Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Released: 2011
Sci-fi
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Starring: James Franco, John Lithgow, Andy Serkis, Frida Pinto
Running Time: 105 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A scientist/doctor (I guess) experiments with an Alzheimer's drug and tests it on monkeys.  The drug has an unintended effect on a certain chimp and it enhances its knowledge and understanding, eventually leading to the monkey starting a chimp uprising.

This movie was really dumb in parts, which ruined the whole movie.  First of all, James Franco is in it and he's completely overrated and an arrogant asshole in real life so I can't stand him.  Then they make him this super smart, young, scientist, or doctor, or whatever he's supposed to be and you're supposed to believe that he comes up with the cure to Alzheimer's?  (To make this better, they should've cast an older actor where you could believe, he or she's been working on a cure for their entire careers.)
He tests the drugs on apes and one day they don't realize that one of their apes was pregnant (don't they supervise them and keep them away from stuff like mating?) and she goes ape shit (had to use it here) when they try to get her out of her cage.  They end up killing the mother after she gets out and attacks people and then they find the baby in the cage that she (somehow) hid from everyone.
The baby has a heightened awareness and is highly intelligent since they tested the drug on his mom; I guess he has a strain of the drug developed in him.
After they have to kill the mother, Franco decides no one will miss a baby ape and takes him home to home school it. (sure)  Franco's dad (wonderfully played by Lithgow) has Alzheimer's and has a nurse who lives in the house with them.  She quits because Lithgow is getting dangerous with how confused he gets and fast forward 5 years, the ape's sometimes taking care of the father.  Ridiculous heh?
Anyway, the monkey gets loose trying to protect Lithgow from an angry neighbor and animal control is called.  (They live in San Francisco by the way, so I'm totally sure that having an ape in the suburbs is legal and no one would've noticed before.)
Franco and his veterinarian girlfriend (Pinto) put the ape in a "sanctuary" thinking he'll be ok for a while, but the sanctuary is really just like a human prison where the apes are mistreated and the one smart one starts to lead the others.  Eventually, they all kill some people, break out, and kill some more people leading to the over taking of the planet. 

This movie is so poorly done, I can't imagine why they made it, or why they are making another sequel.  Just see the original with Charlton Heston and save yourself some anguish.

2 out of 5 stubs for Lithgow, special effects, and Andy Serkis playing the CG chimp.  Do NOT see this.

The Thing (2011)

Released: 2011
Sci-fi, Horror
Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Running Time: 103 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  This is a prequel to the 1982 version, (not a remake) even though they share the same title.

So I had missed this one in theaters, but caught it on cable the other night, as I had heard it was pretty good.  For some reason, it got really bad reviews, but I thought it was a really good movie.  My only guess is that some people or reviewers expected this to be remake and gave it bad marks for not being like the 1982 version (which it's not supposed to be since it is a prequel.)

A Norwegian team of scientists and a few Americans team up in the Antarctic for a remarkable discovery.  They have found an entire alien spaceship with one alien specimen outside the craft frozen in the ice.  They take the alien stuck inside a large block of ice back to their campsite to eventually transport it back home.  The lead scientist wants to take a small tissue sample and in doing so, cracks a small bit of ice.  This is enough for the alien to start thawing out a little and cracking even more ice.  Eventually, it breaks out and is a threat to every living thing on this planet.
The humans try to team up, but since this alien can assume any living being it wants, mistrust and paranoia run rampant.

I won't tell you too much because it's really worth seeing this and if you haven't, the 1982 film right after.

4 and 1/2 out of 5 for a solid movie with lots of scares and great special effects. SEE IT!!!

I never tire of looking at Earth from space...

An image of the Earth taken by the European satellite MSG-3, released on Aug. 7, 2012

Beautiful Earth Image Is Satellite's First

By OurAmazingPlanet Staff | LiveScience.com

Europe's latest weather satellite has captured its first picture of the Earth, and it's a pretty one.

Launched on July 5 by the European Space Agency, the MSG-3 is performing well and on its way to becoming active after six months of development.

The satellite is spin-stabilized, meaning it can always face Earth and take high-resolution images. This first photo was taken with an instrument aboard the craft called the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI). MSG-3 is the third in a series of four satellites introduced in 2002, while the last one, MSG-4, will be launched in 2015.

