Ip-Man (2008)
Fucking awesome kung-fu movie starring Donnie Yen as the master of Bruce Lee and the first to openly teach Wing Chun. The movie chronicles his fictionalized life during the time of the Japanese Occupation of China. My brother’s mom-in-law told us stories about how horrible the Japanese were to her relatives in Hong Kong and how her uncle/relative had a gun pointed at his face for just trying to get medicine for her mom.
Score: 9.5

Starship Troopers 3 (2008)
I just finished reading Heinlein’s famous science-fiction novel Starship Troopers and I enjoyed the first movie so I was interested in this new release. Starship Troopers 2 strays far from the original story so I didn’t even bother. This movie was more like a B-movie, complete with sub-par special effects and horrible acting. There wasn’t even the expected nudity that comes with B-movies. There were bugs, guts, gore, mechs, and some throwbacks to the original novel; so it wasn’t all bad.
Score: 4.8

Gran Torino (2008)
Much has already been said about this film on the interwebs so I’ll save it. Crotchety old Clint Eastwood roughs up neighborhood punks while developing a friendship with his Hmong neighbors. The acting wasn’t great because all the Hmongs were first-time actors, and a lot of the scenes just felt a little ‘off’ either from the dialog or the delivery, but still a very enjoyable film overall.
Score: 8.0

The Boondock Saints (1999)
I remember watching this film in college and liking it a lot; I didn’t remember much of it so I watched it again since it was available on netflix. Entertaining film overall- it held up; but with a little more polish it could have been great. What I found more interesting was the background to the production of the film and the downfall of the director.
Score: 8.5

The Rocker (2008)
Dwight Schrute stars in a comedy about a washed up rocker teaching a pop emo band how to rock. It got a few chuckles out of me.
Score: 4.0

Ping Pong Playa (2008)
Heartwarming comedy about a chigga who teaches kids ping pong and comes to term with his own limitations. Funny film; ping-pong scenes aren’t that good and there aren’t many of them, but the dialog and characters is what really carries it.
Score: 8.3

Burn After Reading (2008)
Not my cup of tea. I enjoyed it, but I hardly laughed. It’s funny in spots, but not ha-ha funny. Black comedy or something…still sucks.
Score: 3.0

Ghost Town (2008)
Brilliant. Ricky Gervais is hilarious in this. Must see.
Score: 9.4

In photo: Star trac V-bike purchased like new from craigslist for a STEAL, IM Dumbbells, IM SB decline attachment, IM SB seat, parallette bars made from pvc pipe, push up bars, ab wheel, and ez curl bar.

In photo: foam crash mats, Sonos, polar HR monitor, medicine ball, and stability ball.

Luckily the maker of my chosen adjustable dumbbells is located locally so I saved on shipping and was even able to haggle a bit. Why did I go adjustable vs a full set? 1. Saves Space 2. Lower cost than a full set of dumbbells. There are some downsides to going an adjustable set but they did not really pertain to me. There’s only two major contenders in the adjustable dumbbell market: Ironmaster and Powerblock (I don’t know of any others that have flat-ends and are entirely metal), so why Ironmasters? 1. Feels just like regular dumbbells; I don’t like how the wrist is kept caged inside Powerblocks. 2. Sturdy; I tend to gently drop dumbbells after pressing heavy and the IMs can take a beating 3. Safety; anecdotally I’ve read that the Powerblock pin gets worn with use 4. Great combo deal with the IM super bench and the dumbbell set includes a storage stand 5. Plates are 1″ standard diameter so they fit bars too.

What are the cons? 1. Only 1 person can use the IMs at one time- can be remedied by purchasing another set of handles though 2. Superbench is a little too tall for my height. I would recommend the bench for those 5′8″+. At 5′7″ I feel like my hips are little extended if I put my feet flat on the floor. Otherwise the bench is amazing and the best value for a FID bench I’ve ever seen (there are additional attachments for it too; like a pull up bar and dip bar but I didn’t get those because I didn’t find them very stable and did not like how the circular pivot is near your legs) 3. Storage stand should be about 1 inch wider all around- it gets crowded when loading up 70+lbs 4. Plate changing- not a con for me but it could be for others. Supersets just requires a bit more planning.

So the cons are more nit-picky than deal breakers for me. The only thing that made me hesitate on the IM deal was the Superbench being a bit too high for me. But since I bought them locally and in a combo, the savings helped me live with any shortcomings I found. I would highly recommend the IMs to anyone looking for an adjustable dumbbell set.

Wow, a Mormon I can actually agree with.

…For example, I hear in church all the time about marriage being ordained of God. But I also hear about how the glory of God is intelligence.
Shouldn’t it be against the law for stupid people to get married? What’s more harmful to society - two well-dressed men getting married and settling down, or two idiots tying the knot and cranking out any number of additional idiots?
You should have to pass a harder test to get married than the one we currently have. Essentially, there are but two questions: “How old are you?” and “Is that your sister?” Hell, you could pass this test just by guessing.
There are drawbacks. Most people get married when hormones and youth make them about as dumb as they’ll ever be. So, even a relatively easy test would by default raise the age limit to about 40.
With an increased marriage age limit, there would be fewer births. Genealogy would become easier to do. With fewer births, there would be fewer children born gay. Hey, isn’t that what Heavenly Father would want?
OK, I was just kidding about that. But if you’re really serious about putting a stop to gay sex, let them get married.

and another long road to secure equal rights for everyone.

“Proposition 8 would be a terrible mistake for California,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in a “No on Prop. 8″ ad in the final week of the campaign. “It’s about discrimination, and we must always say no to that.”

It took awhile for me to appreciate The Cure’s performance this year at Sasquatch; mainly because now I can match the songs they played there to their new album. One particular song “Underneath the Stars”, played as the opening song at Sasquatch, was very moving. Being literally underneath the stars that night, I long to experience that moment again.

Rhapsody Scrobbler can submit tracks either by monitoring your MyRhapsody RSS feed or by monitoring the client. I am using the Rhobbler tool myself (Rhapsody Scrobbler tends to quit itself out on my computer anyway; might be a .NET framework issue?)

Now I don’t have to be the redheaded stepchild left out of the Last.fm fun.
http://www.last.fm/user/saltywet

Rock Band 2 came out on Sunday, played a couple hours; so far so fun, more of the same- can’t complain. Maybe once I get better I’ll get a goodwoodmod set; good reviews so far, less expensive than the ION set.

Cindy bought a Yamaha YPG-625 so I look forward to learning piano too. I’ll post pics when she gets it