http://www.robbernard.com/ Blogging Daytonnati, the nation, and the world. en-us robert@robbernard.com 2008-04-17T01:04:51-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002058.html The people who are of the opinion that this film is trying to be "too hip" are totally missing the point. Yes, Juno is too hip for her own good, but the whole point of this is to set up a parallel between her and Jason Bateman's character. Juno and Bateman are really on the same path and I think the whole point of the film is that Juno realizes just how frivolous her current path is. Yes, she could continue as she is on her "honest to blog" path but she realizes in the end that isn't how she want's to end up. She could follow the more childish path but unlike Bateman she has realized that that path will bring her nothing but heartbreak. No matter how "square" she may have found Garner's character to be in the beginning, she realizes that that kind of love is what is needed to raise a child in this world. 2058@http://www.robbernard.com/ Movies 2008-04-17T01:04:51-05:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002057.html Limited of course to the movies I've seen. The Best of 2007: 1. Once 2. There Will Be Blood 3. Juno 4. No Country for Old Men 5. Charlie Wilson's War 6. Atonement 7. 3:10 to Yuma 8. Across the Universe 9. Michael Clayton 10. Paris, je t'aime The Worst of 2007: 1. 28 Weeks Later . . . 2. The Ex 3. License to Wed 4. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer 5. Shrek the Third 6. Hot Rod 2057@http://www.robbernard.com/ Movies 2008-02-22T15:37:48-05:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002056.html Once again it's time for the annual list of movies from the previous year which I've seen, timed with the Oscars to give me a chance to see the films that take some time to make their way to Ohio. January 26Catch and Release February 9The Lives of Others February 16Bridge to Terabithia February 16Breach March 9300 March 30The Lookout March 30Meet the Robinsons April 6Grindhouse April 20Hot Fuzz May 4Paris, je t'aime May 4Away From Her May 4Spider-Man 3 May 1128 Weeks Later May 11The Ex May 16Once May 18Shrek the Third May 25Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End May 25Angel-A June 1Knocked Up June 8Surf's Up June 8La Vie En Rose June 8Ocean's Thirteen June 15Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer June 221408 June 27Live Free or Die Hard June 29Ratatouille July 3The Transformers July 3License to Wed July 11Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix July 27The Simpsons Movie August 3The Bourne Ultimatum August 3Hot Rod August 10Stardust August 17Superbad September 7Shoot 'Em Up September 73:10 to Yuma September 14Across the Universe September 14In the Valley of Elah September 14Eastern Promises September 28The Kingdom September 29The Darjeeling Limited October 5Michael Clayton October 12Elizabeth: The Golden Age October 19Gone, Baby, Gone October 26Dan in Real Life November 2American Gangster November 9No Country for Old Men November 16Beowulf November 21Enchanted November 21The Mist November 28The Savages November 30He Was a Quiet Man December 5Juno December 7Atonement December 7His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass December 14I am Legend December 21Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street December 21Charlie Wilson's War December 21Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story December 26There Will Be Blood That's 60. 2006 2005 2004 2056@http://www.robbernard.com/ Movies 2008-02-22T15:07:40-05:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002055.html 2055@http://www.robbernard.com/ Movies 2008-01-22T09:31:37-05:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002054.html I'd like to thank Z-93/Fly 92.9 for simplifying my radio listening. Now when neither 103.9 or 94.9 have anything good on I no longer have to switch over to 92.9 to see if they have anything good. Now I can just know that it won't be good and instead just go straight to my cd player. It's also freed up a preset on my radio for RadioU. 2054@http://www.robbernard.com/ Dayton 2007-11-04T00:21:25-05:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002053.html Bad news: The $9 worth of faucets I bought to fix my leaky washer hookup weren't the right type. Good news: With a little tinkering everything's fine and dandy thanks to 2 wrenches and 3 cents worth of Teflon tape. Back to Lowe's you go, unneeded faucets! 