I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day and at some point in the day took time to remember those who died for our great country. Yes, we are screwed up in some areas, however, which country isn't? It's still a great place to live.

Thankfully the Jackson trial will be over soon. People may be asking themselves, 'Are the kids his or not?' I frankly don't care. His life is so messed up and anyone who names one of his children Blanket has got to be missing a few screws. I seriously think that Jackson's elevator doesn't go all the way up.

Ok, that's all for today. It's gonna be another beautiful one.

paul

It's the start of another week; let's remember to be kind to those we claim to love, do at least one nice deed every day, and take a second each day to enjoy nature. Smell a flower, watch a bird, gaze at the sky, or do all three.

Jaw dropper of the day: Houseguests won't leave? Set your home on fire or do what a man in Illinois did and set your mother's house on fire. Dean Craig, from Geneva, Illinois, did just that when two visitors he had at the home refused to leave. Craig started the fire by igniting rubbing alcohol that he had splashed on the floor. Craig had asked the two visitors to leave and when they refused he threatened to start the house on fire. Were these visitors from The Sopranos? What ever happened to calling the police or just showing them the door? It's a much better idea to just torch the house I guess.

Enjoy your day today,

paul

Wow!!!! It's been a beautiful day and the birds have been busy. When I woke up this morning I heard the birds screeching. There were several of them and it reminded me of the sound of a crowd at a baseball game. I don't know that the birds were playing baseball, however, they sure sounded excited about something. Maybe the glorious day ahead.

Sith This: Went to see Star Wars Episode III:Revenge of the Sith. It was the best of the first three episodes and Lucas captured the tortured soul of Anakin before he embraces the dark side. The war and politics in the film eerily mirrors the war and politics going on in the world today. One of the main themes, fear and how it can wreak havoc, is evident throughout the film. Anakin, consumed by his fears, embraces the dark side in order to prevent his fears from coming true. Unfortunately, he makes the wrong decision and his fears are realized anyway. A few of the things in the film are contrived, such as the death of one of the characters near the end, but there are some really exciting light saber battles and it's a movie that should be experienced on the big screen.

Jaw dropper of the day: Only in San Francisco, huh? The city's Center for Sex and Culture played host on Saturday to the Masturbate-A-Thon. Apparently it's an annual event and people come to celebrate playing with Rosie and her five friends in a semi-public setting. There's even an endurance competition. Last year's record was six-and-a-half hours. There is a five minute break allowed for every hour. One man, who only gave his name as Tony, gave this statement about the event, "The whole point is coming out and making love to your best friend." No question as to where his loyalties lie.

Wherever you are today, I hope YOU, like the birds, are screeching with excitement.

paul

I didn't get to finish this yesterday because there was a slight problem with our monitor. We ended up having to get a new one. It's a flat screen and it's bright!!!!

Joan Of Arcadia: It's too bad that this show didn't get renewed. After an especially dour season, the storyline between good and evil was just starting to pick up. With the introduction of a character, who was obviously supposed to be some sort of devil, the storylines could have become exciting and unpredictable. Most of the season was spent watching the characters mope and act tortured, however, the last couple of episodes did show some promise. Alas, we'll never know what might have been. 6.5 antennae

Judging Amy: Another show that didn't make the cut for next season. This show ended with Amy quitting the bench, losing her court supervised officer, and finding out one of the girls who had appeared in her courtroom had been killed. So what does she do? She goes to Washington to become a Senator. Tyne Daly's character was starting to show some promising change and she realized that she shouldn't let fear run her life and embrace the blossoming relationship with Ignacio, her landscaper. This show, like many other finales, lacked the punch and pizzazz to go out with a bang. 4 antennae

Cold Case: One of my absolute favorite shows, Cold Case's finale offered suspense, drama, and creepiness. It delved into the psychosis of many of the characters and offered a hostage situation with Lily. The villain was truly creepy and the last song played of the season, The Who's Behind Blue Eyes, was wonderful. 8 antennae

Amazing Race 7: In the penultimate episode, Rob and Amber were leading. They had been leading for most of the season. It took me a couple of episodes to get over the gay couple being eliminated. Uchenna & Joyce, overtook Rob and Amber to become the victors for this season. For a while it looked like it might be anitclimactic, but Boston Rob and his girl were put in their place. Besides they already won a million dollars, or at least she did. 7.5 antennae

Survivor: Pulau In the tenth installment of this series, first was the name of the game. Two people were off the island moments after the tribes had been chosen, the longest challenge ever, one castaway banished to an island by herself and one tribe whittled down to just one member before the merge. Not a lot of excitment most of the time, however, there were some great moments. One that sticks out was when redneck James is talking to the camera and beating himself up for getting beat during one of the challenges by Coby, the gay hairdresser. I was rooting for Jen to win but once Ian took himself out of the last challenge and Tom and Katie were left, there was no doubt who would win. And while the jury was questioning the final two, Katie hanged herself several times creating even less of a doubt that fireman Tom would win. 8.5 antennae

That's all for today. Tomorrow my review of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Here's one with Vladimir Putin and our very own George W. enjoying a nice ride together. My thanks to my friend Mikey D. for this pic and the Go Navy pic. 

