Movie Review: "Planes" Works -- Family Fun Despite Familiar Plot Line

From the maker's of "Cars", Pixar has released "Planes," which are talking planes in the "cars world," as the opening title of the movie explains before the "Planes" title comes to rest in the opening scene.  We took our kids to see it -- it's fast-paced and definitely entertaining enough.  There are plenty of visual stunts and playful banter, but not nearly as much charm or humor as the original "Cars" movie.  Still, like almost anything made by Pixar, the strengths of this movie definitely carries much more weight than its few perceived weaknesses.

Who can ever argue that Pixar doesn't know how to make visually stunning and entertaining movies?  Seldom, if ever have I thought, "that movie was just too long" when it comes to Pixar.  My children would wholeheartedly agree and "Planes" was no exception.

There are a lot of similarities between the first "Cars" movie and "Planes".  You'd think with the millions pored into the production that Disney would focus first more on coming up with more original plots and giving the movie the depth and quality Hollywood's best is capable of providing, but as a story goes it all works.  It just feels like it could have been even better.  So, did they use the same screenplay and insert "plane" where it said "car" from the original "Cars" movie?  Not quite, but at some points in the movie, I thought I had seen some of the same action and dialog before....

Again, it's about racing, this time it's a plane race around the world, and, like Lightning McQueen, the main character is an underdog (by the name of Dusty Crophopper) who befriends an old, washed up  old veteran with a mysterious past who becomes his trainer to help him become a better racer.  Surprisingly, the quality of animation is excellent, of course, but it's hard to believe in the four years since "Cars" that there wasn't much noticeable improvement visually despite the accelerated advancements of technology.  Perhaps the advancements of technology made Pixar produce this movie with less people and more computers, which might be the reason behind its lack of depth and humanity compared to "Cars".  Not that Pixar needs any improvement to the quality of their productions, it just seems like they used the same computers to render the same type of effects from the original "Cars" movie.

The voices lent to the characters come off a little flat compared to other Pixar blockbusters, but that may be due to the fact that not a lot of character development or side stories are developed -- squeezed out probably by all the racing and flying scenes.  Plenty of action, but unlike other Pixars, you really feel like you're watching it all from afar, you aren't as involved in the action like most other Pixar classics where you're more absorbed in the characters so you're less of a sideline audience and more into the characters so you feel more involved.

None of that matters, however.  What does matter is our two young ones were glued the whole time and we all enjoyed it as a family.  Our youngest kept asking when Lightning McQueen and Mater were going to make a cameo.  We were expecting them to.

Movie Review: "The Tall Man" with Jessica Biel a Refreshingly Original Mind-Bender

Two things about movies that make me shut it off or leave -- exploiting children and degrading or violent scenes.  I catch enough national and local news headlines to make me wish most days I didn't have a television -- or radio, for that matter.  For instance, James Marsden was in a movie recently, whose title I won't even name, with a terribly violent rape scene thrown into a pretty interesting thriller -- up to the point a brutal scene ensued.

Violence for the sake of violence in a movie -- there's just no need for that, with all of Hollywood's pool of "best in the world" creative talent, these ploys are cheap and shows a lack of basic creativity in our screenplay writers and Hollywood's leadership in general.  It's insulting to the public to think we wouldn't appreciate higher quality from them -- sometimes, do you have a feeling they just see us all as ticket stubs?  I believe that such a cavalier attitude towards senseless violence and elevating the degradation of all forms of life cloaked in "art" has contributed to lowering many people's sense of respect for others, empathy, and basic human dignity.

In "Shindler's List," the violence is appropriate, especially when placed in the context of the purpose of that movie and the audience's expectations.  There's too much "shock factor" in a lot of TV shows and movies Hollywood churns out, but violence for the sake of showing violence is symptomatic of a much larger problem in today's society.  Hollywood is not to blame, but I sure wish they'd hold themselves to some standards, it would be difficult to argue that it would do damage if they did.  For all their chastising and scolding of the public to benefit certain social agendas they obviously cherish, would their "causes" be better served and paid more attention to if they showed us all more respect?

Anyway, back to the "The Tall Man" with Jessica Biel.  It's not too scary, and though yes, children are put at risk, nothing is what you imagine.  As a matter of fact, the writers of this movie do a great job pulling away just in time before you think "Oh, great, it's just another serial killer plot."  I won't give much away, but the twist, then ANOTHER twist on top makes you wonder throughout the movie. 

I'm not in the movie business, but usually when there's a parade of five different studio logo animations before a movie starts, I wonder.  Then, the opening titles reveal "Produced by..." and lists I believe six different studio names.  The next title reveals this movie was "Co-Produced By...." then lists these same studio names again.  Then, it was also "Produced in cooperation with..." I'm thinking, oh, boy, this movie is a salvage operation, passed along different studios like a hot potato.  It does really look silly when the big Hollywood production houses have to claim their cooperation so prominently in the opening sequence.  Does anyone really care?  I think it looks petty, but what do I know.  The opening titles looked like something I've thrown together in 3D Max in a day.  I thought, oooh, budget constraints.  It just made me wonder some more when I saw that Jessica Biel was one of the co-producers.  Uh oh, did she have to step in and help just to make sure this movie got distributed?

