'Lie to Me' may be over-the-top but the "House-like" Lead Character is Great.

I just finished watching the second episode of FOX's new series 'Lie to Me'.  I must say, it hasn't jumped the shark yet. Dr. Cal Lightman (Tim Roth) runs an operation where he and his staff make a living from telling if people are lying.  You would normally think of a small office suite that is pretty plain-looking.  The staff would be a few boring people.  Things around the office would seem quiet.  You would be poorly mistaken when it comes to "The Lightman Group".  They have set up shop in a large office complex.  The decor is white and modern.  They have several conference rooms and offices that look like they belong to a large-scale design firm.  The high ceilings are needed since almost every room has a huge screen to project images and video onto.  The other walls are artfully decorated with photographs of people's faces (along with discriptions of what their facial expressions are saying).  I'm sure there's decent money in what they do there, but it doesn't seem to be able to finance this over-the-top setup. Aside from my "complaints" about the unlikely workplace, Dr. Lightman is the new generation of the "cool boss that breaks the rules".  His predecessor is obviously Dr. Gregory House (of 'House').  House is still on the air and this show is in no way a replacement.  I just catch the drift that FOX realized what they were onto with House and wanted to milk the idea for a little more.  Dr. Lightman is an ace when it comes to finding the truth.  He will use uncommon methods of lying and deception is he needs to.  He did this a few times in the recent episode.  He took an old man's cane, threw it down and called out in pain.  Elder abuse?  Nope.  He did it to bring the old man's family member out of hiding.  Another example was his way of teaching his staff a lesson about the uselessness of  a polygraph.  He gave a victim some Valium to calm her down so she could tell lies.  In the long run, it worked out when a witness of the procedure actually admitted to his own wrongdoings.  If these types of actions don't just scream out "HOUSE!", then I don't know what will. I'll keep watching and enjoying the show for the time being.  Plus, I see a blossoming relationship that may be growing between two of the staffers.  When all else fails, throw in some bedroom action.  FOX knows that this will keep the viewers coming back. In all seriousness, though, I am learning quite a bit about visual cues that people give that show anger, frustration, sadness, etc.  This part is completely true since they are based off of the real-life scientific discoveries of Paul Ekman. If you have missed the first episodes of the show, click here to see them on Hulu. [digg=http://digg.com/television/Lie_to_Me_may_be_over_the_top_but_the_House_like_Lead_Ch]

18 [sheltered, brainwashed & ignorant] Children and Counting

There are several hit "way-too-many-kids shows" on TLC currently.  The one I have the most issues with is also the largest family.  It's the documentary-style story of the Duggar family. Jim-Bob and Michelle Duggar just had their EIGHTEENTH CHILD on December 18th, 2008 and I don't see them slowing down any time soon.  Here is their reasoning behind having all of the kids:  Michelle was on birth control when they first got married.  She stopped taking it so they could have their first child.  She resumed the birth control.  She then had a miscarriage.  Their Christian doctor told them that birth control posed a risk of miscarriage.  She stopped birth control and they decided to go about their business and allow the lord to decide when they should have children. Ok, so that's their choice to believe.  I don't have a problem with that.  It starts getting weird when you watch the show and see exactly how they are raising the children.  They home-school all of the children with a gentle mix of bible teachings and "regular" education.  This causes the kids to be sheltered from regular life and forced to be best friends with each other. The parents are very open about their conservative Christian values and beliefs.  I feel that they are sincere in the choices that they have made.  Things change when they show interviews of the kids.  You can tell that they have been deeply brainwashed.  They are asked a question and it's almost like their answers are being read from a script that has been ingrained in their mind since infancy. They act very strange too.  The boys all dress similar and the girls all dress similar.  As a cost-saving measure, the children cut each others hair (and hence, share the same hairstyles). From watching a few episodes of the show I catch a bad vibe about what will happen to these kids when they grow up and get out into the 'real world'.  Things can go very bad very quickly to someone that has been so sheltered.  All it would take is one of them to get into a bad situation later in life and not know what to do when someone hands them a shot glass or a joint.  In one episode the parents visited San Francisco and walked around with looks on their faces that made it seem like they were from the 1800's.  The father pointed to glass pipes in a head shop and said "That's some interesting glassware".  He had no idea what he was looking at. It's not all bad, though.  The family makes their money by owning some commercial property that they rent out.  They are obvious great teachers to the kids when it comes to making a good living.  They also do all of their clothes shopping at thrift stores.  These parts of the show are actually quite satisfying to watch.  Most things you see on TV show the average American family living above their means and running up credit card debt. This last part doesn't completely reverse the bad stuff.  I think they would be better off if they relaxed some of the rules and allowed the kids to attend public school.  They would get a good education and also be exposed to the stuff that kids need to be exposed to. [digg=http://digg.com/television/18_sheltered_brainwashed_ignorant_Children_and_Counting]

