The SoapBoxers

Brave (2012 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pixar has created some of the most enjoyable children’s movies in recent years. They have taken over the role of their parent company Disney. The stories are generally tame enough for any age with some sophomoric humor for teens and adults. They also tend to have some scary part to be the focal point of the whole adventure. Brave is no exception.

The plot, although different, has the same basic elements as UP. The main character has a dream that will complete the life they are living. In UP, the main character finally meets the hero of his youth, but instead of fulfillment, he finds a mean, self-centered villain, whom he has to vanquish to save his young companion. Brave also takes on the fulfillment of a wish, this one granted by a witch. The challenge is how to recover from the consequences of your desire.

No want wants to cause harm to the ones that they love, but some action result in bad side effects. The lesson is: be careful what you wish for.

The graphics are spectacular. Each iteration of Pixar animation is a step forward in the art. The dialog insults most of the possible ethnic groups for the British isles; Pict, Scot, Norse and Irish all get their shots. The action is separated by enough gags and calm dialog to allow you to enjoy the movie and walk away refreshed rather than exhausted.

The voice actors and actresses are also excellent in this movie. The main character is a beautify red head teenage Irish girl. Her voice is enticing and rolls directly into the songs as the adventure unfolds.

Remember this is a child’s film. I recommend full price theater on this one. If you miss it, definitely a rental opportunity. Don’t let your younger kids watch this alone, there are scary parts.

Next week: John Carter
 

 

It is common knowledge that sequels are never as good as the original. Everyone will say that, but it is not actually true? The second Star Wars (for those of you under the age of 21, that would be Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back) was better than the first. So maybe we can say that third installments are always the worst. Men In Black 3 refutes that cultural surety. I would not say that it is better than the original, but it is at least better than its immediate predecessor.

The Men In Black series broke onto the movie scene 14 year ago. It was one of those movies that came directly from comic books. The art of special effects had matured enough to make the story entertaining and successful. Men In Black 2, although bringing back most of the original cast, failed to bring anything new to the table. The secondary and background characters knew too much, almost like they had watched the original movie.

Men In Black 3 avoided those pitfalls. The primary members of the cast (Smith and Jones) were retained. The addition of Emma Thompson to replace Rip Torn was outstanding (Ok, I just really like Emma Thompson). The story is more about the characters getting to know each other than just hunting down strange aliens.

There are strange aliens of course, and they are very important to the plot. There is a big nasty evil one, just like in the other movies, and he is the focus of the action, just like in the other movies. There are plenty of differences from the first two movies. The first movie was an introduction and a study of “J” as he entered the Men In Black organization. The second movie was the return of “K”. This movie is really an introduction of “K” and “J” to each other. In the other movies, there is a teacher and student. This latest installment is more of a partnership.

There is a lot of simulated violence; so it would not be appropriate for younger viewers. Teenagers will of course love it just as they flocked to the first two. Since there is time travel, there are plenty of historical play for viewers older than 40. I would say that this movie is good entertainment for most viewers of science fiction or action hero films. Although some theaters are presenting Men In Black 3 in 3-D, the film does not over use the technology and the effects do not really need it. I believe that this movie is worth a full price ticket, but if you miss it in the theaters, or don’t want to pay full price, it is definitely a discount theater or rental value.

Next week: Brave

It is summer time, which means that I am actually going out to see movies. I cannot say why I do not go to the movies very often during the winter months. It may be because I live in the Midwest, and all of the things that slow down in the winter just slow down the out of home entertainment. This is the first of several film reviews that I am going to undertake. I am not a true film critic. I do not read film critic reviews. In fact, I do not watch many films in theaters. I mostly go when my wife wants to go.

Snow White and the Huntsman

There have been may Snow White movies, the most famous being the Disney animated classic from 1937. For those of you who have read the “original” tale from the Grimms brothers, you will know that the cartoon is rather mild in comparison. The live action remake in 1997 with Julia Roberts is truer to the fairy tale. On those lines, the cartoon was for young Americans, the later movie was for teenagers. The original story was actually for small children, as were all of the Grimms tales, to provide a moral or warning.

