I love watching movies. Dramas, action, suspense, sci-fi, comedies, animation, romantic, foreign...really, pretty much anything. And I truly believe that nothing improves the movie watching experience like having a home theater system. We (OK, this must be the “royal We” because Dana really had NOTHING to do with driving this decision) made a big upgrade to our system a few years ago, and I still love and enjoy it every time we turn it on. We use our front pr...

The week away from blogging clearly left a pent up demand! This will be my final blog about the Disney Magic cruise bringing the total commentary on the trip to about 7000 words and meaning that you can either be A) sad that our magical journey is drawing to a close or B) happy that you will no longer have to read in seething, agonizing jealousy about all the great fun that I had.

To recap,

In the first part of my recap of our 7-day Disney Magic cruise, I talked about our state room, the dining and how Disney-clean the ship was. Sure, this nuts-and-bolts stuff is kinda interesting, but not really very fun. Today, I'm getting to the fun stuff.

This post is going to talk ...

Well, I’m back. After 7 nights with family aboard the Disney Magic cruise ship, I have once again returned to the land of the eternal grinding millstone. And first, I’d like to say with all due respect to you readers, that it was great to be away and that it sucks to be back! No matter how much you love your job, a good vacation is enough to let you know that you would really rather be off doing something else...

But back I am...

“I'm on a boat, I'm on a boat, Everybody look at me, 'Cause I'm sailing on a boat! I'm on a boat, I'm on a boat, Take a good hard look, At the mother blanking boat!

I'm on a boat and it's going fast. I'm the king of the world, on a boat like Leo, If you're on the shore, then you're sure not me, oh!” -- Lonely Island

For a change, this is a *very* literal title; I AM ...

About a month ago, I succumbed to the overwhelming Force pressure and bought the latest release of the Star Wars saga on Blu-ray. And while I haven’t gotten around to watching all six films – yet! – I did take a quick perusal of some key scenes for my

I am fascinated with product placements in movies. Seriously. I *live* for those subtle things that so many other people just gloss over. Like the brand of watch that a character is wearing, or the bottle of wine on the table or perhaps the pen they use to sign a contract. Someone went to the trouble of hand-selecting each and every one of those items and likely put some thought into why the character would have or use the particular prop. And when done correctly, it totally fl...

There was a brief, yet magical period a few years ago when Sound + Vision's feature’s editor, Mike Gaughn, had the idea of running a how-to column in each issue. I think it was in something called “The Tech Zone” or the like and the feature section was titled Step-by-Step.  As in, “Here are the step-by-step instructions for you to go forth and do…something.” Kind of a For Dummies type of thing, without the awkwardness of a potenti...

At the risk of unleashing a tidal wave of “I told ya so!” and “Shoulda bought a Mac!” comments, I’m going to admit that all has not been totally prancing unicorns,  pots o' gold and sparkly rainbows in the land of my new Sony Vaio laptop purchase.

(Pauses to allow the uproarious “BWA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAAAA!” from Matt, Chris, Richard, Bradford and Pat to die down.)

...

“If the office super store was supposed to put us suppliers out of business, why are we still here? Take a look at where you are. Where you once worked in a dying industry, you now work at its birth. Those super stores are terrified of us. Anybody know why? Let me tell you how I buy something these days. I know what I want; I go on the Internet, I get the best price. I don't know what I want; I go to a small store that can help me. The era of personal service is back. ...

Like many of you, I am sitting here right now trying to come to terms with the awful, awful news that Steve Jobs has passed away. (In a bit of irony that I hope Steve would appreciate, I happen to be writing this on a PC. At least until it crashes, Steve.)  I feel oddly deflated. I feel like my best friend has moved away. I feel like I have lost something that I didn’t realize just how important it was until now that it is gone. And I feel like I could just start cry...

Yes, I realize that CEDIA 2011 is now three weeks in the bag at this point. The show is dead and buried, and the first little bugs and crawly critters are just starting to work their way into the casket to start gnawing away on the fleshly memories and other juicy bits. But I’ve been busy and still have a few other things I want to talk about from the show. And, since it’s my blog, I’m resurrecting CEDIA 2011 at least one more time to talk about some of the co...

I posted a story days ago about finding that thing which motivates you to do whatever it is that you do. Is it for the money? Is it for the recognition? Is it for some semblance of prestige? Or maybe it's to have some amazing experience.

I started counting down the best experiences that have been op...