Soft Drink: Cheerwine

For a lot of people, this may be the first time you have heard of Cheerwine.

It is a humble soda from Carolina Beverages, produced since 1917.  A light soda that isn't thick or syrupy.  Even when it fizzes up, the foam is dispersed quickly.  It is flavored with a sweet, dark cherry that is entirely unique in the soda realm.

If you have never heard of Cheerwine before, it is because you don't live in one of the limited areas of distribution.  Being originally a Carolina drink, their long standing advertising phrase is, "It's a Carolina thing."  Having since spread to surrounding states and a few other distance distributors, it is still a distinct taste of the south.  Many people take pride in the fact that people wish they could also have this soda anytime.

But, if you would like to give a new soda a shot, it is available for online purchase at their store.  Or, if you've moved out of the south and miss your favorite cherry taste, you can have it again!

The Point Blank Critic

Blog: Perfectly Normal

A friend of mine has begun to publish a fiction story blog called Perfectly Normal.  It's about life and love.  If you're insane.  Check it out for a trip to humor with stops in insanity and mayhem.

The Point Blank Critic

Happy Birthday to Mom

Today is my mom's birthday.  I want to go ahead and with her happy birthday on here first.  If you wish to join in, click my Witnesses link below the post and leave a comment.  Or you can email her here.

Happy birthday, Mom!

The Point Blank Critic

Free Drink Friday #2: Cottonwood Almond Stout

Today I want to introduce you to one of my favorite local breweries.  Carolina Beer is a quickly growing company who has, in just a decade, grown well beyond the term microbrewery.  Their production capabilities promise to increase this year to rival that of some national brands.

I have enjoyed many of their beers, including a special beer train where we sampled several of their brews while riding the rails with the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad.

Their Almond Stout is a flavorful, slightly bitter stout with a roasted almond aroma.  Unlike many other flavored stouts, which don't share their flavor until their finish, you will notice the almond in every part of the beer.  The oils from a nut like the almond are extremely aromatic, and since most of flavor is aroma, this beer will be a dark almond adventure from head to finish. 

If you like stout beer with a bitter edge, this is an excellent choice.  I would especially recommend it with dessert because of the rich almond flavor.  This one is one of their 6 seasonal brews, available for about 2 months each.  Be sure to try it while you can, before it's gone for another 10 months!

I put 5 of this beer in my 6 pack!

The Point Blank Critic

Movies: New Bond flick details released

If you're into the super-cool spy scene, you'll be excited to here that the new James Bond movie title has been announced.  The next picture will be called Quantum of Solace.

This film will feature the return of the latest Bond, Daniel Craig, and will pick right back up where Casino Royal left off.  Bond will at least begin the movie with a desire to get retribution for the betrayal of his love, Vesper Lynd.

Bond heartbroken instead of heartbreaker?

I hope this element doesn't get overplayed as has been the trend in movies lately.

I've had enough of emo culture invading my movies.  Spiderman and Harry Potter was bad enough.  An emo Bond might make me never watch movies ever again.

Either way, I'll be excited to see it when it comes out on November 7th.

The Point Blank Critic

Society: Celebrity Death

I'm not one to get caught up in the death of a celebrity.  Heath Ledger died, and it was tragic.  But, no more tragic than every other death that happens every day.

Celebrity is a strange phenomenon, and one that is extremely complicated to try and figure out exactly how it works.  Emotions run differently for people when concerning a celebrity.  Why?  Well, that's not my topic today.

Today, I want to discuss how we all act at the death of a celebrity.

I have seen in my life that people will be affected by death in their personal lives in many different ways.  Ultimately, though, it is rarely due to true mourning of the loss.  Sure people will miss a lost loved one, and wonder what life will be like without them.  But, very few people let these feelings really dig in and hurt them.  More than this, what truly eats away at people who have lost someone is the renewed sense of mortality.  They don't like to be reminded that they will die too.

I know that this does not apply to everyone, but a vast majority of people do react this way.

Now, when the person is not a close, loved one but instead a celebrity, people will feel the same way.  However, the whole thing goes way out of proportion.  Suddenly, some family's and close group of friends' private affairs are laid out for the general public.

This was all well and good for the celebrity's life, as they sort of stepped into this spotlight for themselves.  Most will tell you, though, that the public demand to know every detail of their life is emotionally draining, especially during a difficult time.  Now, suddenly they are gone.  But, the public is still there, demanding to know the situation leading up to the tragic moment and all the painful aftermath.

In a way, they are sort of right.  In many cases, it sort of becomes public information.  But, if this person had not been a celebrity, the general public would leave a grieving family alone to work out their problems in peace and probably only check the obituary to see if the cause of death was humorous.  Callous, I know.  But, it happens.

Most people I know found out about Heath Ledger about 40 hours ago.  Those who didn't continued on with their lives, much the way everyone else does with the other deaths that happen all around us that we don't know about every day.

And, instead of consoling his family at their loss, the media tries to push the story to improve ratings, and the public starts spreading rumors well before any real information is released.

Turn off the television; don't listen to the radio report; and don't check that website.

Pray for his soul; pray for his family; and pray for his other loved ones.

If you found my article here by searching for "Heath Ledger death" then I'm sorry you haven't found any of the information you were seeking, and I beg you to just let a family have some peace and privacy at a terrible time.

