This evening I wandered down to River Street and walked along the boardwalk overlooking the river. Along this charming little artery, there are a bevy of different shops and restaurants representing everything from the mundane to the striking. From upscale chains and small-town dives, the boardwalk seems to have it all, and amazingly enough, this is but one of many such streets like this in Savannah. As I aimlessly meandered about, my attention was caught by a rather interesting fountain. Since I had my camera, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to snap away.

Before I made it to Savannah, I was told that I absolutely must eat at Paula Dean’s restaurant “Lady and Sons” which is famous for it’s deliciously unhealthy cuisine. How could I ignore such a recommendation? I have to say, after taking that advice for dinner, it’s every bit as good as described. However, if you’re not a fan of fried food or heavy cream typical of Southern cooking, you need not apply. I ordered the Seafood combo, but from the looks of the place, the most popular entree had to be the buffet. From the biscuits to the soup to the sublimely moist shrimps, scallops, and oysters, I left without the smallest pang of hunger.

I’ve still got one and a half days here in Savannah, and I’m just hoping that I’ll have the time and energy to soak up as much as the city as humanly possible. My only worry is that I’ll end up looking a bit like jolly ol’ Santa, and i don’t think that’s a look that suits me particularly well.

Okay, it’s time to get back to exploring the new Mac!

As it turns out, it’s possible but not quite plug and play.  If you’re trying to recreate this setup at home, here’s what you’ll need:

1. DVI->HDMI Adapter
2. Xbox 360 with HDMI
3. Second Display

First, hook up your Xbox 360 to the second display.  Once it has booted into the Xbox Dashboard, navigate to the System Blade and select Console Settings->Display->Screen Resolution.  You should now see a list of different resolutions (640×480, 848×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, etc.).  The Dell 3007WFP-HC doesn’t perform any scaling , and consequently, supports only two resolutions: 1280×800 (single-link) or 2560×1920 (dual-link).  The Xbox 360 supports a maximum resolution of 1920×1080 so we’re forced to use the monitor’s single-link resolution.  Since the Xbox 360 doesn’t support 1280×800 exactly, we’ll select the next closest resolution at 1280×768.  After selecting this resolution from the list, you can now plug the 30" Dell 3007WFP-HC monitor into the back of your Xbox 360 using the DVI->HDMI Adapter.  Congratulations!  You’re all done!

So now I’ve got my giant 30" Dell  monitor hooked up to my Xbox 360, but there’s one caveat.  Since the Xbox 360 is only outputting 1280×768 and the monitor requires a resolution of exactly 1280×800, the bottom 12 pixels of the screen are a repeat of the top 12 pixels of the screen.  While not a deal breaker, it can be a little bit distracting and annoying at times (i.e., if the top part of the screen is very bright and the bottom is very dark).  Oh well, it’s time for the Master Chief to get back to saving the world!

All in all, it’s been a pretty busy summer and things only look to be getting busier, but hopefully, I’ll manage to be more faithful to my updates than I’ve been heretofore.

The first film to be graced by my keen insight and brilliant critical analysis will be A Prairie Home Companion. This wonderful "gem" of a movie is stacked with a star-studded cast including such names as Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan, Maya Rudolph, and Meryl Streep. It’s just unfortunate that the producers of this movie forgot to obtain a decent screenplay to showcase the talents of their all-star cast, and consequently, this movie failed to interest me at all. In fact, I was so thoroughly bored and disinterested with this movie that I actually walked out about thirty or forty-five minutes into the story; it was just that bad. The story (so far as I could tell) revolved around a live radio show that called the Fitzgerald, a small-town theatre, home. All of this information along with the fact that the theatre would be performing its last live broadcast before closing down is disclosed in the film’s opening narration. However, you’d be hard-pressed to learn much more than that from the characters ambiguous, nonsensical babble, and I found myself thoroughly confused and bored by a lack of plot development. To all those thinking about seeing this film, I’d highly advise against it, but what do I know?