These satellites help provide better weather coverage and short-range forecasts for Europe and Africa, especially in the case of rapidly developing storms or fog. They can scan Earth's atmosphere every 15 minutes in 12 different wavelengths, to track cloud development.

In addition to its weather-watching mission and collection of climate records, MSG-3 has a radiation sensor to measures the amount of solar and infrared energy that is reflected back into space, to better understand climate processes.

The satellite also contains a "search and rescue" transponder that will allow it to relay distress signals from emergency beacons.

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Just fantastically beautiful.

OMG have you seen this????

Angler photographs humpback whale that almost jumps into boat

By: Pete Thomas, GrindTV.com

Matt Thornton was guiding a fishing trip recently off British Columbia when he noticed another boat had stopped alongside a large humpback whale slapping its fins on the water. Thornton cruised over and aimed his camera, but ended up capturing an extraordinary image of a smaller humpback that shot out of the water next to his boat.
This occurred late last month and the image has since been splashed on just about every Facebook page that features marine mammals, and is even entered in a National Geographic photography contest.

But beyond a brief caption there was little information about the photo, in part because Thornton had been busy fishing long hours and difficult to reach.

But in a telephone interview Thursday he explained that he captured the image with one lucky shot, without motor drive. He added that the whale calf breached so close to the boat "that we could have touched it with our fishing rods."

Thornton, who works for Tofino B.C. Fishing Charters, said he had witnessed plenty of whale breaches, but never anything like this. "It was literally 10 feet from the boat--so close that it splashed us," he said.

Thornton wasn't the only one fast on the trigger. One of the clients used an iPhone to capture the event on video, which has not been widely shared. Below is the video and pay close attention at the 30-second mark (warning: language may be offensive to some viewers):



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So amazing!  Wished I could've seen it in person!

Brain Scans of Hoarders

Brain Scans of 'Hoarders' Show Unique Abnormalities

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter | HealthDay

 People with "hoarding disorder" show abnormalities in brain scans that distinguish them from those who have other types of obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD), new research shows.

"We wanted to see whether the brain activity of people who hoard is different from that of people with OCD, and whether it is different from that of healthy people," explained study author David Tolin, director of the Anxiety Disorders Center and Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy within the Institute of Living in Hartford, Conn. "We also wanted to understand whether people who hoard show an abnormal brain response to decisions about whether to keep things or throw them away," he noted.

"These findings further suggest that hoarding should be considered separate from OCD, and that it deserves recognition as a unique psychiatric disorder," Tolin said. "It also shows us that people who hoard have a hard time processing information normally, and that when they have to make a decision their brain goes into overdrive -- specifically, those parts that are involved with identifying the relative importance or significance of things."

Tolin and his colleagues report their findings in the August issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

To explore brain activity as it related to hoarding disorder behavior, the researchers focused on a pool of 107 adults: 33 healthy men and women; 31 patients diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder; and 43 patients diagnosed with hoarding disorder.

Study participants were first asked to bring to the lab some of their own paper objects (such as junk mail and newspapers) from home. Each was also given similar paper objects that they did not own.

Then, each person was asked to decide whether or not to keep each individual item, knowing that all discarded items would subsequently be shredded. Throughout the decision-making process, functional MRIs scanned for brain activity.

The results: the hoarding group ultimately dispensed with far fewer pieces of paper than either the obsessive-compulsive disorder group or the healthy participants.

What's more, abnormal brain activity observed among those in the hoarding group was found to be distinct from that noted among either of the other two groups.

Specifically, when looking at brain imaging of the hoarders, the researchers focused on two regions: the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula.

In both regions, activity was particularly low among hoarders when they faced the dilemma of whether or not to keep or discard paper items that were not theirs. When faced with the question of what to do with items they did own, regional activity was particularly high.

And when comparing behavior against brain scans, the team found that neural activity in the two identified regions did correlate strongly with the severity of hoarding and self-expressed feelings of indecisiveness and discomfort.

Tolin said that his team will next turn to the question of whether or not behavioral therapy specifically designed to tackle the problem of hoarding helps patients.
Dr. Joseph Coyle, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School in Boston, lauded the fresh insights in the new study.