'Tis the season for reason

At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.   -Anne Nicol Gaylor (Co-President of Freedom From Religion Foundation) www.ffrf.org

I Still Celebrate Christmas (even though I don't believe in Santa or Jesus)

There's a lot of conflict among atheists when it comes to the Christmas question.  I read (and listen via podcast to) a lot of "freethought" material.  There are the 2 extremes of how atheists deal with Christmas. Far on the "anti" end of Christmas is Tom Flynn  He's the senior editor of "Free Inquiry" magazine and author of "The Trouble with Christmas".  He does absolutely nothing for Christmas and even treats December 25th as "another day at the office".  He has even mentioned his feelings on the "Merry Christmas" greeting heard by complete strangers this time of the year.  He responds with something to the effect of "That's OK, I don't celebrate Christmas". If that is one side of things the absolute opposite is easy to figure out.  Picture the storybook Christian family that participates in all of the traditions of the season.  They do everyhing from cutting a tree down and decorating it the whole way to going to church Christmas Eve for the nighttime service.  Picture if you will, they have a teenage son (or daughter) that has reached that age of critical thinking.  This teenager may have changed their feelings on religion but certainly won't be coming out as an atheist at the age of 14.  That would upset mom and dad way too much.  So, they continue participating in every facet of the holiday with their parents. I feel that my wife and I fall right in the middle of things.  We love this time of the year.  We love setting up our plastic Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving.  We love outlining the house in little white lights.  We love (not really) shopping for gifts.  We love the sights, sounds and smells of the holiday.  We don't have any kids yet, but we are still setting the foundation of our family's traditions that will live on for years to come.  I always say that we celebrate "Santa Christmas" instead of "Jesus Christmas" because it is sooooooo much more fun this way. The interesting thing about "Jesus Christmas" is almost none of it is original to Christianity.  Most people don't realize that many of the Christmas traditions have been around longer that Christianity.  The only part that directly comes from Christianity is the midnight mass.  The rest comes from other sources (mostly Pagan).  Aside from the presents, it seems that most people like decorating a tree the most.  The celebration of the evergreen is from the fact that it's the only tree that stays green year round (and thus giving promise for springtime to arrive).  That was a foundation of Winter Solstice celebrations long before people say that Christ lived.  I don't believe that he did, but that's another post for another day. This is getting long and I need to stop before I ramble on anymore.  I normally don't write posts of this length but you may consider it your Christmas present.

I am Appreciating the low Prices of Gasoline!

