Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Christmas Truce 1914

A TV commercial that captures the essence of the Christmas Truce 1914



Merry Christmas

Sunday, December 7, 2014

A Day of Infamy - Pearl Harbor 1941

A moment of silence and the flag at half staff at Grouch estates for the memory of the day of infamy, December 7th, 1941.

I worked with a Pearl Harbor survivor some years ago.  Art was a young Marine and a bugler aboard a ship on that day.  The memory of the day was vivid for him and he shared those memories with me several times.

A salute to all of those who gave their lives that day.



A six minute film worth a watch.  I saw the Japanese two man sub captured at Pearl Harbor when it was on display at the Naval station in Key West sometime in the late 60s when I visited as a kid.

A rare product endorsement - Skp DR for DVD and CD

So the Missus and I were at Best Buy last night buying some Christmas CDs for her.  I went over to look at stereo amps as mine is apparently just about kaput.  They only had two models for sale (both base models) and only the high end amps have input for turntables which is what isn't working very well on my stone age amp. They didn't have any of those since no one listens to stereos any more anyway.   Looks like it is a high end amp for me!

While there I spied a gizmo for sale that claimed to buff off scratches on DVDs and CDs so that they will play properly.  I was skeptical but for $30 I figured why not and I hadn't bought anything that day so I took the plunge.

The device is a battery operated polishing wheel that takes off the top layer of a disk that contains the nicks and scratches that interfere with reading the data and subsequently playing properly.  As the instructions say, if the scratch is so deep that it compromises the data then nothing can help.

The Missus provided a Neil Diamond CD that refused to play a couple of tracks.  The surface was covered with tiny scratches and nicks. Perfect candidate!  Into the machine it went and out it came with a swirl pattern on its face and no scratches.  I then used the special polishing cloth on it, popped it in the CD player.  Presto!  it played perfectly.  Young Son retrieved his much loved and played Lord of the Rings DVD that refused to play a crucial scene of the movie due to some scratches.  Presto!  it was fixed and playing.

So far it has a 100% success rate.  The polishing wheel is good for 25 cleanings and then must be replaced.  Be sparing with the polishing fluid that is sprayed on the disk before it is polished.  I used too much and the disk came out of the machine sopping.

Who new this thing would actually work!

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/digital-innovations-dvddr-dvd-cd-repair-and-cleaning-system/2796958.p?id=1218351648444&skuId=2796958

Movie review "Hercules" with Dwayne Johnson

We rented "Hercules" with Dwayne Johnson last night.  Dwayne seems to be a nice guy version of Arnold, someone that you'd want as a friend and not just because he can always open those really tight lids on the spaghetti sauce jars.  He's appealing in every movie that I've seen with him in it.

This movie show cases him as Hercules of legend but with more back story and with not everything being what it seems.  It was a lot of fun with Dwayne's muscles on display, a beautiful woman and her son in peril, yet another bow wielding beauty by his side (what is it with girls and bows in movies over the last decade?), and slaughter by the score.  While watching the scene of a massed army on the move I couldn't help but wonder where the logistics 'tail' was for all those guys but then it was only a movie.

John Hurt chewed the scenery as he always does and turned in yet another good performance.  It was an unexpectedly fun movie, right up there with "John Carter of Mars" for movies with a high fun quotient that exceeded expectations.

Three stars out of four.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1267297/