BrodyBlog

Rarely do I watch television, and by rarely, I mean never. But one show in particular caught my eye; Chuck. Set in Los Angeles, the show follows a twenty-something computer geek who works at Buy More (A.K.A. Best Buy) servicing computers.

One night he suddenly receives an E-Mail from a college roommate that contains a massive amount of image data, with serious national security information encrypted within. Somehow, the information is store inside Chuck's mind, but he can only recall it in a series of flashbacks triggered by sights that jog his memory.

The show can loosely be classified as a comedy, with the lead character (played by Zachary Levi) having a warm, humorous personality--completely caught in the middle of the guidance of two federal agents--contrasting with a development of courage as the episodes bring him deeper and deeper into the world of espionage, international intrigue, and harsh working conditions known to anyone that's worked retail...

Overall, the show has a great balance of action, comedy, sensitivity, and most importantly of all: explosions.

NBC, in a smart move followed by most all of the major television networks, allows viewers to view high-quality, complete episodes on their website at www.nbc.com

For now, I'll keep on watching.

Posted by Brody at 12:49 AM | Permalink

Because I'm connected all the way from L.A. to Hong Kong, I had the white keyboard on my macbook replaced with a black keyboard and I have a brand new one on the way from apple which should be here in about 7 days.

Enjoi:

Posted by Brody at 05:06 PM | Permalink

LAST WEEKEND I took a trip down to visit my mates at the University of Texas in Austin, a quirky urban college town where smoking pot is par for the course, and there's always a party going on somewhere. When I arrived in the city, I had all my gear with me--camera, lenses, the works--but when I put my new Sigma aspherical wide angle lens on, it just wouldn't work. It was focusing, and firing the shutter, but the aperture was stuck--I was helpless.

In a way it was a blessing, because it got me away from my camera and let me leave what I do behind and really get into beer pong being played on a door taken off the hinges, girls, and just kicking back and spending quality time with the bros. Some things never change.

Call me old-fashioned, but I like to buy things from brick and mortar stores--local shops at that, when I can, and I purchased my expensive lens from a locally respected and nationally known camera store, Arlington Camera.

I knew from experience with most manufacturer's warranties that products sent off for repair were turned around in more than a month's time...sometimes longer, and this was a fear that had me losing sleep for days.

But tonight, I think I'll get a full eight hours.

You see, the fine folks at Arlington Camera could've just had me send it in, like everyone else, but when I went back to the store and talked with a kind woman about the situation, she said that the owner would see if he could exchange it out for me under the authorization of Sigma, personally getting an authorization over lunch with a product rep. and phoning it in.

All I had to do was walk in and pick up the new lens, no fee, no waiting in line, no nothing. I even spent some time playing with a few other toys and checking out the rental setups for lighting.

There's nothing more exciting than to have something go my way in a year of ups and downs, and if this wasn't a sign to keep taking pictures everyday--to keep trying--then I don't know what is.

Posted by Brody at 01:21 AM | Permalink

I arrived as the sun was going down over the capitol; Early Autumn raves cut the air, thick with summer, into sections of cool and flow forever bending round the streets on the town we walked around. My friends invited me for the weekend, and It was both a blessing and a curse to come down. On one hand, if I'd never visited, my camera might have never malfunctioned and I wouldn't be worrying myself to thoughts of suicide (however vain it might be) on the prospect of losing this lens. For some reason, with it, I feel like I can do anything--that there are no limits to the things I can photograph and the ways and means in which I can do so. But I can do just as well with the others, but If the warranty will not cover it, I cannot go on until I replace the lens. In a way, though, it took the camera out of my hand for the night, letting me get back into the swing of things before I knew what it was like to have something around my neck all the time. We smoked and smoked, before heading over to a party on the west district of campus. The wrought iron, chest high, fence was chipping with rust and laced with vinery opening to a small foothpath and an entryway with stairs up to the apartment. It was old, but not musty, the kind of retro-revival solid brass water faucet and tiled everything lending a chic all their own. The party was full of architects, a soiree of young men in polo shirts, collared striped shirts, and baseball caps eagerly taking turns at beer pong, which was set upon a door that had been taken off its hinges and placed upon two chairs.

Posted by Brody at 07:30 AM | Permalink

PROTESTERS gathered outside the Florida State Capitol building less than an hour after an all-white jury acquitted seven guards and one nurse on charges of manslaughter in the case of Martin Lee Anderson, 14.

Mr. Anderson suffered from an undiagnosed condition known as sickle cell anemia, a blood disorder found almost exclusively in blacks which causes the red blood cells to carry less oxygen in the body. The accusations of murder stemmed from the death of Mr. Anderson just one day after he had entered the program for "troubled teens" which was part of the State of Florida's correctional department. Relatives took Mr. Anderson off life support after no sign of brain activity was found; his skull was filled with blood upon arrival at the hospital.

All juvenile "boot camps" in the state have since been closed.

