Mostly True Tales

It takes a lot to get me to the movies. In the past 20 years, I’ve only been to 4 movies shown in a theater, Home Alone (out of town guests), Laurence of Arabia (a matinee showing of the re-release), Contact (I read the book), and the Matrix 2 (a huge disappointment). I like the super big screen and the sound of the big screen movie, but I just prefer to watch movies at home.

Once in a while, a movie comes out that could get me to the theater, The Illusionist, was certainly one of those movies. It’s a natural, it’s about a Magician. That’s all I needed to know, it was like required reading, I had to see it. But, often, travel and timing prevent me from seeing a movie that meets the requirements to get me out, this was the case, when The Illusionist came to theaters. When this happens, I patiently wait for the DVD to be released.

The Illusionist was released this past Tuesday and I just finished watching it. It was fantastic. I loved it! Of course, I’m prejudice, I’m a Magician, but I recommend this movie to almost anyone (PG-13).

As the opening credits and soundtrack to the movie begin, I almost immediately notice the music sounds a lot like the soundtrack to Dracula. Sure enough, as the opening credits end, the last entry reads, “Original Soundtrack by Philip Glass.”

[audio http://amazingbrian.com/01-the_illusionist.mp3]

You can enjoy the first track of this fantastic soundtrack by simply pressing the play button above. This audio player is a new Wordpress feature.

Today is my friend and neighbor, Joel Manesberg’s 50th Birthday. Joel and Elvis, what a combination. This last Saturday night his wife, Ms. Susan, held a surprise birthday party for him, at Morton’s Steakhouse. I’ve known Joel about 25 years and most everyone else in this picture has known him even longer than that. It was a great time!

Happy Birthday Joel!

One of the fun gifts I received for Christmas was a Tivo network card from 9thtee.com.

I have an old Sony SAT-T60, Series 1, DirectTivo with a lifetime subscription, that I’ve been wanting to experiment with for some time. I’ve always been interested in upgrading the hard drive, as well as, the possibility of adding it to my home network.

Installing and activating the card involved a little bit of software hacking, which was ok with me, because it meant backing up the hard drive. I figured the roughly 10 year old 40GB drive inside the Tivo could crap out any minute now and that would be the end of my lifetime subscription, so backing up the drive didn’t sound like a bad idea at all.

Backing up the drive meant removing it and installing it into a PC booted from Lynix. Sounds scary, and it is, but it was easier than I thought thanks to a pre-configured bootable CD image available here. Actually you will need to make 2 different boot CD’s, one for the backup and one for the rest of the hacks necessary to network the Tivo. To accomplish these hacking feats, I followed the excellent guide prepared by TivoSteve.

The box in question.

The back of the unit. Four #10 Torx screws must be removed to open the cover.

And of course, this seal must be broken. This Tivo is years out of warranty anyway.

The screws removed and the case pulled back.

A view of the unit with the case removed. This unit has only one hard drive with a spot for another. Everything to the left of the divider on the left side of the unit is power supply. You want to be careful not to touch anything in this area. The small box between the drive and the power supply is the fan. In order to remove the drive, you must remove the entire drive bracket. The bracket is held in place by 3 more T-10 screws, two can be seen in this picture on the left with blue washers underneath. The third is on the rear left of the bracket, just inside the power supply divider. Be really careful getting that one out. I didn’t even put it back in.

This shot shows the edge connector where the network card gets installed.

The two easy screws for the drive bracket.

Disconnect the fan before removing the bracket.

Tilt the bracket up and pull to the right to separate it from the chassis.

Now the remove the four screws that hold the drive to the bracket. Once the drive is out, the real hacking begins. I used a spare PC that I could boot to from CD and followed the directions in the guide by TivoSteve. This allowed me to back up the drive, reflash the prom on the Tivo, activate the network card, activate ftp, and install the web server software.

