Lord of the Rings Clean Sweep
Now Playing: Oscars
I just watched the last of the Oscar telecast and I was happy to see that the Lord of the Rings sweep every category that it was nominated in. I didn't have much faith in it winning ever since I saw Braveheart lose out to the Turkey 'Shakespeare in Love' - You sort of see it as a invalid measure of what should be the award for the 'best' film when the best film doesn't win. Happily that wasn't the case for a change. Not that any of it matters in the grand course of civilization of course. A mild diversion, after all, I know what movies I like the best and who I thought was the best actor or the best movie. Sometimes though, it's a human desire to have your opinions validated. To me, the Lord of the Rings was and is a most incredible accomplishment. Take into account the magnitude and length of the story and the amount of time that has gone into creating it and you really have an incredible feat of endurance, love and effort which was not even closely followed by any of the other movies. I love the LOTR.

Of course, I'm a bit put out that Johnny Depp didn't win. His effort in Pirates was unique and made the movie great and very rewatchable. His body of work is most impressive and shows him to be a fearless risk taker. From his beginnings at 21 Jump Street to What's Eating Gilbert Grape to Ed Wood to Don Juan DeMarco, this guy can act.

One of the frequent hits I get to my site is to the Aileen Wuornos page. My page noting her as the first female serial killer has been up for ages and after the buzz for the movie I do see many folks trying to find out a little bit more about her. I have not seen the movie and it's not the kind of movie I could even watch. I hope it's accurate to what happened as I think true information is important for people to have access to.

U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown
Ah, the sweet smell of double standards are wafting through the air like the odor from an outdoor toilet. U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown racially abused a hispanic man, Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega, who she had mistaken for a republican 'white man' who happened to be giving a briefing about the Bush administration policy toward Haiti. The briefing was attended by about thirty and Rep Brown called the Bush policy racist and the President's representatives 'those bunch of white men'. When she was informed that the man who gave the briefing was hispanic, she stated that classic racist statment and one which would have certainly ended the political career of any white man, "You all look alike to me." I love it. Nothing adverse will happen to this Florida representative. There aren't any consequences for a black politician which I think is really some sort of ultimate racism. She will get a special pass since there are lower standards for female black politicians. Sad but true. Special as in lower standards and a reserved place at the table for the kids instead of the adults. The double standards are there, we all know they are there. Sad. But we all know, Representative Brown is racist and she has a free pass to say whatever racist claptrap she feels compelled to say. It's just one of those facts of life in the US of A.

French Vanilla Hot Chocolate
Now Playing: Deep Forest-Pacifica
There are many important mysteries of life, a few come to mind such as the origin of pink lemonade when there are no pink lemons. Or how'd they get the brown out of chocolate for that white chocolate stuff. These things greatly trouble me you know. Beverages come to mind at this time because of my cup of French Vanilla hot chocolate which is sitting next to the computer monitor. As always I glance at the directions and as always I am made most cranky by the instructions to put hot water in the powder. It cranks me out because you know, hot chocolate requires hot milk, not hot water. I ignor the instructions on how to heat up the water and instead carefully put my mug of milk in the microwave and watch for the first moments of bubbly action that tells me I have a scant few seconds to turn the microwave off and retrieve the mug before half of the milk foams over. That's part of the ritual of making hot chocolate. Granted, it's not as ritualistic or as historically meaningful as a Japanese Tea Ceremony but it's something that recalls times gone by when making hot chocolate wasn't as easy as it is now and it recalls when it was something a bit more magical. So I will always use milk in my hot chocolate, even when hot water is called for. I'll pour my milk into a cup and place it in the microwave while I recall putting milk into a small pan and trying to not scald it, usually failing and remembering the ritual of scrubbing out the scalded milk from the pot. The scalded milk a reminder that nothing good comes without effort and a bit of hard work, even if it's after the hot chocolate is sitting nicely in my belly.

May you live in interesting times.
Now Playing: Norah Jones-Feels Like Home
So many subjects to pontificate on. Mel Gibson's new movie. Gay marriages in San Francisco. Kerry running neck and neck with Bush. Vanishing Point coming out on DVD finally. New Norah Jones CD. A remastered Melissa Etheridge CD, her first one (self titled) and one of her two best. A Space Ghost Coast to Coast DVD. The army cancels its 8 billion dollar helicopter program. The Denver Broncos possibly trading Clinton Portis for Champ Baily. The list is endless.

