Arg!

Avast, ye scallywags! Today, September 19, is International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

'Death to anyone who says we're violent!'

This business with the pope and the outrage over his statements about Islam is crazy.

Last week he gave a speech where he referenced a record of a 14th century conversation between Byzantine Christian emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, and a Persian scholar. Here is the piece of text he quoted:

“Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

The pope didn't say if he agreed with that sentiment at the time, but he sure is backing off from it now.

Muslims took this as a criticism. They thought the pope was saying Islam was a violent religion.

So how have they responded? With violence. Churches in the Middle East have been attacked. A nun in Somalia was murdered.

On Sunday the pope said he was “deeply sorry” about the angry reaction to his speech. The Vatican says the pope's use of the quote is being taken out of conext. Nonetheless, a militant group led by al Qaeda vowed a war against the “worshipers of the cross.”

But Islam is not a violent religion, right? At least it's not supposed to be. The Muslim leaders of the world need to do a better job reminding their followers of this fact.

'Studio 60' poised for success

This could be a good year for NBC. I think they’ve got a hit on their hands.

Earlier tonight I watched the pilot episode of the new show “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” and it looks like writer-producer Aaron Sorkin is poised to knock another one out of the park.

The show, about life behind the scenes of an SNL-like comedy show, is kind of a cross between his earlier shows “Sports Night” and “The West Wing.” Actually, it’s more like what “Sports Night” should have been had they not tried to squeeze that into a strictly-comedy mold (okay, maybe “Sports Night” wasn’t exactly knocked out of the park, but I liked it).

The great rapid-fire Sorkin dialogue is there. And I think Matthew Perry may have found a character that will make people forget about Chandler.

On the other hand, Bradley Whitford spent the entire episode in a jacket and tie, since the story begins with him at a Hollywood awards ceremony. As a result, it’s kind of hard to shake the image of his “West Wing” character. Hopefully that will change down the road.

I also have to give NBC a lot of credit for letting the show turn a harsh critical eye on themselves. Judd Hirsch’s rant at the start of the show skewers the current state of network TV, but takes a couple stabs at some NBC shows in particular—from “SNL” to “Fear Factor” to “The Apprentice” (without actually naming them, of course).

I’m looking forward to following this show.

By the way, look for a guest appearance by “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman, playing herself. She, of course, was one of the stars of “Sports Night.”

'We have the technology'

I was a big fan of "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman" back in the day. How cool is it that we now have a real life Steve Austin and Jamie Summers?

A former Marine from Arkansas recently became the first woman to be outfitted with a bionic arm.

A Tennessee man received a set of bionic arms back in 2001.

Meanwhile, a quick Google search turned up this picture of my first lunch box from 1st grade 1978...

Never, ever feed them after midnight...

Last night Kris and I caught part of the 1984 movie “Gremlins” on Sci-Fi.

We were debating whether or not the movie was appropriate for Nolan when we got to the part where Phoebe Cates’ character tells the horrible story of how her father died on Christmas Eve. He broke his neck trying to slide down the chimney of her family’s home in the Santa suit.

“That’s how I learned there was no Santa Claus,” she said.

Well, I guess that settles that debate…

Five years later...

Today is kind of a depressing day. If you watch the news, all you’re going to hear about is the anniversary of September 11th and the funeral for Trooper Joseph Longobardo.

There seems to be an enormous amount of attention paid to the anniversary of the attacks this year. Over the weekend, every time I flipped through the channels I would stumble across a special of some sort about the attacks—and I kept on flipping. Not because I didn’t care, but because it was just too depressing.

That got me thinking about our fascination with numbers. Is the fifth anniversary any more important or significant than the fourth was or the sixth will be? Yet there is something about the numbers divisible by 5 that makes them seem extra special. Why is that?

I had the Today show on this morning and I heard Matt Lauer remark about how there would be a moment of silence at Ground Zero at 8:46 a.m., when the first plane hit. He said he was sure there would be a similar moment of silence in every town and city in the country.

But at about that time, I was getting ready to leave for work. I kissed my wife goodbye. I noted the painters hard at work on my neighbor’s house. On the radio Mike & Mike were recapping Sunday s football games. People were walking up and down the street and in and out of the nearby grocery store. Life was moving on.

And maybe that’s the greatest tribute on 9/11. Americans are still going about their daily lives in the face of a world threatened by terrorism.

Double-Oh-Awesome!

I am psyched for “Casino Royale!” A lot of people have had reservations about Daniel Craig and the new direction of the James Bond films. To them I say: check out the new trailer! This movie looks very cool.

I read Ian Flemming’s “Casino Royale,” the first Bond novel, last year. Looking at this trailer it looks like parts of the movie are going to be pretty faithful to the book.

Obviously, there are also plenty of parts that are completely original. But then, the book did come out in 1953. It’s in pretty serious need of an updating. Besides, it didn’t have a ton of action in it.

Don’t get me wrong. I like the Pierce Brosnan films a lot. But it looks like this more serious approach to Agent 007 is going to succeed in getting him back to his Ian Flemming, “Dr. No” roots.

Starting school

It sounds like the first day of pre-school was a resounding success.