The latest installment of Snow White movies is in theaters now; Snow White and the Huntsman. This movie has many attributes that appeal to the current generation of movie goers. The special effects are outstanding. They flow with the action and add rather than detract from the visual impact of the movie. There are several actors and actresses who are excellent including Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth.

The fairest of them all?

The story itself is well integrated, providing more detail as to why the queen would want Snow White dead. But this is where the positives end. The character of Snow White herself is far to militant and sure of herself. No offense to the actress Kristen Stewart, but she is not fairer than fair or more beautiful that the rest. Although moving the huntsman to being a huntsman rather than the executioner in the story is a good move, adding a brother of the queen to provide the chase mechanism adds little to the plat. The Dwarves are less comical than in previous version, but also only have a bit part. Rather than truly being the guys who stick their necks out to protect the fair lady, they are just the junior partners in a rather large contingent of support.

There is very little actual violence, due to the fantasy ingredient of the tale, which makes it acceptable for most kids (although some might have nightmares from the special effects). The target audience seems to be teenagers. I would not recommend paying full price at a theater, but a discount theater or video rental may be a good option.

Next week: Men in Black 3
 

Photo: The Hunger Games film, starring Jennifer Lawrence, has grossed more than $600 million.

In the past, I’ve never been one to follow the hottest book trends.  I read whatever I felt like reading.  Generally, the authors were well known authors, but usually not the very hottest ones.  Lately, however, I seem to be picking up the latest “hot” books.  First it was Stieg Larsson’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, and now The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.  I don’t think this is a case of me suddenly becoming more open to suggestion, but simply a case of my preferred type of books falling into the mainstream.  I found the Kindle version of the trilogy for $15 and snapped it up.  The price has gone up a bit, but it’s still a good deal.

The books

Since it’s a trilogy, you would naturally expect three books (unless you’re a fan of Douglas Adams).  The Hunger Games in the first book, followed by Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

Here is the plot in a nutshell.  The books follow the adventures of Katniss Everdeen. Katnisss lives in the country of Panem, which is a future society that encompasses the modern United States.  Panem consists of twelve districts and the Capitol.  Citizens of the districts are under tight control of the Capitol following a civil war nearly 75 years ago.  People in the districts struggle to survive so that citizens of the Capitol can live a life of excess.

Every year, a lottery is held in each district.  One boy and one girl are chosen to represent their district in The Hunger Games.  The goal of The Hunger Games is simple.  Kill the other 23 children and emerge as the victor.  This brutal “game” reinforces the notion that the Capitol has complete control over the districts.

The world

I like science fiction, but only when there is at least a decent grounding in the real world.  That’s definitely true in The Hunger Games triology.  The people are completely normal humans, much of the fauna and flora is real, and the geography is based on reality.  The mountain range that separates the districts from the Capitol is obviously the Rocky Mountains, and it’s pretty clear that Katniss lives in the vicinity of West Virginia.

When Collins wants to tweak a real life object, she changes the name slightly (morphine becomes morphling) with an obvious clue to the relationship.  Likewise, the names of the characters are simple (generally 1-2 syllables) and often evocative of common current names.  There’s also some pretty obvious symbolism – the “boy with the bread” is named Peeta (pita) and the boy who has a tempest inside him is named Gale.  Many have pointed to deeper symbolism, but I generally read contemporary fiction for pure enjoyment and don’t delve into that too much.  However, the fact that Panem is completely devoid of the concept of God did jump out at me.

There are, of course, some things that are unique to Panem, and not based closely on anything in the “real” world.  Some really weird shit.

Collins does a wonderful job setting the scenes.  It’s very easy to visualize District Twelve, the areas, and many other locales in the books (and there are a fair number of scenes).  I haven’t yet seen the movie, but wonder how well it can compare to the picture Collins has painted in my mind.

The characters

I’ve been reading a lot of books with complex and interesting characters lately.  The Hunger Games, however, far exceeds these other books.  Carried forward by the first person point of view, I am not simply interested in the lives of these characters, I am emotionally invested and actually care about them.  Often times, I prefer third person point of view, but Collins really hits it out of the park by letting us inside Katiniss’s head.  It’s a little (lot) messed up in there, but we gain a lot of interesting insights about life in Panem.  It also allows Collins to take advantage of the information hiding that the first person point of view affords.  This allows the readers to be unaware of twists and turns in the plot.

