Eye in the Sky -movie

Eye in the Sky not review This is a very intense film which looks at how the industrial world conducts war with drones. In this particular examination the war is against terror, but could easily be substituted with any group and the questions posed would still be relevant. The important thing to keep in mind when watching this film is to listen to the arguments as they are proposed. I don’t know that this film is likely to change the mind of anyone and where they stand on the use of drones. I do think that it does at least start the mental dialogue and perhaps actual discussion of now that these weapons exist how, when, and where, do we use them. They are not going away, they are too valuable and provide real time information so that missions can be adjusted to meet the ever changing circumstances of operations in the field. Yet while the create options there are limitations and with those limitations come dilemmas. With increasing and up to the minute intelligence many questions are answered which allow for better decisions and also ethical and moral dilemmas. There are many questions posed and many dilemmas brought to the scenario without making it seem like a quagmire of what ifs being posed just of the sake of making the arguments. The questions and problems fit to the story and feel like they are realistic for our world today. This film does not pull punches while it is not gory, it is a realistic look at what happens in war. As we become much smaller as a world and allied nations will have common opponents on the world stage and military operations will become and have become combined and with that come other questions of different political and other ideological concerns when it comes to war and warfare. The film explores the combatants in this film who are in very different environments some are in harm’s way in the operational zone and others are not and the face of warfare can be conducted without even being in the same time zone. I do not think the purpose of this film is to direct anyone to a specific point of view but rather to get the people thinking and talking about the modern face of war and peace. Peace is always the better option, no matter what, it is always better to live and let live but we are not always given an option for Peace in the world. All in all, this is a great film, well worth the hour and forty-five minutes. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Batman v. Superman

Batman v. Superman not review. Some spoilers, I will try to keep them to a minimum. This movie is good, however if your expectation is that this will be like the Marvel Universe superhero movies or the Christian Bale Batman Trilogy you will be disappointed. With that out of way, Ben Affleck, as Bruce Wayne / Batman is very respectable, as good as Christian Bale. Ben holds his own as the Dark Knight. Batman and Superman are both very tragic characters in this imagination of the DC universe. Batman orphaned when his parents are killed, Superman orphaned when his planet dies and he hurled through space to earth. There are more similarities to the heroes besides both being orphans, but I’m not giving them away. The tragic nature of superman, credit to Kevin Smith, is Superman has the power to save people but he can’t save everyone and knows that he cannot. The struggle of superman is he wants to be a normal guy but cannot ignore the world around him and let people suffer. Which builds the bigger conflict of Superman because of his power some see him as a god and others as a possible threat. For Superman that struggle is walking the line between and not letting those in the world who worship you as a god go to your head and also resist the temptation to bring the world under your heel. Superman also battles with making selfish choices to save Lois over someone else. Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman bring that sense of realness to Superman that hasn’t been done before. Batman is no stranger to tragic story lines and this version of the Dark Knight is an interesting twist to the struggle of the crime fighter. Batman faces a similar good vs. evil superman in that how far can you go and still be on the right side of justice. When do you cross the line from good guy to bad guy. How far is too far? What is the greater good? Wonder Woman played by Gal Gadot, is a secondary character and has very minor character development in this movie but certainly kicks ass as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman. It is hinted that her story is also dark, and her values and faith in man has been tested but, like Superman, cannot stand idle while others suffer. Lex Luthor, I like Jesse Eisenburg as Lex but this is probably the weakest imagination of Lex ever. I’m not sure whose choice it was to portray Lex Luthor as an unhinged mental case, but it was a bad choice. Moving away from archetypes is not a bad thing but in this case it was not the best choice. The critical thing about Lex being the weakest character of the film is that his character moves the movie plot he builds the tension between Batman and Superman, which is why I think a lot of critics find fault in this movie and justifiably. The weakly portrayed villain against two tragic heroes fails to build what could have been a much more emotionally epic showdown when the titans clashed. Overall I like this film, blending the Man of Steel plot and story line into Batman v. Superman sets this movie up and shows exactly why Batman does not like Superman. The pace is slow at times but never boring but sometimes when the Lex story is up it breaks the mood from dark to WTF is happening. One thing I think critics are missing is this is a Batman movie and not a Batman and Superman movie. The main story is the POV of Batman, so while the other characters are in the movie including Superman, it is the Batman story arc that moves this film. DC is moving to build a linked series of films, like Marvel has done, to bring their catalogue of characters to the big screen and not just do the stand alone movies they have done in the past. This movie does quickly introduce other characters in the DC universe and while it may technically be a lazy way to introduce characters, I think it was better than trying to force more characters into a movie that already has two big characters, Batman and Superman and big supporting roles in Lois Lane, Lex Luthor and Diana Prince / Wonder Woman and a super bad guy. While it may be lazy creatively, it sets up a nice teaser within the film that there is a larger world out there and we are just discovering without making their characters seem shallow with a forced inclusion in an already very full film. Overall, I think this is a good film and worth seeing on the big screen. The action scenes are top notch and some of the best Batman fights on film to date. The film is 2 hours and 30 minutes. There is no extra scene at the end of the credits so bail if you want when the credits start. Don’t expect what you’ve seen in other superhero movies and you won’t be disappointed. Ben Affleck is a damn good Batman Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

We, who are about to die...

