I didn't want to hi-jack my Mother's Day post earlier...but how GREAT is The Crow? I remember loving it when it came out...and it has stood the test of time(1994!?!?!?? That's almost 20 years ago!).
Great action, great acting, great story...oh, and the soundtrack! I could not guess to within the nearest 50 how many times I have seen The Crow. It's on the same list as Unforgiven, Jaws, and The Outlaw Josie Wales...if I am flipping through the channels and I come across The Crow...just let life go on without me.
Brandon Lee himself is one of the ultimate cases of 'What Could Have Been'. He is perfect in The Crow...truthfully, I would have to go to another actor who died to young, Health Ledger as the Joker, to find another actor who so perfectly fit a role. I can not picture anyone else playing Eric Draven, which might be one of the reasons none of the sequel attempts ever went anywhere. I think he would have had a very bright future.
5.12.2013
Eric Draven said it best.
Not seeing my mom on Mother's Day today...we went to her place last weekend for her 60th Birthday, and, as much as a I love my mom, life simply didn't really give us a chance to do the 8-hour round trip 2 weekends in a row.
It helps to know she has a good guy to look after her. A belated congratulations goes out, because they got engaged last week. They are not planning on getting married until the end of next summer, but I will be there for it, even if it means going over two weekends in a row to help prepare.
One of my biggest regrets right now is that I can't find a picture that has my mom, my wife, and both girls to post. Guess I'll have to go with my mom and the girls, since technically, my daughters should be blogging my wife's Mother's Day stuff.
5.11.2013
It's 5 o'clock somewhere.
It's supposed to be 95-96 today so I came down with an unexpected case of motivation. Yesterday was the chicks first night outside, which has allowed me to begin reclamation of my garage, and required a dump run first thing this morning.
After that I got home and mowed the lawn and weed-wacked the edges. Rather than leave the clippings that were blown on to the side walk there until a strong wind came along, I actually swept the patio and the sidewalks, before watering/feeding the chickens.
It's entirely possible that there was beer(theoretically speaking it's a tasty Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy) in my hand prior to 11AM.
Feels just like hunting camp...
After that I got home and mowed the lawn and weed-wacked the edges. Rather than leave the clippings that were blown on to the side walk there until a strong wind came along, I actually swept the patio and the sidewalks, before watering/feeding the chickens.
It's entirely possible that there was beer(theoretically speaking it's a tasty Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy) in my hand prior to 11AM.
Feels just like hunting camp...
5.10.2013
Safety Lesson
In the 'Better you than me' lesson category, we get this story of a sick kid from Mountlake Terrace, a town in the eastside Seattle suburbs.
Mountlake Terrace boy learns what caused illness: wire bristle
Youch...two weeks of cramping, and vomiting, and test after test...then they finally open you up and find a little piece of wire bristle lodged in your intestine. As a parent, that has to be a goofy feeling...I mean, there are soooooo many horrible things it could have been, so to have it turn out to be a piece that flaked off your old grill cleaning brush must be a relief...but it must have a little bit of chagrin mixed in with it.
As for me, I guess it's time to add one of these pumice stone cleaning brushes to my birthday wish list...Honey, it's for the children!
Mountlake Terrace boy learns what caused illness: wire bristle
Youch...two weeks of cramping, and vomiting, and test after test...then they finally open you up and find a little piece of wire bristle lodged in your intestine. As a parent, that has to be a goofy feeling...I mean, there are soooooo many horrible things it could have been, so to have it turn out to be a piece that flaked off your old grill cleaning brush must be a relief...but it must have a little bit of chagrin mixed in with it.
As for me, I guess it's time to add one of these pumice stone cleaning brushes to my birthday wish list...Honey, it's for the children!
Haven't learned a thing...
The Seattle Police Department has been under increased scrutiny for about, well...forever it seems, but at least since the 1999 WTO riots. It just appears that their are times that the level of response does not feel warranted.
Now...back in 1999 I was still in Connecticut, so I only saw what made in on the national news. Before typing up this post, I did a little research to refamiliarize myself with the WTO riots. Low end estimates put the number of protesters at over 40,000 people. The Seattle PD's main mistake there was in listening to the wrong protest organizers, who assured them things were going to remain calm. By the time a few thousand out of area anarchists arrived and took over, there was not much the Seattle PD could do but respond with tear gas, and pepper spray, and ASP's, and even rubber bullets.
What later got the Police in trouble was the fact that as they cracked down there was not a whole lot of opportunity to differentiate between 'good peaceful protesters' and the anarchists running around looting jewelry stores.
Since then though, there was been other smaller riots, and the occasional police related shooting that doesn't always hold up to the light of day, to the point where the Feds actually stepped in back in 2011 to investigate Seattle's 'Pattern of Excessive Force'.
Two of these incidents which have gotten the most attention are the shootings of two mentally ill individuals. One of these, back in 2010 got a LOT of airtime when a Seattle Police Officer shot a fairly well known and liked(well, as liked as a homeless guy can be) homeless woodcarver. The King County Prosecutor decided not to press charges, but the Police Chief ruled the shooting was not justified.
Most recently, and the story I actually wanted to focus on, and the incident that shows they just might not get it yet, was the shooting of a mentally ill man back in February.
Officers responded to two phone calls by a pair of brothers who felt their mentally ill brother was ranting and raving, and had possibly taken their father hostage. Initial reports had 8 officers responding...but that was updated to 11 officers in 10 patrol cars.