None of the main characters can be described as simple or boring.  Collins uses some very interesting traits to make many of the characters memorable to the readers, but many of  the “simple” characters turn out to be far more complex than the reader – or Katniss – may have thought.

The verdict

Is there any doubt?  This is a great story with interesting characters and the plot is carried along by a first rate writing style.  If you enjoy reading suspense/thriller books, grab The Hunger Games trilogy.

A vice president at Monster.com once attempted to pay me for a freelance job with a lightly used copy of Stephen King’s It. This is an absolutely true story, and the craziest part is that I accepted the offer!

Why would I accept a job for such meager pay? Well, there are a few good reasons.

• It was a partial payment – I think I also got five bucks in cash.
• Stephen King is a great writer
• This was twenty years ago, when Eric and I were high school classmates. At the time, I was a freelance typist who typed reports for a sizeable chunk of my class.

King is the King

I’ve always been a fan of Stephen King.I’m not sure that he has ever been my absolute favorite writer, but as other writers have jumped to the top and later dropped into the category of also-rans (sorry, John Grisham, but this describes you) King has been a mainstay in the top 5.

While King draws the largest following for his supernatural tales, I’ve always felt that he was at his best when he writes “straight” fiction. I’m sure there are many who don’t realize that the movie The Shawshank Redemption is based on a King story (you can find it alongside another great tale, Apt Pupil, in the novella collection Different Seasons).

I’m digressing, but my point is that 11/22/63 is a book without any of the supernatural themes many would expect from a King book – unless you’re the sort of person who finds the idea of time travel to be supernatural. Nonetheless, King spins a grand tale.

The premise

The premise is that Jake Epping, a high school English teacher, goes back in time in an attempt to prevent President Kennedy from being assassinated. The proprietor of Jake’s favorite greasy spoon is on his deathbed when he confides a secret to Jake. He has found a porthole into the 1950s. All Jake needs to do it pop through the porthole, determine that Oswald acted alone, and whack him. While he’s at it, correct a few more wrongs while he’s at it. Need some money? No problem – just bet on sports.

Sounds simple enough, but as Jake finds out, the past is obdurate (Jake’s favorite word) – resistant to change. At each step, the past puts obstacles in his way – some subtle, some not. And each time Jake does something to change the past, the butterfly effect means that the future may also change.

Does Jake succeed in his mission? Sorry, but I’m not going to include a spoiler in a review – you’ll have to read the book to find out.

Historical backdrop

I have a casual interest in history, but I’m not obsessed with Kennedy by any stretch of the imagination. Before reading 11/22/63, I knew the basic details of the Kennedy assassination. While King necessarily fictionalizes the past in order to advance the plot, much of the content is based on fact. Quite a lot of the book focuses on Lee Harvey Oswald and his family. If you’re not terribly familiar with the Kennedy assassination, you might actually learn some history from the book.

Characters and scene

As is generally the case with King, his characters are interesting and multi-dimensional. Jake himself fits the bill of a complex character, of course. He’s a mild-mannered teacher who is now willing to blow a man’s brain’s out. As Jake settles down into a “normal life” for a few years while he does the necessary background on Oswald, he interacts with a rich cast of characters who make him feel at home – rather than an alien from the future. His life becomes entwined with their lives to a degree he never could have imagined.

The book includes a full array of characters. Although the main plot of the books is Jake’s mission to save Kennedy, many other subplots develop as the book moves along – which each subplot spinning up new protagonists and antagonists. Schoolteachers, bookies, murders, self-righteous women, kids, communist sympathizers – 11/22/63 has them all.

King also does a great job of setting the scene with his descriptions of the environment. You can visualize the inside of the diner and can easily hear the children playing jump rope – and, of course, you can see the bruises on Lee Harvey Oswald’s wife. I found it very easy to get immersed in King’s version of the early 60s.