We, who are about to die salute you… The idea that sport for the sake of sportsmanship and fair play seems fairly straight forward but there are gray areas in the statement. People can be a good sport and take performance enhancing products. I would say drugs but not all of the performance enhancing things are drugs or are illegal if you are not a competing amateur or professional athlete. Hell the same people can follow every rule of the game and even call themselves for rule infractions of the game and still seek some form of enhancement. The thing is everyone tries to find a way to win, or gain some advantage. How much money did the NFL spend trying to figure out if there was the right amount of air in the footballs used in a single game; which in the overall importance in the grand scheme of things is nothing. Because it simply does not matter at all, not even a little bit, ever. These are games, games which we have perverted into a money making quasi religion. I don’t even know how many TV networks are devoted to coverage of just sport and nothing else. They don’t even stop for real news like natural disasters. Right now people are in a fervor because 15 kids playing for Michigan screwed the pouch, but 15 kids playing for Middle Tennessee and their disciples are living the dream. I use this not so say anyone is doing anything illegal in Tennessee but as an example that we tend to not to focus on what is really important. You know that people are dying of something somewhere, whist we bounce a rubber ball and toss it into a hoop suspended off the ground. Most of those people are likely to die, even if you do try to help, so why not bounce a ball and toss it into a hoop. But if we are going to mega size sport and turn on the profit machine and treat college students like professional sport figures and amateur athletics as a proving ground for many of the professional sport arenas, why bother calling any of them amateurs at all. Even if it isn’t using performance enhancers, or finding the right air pressure, or sticky tar, or cork in a bat or whatever, teams will still try to jockey wins and losses to play the right sequence of teams in a tournament to have a match against a team they think they can beat. Scheduling meetings and bargaining to play this team or that team or not play this team or that team and when. It is madness that so many people care, and not just care, they are fervently passionate about something which is so trivial. More people care more deeply about who is playing some sport than who is possibly going to run the US government or what those fucktards in the US Congress and Senate are doing, all of them not just one side, they all suck. But so few people say a damn thing. But by golly, we sure do give one hundred fucks about, our team and that sport. Let me recite all I know about the players and the strategy and that coach of ours is, a saint or a goat, depending on how the season is going. What are we afraid is going to happen, if we lift guidelines from sport and let players use performance enhancers or get crafty with the equipment. Do we think the will become Gladiatorial games? They already are, why do people watch racing, it isn’t because they like left turns, we secretly want to see a crash, we hope no one dies but we really don’t care one way or the other either. I mean seriously if we care, did we would stop it because you might die. But we don’t care, we even euphemize it and make ourselves feel better by saying things like; “they knew the risks” or “he/she died doing what they loved." Welcome to Rome, enjoy the Games… looks like Nero might become the next leader of the Republic too, so they should be even better soon, wonder what he’ll do this time, when the cities start to burn. SPQR… oops …I mean ESPN Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Good deed for the day

On my drive home from work today it was windy and raining and traffic is all messed up because no one here seems to understand water on the road ways and they forget how to drive. There is a car following too closely behind me and car in front of me speeds up and slows down randomly. So I’ve given him a lead to avoid the whole hit the brakes suddenly because car in front decides he should be traveling 15mph slower about now... then speed up again four seconds later. I’m nearly home and crossing a bridge which is on my way and I see something blowing in the street. The car in front hits it, and it takes me a few seconds to identify the object because it’s wet and twisting and blowing around. As I pass the object it becomes clear to me what it is. However, because the car behind me is right on my bumper I have to drive past and go up to the next right and pull around the block and park. It took me maybe a minute to pull back around, by this time I don’t see the object where it was in the road. It’s dark so I think well maybe I just can’t see it, but I can’t leave this lying in the street. So I walk and walk still I don’t see the object in the road. Traffic keeps coming and I try to use the head lights of the cars to see where the object has gone. Then I see it, blown nearly the full