But alas, I gave the movie a chance -- and I'm glad I put my reservations aside!  Jessica Biel put on a great performance as the lead.  I won't go into many details, but there's a part near the end where she explains it all, there's a great sorrow, helplessness, and conflicted sincerity in her delivery.  Overall, Jessica Biel really shows great range in "The Tall Man."

It ties up nicely in the end where it all actually makes sense.  You're rooting for the bad guy, or is he/she the good guy?  Nothing is really what it seems on the surface, even after another dramatic revelation about the town, or Jessica Biel's character is revealed.

I think most will enjoy "The Tall Man" and I recommend it.  I don't know the circumstances behind its production, how well it did in theaters or if it went straight to DVD, but maybe this is the way more movies outside of the mainstream are seeing daylight now.  I hope to see more movies like "The Tall Man" where certain factions in Hollywood are throwing out the typical "shock" playbook and are valuing more potential screenplays based on the merits of originality and creativity.  This will be the new way to get more revenue for a longer period from their investments and by keeping their eye on quality of content, the ticket stubs will follow because these movies will have a much longer shelf life than the movies that follow the same old, predictable Hollywood formula.  Be prepared to be surprised, pleasantly, in "The Tall Man."

- Aaron Belchamber

Filing Taxes? H&R Block's Website Simple, Secure, and Affordable.

I don't know why it's affordable, and in most instances, it's absolutely free.  How do these tax prepare companies make any money if the majority of people who use them can file their taxes for less than $25?  It's probably too much of a good thing and it won't last, but I recommend filing your taxes online at hrblock.com.  I know tax time is over, thankfully, for another year, at least.  But perhaps you are filing late because of an extension, or you just weren't happy with the services you paid for last time.

The website and interface are secure and it guides you through all the mundane and just plain boring steps to file your taxes probably in less than an hour if you have all your tax forms already gathered.  Then, you can even file your taxes electronically and send it all to the IRS at the same time.  Job finished.  Go back to raking leaves or doing those other weekend tasks -- almost anything would be more fun, I'm sure you will agree!

If only taxes were pay-as-you-go and the income tax form was a simple post card with a basic mathematical formula.  I guess that would be too predictable and help us all be more productive.  Wouldn't that be the real American way?  One can only dream that we will stop oppressing ourselves with a growing 19 million words of tax code and counting.  Such lunacy, idiocy, complacency, bureaucracy -- and a lot of other words I could use that don't end in "cy".  Good luck, my fellow Americans, we're all going to need it....

Movie Review: "We Bought A Zoo" Fun & Heartfelt Family Movie, Matt Damon is Fantastic

I finally got around to see "We Bought A Zoo" starring Matt Damon & Scarlett Johansson.  I like to read movie reviews from sources I trust, because, let's face it, time is valuable.  You don't have enough time in your average lifespan to watch every movie and TV show, so you have to discriminate.  Such an ugly term for so reasonable of a means to manage one's life, isn't it?

"We Bought A Zoo" is not a waste of your time to rent.  It's heartfelt and you can enjoy it with youngsters, even, who will be thrilled to see such likeable characters interact with real, live animals.  I don't believe there's any CG in this film, they don't need any.  Matt Damon is such a likeable protagonist, he lost his wife and is stuck in his life so he takes a chance and moves his family -- his son and daughter, to a small town and buys a house, a house that happened to not have been a zoo, but still kind of is one.  I say kind of, because, as the head of the meagerly-supported zoo's veterinary clinic, Scarlett Johansson puts it, it's the love of animals that keeps her there, if she loved money more or at least a dependable paycheck, she wouldn't be there any longer.  The place is broke and in disrepair, the animals need a savior. 

Strangely, it's not an evil capitalist who's about to bulldoze the zoo down that's a threat.  As goes the  usual, common, boring, nonsensical Hollywood plot that all business endeavors are evil because making money is bad.  No, it's a lack of capital, of investment, of human entrepreneurship that's the problem and an average Joe who can see a profit opportunity that, in the end, can save the zoo and the animals is what is needed -- no eco terrorists are heroes in this film.  A refreshing perspective of the American spirit embodies the movie, if not by accident, the script seems to lead the audience to root for an honest business success story!  Go Hollywood!  Thank you for not ramming down your anti-capitalism agenda down our throats this time.  After all, I'm sure they're hoping to profit from the films they make, aren't they?!  Maybe they're coming around -- making money can be good...

Needless to say, Damon's character has depth and fits the reality of the recession era.  He's not Jason Bourne in this film, he's humble, he's lost, he's -- dare I say, very human.  He struggles with doubt, with renovating his house, the zoo, keeping his family together, and searches for answers.  As he transforms this property where he risked his life savings, he realizes this labor of love, of doing work above his own self, is transforming him, and his family.  There are some great, funny moments then, you are thrown back into the reality of life, in a particularly memorable scene, Damon is fantastic reliving a memory of when he met his wife and the details of that joyous moment, as he shares it with his children at the very café it all happened where he met their mother.  The timing, editing, flashback sequences are very effective and heartfelt, I wanted to cry right along with Matt, who just embraced this scene with such a great delivery of being in the moment again.