Well, Mel Gibson was not one of my favorite movie actors until Braveheart and with that he moved up to the top ten for me. I've listened to the buzz about the upcoming movie "The Passion of the Christ" which is hard to avoid when you consider how completely saturated the media has been with this. It's mostly the usual cycle of media hype with big reporting about what a small minority of people think and believe about something they haven't seen. Most of the talking heads and organizations who rise up in righteous indignation or as champions for this or that cause, story, or event are self aggrandizing and self serving actors who are seeking to advance their own agendas. The usual claptrap. All that aside, perhaps it's a good movie and perhaps it isn't. I haven't seen it and so I don't know. I do understand a few of the actual facts that I have been able to discern. One, the movie is pretty darn violent. Well, that's certainly a factor. I don't like gratuitous violence or violence designed to titilate and excite. I doubt that there are half naked women being chased by hockey mask wearing, machette wielding monsters. I have also heard that the action is exactly from the Bible. Why this fact upsets so many is another issue to examine and that issue has to do with the tension of those who believe in the book and those who believe in the parts of the book they want to believe in. Again, another argument. Given just this information, I will do what I usually do with movies and wait until I hear from actual people before deciding if it's one of those rare movies I actually go to the theater to see or whether I will wait for it on other media.

Gay marriages in San Francisco. Yikes. A horrible 'issue' where anywhere you line up you will alienate a bunch of folks. This is one of those things politicians hate with a passion. Something that can define them. The mayor of San Francisco did a no brainer for him. Mayor for life if he wants considering his liberal base of support in SF. The governor had to take the stand he did, I'm surprised it took so long for him to speak up. His interest should be in the rule of law and upholding that rule of law. Homosexual marriages have been voted on by the people of California and they said no. Well, that's part of democracy. Going over the heads of the people is a form of autocracy by the few. Like most people I think it's fine and dandy for folks to live the lives they want with who they want as long as the actors are of age and of right mind. And while the Declaration of Independence allows for the right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,' it doesn't say that the government is in the business of facilitating everyone's seperate, nonstandard idea of happiness. A bad scene all around.

John Kerry and George Bush are now running neck and neck in recent polls. This means first of all that the political season will be interesting for a while at least. Thank goodness. There is nothing more entertaining than a close Presidential race. All the mud slinging, the parade of supporters on tv, with eyes that don't blink, exuberantly making the case why their candidate is the best possible and only possible salvation for the country. I look forward to seeing the one member of the Bush royal family who looks hispanic. He'll be trotted out to states with a large population of hispanics to show that our royals are in touch with the spanish speaking voters. I look forward to hearing the stories of how each man rose from their humble roots as sons of millionaires to become kind, compassionate people in touch with sixpack, racecar watching americans. I think I feel a tear in my eye right now just thinking about it.

Ah, yes, Vanishing Point. A movie staring Barry Newman. An actor who few remember but who did a fine job in this movie about a fellow who lost his love and who drives a very fast car across the west while being chased by police and who eventually steps on the gas and plows into a couple of bulldozers. Of course there is more to the movie but it's something you'd have to see to understand. The first time I saw the movie, the ending shocked me and made me think. I love this movie in memory of being surprised and being made to think.

A new Norah Jones CD. A beautiful woman, with a wonderful voice. Not loud, not overpowering just smooth and sweet and clean. A voice and a piano. Just good stuff that a person can listen to. This CD is a bit more blues/country in feel but just by a hint.

Now the remastered Melissa Etheridge CD is wonderful. Of course it's Melissa Etheridge titled Melissa Etheridge. Her first CD goes to my theory about music artists. There is a initial rush of talent and all the things the artist is going to say are going to be said the best in the first few albums. Melissa is powerful and raw and in searing pain and you hear every bit of it in this CD. Her voice is the voice of her soul and that soul comes through with passion, pain, love, hate and jealousy. It's great. The first time I heard her was about twenty seconds of a song from her second album and from that I knew I needed her CD. In the years since the first two CD's came out her tone has come down and she has lost some of the same rawness I loved but she is still one of the best.

