Paranormal Activity Thoughts
Just some quick thoughts on Paranormal Activity... I am a fan of paranormal shows. Ghosthunters, Paranormal State, Ghost Adventures, Supernatural, etc. I watch them all. Paranormal Activity was good. It is certainly not as scary as the commercials make it out to be, but it is better than an episode of Ghosthunters. In fact, it is pretty much like Paranormal State. You may get a kick out of the couple's interactions, especially with the boyfriend's obsession with capturing everything on camera and playing it back on his PCs (he has a few). I won't spoil anything for you, but about midway through the movie, you get a bit tired of the bedroom scenes. The ending is eventful, much better than the letdown that you get with the Blair Witch Project. One more thing...it is somewhat annoying that the time is displayed in the lower-right corner of the screen and the activity happens in the upper-left. The clock often plays an integral role by showing you how time passes overnight, but you are forced to take your eyes off of either the activity or the clock at certain points. At times, you feel like you will miss something if you look down at the on-screen clock. It would have been nice if they were both located on the same side of the screen. Perhaps this is just an issue in the theaters and wouldn't be such a big deal at home?? Or perhaps this is a deliberate device used by the filmmakers to facilitate the shock factor when you are looking away at the on-screen clock and something occurs...
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GnR's Shackler's Revenge and Mudvayne's Dig
I think I stumbled across something you may find interesting...if you are a GnR or Mudvayne fan. It seems that the studio version of Mudvayne's "Dig" (iTunes link) was sampled by GNR for "Schacker's Revenge" (iTunes link). At a minimum, it seems to have served as inspiration. Check out the opening 10 seconds of the beginning of "Dig" and the first 4 seconds of "Shackler's Revenge." But then again, when you consider how long Axl and GNR have been working on "Chinese Democracy," you have to wonder which song really came first.
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Alternate Chinese Democracy Coverart
On 6/30/2008, Mack Arillo uploaded this image to Amazon.com. Did he inspire the actual coverart for Chinese Democracy or is there more to this story?  I actually prefer Mack's coverart above to the real coverart below. 
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Chinese Democracy - It Is Here!
iTunes Has Chinese Democracy!
Was Ghost Hunters Live Faked?
If you struggled to complete the seven hour marathon known as Ghost Hunters Live on Halloween, you are not alone. Seven straight hours of Sci Fi Channel advertisements and plugs coupled with WWE's "The MIZ" made for some miserable TV. Even worse was the terrible production quality. More on that later. To top it off, very little evidence was found. What makes matters worse is that the evidence found seems shady at best. "You are not supposed to be here!" echoed in the dungeon area of Fort Delaware as Jason and Grant walked its corridors. Unfortunately, it seemed as if it was a bad recording more than an actual voice in the dark. Could it have been planted by someone on a motion sensor? Perhaps more questionable than the voice were the tugs Grant experienced on the back of his hooded jacket. You may have noticed that his right hand was conveniently concealed in his jacket pocket each of the times he felt a tug. Could he have been pulling a piece of twine to make it look like his hood was being pulled? It is entirely possible, especially when you consider his over-the-top reaction and Jason's "intimate" (as he put it) inspection of Grant's collar. This interaction between the two Lead Investigators seemed bizarre. As for the production quality, I understand this was a massive undertaking. In fact, the first hour of the show documented this. Unfortunately, practically every segment was riddled with choppy video, the wrong audio feeds, lack of audio, and mistakes. The most egregious was during a return from a commercial break which showed Steve and two investigators walking down the dungeon corridor away from the camera, stopping, and resetting themselves before they thought they were on-air. They then proceeded to walk back toward the cameras (the direction from which they just came)! This looked bad, very bad. Overall, this was the worst episode this reviewer has even seen. The mistakes, poor production quality, and questionable evidence are ruining the credibility of the GhostHunters. I'll probably keep watching though...
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Can a Band Live on with Only the Lead Singer?
Its a question I am posing because Chinese Democracy is finally coming out. Guns N Roses today is really just Axl Rose with session band members. So the question is, can the name "Guns N Roses" live on with just the lead singer? This causes you to ponder the importance of each person in a band. Is the lead singer the most important and only member needed to ensure the survival of the entire band's image? Does it matter who plays the drums or the guitars? Before you answer, consider these questions... What would Guns N Roses be with only Axl Rose? Answer: What we have today. But is this Guns N Roses? What would the original/semi-original Guns N Roses band members be without Axl Rose? Answer: Velvet Revolver. But are they Guns N Roses? Most, I believe, would say no. This begs the question, what is Velvet Revolver without Scott Weiland? What if Metallica disbanded yet Hetfield kept playing under the name "Metallica" with new band members? Would his voice still be identified as Metallica? What if a Guitarist is replaced but the rest of the band remains intact? This already happend with Metallica very early on. Is this still the same band? Could they go by the same name? Metallica has. Obviously, a band is not the same when it loses all of the members of it original lineup. But when the lead singer carries on under the band's moniker, what do you have? Some would argue that the most identifiable characteristic of a band is its lead singer's vocals. So does this make the lead singer more valuable than the rest of the band? What then would you say about Van Halen? Let the comments begin!