An excellent screenplay with plot twists, fun humor, and rich characters, you see a boy and girl grow up, and their father finds peace and a new start in life.  I say rent this movie, watch this with your whole family, especially if you have kids from 5 - 18, you'll be glad you did.  Along with the bowl of popcorn, do keep some napkins nearby (don't make it obvious and bring down tissues), someone is bound to have a good cry. 

After his excellent performance in "True Grit", I'm amazed how easily and comfortable Matt Damon is slipping into very diverse roles.  He doesn't seem to have such a big ego where he can't play the bumbling failure, the frustrated dandy, the silly side kick, along with playing the lead hero who can do no wrong.  In "We Bought A Zoo", the whole cast is great, but Matt Damon does an excellent job kind of playing a little bit of all those personalities and carries this movie in this two hour gem.  Oh yeah, Thomas Hayden Church and Scarlett Johannson's in it too.

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library -- Don't Miss Registering Your Kids!

This isn't really a review, but if you stumble upon this article and help spread the word about the "Imagination Library," well, it was well worth my writing about it.  I hope your family, friends and neighbors benefit from learning about a way to get free children's books mailed directly to your house.  Yes, it's true -- free books delivered to your kids through a national literacy advocacy program.



Just a few of the books our kids have received from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library this past year.

Strewn within a pile of magazines, bills, junk mail, and cryptic statements regarding health insurance arrives a wrapped package with your child's name officially printed on the mailing label, adding some excitement and pleasure to the otherwise blah business of life's daily postal encounter.  Alas, a diverse collection of many different books to enlighten your kids awaits -- many of these titles you may find in the library, or in book stores, others you may never find on public shelves.  Either way, you and your kids will be glad you registered -- classics and new stories, hand-drawn and photographed storybooks of all themes ready to encourage them to read more while you guide them through the stories.

If you have children, you really should go onto Dolly Parton's Imagination Library website  (http://www.imaginationlibrary.com/) and register them to receive free children's books.  The United Way of the Black Hills out here in South Dakota is an affiliate partner that we encountered in a public Rapid City event who gave us some literature about the program.  What a great cause -- and story.  Way back in 1996, America's own sweetheart, Dolly Parton, launched this literacy program to help kids in East Tennessee.  It has now grown to over 679,000 registered kids.  A heartfelt success story in a way that mirrors Dolly's own story of humble beginnings.

You can also visit their online store, they're always looking for businesses to sponsor them and their website also features Dolly's latest book, "Dream More", along with T-shirts and other paraphernalia they sell to help support the cause.  Please spread the word, and this link www.imaginationlibrary.com, to your friends and circles.

The more children read early on, the more prepared they will be later for life's challenges.  As a country, we all benefit when kids can read, so anytime we can encourage literacy, the better off we will all be.  Early reading skills lead to children being more capable to learn on their own, which empowers them to teach themselves.  It's also true that strong reading skills keep teenagers out of more trouble and they perform better in school.  Let's face it, kids are America's future, we need them to be smarter than we are.  In light of recent events, that might not be too hard, so let's encourage them to be A LOT smarter than we collectively as a country are now.  The more they can read for themselves, the more they can learn for themselves later and be more self-sufficient, skilled, dynamic, productive, marketable, innovative, and capable.  That's real progress.

UPDATE:   I think the database the Imagination Library uses could use some fixing up -- it seems sometimes people are receiving the same books at the same household if they have multiple children.  This could be an easy system update and save a lot of money in the future.  Please consider asking for some help -- I would be happy to look into this at no charge.

Side note:  Dolly, if you happen to be reading this article, we'd really love for you to sing our company's jingle....  I'm being serious.

- Aaron Belchamber

Need to Launch An Ecommerce Site Fast That Looks Clean and Professional? This Shopping Cart System Is Amazing at the Price of FREE!

Everyone wants to make money online.  Selling things is probably the easiest and clear-cut way to do this.  To sell effectively, you need a website that not only looks great, it must be reliable and secure.   I manage a few websites that net over $1 million in annual sales.  We are looking to fully redesign these ecommerce sites with the newest adaptive design and other technologies.  Being an "old-school" web programmer, the frameworks, templates and CMS's that have cropped up to assist businesses to launch a full-out web presence faster while looking better and being more reliable than ever, is quickly reaching its apex.  So much technology and innovation happen on the web so quickly, it's a bit overwhelming trying to live your life, do your job, and just keep up with all the changes and improvements.  The cycles of innovation are shortening and the lifespan of websites and designs are shortening even faster.

Your websites need to adapt to new devices.  If your website is not fully integrated to accommodate touch screens and tablets, you might as well start thinking about redesigning your website now.  More than 50% of your website visitors won't be using a mouse come late summer 2014.  The time to think about adapting and redesigning your web assets to improve your customer experience with your brand and increase your sales has long past.  It's better to react late than to stay the course with your outdated website with the small pull down buttons that most people on a tablet either won't be able to read or won't be able to click on.

