Widescreen Rant

I do not for the life of me understand why people buy widescreen movies. Let me rephrase that sometimes I have to purchase widescreen because that is all that has been produced. What I don’t get is why they make widescreen movies and those people who actually like them. I don’t understand why people enjoying having half their TV screen taken up by two large black lines.

I’ve also heard all the so called reasons why the widescreen movies are better and I still disagree with it. The number one reason I have heard is that widescreen opens the shot and lets you see what happens on the sides of the camera shot as well. My question is…why do I care what happens on the sides of the camera shot? If it was important to the scene and needed to be seen wouldn’t the camera man (if he was worth the money you were paying him) put the item in the middle of the shot? Or at the bare minimum put the item far enough within the shot that you can see the item in a regular viewing screen.

I do not need to have huge ass black lines coving half my television in order to see the flower vase or half of some extra’s arm. And now they are even doing it to television shows, but at least on the shows and some movies the black lines aren’t as over powering.

::End Rant::

Wild Hogs - Movie Review

Tuesday we went and watched Wild Hogs for Matt’s birthday. Very funny movie. At first I was nervous because it seemed like they were showing all the funny parts from the previews and I thought it was going to one of those movies. Thankfully it wasn’t and the comedy continued. It gets a little mushy in the end but overall very good.

It will be another one we pick up when it comes out.

Ghost Rider - Movie Review

We went to see Ghost Rider last Sunday with my Mom and Matt. And amazingly a Nicholas Cage movie was good. I may have to take back my posting on the Cage curse. He’s now made two decedent movies; Ghost Rider and National Treasurer.

I was slightly confused on the plot outline because I feel like the previews made it seem like the Ghost Rider’s part in the story line was slightly different that what it really was. But I also haven’t read any of the comics so that could be why.

Overall a great film I think we’ll buy it when it comes out.

Rid Yourself of Junk Mail - Save the Earth

It's a twofer
So I had a great article I found in one of my MSU today magazines they seem to waste so much tuition on making but a lass my scanner is broken. I’ll try to give you the gist of it.

::Let me put on my tree hugger hippy outfit::

Junk mail is a huge problem in America and it’s taking its toll on our natural resources. Make sure and read all the stats below. There is a wonderful team of people from MSU who for 41 dollars will stop 95% of your junk mail (per household) for 5 years! Sound great right? Well it is, there isn’t a but here. Go to their website and see for yourself 41pounds.com Half of what they receive goes to charity.
Check it out and spread the word.

:: Steps out of tree hugger outfit::

Junk Mail as it Affects You
•Each person will receive almost 560 pieces of junk mail this year.

•The average person gets only 1.5 personal letters each week, compared to 10.8 pieces of junk mail.

• More than 4 million tons (62,000,000,000 (billion) pieces) of junk mail are produced yearly.

• California’s state and local governments spend $500,000 each year collecting and disposing of AOL’s direct mail disks alone.

• Individually, an average of 41 pounds of junk mail are sent to every adult each year. Approximately 44% goes to a landfill unopened.

• Lists of names and addresses used in bulk mailings are in mass data-collection networks, compiled from phone books, warranty cards, and charity donations (to name a few).

• Your name is typically worth 3 to 20 cents each time it is sold.

• $320 million of local taxes are used to dispose of unsolicited mail each year.

• It costs $550 million yearly to transport junk mail.



Junk Mail as it Affects the Environmental
• The production and disposal of junk mail consumes more energy than 2.8 million cars.

• 100 million trees are ground up each year for unsolicited mail.

• 42% of timber harvested nationwide ends up as pulpwood for paper.

• It wastes 28 billion gallons of water for paper processing each year.

• If you cut your bulk mail for 5 years, you’ll conserve 1.7 trees, 700 gallons of water and prevent 460 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the air.

• 40% of the solid mass that makes up our landfills is paper and paperboard waste. By the year 2010, it is predicted to make up about 48%.

• Scarce landfill space disfigures rural areas and pollutes ground water.

