Convoy (1978)

Stars
Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Ernest Borgnine

This was a complete mess of a movie.  Just an attempt to jump on the trucking fad of the time.  Not one hint of reality in the whole movie.  Truckers breaking laws, assaulting police officers, damaging property.  Police breaking laws.  Somehow the feds are involved.  Truckers that seem to have no intent to deliver their goods.  No one in the movie accountable to the law, in spite of the feds and the national guard being called in.

A bunch of trucks smashing into stuff.  A few meaningless fights.  A little skin.  No substance or cohesion to the story at all.

I was reminded that before the pop rap craze of the late 80s and early 90s, country music did pop country rap first in the late 70s and early 80s.

Mr. Majestyk (1974) - PG

It was an ok, simple action movie. It was interesting Majestyk meeting the hitman in prison and then using the hitman to get out of his troubles with the law after the botched breakout attempt of the hitman.

But many unresolved things that were set up.

• Why was the hitman in that town?
• Who is the weasel guy?  They made him out like he was a big shot in town, but he ended up being nothing.  He had goons working for him and melon pickers, but the rest of the movie he is alone with the Hitman's crew.
• They set up this tension about needing to get the melons picked and sold because he is broke.  They also set up tension about the people he hired needing work.  Half the melons were destroyed.  Others were unable to be sold.  How's he keeping his farm?  How did the workers get paid?  His friend is in the hospital with two broken femurs.  That is going to be big money to pay those bills.  They didn't resolve any of the problems they set up.  All of this was just ignored as the guy and girl drove off in the sunset.

Ad Astra

Interesting, but unsatisfying.

The physics were a mess in this movie.  Tommy Lee Jones took 30 years to get to Neptune.  Brad Pitt makes the trip and back in a time that appears that only a few months or years have passed.  Flying through the rings of a planet with tons of debris in there and surviving it because you held a shield in front of you?  And how is Pitt even propelling himself through space when he gets untethered from the station?

I could never get my head around, why they were going on the mission to get Tommy Lee Jones.  It was a lot of resources to bring a guy to justice.

I should've gone with my gut to skip this movie, but I saw Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones and thought this could be good.  That was reinforced when I saw Donald Sutherland enter the scene.  Such a waste of time.

Moto G6 Review

I upgraded from a Moto G4 to a Moto G6.  Here are my thoughts.  So far I am a little disappointed, but some may just be getting used to a new design.

Screen Size
I saw the spec of a 5.7 on the Moto G6.  It wasn't a huge jump over the G4, but I thought a little extra real estate would be nice.  What I found when I took it out of the box was that it was taller, but a bit more narrow.  I'm still trying to determine if I like this or not.  I was hoping for some more width for when I type in landscape.  Now I have less.  The taller screen might give me some advantage in reading things portrait.

Phone Seems Slippery
Not sure if it is the glass back on the phone or the shape of the phone, but I often feel like it is slipping out of my hand.  I go to thumb type and feel like it is going to come out of my hand.  I laid my Moto G4 and Moto G6 on my leg while my wife was driving and the G6 kept sliding away.  The G4 stayed on my leg.

SD Card and SIM Card Insertion
The way that you insert a SIM card and SD card has changed and I don't like it.

First off, I was going to take my SIM card out of my Moto G4 to use in the Moto G6.  In the past, I have been able to do that easily and if things have gone wrong, I could always put the SIM back in my old phone.  My G4 was a micro SIM, I think.  I think the G6 is a nano SIM.  I had to cut my existing card down to make it fit.

The next problem with the G6 SIM card insert is that you no longer take the back off and slide the card in.  Now you have to use a paperclip to shove in a little hole to pop and SIM/SD card holder out of the top of the phone.  The holder is flimsy.  The process of getting it in and out of the phone is sometimes challenging.  I often felt like I was going to break the phone or lose my card into the phone.

You set the SIM and the SD cards on the holder and carefully slide the holder back into the top of the phone.

Finger Print Scanner as a Replacement for the On-Screen Buttons
The Moto G6 let me replace the on-screen navigation buttons with the fingerprint scanner.  It frees up screen real estate, but it is taking some getting use to.  Push the fingerprint sensor and it closes an app.  Swipe right on the fingerprint sensor and brings up the task list of recently used apps.  Swipe left and it acts like the back button.

One annoying thing with using it as a replacement is that the G6 vibrates everytime you use the fingerprint scanner.  I also something close an app when I am trying to go back.

USB Type C
I have accumulated micro USB cables.  I have one at work, one at home, and one in each vehicle.  I have to get adapters for them all to use with the Moto G6, since it is USB type C.  I knew that going in, so I expected it, but as one considers buying the G6, it is something to keep in mind.

Moto G (1st Gen) vs Moto G (2nd Gen)

I recently purchased a Moto G (2nd Gen), so I thought I would share my thoughts about it from the perspective of having a Moto G (1st Gen) as well.




Initial Thoughts
The battery is the same size in 2nd Gen and in 1st Gen and the display is bigger.  Thus battery life is worse on the 2nd Gen.


The display is bigger, but it is not higher resolution.  If you need a screen that makes things bigger then this would work for you.  I was wanting to see more stuff on your screen, this isn't what you want.


The processor is the same in the 2nd Gen and in the 1st.  The amount of built in flash persistent storage is half the size in the 2nd Gen.  This caused me issues in upgrading.  It couldn't migrate my data, since there was less storage.


