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What a terrible way to start the day. I wake up, check the mail and there’s a wierd envelope from the 17th Judical Circuit Court. Fairly certain I haven’t committed any major crimes the justice system would have indisputable evidence to lead to conviction I knew exactly what the letter contained.

I have been selected for Jury Duty….

The one thing I’ve noticed when reading all the paper work is how RUDE they are. On the first line they refer to my person as “Term #31 Juror”. I have a freakin name they addressed a letter to my house! They also write this documentation like I have no idea how to read or find what is important in a selection of writing. Every other sentence has either bold or bold underline or CAPITOL UNDERLINE even BOLD CAPITOL UNDERLINE font and poorly executed exclamation points. The best part is the least important part of information (Jury Clerk’s name) is in the largest font size and bolded….ugh….pffft…sigh….eh….

Here is an example of this travesty….

“You cannot postpone your service, after Thursday, July 26th, 2007!”

Give me a freaking break. I understand there maybe others that need assistance and have a hard time understanding this document but if they want to help only underlining “cannot” “postpone” and “after” they should have just gone ahead and underlined the date.

I’m just bitter. The court doesn’t pay you jack crap, I’m going to have to waste vacation days to take care of this, and of course it’s in the middle of the summer. Nowhere in these documents is there a “thank you”. After going though these documents and filling out the paper work I can see why Jury Duty is so loathed. Regardless if anything comes up I’ll just postpone my serve date.

UPDATE:  Upon getting to work and reading my employers “Jury Duty and Witness Pay” policy I will not have to take PTO/vacation to appear in court.  I will get paid my normal rate for hours missed for up to 90 days. This news makes this process at least a little bet better. I’ll post my experiences….

A purchase that has bugged me for months has finally been put to rest.  Last week my iMac was running so slow multitasking I caved and purchased a 2GB kit of Crucial RAM from Newegg.

With a mail-in rebate the credit card damage was in my price range and my mac being non-intel any speedboost was warrented. I’ve been working on photos recently and having multiple applications open and trying to listen to music at the same time was getting more and more painful.  The bloat of some of these applications was hitting hard and extra memory should help.

The installation was a breeze and I was able to compress air some  the dust bunnies out of the case. Tonight I will use Onyx to do some maintenance on my OS and when Leopard comes out do a clean installation on my box.  Regardless in my opinion if you want to get any work done with Tiger the speed boost 2GB of RAM delivers is welcoming.  To mimic jja’s reaction to 2GB….sweet….

I wanted a place to put some recent photos I worked on. The first is a picture that Kramer sent from Payner’s Wedding. I thought it was a cool picture that needed just a little bit of work (mostly removing r*********e….jk r***y :-*)!!! Pictures after the jump….

Read the rest of this entry »

Promises have been made that this would be an epic post.

As maybe one the largest fans of 24 I have things need to be said. Opinions need to be stated. Feelings need to be lade to rest. After this week I realy don’t want to think about the show for seven months….here goes nothing…

Was this my least favorite season of 24….yes….
Where there unforgivable character/storyline mistakes….yes….
Did I hate this season and will I stop watching….no….

**Spoiler Haven**

I’m not even sure really to begin. Mostly I wanted to write a concise post to funnel all my feelings into one place and be done with it. Most will agree the first seven episodes up to Papa Bauer murdering his own son were pretty good. The vampire bite, Assad and his interaction with Jack, the action sequences minus heavy gunplay (subway/CTU raids), Curtis getting owned, the bomb going off, and even the twist of Graem being Jack’s brother was good. If season 6 was a 6.98 episode companion piece for season 5 I would have been estatic.

After Graem being axed by his father things kinda went downhill. At the start of the season I was hoping Papa Bauer would be a good guy or at least not involved with the main terrorist plot. Graem I would handle being evil but Papa was just a little much. Moreover, with Logan returning I didn’t hate the idea but he really was just wrote in to ‘return’. TPTB then went ahead and slaughtered the Aaron Pierce character having him get romantically involved with a mentally unstable Martha Logan. I could go on for awhile here; the “Jack Light” episodes, the tease of Josh Bauer being Jack’s son, the retarded kid episode, and the terrible ending to an otherwise amazing Fayed Death episode. These are what I call the “unforgivable mistakes”…but as a reminder…every season has had these….

Now everything may sound a little harsh. Most everything episode 16 though 24 was an improvement but not stellar. A little storyline rehash here and there but the action picked up and we did get a few vintage 24 episodes. Trivia: Halfway though the season Jack had seven kills, the second half he got 42 (maybe 43 still thinking of adding one).

Another thing of note season 6 was filmed beautifully. Explosions, special effects, and location shoots were absolutely top notch. Case in point the season finale had some movie quality camera work. The shots from the helicopter to the oil rig were amazing all the say to the wonderful shot of Jack to close the season (see above photograph) with a silent clock.

I’ve commented in discussions in multiple places around the web with other random thoughts on this season. When pulling these thoughts from the web I realized how much I’ve invested in 24 as a whole. For the past five years I’ve been watching the finale’s with many of my good friends and had amazing unforgettable times watching the show. I’ve worked a little side project with friends and other fans of the show and because of that been I’ve been shown on television packages, magazine articles and been wikipedia sourced (although that should be Gun Bunnie).

I’ve also realized the writers are no longer writing the show for hardcore fans in mind. On top of that I’ve also come to the conclusion I don’t really care anymore. The amount of recap in the episodes is becoming unforgivable, as they are looking to pickup viewers straggler fans along the way (didn’t really work). The Shield and the Sopranos write with hardly any in episode recap something 24 needs to strive towards.