• It is difficult to recycle, as the inks have high concentrations of heavy metals.20 cents each time it is sold.
(Taken from 41pounds.com).

The Rivet Head - Book Review

Finished reading The Rivet Head last week. It was actually one of Matt’s books he had for a class last semester but it’s about working on the assembly line and being that I’m the Labor Relations major I was drawn. It’s a good book not exactly what I expected, I thought there would be more on the unions and management relationship rather than just daily activities. Sadly the man worked very closely with Michael Moore and Moore even wrote the forward for the book but I guess I won’t hold that against him. Hopefully Ben Hamper can keep his facts straighter than Moore.

If you’re into boring stuff like me and like to read about Unions, Management, and the daily trifle of the “common man” pick it up.

Bridge to Terabithia

So Matt, my Mom and I saw Bridge to Terabithia last week. It’s a great movie but you really need to read the book to completely appreciate the movie. Matt didn’t like it because he hadn’t read the book and therefore was expecting something different. They cut out a lot of the first few chapters, but overall if followed the book well and didn’t go too “Hollywood” on us.

Four Stars
You should rent it if you have read the book

Minimum Wage

I’m sorry if this hard to follow it was more rant filled than usual.

So I promised my thoughts on the minimum wage increase in a previous post and alluded to my feelings. Now unfortunately I have taken a few labor economic classes but I really have no major in depth schooling so people may disagree with me (Leon). So here is my disclaimer:
:: Megan might not always be 100% right, but she should be ::

Basically I complained about the ticket prices increasing but I know why, Granhom’s wonderful minimum wage increase. The theaters have to pay their employees more (and they still make crap) and when labor cost goes up the company has to recoup those losses by raising the cost of their product. ie: ticket and food prices. These increases could be avoided if the company can get rid of internal overhead but I can’t imagine there is much overhead in a theater. Turning of lights or heat down isn’t going to save enough to offset the new labor cost. If you’ve been paying attention there have also been increases at McDonalds, Taco Bell and many other local favorites.

But Granholm raised the minimum wage so that’s good right? Well maybe if you make minimum wage, but not for those people with salaried positions or those making a significant amount higher than the new wage. An example from my own life. While working for the State I made 11.50ish in September. When the minimum wage went up in October Granholm didn’t raise the student assistant’s page or salaries employees pay per hour. Think about it did you get a dollar plus raise in October? Probably not and if you did you are one lucky employee (unless you were making minimum wage to begin with). So what does this mean for us? We actually lost purchasing power in this deal meaning in a way we lost money. We still make X amount of dollars but the cost of foods and other products have increased which takes more of our X dollars to pay for it. So we can buy les with our salaries than we could before the raise hence lower purchasing power  less stuff for us. It really helps me sleep though to know that Granholm helped a bunch of high school kids who still live at home have more flexible in their spending money. Which they can buy CD’s and other useless crap with. Oh maybe even drugs. It’s a fact that most workers who make minimum wage are high schoolers, but those working families who are earning minimum wage are still fucked. They are earning 90 cents more an hour which is roughly $144 more a month. Yet, food has increased 50 dollars a month plus all those other things gas, oil changes, child care cost, movies, clothes all these things local to Michigan increased. Taking more of that extra money each month and therefore leaving the person monetarily exactly where they were before the increase or even further behind. . But I guess they think they are earning more so they feel better about themselves right? Even if they still can’t buy their meds…Thank You Governor Granholm.

Where did the economist working for her go to school, U of M? If you just think about the basic relationships between jobs and wages. Its basic labor/union principles. If you have to pay your employees more you can’t afford to have as many employees as before. It’s been a while but I believe for every 30 cent increase in wages per hour its generally a 5 o 10% lay off of the labor force. So if companies have to increase wages and can’t or won’t increase their product cost they ultimately may lay off some of their work force. So I leave you with this question:
Would a person who’s just been laid off and now making zero dollars an hour want Granholm’s increase or would they prefer the wage they were making before?