Netflix and Friends

As you all may or may not know, I am a Netflix member. I am also a Netflix member in search of "friends."

If you are a Netflix customer, shoot me an email at the address in my profile and let's share our intimate movie choices. How far down your queue is Roll Bounce?

Happy Anniversary Jody!

Nine years ago today Jody Lindke and I were married in a lovely ceremony which was followed by an equally lovely, but totally breakneck, honeymoon. Since we were friends for a couple of years before we actually started "dating," it has been a swift nine years filled with adventure.

What about that breakneck honeymoon? What do you mean breakneck?

Okay, okay, I'll tell you.

Jody and I planned our wedding for a year, honeymoon and all. We were to get married at Arlington Gardens, Arlington Gardens Country Garden catered the wedding, a local nursery/small shop area that has a beautiful central area. Our cake was from Josef's conditerei and our honeymoon was going to be at Disneyworld.

But then Jody decided, rightly so, that she wanted to bring her childhood pet into our household. Our apartment let us have cats, but Oreo was a lovely 14 year old and 10 pound dog. Jody missed Oreo, who had lived in Nevada City with Jody's father, and Oreo missed Jody. Oreo was a wonderful addition to our lives, she was love personified, so finding a new place to live was not a burden. It did mean finding a place that allowed dogs and in a short timeline. We found a place and the necessary number of roommates (some friends), but given the short notice our friends couldn't pay the deposit up front. They were able to pay it rapidly after moving in, but not the day (May 1) that we were moving into the new place. This meant Jody and I had to put down the deposit, and this meant no Disneyworld. We still have yet to go to Disneyworld, but that is another story and the perfect gift for a future anniversary.

Having no place to go for our honeymoon turned out to be more of a blessing that a curse. Unbeknownst to us Jody's mother and step-father had arranged for us to spend a few days in the Napa Valley and at Fort Bragg. Both places that have significant emotional importance for Jody. It was a lovely gift. Fort Bragg, BTW, is where they filmed both Overboard (with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn) and Kindergarten Cop (with der Governator), and a lovely Northern California Costal community. The only drawback was that the arrangements Jody's mom made started on Sunday and we were married on a Saturday. What to do, what to do?

Jody immediately booked us a room at a Hotel Casino up at Lake Tahoe (not the view from our hotel room). We had a wonderful night, watched a magic show, had an exquisite meal and prepared for Napa and Fort Bragg. Family members had also given us spending money for our honeymoon, in addition to the money they gave us for our Wedding. So we planned additional days away, in fact we decided to continue our journey up the coast and to finish our honeymoon in Seattle at the Seattle International Film festival. We drove the north along the California coast and continued to Washington and Seattle. It was a wonderful, and long, drive through redwood forests.

Of course, Jody and I, being who we are we watched a ton of movies along the way in preparation for the festival. We also watched Twister and inordinate number of times. We were gone for about two weeks in total and when we were done we had not a dime to our name (we still had Wedding checks for beginning our lives, but none of those were in the bank) and prayed that the gas in the car would get us back to Reno safely. It took us many days to drive to Seattle as we meandered along seaside roads, but we made it home in a single day. Along the way we learned some interesting facts of life.

1. The rain in Washington is very hard to drive in.
2. There are apparently no 7-11s in Oregon. A lot of convenience stores, but no 7-11s. We looked frantically, longing for Slurpees, but to no avail. We might have missed them, but it was eerie.
3. You cannot pump your own gas in Oregon.
4. Twister is a great road trip movie and pretending that you are in the film while driving on the highway is fun.
5. Jody didn't really want to go to Law School, rather she wanted to make movies.
6. Jody has the uncanny ability to make me smile, inside and out. She still does.
7. Oregon rest stops serve free coffee.
8. Most importantly, you can make a wonderfully romantic honeymoon from scratch and a spontaneous honeymoon is far more romantic, in my experience, that a prepackaged vacation.

I could go into greater detail, but you can only write so much during a fifteen minute break.

FTP Annoyances

I have decided I want to host this blog over at cinerati.net, but alas my skillz as a hacker are severely lacking. I have managed to get the information up at ftp://ftp.cinerati.net/cinerati.net/public/index.html, but not at cinerati.net.

