Evil Mr. White

Up until a couple episodes ago I was still rooting for Walt to "win". He has been the hero of the series from the beginning. Even though he has been cooking drugs, I've always been rooting for him. The past two weeks have completely convinced me that Walt is evil. There is nobody to root for now. I guess I could root for Jessie, but I am not too sure about that either.
 
The week before last Walt brought up Gray Matter. We hadn't heard about that for a while. When we first learned about Gray Matter back in season 1 it seemed like Walt was the victim. His business partners screwed him. It was his idea that eventually made them tons of money, and he got none of it. When Walt brought it up again I saw the whole situation differently. It is hard to think of Walt as a victim now. Maybe Walt was never that guy we thought we were watching at the beginning. Maybe Walt has always been a ego-maniacal dirtbag. Maybe his partners did force him out of Gray Matter because he was starting to act like an idiot. Maybe if he had stayed with the company it would have never been successful. Maybe his pride would have run it into the ground just like everything else in his life.
 

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Apple, should I be excited?

Every year leading up the the new iPhone event I start to get excited. Last year was the most excited I'd been because my contract was up and I was looking to buy a new phone. It would be my first ever iPhone.  For the last 3 years I've got to say I've been let down with the iPhone events. Yes, the device is still amazing, but the improvements have been very iterative. It is tough to get excited for that stuff. There hasn't been anything "new" for a while now. I guess it is easy forget how revolutionary the iPhone 4 was with the form factor and retina display.

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My Clicky Keyboard

This past week I made a purchase that I had been thinking about for a while. I had continually talked myself out of pulling the trigger, but for the month of August there was a sale on the Das Keyboard , so I decided to go for it. It is a keyboard with the mechanical switches underneath the key so when you type it makes the click-clack sound almost like a typewriter. The switch also gives it a crisp feeling as the key "snaps" down and then up again. It is sort of retro. They used to make the old IBM keyboards with this method. A long time ago they started using a membrane that you depress instead of a mechanical switch. This is much cheaper and allows for thinner keyboards, but it also feels mushy and doesn't provide that satisfying click.

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The Dark Knight Rises... meh

I watched The Dark Knight Rises almost two weeks ago and I haven't posted anything about it. I wrote something, but it was long and rambling, and more than anything made it seemed like I was nit-picking a movie that I went into planning to dislike. That is not the case, so I won't post that. Everything I didn't like about the movie has been written or talked about with much more insight than I was able to provide.

I really wanted to like TDKR, but I may have gone in expecting a bit too much. I liked The Dark Knight a lot less than the majority of people. I thought this one would be a return to form. Inception restored my confidence in Nolan. I was hoping to love TDKR, but it ended up feeling like a mess to me. There were moments of greatness, but overall it was frustrating.

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JJ's Revolution

If you are a Breaking Bad fan like me, you probably miss Gustavo Fring this year. Even though he was the "bad guy" he was one of my favorite characters on the show. I got excited when I heard he was starring in a new NBC show this fall. I was even more excited when I discovered it was a JJ Abrams show. I'm not sure why that still carries any weight with me, but for some reason it did. Then I saw the extended preview for the show. My excitement wavered. Then I read a few things on the Internet about the show. My excitement disappeared.

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They Are Still Making Those Car Movies

This week my wife and daughter are gone. I am living the bachelor life. I had plans to watch a ton of movies this week. I have a huge backlog of films to get through and I was going to knock out at least a couple a day. That hasn't happened. Not even close. I've definitely watched more films than normal, but nowhere near what I planned.

I started my week off with Fast Five. I watched The Fast And The Furious in the theater in high school and I haven't seen any of the films since. I was content to skip Fast Five as well, but there was so much critical praise when it came out there was no way I could do that. I don't care that much about Vinn Diesel or Paul Walker, but I'm a fan of Dwayne Johnson... and he was the best part of the movie by far.

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Sailor Highace Neo pen

I love pens! Even so, I had never owned, or even used a fountain pen. I was intimidated by them for some reason. Lately my pen collection has been growing quite rapidly. I've discovered the micro-tip gel pens as well as the Retro 51 Tornado. I'm altering ink refills to fit the barrels I prefer. I am getting in deep. Still, I didn't have a fountain pen. I always assumed a fountain pen would give a blotchy inconsistent ink flow. I was sure the liquid ink would bleed through to the other side of the page, which is a deal-breaker for me. I'm sure some fountain pens do those things, but the one I picked is nearly perfect for me.

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