Finally, the Space Ghost DVD set has come out. Those quirky little episodes are treasures and hold fond memories. "Citizen, are you getting enough oxygen?" Another moment in time of happiness which if you don't get it, I can't describe it to you.

The US Army shutting down their big ticket helicopter program after spending a buttload of money. Well, actually I do know a military helicopter pilot who had flown for some twenty years and I haven't yet asked him about his thoughts on this. Personally I think that anything that takes away from mission flexibility is a bad thing and this helicopter was supposed to be a stealthy bird capable of penetrating enemy lines to be able to perform rescue and extraction missions. If it could do that job better than what we have I don't understand the need to cancel it. Citizen Rumsfeld, it needs to be noted, was brought into the Pentagon to be a hatchet man in those pre 9-11 days. How soon they forget.

In Denver Bronco land-Clinto Portis for Champ Bailey?!!! What's up with that? I haven't worried about the football decisions coming out of Denver since they seem to have some idea of what to do but those years since John Elway towered over Denver as an active player are gone and they haven't won anything yet. I know the argument is that in the playoff game against the Colts Manning destroyed the defense but I don't know that you can win by trying to solve one problem by creating another one. I know they believe they create the running back with the offensive line. Evidence shows that the Broncos can put anyone back there and they become a 1000 yard runner. But yikes. It's a big gamble if they pull the trigger on it. Of course, I don't see many games anymore and I can't listen to them on the internet any longer since they put them on the pay service and so I become less and less interested. Such is life.

A nice rambling today. Thanks ever so much. :-)

Watching the Grammies
Now Playing: Earth, Wind and Fire and others-Grammies
Well well, glad to see me here again. Watching the grammies just to see if anything gets blown up or at the very least some controversy erupts. Nothing of any note and I don't imagine that anything will happen. All breasts, with the almost bouncy exception of that one singer who isn't Britney, have stayed inside their containers. I saw Prince to start the show, a nice surprise. He looks good, he must have bought that oxygen chamber from Michael Jackson a while back. The Grammy folks continue to try to do what they were started to do-namely to acknowledge musical excellence which often times falls below the radar to the likes of popular whim. To this end they put a 'new' happening, artist with an older, Grammy worthy winning artist. So you see Chick Corea playing piano for someone, you see Alison Krause playing violin for Sarah McLaughlin and so on. OH well, the world has more important things to worry about like where Janet Jackson's breast may show up next.

However, I did see one of my least favorite people, "Sting" - at the grammies, no problem. Him singing a Police song without the Police pissed me off. I really hate lead singers who leave their group after all of them worked to get them to some success. The group gets left behind and the one folks who wouldn't have made it without the group goes onward and upward. I hate that, I never support that artist again. So Sting can go do something rude to himself.

Of course, actual important things are afoot. I read a report that Al-Qaida has nukes. It's one of those things that I have no trouble believing. A 'duh' moment. When the Soviet Union with kaboom, there were a lot of nukes lying around and a lot of poor folks who had them. A poor control system went further down the hole when the USSR died. I'm surprised one hasn't been exploded in the US of A. I say New York or Newark are the top two possibilities. A place that a container ship can sail up to. Hopefully our intelligence services are on top of it. The possibility that the intelligence services have a clue isn't all that good considering their track record. They had no idea the Soviet Union was imploding, they knew it happened when they saw it on TV. And this was the one thing they were supposed to keep track of. Intelligence services said there were "Weapons of Mass Destruction" in Iraq. I have no intelligence service in Iraq and when they said it I knew they were wrong. The bullshit detectors lit up very well with that one. Now it becomes apparent to the wider public and there is 'shock' about it. Please.

Long Time no See Me
Now Playing: ERA-The Mass
Now it's been a long while and it's been an issue even remembering the password to get here. Baa. It's happy new year, Happy Chinese New Years. I mention this because I happened to be watching the sunrise as I often do. An unusual cloud was there right where the sun was to rise. It was a fiery red, right before the sun even shows up and it was in the shape of a Chinese dragon. Of course it was a cloud but it certainly did look very unusual and very dragon like. I imagine that in such ways some people could be convinced they had seen what it was that they had imagined. It's a shame it isn't the year of the dragon. We'll have to see if this dragon appearance was a portent of things to come, good or bad. :-) Hello and sorry to have been silent for so long.