The verdict

I loved the book. It’s long – 849 pages in hardcover – but I doubt you’ll find many boring passages. If you buy the Kindle version, you have two options. You can pay a few extra bucks and get a version with some extra media included. Alternately, you can simply buy the bare bones edition (currently $14.99). Since I was buying it just for the story, I opted for the cheaper version.

Don’t have a Kindle? You can buy one here (for as low as $79).

Recently, my wife and I tried out Amazon Prime, mostly for the free Amazon Instant Video selections.  Although I used the free month to watch the Swedish version of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, the overall selection of movies left something to be desired.  So we’ve decided to go to NetFlix instead.  I’d been using Amazon Instant Video on the computer downstairs, and was unpleasantly surprised to find out that it didn’t quite meet the hardware requirements for NetFlix (just 0.17 GHZ too slow).  Boo.  I’d need a different option for the downstairs TV.

We had just recently purchased a Blu-Ray player for the upstairs computer.  It was a Panasonic DMP-BDT210 (since replaced by the newer BDT220 model).  We’ve used it far more for streaming video than for playing Blu-Ray at this point.  We paid $130 for the 210 model, but the 220 model is $190.  That would be an expensive option … and not even a workable once, since the player only has HDMI output (the TV is 10 years old and only has coax and RCA).

Replace the TV with a newer model that supports NetFlix out of the box?  That’s an option, but I can’t justify spending $500+ on a TV at the moment … especially when the existing TV is working just fine.

Apple TV?  I’m a Mac guy, so I take a look at this.  Alas, only digital output.  The requirement for RCA output is becoming a larger stumbling block than I had hoped.

My search then took me to the Roku.  There are a few different models of the Roku, but I wanted the bare bones model, the Roku LT.  The price – $50.  I ordered it and a few days later, it arrived on my doorstep.  The size of the device caught me a bit off guard.  As an IT guy, I logically knew that this sort of a device didn’t have to be very big … but the Roku was about the same size as the remote.

(Here’s a question: why doesn’t NetFlix partner with a hardware supplier to sell a similar box?  They could sell it for the same price and include a three month trial of NetFlix.  In return, they’ve made it slightly harder for someone to switch to a competitor, since they have a NetFlix-only box).

The setup

The setup was pretty quick and painless.

• Physical – Attached the RCA cable to the TV.  Plug in the AC adapter.  Note: the Roku does also support HDMI output.  720 for the cheaper options, 1080 for the more expensive ones.
• Account setup – During the initial setup, you’ll be asked to get on your computer and register your Roku, using an activation code that appears on the screen.  Note that you are asked to enter a credit card to be used when you purchase premium channels.
• Add channels – You’re ready to add some channels!  I added Netflix via the web site.  Then I went back to the Roku and used the Roku remote to enter my account credentials.  It would have been easier if I could have entered this info on the computer instead of Roku’s site, but it was still a pretty quick process.

Overall impression

I’m really not using many of the advanced features of the Roku.  I’m going to use it for NetFlix and maybe a few other channels (of which there are hundreds including NetFlix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, Pandora, sports channels, etc).  I wanted something relatively inexpensive and easy to set up.  The Roku definitely fits the bill.  It’s so easy to set up that there’s not point in looking at the instructions.

The Roku will pay for itself next year.  The Roku and Blu-Ray player both support MLB.TV, so I’ll be able to subscribe to that instead of MLB Extra Innings.  That’s a cost savings of around $75 per year.  #Winning.

You can purchase the Roku by clicking on the image below (which will take you to Amazon) or you can purchase directly from Roku.  We do receive a small commission on each sale.

Image via CrunchBase

Regular visitors to The Soap Boxers have probably noticed  changes in the past week.  Yes, we’ve become more image conscious.  I’ve often wanted to add images to articles (because they give articles an extra bit of flair), but finding royalty-free images for every article seemed like an impossible undertaking, and using images without permission is a no-no.  What to do, then?

Enter Zemanta

Our friend Elizabeth West had a lot of her images get wiped out and needed to replace many of them.  Commenter Arlee Bird of Tossing It Out recommended the WordPress plug-in Zemanta.  Always intrigued by software with strange names, I decided to give it a short – I added Zemanta to my WordPress installation.

How does it work?

