Damn, tickets are all sold out. And to think, I’m seriously considering paying the exhorbitant markups to see him. Approx $200 per ticket.

Quick tidbits about movies I’ve watched lately. Reviews can be found anywhere else on the net.

10,000 BC
The trailer shows all the good parts. Pretty lame movie. Simple story line, special effects were gimmicky. How could these native men somehow converse with each other so quickly? What’s even more amazing is their quick pace of travel in various climates.

The Warlords
New Chinese movie with Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kanehiro. A little choppy at times but generally well done storyline. Tries to be a little too epic in scope.

Enchanted
A delightfully funny tale. I literally cracked up several times watching it.

Jumper
Another disappointing flick. Then again, I’m a sucker for crap. All the good bits are in the trailer. Decent special effects, nothing more.

Lions for Lambs
This movie is trying to teach me something. Problem is I’m too tired and dense to figure it out aside from the obvious – war is bad, politicians are worse. Innocents die for a cause they believe in but manipulated by power-hungry fearmongers.

Superbad
Stupid movie. Mildly funny in a painful way. American Pie was so much better. It has one saving quality – I understood it better than Napoleon Dynamite.

30 days of night
B-grade horror flick gets a C grade. Not sure how these powerful vampires could be so oblivious to their prey. Especially with their heightened senses.

Read this post on a forum… echoes my sentiments.

A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.

“Very few people were true Nazis “he said,” but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools.. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp, and the Allies destroyed my factories.”

We are told again and again by “experts” and “talking heads” that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.

It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honour kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the “peaceful majority”, the “silent majority”, is cowed and irrelevant.

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of
about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China’s huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.

And, who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were “peace loving”?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.

Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up, because like my friend from Germany , they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghanis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.

As for us, who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts: The fanatics who threaten our way of life.

Caught this movie on opening night at Lincoln Square Cinemas. Place was packed, had to sit in the front rows. Talk about a huge screen, constantly panned my head left to right.

High school kids these days are just rude. Need a good smack on the head. In a packed theater, 2 idiots insisted on putting their feet up on the chair in front of them. Disgusting.

Back to the movie. It’s very fast paced, moves quickly, hard to grasp how complex the storyline is. The special effects are on par with what you would expect (Thanks Peter Jackson and LOTR for raising the bar!)

Most of the movie seemed to set up the foundation for an epic trilogy. The girl that plays Lyra was pretty good. Ads that showed Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman – overdone, Daniel barely showed himself in the movie (looks to play a huge part in sequels). Nicole Kidman was creepily evil, although it was unclear why she was so feared/respected/evil.

Overall, it gets a passing grade. I want to read the books now to get a clearer picture.

Much happenings this latter half of the year.

Found a new top eats spot in town, specifically Chinatown. Place is called 663 Bistro. Cash only, great food and cheap. Almost everything is under $9. An extensive menu for home-style eats. The usual roasts (duck, pork, chicken), hot pots, noodles, rice/congee, soups. Fancier stuff in other restaurants but 663 is just fine for the staple foods.

Quite busy at work. Came down with chickenpox after attending Netbackup training in Boston. That was a fun 2.5 weeks. Killed my fitness level and workout routine. Went for ICSNS (Implementing Cisco Storage Networking Solutions) training. A great class but I would highly recommend that you are well grounded in FC technology basics prior to taking the class. Concepts are easy to understand, protocols and specific Cisco SANOS terminology are on a different level. Rolling out a new version of the enterprise backup environment in an ever-changing environment is … fun, maybe, not so much. It does keep one busy and on your toes.

Alice convinced me to get a snowboard (bindings, shoes, board) after calculating how much renting costs each visit. Quite excited to hit the slopes!

Queued up for 4 hours on Black Friday to buy 2 measly hard drives. Never again. Not worth the time and effort.