How's About them Broncos?
Now Playing: Jesse Cook-Vertigo
A wonderful blast from the past this last Monday night. Monday Night Football on the television, the Bronco's out there against the hated enemy-those evil soulless Raiders, and a satisfying wire to wire massacre of the Silver and Black. Ah yes, it doesn't get much better than that. Dazed looking Raiders yelling at each other as they were pummeled into submission under the derisive catcalls from the Bronco faithful. Jake the Snake looked like Elway there, running and throwing on the run, completing passes for long gains and touchdowns, running for long gains and touchdowns. A beautiful thing all in all.

In the vast scheme of things of course, one little game played by a bunch of men in a stadium at night in Denver isn't going to chance the world, it's not going to contribute to world peace or end world hunger but it made me happy for a couple of days. A meaningless battle that is given meaning by fans and those who care. A battle where nobody is really hurt, and a battle where lives and property aren't exchanged. Just a game.

A clogged email box
Now Playing: Monday Night Football
Anyone who has tried to get in contact with me via email in the last few days will notice that either I have not responded or that you have received one of those horrible 'email undeliverable' notices in your email box. Yes, I think that my email has been clogged most completely with spams in general. I don't know if it's anything more specific and more personal since of course, there are no emails to be had in my box at the moment. My other email accounts are fine and dandy but that's because I don't publish them. You could also leave a message in the bravenet forum that I have connected through my www.gadlaw.com website or even message me via icq at #14469628. I always acknowledge real emails sent to me with a reply of some sort so if you have emailed and I haven't answered it is because I haven't received the email at all.
my site is here
that would be the usual site and me checking the url connection feature in this blog.

Anyways, I received an interesting email. It's very much like one I've received before and it's one of those which in a flip sort of way seeks my assistance in amassing information about the death penalty and death penalty inmates. I'm fairly sure I've had this before so I am thinking that it is one of those usual scams not unlike the Nigerian minister of finance scams that often time find their way to the email. Some fellow has some 'nebulous' idea about doing some sort of a film concerning the death penalty. "People will finally really know what the problems are" is his scam. He'd of course tell me about his revolutionary ideas but a friend of a friend has advised him to not disclose this bit of brilliant movie outlining. I'm not sure what the point of it all is but then I never take the hook so I don't get to the part where I am supposed to send money to a offshore bank account in order to help finance this. I will stay tuned to see if this scam effort continues a bit or if I was supposed to immediately offer to help the movie making. Film not at eleven.

Good news is that the Broncos are two wins and no losses so far. Their next game is next Monday night and so I will actually get to see it. This is cool although bad things often happen when I get to see a game these last few seasons. I'm crossing my fingers that the Broncos will be able to beat the evil hated Raiders.

Big storm heading toward the East Coast. The Governor of Virginia had already declared a state of emergency. Boats are being taken out the water and everyone now watches where it will hit. Actual real reality TV to be seen on the weather channel now. Weathermen and junior reporters are getting their slickers ready for those live remotes from some shore side community as they get whipped around in the wind and the rain. I think those are so stupid. Yes Jim, it's indeed raining here. I would say it's raining hard Jim. Normally rain falls down (as the reporter makes a slashing sign with his open hand), as you can see the rain (slashes his hand sideways) is falling sideways. This is indicitive of rain with wind as you might expect with a storm of this magnitude. I know everyone has seen rain and wind with rain but we thought we'd endanger a reporter and his or her camera crew so we can show you rain. Bah. :-)

Old Sparky Bird
Now Playing: Vanessa Mae-Four Seasons
I went into a Bird shop today. Lovely birds, lovely big birds. I've owned a blue front parrot, a grey cheek parrakeet or parrolet and a blue crown conure. Of the three, the Blue Crown Conure was my favorite. Back in the dim past I worked in a pet store and it was back when the wild birds were brought in from the shipper directly. It was a shipment of such bird, of Blue Crowns that had my Sparky bird in it. A bunch in the cage, I had opened it to feed or water or some such thing and Sparky walked up my hand and onto my shoulder. Well that was it for me. I had to buy him and so I did. Quite a character of a bird who seemed to like nobody else but me. I distinctly remember his little eyes, dilating orange eyes and how he would bob his head up and down. Well, I saw a couple of Sparky birds in the pet shop. OF course, being the way things are, they looked just like Sparky. Those eyes and that sleek head and pointy beak. It brings back happy memories.

