La Gloria Cubana on a Saturday morning...

...while reading North American Windpower magazine.

I love weekends.

Dan

The Amazing Spider Man

Totally the best Spiderman movie by far. I wish they had led with this movie. The story is more true to the comics, the effects are better, the acting is better, it just rocks. They REALLY stepped up their game. 10/10.

Dan

The Glen Art Theater, Glen Ellyn, Illinois...

An old Vaudeville theater sliced and diced into four smallish screens, old, but serviceable, with great prices, great popcorn, and all those movies that are hard to find in other theaters. Plus, they sell movie marquee posters cheap after the films are gone. A total treasure!

Dan

Safety Not Guaranteed...

Safety Not Guaranteed: Romance, Spy Flick, Magazine Reporter Story, Time Travel/Sci-Fi, Teen Party Flick, Psycho-Thriller...this movie has everything but the kitchen sink, and on a low budget. The acting was incredibly good, especially from the primary leads. This movie is SOOOOOO GOOOOOD!! This is one of the best films I've seen this year, an absolute must-see, especially for the Geek crowd. 10/10, and I am not kidding at all.

Dan

Madea's Witness Protection Plan - Tyler Perry

Witness mildly crazy. There were a fair amount of hilarious moments, but less good music than usual. Tyler was less animated as Madea than usual. I liked it, but I didn't love it as I usually do. The "droning school teacher" was excellent as a fumbling executive, really did a great job. 5/10.

I'm left wondering if Tyler's heart was really in it this time.

Dan

Best. Chinese. Fortune. Cookie. Ever.

I got this last night after watching the movie "People Like Us."

It says "Others look up to you."

I am six-feet, six-inches tall.

Dan

People Like Us

Heart-warming, lots of fun moments, some suspenseful ones, good acting, especially the female lead, yet also mostly predictable. If you want a feel-good flick, go. 6/10.

Dan

Seeking Friend For The End Of The World

Steve Carell did a phenomenal job here, and Keira was in one of her better roles and actually lived up to it. They actually have a really nice simmering chemistry. There is an intense angst throughout, and the humor is used lightly enough not to render this idiotic. A love story, with a bittersweet edge, poignant, with some interesting and surprising twists. Definitely worth the time if you have a romantic heart. 8/10 in the genre.

Dan

New Game For Light Exercise: Bucket-Disk...

One Bucket-Disk (invented by Yours Truly) set: (4) aluminum tent stakes @ $0.79 each, (2) Home Depot bucets @ $3.00 each, one Disk Golf fairway driver @ $10-21.00 depending on brand & style.

Set up buckets with openings facing each other 25 feet apart. Stake bucket handles so goals don't move.

Stand behind your bucket and toss at the other bucket. Teams take turns, 1 throw each. First 20 duckets wins. Disk must be more than halfway in the bucket to count a ducket.

Teams toss at one bucket to see who goes first. Closest to bicket OR most duckets goes first.

Lose two duckets for your team if you hit another player, or physically get in front of your bucket while the other team is throwing. (Off-sides rule; throwing team must declare a throw starting and do a 5-count to let other players clear the target bucket.)

Advanced rules: Get a 2nd disk. The off-turn team may attempt to throw a block at the throwing team's disk AFTER it has left the thrower's hand. Next person up on the off-turn team is also the blocking disk thrower. Lose a ducket for your team if you throw your block before the disk leaves the thrower's hand.

Let fly!

Dan

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter...

Cool. Very ugly, nasty vamps. Awesome Axe-Kwon-Do. Great camera work on the "vintage look". Best served with popcorn and true blood as close to midnight as possible. Lots of action, but a cool plot in a lot of ways as well. A bit "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets The Matrix meets Underworld meets National Treasure meets Wild, Wild West meets history buff nerdvana." 7/10.

Dan

HTC Amaze 4G Charger Voltage & Amperage Specifications

After an HOUR of trying to find the charging voltage specs for my HTC Amaze on Google under numerous search terms, (WTF??!) Ifound that they were printed right on the back of the factory AC charger that came with my phone.

Set your solar phone charger to 5 VDC, and let there be light.

Now, I feel stupid for not lookingvthere first, but HTC and solar charger manufacturers should feel downright idioric for not having a universal list of phone charging power specs easily-found on internet search in this age of green power users on bicycles.

I love my Amaze, but it's a lot like a jet fighter: fast, agile, and capable, but really sucks the go-go juice. Now I can go all light-bright on it.

Dan

Hysteria - With Maggie Gyllenhaal

*Must See Flick* Things take some extremely interesting twisted turns in early-1800's medicine and psychiatry, with wonderfully-warm and glass-shattering results. This is one you don't want to miss, oh my!

