Friday, August 26, 2016

Friday 5 for August 26: Two Thousand Zero Zero Party Over Oops Out of Time


Blondie's 1999 hit "Maria" is from the album "No Exit".

1. What’s your favorite song from 1999?

How can I not resist another top 10 list? First of all my #1 song of 1999 is not on the Billboard 100 Top Hits. Others are:

1. Maria - Blondie
2. Steal My Sunshine - Len
3. There She Goes - Sixpence None The Richer
4. Smooth - Santana featuring Rob Thomas
5. Scar Tissue - Red Hot Chili Peppers
6. Joining You - Alanis Morissette
7. Animal Instinct - Cranberries
8. Beautiful Stranger - Madonna
9. Kiss Me - Sixpence None The Richer
10. Anything But Down - Sheryl Crow

My Top 100 Hits of 1999 - http://macpro.freeshell.org/music/1999.html

2. What are some of your favorite films from 1999?


"Beautiful Stranger" by Madonna, the promotional clip for 
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

- Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
- The Matrix
- American Beauty
- The Green Mile
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
- The Mummy
- The World is Not Enough (James Bond 007)
- Wing Commander
- The Insider 
      (last movie I saw at my favorite theater - Cinerama in HNL)
- Galaxy Quest

3. What’s something interesting that happened on your birthday in 1999?

I got another year older than I was in 1998. I do not publicly disclose my birthdate.

One of the world events that happened on that day in 1999:

"Turkey - 13 people were killed in a bomb attack on a shopping center in the Goztepe section of Istanbul."

Some things don't change....

4. How did you ring in the new year as 1999 became 2000?

My friend Helena and I spent the evening cruising around Honolulu. We ended up at Magic Island waiting for the fireworks and the electricity to go off since the so-called "Millenium Bug" was going to bring down all of the computers around the world (except for Macs) that could not handle the date change from 1999 to 2000. Of course nothing happened and all we got was being enveloped in a huge ton of home burst firework smoke. Was fun.

I miss Helena (passed away 2013).

5. What’s something that’s gotten better since 1999?

1. Faster Internet
2. Movie, video, TV and audio streaming.
3. Better computers and connected devices.
4. Digital cameras are the norm and way better than 1999.
5. SSD drives

Questions from Scrivener's Friday 5 blog.



Friday, August 19, 2016

Friday 5 for August 19: French Kissing

This week's questions from Scrivener's Friday 5 blog:

1. What’s your favorite kind of French fry? 

Decades ago at the old Dairy Queen in Honokaa, Hawaii they used to make their own french fries from fresh potatoes daily. They got the potato and used a machine to slice them into wedgy sticks and then deep fry them. I don't know what made those taste really great, probably using the same oil in the deep fryer daily. Anyway they were the best french fries on Earth and to me still are since it was my Aunt Clara who at one time used to work there, was the person who made those fries. She eventually went on to enjoy a look career as a master chef or something at the Mauna Kea Beach Resort in Kawaihae.

2. Where can you get really good French toast?

Again long ago, I used to like the french toast that were made in the old Woolworth restaurant, especially the one that used to be in Waikiki.

3. What are your feelings about French salad dressing? 

It's okay, I just finished a bottle. I do like Italian and Ranch better.

Citreon

4. What’s something you know how to say in French? 

 Renault, Peugeot, Citroen - car brand names made in France! :)

5. What French films have you seen? 

The most recent one I saw was Betty Blue from 1986. It streams online for free:

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/betty_blue 

The film is about 2 flawed characters who are trying to make ends meet. The guy is a failed writer, Betty is an eccentric and attractive young woman. Probably rated a strong R or maybe even NC-17. Some strong sexual content.

The first French film that I saw and have always liked is The Red Balloon. From 1956 it is a children's fantasy film about a kid who finds and befriends a red balloon. The balloon in the whimsical, short film is the most colorful object in the story set against a city in post-war France (presumably Paris). Nice technicolor print if you can see it on film. I saw it for the first time in school back in the early 1970s on a 16mm projector screen. Streams for free YouTube.

 

Friday, August 12, 2016

Friday 5 for August 12: Down the Rabbit Hole

1. What was the subject of one of your memorable YouTube holes?

I love YouTube. Lots of free stuff to watch there. Some good, others ridiculously bad, most entertaining.