I oh so gracefully, drilled a hole for the network cable to pass through. I considered just leaving the case cracked open, but it made too much noise. May as well go for broke.

The card in place, ready for the cover to be replaced.

A screen shot acessing the Tivo via a browser. Here I am running a product called TivoWeb, which I have since found out is obsolete and has been replaced by TivoWebPlus. In addition to being able to program the Tivo from the web, as well as transfer files back and forth, I was able to configure the unit to use the web to make the daily call rather than the phone line.

On a recent trip east, I had to stop for gas in a the little town of Santa Claus, Indiana, and ran across this farmer making a statement.

Another historic event in American history occurred yesterday, as the Honorable Mr. Keith Ellison, of the great state of Minnesota, took his oath as a member of the 110th Congress. I’ve heard it a couple of different ways, so I’m not really sure what actually happened, but I know the effect, of whatever happened. I know the result. A message was sent. History was made.

As the swearing in of the members of new Congress proceeded, Mr. Ellison was allowed to swear his oath upon a copy of the Koran, rather than the Bible.

As I understand it, he was first sworn in, in a private ceremony, and swore his oath on the Bible. But, in a secondary public ceremony, Mr Ellison choose to swear upon his own book of faith, the Koran.

Here’s how I fell about this.

First of all, I’d bet this came as quite a surprise to the people of Minnesota that voted for Mr. Ellison. Personally, I think they should do whatever necessary to get him out of office. But, that’s just my opinion.

My Uncle Gary (who is an attorney, judge, and perhaps the only honest lawyer I know) used to say, “Not telling the facts, withholding the truth, is the same as a lie.”

I have mixed feelings about that statement, probably because I heard it from him as a teenager, but that’s another story. In this case, I think it applies. I’d bet, the state of Minnesota was pretty surprised.

This gentleman was the first African American to be elected to Congress from the state of Minnesota, as well as, the first Muslin in Congress.

Although there have been prior cases of Representatives of Congress swearing their oath upon the Jewish Torah, as well as the Book of Mormon. Somehow, to me, this is different.

The founders of this country believed in God. They knew, in order to be a thriving, healthy society, they must live by a set of moral guidelines. They chose the guidelines outlined in the Bible. This country was formed, as a nation under God. Which God? The God of Abraham. Not Allah.

As I understand it, Jews and the Mormons live by the same (if not stricter) moral values as the Christians. The same God, the God of Abraham.

America became great by offering sanctuary to the persecuted world. By offering this sanctuary and protecting those that choose to accept it and pledge loyalty, America has harvested and grown, the greatest minds of mankind’s history.

America is a miracle. A miracle that would not have happened, unless the men that made it happen, all happened to be in the same place, at the same time. Men like Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, & Thomas Paine.

These were men of great wisdom, and they “framed” the greatest country in the world. These brilliant men knew, that separation of church and state was necessary, but the foundation of this country must be based upon the morals of a God fearing people. Without these moral values, no civilized society can exist.

With that said, again, here is the way I feel.

When you are born in America, you sign a contract. You are entitled to receive all of the many benefits of being an American, in return for one thing, loyalty. You are an American Citizen. You must live within the guidelines of American society and protect those beliefs. We are a Nation under God. You got a problem with that? Hit the road!

The Bible represents the values of traditional Americans. I think Mr. Ellison should not have been allowed to tell America what book he was going to take his oath on or who he was going to pledge that oath to. The job requires an oath of loyalty, swearing to Allah means nothing to me. Nothing. You may as well be swearing to a toilet.

This is just another example of the values or our country being destroyed from within by the left. The Muslims of the world have a plan and a strategy for the Islamification of America, and Mr. Ellison has done his part.

America should not be changing for these people, they need to change for America, or leave. These are our standards and requirements for office, you don’t like it, don’t run for office. Swearing an oath on the Koran is not swearing on oath of loyalty to America.

Where would we be if another 200 or 300 Muslims take office in America under these conditions?