Here's a couple of pics for your enjoyment. Some midshipmen at a navy game had "go navy" spelled out, however, the men with "g," "a," and "y" were standing a bit too close to each other, as you can see. I wonder if they realized this. 

Well, for us, the season is over. We've seen the season finales of our favorite shows and this season was the season of the fizzling finales. The episodes started out promising and offered excitement, suspense, adventure, however, in the final minutes the delivery was off or not there at all. Therefore, without further ado, I'll offer my ratings of some of the season finales. The rating system will be 1 antenna for a truly horrible finale to 10 antennae for a superbly fascinating finale.

Lost: The episode started with a bang, literally, as one character blew himself up in mid-sentence. The castaways on the raft faced a mysterious crew on a boat who asked for little boy Walt, and took him as his father looked on helplessly. Their boat, meanwhile, got blown up and all three of the men ended up in the water. We got a glimpse of the "big monster." The glimpse was a dust of smoke and it really sounded like some sort of machine as it attacked one of the characters. The hatch was finally opened up, however, instead of getting a look at something good, we were treated to a long tunnel leading downward. And this was the big payoff we've been waiting for? Lame-o 4 antennae

CSI: Quentin Tarantino, who directed this episode, is out of touch with reality and took arty for his own good. All of the characters in this episode were not written true to form. Catherine, Warwick, Nick, all of them were written as if they had been invaded by body snatchers. Nick, especially, was not himself. Yes, he was buried alive, however, his crying fit early on was not typical Nick. The best part of the episode was the last 20mins when the crew found Nick. Grissom showed more emotion than he's shown in five seasons, which was nice. A really nice touch is when Grissom referred to Nick as Poncho. Poncho is what Nick was called by his father. The ending, with Nick going to visit the woman in prison, was really weak. It should have ended with Grissom saying, "I want my guys back." 6 antennae

Third Watch: The very last episode ever was actually pretty good. I never watched this show every week, however, when I did watch I found it good. One of the high points was tough cop Cruz blowing herself up and taking the bad guys with her. The ending also featured a look into the future of the characters. This was a nice ending to a thrilling show. A bonus for including Doc in the episode. 8 antennae

Medium: A typical episode, even a bit ho-hum. Nothing too exciting happens and the show ends with a character in the hospital pulling out his IV. Not even a major character and no explanation as to why he's apparently killing himself. A lame 'to be continued' then appears on screen. Oh goody, looking forward to that continuation. 3 antennae

Grey's Anatomy: Not a bad episode. Filled with funny moments and poor George, one of the residents, really gets busted on and humiliated to no end. It's revealed what has happened to the main character's mother, who was once a brilliant surgeon and the ending has a bit of a twist as it's revealed that Patrick Dempsey's character is married. A twist, yes. Lame, definitely. 4 antennae

Desperate Housewives: Another example of a last episode starting off with a running start. The main mystery of the season is in fact cleared up and a revealing scene as to who really killed the "poor" girlfriend of plumber Mike. Alfre Woodard's charcter will be involved in the mystery of season 2. Her character already seems deliciously cool (and she's not white....yea!). The ending, meanwhile, lame and not a hint of suspense. 4.5 antennae

Alias: This episode featured Lena Olin, probably her last episode for a while from the looks of it. It's part Night Of The Living Dead and part 28 Days Later as the characters defuse a nuclear weapon. One character, although minor, did get iced, however, I was really hoping either Arvin Sloane or Nadia would get killed off. It was looking like Nadia might die, however, at the end it was obvious she was going to be alright. The last few minutes looked promising as Vaughn and Sydney were racing off to Santa Barbara to elope. He started to tell her that it was no accident he took her case when she first entered the CIA and he implied that he has a very shadowy past. She was starting to get scared and then BOOM they were blindsided by another car. What a cheap and lame ending. This show offered a very clever and exciting ending two years ago as Sydney awoke after a fight with an enemy. However, come to find out, she's been "gone" for two years. 3.5 antennae

Jaw dropper of the day: Ok kids let's play a game. A substitute teacher in Terre Haute, IN, has been fired. Some of the first graders in the class would not stop talking so substitute teacher Sheryl Smith taped their mouths shut. She put the tape on vertically and did not leave it on very long, however, it was long enough for some parents to complain and Smith end up fired. She alleges it was "just a little piece of Scotch tape" and that she "was just joking with them." I've no doubt these kids were laughing under their Scotch tape.