The outrage sparked by the verdict has extended to the United States District Attorney's Office, which has announced it is reviewing the case for possible federal charges in a superior court. Legal scholars expect such an action to be unlikely--United States Law does not allow for a person to be prosecuted twice for the same crime, but some experts have noted that if federal civil rights charges are filed, they may be held to an exemption and allowed by superior courts due to the wording of legislation passed in the 1960s and 1970s which established and strengthened the power of the federal government to review state cases.

Mr. Anderson's mother, who was awarded a $5 million dollar settlement in a civil action against the State, screamed cries of shock after storming out of the courtroom immediately after the verdict was read.

The verdict, which was reached after only 90 minutes despite the prosecution's strong case centered around a thirty minute video in which guards relentlessly beat Mr. Anderson in its entirety and forced him to inhale ammonia as a nurse stood idly by, is certain to add considerable racial tension to a case that has been reported around the world.

THE NEW YORK TIMES, in an editorial published late Friday evening, expressed sentiment that the verdict in the case follows a pattern in which guards and staff at similar facilities across the nation are never held accountable for the death, torture, or mistreatment.

In one case, a boy was so dehydrated that witness accounts stated he had eaten dirt in an attempt to stay alive. An autopsy after his death confirmed the presence of soil in his stomach.

Posted by Brody at 12:23 AM | Permalink

JURORS are set to begin delibrations today on a case that has drawn international media attention and had The United States Senate demanding answers about policies and procedures in an industry many claim is out of control and dangerously unregulated.

The case has a long and socially and racially divided history, because an original autopsy attributed the death naturally to a genetic disease, Sickle Cell Anemia, a blood disease in which the red blood cells are abnormal and sometimes unable to deliver sufficient oxygen to the body in times of extreme physical stress.

The condition is found almost exclusively among blacks. 

As details of the death emerged, public outrage exploded, prompting the unusual executive order by Republican Governor Jeb Bush for a seperate autopsy, which found the cause of death was suffocation. Guards held an amonia soaked rag against the face of Martin Lee Anderson, 14, as they beat him. Mr. Anderson died after being taken off life support a day after the incident.

In closing arguments, Prosecutors Pam Bondi and Scott Harmon showed jurors segments of a half-hour video in which the accused seven guards and one nurse are shown voilently beating Mr. Anderson, who collapsed on his first day in a Florida bootcamp for "troubled teens".

The accused, if convicted, face up to thirty years in prison.

Posted by Brody at 04:55 PM | Permalink

I met him on a messageboard, just a guy from Chicago with a sorta checkered past like me, a few years my senior, with flaxen hair and lanky features (I'd be lying if I didn't admit to admiring him in a few ways) equally paralelled by his familiarity with computers and ability to see things differently.

I've never met the guy in real life, but you might say I've spent a few hours on the internet fone with him, but a trick I played on the board we used crashed his computer and took out a few days worth of work, and he stopped talking to me.

All of a sudden, a person I'd been learning to love chatting with and bantering about our changing lives was gone. That's the thing about knowing someone online. You dont' have a door to knock on when things break down, or when you break down. Just a screen name, and maybe, a number, but they're so far away.

Still, my online friend, Ben, reminded me today with one of the reasons I'm breathing: the ability to be forgiven. Because crashing someone's browser is one thing, but I've done so many others to others, it'd be hard for me to know where to begin to explain.

We both have our vices, like brothers, leading us stumbling home for breakfast, forgetful, and playful, and we both have tempers and grudges. I got a message from him today, and our relationship is back in the darkroom; Developing with time.

Posted by Brody at 09:02 AM | Permalink

I had a dream the other night, with a moon but no stars. It was autumn, when the leaves turn to flame, and everyone was away. At least they weren't close. Things were going fine for a while, but after a year nothing changed. Somehow, in my dream, I knew that things wouldn't get worse--but would they get better? I didn't think so, and I don't deal in chance. I had made up my mind. There was no one around when I cleaned everything up. Stripped the sheets off the bed, laundered and folded them nicely away in the cuppord. Sorted everything out to trash. There were no tears in my dream, just a bland state of thought genuinely AWOL on the concept that life is worth living. I sat and thought about things for a long time outside in the cold until I was damp and dark. After I erased as much of who I used to be as I could, in my dream I left home for somewhere. I don't know how I got there, or where "there" was. It was known to me in my slumber only as a lethally tall parking garage hosting me as I walked dead to the roof, vallium soothing my mind doused with cider sipped for hours before that point in my dream. There was no one around. Everyone was gone away on holiday, as usual, and I was alone, as usual. I was alone not because I wasn't wanted--I'd always been invited to everybody's things--but rather because I chose silence and solitude. In the light, I preferred dark. I never liked anything enough, and enough of liking things for appearance's sake was past me, then, in my dream. When the dawn was peeking about and I was ready to leave the human race, an insignificant blip on the timeless radar of space in an infinitely expanding universe, I stepped upon the edge of the structure, closed my eyes, and fell down for the last time. And for that crime, there is no arrest to make.

Posted by Brody at 08:05 AM | Permalink