As many of you know, I have been spending much of my time shuttling between Chicago and Detroit, where my parents were born and my grandmother lived. Tonight, just 3 days before her 90th birthday, she passed away. The loss of a grandparent is always hard, but this loss is harder as she was my last grandparent. I was blessed to know all of my grandparents, having all four of them in my life until I was 23. I even knew 4 of my great-grandparents. Eleanor was my Polish, Roman Catholic foundation of my family. Always reminding me why it was important to remember that my heritage was 50% Polish, but I was 100% American. A woman who never learned how to drive, and only learned how to balance a check book at the age of 75 when my grandfather became ill. While I never fulfilled her dream of getting married while she was alive, she will always be with me. As you can probably understand, I will probably not be blogging until late next week.

Here is what's coming out today ... Movies Beyond Borders (Widescreen SE) Dirty Pretty Things (2002) Fresh Horses Gothika (Widescreen SE) Honey (Widescreen) Love Don't Cost A Thing (Widescreen) Ransom: SE Rundown (Widescreen) Singing Detective, The Splash: 20th Anniversary SE Steely Dan: Gaucho Vampire Effect Music Cherie Cherie World Gone Crazy [CD-SINGLE] Dub Pistols Hell Hath No Fury (Bonus Dvd) [EXPLICIT LYRICS] Clipse Hell Hath No Fury (Bonus Dvd) (Clean) [LIMITED EDITION] [CLEAN] Clipse Hell Hath No Fury [EXPLICIT LYRICS] Clipse Hell Hath No Fury (Clean) [CLEAN] Clipse my pic(s) of the week: For those interested, I use DVD Price Search for upcoming movie tracking and Amazon's New Releases Page for music

I got a IM telling me to check out this link, and its just a precursor of the marketing blitz that is to come with the upcoming Doom3 release. Just as the Age of Mythology board game, the Doom boardgame will follow the basic story. The problem is that the details of the story are still not known! Anyways, here is a preview.

Anyone that reads this site knows that I am a huge Dream Theater fan, and on Friday night, I went to their first stop in Chicago on the "Train of Thought World Tour 2004" tour. For someone who has seem them alot (close to 20 times or so), it was a great concert. The upgraded stage performance was great, with 3 huge screens showing video and designs throughout the show. The sound was great, much better than at the Aragon this past summer. They played some songs that I haven't heard in a while, such as The Mirror (without interruption as they normally do), To Live Forever, Fortune of Lies, Trail of Tears (I think they have only played that once in Chicago ever). All of the new CD, Train of Thought, was played minus "Honor Thy Father." The second set opened with "The Glass Prison" off the last CD, "6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence," and then DT went right into "This Dying Soul" off the new CD. For those that do not know, "This Dying Soul" is Part 2 of "The Glass Prison." The

Here is what's coming out today ... Movies 21 Grams Absolutely Fabulous: Series #5 Cheaper By The Dozen (1950) Commitments (2-Disc Collector's Edition) Dangerous Liaisons (Les Liaisons Dangereuses) Dr. Seuss' The Cat In The Hat (2003/Widescreen) Dream Catcher (1999) Flintstones: Season #1 Hitchhiker (HBO) Kung Fu: Season #1 Mac Married... With Children: The Complete 2nd Season Ned Kelly (1970) Onibaba (Criterion) Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? Seasons One & Two Music The Way / Solitaire [CD-SINGLE] Clay Aiken Very Best of Jackson Browne [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Jackson Browne Grown Backwards David Byrne The Other Side Godsmack Heritage Irish Tenors Beethoven's Wig 2: More Sing-Along Symphonies Beethoven's Wig 2: More Sing-Along Symphonies Frustration Plantation [Limited Edition with Bonus Cd] [LIMITED EDITION] Rasputina Patience [IMPORT] George Michael Love Profusion / Nothing Fails [CD-SINGLE] Madonna Dreaming i

I get asked a lot why I do not post anything about politics on this site. The main reason is that this site's main purpose is to serve as a place for those that interact with me on a professional level to get some information. Specifically, my role as a Technical Specialists consultant at PSC. So I have chosen not to bring certain parts of my personal life and views into this space, so that it does not interfere with the image of PSC or myself as one of the many faces of PSC. So that's why ... But that brings me to something I think is appropriate for this space. It doesn't matter if you are right or left, conservative or liberal, or somewhere in the middle, politics is about being involved. That starts with voting. My opinion is that you do not have a right to complain, criticize, or do and say whatever about your elected officials if you did not vote. Its the price to complain as I put it :) Seriously, here in Illinois we have our primary tomorrow. Candidates are com

Got this link from Brian/Cobra, and it just reinforces the idea that being a referee can be more dangerous than being a player!

