Failure

365 days later and no fame. It's been a rough year, one of the worst in my life.

Election Day Has Begun

History is about to be made.

Paul Newman

America has not only lost one of its finest actors, the world has lost one of its greatest men. Paul Newman's life both on and off screen knows no rivals. The fact that all of these achievements could be found in one man is truly amazing.

I loved so many of Mr. Newman's films. He played the kind of roles that many actors were afraid of. He didn't want to be instantly likable. His characters would dare you to like them, make you work at liking them. Every character had a past that began way before the story began on film.

Off screen, his charity through his food line and his camps was amazing. For almost 20 years the "Hole in the Wall" camp has given hope and joy to thousands of families. Mr. Newman has given so much to so many.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Hurricane Coverage Reax

I am not going to claim total victory, but the coverage went from: "We may see this storm strengthen up to a Cat 5..." to "Look what this strong Cat 2 has done to this stores awning and let get a shot of this garbage can rolling down the street." Thanks Geraldo.

Too much hype makes Jack a dull boy. Actually too much hype makes Jack not want to evacuate when a real hurricane comes because he's become callous to the steady stream of media exaggeration.

Hurricane Hype?

If Hurricane Gustav actually does hit New Orleans I will be very surprised. As someone who works in the news industry its so easy to see the planets align on this story.

- A hurricane hits Mexico= yawn
- A hurricane hits Texas= Not bad
- A hurricane threatens New Orleans on the Anniversary of Katrina= Pretty good.
- A category 4 monster, causes a mass exodus mere days before it destroys the battered Big Easy forever= A mutli-day media ratings extravaganza!

I'm not saying that the hype might not be real. I'm just saying they need the hype. Be mindful.

A message to the members ofthe Media traveling with Sen. Obama

Stop it!

The general public might not be able to see what you are doing, if they even care anymore, but I do. Your trying to create a legend which wouldn't be so bad if you weren't doing so for selfish reasons.

You're following Obama around like a bunch of love struck groupies. You want him to win and you're doing a horrible job hiding it.

Why might you ask? Look at the big picture. If McCain wins what happens, or rather what doesn't. First of it won't be historic and therefore not as interesting. Second regardless of how long John claims he'll live it won't be that long in legacy terms. He possibly might not even run for a second terms, strike three.

Senator Obama has it all. He's a first a trail blazer, schools all over the country are going to be buying new letters for their renaming ceremonies the day after he wins the election. He's young so his media darlings can milk him for decades. Finally he seems like an all or nothing leaders, he's either going to lead America to greatness or into the abyss. Great material for articles and books.

That's all the whores I mean members of the media seem to care about. They want to have interesting stories to tell at parties and be there on the ground floor to write countless books about how they were there with Obama in the struggle making history.

It is selfish and it's sicking.

Endings

I rented an indie called "Player 5150" a tale about he perils of gambling. The film starts off rocky, low production value and lots of cliches about how loan sharks behave. Why do movie mobsters always have to be so cool and clever? Maybe I've just seen too many movies, but I would rather go subtle then over the top. Most criminals are blunt not witty.

As the story progressed I became interested and started rooting for the main character played by Ethan Embry. His performance took what could have been a flat and uninteresting film and really pumped it up a few notches. Kudos to Mr. Embry on what might one day be defined as his break out performance.

The movie kept building and raising the stakes, it had a great false "Rocky" moment where it looked like he was going to gamble his way out of the debt. At times I had to look away because I have has similar experiences on a much smaller scale. I've never gambled away my life saving, but I have walked into a casino with 200 dollars saying "I'm only going to play with 100" and driving away 4 hours later pissed.

My biggest complaint is in regards to the ending. This movie really has two endings. The real one that communicates the moral evils of gambling and the feel good nonsense that follows. The lives of compulsive gamblers end poorly, its pretty much a fact.

Still this film is certainly worth watching. B-