Our team did some extensive research and decided to go with a shopping cart system and an easily-customizable theme.  We looked at all the options, including a bunch of free shopping cart systems.  The features in some communities are lacking, but we found Magento, www.magento.com, offered a "community" version that was full of features and affordable add-ons (or "plug-ins") that would reduce the SLDC (software development life cycle) from 3-4 months to less than a month.  We went with Magento and bought a theme pack from Envato.com that gave us the ground work already built within the Magento framework, saving us weeks of conceptual design phases.  Even though the customizable theme was less than $100, we still needed it to be adaptive so our website would look good on any device.  By the way, there are plenty of basic themes that look amazing on any device for the very low price of ..... free, you just have to look. 

We wanted some extra features with a particular design and style so we opted for a gorgeous template (I don't believe I'm saying this -- remember when "templates" looked so gaudy?  You could spot a template right when the page loaded?  Not any more.  Web developers, beware, if you're more of a web designer, you best refine your programming and database skills, because you will be going the way of graphic design for the print industry if you don't adapt....)  Anyway, it only took about 20 minutes to download the theme and install it into Magento.  It integrated seamlessly as you would hope, but probably not expect.  (I say "not expect" because that's when you usually get some cryptic error to only find out your web host doesn't allow you to change file permissions for certain directories in which case you should look for a new host.)  Speaking from experience, please make sure your web host accommodates Magento and ask for them to provide any guidelines in the case their server requires some changes to some files or settings before you go full bore into an install only to find out later you have to changes hosts or upgrade to a different server.

Magento's back end can be a little daunting, but there are tools that you can install to make life a little easier, including to help you automate the uploading of your products, images, and information in case you have a lot of SKUs and different product lines.  Depending on the size and scope of your online store, and the type of merchandise you have to offer, I would highly recommend saving the time and limited resources in the development process by setting up this free system instead of insisting your development team write it all from scratch.  I have developed plenty of websites from scratch -- the shopping cart, their back end and product databases, to the front end and full design from the ground up.  There is no need to reinvent the wheel when the open-source community has fully taken on the upkeep of these more labor and code-intensive (not to mention mundane) functions.  Imagine what you can accomplish by freeing up your business resources and the web talent around you to focus on more effective design, marketing, and performance!  You could treat your web development team to breakfast and boost morale instead.  (Sorry, subliminal message there, please ignore.)

Speaking of marketing, Magento is fully integrated with the big players in the industry.  Your website will end up high on searches very quickly, it's SEO performance index is astounding.  More people will find you faster because search engines trust sites that use Magento.  Setting up payments is as easy as plugging in your Pay Pal merchant account information, your Authorize.net, or whatever you use within minutes.  Magento handles many other tasks as well, such as customer log-ins, wish lists, customer reviews.  There are modules to help you "recover" abandoned carts.  Sales reports and everything you need to keep you up with accounting and tax records are built right in.

All these tools are managed through Magento's back end as an administrator and require very little actual web coding knowledge, though it would help tremendously if you had someone who could write PHP and knew CSS and HTML to refine pages and fix any issues that may arise.  There's so much to Magento, I couldn't begin to cover anything but the basics here.  I highly recommend visiting its website at www.Magento.com and learning more about the "Community" edition.  It's amazing what open source gives the masses access to.  Come to think of it, "open source" is the masses -- it's true empowerment for all, worldwide.  Long live open source code, the engine of innovation, the "Libertarians" of the web.

Need Trees? Lots of Trees?! Try the Arbor Day Foundation!

Once you buy a pass to any national park, you will start getting some interesting mailers.  Greenpeace.  No thanks, their approach towards environmentalism by demonizing capitalism is kind of disturbing to me.  The Smithsonian Institute.  We subscribed to their magazine, a very interesting read.

We then received some literature from the Arbor Day Foundation.  We learned you can become a member for only $20.  Another $15 and we bought ten saplings, baby trees, that were proper for our region of the country.  They arrived inside a single plastic bag in the mail a few months later.  The instructions were kind of vague, but they're trees.  You plant them in the ground.  Though there were 5 different trees in our package, they were color-coded but there was no print out explaining what each color meant.  Only later did I find this link that explained on their website what the colors meant.

We paid for 10 trees but only 9 arrived in the package.  Despite these few flaws, I think these trees will be an excellent value.  I say I think, only because it's only been six months since we followed the directions and planted them -- just in time for winter to come.  I want to share this information because no one else I've spoken with knew they could get baby trees from a respectable source for such an excellent value. 

I found the Arbor Day Foundation website was a plethora of interesting information all things regarding trees.  We all know trees are important, they also help property values. Trees aren't just good for the environment, they enhance your yard.  They provide shade, they prevent the ground eroding, they also attract and provide shelter for all sorts of wildlife.  Not to knock your local tree nursery, but if you have the patience to wait 3 or 4 years to watch a small sapling grow into the pretty picture in the Arbor Day Foundation brochure, remember that you paid only about $3 for that tree which has matured to fetch $30, $50, maybe even over $100 for each 5 to 10 gallon tree it has grown into.