And not one of those officers microphones or car cameras captured anything that happened. The official story is that one officer slipped and fell, and the mentaly ill man was approaching him with an 18-inch piece of rebar. He did not listen to orders to stop, and the tazer darts couldn't make it through the February coat he was wearing. Officers fired to stop him. The end.
Now...an 18-inch piece of rebar could be a deadly weapon...and in a 2 on 1 type situation, I would call this a good life/serious injury saving shoot by officers. In a 10 on 1 situation though? I mean, I'm not saying cops are paid to get hurt...but I would expect at least one attempt at physical restraint before shooting him.
It's just the lack of video/audio evidence that is damming in this case. You would think that given the kind of attention they have had for the past 15 years that the Seattle PD would be going out of it's way to be on the up and up. Go that extra step to keep yourself clean. Without making a full research project of it, it feels to me that there are easily as many cases where dashboard cameras have bailed officers out as they have gotten them in trouble.
Bah...once again, I'm glad I decided on a career path where there are no cameras watching everything I do wrong on a daily basis.
Now...back in 1999 I was still in Connecticut, so I only saw what made in on the national news. Before typing up this post, I did a little research to refamiliarize myself with the WTO riots. Low end estimates put the number of protesters at over 40,000 people. The Seattle PD's main mistake there was in listening to the wrong protest organizers, who assured them things were going to remain calm. By the time a few thousand out of area anarchists arrived and took over, there was not much the Seattle PD could do but respond with tear gas, and pepper spray, and ASP's, and even rubber bullets.
What later got the Police in trouble was the fact that as they cracked down there was not a whole lot of opportunity to differentiate between 'good peaceful protesters' and the anarchists running around looting jewelry stores.
Since then though, there was been other smaller riots, and the occasional police related shooting that doesn't always hold up to the light of day, to the point where the Feds actually stepped in back in 2011 to investigate Seattle's 'Pattern of Excessive Force'.
Two of these incidents which have gotten the most attention are the shootings of two mentally ill individuals. One of these, back in 2010 got a LOT of airtime when a Seattle Police Officer shot a fairly well known and liked(well, as liked as a homeless guy can be) homeless woodcarver. The King County Prosecutor decided not to press charges, but the Police Chief ruled the shooting was not justified.
Most recently, and the story I actually wanted to focus on, and the incident that shows they just might not get it yet, was the shooting of a mentally ill man back in February.
Officers responded to two phone calls by a pair of brothers who felt their mentally ill brother was ranting and raving, and had possibly taken their father hostage. Initial reports had 8 officers responding...but that was updated to 11 officers in 10 patrol cars.
And not one of those officers microphones or car cameras captured anything that happened. The official story is that one officer slipped and fell, and the mentaly ill man was approaching him with an 18-inch piece of rebar. He did not listen to orders to stop, and the tazer darts couldn't make it through the February coat he was wearing. Officers fired to stop him. The end.
Now...an 18-inch piece of rebar could be a deadly weapon...and in a 2 on 1 type situation, I would call this a good life/serious injury saving shoot by officers. In a 10 on 1 situation though? I mean, I'm not saying cops are paid to get hurt...but I would expect at least one attempt at physical restraint before shooting him.
It's just the lack of video/audio evidence that is damming in this case. You would think that given the kind of attention they have had for the past 15 years that the Seattle PD would be going out of it's way to be on the up and up. Go that extra step to keep yourself clean. Without making a full research project of it, it feels to me that there are easily as many cases where dashboard cameras have bailed officers out as they have gotten them in trouble.
Bah...once again, I'm glad I decided on a career path where there are no cameras watching everything I do wrong on a daily basis.
5.08.2013
180
Went in on my 'furlough' day yesterday to get some fasting bloodwork done. While the lisinpril is doing a good job on my blood pressure, my doctor pointed out he had no recent data on blood sugar or cholesterol. So...stick me, baby.
Got a call today, telling me that there was good news, and bad news. My total cholesterol is in the officially 'not bad' range...right at 180. But...the ratio between my HDL(good) and LDL(bad) isn't quite where they want it to be....the HDL is right at 40, which is kind of the minimum they want it to be.
No talk of medicine yet...just try to pay attention to my diet. Someone needs to breed a pig that only has HDL bacon....
Got a call today, telling me that there was good news, and bad news. My total cholesterol is in the officially 'not bad' range...right at 180. But...the ratio between my HDL(good) and LDL(bad) isn't quite where they want it to be....the HDL is right at 40, which is kind of the minimum they want it to be.
No talk of medicine yet...just try to pay attention to my diet. Someone needs to breed a pig that only has HDL bacon....
5.07.2013
Go play outside.
Since the young lady working at Ranch and Home when my wife picked up the chicks was somewhat uncertain about when the chicks had been hatched, we aren't 100% sure of how old they are. We think they are somewhere in the 5-7 week old range.
What we do know is that they have all their feathers, and with the temperature being in the upper 80's, it's fine time for them to get introduced to the great outdoors.
What we do know is that they have all their feathers, and with the temperature being in the upper 80's, it's fine time for them to get introduced to the great outdoors.
They seemed to enjoy it out there. After about 2 minutes of just standing there, they started acting like chickens, scratching and pecking, and trying to figure out what was edible. While I kept an eye on them, I tackled some leaf cleanup in the side yard, and at one point, I found a worm. Poor, poor worm. I dropped him in with the chicks, and it was like World War 3...they tore him into about 4 pieces, and gulp, gulp, gulp.
Hopefully, they will want to come in tonight. We weren't planning on letting them spend the night outside quite yet. Probably give them a week or so of 'hardnening off' during the day before moving them out permanently.
I'm eager to get my garage back.
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