Im voting for Obama, but does it really matter? Really?

On the advice of brother Matt I read a great book by the author Matt Taibbi, in which one of the thesis was "no matter who wins a presidential election, "it doesn't really matter that much"  That was one of those moments where everything clicked for me.  I hold a Bachelors Degree in Political Science, but 16 years after earning that degree, I now sit back, and enjoy the entertainment.  Whether Romney or Obama win, my life will not change, hardly a single iota.  Both the democrat and republican party are beholden to the same special interests, and there isn't that much that can change.  So why do I even care?

Everything in presidential politics is a crapshoot, heck John Roberts a (W nominee) upheld so called Obama Care as constitutional , he is the David Souter, or Earl Warren of our time.  So here's why I am for the second presidential election voting for the democratic ticket:  I'm an off the charts social liberal, I hate abortion, and want to find ways to reduce unwanted pregnancy, but I'm pro choice.  I am pro Euthanasia, and think that Dr. Jack Kevorkian was a good man.  I am all for Gay Rights and I believe that same sex couples should be allowed to be married.

This Guy?  

Or this guy?  (Who knows?  it doesn't really matter that much!)

But, I am a moderate fiscal conservative, yes I  am for an extension of the Bush Tax Cuts, but I would absolutely pay an extra five, heck even ten thousand more per year if we had universal single payer healthcare, and the rest of it could go to rebuild our infrastructure.  Lets double the lanes on our freeways here in So Cal!  So Barack Obama has a better chance of doing that, but folks I am not holding my breath!  

Killer Whales do what they do Part 2

A picture is really worth a thousand words, isn't it folks?  When this incident occured in 2006 at Sea World San Diego, I remember reading about it, and I remember Sea Worlds spin on it.  The whale dragged the trainer underwater multiple times; once for  a minute, and once for 40 seconds.  Sea World said something to the effect that "sometimes whales get in a bad mood"  But when you watch this video, you truly see everything that happened.  Shamu grabs the trainer by his foot and thrashes around with him underwater a few times, the look on the trainers face is amazing, he is remaining calm, holding down panic, not trying to escape to excite the whale.  At the end of the ordeal, he swims to his tail, and when the whale looks the other way, he sprint/swims to the dock, only to look back and see the whale charging after him and trying to get over the net.  At this point, with a burst of adrenaline he leaps up and collapses on his broken foot whilst hurtling himself to safety.

Absolutely amazing.  The video is on the internet in multiple places should you care to google it, the best place I have found for the unedited version that was just released today

Right Here

Here Shamu has the trainer by his foot, there is no escape, it's amazing he let the guy live

I can't imagine what was going through the trainers mind at this point

Again, as I posted here years ago, what do people expect?  These whales are meant to be cursing in pods up in the pacific northwest, not confined to small tanks and made to perform circus tricks, it's amazing these things didn't happen more often.  (Since Tillikum killed the trainer in florida a couple years ago, it is no longer permitted to have trainers in the water)

Mountain Lion

Read all about Apples next version of their Mac OS on my tech blog 

Here

CERN, the Higgs Boson, and the closing of the Gaps

God of the Gaps is a classic tool used by theists and mystics over the millennium that goes somewhat like this:  Whenever there is a certain gap in human understanding "god  is responsible, or thor, or 'insert deity here'"   We don't know the answer, therefore it must be God.

When I was in high school one of my church friends and I had a discussion about God and how he is present in the universe.  One of his points was that scientists had no idea what most of the universe was made up of, back then they called it "Dark Matter"   This dark matter is a field where all particles pass through(the Higgs Field) , quarks with names like "up" "down" "charm" and "strange"  Higgs posited a boson that exists which turns mass to matter.  But the only way science can determine this is to build the worlds largest atom smasher; the colossal "Large Hadron Collider" which cost 13 billion dollars.  After millions of annihilations in the LHC enough data was collected to posit that a Higgs Boson "very likely exists"

So what does it mean?  Well it seems to indicate that a very large mystery about our universe is now explained as a natural phenomenon.  And therefore has nothing to do with religious superstition.  I predict that the LHC will further improve our understanding of how the universe came to be.

So my friends a huge Gap is now closed.

Baseball versus Hockey

Those of you who know me know that in the past 3 years or so I have been enraptured by the awesomeness that is the NHL.  I went from knowing almost nothing about the sport, to being able to know terms like pinching, forecheck, back check, wrist shot, slap shot, one timer, top shelf etc.  The game is breathtakingly exciting, many games are very close, and every shot on goal is like a mini heart attack of awesomeness.

So what happened to Baseball?  After all this is the sport I was raised with, and know inside and out.  I understand everything that is going on on the field and it is a great game, moving chess, so to speak...but it is so much different then hockey.   So let me compare the two:

Baseball is a beautiful game to watch, it is on the surface a leisurely game, and to some it can seem kind of boring.  But if you care to get to get into it, there are a thousand little things happening between every pitch thrown, every situation that arises involves the subtle routine of the players trying to out think each other, out guess each other.  It is unique in that it has no clock, all of its managers and coaches wear the same uniform as their players, and they play the game every single day.  162 games a year is a punishing schedule.  Ken Burns documentary summed it up very well in saying that baseball is a leisurely game that demands blinding speed.  The joy of baseball is in the anticipation.

Hockey on the other hand is hyper kinetic.  You never have to wait for action because its always happening at brilliant breathtaking speed.  Players propel themselves upwards of 15 MPH on razor sharp metal skates at such high levels of execration that nobody except the goal tenders are usually on the ice for more than about 2 minutes.   The action is so quick that to the un initiated its almost a shock. "I can't see the puck!"  Some may complain because of the speed happening in front of them.  The excitement and thrill of the NHL is the constant shots on goal, seeing the play develop, and if you are lucky enough to see Anze Kopitar in person you just might see something almost superhuman on any given night at Staples Center.  And lets not forget the hits:  The NHL is the most punishing sport in pro sports today, more so then the NFL.  And last but certainly not least is the fighting.  This is the only sport that self polices.  If somebody cheap shots your guy, well then it is the job of your goon to drop the gloves and fight him!

So what sport is my favorite?  Well that's easy, 6 months out of the year it's baseball, and the other 6?  Hockey.

Gayness

Homosexuality is natural, it is perfectly fine.  Millions of people on the planet today are gay including Anderson Cooper (publicly out)

And arguably the most powerful Gay man in the world, Apple CEO Tim Cook (not yet publicly out, but gay)

Society progresses, many people have no problem with the fact that people are gay, but there are a few exceptions:   namely the evangelical Christian right.  

Unfortunately this group of people that is the majority of folks in the US, continues to use their power to persecute those in the minority, whether it be spreading lies in the prop 8 campaign, or spewing hate. The Bible says a lot of things:  In Leviticus for example it says the following "If a man lies with a man, it is an abomination, they shall be put to death, for their blood shall be upon them."  Riiiight, so good bible believing Christians should advocate killing gay people?  Fair question right?  I myself do not claim to be a bible believer so therefore i am exempt from this proclamation .  I personally feel that it is wrong to kill people for being gay, but that's just me, maybe I'm nicer then god?  

Homosexuality is not a choice, just as being born with blue eyes is not a choice, or being born with genes that make you start to go bald at age 27 is not a choice (yes that's me)  

I wish Anderson Cooper, and Tim Cook all the best regards and goodwill possible in this life, I believe they, and every gay person should have all equal rights that hetrosexuals enjoy.

Grabbaggar is Back!!

The Blog is now unlocked, and once again a living breathing thing.  Brother Mike and I were hanging out, B.S. ing with each other tonight and I was reading him some previous posts that I had written.  Folks let me tell you, there were some great and funny posts!  (Humble Brag) I had fenced off my blog life to funnel solely into my tech blog found at www.grabbaggar.com, but I want to get back in the game!  Grabbaggar is back and folks, we have a lot to talk about!  First let me give you an update on some of the things that you as previous fans of the blog may be interested in:

• I am still an Atheist (defined as someone who has a lack of belief in a supernatural deity:  incidentally all my readers are atheists of some sort, you might be an atheist about Mithras, Krishna, Xenu, Visnhu, Zeus, or Jupiter.  Yes I agree with you, I am an atheist about all those deitys, but I am also an atheist with regards to "Yahew" you see folks I take my Atheism "one god further" then you perhaps do.
• I am going to vote for Obama (But if the Republican party would stop catering to the evangelicals who only care about two issues:  abortion, and gayness, I may once again vote for a GOP candidate)  I am fiscally conservative and off the charts socially liberal
• I still think that if you are willing to swim in a tank with a 14000 pound Killer Whale, that every once in a while that whale may kill you (can't blame the whale for being a whale)  
• I have no problem with Peformance Enhancing Drugs (PEDS) in sports.  Sports aint life and death, it's there for our entertainment.

and.....

I remain heartbroken over the death of Steve Jobs

I look forward to your great comments as you have done in the past!  Thank you for sticking with me!

Blog has been moved to my new location

This blog is frozen time, but the good news is you are cordially invited to check out my new blog that is solely concerned with technology at......

Grabbaggar.com

How to Have an Amazing Home Network for maybe a little less than you think

My house doesn't have giant stacks of Compact Discs, but I have over 10,000 songs that I can access instantly.  I don't have massive piles of physical DVD's, but I can access 10s of thousands of movies instantly.

There are many different ways to do what I have done, but let me walk you through how I choose to do it, and if you're looking to do it yourself, and maybe you feel a little technically challenged, my hope is after you read this, you will see that it is a little easier then what you may have previously thought.

MUSIC-  In the late 1990s portable MP3 players emerged that let you carry around about 500 songs.   The iPod was launched in 2001 with 1000 songs in your pocket, and then the iTunes store, all this set about a revolution in how we acquire, store, and listen to our music.

  I have my entire iTunes Library stored locally on my main computer, a beautiful IMac with a 27 inch screen 14 GB of RAM with a 2.93 GHZ quad core i7 processor.  (As beautiful as it is..soon it will be "just a device" with the advent of ICloud as Jobs said in the most recent apple keynote)  Anyways the files are all on the main computer and the software that manages and runs the music files is called iTunes.

I can listen to my music many different ways, I can sit in front of my computer, launch iTunes and just instantly search for the song/album/artist that I want, and play it.  My Computer is listening Zone 1 and what I am going to describe to you is called "air tunes"   (similar but not exactly the same as 'air play')

OK now here is where it gets really cool.  Apple makes 2 amazing pieces of hardware, the Apple TV and the Air Port Express(both cost $99).  Both of these plug into the wall and connect to your network automatically.  Once the air tunes device is plugged into the wall you can connect speakers to it.  Now when I sit at my main computer and launch iTunes I can see my ATV or Air port devices and thus can control them.  I have 4 Different Zones of music in my house.  Bedroom, office, family room, and living room.  Of the 3 zones that are not my computer, one of them is an ATV, and two are air port expresses.  On these two I have connected a pair of Bose computer speakers, they are small, yet provide rich sound.  The Apple TV is connected to my bedroom TV speakers.  OK so sitting in front of my computer using iTunes, I can now turn off and on four different speaker zones, this is awesome, but the problem is, every time I want to hear something different, or if I want to turn off the music, I have to run to my computer.  But what if there was a way to control your computer remotely?  Here's where it gets double cool:  The Apple IOS devices (iPod touch, iPad, and IPhone) have a free app available called "remote" and with this...you guessed it..you can now control your computer using a device that is always very close by...your iPhone.  And it's a beautiful experience, reaching out and touching your music, seeing the album artwork, and tapping on what you want to hear....and where in the house you want to hear it.  

To have this experience Your computer doesn't have to be as new or as powerful as mine, ...if you already have a computer and an IOS Device, you can add a zone to your house for only $99.

Movies   I have been collecting DVDS for 15 years, pretty much since they were launched in the mid 90's.  So how do we get all of these physical DVDs into my computer?  Unfortunately it is not as easy as music CDs, but it can be done.  It does take longer, but the end result is well worth it.   I am a Mac enthusiast and I am going to recommend a free piece of software that will rip your personal Dvds for you.  (I don't know/care about Windows...my advice to anyone who owns a windows computer is to throw that computer in the garbage and buy a Mac.)  LOL, anyways the App is called "Handbrake"  Once all your DVDs are ripped, you can then put them in a folder and point iTunes towards that location.  Since each movie is about 1 to 1.5 TB in size, I strongly recommend going to Costco and picking up at least a 1 TB external hard drive to store these movie files.  I personally have a 3TB drive connected not to my computer, but to my Air Port Extreme Router.  So now we've got all our movies ripped and iTunes recognizes them.  Once again I sit in front of my computer and find any one of them and start watching it right on my computer.  Or I could do something much better.  Apple TV will take the contents of your iTunes library and stream it to your Television.  Since we already know that IOS devices have a "remote" app, I'll bring it to everyones attention that not only can the IOS device control your computer, it can control your Apple TV as well.  So I sit down in front of my TV and browse through hundreds of DVDs that I have made personal copies of!  The Quality?  Near DVD quality.  I have two TVS in my house and an ATV connected to each one of them.  Built into the software of apple tv I can also flip through all my photos, Rent HD quality new releases instantly, watch any MLB baseball game, watch netflix on demand, etc. etc.  Again, if you already have a newer TV with an HDMI input, a computer, and an internet connection, then for $99 you are Golden.


And that ladies and gents, is my home network!  Any questions, type them into google!  How do you manage/store/consume your entertainment media?  Let me know.

Will Netflix become the next Yahoo!?

Netflix shares dropped 40 points points today to close at $169.  Why?  Well for a couple of reasons..number one they lost 1 million subs this fall because of their price hike, and in addition to that they lost a good portion of their Starz catalog, taking away a good chunk of their streaming movie offerings.

Netflix had an amazing run, they took out Blockbuster video and their absurd "late fees", lame selection, and lines that you had to wait in on Friday and saturday nights.

I've brought it up many times before that in my perfect world we have everything available to us instantly anywhere we are and on any device we want and all of this for a fair price.  For example lets say that for $40/month we have access to every song ever recorded, every book ever written, every TV show, And every movie.

Netflix gives us a good selection of movies for $7.99 streaming, but it's fragmented..we don't get everything.  Because major cable companies are scared and they are pressuring netflix (they probably influenced the starz take away deal)  I hate the cable companies like comcast and time warner!!...

It takes a one in a lifetime visionary like a Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos from Amazon to break these pressures.  The day the Kindle was announced all paper publishing became obsolete and ridiculous, thanks Jeff for helping to wreck these lame publishing companies...Steve Jobs took out the record companies with his iTunes Library.  (Sony et al had no idea that iTunes would take off like it did)

Apple and Amazon will use their magic to incorporate netflix like capabilities into what they  have.  (they already do as a matter of fact with Amazon streaming)  Amazon is already trying to get a deal for a monthly all you can eat "netflix for books" and it's only a matter of time.  We're still in the Wild Wild West, and in fascinating times....If I were to guess who gets that's future $40/month?

AMAZON...and netflix will be relegated to great tech things of the past like Yahoo!, and the Netscape browser.

Reflections on Apples Keynote

About 15 Years ago, soon after he regained control of Apple, Steve Jobs had an interesting Q&A at a Developer Conference much more low key, then it was today.  He talked about how he could with his company intranet login as himself and have all his stuff served up to him instantly.  He could do this because all of his files were stored on a central in-house server, and if he made a change to one file, in one location, it was changed to all locations.

This was always in the back of his mind, and it is what Apple has been evolving towards ever since.  And today they have announced...ICloud.....  What this means is......

• We never have to worry about our files being lost
• When you enter or modify an address book on your Iphone it is automatically changed for all devices..and it never gets lost.  (it works this time, unlike with mobile me)
• When you take a photo with your iphone..it is saved forever without having to do anything
• All your music is now scanned and saved... able to be downloaded again forever on any device
• We don't have to update our iphones or ipads anymore by connecting them to a computer..it just does it for us (no more connecting our iphones/ipads to a computer)
• You don't even need a computer anymore to use an ipad or iphone
• When you buy a new ipad, iphone, or mac, you login and then all your stuff appears.
• When you buy an app, an ibook, or a song from one device, it instantly goes on all your devices.

All that and more is available this fall, and I can't wait that long folks!!

Watch the keynote yourself at www.apple.com

Scan and Toss and NFC Payments

Paper, Paper everywhere...but it never needs to be that way for any of us..

====Garrett in 2011

All my books are in the cloud

All my music will be in the cloud on monday

All of my movies and tv shows are stored on harddrives and not dvds (and soon so shall the blu rays)

With the nice scanner that I have, I can take all of my paper records and scan them and toss them on dropbox...when we get letters from the boys schools, or anything paper, I just scan and toss the dead tree.  Once it is scanned I can access it anywhere, from my Iphone, Ipad, or computer.  But the revolution has growing pains...papers can pile at times, and when they do, I sing my "scan and toss" song.

When I walk into a dental practice and see all of these paper records I want to grab the doctor and scream!  "Scan and Toss!!"   But slowly and surely there are more and more paperless offices emerging.


So to conclude......CLOUD CLOUD CLOUD......Put your papers in the cloud!  Tra la la...you never need to have a bunch of papers lying around your house...


And now part two:  NFC payments (not football)

What could be more obsolete than your wallet?  Really all we need is our Iphones....Cop stops you and asks for your license?  Wave your phone at his mobile scanner...Need to pay for something?...wave your phone at the scanner..(I already do this at Starbucks)  Within a few years this will be standard.  (Except for the old lady who still writes out a check at the supermarket)

The Cloud

2011 is the year of the cloud.

What is the cloud?  Basically its a term describing the notion that all of your digital stuff is no longer stored on a local device like your computer.  Instead it is stored on the internet, in the "cloud", able to be streamed to any one of your devices, like your iphone or ipad.  The advantage of this is that there is no longer the need to synch or transfer any files, once they are uploaded once, you are done.

A lot of us are already using cloud services, like google docs, dropbox,  i disk from mobile me and others.  But these are mostly for documents, and not optimized for music and video streaming.

Amazon got to the market first with what they are branding their "cloud drive" and today they went right at Apples throat in undercutting them significantly by pricing the new Lady GAGA album for 99 Cents.  As you can see in the graphic they are giving a free upgrade of 20 GB (enough for many peoples entire music library) to anyone who buys the album.  Why are they doing this?  Well because Apple is rumored to come out with their own cloud service in the coming 60 days or so.  Amazon is thinking that they can get a good headstart and pull enough people away from Apple by getting them used to their service and making it worthwhile to pretty much give away the hottest album in the last year and a half.  Amazons regular music "mp3 store" is also being priced about 2 dollars cheaper per album then the equivalent on Itunes.  And once you buy from them, it is backed up forever in their "cloud drive" I am buying all my music now through Amazon until Apple meets their price.

Apple and Amazon are two amazing companies both run by genius visionaries (Jobs and Bezos)  and I love both of them, use both of them all the time and I love the competition!!

May the best Cloud win!!

The Rapture!!

Whether you are a post millennial dispensationalist, or a mid tribber....doesn't it feel good to know that as of now 6:01 PDT on May 21st 2011..We are all still here!

Whooo hooo!

Goodbye to the local Blockbuster

Yes I know that I have posted variations of this post many times over the past few years on the blog but almost not a day goes by where I do not think about this revolution in media happening before our eyes.  Thanks to boneheaded decisions and failure to adapt to the marketplace, Blockbuster is in bankruptcy and the majority of its several thousand stores are shut down.  Including the one on Lyons Ave and Orchard Village Road.  It was once a thriving location filled with people hoping that the latest new release wasn't all checked out, or trying to talk their way out of late fees.  Here is what the store looks like tonight



There are many reasons why this store is gone but let me tell you my personal reason why it makes no sense to ever rent a physical disc anywhere.  

I have Apple TV---one of the apps is Itunes, and one of the apps is Netflix instant.

Netflix:  For $8/month I can stream 15 thousand movies directly to my tv, my iphone, ipad etc..(yes it picks up where i left off)

Itunes:  I can browse all the new releases and basically 95% of the movies that are out there and rent anything that I want in HD.  Not sure if the movie is good or not..well I can check Rotten Tomatoes which is next to all the movies..I can read a synopsis...and I can view the trailer....  Just a tad bit better then asking someone at Blockbuster "Is this a good movie?"   Of course movies are never checked out..and there are no late fees....no lines to wait in..etc.

Blockbuster never adapted....they got killed by Apple, Netflix, and redbox...and I don't feel the least bit sorry for them...

Good Riddance!  Now please can we get a good tenant in there so it's not such an eyesore!!

Chicago

Matt, my Dad and I went to Chicago for 2 days for Matt's 35th birthday..

Here is my take on the city.....Amazing City!  Great food and culture..midwestern hospitality and all of that.  

The Highlight of the trip was Wrigley Field which is probably in an exact tie now with Fenway park for coolest baseball stadium outside of the Ravine.  We sat through a 1:15 min rain delay in 30 degree wind chill and then the entire game as well but it was worth it!

Cross this off the "bucket list"

Waveland Avenue

We took a 2 hour bus tour of Al Capones Chicago which was good..then we got to walk around and do some sightseeing and look at the river, the lake, millenium park, the outside of the Sears (too long of a line to go in) and we got to do this on a sunny day with about 65 degree weather on Saturday.  

