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Is it Wrong to Use a Coupon at Goodwill?

The other day I had twenty dollars in my pocket. What is a man to do? Of course, I went to the Goodwill because I could really use some gator shoes that were green and a velour jumpsuit. Upon entering there was a lady at the table, and she offered me a coupon. I thought to myself, “Self, it’s a coupon! Sweet!”, but then I thought, “Self, it’s a coupon for Goodwill. Weird.”

Now, I know some of bad stories about Goodwill, about the executives supposedly making money while the workers get paid squat, and even I wonder how they are able to expand so quickly where it almost seems there is a Goodwill on every corner lately, but for Goodwill to issue a coupon seems a bit bizarre, even if it is probably meant for someone who needs it a little bit more than I do. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good bargain, but is Goodwill hurting to the point now that they have to issue coupons?

Sadly, my Goodwill was out of the green, gator shoes, and the velour jumpsuit looked a bit, well, too velour, so I ended up leaving the store empty handed, and I didn’t even keep the coupon even though I probably should have taken it for another trip down the road, or maybe to pass along to some people who might be able to use it more, but all I could kept thinking, and so I have to plight: Is it wrong to use a coupon at Goodwill?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Are You Ready for Autumn?

Sure, this is mostly a northern hemisphere question for all of my worldly readers, but as the weather is starting to shift here in Chicago, and we always seem to say that it’s been a weird this season or that season, as the sunny hours are getting shorter, the skies are getting grayer, and the weather goes from oodles of boob sweat or sweating your balls off, to “Where did I put my jacket?”, it’s the time of year when the summer folks are sad to see the warmth go, and the winter folks are happy because snow is right around the corner. Me, I enjoy the change of seasons, sometimes like a decent snow, and love the change of colors in the fall, so I guess it’s not too much of a stretch to say I’m looking forward to fall. I guess my only complaint is that the perfect time of year, you know, when he colors are at their peak, always seems to be too short. It’s kind of like winter when there is that one week that is perfect, or the summer when you get a decent stretch of not too hot, not too cold weather, or even the spring, when the flowers just start to bloom and it feels like, well spring in the air.

I guess what I’m really saying is that it’s almost too bad the year wasn’t four months long, with one perfect month for each season because, generally, it seems after about one month we would be ready for the next one. Instead we always get those in-between months, where it’s not quite in season, it’s not quite out of the season, and we are either in “I wish it were…” or “What happened to…?” mode.

In any case, before you know it the leaves will be off of the trees, people will complain about it being too cold, and I’ll be having a plight about if you are ready for spring. For now, though, I plight: Are you ready for Autumn?

That’s it for this plight!I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Frankenstein’s Army

MPAA Rated – R
It’s 1:24 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Frankenstein’s Army
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Karel Roden, Joshua Sasse, Robert Gwilym, Alexander Mercury
MPAA Rated: R
Released By: Dark Sky Films / MPI Media Group
Blu-ray Release Date: September 10, 2013
Kiddie Movie: It’s got a lot of gore. Best send them to bed without the pending nightmares.
Date Movie: Only if she is a fan of campy horror films.
Gratuitous Sex: Nah.
Gratuitous Violence: Lots of blood and cutting of human skulls.
Action: The zombots are pretty slow. Nah.
Laughs: It’s got some “over-the-top” chuckles in the horror kind of way.
Memorable Scene: I loved Propellerhead.
Memorable Quote: Nothing stood out.
Directed By: Richard Raaphorst
On the Blu-ray: It’s got a “Making of…” featurette, and quick clips of the zombots so you don’t have to re-find them on the Blu-ray.

Remember the movie “Edward Scissorhands?” You know the movie, with Johnny Depp playing Edward, and he has scissors for hands. Remember how Edward was nice, tried to be good, and all-around tried to help people? Remember how you secretly thought, “I wish Edward was a bad-ass, and would go around killing people with those hands!” Okay, maybe you didn’t wish that, but all I could think about during “Frankenstein’s Army” was that this movie has taken the concept of “scissors as hands” to an entirely new level.