When Chester and I came back from our early-morning walk a little before 7 a.m. we found Thomas already dressed and ready for the day. Of course, his school doesn’t start until 9:15.

Nolan’s bus picks him up at about 7:30. When he was getting ready to leave, Thomas ran to the closet and put on his shoes. He then got his backpack and proceeded to fill it with every one of his Thomas the Tank Engine trains. He couldn’t understand why Nolan was getting leave while he had to wait longer.

But wait he did and when the time came Kris and I both took him to his school. It was an odd feeling. He’s going to the same pre-school Nolan went to. So we had been there plenty of time before, but of course this was different.

When it came time to enter his classroom he was a little apprehensive. But he soon found a cool table filled with macaroni and toy dump trucks to play with, and that was all he needed. I don’t think he even realized we left.

When Kris picked him up he couldn’t wait to tell her about every detail of everything that happened! With Nolan the conversation would go like, “How was school?” “Good.” “What did you do?” “Stuff.”

If the first day is any indication, it seems like pre-school is going to be a great experience for Thomas.

Back to school

The alarm clock went off at 6:45 a.m. this morning. I went downstairs to feed the dog and start making the coffee.

Soon after came Nolan, all dressed and ready for the first day of school.

After breakfast he was ready to gear-up and head out for the bus. He had his backpack and another bag full of back-to-school supplies he needed to bring in on the first day.

His backpack looks pretty cool. When we went camping over the summer, he completed a book full of puzzles and quizzes about the environment. That earned him a “junior naturalist” patch, which Kris sewed onto his backpack. It looks really good.

He didn’t want a big fuss at the bus stop. I insisted on one picture, but I promised not to take one of him getting on the bus.

He’ll be getting home in a couple of hours and I can’t wait to hear from him—especially about his first experience with lunch in the cafeteria!

Tomorrow it will be Thomas’ turn…

The digital frontier

Last night I got my first glimpse of the “new and improved” version of the original “Star Trek.”

As you may have heard, the classic “Trek” series is going back into broadcast syndication this year with updated modern CG effects.

You can get an idea what the shows will look like at STAR TREK: Enhanced. The site is from one of the guys behind the new effects. It features some clips, including a side-by-side comparison of his “proof of concept” video playing next to the original footage. It shows the first few minutes of the episode “The Doomsday Machine.”

I’m not sure what to make of it. Yeah, it looks good—certainly better than it used to. The changes are not as drastic as the changes George Lucas made to the “Star Wars” movies.

But was it necessary? I don’t think so. With all good sci-fi, the story matters more than the effects. And in 2006, the cheesy effects are part of the original show’s charm.

Who Wants to Live Forever

Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, would have turned 60 years old today. Wow.

Sadly, Mercury died of pneumonia complicated by AIDS in 1991.

Mercury was a great performer and Queen was truly one of the best bands around in the 1970s and 80s.

Freddie died much too soon. I’d love to know what Queen would have done throughout the 90s and into today.

Meanwhile, Mercury’s birthday is causing controversy in Zanzibar. He was born there when the country was still a British protectorate. A huge beach party is planned for this weekend there to celebrate the occasion. But a Muslim leader in Zanzibar wants the party banned because Mercury’s gay lifestyle conflicts with Muslim teachings.

Summer wrap-up

Well, summer is basically over. Labor Day has come and gone and tomorrow Nolan goes back to school.

For having no plans, we kept pretty busy over the weekend.

On Saturday we took the kids to the main the branch of the Schenectady County Library to kill the morning. We picked up a ton of books and some DVDs: “Bionicle: Mask of Light” for Nolan, a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD for Thomas and “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” for mom and dad.

After the library, we stopped by mom’s for lunch. Later in the afternoon, the Rooney boys all got haircuts (we have a great barber—Kris!).

That night we flattened out the futon in the basement and we all watched Nolan’s Bionicle movie together. I’m not that familiar with the Bionicle toys, but apparently they’re some kind of spin-off of Legos. The movie was kind of like “Lord of the Rings” with robots. We all thought it was pretty cool.

On Sunday Nolan’s friend Danny came over to play. Meanwhile, Thomas and I spent some time hanging out at Barnes & Noble where he played with the train table there. Then we walked over to PetSmart to check out the animals.

We had dinner with mom that night. Then after the kids went to bed we popped in “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and quickly proceeded to both fall asleep. We’re both fans of Kevin Spacey and John Cusack, but this movie just couldn’t hold us.

On Monday we headed over to the Sportsplex of Halfmoon. It’s a large indoor soccer facility. They have an area in there they call Tippy’s Play Zone. It’s a space filled with three bouncy bounces and plenty of soccer balls, kick balls, footballs and all sorts of other fun sports equipment for kids to play with. We met our friends, the Price family, there and had a great time.

So those are the highlights of our final summer weekend. It seems like it wasn’t that long ago I was blogging about the start of summer. We’ll have updates on the start of school and preschool soon.

Sad death downunder

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin killed
(AP): "AP - Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and conservationist known as the 'Crocodile Hunter,' was killed Monday by a stingray while filming off the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44."