length of the bridge away lying in a puddle, whipping around in the wind and the draft of every car which passed it. Finally, I reach it and I step into the bike lane and retrieve the object from the puddle. I give it a quick look and it seems to be okay but it’s dark. I can see it has grime and grit on it from the passing cars and can feel the grit on my hands. I quickly gather it up the best I can in the wind and light rain and return to my car at the other end of the bridge. When I get home I am able to give it a good inspection and see that there isn’t any damage and it is only dirty and just needs to be washed. So I checked the US Code to verify what I think is the proper procedure. My thoughts were correct in that it can be hand washed with a light detergent and then should be hung to dry and not put in a drier. Now I just have to figure out who to return Old Glory to in our City government. I’m pretty sure it’s the maintenance department. I sent them a message but haven’t heard back yet, but it is past normal business hours. I don’t know how long the flag had been blowing in the street or how many cars drove by it without stopping. But to be fair it was dark and wet and I only recognized it as the US flag as I passed it. Good deed for the day is done, now I can go back to being the horrible person you all know and love(or love to hate). Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Cop a Squat

A friend posted that she is having some issues teaching her son to pee standing up. Which got me to thinking about the topic of standing and peeing again: Why the heck do we men pee standing up anyway? There is no medical reason that we should stand up to void our bladders of fluid waste. In fact, some studies suggest that sitting to urinate may actually be better for the long term health of the prostrate. Why the heck, stand up to pee. The most likely answer, and I did a tiny bit of research on this and there isn’t really a great source to direct you to, it’s just easier. Even back in the loin cloth days just lift the flap out of the way and let go with the golden flow. This doesn’t necessarily mean our primitive ancestors stood up to pee. In all likelihood they probably would crouch to pee, to avoid being visible, standing tall and still where ever, making the person peeing an easy target for an enemy or other predator. While crouching would have possibly provided some concealment from view. If that is the case when did peeing standing up become a thing for men. Certainly we all pee sitting down when we drop a deuce and that is okay, so why not when it is only a number one. Sure sinking wax paper targets or Cheerio’s is lots of fun but this really promotes waving the stream around and causing some spillage which leads to messes and odor. That foul smelling stench coming from public toilets is stale and dried up urine. My guess is the rain has something to do with it. Once we stated living under roof, getting wet in the rain has become less and less fun, and it may not have ever been truly a thing of joy but it may have been. Rain gets a lot of bad press with floods, erosion, and what not. One day back whenever it’s raining a guy has to make with the pee, and the peeing place is all the way over there in the rain. He thinks I can stay warm and dry just by leaning out the door a bit and letting go with the flow. Ta dah, the rain washes away the foul liquid and He didn’t have to slosh off in the cold and wet to the peeing / shitting rock. Which led the women folk to complain they could not just lean out the doors and pee so we have the piss pot or bucket or shit bucket, which then led to streets filled with the contents of piss pots and shit buckets, which led to the plagues or at least contributed to ill health. So then the Romans, perhaps others like the Aztecs, the Persians, and the Chinese, invent indoor plumbing and sewers and the waste goes away unseen and better still un-smelled. Then we forgot about indoor plumbing for a really long time and were back to buckets and pots. Then plumbing again, glorious plumbing. Standing up to pee still doesn’t seem like a natural way to go about it. Socially somehow it has become fixed that men and women are different so we must act as different as possible and in all things so that if you are a man, no one will confuse you with being a woman ever for any reason, ever, never,ever. (you should pronounce that last period, but don’t confuse it with periods because that is not masculine). Same there Then Why not sit to pee. It’s cleaner and if you think you don’t miss the toilet when you pee take a nice white cloth and wipe the outside of your toilet on the sides and on the floor around the toilet and then take a long look, and if you are really brave a deep smell of your perfect aim. Did you vomit? Because just like Sea World the front rows are in the splash zone. That splashing will discolor paint, wall paper, tile, grout and even corrode metal. You know the two bolts that hold the toilet to the floor, yeah those are weaker because you stand and pee. Again it may promote better prostrate health, studies are not conclusive yet though so it’s a maybe