I bet you haven't heard that (or a similar comment) from anybody else. I believe that this is because we live in such a pessimistic society.  Think about the comments that you hear from people regarding news, the weather and politics. It seems that somewhere around 90% of comments that people make about these three topics is negative.  It's rare to hear someone talk about how the cold weather is so nice because it makes a warm house feel so much better at the end of the day.  You almost never hear a comment about the good things that our government does.  If you watch the news, they may give the feel-good story about a cute litter of orphaned kittens being raised by a golden retriever.  However, this story will follow the reports of local shootings, auto accidents and burglaries. A big thing everyone was complaining about several monthes back was the high cost to fill up at the gas station.  Now, the prices are down and people are complaining about something else instead of commenting that they can fuel up the whole tank for less than $30. I saw regular unleaded go for $1.789 earlier today.  Now that's great stuff. To find the best prices in your area, go to www.gasbuddy.com and they'll tell you who has the cheapest gas.  The data comes from people just like you and I.  I drive by the local station in the morning and report to the website how much they are charging.  If more people use this site, we will have much more accurate listings of local stations. By the way, I LIKE the weather today.  It helps me appreciate my warm hat and gloves.

My beta invitation for DROPBOX showed up today!

I heard about Dropbox on a podcast quite a while back.  I immediately went to the website and signed up for an invite.  I completely forgot about it until this morning when an invite appeared in my inbox.

The best way I can describe Dropbox is "Global network-attached storage on steroids".  That's my quote but I give you permission to use it.

If you have a home or work computer network, then surely you're aware of the benefits of network-attached storage.  You can share files among many computers.  There's always a backup in case your computer crashes.  Several people can access and work on a file.

The only downside is that you MUST be attached to that network in order to access the files.  Dropbox changes that by making the "drive" available to any computer anywhere in the world (as long as you have internet access).

Once installed on your computer you will always see the Dropbox icon in your taskbar.

Double-click the icon to access your dropbox folder.  This looks like any other folder in Windows.  Well, yours may look different if you have Vista.  I'm still rocking XP on my EIGHT-YEAR-OLD Vaio.  You can drop any file into this main folder.  The "Photos" folder is obviously for your photos.  The "Public" folder is where you can drop any file that you want others to be able to get access to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I dropped this test image into the "Public" folder and it uploaded to the server immediately.  Keep in mind that it's a very small file.

Now that a file is in the "Public" folder, sharing is easy.  Right click the file, select 'Dropbox' from the menu, select "Copy public link".  This will copy a url to your clipboard that you can now insert into emails, IMs or websites.  You can click on the following image to view it full size.

The other cool part is that Dropbox keeps backups of all files and revisions.  That really helps if you delete a file that you shouldn't have.  It's also nice if you're collaborating on a file and the other person messes something up and you need to revert to an earlier version.

My beta invite came with 2gb of storage space and 10 invites to hand out to the people of my choosing.  Naturally I'm unable to "sell" my invites.  You may want to donate a few dollars to me by clicking the link on the sidebar.  I may (will) thank you by sending an invite your way if they're still available.  The nice part about getting now is that when they go live (paid), the beta users will have more free space than the regular free users that get into the game late.  Read about it on their FAQs page.

At this time, I have 1 invite left.

9/11 Memorial Cross on Public Land Forces Religion on Everyone

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Steel cross installed at Shanksville

Click on the link above, read the article and see if you have the same questions as I do. Who paid to have this cross trucked to Shanksville, PA from New York? The article says that the cross is at the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Company.  That is considered public land.  Public land is prohibited from displaying religious symbols.  Is the local government aware of this? Does anyone else see the irony in displaying a cross?  Isn't it our nation's strong Christian views that conflict with the Muslim terroists that were involved in the attacks on our country? I just discovered this article and it's entirely too late (almost 2am) to make any phone calls to get answers.  Maybe in the next day or so I will be able to get some details.  Hopefully I will get a chance to tell the right person that this far from "the separation of church and state" that our constitution is so clear to spell out. I'll keep you posted...

Thoughts gathered from a recent funeral...