Enjoy your day,

paul

Good morning,

Another glorious day with the birds surrounding us with their song. Picture me as Julie Andrews standing outside in my front yard twirling and twirling and singing. Now wouldn't that be a sight!!!!

Exxon Mobil has passed on protecting GLBT people in their non-discrimination policy. For the 7th year in a row sexual orientation will not be included in the policy. 29.4 percent of the shareholders voted in favor of including sexual orientation in the policy, the highest percentage so far. The company used to have the sexual orientation provision but it was rescinded in 1999 when Mobil merged with Exxon. It is the only Fortune 50 company not to include orientation in its primary non-discrimination policy.

Jaw dropper of the day: The season finale of Lost. The episode started off well enough; with a bang in fact as one of the characters literally blew up mid-sentence. It was exciting, suspenseful and full of action, however, the ending gave us nothing and offered us more questions than it had already answered. What a disappointment. I haven't watched the finale of Alias yet, however, I'll be grading all of the finales for the season (of the shows that I watch anyway, I can't watch everything, sadly).

Enjoy your day,

paul

Hello,

I apologize to those of you that read this, I didn't write yesterday. It was such a gray day and I was in a gray mood and just didn't feel like it. Even God took a day off. Ooooh, I must have some sort of complex comparing myself to God.

Tonight is the big season finale of Lost and Alias. I just know that the season finale of Lost is going to have me pulling my hair out. And to think I'll have to wait almost four months before I find out what happens. This weekend I'll be rating all of the season finales (the ones I watched anyway).

Jaw dropper of the day: Let's move to Denmark. Actually I've always wanted to visit the country, I've heard the Danish are quite modern and liberal. In Copenhagen, which has the world's largest sperm bank (now there's an idea for a field trip), authorities plan to start taxing donors. Now donors receive 500 crown, about $84 US dollars. According to Cryos International Sperm Bank, "it's a special kind of work and cannot be compared to a normal working income." The bank is afraid the tax will deter donors from making deposits. Typically, Cryos receives between 30-60 donors A DAY at its three branches. Wow, talk about a possible low sperm count. Oh, I couldn't resist.

Enjoy your day,

paul

By the way, the season finale of Desperate Housewives was really pretty good. It wrapped up the mystery of Mary Alice and Zack and Paul Young. There weren't a lot of so called surprises, however, the revelation that Mary Alice, not Paul, killed Deirdre was a bit of a twist. Now as Teri Hatcher's character, Susan, sits being held hostage by Zack we have to wait to find out what happens to Mike Delfino. Zack is determined to kill Mike because he thinks Mike killed his father. Mike walks in the door and.......will Mike survive? My guess is no and Zack will be sent away. The mystery next season will involve Alfre Woodard, who's already been introduced.

A new day has dawned, the birds are singing their joyous song, the sun is rising to burn off the morning dew, everything is waking up, rejuvenated and refreshed. Oh, gag me with a spoon!!!!! Somebody stop me, I sound like a hallmark card. Yes, it's Monday and if you live in Western, NY, you may be excitied that Bushie is coming to visit Rochester tomorrow. Or you may be like me and can't care less.

Jaw dropper of the day: Talk about preventing one's daughter from seeing someone. A man in Eagle, Idaho, west of Boise, has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault and felony kidnapping. 49-year old Paul David Thomas, forced his daughter's 18 year old boyfriend into his van during the boy's lunch hour. He forced the teen into his van in front of Eagle High School and told the teen he had a knife and threatened violence against him all because the teen persisted in seeing the man's daughter. The teen escaped the van while it was stopped at an intersection and he got into another car, which just happened to have some of the teen's classmates. The father then followed the car and the teen phoned the police using a phone of one of his classmates. That sounds like one scary father. Maybe the boy should just find another girlfriend. There are other fish in the sea.

Enjoy your day,

paul

The big news this weekend: Star Wars and Saddam's underpants. Yes, Saddam does wear briefs as witnessed by the pics of him in The Sun and New York Post and all over the news. And Star Wars is the number one movie of the weekend; duh!!!

Jaw dropper of the day: A NYC man was saved from burning up by some special liquid. A wheelchair bound Vietnam Vet, Francis Abrams, was riding the subway when some teens set a plastic bag, attached to the wheelchair, on fire. The flames then spread up to Abrams's jacket and could have burned his entire body. However, two women, one with a baby, doused the flames. One woman doused the flames with a bottle of water, the other woman, who was carrying a baby, doused them with a cup of freshly pumped breast milk. The man was saved and officers confirmed the fire was put out with breast milk. The teens, thankfully, were later caught.