"What they demonstrate quite nicely is that hoarding does show a pattern of abnormal brain activity that is distinguished from simply being OCD. It clearly has its own distinct pathologic brain activity," he noted.

"And this illumination is important because although it is fairly uncommon and probably affects less than 1 percent of the population, we're talking about a serious problem," stressed Coyle. "This is not about keeping a few extra newspapers in the house. This is about filling your house up with things to the point when you can no longer even live in it. And this study goes a long way towards helping us better understand how and why this happens."

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I'm always trying to figure out what makes these people act the way they do.
I thought this article was interesting so I decided to repost it in case you're interested.

I'm not sure what to make of it...

Man charged with murder in wife's hospital death

By THOMAS J. SHEERAN

• John Wise in undated photo

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A man accused of shooting his wife of 45 years in a hospital intensive care unit in what may have been a mercy killing was charged Wednesday with aggravated murder, and his attorney said the man always acted out of love.

John Wise appeared before a municipal court judge in Akron via video from jail Wednesday morning. No plea was entered. He must return to court Aug. 22.

Wise, who lived with his wife in Massillon, is accused of shooting her at her bedside in the ICU unit of Akron General Medical Center Saturday. She died the next morning.

His attorney, Paul Adamson, said after the brief court session that the unfolding case would show Wise acted out of love.

"I'm thoroughly convinced he's a good man. I think his past history bears that out," Adamson said.

"Forty-five years of marriage, blessed to be deeply in love with his wife throughout those 45 years, and I am absolutely confident that everything that he's ever done for his wife has been done out of deep love, including the events that just recently transpired."

Wise appeared in court Tuesday and was apparently confused about initially being charged only with attempted murder, asking "Is she not dead?" Visiting Judge Marvin Shapiro told Wise that he would soon have an attorney who could answer his questions.
Prosecutors upgraded the charge to aggravated murder after an autopsy showed that Barbara Wise died from a gunshot wound to her head. A county medical examiner ruled her death a homicide.

Nurses on the hospital floor where Barbara Wise had been in critical condition in the ICU for several days at first thought an oxygen tank had exploded when they heard a popping sound, a 911 caller told a dispatcher.

A woman, who identified herself as a nurse, said she and others looked into the room and saw a man dressed in black. "We saw him sitting there with a gun. He was, like, loading it," she said.
The caller said she didn't know if anybody had been shot, but she heard screaming as she hid in a room.
Why Barbara Wise was in the hospital hasn't been released.
Emergency personnel responded to the Wises' home a week before the shooting for a medical call that involved advanced life support, including oxygen and a heart monitor. Hospital and emergency officials have said they can't disclose any information about patients because of privacy rules.

Wise entered the hospital on Saturday through the main entrance and went up to his wife's room without drawing any attention, apparently keeping the handgun concealed, hospital spokesman Jim Gosky said. A doctor nearby heard a distinctive popping sound, he said.

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It seems people like to make judgements right away about most things, whether they know all the facts or not.
This sounds like it could be a loving husband doing what a wife asks and put her out of her misery and/or suffering, even though some bad things could happen to him.
It's certainly also possible that those 45 years of marriage between them was unhappy, or maybe she was cheating on him and while she was unconscious and helpless, he decided to take out some revenge, who really knows? 
I certainly don't, nor do I pretend to; it's just interesting to see how this case goes.

Bath & Body Works Halloween Slow Release

So, I'm keeping an eye out on my favorite retailers to see what's new this year for their Halloween products.  Last year, I was pretty happy with what B&BW's released, so I'm looking forward to this year's stuff.  They are one of the last retailers to release stuff, so even though it's the beginning of August, they are behind in their Halloween goods.
These past few days, they've been slowly putting stuff up for sale on the website, starting with this piece.  It's a small candle holder and they had it last year as well, so it's not new.

A couple days go by and still nothing new.  Then I check last night and see these:

They are both candle holders the same size as the pumpkin from last year, but only the bride of Frankenstein is new.  Last year Frank made an appearance, but his mouth was stitched shut, not open like this one is, and had stitches running across his forehead horizontally.
While I'm excited to see these in person, I would either like them to hold all merchandise until a certain date and then put it out or not do any at all.  It is driving me nuts just to see a piece added a day or a week at a time.  It's not like they are known for their Halloween stuff, so it's not a big reveal.