Try to get that kind of return on ANY investment!  From the perspective of a sound financial investment, investing in a membership and some trees from the Arbor Day Foundation outperforms any stock value or investment most people will ever see in their lifetime.  Provided you are willing to be patient and invest in some water and a little fertilizer.

If only making your investments in your 401K grow that quickly would be that easy, and that straight-forward.  The best part is you don't have to wait 30 years until you retire to enjoy the many tangible benefits each and everyday from owning trees that, unlike your investments, will continue to grow well into the future.

Don't Envy Me for My Envi Electric Heater

The Envi heater, centrally mounted at the bottom level of our home.
Sure, it puts out heat, but so does our toaster.

This is a short review on the Envi electric heater, but first, I cant' help but provide a quick commentary on the state of our nation's energy infrastructure and the ridiculous, economic ironies it operates within and how it affects our pocketbooks.  No "smart grid" will be able to fix this fundamental flaw.

To generate electricity, we burn coal and oil in order to boil water that builds enough pressure to spin generator turbines that produce electricity that eventually is drawn to our home to operate our countless appliances to serve our needs, including generating heat to keep us warm.  Sound efficient?  Times that by 100 million homes.  You'd think there'd be a more efficient way we all could heat our homes in the 21st century.

Natural gas eliminates a lot of these physio/logistical inefficiencies since we capture the heat by burning it where it is needed and we don't lose energy by converting the energy into something else first (electricity) then convert it back into heat in order to stay warm those cold winter nights.  Using more natural gas is inherently much more efficient because of this incomparable advantage over electricity where heat is generated on demand as heat into heat and not first converted into electricity, to heat our homes.  That said, natural gas needs almost as much infrastructure as electricity to deliver its energy to the masses through millions of feet of pipes, containers, valves, etc.

Just a thought, now I'm really digressing from a boring product interview:  If only we could buy something at the supermarket with our food -- a "Box of Heat" which only we would buy as needed or in bulk like at Costco's, as we choose, eliminating the need of building and maintaining a separate distribution system and infrastructure.  I guess the closest thing out there is kerosene or propane tanks -- if only they weren't so heavy and dangerous (and more efficient).  Something that is completely safe to transport that weighed about the same as a gallon of milk that could heat a home for a couple of weeks.  Imagine, supermarket priced competition to heat our homes.

Still, lugging the "Box of Heat" to the house and inserting it into the centralized home heating unit still wouldn't be as convenient as just plugging a heater to an electric outlet and just turning a dial -- kind of like the many portable electric heaters available on the market today.  (Well, there's Culligan for water delivery, so why not a "Box of Heat" delivery service, then?  Since there would be no infrastructure needed to maintain and you were willing to pay a convenience fee for delivery, the cost of the "Box of Heat" would still deliver heat to consumers at much lower prices.  Okay, back to the product review....)  One of the electric heaters you may choose to look into is the Envi electric heater, which is sold online and advertises heavily in magazines, like "Popular Science" and the web.  It's a radiator with no moving parts, which ensures that most of the electricity it consumes goes to producing a slow and steady heat.  I like that efficiency model, it makes sense.

.... but I say "slow and steady heat", because without a fan to circulate the heat, it takes a long time to heat up an area compared to a normal space heater with a fan.  You basically need to keep it on most of the time you want a room kept warm, but without a thermostat, the cryptic control dial up top doesn't make it very practical if you leave it unattended, like to go to sleep, or if you have anything more useful to do with your time than stare at your new wall-mounted heater.  More than once I walked into the room the Envi was heating and the room was sweltering hot, so hot I had to open a window.  So much for the money saved in less moving parts.

You can mount the Envi heater easily enough on a wall, but the cord dangles, even when using the clips at the bottom that are supposed to hold the power cord, you almost have to fold the cord and snake it awkwardly to fit it underneath.  Then, it's hard to see the clips to fasten the cord in the clips to begin with.  It doesn't detract and hide the power cord well -- not ideal if little kids are around, who will inevitably pull the cord out and be exposed to a bare electric plug because they pulled the cord out of the socket.

Speaking of children around the heater, there is a single on/off button in the top front right side with a red LED light, inviting kids to push it on and off.  Since it's not better hidden up top like the dial and it's more clear what its function is than the dial, they're bound to notice it sooner or later.  The heater may be able to be mounted on any wall, low and out of sight, but it lacks basic tamper-proof measures for children.  You think you had shut the heater off because it's a warm day?  Think again!  More than once, we found the Envi heater on, pumping out heat, while the A/C was running, trying to keep our home cool.  In South Dakota, it's not atypical for the weather to vary 60 degrees in a single day, just in case you're wondering.

It all makes as much sense as our country's energy infrastructure, or buying a heater without a thermostat.  In short, the Envi heater is good for one thing -- augmenting heating your home on the coldest nights in that room that never seems to get enough heat.  Instead of installing a heater in that area, however, might I suggest you put in better insulation, or use that cooler room as your wine cellar/workout room?

VAX-D for Back Pain - What I Learned From Making An Infomercial & TV Commercials for a Chiropractor

My ad agency team was once hired to produce a 30 minute infomercial, TV commercial ad campaign, and new website for the Back Pain Institute in Florida.  Their specialty was VAX-D treatments for back pain.  Skeptical of the claims, I was given a tour of their facility.