Enjoy your evening,

paul

For fun

Here's a cool link with some pics and a quiz. Decide which pics are real or fake. I did terrible. I only got 2 out of 10 right.

http://i.euniverse.com/funpages/cms_content/4462/real_or_hoax1.swf

first one of the season

We're finally getting our first thunderstorm of spring. Ever since I was little I've enjoyed thunderstorms. The louder the thunder, the better. I like how quickly it gets dark and the flashes of lightning and the rumbles from overhead. The claps have always freaked me out but only a little bit just because they are so sudden.

In my humble opinion: One of the best movies of the year so far is definitely Walk On Water. It's directed by Israeli director Eytan Fox. He also directed Yossi & Jagger, a film about two army men who form a relationship while in camp on the Israel-Lebanon border. The new movie, Walk On Water tells the story of Eyal, a hardened hitman living in Israel who is charged with befriending a young man and his sister in order to get information about their grandfather who is responsible for some crimes during WWII. Eyal bugs the apartment in order to find out what, if anything, the siblings know about their grandfather. Eyal acts as a tour guide and the three of them visit several attractions such as the Dead Sea.

Axel, the young man, it turns out is gay and Eyal finds this out as the film progresses and when Axel returns home to Berlin, Eyal is forced to travel there in order to attend a birthday party for Axel's father. The final scenes in which Eyal discovers Axel's criminal grandfather and the moment when Axel realizes Eyal is not who he has seemed, provide some wonderful quiet suspense. The movie also uses a lot of music to correspond to the characters shifting moods and their slowly changing ideals. Of course any movie that uses Springsteen's Tunnel Of Love, one of the few Boss tunes I really like, has got to be good. The tunnel in this movie is not necessarily a literal one, instead it's the tunnel the characters go through to reach the other side.

One of the best scenes is a scene in which Eyal, a total straight man, and Axel sit in a gay bar and Eyal gets a brief instruction on gay sex. It's not played for laughs, however, the fact that the characters are genuine and not stereotypical, does offer the scene some chuckles. Definitely good chuckles. It's a MUST SEE.

That's all for now, enjoy your day..........

paul

Absolutely beautiful here in Western, NY, and the birds are going to eat us out of house and home. They have really been eating a great deal lately. I would have thought they would let up and scrounge for other kinds of food besides our bird seed. The bluejays are such slobs. Everytime I see them out there they are throwing their food around and making a mess. Just like two year olds.

I have two video picks this week: The first one is a movie called The Green Butchers. It's a movie in the tradition of Eating Raoul and Sweeney Todd. It focuses on two butchers who open their own business and one of them stumbles upon a way to make his marinade more tasty. The one character who discovers this "secret" ingredient is not the sharpest tool in the shed and before the two of them know it their scheme spirals out of control and threatens to ruin them. There is an interesting side story with the mentally handicapped brother of one of the butchers. It's well done and while it is a bit predictable with a typical hollywood ending (it's not a hollywood movie) it's engaging and has a good pace. It is subtitled so if that doesn't scare you off, then check it out.

My second pick is a sprawling film from 1961 with an all star cast. Judgment At Nuremberg spans the trial of several judges who ruled during the atrocities of WWII. Set a couple of years after the war, the film takes us through the witnesses of the trial, the burden of the tribunal to decide if these judges are guilty or not and just who does share the guilt during a war. Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Montgomery Clift and Maximilian Schell (who deservedly won an Oscar for his role) star in the film. It's a finely made film and lest you think it's outdated then take a look at what's going on in our world right now especially the controversy in our judicial system.

Jaw dropper of the day: A village in Moscow is mourning the loss of its lake. All that's left of a lake in the Nizhegorodskaya region which is East of Moscow on the Volga river is a muddy hole. Of course it's not all that bizarre; officials think an underground water course or cave sucked the water down. Of course one woman thought that America took the lake. Even America isn't that good.

Enjoy your day,

paul

Jaw dropper of the day: This lesser panda at a zoo in the Chiba zoological park, southeast of Tokyo, can stand on its two legs for about 10 seconds when it sees something interesting. Unlike a typical black and white panda, the lesser panda has brown fur and a white stripe on its tail. Is it just me or does this look like someone in a panda suit? It's actually kind of creepy. Oh well, enjoy anyway. Here's the link if you want to read the whole story. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050519/od_afp/japananimalpandaoffbeat_050519153203 

Here's one of our pretty goldfinch birds. They are so small (they really do look like tweety bird. Tweety could have been a canary or goldfinch). 

I finally got a really good one!!!! Here's a rose breasted grossbeak at our feeder. We actually have a few of them every day. He looks quite proud doesn't he? If I looked as pretty as he did, I'd be all puffed up like that too. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050519/od_afp/japananimalpandaoffbeat_050519153203

Let me try this again!!!!

Sorry, how about I put in this link again so it's clickable. I'll get the hang of it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050519/od_afp/japananimalpandaoffbeat_050519153203