2053@http://www.robbernard.com/ Miscellaneous 2007-10-10T20:01:49-05:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002052.html Cheer Cincinnati, Cincy will win Fight to the finish, never give in You do your best, boys, we'll do the rest, boys Onward to victory! Go Red! Go Black! Go Bearcats! Fight! Fight! Fight! B-E-A-R-C-A-T-S go UC! 2052@http://www.robbernard.com/ Cincinnati 2007-09-06T23:17:33-05:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002051.html Best way I can describe it is that it's half American Pie, half 40 Year Old Virgin, and half Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. 2051@http://www.robbernard.com/ Movies 2007-08-09T22:07:13-05:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002050.html 2050@http://www.robbernard.com/ Baseball 2007-08-08T00:11:51-05:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002049.html I won't bother getting in to the steroids and all that, don't feel like cursing enough at the moment to do that conversation justice so let's move on. To quote Field of dreams: Shoeless Joe Jackson: The first two were high and tight, so where do you think the next one's gonna be? Archie Graham: Well, either low and away, or in my ear. Shoeless Joe Jackson: He's not gonna wanna load the bases, so look low and away. Archie Graham: Right. Shoeless Joe Jackson: But watch out for in your ear. Pitchers can only control the outside of the plate if there's a threat that they will come inside on the hitter. If the pitcher never comes inside then the batter's free to hang out over the plate and wait for that outside pitch he knows is coming. Suddenly the pitcher only has half the plate to work with and the batter only has to cover half the plate. Now let's take a moment to examine the effects of the bleeping body armor Barry Bonds wears on his elbow and how it has affected his ability to "brave" the inside pitches so he can knock the outside pitches out of the park. The following table lists the playing year and the percentage of Bonds' plate appearances in which he was hit by a pitch. YearHBP/TPA1986.41%1987.49%1988.33%1989.15%1990.48%1991.63%1992.82%1993.29%19941.27%1995.79%1996.15%19971.16%19981.14%1999.69%2000.49%20011.36%20021.47%20031.82%20041.46%20050% (only 52 plate appearances)20062.03% Now then, to further split things up, I feel there are two important dates we need to consider. Bonds first started wearing protection on his elbow in 1992. The armor evolved over the next few years, getting bigger, and bigger, and more complex and the last change appears to have come in 2001 when he got the behemoth he now wears. So let's take a look at the combined hit-by-pitch percentages for 1986-1991, 1992-2000, and 2001-Present: YearsHBP/TPA1986-1991.44%1992-2000.75%2001-Present1.46% There's a pretty clear progression there. The more armor Bonds wears the more he's getting hit. He walks to the plate with enough armor to make Sir Lancelot feel at home and he doesn't seem as gun shy about getting hit. He's hanging in there on those inside pitches and getting plunked while he waits for a choice outside pitch he can hammer. Of course this isn't 100% conclusive, I'd hate to rule out the possibility that as time went on more and more pitchers just started trying to put it in the jackass's ear. Related: Editor & Publisher - "Barry Bonds' HR Record Tainted by Elbow 'Armor'? 2049@http://www.robbernard.com/ Baseball 2007-08-07T00:43:35-05:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002048.html 1) Louisianans seem to think their 100% humidity is much more humid than Ohio's 100% humidity. 2) Hand Grenades® are darn tasty. 3) People get very friendly when you tell them you drove 900 miles to help repair their town. 4) A clothes dryer plugged into an improperly grounded 220 volt outlet can be a little tingly. 2048@http://www.robbernard.com/ Miscellaneous 2007-06-04T12:42:27-05:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002047.html So I just saw 28 Weeks Later and... I... honestly... hated it. And it's weird how the hatred has grown. Halfway through the movie it was "this is a great movie that, because of incompetent direction is just a good move". Then 3/4 of the way through it it was "this is a good movie that, because of incompetent direction is just an ok movie". Then leaving the theater it was "I... kinda... hated that...." Then by the time I got home it was "I haven't hated a movie this much since Million Dollar Baby". Every bit of good directing in this movie was a direct ripoff from Danny Boyle's directing of the first movie. None of that good directing was used in the scenes featuring The Infected, those were 100% Fresnadillo crap. ------------SPOILERS BELOW------------ Then you've got the fact that the movie ends a good half hour too soon. The escaping group accomplish absolutely nothing. They fight the Infected a grand total of 4 times and aside from being monumentally, earth-shakingly, APOCALYPTICALLY stupid