Tripod down down and also unavailable
Now Playing: Hearts of Space #594
Spent a number of days with some of my site ready to be updated only to find out that I couldn't access it. Tripod, which hosts my site has been down as down can be. Very annoying. But suddenly today, this afternoon in fact, I tried again and lo and behold! Access was granted and so I quickly updated the pages and such that I had ready to go. Thank goodness. So now some of the horror images are up and looking as good as always. Now I will send this in, press a couple of buttons and hope that it gets on it's way. :-)

A Two Towers Kinda Day
Now Playing: Jesse Cook-Freefall (flaminco spanish guitar-excellent)
A nutri-grain bar, raspberry flavored. A glass of lemon iced tea, brand Nestea. The just released Two Towers, Lord of the Rings DVD video in hand as well as a complimentary free maroon Two Towers tee shirt from a kind sales clerk. The elements of a passable day indeed. I watched the movie again. I particularly love the Ents going to battle. Slow to anger and when it's unleashed it's particularly awesome. The Elves coming to Helm's Deep 'to honor a alliance of old' to die with the humans in a hopeless battle- romantic and honorable and the kind of thing I like to see in a movie. A great movie all in all and I am looking forward to seeing the next one as well as getting the extended version of the Two Towers when that comes out. Small pleasures.

Also I might add that I'm listening to a new music artist I happened upon, Jesse Cook, a heck of a good guitarist under the Narada label. Amazingly good. As I listen to his music I can almost feel my fingers bleeding from the strength and vibrancy of the notes he can bring out from that guitar. You should take a listen, obviously it's a bit like the Flamenco dance of that lovely dark haired woman from Riverdance. The music of Jesse Cook makes your toes tap and makes you involuntarily drum the beat along with him.

It's interesting watching the site begin to recover from the complete overhaul. All new pages and all newly redone content has left the old links that were linked to my site no longer there as well as having befuddled Google and yahoo et al for a bit. Their recovery is quick though and the numbers of visitors has picked back up. Of course I haven't completed all of the content. It's a bit hard, my hands are not working with the ability I would like them to have. It's hard to do much, I certainly can't sketch, draw or do any fine work with them any longer. I can type a bit after an overload of Motrin but I pay for it later on. No matter. I've got a lot of the future content layed out and now I wait for the strength to do it a bit at a time. I feel a bit like a one legged broken winged Bower Bird trying to put a few flowers in my Bower. A useless endeavor but one I will make anyway.

One thing I've noted about the site now, I'm getting more hits relating to Buddhism and so my Buddhist information is being well received. That's wonderful in my mind. Well the Motrin isn't helping any more right this minute so I'll call it a day and wish you well this day. :-)

"I'm shocked, simply shocked"
Now Playing: Jesse Cook-Tempest -
Ah, the words of Claude Raines in the movie Casablanca when confronted in public about there being gambling in Rick's Place. "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here" And then he is handed his gambling winnings. This is how I feel about all of the public teeth gnashing going on in the wake of the murder of the pedophile priest John Geoghan by another inmate in the Massachusetts prison where Geoghan happened to be in protective custody. Yeah right. Somebody in protective custody in a prison not being protected? Wow, I'm shocked, shocked to find that prison is not a place where people can be safe. An open secret, that prison is a barely controlled jungle run by the inmates and not the understaffed prison officials and guards. Men are killed frequently in prison, killed, raped, beaten up, intimidated, bullied, terrorized and of course, deprived of their rights in ways too countless to list.