The rumors going around the internet is that season 7 is going to be a “re-creation.” 24 fans have heard this before but this time I believe it. After four seasons of Jack working on a “provisional” basis for CTU something new needs to happen. Also the Western United States have been pretty beat up by the show. Leaving LA could happen be the best thing to happen. I would like to see a “semi competent” CTU floor if they do in fact bring back CTU. If 13,000 or so Americans get blown to bits in Grand Rapids by a nuclear bomb I couldn’t imagine working for a governmental agency and trying to score with my co-workers. Hell…

For all I care almost every newly introduced character this year could never come back. Doyle was just a yes-man flipflopper and his acting in episode 23 made him sound like a hick-cowboy. Maybe he’s Shane Vendrell’s brother? Nadia besides being hot really didn’t do anything for me. Hopefully Chloe getting knocked up is her exit from the series. Sandra Palmer and her buttbuddy Walid were annoying.

Buchanan could return (Jack/Buchanan in the field?), and at the start of the season I would never thought I would say this but Lennox could come back as well. At the start of the season I though I would hate his character but for the White House storyline he was the bright point.

For the finale the first hour was kinda “blah”. Too much Doyle sitting on the beach trying to look like a hardass. Marilyn Bauer doing the way over used “I WANT TO SEE MY SON/YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT I’M GOING THOUGH” line made me want to drink more then I already was. Buchanan coming back was a highpoint. The second hour was much better. I was shocked Cheng didn’t get blasted Henderson style I’m sure everybody thought he was a gonner. The helicopter/explosion/oil rig sequence didn’t have the impact as the submarine raid in season 5 but was the highpoint of the episode. Jack confronting Heller was cool I didn’t expect him back until the opening credits gave the ending away. About time the writers gave Kiefer something he could act with. First time in a long time I got chills watching 24 I loved the finale act.

The best way I can put it is season 6 is as the season that was bound to happen. Fulljeff nailed it saying it’s tough getting silver when your used to getting gold. Season 6 is just that. I still would rather watch an episode of 24 then Lost, House, Heroes, or all the other countless hour dramas. Regardless I believe I’ve said my piece as truthfuly, non fanboy’ish, and being as objective as I can be. Also what 24 fan doesn’t like complaining about their favorite show?! If I have any other thoughts I’ll edit this post with additions. Will Josh be Jack’s son? DOUBLE OR NOTHING!

Thoughts? Complaints? Praise?

Today I traversed to the Grand Rapids Post Office and applied for a U.S Passport. After getting charged $98.05 cents and the horribly bad news of a 8-10 weeks wait I was left pondering why this is so expensive and why the wait is so long.

First it cost me around $6 dollars to get a valid passport photo from Meijers. After the big cost and after hearing the Post Office only takes debit (shocked nobody has created ihatefifththird.com) pile on another .50 cent charge. I could have put in a request for “expedited service” but that would have cost over $170 dollars.

The lady at the post office told me the wait would be “roughly” 8-10 weeks. Right on the top and in RED BOLD the Passport Homepage shows the following….

“Passport Processing Times Have Increased Due to High Volume.”

I loath high volume. Regardless, hopefully mine will come quickly. Right now I’m really looking forward to taking a overseas trip!

Speaking of trips this weekend is Payner’s Wedding.  Another of my valued former roommates is getting married, thus another gala (more dancytime?) to celebrate such activities. Much to my chagrin the gato is leaving for the UK for an extended period of time.  After the wedding I will be traveling to the Detroit Metro Airport to provide farewells. I have Friday off work and plan on being in Ann Arbor early afternoon for some cocktails and swimming.  Monday is the 24 season finale, bauercount will sadly be updated for the final time in 2007, and I’m sure I’ll be doing it intoxicated.

See everybody next Monday….brb….

Last weekend we went and watched Spider-Man 3.  I thought this article explaining the overuse of coincidence in Spider-Man 3 was a fantastic article.  In a takeaway coincidence is in almost any tv show or movie. It has to be to make a story, but when there is TOO MANY coincidences it can distract from the story.  24 this season for the first time has over used coincidence.  Viewers will forgive some coincidences (example season 3 Kim Bauer working at CTU for example), but sometimes it’s just too much. Mostly the Bauer Family Drama storyline has hurt the overall quality of the season (Brother Bauer being evil was fine but Father Bauer being evil was just too much IMHO).  Regardless the Spider-Man article is a recommended read by vanlandw.com.  Also if you like this type of coincidence writing read the 24 Absurd-o-Meter posts over at the Daily Intelligencer.  Fantastic posts for 24 fans…also Dave Barry hysterically live blogs 24 as well.  All weekly reads after the episodes.

Regardless the next few weekends should be pretty crazy.  This weekend I’m leaving town Sunday for Mothers Day.  Next weekend is Payner’s Wedding.  The weather is getting much better and Grand Rapids inhabitants should be very happy.  Sadly with these trips and gas prices in Grand Rapids out of control I’m going to be spending hundreds of dollars on fuel.  Regardless the next few weeks should be pretty crazy I’m personally looking forward to many things.

….I wouldn’t have to be the one to post these videos.

Here are a few clips of “vanberge” from Payner’s Bachelor Party. We are at Bob Evans consuming a breakfast before the ride back to Grand Rapids. The target audience for this post is about six people. The First clip is vanberge pouring sheer sausage gravy on two biscuits.

The second clip is vanberge pouring tears of hilarity. “One bad move and vanberge has just lost his cool….”

FYI for everybody. Payner’s wedding gift is completed and ready for delivery. A lot of good hard work went into the project when the deliverable is DELIVERED I’ll write a better post regarding it. Viewings start at Webers Inn..