the people in the group itself do absolutely nothing! Sniper guy shoots one soldier and pushes a car. Medical Lady gets her head bashed in. At no point in the chase did you actually have a moment of jeopardy because the bleeping fight scenes were cut so that you had no bleeping clue what was going on. You couldn't even tell whether the bleeping Infected father had managed to break into the room with the thousand civilians and even if you assumed he did you still couldn't tell whether he was attacking his son or some other person. People in the escape party just randomly disappear. Suddenly the shots are being cut every 12 frames and when you come to you're missing 3 more people but because there was no way for you to see how they bit it you don't give a flying bleep. They needed another half hour or so just to make it seem like they had done something. And then the kids... the kids are the bad guys in this movie and yet they never get their bleeping comeuppance! They are SOLELY responsible for every death that happened in this movie. The moment they bleeping left the bleeping safe zone they bleeping deserved to die, but no.... And they're not bleeping satisfied with being responsible for the deaths of fifteen-bleeping-thousand people, no, they go ahead and kill 5 BILLION! If anybody on that bloody island deserves to die it's these two but they bleeping live through it. I can deal with a downer ending where the good guys die, but nobody involved in this movie seemed to realize that these bleeping kids aren't the good guys and that they deserve every bleeping thing they got and tons more. 0/4 2047@http://www.robbernard.com/ Movies 2007-05-12T00:10:35-05:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002046.html 3 days before Opening Day and I've finally got the Reds' Season Ticket office admitting I should have had my Opening Day tickets by now. They originally said I should have had them 2 weeks beforehand. Then it was "you should have them by the end of [last] week", then it was "we sent them all out last Thursday or Friday so they should be there any time now", now it's "We have you down for 4 Power Packs, did you have Opening Day tickets" "Yeah" "Ok let me get your information and I'll call you back later today after I've found something out"... *waits for their call* 2046@http://www.robbernard.com/ Baseball 2007-03-30T11:12:57-05:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002045.html Limited of course to the movies I've seen. The Best of 2006: 1. Stranger Than Fiction 2. The Departed 3. V for Vendetta 4. The Queen 5. Dreamgirls 6. Children of Men 7. Pan’s Labyrinth 8. Thank You For Smoking 9. Letters from Iwo Jima 10. Brick 11. The Last Kiss The Worst of 2006: 1. Pulse 2. Date Movie 3. Failure to Launch 4. Employee of the Month 5. Click 6. Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny 7. The Break Up 2045@http://www.robbernard.com/ Movies 2007-02-23T10:58:33-05:00 http://www.robbernard.com/archives/002044.html I give myself until Oscar time to close out the books on the previous year's movies. So, without further ado, this is the list of the 2006 movies I've seen sorted by release date. February 17Date Movie March 10Failure to Launch March 17V for Vendetta March 17Thank You For Smoking March 24Lonesome Jim March 24Inside Man March 31Brick April 7Lucky Number Slevin April 28United 93 May 5Mission: Impossible III May 19Over the Hedge May 19The Da Vinci Code May 26X-Men: The Last Stand June 2The Break Up June 9Cars June 16The Lake House June 23Click June 28Superman Returns July 7A Scanner Darkly July 7Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest July 21Monster House July 21Clerks II July 26Little Miss Sunshine July 28Scoop August 4Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby August 11Pulse August 11Half Nelson August 18The Illusionist September 15Jesus Camp September 15The Last Kiss September 30The Queen October 6The Departed October 6Employee of the Month October 20Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D October 20The Prestige October 27Babel November 3Borat November 3Volver November 10Stranger Than Fiction November 17Casino Royale November 22Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny December 1The Nativity Story December 8Blood Diamond December 8Apocalypto December 15Dreamgirls December 15The Pursuit of Happyness December 20Letters from Iwo Jima December 20Rocky Balboa December 25Children of Men December 29Pan’s Labyrinth That's 50 (If we're counting The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D.) I'm actually a little surprised that that's a bit less than last year and the year before. 2044@http://www.robbernard.com/ Movies 2007-02-23T10:49:48-05:00