After sitting through the excruciatingly painful thirty or forty-five minutes of A Prairie Home Companion, I decided leave and go see Pixar’s latest animated film Cars. I have to be honest that when I first saw previews for Cars I wasn’t very excited about it, and I actually wasn’t planning on seeing it. If it weren’t for my father recommending it and being completely un-entertained by A Prairie Home Companion, I very well might have skipped it, but I’m definitely glad I didn’t. Pixar did a wonderful job developing the cars as interesting characters that the audience could truly relate to. The cars had wonderful animation that seemed to bring them to life, and I really that I forgot they were simply inanimate objects. The story revolves around one car’s, Lightning McQueen, journey towards becoming the next big thing in the world of racing. Though brimming with talent and potential Lightning still has a lot to learn about racing as he still doesn’t understand that racing is a team sport; rather, Lightning believes everything revolves solely around him. In fact, it is hubris that costs him an easy win in a big race resulting in a three-way tie with both his nemesis and the reigning champ. The remainder of the movie revolves around Lightning learning that there’s more to life than just himself or winning as he interacts with other cars in the quaint little town of Radiator Springs. If you’re looking for an entertaining movie and you enjoy animated flicks, I wholeheartedly recommend this movie.

Finally, I saw The Omen which is a remake of the 1976 cult classic. I never saw the original so the story was completely new to me, but from what I have been told, this new rendition is a very faithful (almost scene by scene) transcription of the original. Just like the exorcist, I did not find this movie all that terrifying even though it was considered to be quite frightening upon its original release, but I must confess that the little kid who played the son of satan did creep me out. For those who are unfamiliar with the basic plot of the movie, a couple has a child who is born on 06-06-2006, and the father is told by a priest that his child died during delivery. The crafty priest is able to hoodwink him into believing that his wife suffered severe trauma to her uterus and would be unable to conceive another child. There is another child, however, who’s mother died while giving birth, and the priest tells the man that he should take that child and tell his wife that it is their own to spare her the heartbreak of giving birth to a stillborn baby. What the man doesn’t realize is that all of this is a ruse. His child was killed, and this other child, the son of Lucipher, was born unto a goat (since it apparently states in the Bible that the son of satan will be born unto a goat). The rest of the movie consists of this father being warned by several figures that his child is evil and that he must kill him. It is not until his wife dies and he sees that his son has a birthmark in the formm of 666 on the back of his head that he truly believes the admonitions he has received. He then proceeds to try and kill his son in the manner that he was instructed by a knowledgeable priest, but he is killed in the process and satan’s son is spared. This of course leaves room for the sequels which followed the original–whether or not those will receive remakes is unknown to me. Overall I found the movie mildly entertaining; it’s not a must see, but I wouldn’t advise against it either. If you’re on the fence about this one, you might as well wait for it to become available as a rental. Well, there you have it. Three incredibly wonderful reviews that you probably couldn’t do without. Tune in for the next installment in my entertaining world tomorrow. It will be marked by an early trip to the gym, work, a trip to the dentist, and one final trip to the gym. Wow, I can’t believe how excited I am for tomorrow already! Let me go ahead and express my jubilation with a barrage of words expressing my elation and delight: wooooohoooo, yiiippppeeeeee, woooowwwzzeerrrssss, teeerrrrriifffic, g-r-r-r-r-eaaaaat!

Anyways, today I have more Google news to share since I was introduced to two new Google programs this week. First, I was accepted to the Gmail for Domains beta program which means I now all the greatness that is Gmail but with my own domain name! I mean in terms of web based mail interfaces Gmail is my absolute favorite, and while I do have a Gmail account, I’ve never used it as my primary e-mail address simply because I’d like to keep using my own domain e-mail addresses. For a while, I just started forwarding mail to my domain’s e-mail address to my Gmail account which was wonderful, but it didn’t provide a way to reply to e-mails I received from that same e-mail address. With the new Gmail for Domains program, this is no longer a problem. I even get to use my own logo for the Gmail interface.