Jesus, I pray that Heath Ledger knew you as his savior and will continue doing so for eternity.  I pray that his friends and family find comfort at this time in their lives.  Be with them, Lord.  You make all things new and holy.  You don't cause death for good, but may You bring good from death.  Amen.

The Point Blank Critic

Recognition 3... it's like I'm popular or something

Another friend suffering from the malady of university support has linked to me from his blog.  He likes to talk about his interests including games, sports, and a ridiculously large collection of television shows on dvd.  His musings can be accessed on his blog, titled The Fate of Tyrlon and other Dubious Things.  It's a long, weird title for a blog.  This is because it was originally intended to track the progress of some custom Neverwinter Nights 2 content.

Toys: Hidamari no Tami

Today I bought a Japanese relaxation toy called a Hidamari no Tami, or Sunny Person.  He's just a little guy that sits and nods his head.  Using a silent motor powered by a solar panel on the base, his head will go very fast in direct sunlight, and slower just in your room.  He's a little bit hypnotizing.  

These guys are made by Tomy Toys.  They are the international toy company that makes a lot of toys licensed by Japanese companies that bring their products to US and European markets.  They come in various styles.  Some shake their head side to side.  Some nod.  Mine fishes.

The one I got is actually another companies knock off, but only because I saw it in a local chinese restaurant and had to have it right away.  I'm a consumer whore.

If you would like to purchase some authentic ones, you can try Amazon Japan or one of my favorite Japanese import sites J-Box.  I will probably pick up another one sometime.  Importing just takes a few weeks longer than I have the patience for.

Further Recognition

Further recognition has come to me.  Another of my friends has linked to me from his own blog.  He, like so many of my friends, works in the soul melting world of university tech support.  He posts slightly hyperbolic (I hope) stories of his favorite calls throughout the day.

Check it out at Creatively Insane.

The Point Blank Critic

Video Games: Disney Pirates of the Caribbean Online

What's more exciting that sailing the high seas, facing sharpened steel, and plundering? Yea, I couldn't think of anything either.

That's why I took the chance to jump all over a free Pirates MMO.

My initial experience was not good. I signed up for my free basic account, and downloaded the client. I was impressed that they have Mac OS support, though the requirements listing here is vague. PowerPC G4 or Intel processors? I hope that is a minimum, and that my G5 will work here. The game installs and updates and launces. The menu's look empty in places, and I figure it's not displaying properly. But, I manage to find a "Create a Pirate" button.

At this point, a video of Jack loads, and a quarter of his face is blacked out. The rest of his face was there. What's so bad about his left cheek and jaw? I dunno.

This into led me straight into character creation, which was the first serious sign that the graphics weren't going to work right. My preview wasn't displaying. So, I hit the button I think should be the "Random" button. Eventually the game just crashes, and I try again. This time it updates again. Glad it launched early last time, and again hoping it will work, I get in again and experience the same sort of problems. I sent Disney a support request and I'm still hoping to get that reply soon.

In the meantime, I went ahead and tried it on another machine today. I get it going with little trouble, but it still seems buggy. It's very nice for a free game, however. At least, it would be if the free accounts weren't quite so limited. I understand that they'll save the coolest stuff for people who give them money, but some of the limitations on this are extremely dissatisfying. Different skills seem to have 5 ranks that can be purchased in them. Free accounts are limited to 2. Less than half of the skills are available. But, let's forget that one for now, as there are plenty of skills, and progress is slow enough that maxing this part out could take some time.

Your ship however, is a great part of the game. Except that you can't upgrade it. At all. You get the newbie starter ship in the beginning of the game, for free, and then can not purchase another ship unless you upgrade your account. There are lots of ships, that seem like small incremental upgrades, but you can't get the most basic of them, save for buying a new version of the ship you already have.

Overall, the product is too buggy for me to want to spend money on, but I'm still about to go play some more of my free account now. Hopefully my technical issues will be fixed and I may start playing an upgraded account!

Arrrgh!

The Point Blank Critc

Movie: Cloverfield

So, I just got back from seeing Cloverfield.  I won't summarize it so I can try to avoid spoilers.

The aggressive advertisement strategy built a lot of mystery around what was destroying the city in the previews.  Turns out, Cloverfield is a monster movie.  Imagine that!

J. J. Abrams actually set out to create a monster movie icon as culturally important to the United States as Godzilla (ゴジラ -Gojira) is to Japan.  While Godzilla was an important film with a statement on the tension in society in Japan, Cloverfield seems to be a monster movie for the sake of having our own monster and not just borrowing someone else's.

The style of the first person, handheld camera storytelling was not the most original thing I had ever heard of, but it was carried out in a most spectacular way.  With previously recorded clips showing through instead of being taped over, the storytelling was intriguing.

I found, however, that this style of action allowed the film makers to leave a lot of stuff unexplained.  Anything our camera didn't see, we didn't either.  I want a sequel, or some further explanation of the pseudo science surrounding this story just so that certain parts make sense.  Most movie viewers aren't as concerned with this level of the movie as I am; so, if that's you, feel free to ignore this paragraph.  You will be able to ignore these parts.

The monster design was a little generic.  Not unlike things that might be found in bestiaries of some existing horror, fantasy, or science fiction settings.

I found the movie about as predictable as almost every other original US movie made in the last decade.

Overall though, I enjoyed the experience and would recommend you to see it if you are into the genre.  Even if you are not, you might get a kick out of it.  J. J. Abrams may not have made a significant social statement, but he did make a good movie!

The Point Blank Critic