Hello, all. I know I have been all but a stranger hovering in the "used to post here" column, but I do still exist...even if just barely (and I'm not sure I mean that figuratively). So earlier today, which I guess by now would be yesterday I was working on an animation project for a friend, when I received a phone call from Mike (you all know Mike, right?). He was all excited about something that he had just found out, which by now he should have already mentioned on 'Pedal'. Apparently Angela Kinsey from NBC's The Office had written a post and mentioned how much she just loves this thing called "project:pedal". Mike was ecstatic, and I must say I was pretty hyped up for him. That was awesome. That good feeling rode us out till the night when we had reserved tickets to see a Thursday night screening of Iron Man at the Arclight theater in downtown Hollywood.
I have to say, for as excited as we were to see it and the amount of anticipation that we had built up for us, it amazingly did not let us down. I going to go out on a limb and say best comic book adaptation, yet. Yeah, yeah, Batman Begins was a great, solid movie, but I think this was just a more enjoyable, adrenalyn-rushed movie. As a coupe de grace Jon Favreau and Robert Downey, Jr. came running into the theater as they were about to start the film to give a quick hello. That was CRAZY! Now, Mike has a bit of a 'man-crush' on Robert Downey, Jr. so he was both freaking out with excitement and exasperated that he forgot his camera. What were you thinking, Mike! It's the freakin' Arclight. Anything can happen! Heck, I met Will Ferrell there the first time I went and Leonardo DeCaprio and Tobey Macguire sat near us for Sin City. You just never know. They also had the actual suit RDJ wore in the movie, but again...no camera. I tried to take a few pictures with a phone. We'll have to see how the resolution turns out. But all in all a crazy-great night.
Plus, it was cool to just hang out with Mike again. I always have fun when we hang out together, but at some point it just stopped happening. Heck, we moved out here from Michigan together, have a lot of similar interests, and have shared a small apartment for over four years and we've become all but strangers. It's really kind of sad. I love Mike and we have fun hanging out, but it just doesn't really happen. I don't remember the last time we actually did anything together. Oh wait, now I do...it was also Iron Man related, but NOT in the way you think. That is NOT quite as awesome a story, so we'll just leave that be to laughed at on a later day. Wow...
One last little post-script, and this is mostly for the comic book fans out there -DO NOT get up until after the credits. Believe me, you will NOT be sorry. I told Mike that I thought the ending was perfect, they showed me it could be even...more perfecter. Mike's bladder, unfortunately, decided that he would not be sticking around for the credits and he missed it (stupid bladder!). People not in the know may think it's cool, but those who know will probably end up like myself: Screaming, "Whoa!" and just sitting there with my mouth dropped. Either way, you're going to love this movie.

I was so surprised and excited yesterday when I got the Babelgum email updating Amanda and I on our status in their online film festival (that I mentioned here last week). We have jumped from #11 (only top 10 qualify) to #5! I am flattered. I am pumped. I am scared like hell that we'll get bumped off now - I'm sure there's a lot of people who are either a) barely hanging on to the top 10, or b) just a few places behind like we were last week.


The voting ends May 7th, which leaves *exactly* six days from now to hang on.


I know a ton of you voted already - and I want to give you each giant bear hugs for it - but if there's anyone you know (a friend... a friend of a friend) who might be into our little project, and would be likely to take a moment for good karma, you can use the "share this" tool at the foot of the post to share our instructions on how to vote for 64 Days.


It's a great little tool - it makes it super simple to re-post a new blog, share on Facebook, or even something as fast as a Twitter. I'm holding my breath and keeping my fingers crossed... the idea of finding ourselves in the top 10 for this contest makes me a little light headed. Too much excitement and suspense. Thanks to everyone! It means the world to us!

So, I've been meaning to sit down and write about how much this was bugging me for the last week. The other day, while sitting in traffic on the 405, I was telling my Mom over the phone about some of the stories I'd been reading regarding ABC's investigation on torture. More importantly: who approved it. It didn't help my nerves to find out that my Mom hadn't heard anything about it - I'm sure many people haven't either.

Since the details of the 5 month long investigation were reported (on April 9th), it's basically been a non-issue in the main stream media. Shocking.



I wish I were more surprised that a) this administration, at the highest levels (Cheney, Rice, Tenet, Rumsfeld, Powell, and Ashcroft), personally oversaw and gave the go-ahead on torture... let that word sink in a bit, our tax dollars and "representatives" hard at work: torture... torture.

Or that b) this information is reported and no one bats a fucking eye. Eh, who cares, it's only torture. We all like the show 24, right? Real life is just like, isn't it? No big deal. I'm sure people won't look at me 20 years from now and wonder if I was one of the blood-lusting, chest-thumping idiots who thought this kind of behavior was fine and/or "keeping us safe".



I love thinking back to the leaked pictures of the prison camps and the wave of talking points that followed, relieving us of any worry or responsibility by assuring us it was "only a few bad apple". While at the same time, people *in the white house* were sitting in their comfy office chairs, looking at pictures of strangers deemed "enemy combatants", deciding who would be tortured by simulated drowning, who would be tortured via hanging them up by their arms for 6 hours at a time, who would be tortured by sleep deprivation and freezing temperatures, who would be held under water while 2 or 3 men punched the hell of the person's stomach.


It's important to remember that this policy of torture has killed, what is it now, 35 people, if I remember correctly. Maybe a few more, maybe a few less, but the number is really irrelevant - the policy in and of itself is damning enough. Our government has tortured... our government has killed people who were never given a trial.


I can't help but picture the man I watched in a 60 Minute's piece two weeks ago, he was 22 when he was randomly picked off a bus at a routine road stop. He was then paid a bounty for by the government, $3,000 per head... not a bad way for a person to make some cash on the side in a war torn region of the world, eh?

So he was then put into a prison camp, no one was ever told about his detention, no lawyers were notified, no family members knew where he was. He was around my brother's age. And our government beat him daily, put him in freezing cells, and blasted music for days straight, they held him under water while they punched his body, they hung him by metal chains in an airplane hanger for days, every so often letting a doctor come take a look at his eyes and heart to determine if he could withstand it any longer.

Turns out this man, by both the US and European government was excused, they admitted they had made a mistake. By then it had been years... the camp was instructed to release him in a few weeks. Three... more... years went by. Three years. Of beatings... of torture... he lost five years of his life. I can't help but think of my family going through this, the man was from Germany... what if this was someone I knew, what if this was my brother. What if he was snatched up... and beaten for years... would I recognize him when he was finally released? Would he be the same? Would I ever really get my brother back?

It makes me sick to think of this - to *know* now, to without a doubt *know* that our government tortures. It's no longer a sneaking suspicion... or a "few bad apples"... we have fucking transcripts from the meetings. I don't even know what to say... it just makes me ashamed. Anyone who doesn't feel like vomiting when thinking about this... needs their fucking head checked.

I have almost 40 GBs of little avi movies from my camera in iPhoto - and I know that if those were saved as mp4's instead, that I'd probably save a lot of space on my drives.



But the problem is - there's no easy way, that I can think of, to take the movies I have in iPhoto now, replace them with newly exported mp4's and put back in the same spot retaining all their info. Does anyone have a way to do this?