Movie Review - Michael Jackson: This Is It

Kristi and I went to This Is It last night. The movie has been receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews. I thought I would like This Is It, but it was even better than I anticipated. The movie works.

This Is It is a documentary about Michael's rehearsals for his 50 date concert series that had been scheduled to begin shortly after the date of Michael's death. The movie gives attendees a glimpse of what the concert would have been like as well as a glimpse of Michael as a professional, planning for this elaborate concert. Going into the the theater I had no idea that the concert would have been elaborate, but elaborate is likely an understatement. The concert would have been spectacular.

The focus of the movie is on the music. Many of Michael's songs from over the years are in the show. The sound quality is fantastic - and that's what really makes the movie. Anyone who enjoys Michael's music at all just should not miss seeing (and hearing) this movie in the theater!

There are really no spoilers to this movie, but the items below are some conclusions I drew. If you are going to go see it, you might want to wait to read my ideas until after you've had a chance to draw your own conclusions.

Some things that struck me:
Some of the dance auditions were shown in the movie. An elite corp of young physically fit dancers were on stage with Michael. It was stunning how well Michael kept up with his younger counterparts.

That concert would have been one of the most spectacular shows ever produced.

Michael seemed like a pretty regular guy; scarcely a hint of eccentricity - mostly just focused on the task at hand, giving fans an amazing experience.

The crew - working so closely with Michael to prepare for the concert, many of whom were living life-long dreams, must have been crushed when the news of Michael's death arrived.

My 500th Post is About Searches

This is my 500th post to this blog. That's not what this post is about though, but since it's my 500th, I thought it was worth mentioning.

Searches that brought people to this blog in October:

• nappanee indiana resting metabolism
• tyler hansbrough headphones
• mcdonalds carnival kit muscular dystrophy
• television series 1980s russians invade (I'm not sure about a TV show, but that sounds like it would make a good movie.)
• vanna pick me a letter weird al
• should you set the thermostat for a geothermal system (Yep, set it and leave it.)
• what are the psychological reasons behind we didn t start the fire
• human fuzeball
  
  and my favorite:
  
• does logan s roadhouse have caller id? (Yes they do, but they don't have time to check it because they are too busy trying to catch their refrigerator that is running.)
  

Trick or Treat

Pumpkin Carving

Six Years Ago

Kylee

Makenna

Dear Time,

You can slow down now.

Sincerely,

Steve

Free Chicken . . .

for five.A pretty good, but light supper for our family. It's hard to beat free though.

Funny Video

I saw this posted on Facebook. It's Pretty funny.

Bible Quiz Team

This is the 4th year that Kylee and Makenna's have been members of our church's Bible quiz team. This year the quizzers are studying Luke 1 - 11. It's a fun way for them to learn God's word through competition and academic challenge.

Individual quizzer stats are posted from the first quiz meet of the season on quizcoach.com, stats for the younger league that the girls are in appear on pages 3 and 4 of this pdf.

iPod Vs. Radio

I love my iPod. But there's something about a song just coming on the radio that is a lot more fun than listening to the same song on an iPod. I have suspected this phenomenon for some time, but Thursday it was confirmed. Jack and Diane came on the radio. It rocked my minivan. I had the song in my pocket on my iPod. I thought, I could have just plugged it into my tape adapter and played the same song. But I knew that just wouldn't have been as much fun.

What I'm Watching on TV

Flash Forward - It's been OK. I've started losing interest a little bit though. We still have last week's episode to finish and there was a new one on tonight.

Survivor Samoa - This season of Survivor is the worst one I have ever watched. It seems more fake. And the constant focus and Russel, the bad guy is annoying.

Popular Science's Future Of - I like this show quite a bit. It focusses on various aspects of life and what they will be like in 30 years. Technology that is being developed now is demonstrated - technology that is expected to be ubiquitous in three decades. Some of it is really cool. Some of it is a little terrifying. Some of it, I just shake my head and think, "Why would anyone want that?"

Jay Leno Show - I don't watch it that often. But it's on every night, so it's easy to catch once in a while. I record it, so I think I'll make a habit of watching the end of Monday night's telecast when Jay does headlines.

Rob mentioned that Friday Night Lights is starting on DirecTV soon. (They will probably be on NBC this winter.) I can't wait for Lights, and will watch it for sure.

Also, NBC Nightly News, SportsCenter, sports - those are the usuals.

Which is the Stronger Law of Nature?

I threw caution to the wind on Sunday and put two laws of nature in conflict with each other. So, which law of nature is the strongest? Is it:

Players that are on Steve's fantasy football team do cruddy.

or

If Steve makes a prediction on his blog, it will be proven publicly wrong.

Let's find out.