Scratched a mini-van while trying to park. Won’t try to squeeze into tight spots again. I hit my left impact strip and it came loose. Cost to replace and repaint a small area? $1100!!! And for some reason, my insurance renewal didn’t go up. Highly recommend Costco Insurance!

Xmas shopping is done! More shopping after xmas. Spending the week with the gf’s family, am told it will be an all-eating affair.

A few words about the places I’ve eaten here so far…

Peach Farm
Typical Chinese restaurant, has a good reputation for seafood. Ordered the peking duck (came in 2 dishes), lobster, veggies and tofu. Compared to Seattle fare, it’s about the same, I still like Newstar better (in Seattle) and other places in Vancouver.

Legal Seafoods
A well-known chain. Food was ok, had a crappy appetizer (shrimp rolls) and the lobster entree was interesting enough, hard to go wrong with lobster. I’d say it’s about par with Anthony’s Home Port (in Seattle) which means it’s nowhere close to the quality of Palisade. Lobster entree came with a cup of soup, I picked the fish chowder. It tasted like fish congee, I liked it. Dessert was Bananas Foster. The one at Blue Onion Bistro is the best I’ve had.

The best of all is this dessert in the Westin-Waltham – Molten Lava Chocolate Cake. Rich chocolate cake with thick chocolate sauce, coupled with vanilla ice cream. Really rich, sweet and yummy. The hotel is nothing to shout about, showing signs of age (wear and tear) but it is a Westin (get the expected amenities and service). The photos on the website has extremely good lighting One thing – the fitness room is next to the heated pool, the high humidity (and constant smell of chlorine) has taken its toll on the equipment (rust, lack of lubrication) and surroundings (floor, ceiling, walls).

No time lately, work is busy, lots of things happening. Went to LA, San Francisco and now am in Boston.

LA was fun, SF was even more fun. Boston is for work – it’s all good. Things I’ve noticed here again – the roads suck. The tolls suck more. Too many trees obscure the street lights, can’t see the on-ramps in the dark, weird narrow roads. This place does have its charm, however. Lots of small towns, all joined closed together.

Saw War last weekend. Highly recommended, great action flick, not too hard on the brain, nice cars and packed action sequences.

We (that’s Alice and I) hopped over to the Oregon Coast for a long weekend, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Decent weather, sandy beaches, huge swaths of open sand! Very surprising to see actual sand in Oregon, not many would think of it. And then there’s the massive sand dunes towards the southern end of the coast. Cannon Bay is a nice town, touristy and quite decent, great beach! Too many beaches along the coast to count and the views are magnificent. Checked out the Salishan Lodge and Spa for dinner one night, a comfy place to stay, if you don’t care about coastal views. Ate popcorn halibut at Kyllos in Lincoln City. Restaurants should do more of that, good stuff, beats the usual calamari. Took a speed buggy tour on the sand dunes, ate sand, kept mouth closed the rest of the trip, fast and fun!

One thing about Oregon – large speed signs. I mean, GIGANTIC. You’d have to be blind not to see them.

Driving was fun and relaxing in Oregon. Using the GPS on the way back, took us across a short river that required using a barge. Really cool and totally unexpected!

Washington folks, listen up. Oregon is so incompetent that they do not allow you to fill your own gas at the station. Someone must do it for you, liability issues and what not….. somehow, Oregonians know how to drive, they know how to KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS, they are aware of their speeds and will move to let you pass.

It is simply unbelievable how quickly after crossing back from OR into WA, that I’d encounter the usual dipshits on the road. Oblivious to their surroundings, driving on the left lane. I passed more than a few cars on the right side. Wake up! If you aren’t passing, stick to the right lane.

Life has been exceptionally good lately. Taking up golf, met a girl, schmoozing, met a girl, movies, met a girl, decent weather. Went whitewater rafting, had a mini-weekend stay-over in a quaint little town.

Except today, it’s raining.. all … day… so …far. Seattle has forgotten how to drive in the rain… yet again.

Better than I expected. Solid action, fun movie, brainless. ’nuff said, go watch it.