Whoever in our community can help me migrate our little blog over to cinerati.net will receive my undying gratitude. Oh, I have made it so we can all have cinerati.net email addresses as well. That was much easier to accomplish.

TV Upfronts

FYI, I'm blogging up a storm regarding the TV Upfronts over at my blog.

The upfronts are when the networks unveil their fall lineups to woo advertisers to buy ad spots for their shows. NBC released their schedule today and will be followed by ABC, Fox, CBS and CW.

Sexual Predators Use the Mail, Congress Says, "Hey Let's Close Down the Post Office!"

Tuesday May 9, Congress introduced H.R. 5319 which will restrict access by minors and students to social networking sites on the internet. Sites such as Myspace, Friendster, Facebook, and Essembly would be affected by such legislation as would the potential for internet networking by young people. Such networking has been one of the most exciting events of the past few years, from a political observer standpoint.

What does this have to do with popular culture? Considering that mainstream entertainment sites have been integrating material on to the sites and using them to promote artists and television shows, a great deal. One of the moves Fox was developing was My Network Television which would use MySpace as a promotion and distribution vehicle. In other words, Fox was already viewing social networking sites as alternative/supplemental television networks.

UPDATE: Fox and Burger King are partnering to release episodes of 24, Pinks, and First Hand on MySpace.

The implications of the bill are large and the legislation is being rushed through Congress. This is one of those cases where a real world serious problem, pedophiles stalking children via the internet, might lead to questionable policy outcomes. I have yet to decide my thoughts on the regulation of social networking sites, but I do believe that laws rushed through Congress are often not the best thought out legal documents.

If you are upset by the legislation you can go to Mobilize.org and follow the steps they offer. If you are in favor of the legislation, you can follow their recommendations but with opposing content.

What are your thoughts?

Below is a copy of the legislation, the Thomas link (the official government link) is above.

Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006 (Introduced in House)

HR 5319 IH

109th CONGRESS

2d Session

H. R. 5319

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require recipients of universal service support for schools and libraries to protect minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 9, 2006

Mr. FITZPATRICK of Pennsylvania (for himself, Mr. KIRK, Mrs. MILLER of Michigan, Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania, Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania, Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky, and Mr. CASTLE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require recipients of universal service support for schools and libraries to protect minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006'.

SEC. 2. CERTIFICATIONS TO INCLUDE PROTECTIONS AGAINST COMMERCIAL SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES AND CHAT ROOMS.

(a) Certification by Schools- Section 254(h)(5)(B) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 254(h)(5)(B)) is amended by striking clause (i) and inserting the following:

`(i) is enforcing a policy of Internet safety for minors that includes monitoring the online activities of minors and the operation of a technology protection measure with respect to any of its computers with Internet access that--

`(I) protects against access through such computers to visual depictions that are--

`(aa) obscene;

`(bb) child pornography; or

`(cc) harmful to minors; and

`(II) prohibits access to a commercial social networking website or chat room through which minors--

`(aa) may easily access or be presented with obscene or indecent material;

`(bb) may easily be subject to unlawful sexual advances, unlawful requests for sexual favors, or repeated offensive comments of a sexual nature from adults; or

`(cc) may easily access other material that is harmful to minors; and'.

(b) Certification by Libraries- Section 254(h)(6)(B) of such Act (47 U.S.C. 254(h)(6)(B)) is amended by striking clause (i) and inserting the following:

`(i) is enforcing a policy of Internet safety that includes the operation of a technology protection measure with respect to any of its computers with Internet access that--

`(I) protects against access through such computers to visual depictions that are--

`(aa) obscene;

`(bb) child pornography; or

`(cc) harmful to minors; and

`(II) prohibits access by minors without parental authorization to a commercial social networking website or chat room through which minors--

`(aa) may easily access or be presented with obscene or indecent material;

`(bb) may easily be subject to unlawful sexual advances, unlawful requests for sexual favors, or repeated offensive comments of a sexual nature from adults; or

`(cc) may easily access other material that is harmful to minors; and'.

(c) Definitions- Section 254(h)(7) is amended by adding at the end the following new subparagraphs:

`(J) COMMERCIAL SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES- The term `commercial social networking website' means a commercially operated Internet website that--

`(i) allows users to create web pages or profiles that provide information about themselves and are available to other users; and

`(ii) offers a mechanism for communication with other users, such as a forum, chat room, email, or instant messenger.

`(K) CHAT ROOMS- The term `chat rooms' means Internet websites through which a number of users can communicate in real time via text and that allow messages to be almost immediately visible to all other users or to a designated segment of all other users.'.

(d) Disabling During Adult or Educational Use- Section 254(h)(5)(D) of such Act is amended--

(1) by inserting `OR EDUCATIONAL' after `DURING ADULT' in the heading; and

(2) by inserting before the period at the end the following: `or during use by an adult or by minors with adult supervision to enable access for educational purposes' .

(e) Establishment of Advisory Board- The Federal Communications Commission shall establish an advisory board, which shall consist of 8 members appointed by the Chairman of the Commission. Four of such members shall be representative of the private sector and four of such members shall be representative of the Commission, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Crimes against Children Research Center, school boards, and primary and secondary school educators, respectively. The Commission shall provide administrative and clerical support to the advisory board, but members of the board shall serve without compensation. The advisory board shall be terminated at the direction of the Chairman of the Commission.

(f) Publication- After consultation with the advisory board established under subsection (e) and appropriate agencies with experience regarding procedures and actions to prevent minors from being target by adults for predatory behavior, exploitation, or illegal actions, the Federal Communications Commission shall annually publish a list of commercial social networking websites and chat rooms that have been shown to allow sexual predators easy access to personal information of, and contact with, children.

SEC. 3. FTC CONSUMER ALERT ON INTERNET DANGERS TO CHILDREN.

(a) Information Regarding Child Predators and the Internet- Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Federal Trade Commission shall--

(1) issue a consumer alert regarding the potential dangers to children of Internet child predators , including the potential danger of commercial social networking websites and chat rooms through which personal information about child users of such websites may be accessed by child predators ; and

(2) establish a website with a distinctive Uniform Resource Locator to serve as a resource for information for parents, teachers and school administrators, and others regarding the potential dangers posed by the use of the Internet by children, including information about commercial social networking websites and chat rooms through which personal information about child users of such websites may be accessed by child predators .

(b) Commercial Social Networking Websites- For purposes of the requirements under subsection (a), the terms `commercial social networking website' and `chat room' have the meanings given such terms in section 254(h)(7) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 254(h)(7)), as amended by this Act.

Cinerati: The Origin.

Regular reader, JC Loophole, wanted to know how Cinerati got started and what our superpowers and secret origins are.

Let me turn the dial back on the wayback machine, step into the Tardis, sit in the Time Machine, and wiggle my fingers going "Wheeeooo, wheeeooo" like Wayne and Garth...

We find ourselves in March of 2004, blogs have been around for some time but have yet to "explode" as they will during the 2004 election cycle. Still Christian is far from cutting edge when he decides to band together with a group of friends to create an online community dedicated to the discussion of popular culture. Christian's plan is to have a pop culture version of National Review's Corner or The New Republic's &c. This website is to be a place where conversations occur, among friends, sometime disagreements will arise, but the conversations will be fun and engaging.

With this dream in mind Christian Johnson, calling himself Number One referring to the television series "The Prisoner," looks to his friends to find possible recruits. The first name that comes to mind is John (Jay) Ford. Not only does Jay share a name with one of the great Western film directors, he is also possessed of a vast database of film obscuria. From AIP to Oscar Award winning films, Jay has a vast knowledge of film. Jay was also Christian's writing partner of a Film Critic column in the Sparks Daily Tribune titled "Celluloid Say-So."

Next in Christian's Mind was Sean Mattie and his Wife Elizabeth. Sean and Elizabeth are an intelligent couple who like watching good movies and have strong opinions. Their more "cultured" tastes would serve as a balance for Christian's agressively "pro-low-art as high-art" philosophy. Christian is pretensiously anti-pretension. Sean and Elizabeth were a good, but shortlived addition to the blog.