Here are the players I had on my team this past weekend, followed by the player's average fantasy points per game on the season.
QB - Matt Schaub - 350
QB - Aaron Rodgers - 389
RB - Maurice Jones-Drew - 248
RB - Chris Johnson - 275
RB - Cedric Benson - 260
WR - Mario Manningham - 181
WR - Steve Smith (NY) - 255
WR - Vincent Jackson - 227
TE - Brent Celek - 195
D - Philadelphia Eagles - 238
K - David Akers - 108

And here is how my players did this week:
QB - Matt Schaub - 561 points - 211 points above average
QB - Aaron Rodgers - 390 points - 1 point above average
RB - Maurice Jones-Drew - 501 points - 253 points above average
RB - Chris Johnson - 256 points - 19 points below average
RB - Cedric Benson - 154 points - 106 points below average
WR - Mario Manningham - 168 points - 13 points below average
WR - Steve Smith (NY) - 96 points - 159 points below average
WR - Vincent Jackson - 160 points - 67 points below average
TE - Brent Celek - 158 points - 37 points below average
D - Philadelphia Eagles - 200 points - 38 below average
K - David Akers - 180 points - 72 above average

So, overall my players totaled a collective 98 points above their season averages. However, seven of the eleven scored below their season average. This makes my prediction sort of right and sort of wrong, which makes my prediction that I would be proven wrong sort of right and sort of wrong too. Figures.

Oh, and while I gathered a respectable 2,824 points this week. They guy in first place in my league tallied 3,606 points for the week. Nice.

iPod Shufflin'

Here are the first ten things to play:

1. Forever - Absolute Modern Worship for Kids
2. Luke Chapter 6 - NIV Listener's Bible read by Max McLean
3. Take My Breath Away by Berlin
4. Give Me Jesus by Jeremy Camp
5. I'm Gonna Be by The Proclaimers
6. You Got It All by The Jets
7. Ain't No Rock - Shout To The Lord Kids 2
8. Manic Monday by The Bangles
9. Going Back To Indiana by The Jackson 5
10. Worthy Is The Lamb - Hillsong

More interesting might be the Play Count for each of the items listed in my iTunes.

1. Forever - 1 play
   
2. Luke Chapter 6 - 12 plays
   
3. Take My Breath Away - 5 plays
   
4. Give Me Jesus - 3 plays
   
5. I'm Gonna Be - 6 plays (This one would probably be higher, but I never seem to be able to remember the name of this song. - It's Skip Count IS zero though.)
   
6. You Got It All - 4 plays
   
7. Ain't No Rock - 2 plays
   
8. Manic Monday - 3 plays
   
9. Going Back To Indiana - 2 plays
   
10. Worthy Is The Lamb - 0 plays
    

Top Ten Favorite iPod Touch Apps

These are my top ten favorite apps for the iPod touch.

#10 Word Warp - It's a fun word game in which you find words using letters from a longer word.

#9 Speed Fiend - It's the same game I used to play with my friends in high school.

#8 Awaken - It's an alarm clock that wakes me up to my music.

#7 Dictionary - This app is from dictionary.com. It's great for trolling words during an intense game of UpWords. Our family rule is to allowing this word hunting to occur. It's easier than looking up all sorts of words after someone plays them.

#6 DirecTV - I can program our Tivos anywhere my iPod can connect to the Internet.

#5 OliveTree NIV Bible Reader - It's easy to navigate, has lots of settings and is easy to carry to church in my pocket. For my morning Bible reading I almost always still grab my leather bound Quest NIV Bible.

#4 Pandora - I love the QuickMixes. Pandora is really good at figuring out songs I might like, based on a few songs it knows I do like. It's sort of like how Tivo is supposed to be able to record shows you might like based on shows you give a Thumbs Up. Pandora's algorithm works. Tivo's, not so much.

#3 AOL Radio - It has all sorts of music mixes, streamed right to my iPod. Any app that streams "the best of 1988" music is top notch!

#2 Scramble 2 - It's like Boggle, one of my favorite board games. It's fun to play online to see how well you can do against the other 100 or so people playing online.

#1 USA Today - Downloads the most recent news stories in six categories in a flash. You can then read them anytime later online or offline.

Salary Cap Fantasy Football

I've been playing a salary cap fantasy football league for about 5 years. I usually do pretty well, generally finishing in the top 4 of the 20 team league. Just imagine, though, if my players would gather points as well as they should.

My strategy for success is pretty simple; find players that I can afford that average the best amount of points per game, then gravitate towards players that are playing teams that give up gratuitous amounts of points to players in specified position. It's simple.

Why then, do my players who are going against week opponents continuously seem to average well below their seasonal averages? I think I have the answer to this question narrowed down to one simple law. . . players that are on Steve's team do cruddy.