Check this out ... someone is now claiming to be the person in the photos (here is the article on WorldNetDaily) that we have seen since 1967. I am so bummed ... I thought Bigfoot was real! :)

This is so funny ... Alice Regina Pike really must think Walmart is dumb to try to pass of a homemade one million dollar bill. Yeah, I know, I didn't believe it myself. Check it out on the Smoking Gun. Thanks Brian @ Cobra

Here is what's coming out today ... Movies Anne Frank Remembered Broken Silence Futurama #3 Jigsaw Mona Lisa Smile Mother, Jugs And Speed (1976) Myra Breckenridge (1970) No Turning Back (2001) One Million Years B.C. Onibaba: Criterion Collection Raquel Welch Collection (Box Set) Scenes From A Marriage : Criterion Collection Schindler's List (Collector's Gift Set) Schindler's List (Widescreen) Slugger's Wife, The Ten Commandments: Special Collector's Edition Music Something Beautiful Great Big Sea 8th World Wonder [CD-SINGLE] Kimberley Locke Wonderful Town (2003 Broadway Revival Cast) [SOUNDTRACK] Leonard Bernstein, et al Into the Now Tesla Daniel in Blue Jeans Daniel O'Donnell Your Country Graham Parker Give Bad Plus Here Come the Brides [ENHANCED] Brides of Destruction Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand Two Way Monologue Sondre Lerche my pic(s) of the week: Ten Commandments is my favorite Heston movie, and Onibaba should be good

So, what did everyone think of the beginning of The Sopranos, Season 5? I thought it was a big slow, as some of the press have said (DO NOT READ if you have not seen, spoiler warning), but its still The Soporanos. Anyone wanna take bets on which major cast member will die first?

So if you are like me, you probably nuke your OS partition and reinstall Windows a couple times a year. But doing the install is a pain! So here is a very detailed way to create a CD that will prompt you for your Name, CD Key, Timezone, and Region info and then just install. You can even include other software! Instructions here

I just learned from Shacknews that UT 2004 has gone GOLD! For those of you that do not know what the means, "Gold" refers to the master version that gets manufactured and shipped. So the game is 'done' and should be in the stores by March 15th. If you are like me, and are getting bored with the military tactical 'one hit and your dead' games, UT 04 is a great mix of the old free for all shooter games (like Quake ][ and Quake3Arena) with enough team play and vehicles (Battlefield 1942 and Halo) to keep everyone happy. And its all purty :) Anyone of for a fragging?

So for those of you that love trivia and puzzles, check out the Movie Alphabet Game. And for those of you that know your computer games, check out the Computer Game Alphabet Game. How many can you get? L is the hardest in the Computer Game version by far.

So yes, I know this is a MAJOR delayed reaction, but the final installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Return of the King, won 11 Oscars. That puts it in a 3-way tie for most ever (with Ben-Hur and Titanic), but it is the first Scifi/Fantasy movie ever to win best picture and the first movie to ever win all 11 the awards it was nominated for! As a fan, it warms my heart to see all of the hard work recognized. Especially Peter Jackson. Talk about giving yourself over to a project. And with ROTK having surpassed the 1 Billion mark in worldwide ticket sales, it seems that the 300 million dollar bet of New Line Cinema's was justified. Nice to see a fantasy movie made well. You can argue many of the plot changes all you want, but you can not argue that it is the best movie of the fantasy category ever. Let's just hope that the inevitable jump on the fantasy bandwagon yields us some high quality movies, not just average B movies.

Here is what's coming out today ... Movies American Dream Cold Creek Manor (2003) Cracker: Series 2 Looney Tunes: Back in Action (Widescreen) Mad Dog And Glory Mr. Toad's Wild Ride Peanuts Classic: Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown Peyton Place School Of Rock, The (Widescreen) Space Camp (1986) Stargate SG-1: Season #6 Box Set Starsky & Hutch: The Complete First Season Take This Job & Shove It (1981) Tales From Avonlea #1 Walt: The Man Behind The Myth Music Best of Hootie & The Blowfish 1993-2003 Hootie & The Blowfish Spend My Time Clint Black When It Falls Zero 7 Cee-Lo Green Is the Soul Machine [EXPLICIT LYRICS] Cee-Lo In This Skin [Collector's Edition] Jessica Simpson Guilt Show Get Up Kids Tha Down Low Various Artists The Musical of Musicals (2003 Original Off-Broadway Cast) Eric Rockwell, et al Hidalgo (Score) [SOUNDTRACK] James Newton Howard My Heart Sissel m