It’s the end of World War II and a group of Russian solders are making their way through Germany when they stumble upon a decimated village. In their investigating further they begin to come across monsters, “zombots” as it would be, looking part human with industrial objects for body parts, i.e. drills, machetes, propellers, and just, well, the most bizarre killing machines one can imagine.

Further stumbling by our “documentarian” (the movie is shot as a “found footage” film) leads us to the lab of Viktor, who, it seems, has come across Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s journals, has found out how to meld soldiers with machines, and has been ordered by Hitler to make an army of killing zombots. We learn how Viktor does it (turns out you don’t really need to be delicate for brain surgery after all), and all along the way gruesomeness is encountered as the zombots are made for one thing, and one thing only, and that’s for killing, well, all except the cute, little one with a teddy bear attached to a woman’s head, a.k.a., Teddy Bear Woman.

Here’s the thing. I loved the concept of the movie, the campiness of the idea, and the potential for gruesome fighting scenes, but somewhere things seemed to get sidetracked. First there is the fact that the setup in getting to the actual zombots seems to take forever, which isn’t good for a movie that’s only 84 minutes long. There’s a lot of the soldiers trudging through the countryside, finding the village, and finally getting to the decimation of the soldiers. Also, and maybe it’s because I’m not a fan of “found footage” kinds of films, you know, those movies like “The Blair Witch Project” where someone finds a movie camera with footage of something bad that happens, but the jittery nature of the movie really annoyed me, and I also felt the movie could have benefitted so much more from a real camera shoot, allowing us to get a true “picture” of the twisted nature of the army of killing zombots. Lastly, and I know this is just a weird technicality on my part, but it seemed like the soldiers sure seemed to have an endless supply of bullets as they were trying to kill the zombots, especially with this being World War II weaponry.

The thing that saved the movie, though, is the utter campiness of the film, with the zombots being awesome, and me just wishing there were more of them, or maybe a scene out in the open with a squadron of these killing “machines” wiping out a squadron of lowly troops, but alas, most of the fun of the movie takes place in the dungeons and labs of Viktor.

For me if they lost the “found footage” concept, and had a full-on battle, this could have been an easy 5 star movie, but in the end I was nearly bored for the first third, and wishing for more for the rest of the film. I would leave the movie at around 2 stars, but the zombots are worth about a star and a half so I’ll end up at 3 ½ stars. I guess I just finished the movie wanting more.

The Blu-ray has a “Making of…” feature, which is nice and all but would mostly be for the uber-fan, and I was disappointed in the “Creature Spots” feature which was just short clips from the actual film of some of the creatures, i.e., Propellerhead and Teddy Bear Woman, and no real insight into the creatures or design of them. I’m sure there were some budgetary constraints, but maybe a little more than just a quick film clip of the zombot would have been nice.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Have you Considered “Cutting the Cord”?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about “cutting the cord.” I’m not talking about an umbilical cord, but about the Cable TV cord. Here’s the thing, in Chicago there is a new service called Aereo coming, and basically what they do is set you up with some hard drive space in the cloud, poach the HD TV signal in your area, and as long as you are in the area you can watch broadcast TV on your handheld devices or port the signal to your big TV. You kind of get a DVR and HD antenna all in one. Sure, the drawback is you are stuck with your normal, everyday broadcast TV, and sure, it’s kind of not really cutting the cable because you are still paying for the service and need your internet connection at home if you want, but if you are trying to get rid of your actual cable TV folks, it might be an option if it becomes available in your area.