there. Doctors, however, do know if you have a healthy prostrate you less likely to have erectile dysfunction and have a better and healthier sex life if you have a sex life that is, because if you don’t have a sex life and it’s just you, well doctors say that is good for the prostrate too, So it’s a win win. Sitting to pee means never having to hear, “who left the seat up” and you can yell back, “it Must have been you honey when you were cleaning. “ You never have to lift the seat ring if you sit to pee. Not that it’s heavy or anything but you won’t have to lift it and if you never have to lift it you won’t ever forget to put it back down. You will never again be blamed for the “water” on the seat again. Did you pee on the seat? Nope wasn’t me must have been the cat. You don’t need the light on if you sit to pee in the middle of the night, which is why leaving the seat down is important and why those who sit to pee will occasionally take a butt dunk when the seat is up. The butt dunk wakes you up all the way up and you turn on the light and then it’s hell. Sit to pee and you’ve avoided this whole mess and fight. It’s more restful and in the rat race world we live in don’t we all just need a place to sit and rest. So sitting to pee means, better health, better sex maybe, less work, more rest, it’s cleaner and it saves electricity and money and promotes healthier interpersonal relationships. (you know less fighting) Sure the Germans may call you a Sitzpinkler, which may or may not be a word in German that means sissy or wimp, but hey haters gonna hate, you be you. Fear of being seen as less manly is really the thing about standing v. sitting, so socially we have decided to act the opposite of women in every way possible to exert our masculinity. So what happens when the business world perfects the stand to pee devices such as “you go girl” and “the P EZ” (pee easy) for women to stand and urinate and the ladies are standing next to you are the urinal in the club. Ladies when this day does come know that there are rules about the restroom. You must leave an empty urinal between each person. Yes, that is correct we only use half of the urinals in the rest room unless it is really busy. You DO NOT speak in the restroom I know it’s a very hard concept to grasp but we don’t talk to each other in the restroom, it isn’t that our mouths won’t work when we hold ourselves there, we just don’t speak to each other with one in our hand…anyway no talking… it speeds things up considerably. Finally, if you have to take the urinal next to someone look forward, straight up or straight down. Never to the side or over the divider wall to check out your neighbor. That is bad. Seriously bad, you may talk when washing your hands, but only at the sinks. I’m sure there is a brochure that will come with the device when they are available that explains the rules. Stand or sit, if you have to go you have to go, we are so bathroom phobic as men we don’t discuss this with anyone and if your significate other catches you sitting and peeing, say you are pooping they will leave the room or if they don’t you can always say, it felt like I had to poop, because we all know the best relationships are built on little lies that protect us as much as the ones we love from who we really are as people. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Presidents Day Trivia

Presidents Day Trivia: Here are some useless facts about facial hair and our national leaders on this day of remembering our US Presidents. Abraham Lincoln the 16th President, 1861 -1865 was the First President to wear a beard while in office. Prior to Lincoln, three Presidents wore sideburns; John Q. Adams, Martin Van Buren, and Zachary Taylor, the 6th, 8th and 12th Presidents respectively. Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President, 1889-1893, was the last US President to wear a beard while in office. William H. Taft, the 27th President,1909-1913, was the last to have a mustache / any facial hair. In all only 5 Presidents have worn beards while in office and with the exception of Benjamin Harrison, the elected bread wearing Presidents Lincoln, Grant, Hayes and Garfield served in succession of each other. Of course Andrew Johnson finished Lincoln's term, as a beardless president but he was never actually elected to office. Had he had a beard, things may have played out differently for him. The mustache wearing Presidents include four of the five bearded Presidents, Lincoln never wore a mustache. Making U.S. Grant the first president to wear a mustache. The others are Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Teddy Roosevelt and William H. Taft. As to why Lincoln never wore a mustache, I don’t know, maybe Mary Todd didn’t like a mustache or it was patchy and didn’t grow in full. I cannot find a suitable answer. Technically we could count Grover Cleveland twice as he was 22nd President and the 24th President, but we won’t because he is only one person. From U.S. Grant to B. Harrison 1869 to 1893 The Presidents of the United States wore facial hair. We could start in 1861 if you don’t count Andrew Johnson, but he served from 1865 to 