So, here's this week's list of players who will most certainly under perform. (Or am I just writing this post in hopes that these players will have amazing games, because of that other law, the one that states - if Steve makes a prediction on his blog, it will be proven publicly wrong?)

QB - Matt Schaub

QB - Aaron Rodgers

RB - Maurice Jones-Drew

RB - Chris Johnson

RB - Cedric Benson

WR - Mario Manningham

WR - Steve Smith (Giants)

WR - Vincent Jackson

TE - Brent Celek

D - Philadelphia Eagles

K - David Akers

First Quiz Meet of the Season

Today was the first Bible quiz meet of the season. The team that Kylee and Makenna are on went 3 - 1. Makenna did especially well. She recorded the maximum number correct in two of her three quizzes. She also came within one of the maximum in the other quiz.

New Blog

The matriarch of one of my favorite families has a new(er) blog and it's really good - creative, funny and insightful. I like this post so much that I might try to do a similar one someday.

Landen's Bedroom Makeover Begins

We started redoing Landen's bedroom today (our three-year-old.) He's due for a major upgrade. As we were saving and saving to get our house paid off the past few years, his room was definitely neglected. His dressers are about 35 years old. For about the past 6 months, he's been sleeping on the floor on his crib mattress. The paint on his walls is merely some leftover paint from cans in the garage mixed together into an acceptable light teal color. His carpet is just a remnant that we tacked to the floor with no padding. His light is the last remaining antique fixture in our house.

On deck for the makeover - a new loft bed (with dressers, shelves and desk built in underneath,) new paint, new carpet, a new light and a new valance. Here are a few "before" pictures.

John Wooden's Birthday

John Wooden turns 99 today. He says in the ESPN interview posted below that he doesn't want any sort of celebration for the big day, but that if he makes it another year they could do something for his 100th. Here's hoping that Mr. Wooden makes it to 100 and beyond. The world will be a little dimmer when his life burns out.

A Post A Day for 100 Days

It's been a little slow around here, so that's my goal. That's two in two days.

New Michael Jackson Song - Released Today

Our New Phone System is Called Ooma

We no longer have a land line, but we still have our land line phone number. We now make calls using all of our regular old phones (located in the same places throughout our house) over the Internet for free.

We bought Ooma on Amazon for less than $200 and do not pay monthly phone bills any more!

Ooma allows you to use your regular phones to make calls just like on a land line. You would hardly notice that anything was different, except the system is a whole lot nicer and has way more features than an old fashioned land line.

I like our new phone system so much that I wrote my first product review on Amazon.com about it. Here's the review:

Setting ooma up was a breeze. I had my ooma operating within 20 minutes of opening the box.

To help people understand how it works, I will explain how it is setup in my house.

The Internet comes into the cable modem. The computer network cable goes from the cable modem to the back of the ooma hub. Another network cable goes from the ooma hub to the router (nothing else changed regarding our home computer network - and I haven't noticed any performance change with the Internet.)

There is a standard phone wire that goes from the ooma hub to a regular old phone jack on the wall behind the computer - this is the wire that sends the ooma phone signal from the ooma hub to the rest of the phone jacks in the house.

I have a telephone plugged into the "phone" jack on the ooma hub. The cable modem, ooma hub and this phone are all in the basement.

I have an ooma scout plugged into a phone jack in the kitchen. The kitchen phone then plugs into this ooma scout. This phone has a cordless phone too. It is working just fine with ooma.

I have another ooma scout plugged into a phone jack in an upstairs bedroom. There is a phone plugged into that scout.

In the garage there is another ooma scout plugged into a phone jack. There is a phone plugged into that ooma scout too.

The sound quality on all of the phones is just fine and rivals our old land-line connection. The sound quality is much better than your average cell phone connection.

The kitchen and garage phones are both on wall mounted phone jacks. This works just fine if you use short phone cords (from the jack to the ooma scout and from the ooma scout to the phone) and have a place to hide the power cord. I used a little sticky tack to hold the scout against the wall under the phone. Velcro would be another wall-mount option.

I was paying about $30 a month for basic phone service from my local phone company. That price did not include any additional features, caller ID or long distance. It was just basic phone service.

After buying the ooma equipment, I paid $100 for a YEAR of their premier service (I think their current price is $10 a month for premiere - which you don't need to buy, but is nice.) So, I'm saving about $400 a year for a system that has WAY better features and INCLUDES long distance.

Some features/benefits of ooma:
-It includes voice mail.
-You can listen to voice mail from the ooma hub or anywhere you have an ooma scout! (Premiere feature)
-You can listen to your voice mail messages by logging in to ooma's web site.
-You can even set your account to e-mail your voice mail messages to you (as an audio attachment.) (Premiere feature)
-I now have Caller ID.
-You can BLOCK numbers that you do not want to receive calls from. (Premiere feature)
-There is even a feature that you can turn on that will block calls from numbers that have been blocked by many ooma users.(Premiere feature)
-An incoming and outgoing call log is kept for viewing on the ooma web site.
-If you are talking on one extension and receive an incoming call, ooma will automatically route the incoming call to your other extensions on a virtual second line. (Premiere feature)

You don't have to purchase the premiere service. You can buy the ooma equipment and not pay anything else for home phone service.

Porting my old land line phone number to my ooma account took about 18 days. Ooma stayed in contact with me via e-mail during the porting process.

Also, I did call ooma a few times with questions - one before I purchased the system and two times after I installed it to ask about porting. I only waited on hold a few minutes each time and each of the representatives were fluent in English and answered my questions correctly. I have been very pleased with the customer service.

I can't believe how simple the whole process was. The ooma system works very well and is packed with features that also work very well. This is a purchase that I am very glad that I made.

We Didn't Start the Fire - What I Think - Parts 17, 18 & 19

My blog series about what I think the topics in We Didn't Start the Fire has drug on long enough. So I'm combining the last three sections of the song for one final post. Here goes.

Begin - Menachem Begin was the president of Israel. He met with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat at the Oslo piece talks, led by Jimmy Carter, in an attempt to settle conflict in the Middle East.

Reagan - Ronald Reagan was the 40th president of the United States. He was known as the "great communicator." He was credited with bringing the United States out of the recession of the early 1980s, and rebuilding our military. His presidency also saw our national debt increase significantly.

Palestine - The Palestinian group of people wanted land back from Israel in the early 1980s (and still do.)

terror on the airline - In the early 1980s, right around the time that there was a made-for-TV movie on about the death of Richie Valens and the Big Bopper, an airplane was hijacked in Jerusalem by Palestinian terrorists who demanded the release of certain Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

Ayatollah's in Iran - The Ayatollah took control of Iran away from the Shaw. The Ayatollah brought Islamic law to Iran.

Russians in Afghanistan - In the early 1980s Russia invaded Afghanistan in an attempt to spread their breed of communism to the Afghans. This caused NBC to the preempt the Smurf's from their usual Saturday morning cartoon line-up, while news about the invasion was relayed sorry faced ten year olds across the land. The Afghans fought back, defeating the less motivated Russians while the Smurfs, likewise won battle after battle against their nemesis Gargamel.

"Wheel of Fortune" - The popular game show got its start in the late 1970s and rose to prominence in the 1980s; when winners shopped for their prizes right on the show. Weird Al Yankovick even did a remake of the 1950s hit, "Send Me a Letter" with the lyrics, "Vanna Pick Me a Letter."

Sally Ride - Sally Ride was the first female in space. She is an American and rode into orbit on the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1983.

heavy metal - This was a popular style of rock music in the mid 1980s. Bands like Iron Maiden and Twisted Sister let their hair grow long and screeched their way up the Billboard charts during this time.

suicide - Suicide rates were high in the 1980s.

Foreign debts - The United States debt climbed significantly during the 1980s and as a percentage of our Gross Domestic Product, rivaled the war time deficits of WWII.

homeless vets - Some Vietnam veterans returned to America with post traumatic stress and other psychological disorders as a result of the hardships suffered in Vietnam. Most did not get the support they deserved and needed. Some ended up homeless.

AIDS - AIDS was identified in the early 1980s. It was initially a very misunderstood disease. It even caused one kid who cut his finger on a rusty nail in the back of a Rental Uniform plant in Lexington, Kentucky to fear that he might get AIDS from the mishap.

crack - Crack was the new drug craze in the mid 1980s. It is a highly addictive form of cocaine. When crack addiction rates began to fall in the mid 1990s, I asked one friend why he thought the rates were falling. He replied he thought it was such a horrible drug, that many addicts were simply dieing off.

Bernie Goetz - Bernie Goetz was the subway vigilante. He saw a crime happening in a New York City subway and took matters into his own hands, killing the observed assailant. He was later convicted of manslaughter and received a rather brief prison sentence.

Hypodermics on the shores - Mishandled medical waste was a problem in the 1980s. Many beaches in New Jersey had to be closed due to medical waste piling up on the shores.

China's under martial law - In 1989, Chinese students rallied in Tienanmen Square to call for more freedom. Their rally was eventually crushed by the Chinese military.

Rock and roller cola wars - In the 1980s Pepsi claimed it was the choice of a new generation and scored new drinkers with its "Pepsi Challenge" commercials. Coke fought back with tradition and nostalgia themed commercials.