Dan

Promethius

AWESOME! This is definitely in my "top sc-fi so far this year" bin. Definitely go. 9/10

Snow White and the Huntsman

Fun. Kinda Goth. She's still Bella-ish. Damn good cinematography & CGI. Great Celtic legend, interesting spin on the story. Go.

6.5/10.

Dan

Dark Shadows

Camp of Vamp, a goblet of crimson fun, with...fish?

Go for the fun, the music, the Alice Cooper cameo, but leave your cerebellum out of it, and you'll enjoy yourself. The gals are really pretty, and Johnny D threw himself all-in, too.

Tri-stellar.

Dan

Men In Black III

Awesome flick. We both loved it! Soundtrack is really good, too. (Dark Shadows had a really great soundtrack too) I think this is the best yet. Really great Spiderman trailer in previews as well.

Enjoy!

Dan

No Way Jose Taqueria, Lombard, IL...

I love this little place. Clean and decently-appointed, great low prices, excellent food, great lunch specials, and a huge house marguerita if you're in the mood. Salsa is in the upper half of medium, but very good. I definitely recommend it, especially for lunch.

Dan

HTC HD2 Windows Mobile Smart - Only, Not So Smart - Phone

I'm running into a miserable software problem with the HTC HD2. The phone is on WinMo 6.5, and it constantly bogs down while I'm typing, and freezes up. I'm having to re-boot the phone 10-20 times a day. It's happening to my wife as well with her HD2, and I have a friend whose sister returned hers for the same reason. It turns out that T-mobile has a ROM flash update for the phone, but I can't get it. In order to install the free update, you have to have Microsoft Active Synch 4.5 installed on your PC. The problem is, Active Sync 4.5 is only compatible with Windows XP Service Pack 2 or earlier.


Microsoft long ago pushed XP Service Pack 3 out - but they haven't made Windows Mobile syncware that is compatible for XP SP-3 !!! Worse, they now charge $50.00 to chat, e-mail, or call Microsoft XP users, so I can't even tell them about it without paying to do so. T-Mobile is unable to help, either, I just spent an hour on their support line and got nowhere. I can't update my PC to Win Vista or 7 without risking its drivers, it's five years old. Now I and my wife are stuck with HD2's until March, 2012, but can't get software updates for them without buying a new computer. If this isn't ridiculous, I don't know what is. Arrogant, is what this is. And Microsoft wants people to go WinMo 7? No way. I am back to Blackberry as soon as I can get away from this WinMo junk.

Hollywood Palms Theater, Naperville, Illinois

We saw Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief at the new Naperville Hollywood Palms theater tonight as a late birthday present from a couple of friends. What a blast! The movie was tons of fun, and the theater is totally cool! They have a cartoon theater, a nautical theater, an oriental theater, an Aztec theater, an Egyptian theater, an Oscars theater, and a Wizard of Oz theater. A huge atrium with live palm trees, and two tiki bars. There are life-size elephant statues, and hundreds of movie posters & pictures of movie stars. Top it off with drinks and dinner during the show. I had Dr. Fu Man Chu's crab rangoons, and a Porky Pig pulled pork sandwich with waffle fries, coffee, & ice water. (Worked 3rd last night) Everyone else had real drinks. Cool!!

Thank you for reading,

Dan

Words are the mind's bridge - its connection to all the universe.
Love is the heart's bridge - its connection to all other souls.
Loving words can work miracles.

Iwan Ries & Co.

www.iwanries.com

19 South Wabash Avenue
Second floor
Chicago, Illinois
60603

800-621-1457
312-372-1306

With a history going all the way back to 1857, you know you are standing in a place of legend when you walk into Iwan Ries & Co.

This is a full-scale tobacconist, with large selections of every kind of tobacco.

You can feel the patina of age on the place, and faded touches of elegance from a bygone era. In the age of cell phones, the two pay phone booths in the walnut-paneled entry foyer are simply closeted wooden seats with wires hanging...and then you walk into cigar heaven.

The smoking lounge has smaller chairs that date back easily to the 60's, if not earlier, seven of them. They're comfortable, and the TV is vintage 90's, which suits me fine. There are numerous pipe and cigar magazine articles on the walls, and photos from a Davidoff factory that is clearly South of the border and old-school. It makes me want to shake the hand of each worker pictured, and thank them profusely for the treasures those hands wrought.

The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and they will cut your cigar to your specification and provide you with a light if you're going to smoke in-house.

There are all the accessories a pleasure-smoker could possibly need.

Yes, it's old, alright. And that means they know their business.

Spend an hour or two with a legend. Enjoy.

Thank you for reading.

Dan


Words are the mind's bridge - its connection to all the universe.
Love is the heart's bridge - its connection to all other souls.
Loving words can work miracles.