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The Fountain of Accelerated Old Age?
Disclaimer: This opinion piece is merely conjecture and is not founded in any scientific research. I am part of the current generation of twenty-somethings. I see our elders who are more active and energetic than we are. Based on my observations of my friends and family, the current generation of twenty-somethings is aging quickly. How many of us have poor eyesight? How many of us have aching joints? How many of us have grey hair already? How many of us are lethargic all the time? Could it be our food and lifestyle? Consider the "advancements" made in the past fifty years. The current generation of twenty-somethings and early thirty-somethings are the first generation to have grown up with the following from birth:
- Non-stick cookware. First sold in France in the mid-1950s, non-stick cookware came to the U.S in the mid 1960s.
- Microwave ovens. When initial prices fell in the 1970s, microwaves started to become a common household appliance.
- Artificial sweeteners. The earliest artificial sweetener was developed in the mid-1960s.
- Ozone hole. Ozone depletion became an issue in the 1970s.
- Artificial food additives. Most artificial food additives came into prominence in the last half of the 20th century.
- Fast food. The first of the major fast food chains started in the 1940s.
- Processed foods.
- Cell phones. The first commercial cell phone service became available in 1978.
In addition, we have the intangibles of:
- Increased exposure to car exhaust.
- Sleep deprivation.
- Increased pace of life.
This list is not exhaustive and is, again, only conjecture based on observations. The list is unsubstantiated and is intended to spark discussion. Is it possible that the above-mentioned items and issues are causing us to age more quickly? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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"Shackler's Revenge," a song from the upcoming Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy, will appear on the video game Rock Band 2, coming to the Xbox 360 in September. This is exciting news! Maybe the August or Septemeber Chinese Democracy release dates are correct!
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Chinese Democracy Starts...August 25th 2008?
Amazon.co.uk is now listing the release date of Chinese Democracy as August 25, 2008. It is worth noting that they have previously listed its availability as September 2007, February 2008, and December 2008. Because of this, it is hard to put any faith in these dates. Amazon only knows what they are told by the record companies. Perhaps more promising though, is the fact that Amazon.com finally, for the first time ever, has a page for Chinese Democracy. Again, Amazon only knows what they are told by the record companies, but this one is worth putting stock in! Why? Never before has Amazon.com put up a Chinese Democracy page. In case you haven't heard, the world was buzzing on June 18th when nine tracks of Chinese Democracy were streamed by Antiquiet.com. For more, check out these links:
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Adobe Alters Photoshop Express Terms of Use
John Nack posts a note about the alarming Terms of Use for Photoshop Express, and the response from the Photoshop Express Team. Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However,... you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) ... The Photoshop Express Team quickly replied and is altering the Terms of Use. We've heard your concerns about the terms of service for Photoshop Express beta. We reviewed the terms in context of your comments - and we agree that it currently implies things we would never do with the content. Therefore, our legal team is making it a priority to post revised terms that are more appropriate for Photoshop Express users. We will alert you once we have posted new terms. Thank you for your feedback on Photoshop Express beta and we appreciate your input.
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TNA Wrestling
I was there for the filming of the 2/28 episode! TNA has reused this footage of Me, Jami, Robby, and Ms. Mindy during the 3/6, and 3/21 episodes of iMPACT!  
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IceBreakers Mints Make Me Sneeze
Online Storage
With an ever-expanding need for more space and backups of critical files (photos and music, of course)...I have been looking at the various online storage options. Here are the ones I have found... - Mozy Home Free - 2Gb free for Macs and Windows. - Mozy Home - Unlimited for $4.95/month for Macs and Windows. - Photoshelter - Tiered photo storage plans starting at $9.99/month. - Skydrive - 5GB free, from Microsoft. - Jungledisk/Amazon S3 - $.15/GB/month for Macs, linux, and Windows. - Flickr Pro - $24.95 for unlimited photo storage. - Adrive - 50 FREE gb. There are many more, such as Shutterfly Pro (photos), Smugmug (photos), Google, etc. ArsTechnica reviews some of them here and ExtemeTech has a review of six free services here. If you find one of interest, please add it to the comments.
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