1869, that’s a lot not to count. Excluding the side burns all the facial hair of the US Presidents occurred from 1861 to 1913 In all only 12 of the 44, technically 43, again because of Grover Cleveland, have worn facial hair We have been without a beard or mustache in the White House for over 100 years. The last candidate with facial hair, a mustache, to run for the Presidency with a party nomination was Thomas E. Dewey, who lost to FDR, twice, 1944 and 1948. We may not see another mustache and or beard in the White House again. Unless Jon Stewart decides to keep his beard and runs for President. https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/jon-stewart-emmy.jpg?quality=75&strip=color The Glory of the Beard could return to the Oval office Stewart 2016 Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Has Deadpool take the superhero film into the R rated arena for good or are we just visiting

With the success of Deadpool this weekend as an R rated film, will Marvel /Disney, Fox and DC comics along with others begin to make more of their films with an R rating. Films coming up like Xmen Apocalypse (May 2016), Captain America: Civil War (May 2016) or Batman v. Superman (March 2016) are unlikely to be recut to take on an R rating, but Suicide Squad which isn’t due out until August 2016 and is not currently rated could potentially include scenes, which were not slated to be in the film, to move from what has traditionally been the PG 13 rating to bring in teens to see these movies, to a harder R rating. Teens, young adults, and even some older adults have been growing up on superhero movies. Certainly the first installment of the superhero genres with Superman (Christopher Reeve), Batman (Michael Keaton) and Spiderman (Toby McGuire) showed the film industry superhero movies could make money, however the lessons learned were to grow the franchise you have to look at superhero movies as real films and stories and not as simply as comic book movies. The early superhero movies franchises all did well in their first efforts Reeve’s Superman was good in number one and then not in the following movies, the same with Keaton’s Batman and McGuire’s Spiderman. These films paved the way for other superheroes to come to film and to the small screen as well. DC, Fox, and Marvel have all been unbelievable with their efforts to try to tell good stories in a way that is true to the roots in comic but to have wider appeal. However most comic book films have stayed in the arena of PG 13 with the exception of a few which would not have widespread appeal with a lower PG or PG13 rating, and would only hurt what was expected to be smaller box office returns with such films like Constantine, 300, and Sin City. Marvels; Iron Man, Captain America, the Avengers and the Spider Man reboot, with DC’s reboots of Superman and Batman, and Fox with its reboot/ retooling of the Xmen have all, for the most part, decided to address the superhero movies as actual drama and action films. Bale’s Batman certainly elevated the story telling in the superhero movies to a darker and grittier level as much as Marvel has done with its cast of characters. Certainly there have been misses with some stories, but largely these films are good stories and successful in the box office. All the while spinning into some small screen productions starting with some cartoons of Spiderman and the X men to live action stories like Smallville, to now with shows like Arrow, the Flash, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter. The comic book characters are firmly implanted in our entertainment. Superhero movies have been gaining in popularity every decade since the 80s. The teens who saw these movies then are now moms and dads and some grandparents too. Deadpool is a different type of character but a superhero comic book character is where he lives. This weekend has shown that an R rating isn’t going to be the kiss of death for a film of this genre. Who really is the audience for the superhero movie, I discuss these films with people I know and look forward to them. There is an interest for me because I was a comic book reader these are characters which have been part of my reading since I was a teen are, for me and many others, a part of the literary landscape of the world. Superhero / Comic book characters are beloved figures and their fans are going to see them as long as the stories and the films are good. James Bond, while not a superhero character, he is a several decades long and retooled multi film franchise which has maintained success and stayed out of the R rating arena, because the stories and the films are good. Perhaps Deadpool is one of the characters who needs to be at the R rating level to properly present his stories while the others would not necessarily need to do, to successfully present a good and compelling story. Would the Dark Knight, Bale’s Batman vs. Ledger’s Joker, have been better and darker with an R rating? So what do you think, should more superhero / comic book films move up into the R rated film or stay where they are in the PG 13 level. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards