J Marcus Daily
CNN.com
Here is a crash course in the world of business conglomerates. Test your knowledge to see if you really know who owns who. The conventional wisdom of scifi pundits argue that the world will one day only have a handful of really powerful companies who own everything seems to be drawing closer every day.
A couple of my favorites are listed below. Who would've guessed the link between the New York Post with FOX television, the TV Guide and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Viacom has its hands in a bunch of cookie jars owning everything from Blockbuster to MTV, CBS, and Nickelodeon, Paramount and UPN, along with Showtime, Black Entertainment television, Country Music Television, VH1, and Comedy Central. Talk about a powerhouse of entertainment. Seems like you can't surf through the cable channels without hitting at least a dozen Viacom ventures. Less of an odd duck is Cheetos, Doritos and all the rest under the Frito-Lay banner being linked to Gatorade, Quaker Oatmeal, Pasta Roni as being a part of the Pepsico Corporation. Sony pretty much sticks with the world of electronics and entertainment, but who would've figured Sony Life Insurance.
And this is just enough to wet your whistle. There's a dozen more companies poised to rule the world. Given enough time the pundits might turn out to be right. Then god help us when our mortgage loan is help by Mickey Mouse.
MSN Entertainment - News - Saruman Cut From Final 'Rings'
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is due to hit theaters next Wednesday. Millions of Tolkien loyalists are due to decend upon theaters like locust in biblical Egypt. For many of the most devote there is a lingering Black Death plaguing this exciting release. Instead of praise many are upset at Director Peter Jackson's cutting of Saruman's demise. Instead, Christopher Lee's portrayal of the corrupt White Wizard is sitting on the cutting room. His fate in the trilogy is left ambiguous at best, by a single line explaining that Saruman has been left powerless after the attack of the TreeEnts.
Jackson has explained the scenes shot of the death of Saruman will be included in the DVD release of the film. A little too late for casual viewers of the film trilogy who will undoubtedly be left wondering what has happened to this central villain in the story.
The interesting thing about the purist concern over this cutting of Christopher Lee's character from Return of the King is Jackson didn't even stick with Tolkien's handling of Saruman's demise. He shot a total contrivance for the purpose of making a more interesting end to an important character. Tolkien didn't resolve Saruman until the end of the book when Saruman is found in the Shire and the halflings have to expel him from their land. As far as Tolkien was concerned Return of the King had little to do with Saruman and everything to do with the ultimate evil on Mount Doom.
One bit of advice to all you hardcore followers of J. R. R Tolkien, don't take it so damn seriously. This is entertainment. It's supposed to be fun. Peter Jackson brought us one of the most amazing trilogies of all time. A great testament to the work Tolkien put into writing this seminal piece of fantasy literature. No one else would've have tried so hard to get so much of the story onto the screen. Most books made into movies suck and Jackson made sure these didn't. So, like I said, don't take it so seriously and personally.
And go out and enjoy the movie.
Time is of the essence. I'm moving into a very critical time in the writing of my current manuscript. Tentatively titled Drowning Death this manuscript is nearly finished and ready to begin the editing process. This is a long and arduous process. Of late it has been taking the better part of two months to complete. Once this is done then I send it along to friends and colleagues who will then read it and give me their initial impressions. Once this happens the manuscript is out of my hands. By that time, I'm already onto the next manuscript.
With Christmas right around the corner I'm feeling like I'm worn a bit thin. I'm sure everyone starts to feel that way at this time of the year. It's not like I'm pulling my hair out and going insane with stress. However, I do feel the deadline creeping up on me and if I don't watch it I'll be in trouble. Writing is one thing in which you can't fall behind. Even under the best of circumstances there is a limit to the amount anyone can write in one day. Falling behind more than you can catch up leads invariably to disaster.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. If I keep my eye on the prize there is no reason to fall behind or miss my deadline. Even if there are many times I can't help but get distracted playing with my son. The good news is it won't be long before Twin Reflections, the first novel in the Robert Watson mystery series finds its way onto bookshelves. I know you'll all enjoy these new characters and stories as much as I enjoyed writing them.