In any case, I don’t want to say too much about the Gmail for Domains program since it is in beta, and I’m not sure how much information I’m allowed to give. Nonetheless, this brings me to the Google Calendar. I didn’t realized until two days after it had been released that it was now available, but I must say it’s pretty cool. The interface is awesome and, in traditional Google style, is very clean and well thought out. However, I do have one major grievance with the Google Calendar web application. It really should have some means of synchronization with a desktop calendar application such as Outlook, iCal, etc. Without that, I can’t really see myself using it except as a way to publish my calendar from Outlook on the Internet.

Nonetheless, the Calendar application is still in its infancy, and I’m sure there are more features that are yet to come. So please, Google, add a synchronization feature! If you don’t already have a Calendar application, however, the Google Calendar could be just the thing you’re looking for, and I’d encourage everyone to at least give it a once over.

I didn’t know quite what to expect when I went to this movie, but I was definitely pleasantly surprised. The “protagonist” (Nick Naylor) is the lead spokesman for “Big Tobacco”. He is the “Sultan of Spin”. The king of bullshit. In short, he is the ultimate politician. Of course, I guess one would have to be incredibly good at circular rhetoric and speaking out one’s arse in order to lead a public relations campaign for an industry whose product is a direct cause of lung cancer. How do you defend a product whose prolonged use may lead to the customer’s ultimate demise? An even better question is, “How do you spin for a ‘Big Tobacco’ while still remaining a role model to your 12-yr old son?” You’ll just have to see the movie to find out. However, I will give you a nice slice of dialoge to whet your whistle…

Jeff Megall: Sony has a futuristic sci-fi movie they’re looking to make.
Nick Naylor: Cigarettes in space?
Jeff Megall: It’s the final frontier, Nick.
Nick Naylor: But wouldn’t they blow up in an all oxygen environment?
Jeff Megall: Probably. But it’s an easy fix. One line of dialogue. ‘Thank God we invented the… you know, whatever device.’

The second movie seen this weekend is Failure To Launch. I wasn’t expecting to like this movie so much, but given I don’t mind chick flicks, I figured it couldn’t be too bad. Yes, I know. I’m a dude, and I like chick flicks! However, I’ve admitted it, and that is the first step towards recovery.

As it turns out, I really enjoyed this movie. The characters were memorable and funny, and I found myself constantly engrossed in the plot (even if it is rather light-hearted and stupid). For those who don’t know, the movie is about male in his thirties who still lives at home and his parents’ attempt to get him to spread his wings and move out. To facilitate his move out of the nest, they hire a woman who specializes in getting older men who still live at home to move out by pretending to date them. Whether it was the main character’s father turning his son’s old room into a “naked room” or the protagonist himself getting bitten by a handful of peaceful woodland creatures, I found myself constantly laughing. I must warn that bird lovers and those still living at home may find this movie to be somewhat disturbing, but as for the rest of you, I don’t think you’ll regret going to see this movie.

To those looking for movies, each of these movies gets my personal seal of approval. Too bad I don’t have an official seal of approval just yet.

I must say that Cameron is not the best venue for a rock concert. The reverberation time of the room is quite high, and it resulted in the music having a rather “muddy” sound, but despite this drawback, it was still fun to see and hear Franz Ferdinand live. While I do enjoy their, I cannot say that I’m an avid fan, and I’m not I’m incredibly familiar with their repertoire of music. So while others were singing and jamming along, I found myself just standing and listening as most songs for what felt like the first time. Fortunately, I could see the band most of the time so I could enjoy their theatrics, but I do feel it is important that I emphasize I could see them most of the time. The individual in front of me looked as though he had a giant bird’s nest resting atop his head, but after closer inspection, I realized that it was really just his head of hair. As if his hair wasn’t enough, he felt the constant need to place his hands upon his head so that his arms completely obstructed my view of the stage. I found this rather strange, and I can only assume that he suffers from a severe case of sweaty arm pits and was just trying to air them out.

Towards the end of the performance by Franz Ferdinand, my bird nested nemesis decided to move from his seat and into the isle allowing me an unobstructed view of the stage for a rather incredible drum finale. For this finale theatrical peformance, three members of the band came together at once to play the drums; one played the snare. Another played the cymbal and the ride, and the actual drummer played everything else. It was most certainly one of the highlights of their performance.