In Front of the River on Michigan Avenue

Other than the amazingly bad weather that Chicago gets...it gets my vote as one of the best cities in America

Thoughts on the Ipad2

When I first got the original Ipad last year I wrote that it was very cool, but not quite a revolution in the way that IPhone revolutionized our smartphones.  The reason is because it was not quite a computer, and not quite a phone, but something in between.  It was an amazing device to consume media....but not much in the way of a productivity device.  (at least that's what I thought at the time)

And then slowly but surely I realized the revolution....which is..... bye bye paper!  As a pdf reader with apps like "Goodreader" which is the gold standard of pdf apps...and "Iannotate" which lets you legally sign contracts with your finger.  It goes a long way in marginalizing those pesky cluttering stacks of dead trees.  Now with a high speed scanner, cloud based storage like "Dropbox" and a 3g connected IPad I have all my records with me, able to instantly call up...and reference whenever I need to.  The vet needs Raven's rabies record?  Well instead of digging through a file cabinet I can e-mail it  while I am standing in front of them.  And on and on it goes.  It totally replaces the briefcase.  Everything is archived and saved, not in dusty boxes that create clutter and get pooped on by rats, but in the cloud, able to be called down to the Ipad in seconds.

Now when you take all this functionality and slim down the device, make it even more comfortable to hold....and much faster.  You have something that is indispensable.  Before I wrote about the desert island where I could only have one device...I said it would be the iphone....but now it would be the Ipad 2.


Goodbye Paper!!

Miracles

There are a many variations of this story..........


A whole family is wiped out in a car crash except for one little girl that "miraculously" survives.  Depending on your superstitions you may cite "God" or "someone looking out for that girl"

But skeptical and cynical me cannot listen to any of these reports whether it is on the evening news, or through a friend, family member or acquaintance and not think this thought.

NO IT'S NOT A MIRACLE!  A MIRACLE WOULD HAVE BEEN IF THE CAR WOULD HAVE SPROUTED WINGS AND FLEW SO AS TO AVOID THE ACCIDENT ALTOGETHER!

Sorry to burst your bubble folks but Miracles don't exist, there is no such thing.

Peace

Steve Jobs unveils the IPad 2

The Ipad 2 looks awesome, but what was even more heartening was after the internet rumors and reports of only 6 weeks to live...Jobs looked great.  We got to see the master at work at least one more time and hopefully for many years to come.  In his trademark outfit Jobs poked fun at the hapless copycat competitors like samsung and motorola, while pointing out some really cool new Ipad apps like Photo Booth and Imovie, and for me the one that I think will be my personal favorite..Garage Band.

Jobs pointed out that they had sold more ipads in 9 months (15 million) then all the tablet PCs in history.   Ipad 2 will be thinner, lighter, and faster, and include 2 cameras as well.  Pricing will remain the same as well as the amazing 10 hour battery life.

Jobs closed the keynote by reaffirming apples mission...the perfect melding between technology and liberal arts.  He reminded us why Apple is the most amazing tech company in history.  And he got this Apple geek all kinds of fired up!!!!!

Long Live STEVE!!!!!!!!!

Grabbaggar's Quick reviews of best picture nominees

Black Swan:  Tasha and I watched a pirated copy of this movie together in our very own Cinema Du Elisandra.   "The white swan, comes naturally to you..but what I want to see is your black swan"  It was a privilege to see Natalie become the Black Swan...very original and safe to say the best ballerina movie in history.

The Fighter:  Didn't see it

Inception:  I almost didn't want to like this movie, and I went into watching it with a bad attitude, but during the film I got sucked into the concept and imagery and the mind bending story of a dream, within a dream, within a dream

The Kids are All Right:  Good movie, it is about a lesbian couple Anette Benning and Julianne Moore and how their adopted kids find their biological father.  Tasha and I both liked it.

The Kings Speech:  Didn't see it

127 Hours:  How to make a movie interesting when everyone knows the ending?  Well they did it here, with a great performance by James Franco, and tight swift pacing....and the payoff is amazing.

The Social Network:  My pick for Best Picture.  The Godfather of Tech movies will win best film, and it will be well deserved.

Toy Story 3:  Perfect ending to the trilogy.  When Andy goes away to college and gives his toys to that little girl....impossible not to cry if you are a parent.

True Grit:  Didn't See it

Winters Bone:  Hidden gem of the nominated films, very good movie, authentic, gripping and real.  Sticks with you and well worth seeing.


So of the ones I have seen I choose "The Social Network"  although I would not be surprised if "The Kings Speech" takes it based on the buzz.