I saw two patients lying on their stomachs on these tables, harnessed and holding onto bars above their heads.  The client had lined up some happy patients who would provide testimonials.  Hearing first hand from so many people how VAX-D changed their lives was impressive.  Nothing beats word of mouth, and there were plenty of people making claims that it changed their lives.  Seriously, no spin.

They could walk up stairs again.  A fireman could return fully to work and carry hoses up the training towers.  A mother could pick up her child again without wincing in pain.  All these activities many of us take for granted were a nightmare for these people.  One, a die-hard marathon runner, was able to overcome his backpain and run again.

Remember, these are unsolicited reviews, I get paid nothing for espousing these opinions.  I urge that if you are having back pain to at least look into the options of VAX-D treatments instead of invasive surgery.  After all, you can always get some disks welded together or get metal plates screwed to your spine later if VAX-D doesn't improve your condition!

The premise behind VAX-D is that it stretches and realigns your spine so slowly, unlike traction, your back muscles do not counter the pulling and allows your discs to open and draw in the nutrients from the body and slowly heal your discs.  That's the gist in super layman's terms, anyway.

If you are suffering from back pain, here are some of the commercials, snippets from the 30 minute infomercial at my YouTube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/aaronbelchamber.

VAX-D might not be for everyone, but I ran into A LOT of people who opted for VAX-D over surgery and were so glad they did.  VAX-D actually cures a lot of spinal and disk issues that I am not qualified medically to discuss or even understand.  If it worked for these genuine people, it might be a treatment option worth looking at more closely.  I have personally recommended it to a few of my friends and have had friends who have gone through VAX-D that would recommend it as a serious option.

The cost of these VAX-D treatments are definitely less than surgery, not to mention the minimized risks involved.  It may even be virtually a "free" back pain solution since it is accepted by many health insurance policies (as long as those are still around and not gobbled up by the government's upcoming and inevitable single-payer health payer system -- go post office-style health care!  Sorry, I digress....)   Look it up and consider it as a serious option if you have back pain.

The other bonus will be if you're in Southwest Florida, look up the Woottons.  Dr. Wootton and Barbara Wootton, who own and operate The Back Pain Institute, were great clients and wonderful people, you'll be glad to have met them.  Your back might thank you, too.

Disk Recovery: Don't Give Up Until You Give R-Tools Technology a Try

These are all unsolicited reviews, I get nothing for them, so know at least I have no incentive either way except to do my part and share my experiences with products and services.  I personally find reviews useful and I hope you will find my truthful, unskewed reviews helpful for you!

When Hard Drive Disaster Strikes, Think R-Studio

A few times in the past 20 years, I've lost a hard drive or two.  Like most, especially when the cost of data storage was prohibitively high and much slower, I was a little behind on the backing up of my data.  One time, it was a power outage while writing to a hard drive, another time I think a client of mine dropped the hard drive, another time, who knows what happened -- Windows could no longer recognize it.

What all of these scenerios had in common was they weren't just inconveniences, but real weeks worth of work were lost, seemingly instantly.... at least I thought.  With client deadlines looming and a bunch of video and web projects locked away in a mysterious maze buried in a pretty reliable external hard drive, crunch time was quickly turning into "panic mode."

Immediately, I played it cool and went online looking for a solution, a FREE software solution first, of course.  There was some albeit questionable freeware, or free trials of data recovery software I found.  I tried three different software packages that couldn't even find the hard drive, so recovery of any data was out of the question with these "solutions", of course.  One trial version made sure I wouldn't forget them anytime soon by sending me a proliferation of unsolicited spam emails.

A little more anxious, I finally stumbled upon R-Tools Technology Inc., http://www.drive-image.com/.  I downloaded their Windows drive recovery solution, "R-Studio", which came with a free trial that would give me a preview of all the files it found, a list of what it thought it could restore, and a limited capability of restoring I think 10 MBs.  I needed to restore NTFS, so there was an option for that particular need.

Please excuse the fact I do not have any screenshots, thankfully, I am using a fairly new computer on Windows 7, so I have not had the need for this product in a few years.  I installed the trial version and gave it a go.  Within 10 minutes, I had R-Studio installed and up on my screen.  The interface looked different than the other trials -- cleaner, intuitive, and easier to follow.  It looked and felt professional.  Still smarting from my previous 3 experiences from other software that made its way through what I thought was a pretty good "crap detector", I clicked a few buttons to recognize any hard drives R-Studio could find to scan and waited, expecting the same, helpless result.

Start the Marching Band -- My Data Was Recovered!

Instead, up popped the drive that none of the other software programs or Windows XP, could even recognize!  I think a parade began a marching song in the background, echoes of a choir could be heard singing "hallelujah!"  I clicked the drive icon and it began to scan its files right away.  Within minutes, I stopped the scan to see if any progress had been made -- sure enough, there were my folders and a list of all my files.  ALL of them!  I restored a few files and anxiously opened them.  One was an Adobe Premiere project file, the other files were video clips and a few Word files.  I loaded the files, opened them, looked them over -- PERFECT!  Not a missing pixel, not a sign of a glitch.