The wife and I were out of town for 2 days to attend her great-grandmother's funeral in upstate New York.  Between the 4 hour car ride there and back (plus lots of family time) we had a chance to discuss how we personally would like our affairs taken care of when the time comes. The first problem we both have is the whole body-in-a-box-while-everyone-stands-around-crying thing.  I'm not a fan of that at all.  The viewing was a great time for us to see family members that I haven't met (and she hasn't seen in many years).  There were lots of old photographs of her great-grandmother enjoying life over the past 90 years.  There was crying and laughing as a result from stories being shared.  But there also was a DEAD BODY IN A BOX.  The person never even looks right.  They're normally way to pale.  Sometimes they are way too painted up with makeup (like a prostitute).  Eyes closed, no facial expression.  Yeah, that's exactly what the person would have looked like while sleeping ... in a fancy overpriced box ... while wearing their best outfit.  Have a memorial service for me.  Have lots of pictures of me around.  Have friends and family remembering me through stories being told in the room.  Just don't have me there being Captain Bringdown. According to the pastor that officiated the funeral the following day, the deceased WASN'T there.  He must have said about 5 different times in a very stern voice, "Remember, she is not here.  This body was just her home.  Her spirit is living on in heaven."  OK, I'm not one to rag on a person's beliefs (especially at a time like this) but it got worse.  He ended up lecturing all of us on the fact that the only way to be in heaven is to accept Jesus as your lord and savior.  He even mentioned the rise of Humanism.  That word stuck out for the wife and I as we do consider ourselves Humanists.  He explained that Humanism includes the belief that man has free will and can make his own decisions (this is true).  He then told us that it is wrong and it is a very bad thing.  I got pretty upset at this point.  I understand that my wife's great-grandmother picked the pastor to speak at her funeral (this was one of her final wishes) but I don't appreciate his editorial nature.  Aside from our church lesson he sang a few hymms and said a few prayers. Luckily the eulogy was given by someone that could leave her own beliefs in her head. When my time comes, I want a very generic memorial service.  It doesn't even have to be held at a funeral home.  It can be held at a family member's home and be kept very casual.  I don't want everyone I know to feel like they have to put on itchy dress clothes just to pay their respects.  Display pictures of me enjoying life with friends and family.  Cook up some good food.  Someone should have access to my iPod.  I'm sure they can hook it up to a stereo and press the 'shuffle' button.  Some of you will cry.  I understand there's no way around that.  Just don't ruin the event for everyone else. As far as me, cremation will be fine.  Keep the ashes ... or scatter them somewhere ... whatever, no obligation on anyone's part.

2 computer addicts will attempt a week-long vacation with NO COMPUTER

That's right... The wife and I are always criticized for over-packing for our trips so we're packing light this time around.  One of her ideas is to leave the laptop, case, charger, cords, etc. at home. I figured that it shouldn't be too hard considering the following: 1.  We have several memory cards for the camera (no need to dump a day's worth of photos onto the computer each night) 2.  I will be using Jott to post updates to my Twitter account (www.twitter.com/derekmartin81) 3.  It's easier to relax when we're not glued to a computer 4.  We don't have text messaging plans on our cellphones so we won't feel compelled to communicate with friends I've been going to Ocean City, NJ most of my life and she has been going with me for the last few years.  We will keep busy finding new things to do and poking fun at the same stuff that we see each year.  We like Ocean City because it's family-oriented so you won't find a bunch of out-of-control teenagers and college students hanging around.  It's strange for me to say that since I'm only 27 and she's 23.  If we want to find a sleazy town full of bums and debauchery we can go 30 minutes north to Atlantic City.  If we want to find white trash and way to many carnival games we can go 30 minutes south to Wildwood.  But we always come back to Ocean City to sleep and get ready for the next day. We leave Tuesday (July 15th) in the morning and will be back the following Monday evening.  I'll have lots of photos to post...

Twitter is now helping me find out a lot of stuff about a lot of people

My new plan on Twitter is to follow a bunch of people.  It's fun to be able to read a whole lot of posts at any random time that I sign onto the site.  I can do a quick scan and find out what is going on in the world.  I only wish my posts were more interesting. Follow me at www.twitter.com/derekmartin81.