Next in the line-up was Christian's good friend Rob. Christian and Rob went to "dealer school" in Reno where they both learned how to steal old ladie's Social Security checks for sleazy accountants and old school thugs. Rob and Christian had also played roleplaying games together and both are huge Saints fans. From Tecmo Bowl to Perfect Weapon to D&D, Rob and Christian have had some good times together experiencing pop culture. His inclusion was a natural.

Meanwhile...back at the Ranch.

Any blog would have to include my co-worker Fritz. Fritz has an affection for the movie Hackers and a love of Formula 1 racing. In addition, he is a fan of 2000 AD and would serve, in some capacity, to internationalize the popular culture references at Cinerati.

Christian's wife would be invited, as would his (and his wife's friend) Colleen would round out the "founders."

A quick rundown of the founders is:

Real Name: Christian Johnson
Secret ID: Number One (Christian has since gone public)
Superpowers: Has a Flash Ring, a Green Lantern Ring, and a Phantom "The Ghost Who Walks" Ring. Superspeed, Super Will, and the ability to "Slam Evil."
Skills/Subject Areas: Christian has opinions about everything, even things he knows absolutely nothing about.

Real Name: Sean Mattie and Elizabeth Mattie
Secret IDs: Cinemattie and Elizabeth
Superpowers: Divine Miracles (Cinemattie) and Objectivist Obfuscation (Elizabeth)
Skills/Subject Areas: Movies and Comic Books.

Real Name: John Ford
Secret ID: (Lurker Only)
Superpowers: Ability to channel the Norse hero Hrafenkel gaining superstrength and a big axe. He also has the ability to look cool in Roy Orbison glasses.
Skills/Subject Areas: While Christian has opinions about everything, Jay actually knows some things.

Real Name: Fritz Hemker
Secret ID: Fritz (yes Liberal Avenger his name really is Fritz)
Superpowers: Lived in New York and liked it, Height (like Giant Man), Superstrength and the ability to crush the faces of evil doers with hurled Water Polo balls.

Real Name: Robert Barker
Secret ID: Rob
Superpowers: Ninja Skillset. Rob is the "Dark Knight" of the crew with Snake Eyes and a kick like a Storm's Shadow. He could kick Michael Dudikoff's butt.
Skills/Subject Areas: RPGs, Movies, 80s Television Shows and the Saints Football.

Underfut ("All she has is the power cosmic yet somehow...it is enough") and Colleen (Phoenix Force) wish to remain anonymous.

I Had Hoped For Questions and Answers...

but I guess I'll have to settle for Question and Answer. I only received on question for this week's Q&A, though I hope that number will increase in the future.

How come you never answer email?
-- David N. Scott

That's a good question, at least coming from David. The quick answer...for the same reason I TiVo things.

The slightly longer answer is that I really only have time to check email when I am at work and I have to prioritize emails. Fifteen minute breaks only give so much time for typing and if I want to rush out a blog post, well I have to push some things down the list.

An even longer explanation is that David's emails to me typically involve attending an event organized at his household. I have been to one of his events and it was a very good time, but two things conspire against my being able to give prompt responses to his invitiations. Well, technically one reason, but two subsets of the same reason. The first is that my wife's and I rarely see each other during the week. Unlike David and his wife Julie, my wife an I work in different towns, let alone different businesses. But that's Southern California for you. I work for a non-profit in Glendora and she works for a writer on the Paramount lot as you can see these aren't next door. But the distance is only a part of the reason I don't see my wife often. The second is that working in the entertainment industry requires a lot of hours. Her current job isn't as bad a William Morris, or when she was working on a small movie, but it is very time consuming. End result is...I make sure to get my daily hour and a half of conversation time with my wife. Sometimes this means staying up late, but it is always worth it.

What about the time I am waiting? I read at the local Starbucks, cook dinner, work on school papers, or watch baseball while reading.

The second reason, an extension of the first as I said, is that I don't know my wife's schedule on a regular basis. Sometimes I don't even know my own. Things can come up at a moments notice and alter our plans. I don't like to commit to events/fun if I don't know if I will be able to or not. Oh, and since weekends are the only time I get to see my wife for more than my joyous hour and a half, I have to see if she can/wants to attend event x with our limited time. She's a nice person and wants to take into consideration all of our possible activities. Thus I can't often answer til the last minute or sometimes not at all due to the whole lack of time thing.