I wasted no time, I went to R-Studio's website, paid for the full version.  The total cost of this software lifesaver was a little less than $50.  They sent me a registration key and I unlocked my trial program to the full version.  I had about 400 GBs of data that needed to be restored and R-Studio recovered all of it to another external hard drive in less than an hour.  I can't say enough about the quality of this product and how much time and trouble it saved me.  Literally weeks of work and it kept me from missing some pretty important customer deadlines.  It even found some deleted files I had thought were lost but I had accidentally deleted.

I would recommend R-Studio and any of there products.  Their program simply stood well above the other solutions I looked into, some much more expensive than R-Studio. 

Best Data Recover Solution for Your Money

I subscribed to their product update emails, which I get no more than once every few months.  Their last email to me let me know of the improvements and updates their awesome software team had been working on:

New features:
+ Support for ReFS (Resilient File System), a new local file system Microsoft introduced in its Windows Server 2012.
+ Support for Windows Server 2012 OS.
+ R-Studio Technician: Integration with DeepSpar Disk Imager, a professional HDD imaging device specifically built for data recovery from hard drives with hardware issues. Such integration provides R-Studio with a low-level fine-tuned access to drives with a certain level of hardware malfunction. Moreover, it allows disk imaging and analyzing be performed simultaneously. That is, any sector R-Studio accesses on the source disk will be immediately copied to a clone disk and any other data recovery operation will be made from that clone disk avoiding further deterioration of the source disk and great reduction in processing time. Read more on our page Integration with Hard Drive Recovery Hardware http://www.r-studio.com/DiskRecoveryHardware.shtml .

To receive future newsletters about the latest software builds click on the following link to subscribe
http://www.r-tt.com/cgi-bin/Newsletter

The latest version of R-Studio (v. 6.2) can be downloaded from our Web page at
http://www.data-recovery-software.net/Data_Recovery_Download.shtml

R-Drive Image software and more information on website and forum:
Site: http://www.drive-image.com
Forum: http://forum.r-tt.com/r-drive-image-5-1-5101-t8378.html

Domain Registrars: Omnis.com for Registering New Websites

If you are looking to register a new website address (domain name), I suggest using Omnis.com.  Unlike Network Solutions that charges upwards of $35, Omnis charges less than $10 for most domain names.  It's the same level of service and their account user interface is easy and convenient to navigate.

You don't have to pay more for web registration.  I don't use Omnis for hosting websites any more, but have used them in the past.  I was very pleased with their server reliability and up times.  Also, Omnis' customer service has been helpful in the past.

Movie Review: "Lawless" Keeps Tension Entire Movie

"Lawless" came out in 2012.  I never heard of it, but it's packed with Hollywood A-Listers.  I'm glad we rented it, even though the pace and tension kept me on edge and made me felt uneasy throughout most of the movie.  So many people out to kill, steal or hurt so many other people. Who can you trust when the law is as lawless as the lawless?!

"Lawless" is a violent Hollywood gangster film starring Tom Hardy, Shia Labeouf, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman and Guy Pearce.  It is about a family called the Bondurants in 1920's Virginia during the time of Alcohol Prohibition and moonshiners.  The biggest crime wave that ever struck the country was a result of misguided legislation to make alcohol illegal, as if making something illegal would mean people would no longer consume it and live a life of purity.  For those without an interest in our nation's history, think our modern-day government's War on Drugs and the failures, flaws and dangers it has imposed on our society.

"Lawless" brings you quickly into the Bondurant family's inner household, led by Forrest Bondurant, a charismatic, imposing young man, patriarch of the "indestructible" family, a man of few words, played by Tom Hardy.  Shia Lebeouf is the younger brother who seeks independence from the long shadows of his brother as he struggles in the dangerous world of making and selling moonshine in a brutal time where it's every man for himself.

I thought it was Guy Pearce as Charlie Rakes, the psychopathic, corrupt federal lawman that was brought in to "clean up" the area of crime, but I could barely tell.  He was so transformed into this despicable villain, I barely recognized him.  His character could make your skin crawl.  "Lawless" is also an excellent essay on the flaws of "good intentioned" legislation and the perils of careless, one-size fits all laws our country has used to polarize and fracture our society like a cancer these past 100 years.  Like alcohol prohibition, by pushing the drug market underground, it inflates the value of drugs, fosters violence, spreads and incentives corruption, victimizes many innocent bystanders, and exposes people to higher levels of risks as opposed to decriminalizing drugs, regulating, and taxing it.  There's a softer side to the movie, but their rare sparkles in a dark, gloomy, and dangerous world.

There are also some excellent side-stories, a bit of humor, and a lot of violence involving knife attacks and shootouts.  It's not for the weak of heart.  My favorite parts are Tom Hardy's character, Forrest, who seems to permeate a lot of likability paired with a determined, principled, and intimidating exterior.  Forrest Bondurant is the only moonshiner who stands up to the corrupt system and endures many different attempts on his life.  He's insensitive but caring at the same time, a great performance.