Well, the constituency who would advocate prison reform are not generally those who have any influence in the halls of government. Most states disallow those who serve their time to ever vote again. Those in prison of course do not get to vote. They have been cut off from society and are thus, not a voice that is often heard in our society where influence and a fair hearing are determined by how much money you have. As a result, there are record numbers of people in prisons and those prisons are highly, dangerously overcrowded. Those overcrowded prisons are jungles full of sociopaths, predators and conmen. Those who are not of this ilk are simply prey. It doesn't matter what the sentence was that they are in jail for, the sentence is terror and torture, the sentence might be death, it's certainly pain physical and mental which is the definition of torture. The fact that this priest is killed in prison while in a protective custody environment let's you know how safe it is in general population. The insincere concern over the safety of prisons is a laugh. Nobody in any level of power cares and nothing will be done about it. I guarantee that.

Relaunch of the main site
Now Playing: Deuter-Rainforest
How's about them apples eh? Finally, after much struggle and much scratching of the head I have succeeded in putting up a redesigned website at www.gadlaw.com. Of course, it's up but not completely populated with the goodies I will put up. The struggle was the menu and I have since been able to get that working. Amazing. I plan to get the serious information up first, most of the death penalty info is up and running already. The sex offender law and registry sites is to be up shortly. Much work but it looks good now to me. Much cleaner looking.

Ah this bunch of nasty worms invading the email box is highly annoying. I have seen the same ones everyone else has seen and I have been clearing my mailbox constantly. But my anti virus and my firewall are smack up to date, I've downloaded and installed the newest microcrap patch and run complete checks on my system. And just as soon as everyone else does this I won't have so many emails bombard me and mine. Now of course I am wise to the ways of the virus and of the trojan and all of that nonsense. Even so, I did get completely hosed a few months back even with my vast and varied knowledge. I hadn't been that badly hosed with invasion of the computer snatchers since five or so years ago. They need to catch these guys doing this and put then in the big house. Spammers, virus writers, script kiddies, what a mess.

Working the site redesign
Now Playing: Natasha St Pier-On Peut Tout Essayer
Another day where the moments are spent working on the redesign. A bit of CSS stylesheets, a bit more javascript, tables, background images, tweaking the pictures and on top of all of that there is the little matter of the content to be rewritten and made presentable. Whew, what a task. My site has been up since 1998 and it's gone a bit far afield and the result for me is that doing a redesign is a lot of work. Like cleaning out a garage there's the cleanup before even thinking about the remodel. It's a bit like that at the moment. At any rate I am hoping to get this thing restarted before too long. It's my own work so I can take my time.

glassy eyed dhtml boy
Now Playing: xtc - dear god
ohhh, my eyes are blurry with the effort of looking at very tiny things that make little sense. time for a break from code and table frustrations. other than that I am encouraged in my site renovation efforts. I'm putting down the foundation, making things easier in the long run to make it something that I can keep updated easily and keep looking sharp. Fortunately I am not under any deadline. It's a good thing too since the ability to make any deadline in this effort would be quite difficult. I can't see, I've got a cold that is moving down into my chest again, my arms are so carpel tunnelly that I can't open a previously opened jar of pepperoncini let alone hold it. Other than all of that I'm feeling perfectly fine. peachy keen.

one of my favorite movies of all time, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" is on TCM right now. and a few days ago another of my all time favorite films, "Holiday Inn" was on the same channel. Amazing. I look for these films for years and all of a sudden they start making multiple showings. so much for my theory that I wasn't seeing them on tv any longer because of the minstrel numbers in both shows. fred astaire, bing crosby, gary cooper, henry fonda, tyrone powers, ah now those were movie stars.

the terminator running for governor of cali. i'm not even amazed by things any longer. i'm glad it's happening because i love politics and the more the pot gets stirred the more interesting it is. interesting that the fellow with the recall plan, congressman issa, tearfully decided to not run for governor. he spent more than a million of his own dollars to get the recall against governor davis. see, issa had a plan, he would bankroll the recall of davis and a grateful cali would hoist him on their shoulders and declare him the next governor. a good plan indeed. of course, he didn't count on my old friend, 'unintended consequences' to show up. unintended consequences, humm. i bet issa didn't expect the running man to be the man running for governor thereby crashing the careful plans of a would be leader of the richest state in the union. still and all, the crying at the news conference was uncalled for. someone who cold bloodedly goes after another human being like he went after the governor davis should stand up like a man when he gets slammed down and his ambitions momentarily thwarted. unseemly and embarrassing.