It does have a micro SD card slot, which is a big plus, but I feel like the next iteration of a product should not have less storage than the previous.  Also, 8 gig is way too little storage on a device today.  A device should be usable by the average user out of the box without having to buy extra stuff as soon as you buy it.  The argument that they were able to get the price of the device lower that way doesn't fly.  I don't believe that flash storage is that expensive to cut into their margin on this device.  I also don't find the device to be cheaper if I have to go buy more memory when I buy it.


On the same topic of needing to invest more money in the device, the device is somewhat slippery, just like the 1st Gen.  It should either come with a case or be designed to not slip out of my hand when using it.  It appears that they tried to put some sort of rubber coating on the back, but it has no grip to it.




The 2nd Gen has 32 gig SD card limit.  Perhaps this is a limitation of Android, but 32 Gig is tiny considering the device has video pictures and music capabilities in addition to installing apps.  Maybe it is a bit early to expect terabyte cards to be able to be used if you could find one, but I don't see why 128 gig is too hard.


One of the factors that drove me over the edge to get the next generation Moto G was that it had dual speakers instead of just the one.  I thought that would make it louder.  It is actually quieter.


The sound quality appears to be a bit better, but I really needed it louder more than I needed higher fidelity.

Divergent

I was not impressed by the trailer and plot description of Divergent.  It just seemed like more Hollywood cookie cutter stuff.  My wife was interested and I was willing to watch it to spend time with her.

The movie was very slow to start out and somewhat confusing.  Throughout the movie the the plot was slipping into not making sense or connecting.

I was expecting to see the different factions doing their jobs, but for the most part the protectors just trained and walked around town like a band of thugs.

For all of its problems I did end up enjoying Divergent.  With all of it holes, it kept me hanging with it and left me with a feeling of enjoyment at the end of it.

It was over two hours long, which I very much like putting the time into telling a story.

Many of the themes dealt with fear, so there were suspenseful things.  There was also a lot of fighting.  The extent of the sex was a little kissing and someone being a jerk saying "take it off" as a girl took off her coat.

Just to give perspective, there was far less foul language than in Back to the Future, which many consider a good family film.  The language in Back to the Future often takes me out of the movie when watching with my kids.  If you are comfortable with the language in Back to the Future, you will be comfortable in this movie.

Dog Breath Book Review

In January I received an email from Jolene Fine asking if I would review her book, Dog Breath, on my blog.  She sent me an electronic copy of the book.  I was very excited that she had found my blogs and was asking for my opinion.

Disclaimers
I do not consider myself a skilled writer or literary expert, but I am happy to review this book from the perspective of a reader and I very much appreciated receiving the book whether my thoughts end up being favorable or not.

I found myself trying harder to keep an open mind about the book, since the author contacted me herself personally.  I could empathize with her publishing a part of herself and hoping other people will enjoy it, even though she did not express these things to me.  I hope that any negative or positive opinions I express are useful to her in developing future stories.

Super Sniffer
It was an interesting and at times funny concept that the main character had a talented sense of smell and internally created nick names for everyone he came in contact with based on how they smelled.

Latter-day Saints
The main character was a recently converted member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The author used over used LDS cliches.  Not only are the cliches tired, but many people outside the Church won't understand them. This limits the audience of the book.  Including aspects of LDS life in stories I like, but there are many who might otherwise be drawn to this book, who just won't get the jokes.

Often TV shows and movies show Catholic or other religious characters and I think it is often very good.  I would like to see more of this with Latter-day Saint characters as a way to give a glimpse into LDS life and culture.  In many ways the author did some good things with this.

Some of the church stuff was interesting and humorous.  The dilemma of being in a complicated relationship with a girl not of his faith and pushing her away only to have her bump into the missionaries and show up at church was interesting.

Humor
I found the book humorous at times, the main character's quick wit to cover up embarrassing situations was enjoyable.

Foul
The humor often tried to dance the edge of and dip its toe into vulgarity without leaping all the way into it.

There are several pages dedicated to flatulence and that theme recurs in several places in the book.  It was excessive.

The author overused of the word for a female dog.  It was always used properly, but sometimes used properly and then hinted at meaning the profane.

At times the language and innuendo was crude.  For example, toward the end of the book was a line, “Smells like a Hollywood hooker after taking her sixth ride in a limo.”

Romance
I think there were supposed to be pieces of romance with the main character, but just when I would envision him to be attractive to a female character some aspect of him would be described that would make him revolting.  It just felt like the idea that he had let himself go and was not attractive made the situations where women would find themselves drawn to him a little unbelievable and kind of pulled me out of the story.

Infidelity
The story line of fantasizing about his friend's girlfriend and the two of them flirting is a story line I have felt uncomfortable about in other books and movies.  Yes the friend and girlfriend are not married but she is still being untrue to her boyfriend and he to his friend.  It was handled a little differently and was more enjoyable in this book, but still not a concept that I am comfortable with.

If your boyfriend is not the one then break it off, but if you are trying to make it work then don't let your eyes wonder.

Be a true friend and don't dwell on romantic thoughts about his girlfriend.

Summary
Overall the book was ok.  There were enjoyable parts and the story idea has potential.  I will be looking for other books by this author in the future to see how her writing style progresses and what other ideas she has.