My only regret is LaBeouf, who tries a little too hard with his hillbilly accent as he partially narrates different scenes in the movie.  He also brings his ability to be the annoying little brother fully into play to add more tension.  You're pulling for his character, Jack, you only wish he'd get his act together and stop acting so arrogant.

Overall, I'd give "Lawless" 3 stars out of 4.  It does a great job of transporting you back to this "neck of the woods" and those dangerous times.  The tension and nervousness throughout the movie is sustained and the pace changes enough between a bit of romance, violent action, and satisfying character development.  I wish Guy Pearce's creepy character could have gotten a bit more screen time against Tom Hardy.  I hope these guys show up in a movie together again, they're both excellent at transforming into their characters.

It's definitely an 'R' rated movie, but it is a very good production reminiscent of the old gangster movies.  It mercilessly thrusts the audience into the Prohibition & Great Depression Eras and highlights this interesting part of our history and Virginia's part in these tumultuous times.

Movie Review: "Hop" The Movie a fun family flick, but leaps short of a "classic"

I thought it was a great idea, I mean, all those fun Christmas movies out there, why not start producing fun movies that could help us rejoice in Easter and wove itself into our culture as fun, annual Easter traditions?  Christmas has "It's A Wonderful Life", "Christmas Vacation", "Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas", "White Christmas, "Miracle on 34th Street", "The Santa Clause", "Elf", and the list goes on.  All top shelf Christmas movies that found their way into millions of families' homes as part of the Christmas festivities to help us get into that Christmas cheer.  Then, there's plenty of second tier, still entertaining, miss it one year, watch it the next, Christmas movies like "Christmas With the Kranks", "How The Grinch Stole Christmas", and "Jingle All the Way".

When will Hollywood start to exploit Easter in pursuit of profit for our own benefit of entertainment?  "Hop" attempts to start this trend in the under-served Easter holiday, realizing that Christmas is already pretty crowded.

"Hop", as an Easter movie, would be a second-tier Easter movie if there were more children Easter-themed movies.  Still entertaining, but not a "must see" classic, it's still fun, albeit about 15 minutes too long.  Another kind of sad fact lurks near the end when the Easter Bunny says goodbye and climbs into a vehicle that reminds you more of Santa's sleigh, and a farewell closely mocking that of Santa's "to all a goodnight" farewell, as if Hollywood screenplay writers couldn't spend the time figuring out something clever and original for the Easter Bunny to say, tearing pages out of Clement C. Moore's classic from over 150 years ago.  A rather sad fact, considering that it took years for Clement C. Moore to even admit that he had written "The Night Before Christmas."

Being a kids movie, you'd expect a few Easter-themed songs, or music, but there was no attempt at Disney-style embellishments.  Still, the movie and story line is entertaining enough.  The 3D animation, mostly composited over live scenes, is excellent.  The 3D characters, bunnies and chickadees are pretty adorable and colorful.  The acting fits the audience -- a little over the top.  James Marsden plays the part of a late twenty-something who'd rather live at home and play video games instead of working.  He embraces the part playfully self-deprecating in his immature state.  There's even an interesting side commentary of the state of the U.S. economy, as he lost his job a year ago because of the recession -- and the company he was working for was "downsizing".  Marsden channels his inner Jim Carrey with his own style of exaggerated facial expressions, physical humor, puns, and playful gags.  Obviously acting often in scenes by himself, you can sometimes tell his eyes aren't exactly meeting the imaginary 3D characters he is supposed to be interacting with.  I'm sure it's hard to do that kind of acting, besides, James had to go and shoot "Enchanted 2", so he probably didn't have a lot of time.

The live action and real actors probably get twice the screen time as the more interesting and entertaining 3D characters, which is this film's biggest fault, considering that the audience is 4 - 12 year olds.  I take that back, it has a bigger fault -- the movie's main antagonist, one of the Senior Easter Bunny's helpers, a plump yellow chick named Carlos, not only wants to supplant the Easter Bunny and take his place, perhaps banish him or something, actually wants to boil him, and James Marsden alive.  A bit too brutal and uncreative, you can have a villain in a children's movie, but a ruthless killer?!

The audience deserved a bit more sympathetic, less evil, and violent plot devices.  After all, Carlos was the Easter Bunny's faithful servant for many years, and suddenly he wants to kill him?  In the end, the movie felt a bit long, and simplistic extremes like Carlos going for the Easter Bunny's jugular seemed like the screenplay writers were just taking the easy way out and phoning in a good 30 minutes of plot, pulling pages out of other movies, seemingly from "Braveheart" or "Casino" so they could get paid and move on to their next project.

In the end, though, I think most kids will enjoy the lovable creatures, the gags, semi-low-brow humor, but I wouldn't recommend it for any kids under 8.  And I really wish for a holiday children's movie, they wouldn't have stooped to simplistic violence to keep the movie going.  Even the Grinch didn't want to kill anyone, and he was the Grinch, for crying out loud.  If only James Marsden and the other co-stars would have said, "this movie has lots of potential, but it's Easter and it's for kids, could we soften some of the 'kill the Easter Bunny' rhetoric and make the antagonist a little less evil and more like the Grinch?"