The other Halloween stores I check out like Grandin Road or SpiritHalloween have a date they give out and do little teaser pieces one here and there, but then reveal all of them on that date they gave.

This one thing at a time stuff is a slow agony for me, especially when I'd like to put in just one order and be done with it.  But since they're not listening to me, I'll have to keep checking.

The Walking Dead Compendium One

Released: May 2009
Contains Volumes #1-48
Lots of pages, but none of them numbered, but it's a really quick read since it's a comic book and all.
This comic is not for children: It contains a lot of sex, swearing, and violence.

The breakdown:  The end of the world is here and what's left is filled with zombies and a few survivors.  This is the story of how those survivors get along with each other and deal with killing zombies to stay alive another day.

First off, let me say that I love the television show that this comic book was adapted into.  The story's great, great writing and directing, the characters are fully formed and it's just a great, great project.  So much quality and high drama, it's not just a zombie story it's a human one.  It's so entertaining to watch and fully engages me.  The comic book, not so much, let me explain.

I've never read a comic book before because it never appealed to me.  I love reading, but novels, more than cartoons.  This comic book still has the storyline, but it's so surface with the characters that you never get a chance to know what they're thinking.  You never get the chance to look inside or get more of themselves when it's just a picture throughout with a little thought or word bubble coming out.  There's not enough depth for me for characters and little chance for character development. 

The comic book and the television show differ sometimes, and sometimes greatly, but it's essentially the same story, it's just that I don't enjoy reading the comic book. 

I tried to read this one, but I got to the part where it surpassed where the television show left off at the end of season 2 and I felt like I was ruining the show for myself, so I stopped.  I didn't get bored, but I enjoy the show so much more than the comic that I just couldn't go on.

It seems like to me as well, people these days want to know what's going to happen with the show before it airs.  There's all sorts of spoilers out there and people want to talk to me about the comic storyline and tell me stuff that hasn't happened, but I don't WANT to know.  I WANT it to be a surprise and just let the story unfold before me.

I say, if you haven't read any of the comics, but enjoy the show, stick with the show.  I'll read these comics (maybe) after the show goes off the air forever and I need a little fix of The Walking Dead.

4 out of 5 for a good book; I just don't enjoy the format, and prefer the tv show.

Tragedy at the In-laws

Just a little note.
My husband's grandmother died recently and I wanted to give my father-in-law my condolences
as soon as possible.  I walked into his house, which is always open, and knocked on the door as I was walking in.  His hearing is not so great and I tried to be very loud so they know I'm coming in if they don't see me at the front door.
Well, I knock, open the door, call out a hello with no response.  Finally I hear my father-in-law around the corner and I look to see him, and what do I see?
A 70 year old overweight man in his underwear, and not boxers, oh no, couldn't be like shorts....It had to be briefs.  I didn't even know they made underwear that big.
Yucckkkkkkk, I turned my head away quickly and apologized.
I'm scarred for life now.  I don't like the man, never have, never will, but now I have this new
disgusting image left in my brain.   Uggghhhh.

Yankee Candle Halloween

Yankee Candle Preview Party for Halloween

So the party was today from 10-4 at all locations nationwide.
I still resent the fact that Yankee took over Illuminations Candle Corporation and then swallowed them whole with no trace of the quality of that company.  Yankee said they would integrate some of Illuminations into Yankee, but they haven't and they won't.

With that said, I don't have too many alternatives, so this poor man's Illuminations will have to do.

I have been following all the build up and excitement on my Halloween forum website so I got to see the catalogue about a week ago.  I made a wish list and almost completely fulfilled it today.



I got my little candy dish that I wanted.



A picture posted on Yankee's Facebook page showed some candles and a Boney Bunch figurine that they were selling.

I'm not too much on the Boney Bunch stuff, but their Halloween merchandise in general was cute.


If you haven't shopped online or visited the store today, chances are some of those Boney figures have already sold out.  People like to purchase them in bulk and then resell them to poor saps on Ebay for greatly exaggerated prices.

I ordered most stuff online, but saw a few things in person at the store that I liked.

Anyway, if you're coming to my party in Oct. you will see what I got for yourself.

I love shopping this time of year!