My 2011 Oscar Predictions!

I just made my 2011 Oscar Predictions! Make yours with the Official Oscar iPhone App.

Please keep in mind, I think I've only seen 5 of the movies nominated. See if you can name the 5. With two kids and a Mrs...Oscar caliber films...are they on the outside of a Happy Meal box? I didn't think so.

Short Film (Animated): Day & Night, Teddy Newton
Documentary (Feature): Inside Job, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
Short Film (Live Action): The Confession, Tanel Toom
Documentary (Short Subject): Killing in the Name (I chose this one because that's a kick a$$ song from Rage Against the Machine - like I've seen a short documentary not produced by employer this year...geez),
Film Editing: The Fighter, Pamela Martin
Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Sound Editing: Tron: Legacy, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Foreign Language Film: Biutiful, Mexico
Actress in a Leading Role: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Sound Mixing: True Grit, Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Makeup: The Wolfman, Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
Actress in a Supporting Role: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Animated Feature Film: How To Train Your Dragon, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
Music (Original Score): How To Train Your Dragon, John Powell
Visual Effects: Alice in Wonderland, Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
Art Direction: Alice in Wonderland, Production Design: Robert Stromberg, Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara
Writing (Adapted Screenplay): True Grit, Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Music (Original Song): I See the Light (from "Tangled"), Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
Cinematography: True Grit, Roger Deakins
Costume Design: Alice In Wonderland, Colleen Atwood
Writing (Original Screenplay): The Fighter, Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington &
Best Picture: True Grit, Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Directing: True Grit, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

http://bit.ly/d7ZWc2

Rhetoric - Please be careful because I'm losing the ability to bite my tongue

This blog has been pretty quiet for a while. I have, for the most part, been pretty much self-censoring and while blogging about my kids can be a ton of fun, my 11 year old isn't really very much interested in having her life shared with the Intertubes. Preteens - who knew they were a handful?

I'm slowly losing my ability to self-censor and bite my tongue. I wander, pace, hem and haw each day about blog posts I should write. The topics of the world, thoughts on tech and the lovely world of politics both here and abroad. The is the life and THOUGHTS of a Midwest geek.

This caught my attention today. It has to do with the unrest in Wisconsin, my neighboring state. Before you become unglued and think this thought I'm gonna mention has anything to do with my picking sides, please stop yourself and read this. I'm not picking sides and if you accuse me of picking sides, I'll just call you an ass. It's my blog and I have the write to point out that you are an ass. Thanks.

Here's what I heard this morning on MPR (Minnesota Public Radio) while driving into work. I wish I had caught who said this but alas, I was driving and I missed that part. I think (actually I'm pretty sure) this guy is not a fan of the new governor. He said, and I quote "What the governor needs to understand is that this is a democracy and in a democracy you negotiate."

OK, I really don't care what side he's on but statements like this just piss me off. I hear statements follow this pattern, "The [Person I don't agree with] needs to understand that this is a democracy and in a democracy you [verb]" all the time.

Why does something this simple statement tick me off? Well it has to do with the fact that the word democracy is a word that has a definition. Believe it or not, that definition does not require the use of negotiations. There are two main types of democracy - direct and indirect. In a direct democracy, you vote on literally everything. We all vote to make decisions. In an indirect democracy, we elect representatives to cast a vote for us. One vote represents many people.

While negotiation can occur, it is not required of a democracy. Hell, we never have to discuss anything in a democracy. All that needs to occur is a vote.

This pisses me off because these types of statements sole purpose is to make the other person look bad/evil. It's literally a lie and akin to name calling, albeit less obviously so. While it could be said that in a civil society, we seek group consensus to make sure we are trampling over other people's ideas and beliefs, and to accomplish this we negotiate, but to say someone isn't playing well in a democratic society is just plain ignorant of the meaning of the word.

Ugh.

So maybe I'll take the gloves off once and while. I miss doing this. Rhetoric can be fun. Back in the day, I used to coach/judge public speaking. One subject I was very passionate about was the solid use of language, rhetoric and reason. Seriously, you want to beat someone soundly in a debate, point out these kinds of errors and soon enough, your opponent is spending all of their time trying desperately they have a real point to prove and not just hot air.

There's plenty of hot air today.

When dads keep the magic alive

Volkswagon has been doing an excellent job with their commercials lately. At least the web based ones. I'll just let you enjoy this video.

Sound advice

see more funny videos

How to spot a southerner

They would start talking about the end days when the thermometer reads this.

Minnesotans notice it being a little extra chilly.

Wear a hat people. Hathead is a badge of honor when your nuts are freezing :-)

I have a dream...

I took this photo almost 3 years ago. I've always found the speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. to be one of the most important speeches ever given. It's message was so powerful, but often, so misunderstood.

It is rare for me to stage my photographs. I find it more challenging to find and shoot things, just the way we find them. In this shot, however, I think the message is clear. My young daughters shoes seen as she looks onto the spot where this great speech was given. We need to teach our children important messages as this one before they are forgotten and we repeat more mistakes from the past.

Let's remind ourselves and teach our children, what it truly means to be free. Free at last.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

***I owe the Father of Five a response to how my brined turkey went at Thanksgiving. I'm so sorry I didn't get back to write it up properly, but for the record, it was the best turkey I've ever had. So tender and juicy, I'll never make one again another way.

Countdown to Christmas! It's Christmas eve, um eve

Of course they get crazier as the big day approaches. Gangs all here! Looney Tunes rock!

