Well, now onto Quantum of Solace.  For me, a good Bond movie has three components.  Girls, Gadgets and Guns.  To sum up the thing quickly, QoS was short on Girls and Gadgets.  The action sequences were over the top, exciting and fun.  Everything a good Bond needs.  Unfortunately it was short in the girl department and the gadgets.  The Bond girls were very forgettable, and one had only a very short time on screen.  Some of the technology was amazing, especially the touch table, but other then a few scenes it was short on cool gadgets.

I can understand the direction they are taking with Bond, he needed a reboot, but it just feels off, and incomplete.  Hopefully the third outing of this new Bond, will pay off from the laberous first two efforts.

A largely confusing plot, a lack of needed elements, and a few odd twists that did nothing to add to the story ruined the movie.  If this was any other kind of action movie, it would have been better, but having it labeled as a Bond movie, puts a lot of expectations on it, and this outing just did not live up.

I give it 7 cave water supplies out of 10.

People have asked me what I think of this book, as it has gotten a fair amount of attention in certain circles.  Well, I think Rob Bell’s theology is a little too loose in some areas.  But his honesty, humbleness, transparency, and view on compassion outshine any problems I have with his theology.  This is a book I feel people need to read, digest, chew on for a bit and take what they great things he does say from it and add it to your world view.

It is a book I recommend, but as Rob states, it is one that you need to read critically, to do so would be an injustice.

I’ve also recently been looking into the tech industry latest trend of having an Unconference .  Essentially it’s a conference/retreat/getaway where there is no speaker, no planned agenda, and the agenda is then set by the attendees.  Usually, there is a group of people with similar interests that end up attending.  My idea that I started to throw around was having one for Youth Leaders, of all denominations, or all walks of life, from even *gasp* any religion.  Why not create a place to allow people to dialogue about what is working in current Youth Ministry trends, what is not, and allow people the time to get away, talk, and gain knowledge, experience and new insights into their own world.

Right now, this is just an idea, a seed, will it germinate into something? Possibly, probably not, but one can dream a little.

I’ve said all that to say this, the church as an institution has segregated itself from everyone, including other churches.  Dialogue exists very little outside of our own circles, and that needs to change if we want to deal with pressures, and difficulties of trying to reach kids, and meet them where they are at.
If anyone reads this blog, which I know there is very few and are in the maritime area.  Ping me, start a dialogue with me, let me know your thoughts.

filsinger@gmail.com <- My inbox is never closed.

I don’t think the issue is on paypals end either… I just want to pay my money and move on.  Not fight with a webserver for 3 hours… oh well.  I’ll try again in a few hours.

Oh and I’ve now joined twitter, http://twitter.com/rfilsinger , if you really care to follow my daily rituals and thoughts.

It’s estimated that we could feed, cloth and give water to pretty much the entire world for a fraction of what the bailout package cost the US, for a fraction of what the war in Iraq cost.  Look outside your box, take a moment, look around, and give where you can.  We aren’t simply here to consume, spend and be greedy.

Give what you have, and you’ll have more joy then you have ever known.

My feeling in all of this is that, most of what we are seeing in the last few days has mostly been a reaction to the terrible housing market in the states catching up with itself and affecting the rest of the world.  Now I am definitely not an expert on economy, at it is something I’d like to learn more about, but as of right now.  My life has not changed one shred.

Perhaps it has to do with me never having enough money to play the stock market, or perhaps has to do with the isolation of the island economy from the rest of the world.  No I don’t work in tourism here, which I can see being affected by lots of people losing their money.  I work in the game industry, and at the moment, it seems recession proof, as hardware sales climb, software sales keep setting new records.  There will be work for me, and it should last long enough to get me through this down swing.

On the bright side, gas is going down.. its now hovering around $90/barrell ($1.15/L), hopefully it will drop below $1/L again… we shall see.

I get tired of reading that “Gas prices drop 4 days in a row” as a CNN headline, when I know I will never see that here.  When gas drops to below $100 a barrel, it takes 2 weeks for us to see any of that.  But hey, if a storm MIGHT cause a slowdown in production, price is up next day no problem.  The last time oil was this cheap a barrel was around April, and the average price for gas here was like $1.12/L, right now we are paying $1.27/L.  I know there are more factors, but this is just getting stupid.  Cut the program, and put that 1.2million a year it costs the Island to regulate our prices and inject that into cutting tax on the gas.

For more information.

What made this movie for me was not so much the convoluted and wildly crazy plot, but simply the characters.  I often describe “The Office” as a character comedy, and that they characters make the show, and not so much the actual plot.  The same holds true for Burn After Reading.  As Brad Pitt’s character easily stole the show and made me laugh pretty much every time he was on screen.

This isn’t your average comedy, and there will be a segment of the population who just will not like the noir aspect of the film, but I for one appreciated it.  I love when a good movie is not even on my radar, I go see it on a whim and it turns out to be a decent escape from the stresses of life.

I give “Burn After Reading” 8 free hardbody memberships out of 10.  Don’t miss out on this great comedy, but you might want to wait for the DVD.

Having recently been to Sim’s Steakhouse and not overly impressed we decided to try out the new fine dining experience opened the ATC, titled Lot 30.  The head chef Gordon Bailey who single handedly saved the eating experience at the Confederation Court Mall has done it again.  On a recommendation from my boss that I should get the Scallop appetizer which had apple, goat cheese and some amazing spice in it.  It was top notch and was bursting with flavour.  For a main course I had the duck and my wife had their chicken.  Both dishes were served fresh, tasty and worth the money.  A great feature was the ability to watch the chef finish your plate on their closed circuit TV, just before it came to your table.

The atmosphere was trendy, relaxing and even though it was wide open, you still felt as if you had privacy.  If you are looking for a place to eat and want an amazing place that has tasty food and is good times.  Check out Lot 30, I will be returning soon to try out the Shark!

Lately I’ve been thinking about getting into photography as a hobby. Possibly a way to get outdoors more and enjoy life. This is a picture I took with my point and click canon. I also just started using www.flickr.com today too. I’d have to say the photoblog www.topleftpixel.com is probably one of the single biggest reasons for trying some of this stuff out.