could lift food up to her, for her to sample.