1. Aviation videos - plane take-offs, landings, in-flight, airports, Hawaii airlines
2. Aviation disasters: Air Crash Disaster and other channels.
3. Russian dash-cam car crash videos - They have some of the worst drivers in the world.
4. Maritime disasters - Titanic, Costa Concordia, Star Diamond, Andrea Doria, Britanic, freighters, container ships, etc.
5. Daily Bumps video blog. Subscribed to several related ones.

2. What was your most recent Wikipedia hole like?

Going deep to find out what happened to the cast of the NBC TV series L.A. Law and then being sidetracked to Star Wars because Jimmy Smits who was Senator Bail Organa is going to have a cameo in the newest feature, Rouge 1.

3. What’s a recipe you got from the internet and actually prepared?  How did it turn out?

Haven't tried any though I am subscribed to Active Beat, a channel on how to prepare healthy meals.

4. What apparently little-known website do you enjoy?

The easy answer here is http://f.riday5.com/ - Come at least once a week to read the questions, maybe answer them and see how other people answered.

5. What apparently popular website can you just not get into?

From this list of popular U.S. based websites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites - I don't use the following:

1. Netflix
2. Bing
3. Instagram
4. Microsoft Office.com
5. CNN
6. Whatsapp
7. Microsoft
8. Windows Live
9. MSN
10. Reddit

Friday, August 5, 2016

Friday 5 for August 5: The Force Which Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower

From Scrivener's Friday 5 site:

"Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5!  Please copy these questions to your webspace.  Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses."

At the premiere of last year's The Force Awakens.

1. When did you last have to force your way into something?

A few years ago getting into crowded public hearings at the State Capitol.

2. What’s something you’ve recently used physical force on?

Pounding nails to join pieces together while building a shelf. Also on occasion, opening a jar for myself or my friend.

3. What was the last food you had to force down your throat?

Nothing recently that I can think of.

4. When did you last have to force a smile or a laugh?

When my friend says something that is supposed to be funny but I don't get it, or did not hear it correctly.

5. What are the best and worst things about the Star Wars movies?

Best things about the Star Wars movies:

1. The very first two movies in the series, Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980) in their entirety are the best of the series, especially if you can watch them as originally made.



2. Consistency with the music soundtrack / scoring throughout the entire series of main movies, thanks to John Williams. I am skeptical about the upcoming Rouge 1 movie that will not include new music from John Williams.

3. Going back to a more organic look and feel in The Force Awakens. It is everything a sequel to the original trilogy should be and in some instances better than Return of the Jedi. Way less CGI in this movie is great!

4. The fact that in the new sequel trilogy J.J. Abrams and hopefully future directors and producers do not include overly cute kiddie characters like the Ewoks. Keeping focus on being more adult oriented vs. being a kids flick.

5. Fan anticipation building up to the release and premiere of new Star Wars movies. It is always exciting to go to the theater on the first day one of these movies comes out.

6. Getting rid of George Lucas after he made a mess out of the prequel movies. George, you got your $4 billion. Don't complain. Disney owns everything now.

Worst Things About Star Wars:

1. Jar Jar Binks

2. Messing up the original 3 trilogy movies by inserting new CGI scenes into them. I like the fact that they digitally cleaned up the prints from the original 70mm films (Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi), but adding in some of the new CGI backgrounds, monsters, characters, and music were not needed. The American Film Institute as I recall are opposed to the changes George Lucas made to these movies in the 1990s just because there was computer technology and he could. Many fans don't like this either. Unavailability of getting the original trilogy as released in 1977 - 83 on home video (DVD, BluRay) without the digital edits.

3. Use of too much CGI in the prequel trilogy (Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith) that makes the tech and overall look of the movies way more advanced than the original trilogy stories that come after these. It is one of the reasons why I hated the Star Trek Enterprise prequel TV series to the original series. Prequels should never have tech and a look better than the originals.

4. Replacing Sebastian Shaw's Anakin Skywalker in Return of the Jedi with Hayden Christensen in the final scenes as a result of digital editing nearly 20 years after the original version was released.

5. Trying to market the movie to kids and because of that, dumbing down the stories with goofy characters such as Jar Jar Binks, Ewoks and Sny Snoodles. Too "Muppety".

6. Disney dismissing most or nearly all of the expanded universe TV series, movies, books and games as being "non canon".

7. The Star Wars Christmas Special. Bad and also not legally available on DVD or a stream.

Meesa Kill Alex
Aack!