First Camp of the Year!

I was invited to go camping with a few folks from work last weekend. We went up to the Mogollon Rim (pronounced Mug-E-On) this time. We drove a little off the beaten path and set up a primitive campsite right on the rim itself. I love camping there, since the views are unbelievable. Did a little hiking, took some photos and just relaxed. Hopefully we can get back at least one more time before the summer ends. It gets pretty cold up there early.

Here's Camp! (HDR)

Look! There are Trees in Arizona! (HDR)

Rusty and Heather

Jason and Rusty

Cassie Loves Camp Food!

Self Portrait

I Found This Cool Bumpy Tree (HDR)

Did I Mention the View was Awesome? (HDR)

I Sat on the Edge of That Ledge to Take Panorama Photos. Talk About a Real Pucker Inducer! =:0 (HDR)

Panorama of the Whole View in HDR! (Click Image for Large Panorama)

Did I Mention the Wind Gusts On This Ledge? =:0 (HDR)

1hr & 40min Exposure of the Stars Traveling

NRA Annual Meeting

The NRA Annual Meeting was in Phoenix this year! The best part about the NRA Meeting is the show they put on. It's kinda like E3, but for guns. Awesome! In the past, I've traveled to attend the meeting, but this year it was right here at home.

I tried riding the new Phoenix light rail to the show so that I could give a bit of a review to the new system, which I have to say fails in a pretty epic fashion. First, in an entire day of riding around town on the train, I was the only person I actually saw buy a ticket. In fact, the ticket vending terminal actually had to boot up once I touched the screen since nobody had used it in so long. There are no turnstiles, access control, or as far as I can tell, persons enforcing ticket purchases. I'm pretty certain I was the only person that actually bought a ticket to ride that day. Next, the average wait between trains is about 10 minutes, and the stations are in the middle of the road with almost no shade. When its 120 degrees out, little canvas stretch shade thingies do not do the job. Finally, riding the light rail was inconvenient. Park n' Ride spots are few and far, and it's slow. I would rank it as slightly faster than riding the bus, but much, much slower than taking your car. Overall, I probably won't be using the light rail again for a long while. The only reason I could see trying it again might be to avoid the traffic problems when going to a ball game. I'll post another review when I try that one...

That being said, the NRA Show itself was sooooooo much fun! :D

Welcome to the NRA Annual Meeting

I Parked and Took the Light Rail

The Stations Offer Little Shade... :(

Our Brand New Convention Center!

Heh, It's Illegal to Take Your Gun Into an Establishment With a Liquor License in AZ

There were LOTS of People There

Good Thing There Were Lots of Guns!

All the Big Manufacturers Had Booths

Win a Truck of Ammo!

Lots of Guest Speakers

Gun Porn

Bang!

I Never Had Cool Books Like This as a Kid...

Paul Impersonates His Shirt

And We End With a Gold Tommygun!

Movie Review: Up

The people at Pixar are freaking geniuses. I recently saw their newest film, Up, and I think it's the best one they've done to date.

In Up, Pixar tells the story of Carl Fredricksen, an old, retired, bitter man who lives alone in his home. Carl has always dreamed of adventure and going to Paradise Falls, Venezuela. One day when life becomes too much to handle, Carl decides to up and go fulfill his dream as well as fulfill a few promises he's made along the way in his life. I won't give away too much story, but of course his journey is set back by several unique antagonists.

Like most Pixar films, Up's primary strength is its very strong story. It's original, it's interesting and it's pretty moving. Be prepared for some very sad parts in Up. However, the humor is extremely well done as well, and the movie had me swinging back and forth from sadness to laughter on several occasions. It has a kind of weird bi-polar feel to it, but it's good. The characters are very unusual, but that works brilliantly as well. From the obese "Wilderness Explorer" kid to talking dogs to gerriatric sword fights, nothing is routine in this movie.

The animation in Up is top-notch, as we've come to expect from Pixar. Up is very colorful and looks good. I was concerned since I saw it in 3D, and I didn't know what to expect since I hadn't seen a 3D movie since Nightmare On Elm Street 2. Let's just say they've mastered the technology since then. I don't think it's necesarry to see Up in 3D to fully enjoy it, but it can't hurt. The 3D worked very well and complimented the film nicely. I would expect to see a lot more 3D in the near future.