SCIFI.COM | Battlestar Galactica
The Cylons have returned.
Battlestar Galactica, the new mini-series on the Scifi channel, is a reimagining of the original TV series. Comparisons are meaningless. The original is a product of its time, hairdos and all. This Battlestar has many of the same elements of the oringinal but updated to better fit the sensibilities of the time. After watching the first half of this two part miniseries I'm left fairly optimistic.
Sure I could go on and on looking at the differences between the two shows. The most notable, or rather the most talked about alteration being Starbuck's sex change. Who knows it might just work? Either way it is a gamble. If they hadn't changed the sex of the character everyone would've been comparing whoever the put in the part against Dirk Benedict, and that just wouldn't be fair.
I was a skeptic when Star Trek the Next Generation first aired. While the pilot wasn't stellar it held great promise. The show moved into warp speed over the next couple of years and made firmly took a foothold of the Star Trek franchise. With this new Battlestar Galactica I'm hoping to see the same growth from this new incarnation as I did with Next Generation. Only time will tell.
Watch for the references to the original series. It's kind of fun watching for the subtle and gross ways they bring in bits of the old show. The slow beginning can be forgiven since this is a miniseries/pilot. It takes time to introduce characters and get the audience to care about what happens to them. If you don't like them then who cares if the Cylons kill everyone. Doesn't make for entertaining television. Still, I couldn't help but notice the first half had more sexual action than fighting. We'll see if the second half leaves us begging for more.
Netflix
Sure watching the latest new release from the rental store can be fun but everything else associated with it can be a real drag. Friday night standing in line at Blockbuster isn't what most of us had in mind while counting the hours till the start of our long awaited weekend. Even worse can be the torment of having to return the movie. At least now, we don't have to worry about the 'Please be kind and rewind' mantra with the acceptance of DVD. Even the best of us have returned a movie late and had to pay the late charge.
Rental stores couldn't turn a profit without them. Not me. At least not any longer.
I'm one of the devoted converts to the ways of Netflix. If you're not familiar with this online rental store check out the website. Basically, you pay a monthly charge and get to rent as many movies as you can watch in that time. You're allowed a set number of DVD's checked out at any one time. But wait, this is the best part, no late fees. Keep the movie as long as you like and never get charged another penny. When you're done with the DVD send it back in a prepaid envelope and wait for the next one to show up in the mail.
As a DVD reviewer I subscribe to the 8 movie membership. This way each time I open up the mailbox there is another movie waiting. Just looking at the cost to rent a DVD at your average rental store this membership more than pays for itself. Personally, I average a little more than 8 movies a week. Netflix is great. All the movies I rent...Well that's another story.
If you pay any attention at all you probably already know I don't like many things. Most of what is advertised doesn't live up to expectations. This is one time where I feel perfectly justified raving about this service. Check them out and enjoy your movies late fee free.
Invention of Christmas Tree Lights
With a nod to Albert Sadacca I began decortating the house, yard, and tree with Christmas lights. His idea to use electric lighting on trees intead of the ever popular candles of the time quickly won over the American people. And it made a pretty good fortune for his family at the time. Not bad for a 15 year old born of a Spanish immigrant family who up until that time had been selling wicker cages complete with an iimitation bird that lit up.
Channeling the Clark Griswald risiding in all us males I set to work with all maner of lighting. Big bulbs and small, twinkling, multicolor, chasers, and icsicles. Hundreds and thousands of feet worth of red, blue, green, and white lights were put to the best use I know how. And still, I did not have enough so my wife and I headed for the store and bought a couple hundred dollars more in lighting just for the fun of it. Tommorow I will finish up the last of this years lighting creation. I just can't help myself, Christmas tree lights is part of owning a house, and a far better chore than mowing the lawn or raking leaves.
