What Is Real?

3D Movies on my 46''

This weekend I went to the IMax here in Chattanooga to see T-Rex. The 3D effects were amazing. There were times when it really seemed as thought I was in the desert looking for fossils or in the jungles millions of years ago. The 3D just surrounds you.

After seeing these increasable 3D effects I wanted to know what the 3D would look like at my house on my new 46'' TV, so I bought Shrek 3D a 15 minute 3D animation that came with the regular Shrek movie that I had planned on buying anyway. It was the old technology using the red and blue glasses, but it was still pretty neat. The colors obviously were not perfect, and it wasn’t as realistic as the IMax. It does not make you feel like you are actually there but it was still interesting. The 3D in Shrek 3D mostly just created a since of depth with a few things that will pop out at you here and there. I would say it is worth a watch if you are going to buy the regular Shrek anyway.

Are there any other good 3D movies anyone can recommend?

Chattanooga

Just a few photo's from Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. No one responded to my last entry, so I guess I should not ask for reader interaction again.


Anyway, the best new development resource I have found for Chattanooga was the River City Company. It is pretty interesting.

Chattanooga Info Help

I assume most of the people who will read this lives in or near Chattanooga.

Las Vegas is by far the most interesting, fascinating place I have ever visited. Lately I have been wondering what it would be like to move there. However, I will never be able to talk my wife into ever leaving Chattanooga. It seems Chattanooga might be growing a little, mostly just tearing up roads downtown, fixing them, and tearing the same roads up again. It is very annoying to work downtown.
Anyway, I need some help from anyone who knows anything about Chattanooga. I can’t seem to find any good informative websites about Chattanooga’s future. Does anyone know if we are even growing and do you have any websites with articles about that? Also does anyone have any information on the "New Downtown" every website talks about, but never explains. Lastly Does anyone have any concept art of building projects currently underway? Just leave a comment and post links if you don't mind.

My Trip to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg

I got back from Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg yesterday. A few fun things happened on our short little trip. The best thing was of course I didn’t do any homework. I wish that was true for today and the rest of the week. I got to see Chastity get scared half to death at the Haunted Mansion, and we got to see some Black Bears.

Although I love pancakes, I could have done without there being a pancake place every where I turn around in both Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg’s Welcome sign should read:

Welcome to Gatlinburg:
The world capital for pancakes and air brush t-shirts

Surely people don’t still buy air brushed t-shirts. Even the Wal-Mart in Sevierville sold air brushed t-shirts. An embarrassment for the Smokey Mountains if you ask me.

The worse part of the trip was the $30 (for 2) ride on Ripey’s 4D Motion Theater. You get to see two really crappy 1-2 minute shows. The ride takes about 10 minuets because of the 8 minutes you are just sitting there between shows wondering if the seats should still be vibrating. The first show was un-watchable. The two projectors were not in sinc so you could not make anything out on the screen at all. It looked like a bunch of odd colors overlapping each other. The whole first show was a complete waste. The second show actually worked, but the 3D wasn’t that good. Nothing really popped out at you. Not to mention they were both really corny shows anyway.

The Worst Vacation Continues...

Not only did I spending just about every waking minute doing homework or in class yesterday, but I dropped my wedding ring in the couch. In order to get it out I will have to un-staple some material under the couch. It doesn’t sound like a big deal to me, but Chastity thinks that will ruin the couch. Oh well, one less thing I have to worry about I guess.

Today I ran most of my errands instead of doing it Friday like I planned in my last post. I did this because Chastity and I might end up going to Gatlinburg for a few days after all. Although I am not exactly pumped about going to Gatlinburg (again), but it will be nice to get away from Chattanowhere for a while. This means I will not get finished with my homework, but at this point I am so stressed out I don’t care.

One of my errands was to take my truck to get my Catalytic Converter (which has been cracked for some time now) replaced. I was hoping that would make my check engine light go off and clear up that stupid crackling sound. Midas said they would fix it for $565.00, then the helpful mechanic explained by way of a really bad sketch on the ticket why it would cost so much.. That sounded a LITTLE high so I went to check MAXi. Good thing I did because they replaced it for only $149.00. More than a $400 difference. That will be the last time I ever go to Midas. Unfortunately the crackling sound didn’t go away and the check engine light is still on. I will have to pay yet again to have my truck serviced to find out what else is wrong with it. On top of that I found out I will have to have my brake pads replaced soon as well.

The worst vacation ever…

I finally get a week off work. I want to share how I am spending my vacation this year. Note I have not gone on vacation for several years now. My wife and I originally planned to go to NY City, but since we just bought new furniture, it turned out that we didn’t have enough money left. Not a big deal I thought we can go somewhere closer and less expensive. I didn’t yet realize we lived in Chattanowhere. There is nowhere I can think of for us to go around here. We thought about Atlanta (again), Nashville (again), Gatlinburg (again), and several other places that just does not sound fun anymore to us. Not that it matters because I don't have time to go anywhere anyway.

Let me take you though my vacation schedule. Today (Monday) I am trying to cram 15 hours of homework into a 7 hour window to get done before class starts tonight. I have to go to school for a four hour class on my first day of vacation. Tomorrow gets even better. Tuesday I have to write a 4-8 page summary paper for another class. Wednesday I have write 4 pages of reading logs for my notebook. Thursday I have to write 5 pages of reflective questions (similar to case studies) about Economics. If I can get all of this done then Friday I need to go by the bank to straighten our finances out, get my car fixed (long long overdue), run by the cable company because they won’t update our auto withdraw records over the phone, and several other little things that I can’t do during work hours.

World Series of Poker

I have been watching the World Series of Poker on ESPN a lot lately and it has gotten me in the mood to play. The only problem is I can not find anyone interested in playing with me. I went to pokerstars.com and downloaded the software to play for free online, but it just isn’t the same as having the chips in front of me. It is always better when you are playing for a little bit of real money. Not much, just enough so that you actually care if you loose and everyone does not go “all in” every hand.

I have been wondering lately how much skill is actually involved in poker. Some of these guys actually make a living playing poker on TV. Of course they could only win one tournament and live the rest of their lives on $5 million like Greg Raymer did. It is hard to imagine going to a casino and playing poker as an occupation. Sounds like a pretty cool job if you ask me.