Go see Up. Twice. It's got something for everyone and you will not leave disappointed.

SCORING: I give Up 5 Agent Smiths out of a possible 5.

Movie Review: Terminator Salvation

I really like the Terminator franchise. It's full of cool looking evil robots, time travel, car chases, gun play, and sweet, sweet action. That's why it pains me so much to give Terminator Salvation a poor review.

The fourth installment of the Terminator franchise takes a new approach to the classic Terminator storyline, this time taking us into the future to battle the machines post-judgment day. There is a lot of possibility to this approach, and indeed we do get to see all sorts of new cool types of terminators, from killer motorcycles to really pissed-off fish robots. Unfortunately, that and some cool explosions are about all we get from this movie. The plot was really jumbled, pointless and just... well.. bad. Even by the standards of terminator movies, which don't exactly pride themselves on epic plot structure.

There are all sorts of plot devices and mysteries thrown in throughout the movie, from John Connor noticing things are occurring differently from how his mother told him they would, to the romantic relationship between Marcus and Blair, to even the title of the movie itself. What do they all mean? Well, not much really. The movie plays out randomly, and culminates with an ending that really builds on little of what was presented in the two preceding hours. It really feels like one well scripted action scene after another, stitched together by meaningless, drawn-out hokey dialogue.

I was really left scratching my head about this one until I read THIS story about how the original script was very, VERY different. Apparently John Connor is barely seen at all in the original story, remaining a mystery voice of rebellion and support on the radio. The story was really focused on the Marcus character, who only plays a secondary role in the screen version. Unfortunatly, Christian Bale wanted to play John Connor, and they pretty much rewrote the entire film during the filming process to find reasons to have John Connor, a character who wasn't really even supposed to be in the movie, regularly appear and do things throughout the movie. This explains why many of the scenes in the final movie really have no purpose.

The original script also led up to a huge, crazy twist ending. I'm not sure if it would have worked brilliantly, or would have left fans fuming, but it certainly would have made for a more interesting movie, and it would have explained a lot of the useless elements that still remain in the current version.

Terminator Salvation had some good action scenes and cool killer robots. Unfortunately, that was about it. I would rate it as an "okay" movie, but nothing really more.

SCORING: I give Terminator Salvation 2.5 Agent Smiths out of a possible 5.

Movie Review: Star Trek

Action! Action! Action! If you love action, you will loooove the new Star Trek! Lucky for me, I love action! And I loved the new Star Trek movie as well.

The new J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie is a prequel to all the existing movies, showing the development of several old Trek characters. You get to see where they came from, how they ended up in Starfleet; all that kind of stuff. The characters we're all used to are played very well, and despite having a completely new cast, you can actually see the old characters' personalities in the way the new actors portray them. It really sells the "this is how that character developed" story and keeps it feeling old school.

Getting back to my review of the story, it really holds the viewer's attention. This movie hits you with nonstop exciting action without feeling all jumbled and confused like Quantum of Solace did. There is also a lot of good comedy and humor in the movie, and references to the old campy style of Star Trek, somehow without being cheesy. (Yes, the red-shirts die and Kirk sleeps with green women.) The special effects are awesome, and I believe have vastly improved on how they have been handled in every Star Trek movie and series to date. When ships jump to warp, it's violent and loud, like a lightning strike. Tearing through the fabric of space should feel like that rather than the slow bendy-stretching we've seen in the past. Phasers have a loud, tactile smack and seem to cause real damage when they strike an object, as opposed to the damage-free heating effect we've previously seen. They finally seem like real weapons now, which is good.

I liked this movie from beginning to end. I can only come up with two gripes. First is that product placement sucks no matter what movie it's in. Apparently people in the twenty-third century still use Nokia cell phones, listen to the Beastie Boys and drink Budweiser. Second is that the story suffers from a little too much deus ex machina, but I suppose that is common to all Star Trek movies and shows.

I think this is the best Star Trek movie to date. Yes, even better than the Wrath of Khan. Go see it. You won't be disappointed.

SCORING: I give Star Trek 4 Agent Smiths out of a possible 5.