As long as I don't think about all the work involved in taking it all down in a couple of weeks, I can enjoy the brightly lit moment.
GCN Overview
Christmas Comes Early
Marking the three month anniversary of my XBOX purchase I've celebrated by buying a Nintendo GameCube. Adding a fourth gaming system to my collection allows for a wider range of games I can review. On the less practical side...it's just plain cool to own yet another gaming system. I'm going to be a busy boy.
The Gamecube comes with a promotional copy of the four games in the Zelda series. Not wanting to wait for any review copies I bought Star Wars:Rebel Strike and Mario Kart:Double Dash. Having only a couple of hours to play with this system I haven't had a chance to form any real concrete opinions about the system. Aside from its unique design it features a high capacity optical disk. Notably these disks are only three inches diameter and help to keep the size of the player down. Sporting a handy carrying handle the small size of the Gamecube begs to be transported to a friends house for an afternoon of gaming.
As with all of my purchases expect to see a detailed review of the Gamecube in the coming weeks.
Update
Looking back through the last couple months of writing this blog it's apparent I'm missing the
daily part of J Marcus Daily's blog. Not being one to like proving others right I'm upping the ante of the original bet I made with my site manager. Now, I've got a real incentive to live up to my end of the bargin and make this blog daily. I can't promise it will be interesting but I can promise frequent updates. The nature of the wager provides me with a strong incentive not to fail. I won't tell you what I've bet but I will say it is quite embarrasing on my part if I miss a day.
SonyStyle USA - DSCF717KITIS
I finally did it. After months of research and "waiting for the right time" I finally went out and bought the digital camera I've been wanting. Sony's DSC-F717 has nearly everything but the kitchen sink included in a sub-$1000 camera. In the next couple of months look for an indepth review added to the review section of the website. I'm sure along the way you'll hear mention of the camera in my daily blogs. This is one product I'm looking forward to reviewing.
Electronics is supposed to be fun. After plopping down the better part of a thousand dollars you're supposed to get a little enjoyment in buying something you've been waiting for. In this case, I am excited but the decision to buy this camera was plagued with a few reservations.
In a couple of months Sony will be releasing the next in the Cybershot Pro line of cameras, the DSC-F828- an eight megapixel monster. Aside from the price tag being a few hundred more I wasn't sure it would work for the review I'm doing. Comparing the standard Cybershot point and shoot digital cameras with a semi-professional sub-$1000 dollar camera is my main objective with this review. So, as far as work was concerned it wouldn't fit the bill.
On the personal side, I would've loved to play with the extra power. Since I will use this camera not only for the review but for future work on the website it has a practical business purpose. The tech geek side of me was screaming for more power, more power, more power. This time the responsible side of doing my job won out. But lets face it folks, I still bought a new camera and that for a tech geek is still a lot of fun. Now, I will have a camera to take pictures of all of the other technology crap I buy, review, and play with(work). I'm not bragging, but I will say it, I'm one lucky SOB.
This last weekend was fun. Taking the opportunity to get together with my guy friends for the weekend was a nice change of pace. By other peoples standards we'd be considered a strange group of guys. There are five of us in all, but one of our troupe is missing. He's been working back East for the last few years and so we don't get to see him as much as we'd like. Each of us are very different and yet somehow we come together and have so much fun just hanging out.
With these guys, we don't have to do much of anything special to have a good time. Watching a movie, playing online chess, talking sports or about our daily lives, just the simple things, can bring about interesting times. Sarcastic. Rude. Testosterone enhanced conversations. We are part of a different breed of men. Clearly, not the men of my fathers generation. For Gods sake, we play video games.
Still, I'm glad to be back in Oregon where I can see these guys and enjoy the mundane things life can offer in the company of good friends. If you are lucky enough to have friends like I have, don't take them for granted, pick up the phone and go have a drink. It'll make your life that much more richer.