Countdown to Christmas

One of personal favorites. I love what Dogbert is dreaming of. Almost there! Happy holidays!

Countdown to Christmas

I only get to wear these a couple of weeks a year! Hope you are having a Geeky Christmas Season!

Remind me

Why did I leave Las Vegas? A view from slow going (mostly stopped) drive home.

Countdown to Christmas

This holiday tie bringing you the artistic stylings of Jerry Garcia. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas.

Rock on.

The Awesome Window

Is no more. R.I.P. Awesome Window. 2010-2010.

The turkey triangle is in place

And now we wait. The probe in the bird needs to reach 161 degrees. {tapping foot}

Oh, this wait is killing me.

4 pounds of...

News and ads. Holy crap today's newspaper is huge.

A bird in the brine is worth two days in the eats

18 pound turkey in a salt/sugar brine...anticipation!

This adventure started last year. I'm a huge fan of Good Eats on FoodTV. Imagine that. A geeks food show topping my list.

Last year, I tried his roasting method minus the brine. OhCountess just wasn't sure about all the salt. We've now watched the episode "Romancing the bird" a good half dozen times.

Well there it is, our 19 pound turkey is taking a brine bath. I know, it's a good 5 pounds heavier then the 14 pounder he uses in the episode, but I've got 14 people coming tomorrow and I'll be damned if I'm doing all this and not getting homemade turkey dumpling soup and a couple of days of turkey sandwiches out of the deal.

I'll let you know how it goes, until then Happy Thanksgiving and Good Eats!

Inbox Zero

This is such a beautiful thing. What's the line on how long I can keep it this way?

Dads say the darnedest things

Until you have I had my own children, I never really realized just how different two siblings could be from each other. OhPrincess2 has a problem, she's picky. When we go to other people's houses and they are providing food, the sometimes feel bad that she won't eat anything. We just tell them that it's OK, she doesn't like food. She doesn't like hamburger unless it's in Hamburger Helper, in spaghetti or in the form of a plain hamburger. Deviate from that and she doesn't like it. Sigh.

OhPrincess1 on the other hand is the complete opposite. She loves to explore new foods and until she tries something, has no opinion. That's not to say there are things she won't eat. There are things like that. She's not a huge fan of really spicy but for the most part, even if it's not her favorite, she'll eat it.

At the ripe old age of 11, she's taken a curiosity to the kitchen. I might have been the same age when I wanted to learn how to cook. My interest mostly came from the fact that I was hungry and if I want food outside of the window of time mom was cooking, I had to do it myself. I grew tired of the quick and easy, what can I say.

This is a quick conversation I had with my oldest daughter this weekend.

Dad: "You know sweetheart, with your love of food and interest in cooking, when you grow up, you should be a chef."

OhPrincess1: "But dad, when I grow up I want to work with animals."

Dad: "Well...."

OhPrincess1: "DAD! I want to work with LIVING animals!"

Dad: "Well...you know lobster is..."

OhPrincess1: "Dad..."

Have a great day!

It's election day people

Let's do this! If you don't vote, I expect you to keep your mouth shut for the remainder of these people's terms. You get what you vote for. Vote for nothing, expect nothing.

Just vote. Make your voice heard.

Some politicians should just avoid debating

In the follow video clip, Christine O'Donnell gets into a Constitutional debate with her opponent. It quickly becomes apparent that she has no idea what's in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. It saddens me deeply to know that people that aspire to our nations leadership, take these documents for granted and just assume they know what's in them.

People need to know whom they are voting for.



This was shared by a poker blogger friend of mine, thisisnotapril. She found the video and shared it Google Reader. Here's a link to Gawker to read more.

Sharing the love of mathematics

I just got off the phone. I know there's a loophole in the "Do Not Call List" legislation that allows companies that you have a business relationship with to still call your home phone a solicit business despite your name being on the list.

My bank, which shall remain nameless here cuz, they are huge, national and have lawyers that can make me wish I had never been born and I just don't have time for that kind of harassment, has shacked up with every home services company to allow them to use their name. My guess is they can't make enough money the old fashioned way (loaning money out at reasonable interest rates using money that collect through savings account with which they share the money from the interest on the loans - I know, old fashioned) and fees, so they are branching out and diluting their brand with every last gimicky home service company. But this rant is digressing...crap.

Anywho. I got this call from a guy. He did an excellent job of reading the first page of the script. I did my usual of waiting for the part where he asks my permission to record the call to avoid any clerical errors (protect their asses from lawsuits from guys like me). At that time I politely tell him I'm not interested. We all know what happens next...right?

Yes, he turns to page 2, they one they are supposed to read when caller says they aren't interested. It's basically the same as page one, only with more emphasis on the no risk part (of course there's risk, I'll forget to cancel, they'll bill me, and then never cancel me...d'oh!) although with this script he ends with, "I can send you the materials to see just how much this can help you."

Sigh. I retort with, "I know this won't help me, I know how to do math." You see, most of the programs are betting you will never use their service and just keep paying a fee that even if you call in for a repair, the lifetime of your payments will be much larger then any bill you submit. Why else would they be in business? You can't make money if you don't take in more then you spend.

In a first for me lately, I'm sure I pissed off another telemarketer in the past, he responds. "Well fine smart ass." and hangs up.

Good bye to you too. I wonder if he'd turned on the recording, you know, for quality assurance purposes. That's gotta be one for training week.