Welcome to Elizabeth, West Virginia (Photo credit: J. Stephen Conn)

Zemanta uses the text of the article to find images that might be appropriate.  Sometimes the choices are spot on.  Other times, you get images like the one you see on the right.  Sure, we mention Elizabeth in this article, but not that Elizabeth.

Don’t worry – if Zemanta doesn’t automatically find an image you like, you can change the search criteria and have it try again.  I can usually find something I like within a  minute or two.  Once you find an image, you can choose to justify it left, center, right and also choose the size (small, medium, large, or the custom option which allows you to specify the width.

Where do the images come from?

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Over time, you’ll probably notice that a lot of the images are from Wikipedia.  This is not by accident.  A basic rule of Wikipedia is that only royalty-free images can be used.  So when Zemanta plucks an image from Wikipedia, it knows that the images is OK to use.

If Zemanta was just pulling from Wikipedia, it’d be a time saver, but not a big deal.  But Zemanta doesn’t stop there.  It also finds images that can be used, but with certain restrictions.  The restriction that I’ve seen is that a small version of the image can be used, as long as there is a link back to the originating site.  I see this as a win-win.  Bloggers get access to some cool images they might not otherwise have access to – such as this cool image of new Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish.

There’s more

There’s more to Zemanta than just images.  You can use it to automatically find related articles, and Zemanta will also suggest “tags” to add to the article and in-text links to add.  There’s also some Amazon affiliate integration, although I haven’t figured out exactly how that works yet. 

Image via Wikipedia

How much does it cost?

Like much software on the internet, Zemanta is free. 

Naturally, this begs the question of how they make any money.  I don’t know the internal workings of the organization, but I’ve spotted a couple of their profit-making opportunities.

You can opt to use Zemanta’s Amazon Associates account if you don’t have your own Amazon Associates account.  This allows Zemanta to get a commission on sales derived from your links.

Some of the ink-text links are marked as “promoted”.  Promoted simply means the site’s owner is paying Zemanta for suggesting their site as a link.  While I don’t use the in-text links myself, I really haven’t seen anything glaringly inappropriate.  The sites are always related to the actual topic, it’s just that by using the promoted link you might link to news site A instead of news site B.

It’s worth noting that it would be very difficult for an experienced WordPress user to accidentally activate any of these options.  You have to actually take an action to trigger them. 

Verdict 

At this point, I’m only using a subset of the features that Zemanta offers.  Nonetheless, I’d recommend Zemanta just on what I’ve seem so far.  It’s free, and it’s easy to use.  While it sometimes doesn’t pre-populate exactly what you’re looking for, it has a pretty good initial success rate.

Am I going to go back and Zemantafy every article on the site.  Good lord, no.  There are more than 1000 articles.  I did take a bit of time to update the most popular articles and also add images to many of the articles from the last week.

Hopefully, this will make the articles look more attractive and will result in repeat business for The Soap Boxers.

The Soap Boxers, as well as other domains within the realm of Kosmo, is hosted by Dreamhost.  I stumbled across Dreamhost quite by accident.  When I began blogging, my friend Lazy Man took me under his wing and provided my with free hosting under his own Dreamhost account.

So, what do you get with Dreamhost?

Domain Registration – First, you get one free domain registration with each hosting account.  This is something that a lot of web hosts charge extra for.  As a bonus, you can opt for anonymous registration for no additional cost (which, again, many hosts charge extra for).  Additional domains can be registered for $9.95 per year with no strings attached.

Unlimited everything (well, most things, anyway) –

• You get unlimited space for your web site’s files.  Additionally, you get an additional 50 GB of backup space for non-site files.
• You can host as many domains on one account as you wish.  For example, I host The Soap Boxers, Hyrax Publications, and a personal web site – and it’s the same fixed cos for hosting (although there is a registration fee for each domain).
• You can created unlimited MySql databases.
• Unlimited bandwidth

Essentially, this means that you won’t be charged overage fees for exceeding space or bandwidth limitations – since there are no limitations.

Email – You can set up email in a variety of different ways.  I have mine configured to use Google as the email provider.  I have my own custom email address (kosmo@observingcasually.com), but use Google’s POP server to check mail through my desktop email client.  I can also choose to go to Google’s web site to check my mail.  The web-based mail through Google is just gMail customized to use your own domain name.