I’ve been doing some financial analysis, and if you think about the cost of your monthly cable bill you can probably ditch the cable, subscribe to Aereo and fill things in with a Netflix, Hulu Plus, or even Amazon or iTunes subscriptions and “cutting the cord” would still be cheaper, at least so my preliminary numbers seem to show. More analysis is in order, especially calculating how many versions of the Real Housewives I’ll be subscribing to, but I think I might still save a few bucks by finally telling my cable TV people to kiss my ass, or at least the TV portion of my bill.

With Aereo coming to Chicago in about a week or so, it’s got me thinking, and so I plight: Have you considered “Cutting the Cord”?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

What’s the bigger story: Microsoft buys a phone, Android likes candy, or Apple is having a meeting?

Yesterday there seemed to be technology news all around, with each company hoping to trump the other it seems. In the morning we woke up to find that Microsoft is finally doing something many folks say should have been done long ago, or at least now they are copying Google instead of Apple, by purchasing a phone company. Much like Google bought Motorola, or technically Motorola Mobility I guess, Microsoft has decided to buy Nokia. Not a huge surprise to many, but maybe a little too late to the smartphone playground to matter is what others think.

In other news, Google has decided it doesn’t like pie, but instead prefers candy, saying that their next operating system that will probably take years to be implemented across devices (Yes, that is a dig at the Android system taking too long to be implemented across carriers) will not be called Key Lime Pie as was widely rumored, but somehow Google Android is teaming with Nestle and calling the next version of the Android OS, well, KitKat.

Then, of course, trumping them all, and on the news this morning with nary a story about Microsoft nor Android, is the final tech story from yesterday, that being Apple announcing their “Media Event,” under the tag-line “This should brighten everyone’s day.” Yup, in one of the worst kept secrets Apple officially announced their event for September 10th where they will undoubtedly announce their new line-up of iPhones, including the iPhone 5s which may or may not have a fingerprint sensor, and the iPhone 5c which may or may not be cheaper and in many colors.

Poor Microsoft, a victim of Apple ruining their headline. Google throwing out a story that seems like “We just need something out there.”, and Apple trumping them all with a story everyone knew was coming. The next question is will Samsung’s announcement of a watch trump them all if they announce it today?

I guess this answer probably centers around your OS loyalty, but in the end I plight: What’s the bigger story: Microsoft buys a phone, Android likes candy, or Apple is having a meeting? I leave the watch for later.

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Did you eat something off of a barbecue grill on Labor Day?

It was almost a weird Labor Day for me as the unthinkable almost happened. Sure, it was the “official” end of summer with the Labor Day Weekend coming and going, and although there might be another chance or two for another summer-time corn dog (best chance right now is something called Sandwich Fair here in Illinois, also known as the Dekalb County Fair, but we’ll see), this year’s final corn dog came about thanks to Naperville’s Last Fling, where they actually had hand-dipped corn dogs, though still not as good as the Channahon Three Rivers Festival.

As things are wont to do, though, my wife and I started to have our discussion about dinner, and at first things centered around things not barbecue. There was some talk about chicken parmesan, I thought a little bit about pizza in my head, but then, thankfully, things turned around and went to hamburgers and macaroni salad, the latter thanks to a sample at Trader Joe’s, and the former being a perfect combination for the latter. And, oh yea, our other local grocery story had sweet corn at 10 for $1.00, so corn also became an option.

And so, my summer finished off with hamburgers topped with cheddar cheese, bacon, onion, and tomato, with grilled corn and macaroni salad on the side, and all became well with the world, but I wondered, and so I plight: Did you eat something off of a barbecue grill on Labor Day?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Should “twerk” have been added to the Oxford Dictionary Online?

I have to admit that this is sort of a trick question. You see, there are two versions of the Oxford Dictionary. First there is the prestigious Oxford English Dictionary. This is the official dictionary where words are never removed, some words may be way out of date, and is sort of the “Official” dictionary. Then there is the Oxford Dictionary Online. From the Oxford University Press, the folks that put out both, “The dictionary content in ODO focuses on current English and includes modern meanings and uses of words,” which I take to mean as the “We can add things, and take them away, and it’s fun to get in the news when we add things like ‘twerk’ and ‘grats’ to it” version.

