DOuG pRATt

Here, but not…

Yes, I’m here. No, I’m not blogging. Sorry. Doing other stuff. Will eventually get back to this. Thanks.

3 comments March 16th, 2010

Chuck vs….

Bismo has us watching the TV spy farce ‘Chuck’ on DVD. It’s a lot of fun. Here’s a sample.

Add comment March 12th, 2010

Colbert’s Uncle Eddie

Monday’s ‘The Colbert Report’ had a special moment between Stephen and his guest Tom Hanks, who was 2/3 of the show. It starts at 2:15 into this video.

Mr. D.F. Rogers, B.A. History and WWII buff, watched this segment, and had these comments to make:

Hanks mentioned that much of the new show ['The Pacific' on HBO] is based on the [Eugene] Sledge book. I’ve had it for years and I brought it with me to read on the train to NYC, but instead I read a book by a B-17 pilot. I guess I’ll have to read the Sledge book next! Plus, the companion book for the series is by Ambrose’s son, so I assume that is what the father was working on when he died.

Hanks also brought up a point that I have found interesting and feel is very much forgotten and not written about. The events that happened AFTER the war finished. As mentioned, like Colbert’s Uncle Eddie, THOUSANDS of guys died in the months after the war in strange accidents and non-war related incidents.

It was very chaotic, and the U.S. troops were also saddled with going from fighting in fierce battles to being administrators and security guards almost overnight. There were millions of displaced persons from all over Europe, hundreds of thousands of surrendering troops, POW’s, starving civilians, retribution from freed slaves and workers, etc. Plus, hundreds of thousands of young American males suddenly let loose once the fighting stopped, doing what young men always do, participate in various untold “risky” behaviors of all kinds — driving cars too fast, getting blind drunk, riding horses, climbing mountains and hunting, etc.! Things had to be reined in after a few weeks of that, and the officers had to gain control again. There was some semblance of military order and duty, of course.

Add comment March 10th, 2010

Eric’s Anime Pick: Ponyo

Without the support of John Lasseter at Pixar, I doubt Hayao Miyazaki’s animation would be as well known as it is in America. Miyazaki’s latest movie, ‘Ponyo’, looks fantastic on Blu-ray from Disney. The story is obviously based somewhat on ‘The Little Mermaid’. Maybe I can talk Eric into adding some comments. Here’s a sample.

Obsessive tech note: This clip was converted from Blu-ray’s 24 fps to 30 fps, and from composite video to S-video,using a passive Y/C filter, so the quality suffers a bit from my usual. The subtitles read fine in HD, but they’re hard to make out here.

Add comment March 7th, 2010

Turning Japanese

Some years back, Panasonic had an ISP business in Japan called hi-ho. They had a series of bizarre, addictive, animated commercials that Eric and I enjoyed watching. I remember Eric wasn’t even a teenager yet, so it had to have been a while ago. This one has a winter theme.

Eric liked this one…

…and this was my favorite.

Tech note: these are the first videos I have made using CamStudio.

Add comment March 6th, 2010

Plugging a leak product

A week ago I talked about the leak around the water feed pipe coming into the basement, and my clever way of getting the water to go into a bucket.

The seal around the pipe failed during an exceptionally heavy rain that fell on top of snow, so my next challenge was to plug the gap around the pipe. I used Loctite epoxy putty.

All you have to do is cut the amount of putty you need, then kneed it to activate the epoxy. Once mixed you have 10-15 minutes to mold it before it sets. I don’t know yet whether or not the leak is fixed, but if it is all it took was half of a $4 tube of putty.

Add comment March 6th, 2010