One-click installs – Dreamhost has “one click” installs for a variety of software packages.  I have used the one-click install for WordPress a number of times, and also have used it for Zen Cart on the Hyrax Publication site.  That’s the tip of the iceberg, though – the option also exist for these software packages: Gallery, PhpGedView, Pligg, dotProject, Moodle, Joomla, phpBB, MediaWiki, WebCalendar, Advanced Poll, and Trac (note: I don’t use any of these other software packages, so I can’t vouch for how well they are integrated).  You still have to configure the software, of course – so you may need more than one click to get started.  It’s a good feeling knowing that you’re not going to run into a weird installation error when you try to install a software package.

Overall ease of use – I’ve used a lot of web hosting services over the years.  Most of them tend to use CPanel.  I’m really not overly fond of CPanel and was happy to see that Dreamhost doesn’t use it.  You can use the Dreamhost panel to use FTP and MySql, but you can also access these functions natively.  It’s also a cinch to do things like add sub-domains (blog.mydomain.com, photos.mydomain.com, topsecret.mydomain.com, etc).

Social responsibility – Dreamhost offers free hosting to non-profits (501(c)(3) organizations) and also touts being a green organization.  Some of the environmental friendliness they claims is a result of purchasing renewable energy credits or offsets.  Of course, this doesn’t really reduce the energy a company uses (which Dreamhost admits), but does provide funding for green projects.  Beyond the purchasing of credits, Dreamhost does make an effort to use power-efficient processors and take other steps to reduce energy usage.

Upgrades – In addition to the base plan (which costs $9.95 per month if you sign up for one year, or as little as $5.95 monthly if you sign up for ten years), you can purchase upgrades such as private servers and static IP addresses.

Surely there are some problems with Dreamhost, right?  A few months ago, there were some issues with a few outages.  They weren’t particularly long (an hour or so), but could be frustrating when they occurred.  This is something that every hosting company is going to experience at some level, of course – nobody has 100.00% uptime.  On the bright side, there hasn’t been an outage in quite a while.

Interested in signing up with Dreamhost?  Sign up using this link (or by clicking the ads), and you’ll get the first year of service for just $3 per month ($36 for the first year).  Yep, I do get an affiliate commission if you sign up.  If you’ve been waiting to jump in the water and create your own blog (or other site), take this opportunity and take the first step toward success!

Back in October, I first wrote about our experience with DirecTV.  Seven months later, how do I feel?

Positives

• The DirecTV DVRs are far superior to the DVR we had with Mediacom.  The Mediacom ones would flake out and need to be powered down at least once a week.  It was replaced several times, but all the units acted the same.  The Mediacom DVRs store about 50 hours of programming.  The DirecTV DVRs have been relatively trouble-free, and they store 200+ hours of programming.  That comes in really handy when there is a need to have lots of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes on hand.
• Aside from the fact that baseball’s blackout rules suck, I absolutely love having access to MLB Extra Innings, which was not available through Mediacom.  I can’t blame DirecTV for the blackouts, as these are imposed by Major League Baseball.  I have been able to catch a lot of Rockies games this year.
• The ability to program your DVR from the internet is great.  If you forget to set your DVR, you can go to a computer (or smart phone), access the DirecTV web site, and set the show to record.

Negative, but not really their fault

• We have our TV, phone, and internet bundled through Qwest.  A couple of months after doing this, we realized that they had not been bundled properly, and that we weren’t being given one of the discounts.  The multiple charges and discounts on the bill can make deciphering it difficult – especially since cryptic phrases are attached to the charges and discounts.  I had actually reviewed the bill and was under the impression that we were getting that discount.  Alas, the credit I was assuming was related to that discount was actually related to something else.  This was eventually resolved and we got credit for the un-discounted months.  I’m blaming Qwest for this instead of DirecTV.  The Qwest representative wasn’t willing to fix the problem; the DirecTV rep was.