During the week there was much hubbub as The Oxford folks added “twerk” to the ODO version, much to the dismay of scholars, but probably much to the delight of Miley Cyrus who is now taking credit for a word being added to the dictionary even though it has supposedly been used since around the time she was born. It’s also a word that will probably, thanks to Miley, be shunned from this week forward as visions of people dancing as teddy bears and a Disney star going blue, sporting a foam finger, and wishing her tongue was as long as Gene Simmons’ will forever be associated with it thanks to her performance on the MTV Video Music Awards.

I suppose, maybe, this plight should have actually been something like “Did you know there are two versions of the Oxford dictionary?”, but what fun would that have been? Instead, now I’m wondering if you answered the question in your head thinking “twerk” was added to the “official” dictionary? In the end, though, I plight: Should “twerk” have been added to the Oxford Dictionary Online?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

What Would You Consider More Secure: A Fax, An Email, or the U.S. Mail?

The other day I needed to request some documentation. I was given two options: Via normal U.S. mail or via fax. This being 2013 I was a little perplexed, and the options seemed very much like the 1990’s. I inquired: “Can’t I get it sent to me by email?” The nice lady on the phone said, “No, we only consider the mail and faxes secure, so we don’t send anything by email.” As I sat there in almost utter amazement at the lack of an email option, my head started to try and process the securedness of all three options.

The mail – On average I probably get one piece of mail every couple of months that is meant for someone else, which always makes me wonder what of my mail never makes it to me, and are the people who receive my mail nice enough to either bring it over if it’s a neighbor, or throw it back in the mail? Also, who hasn’t seen the TV show where someone gets something by mail, only to have their wife “steam” the envelope open to see what it is, and then reseal it?

The fax – Having done like many folks, we’ve given up our land line months ago, and with that the multi-functioness of the multi-function printer diminished by one as faxing becomes moot. Sure, the fax sitting in the home is pretty secure if you are sitting right next to it, patiently waiting for the fax to arrive, but in an office setting, where you may have your faxes delivered to you by an underling, how is that very secure?

The email – Sure, we all know the government and your email provider is probably spying on you, but what else is new? And fine, maybe if you have an email sent to a work account your IT guy is seeing that you like jokes about dogs, but if I have something sent to a private email, and then can print it so that I can directly have the piece of paper in my hand, I’m thinking maybe a little more secure.

Looking for some expediency instead of security I opted for the fax, having it sent to someone I could sort of trust, and hoping they wouldn’t wonder “Why is The Dude getting jokes about dogs faxed to him?” My dog jokes fixation aside, I plight: What would you consider more secure: A fax, an email, or the U.S. Mail?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

 

Koch

MPAA Rated – Unrated
It’s 1:35 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Koch
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Ed Koch, and others.
MPAA Rated: Not Rated
Released By: Zeitgeist Films
Released On: August 27, 2013
Kiddie Movie: They’d be bored unless they want to be Mayor someday.
Date Movie: Only if she likes documentaries.
Gratuitous Sex: Nothing gratuitious, but there is discussion about the AIDS epidemic.
Gratuitous Violence: Nah.
Action: Nah.
Laughs: Some of the commentary.
Memorable Scene: For whaterver reason I like when Ed Koch is driving through Times Square and say…
Memorable Quote: “I’ve never been to a Red Lobster.”
Directed By: Neil Barsky

Released August 27th on iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Playstation, Xbox, YouTube, Google, Cable VOD, and DVD

Love him or hate him, Ed Koch left a legacy in New York that changed much of how some things were done in the city, and of course, left many questions as to just how much he played the corruption game to maintain power. The documentary “Koch” doesn’t give a ton of answers to questions about the man, but it does give a fairly balanced look at the good he accomplished, as well as not shy away from the scandal and seeming “old-school” attitude that plagued what could have been a man everyone could love.