After Franz Ferdinand left the stage, it was Death Cab for Cutie’s turn to rock out for the Cameron Indoor crowd. However, for their first few songs the sound was absolutely terrible; the individual monitoring the sound was either deaf or completely incompetent because he insisted upon ramping up the bass and completely ignoring the high end of the spectrum. Those familiar with Death Cab for Cutie know that their music is typically characterized by less thumping bass and takes place mostly in the middle to high registers. They did eventually straighten it out, but there were a number of people that left the concert early most likely due to the incompetence of the sound technician. Given that Death Cab for Cutie is a more mellow band, it was cool to see the students in Cameron bust out what can be termed the 21st century equivalent to the lighter at a rock concert… the cell phone. For a few songs, the glow of cell phones swayed back and forth in unison as most everyone with cell phones imitated the “old school” use of lighters. It was quite a site.

All in all, the concert was a rather enjoyable experience, and for many (myself included), it will be one of their last visits to Cameron Indoor Stadium.

For those living under a rock for the past few weeks, I’m talking about the whole Duke Lacrosse rape scandal which has been a driving catalyst for protests and growing tension between Duke and the Durham community at large. As it stands, the Duke LAX team is charged with raping an African American female “dancer” (also a student at North Carolina Central University) who was hired for a team party at an off-campus house. However, one thing is becoming increasingly clear throughout this whole case, this is not just a rape case, but rather, it’s a chance for people to use a horrible incident to promote their own personal agendas. We have women’s groups claiming that this is evidence of a misogynistic culture. We have African American groups claiming this is evidence of a systemic culture of racism on campus. We have the Durham community claimining that this is proof of an entitled, supremist culture that is found here at Duke. As a result of all the protests and media attention, tensions between Duke, Durham, and NCCU have escalated to dangerous levels. In fact, we’ve had at least one case of Duke students assaulted off campus by members of North Carolina Central University as well as threats of gang violence against members of the Duke Lacrosse team.

Apparently, members of the Durham, NCCU, and even the Duke community have forgotten about the presumption of innocence until one has been proven guilty. Thus, they are calling for action before any concrete evidence of wrong-doing been brought to light. No charges have been pressed; DNA evidence is still pending; and right now, the whole case is a “he said, she said” situation. Right now, I’m just waiting for more information to be made available to the public, and until then, I am not going to jump to any conclusions. In fact, I just recently learned that the woman who is making the accusations of rape has a criminal record and also accepts jobs for one-on-one dancing. I find these facts to be cause for suspicion, but I haven’t heard much media coverage given to either fact. I just wish people would stop stirring the waters and wait for some real facts concerning this case instead of continuning to raise the tensions between the University and the community. This is especially true when most people are only giving credence to one side of the story.

So until the results of the DNA test come back, I’ll be reserving my own judgment, but I just wish more could just do the same.

On a further negative note, the Duke women’s basketball team the national championship game to Maryland in overtime. It was somewhat of a letdown considering that they dominated most of the game until the last couple minutes (at which time they decided to stop playing defense!). So there will be no NCAA basketball championship in my undergraduate career here at Duke but simply a lot of trips where we “almost made it”. I think it’s time to ask for a refund! However, I must also congratulate University of Florida on winning their first National Championship. They may not have been the team to beat the entire season, but they did win games in the tournament. In almost all cases, they won them very handily and without really struggling at all. Certainly, that was the case with the championship game which wasn’t really even that exciting to watch since UCLA couldn’t hang with the gators at all despite most people touting their excellent defense.

Well, it’s now time for me to get back to work before it gets too late even though I doubt I’ll be getting very much sleep tonight. For all of those that still occasionally read what I have to write here, I’m making a concerted effort to increase my posting efforts again; I just fell off the bandwagon for a while. However, I find that my posts are often a good way to take a break and get my mind off of things as well as keeping people posted on what’s going on with me. So stay tuned as I try to commit myself to posting daily! Until tomorrow, this is Chazcrest out!