Negatives

• Bad weather can create problems.  Our service was completely knocked out for periods of time during a recent system of severe thunderstorms.  This is an area where dish-based service is always going to lose when compared to cable companies, due to the fact that cable is hard-wired.
• At times, the signal can be a bit garbled.  This comes and goes, but can be annoying when it happens.  The picture gets scrambled a bit and the audio can get distorted.

Please, please, please add these features

• There doesn’t seem to be a way to truncate a saved program.  This can be especially problematic with sports programming.  MLB Extra Innings allocates six hours for a baseball game – an absurdly long time period.  I haven’t found any way to shorten this timeframe, other than manual halting the recording when the game is over.  The inability to truncate means that I may have a 2 ½ hour game that takes up 6 hours of space on the DVR.  I’d like to be able to fast-forward to a particular point in the programming and just delete the rest.  Even better, I’d like for the DVR to be smart enough to know when the game ends.  How would that be possible?  Have the TV stations transmit a unique program code as part of the signal.
• Picture-in-picture.  I’m stunned that this doesn’t exist.  My TVs have PIP capability, and I know how to set it up … but there doesn’t appear to be a way to get it to work with DirecTV.  When I had digital cable, I’d split the coaxial cable before it got to the digital box.  I’d run one split through the digital box and then on to the TV.  I’d take the other split and run it to the TV.  The second split carried just the analog signal, but it gave me PIP functionality.  However, you can’t do this with DirecTV, because the out-of-the-jack signal is scrambled.  The only apparent way to set up PIP would be to have two converter boxes tied to the TV.  Am I missing an obvious solution to this?
• I’d like to have the ability to create a custom playlist.  I often listen to TV while I’m doing yardwork.  I’d love to be able to set up a playlist that would allow me to watch a saved NCIS episode, a saved espisode of The Office, and then jump to channel 742 to join the Rockies game when it begins.  If that’s not possible (which, really, it should be) at least let me choose the order of the NCIS episodes.

Overall, I’m happy with the product.  The disruptions have been relatively rare at this point and DirecTV give me access to programming I can’t get with cable.

Lady Antebellum has exploded in popularity in the last year. Today, I review the album Need you Now.

Cheris	Song
	Need You Now	I recently heard this referred to as “The Booty Call Song”.  That’s probably not the most elegant way to describe it. but also not entirely wrong.
	Our Kind of Love	I love the very beginning of this song, and overall, it’s a pretty good song about a special love.  At this point in the album, you really begin to take notice of the strong instrumental aspects of this album.
	American Honey	Far and away the best song on the album.  Quite often, I’ll listen to this song of “growing up slow, like American honey” a half dozen times in a row.
	Hello World	Like Our Kind of Love, I also enjoy the very beginning of this song.  Hello World slows things down a bit and talks about what’s really important in life.  The choice to put this back to back with American Honey results in a rather interest audio contrast – which I enjoy.
	Perfect Day	The tone of the music becomes upbeat again, taking us through a day which will surely be remembered as one of the “good old days”.
	Love This Pain	Ah, love can be so painful at times … but it’s the best sort of pain, isn’t it?  A nice toe-tapping beat.
	When You Got a Good Thing	This song is another slower song, describing a wonderful love between two people – “you gotta know when you’ve got a good thing.”
	Stars Tonight	Once again, the song has a very strong instrumental introduction.  Stars Tonight takes us inside the experience of being a musician on the stage in front of an adoring crowd.  I’ll give this song the nod as the second best song on the album and award five Cheris.
	If I Knew Then	A tale of regret at missing the opportunity for love – messing up the chance at true love in a number of different ways.
	Something ‘Bout a Woman	There’s just something about a woman that makes the singer feel wonderful – even the seemingly insignificant parts of her.
	Ready to Love Again	The album ends on a slower note.  An album filled with quite a few upbeat love songs finishes up with a song of a woman deciding to finally move on and take the risk of falling in love again.
Album grade: This is a stunningly strong album, top to bottom.  I personally think that American Honey is off the charts in terms of quality, and there really isn’t a weak song in the mix.  Not only are the songs well written and well sung, but they also feature very strong instrumentals.  I have no problems awarding a perfect five Cheri rating.  Lady Antebellum consists of Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood, and Hillary Scott.

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