This is truly sad news. Steve Irwin was very entertaining and had a very likable TV personality. I remember when Nolan was about 3 years old, we used to wake up on Saturday mornings and watch "Croc Files," the Discovery Kids version of his show "The Crocodile Hunter."

He wil surely be missed by many.

Belated camping shots

As I mentioned before, I pulled out our camera while camping in New Hampshire last weekend only to discover the batteries dead and I didn’t have nay back-ups with me.

We were camping with our friends, Mike & Sharon Reed, and fortunately their camera was working just fine. Sharon e-mailed us a bunch of photos and a couple of videos yesterday.

Pictured here are Nolan and Thomas with Simon and Ava Reed. This was taken during a nature hike at the campground we were staying at.

I’ve youtubed the videos she sent. The first is of Nolan and Simon on the swings…



The second clip shows a Rooneys vs. Reeds volleyball match…

An Inspirational Enterprise

You’ve all seen those “Successories” posters before. You know, the ones that have some sort of nature picture or an athlete making an amazing play and it will say something like “DETERMINATION” with some sort of inspirational quote or message under it.

Well, a “Star Trek” fan with too much free time has created a series of Star Trek inspirational posters.

A co-worker found this site. He uses the one pictured here as his desktop wallpaper.

Some other good ones include:

“EXPENDABILITY: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Ensign Ricky are beaming down to the planet. Guess who's not coming back.

“INGENUITY: Yes, it is perfectly reasonable that Kirk had the know-how to make the gunpowder and put together the bazooka to defeat the Gorn. That's why he's the goddamn Captain.”

“KOBAYASHI MARU: It's okay to cheat, if you just really don't like to lose.”

If you’re a Trek fan then you'll find them pretty funny. Check it out.

Crash course

I was already running late to get home from work last night. I wound up being even later after getting rear-ended.

I was on Route 7 near Lisha Kill Road when the car in front of me braked suddenly. I quickly hit my brakes and avoided hitting the car. Then I remembered to check for that minivan that was tailgating me. I glanced in the rearview mirror and instantly knew what was going to happen next…CRASH!

No body was hurt. I had a little headache last night. That’s about it.

The car has a couple of gashes in the back bumper. That will have to be replaced. Near as I can tell, everything else seems fine.

This is the third time in less than a year my car has been involved in some sort of collision. In December someone backed into it when it was parked on the side of the road. In February a woman stepped out in front of me during a snowstorm, causing me to swerve and hit a guardrail. Now this. Needless to say, I’m on a first name basis with the guy at the body shop.

Just to add insult to injury, when I got home I was a little flustered getting out of the car and wound up locking the keys in it. We only have one key for my car. It’s one of those keys with a microchip in it and it costs about $60 to get a copy. We’ve never got around to doing that. Anyway, we wound up having to call AAA to get to get the car open.

Tigers vs. Yankees

The Tigers are playing the Yankees in a day-night double header today. That has Nolan excited.

At some point earlier in the season I told him that the Tigers were really good this year. Not long after that he decided he was a Tigers fan in addition to being a Yankee fan.

So who is he rooting for today? He insists he's rooting for both teams.

Meanwhile, the cable is out here in Menands. So I guess I'll have to actually do some work.

Blame Canada

"South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, while speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in Scotland, said they have it on good authority the Marines guarding Saddam Hussein have been making him watch their movie "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut."

In a subplot to the hysterical 1999 movie, Saddam dies and goes to Hell where he engages in a homosexual relationship with Satan.

Fender-bender, shmender-bender

How does a big league ball player smash his brand new Porche into a county-owned garbage truck without anyone finding out about it?!?

Nature vs Nurture

So I had a dentist appointment today and my good friend Marlene watched the kids so I could go. I was having a busy day with lots of work at home in the morning (still recuperating from camping) and rushing to this appointment. I get back to her house and her daughter Stephanie was crying like she had been hurt. Thomas had just finished wacking her with a metal pole. Poor Marlene blames herself for having the pole out! Of course, Thomas is tired and he gets himself in trouble when that happens. What's a mom to do? We apologized and decided we won't do that next time (how many times have I heard that one?). I can't tell you how many times I have said no hitting, please listen to me, be nice to your friends, ... And I'm as nonviolent and noncompetitive as they come. But I tell you, Thomas definately pushes the envelope with me. He teaches me constantly what it is to be patient and non-impulsive, things he still has yet to grasp. And Chris is laid back and calm, while Thomas is all about the drama. Thomas impresses me with his ability to laugh when being yelled at and defying for the fun of it; these ideas never occurred to me when I was little, Miss Goody-goody. So are we as parents at fault? Is the nurture part of the arguement to blame? Or is it his nature and personality, things we can't really control? As a matter of fact, the more I do try to be strict and control him, the worse it is. Having a "home-grown" child and an adopted one does make me think a lot more about the nature vs. nurture debate, especially because they are so different. Of course, Thomas is only 3 and I just keep hoping these challenging traits will serve him well as an adult. In the end, he is an adorable, intelligent, little imp that I love to pieces. Even when I do yell at him and have bad parent moments at times, I hope he always knows that.