The documentary begins showing Ed Koch in his early days, more liberal in his attitude, and we can begin to see the shift to more of a mix of business than liberalism, although it would seem if helping people could make a buck, and keep people loving him, he was all for it. There are a ton of clips of life back in New York City in the 70’s to the late 80’s, helping to show how he kept working the system, as he says “It’s theatrics. Everyone has a role.” And he seemed to know what his role was even to his death in February of 2013, throwing his support and endorsements to whomever he seemed to like, much to the dismay of some of them.

If there is anything about Ed Koch it is that the man didn’t hold back an opinion, even if it seemed to cross a line or two, and the documentary doesn’t sugarcoat his opinion. A great example of this is during a family gathering we hear him talking about the proposed mosque to be built near the site of the World Trade Center attacks. He’s got his opinion, and you’re not likely to change it, even with some seeming rational comparisons.

There are some nice moments in the film, showing a side where even setting up his gravesite we see a form a narcissism, but I suppose for the role that was needed in New York City when he took over, that narcissism was necessary to get things done. We see instances where he appears racist, sexist, and homophobic, but as one man explained in the movie, “He’s not a racist; He’s an opportunist, and that’s worse than being racist.” I don’t know about it being worse, but the documentary did show that he was able to shift a view on a dime if it seemed like it would keep him in power. And liked.

There are things I forgot about Ed Koch, and not being from New York City he’s not as an iconic figure in my life as a Mayor Daley in Chicago. They both have their faults, but if there is one thing true to both of them it is that they love their City with all of their soul.

You almost feel bad when, while watching the documentary, the corruption scandals hit, because you want to believe he had nothing to do with them, and those around him tarnished any good he accomplished. Such is politics, though, and I think Ed Koch knew this. What he did know, or at least wanted to make sure people knew, is that he loved New York City, loved its people (I’m guessing at least most of them), and loved the United States. How do I know this? Because he wrote it on his tombstone.

I balanced look at Ed Koch is how I would portray “Koch,” and I didn’t really fade as I was watching it, especially as it took me back to those late 70’s and 80’s, and vaguely remembering stories of a mayor that rode the subway. It’s 4 stars out of 5 for “Koch.” If you want a fair look at the man, it’s probably worth the hour and a half of your time.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Have you Tweeted a Correction to an Earlier Tweet?

I would like to think my answer to today’s plight would be in the affirmative, but I honestly can’t remember if I’ve ever tweeted out a correction. Thankfully, though, with yesterday’s plight about not being able to watch the MTV VMA’s I didn’t reference the Will Smith family reaction to Miley Cyrus, you know, the picture that went viral of a seemingly disgusted, lovely family moment, supposedly watching Miley Cyrus at the awards. The problem was, this tweet,originally attributed to @chi_chibaby in most stories, (I received a retweet in my Twitter feed to it) wasn’t actually the family reacting to Miley, it was their reaction to Lady Gaga. @chi_chibaby went on the defensive when word started spreading she was wrong instead of just saying something like “My bad,” MTV seemingly stated in a follow-up story it was a picture coinciding with Lady Gaga, I’m guessing Lady Gaga was upset because the viral picture that could have kept her at least a little relevant for the awards was mis-attributed, and then there is the part of me that wonders where the original picture came from because I’m thinking it was poached from another source and the original poster is like “Hey, what about my retweets and new followers?”

Oh well. As talk of Miley Cyrus’ performance will quickly go away especially as, I’m sure, we have our next Lohan/Kardashian/Bynes story to take its place, at least until next year’s VMA when we will be reminded of all of the “outrageous” moments as some sort of publicity campaign for MTV, I’m glad I didn’t fall into the trap of misinformation. Many did, I’m guessing 99% of those didn’t tweet out any type of correction, and I’m plighting: Have you tweeted a correction to an earlier tweet?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!