Twitter hither

So, short form is in huh? Well, I can see the benefit of being limited 140 characters to craft a message. Especially if it is a business related message. I have learned in Creative Communications that less is usually more, and focusing on the important points is imperative and, Twitter certainly provides you with that medium.

Happy Twitter!

Ode to an airport

My wife and I had a voucher for travel on United Airlines that we obtained when we were deliberately delayed on a trip to see some of my wife's relatives in Missouri and held up overnight in Chicago.

Our dismay at that precise moment was not as animated as some of our fellow travellers, but we were annoyed nevertheless.

My wife and I decided to transfer said voucher to her parents to use which you can do, but when we got to Winnipeg Airport we couldn't do it .....

The United kiosk was devoid of any signs of life and in the end we waited for nearly four hours for a United Airlines departure to see the kiosk come to life.

My wife and I lined up, rife with confidence that our waiting was not in vain, but it was. We were told that the persons who can make the magic voucher transfer had left not more then 30 minutes ago; said persons were there all along, but needed to be called to come to the kiosk! Ahh, serenity now!

Now, I'm not saying my wife and I are not to blame, because I'm sure that we could have found out more info on the magic voucher transfer procedure.

The only thing I noted in my flustered and flabbergasted recollection of said event, is that the United kiosk had no information for customers in our situation indicating where, when, and who we need to speak to.

So, if you find yourself in a similar position for the first time as mentioned above, find out the where, when, and who first!

Going somewhere fast?

With laws prohibiting the use of cell phones and devices that allow text messaging in motor vehicles becoming a reality across Canada, I wonder if we will hear about 'road rage' again?

Or how about hearing horror stories about motorists who don't use signal lights and the speed demon motorists darting in and out of lanes to get home a whole 5 minutes early?

I don't think any law that bans electronic devices is ever going to ultimately eliminate being just a plain old bad driver on top of being distracted by an electronic device!

Transformers: Rise of the Fallen Blu-Ray Disc Review

Transformers! More then meets the eye! As an 80's child I remember Transformers very well and when I heard a live action movie was being made I was a little skeptical. To be clear, there were animated Transformer movies in the past.

I was impressed with the first Transformers live action movie and I saw first one on Blu-Ray Disc and recently saw the sequel on Blu-Ray Disc as well.

Technically, the sequel lives up to its predecessor in every way. The CGI is amazingly convincing and the production values through the roof.

Picture: Clean and crisp as we would expect with no anomalies that I noticed in terms of edge enhancement or artifacting. The hi-rez picture is bright with great contrast and color; especially the CGI colors of the different Transformer characters.

Sound: A DTS Master Audio layer is the hi-fi sound layer. It is the only hi-def layer available on the feature disc with a couple other Dolby Digital language layers for sound available. So if your system does not allow you to access the DTS HD Master file, your out of luck hi-def sound wise. The DTS Master file is astounding. Some DTS Master files can be overly bright and overdone on the low end, but overall I found the sound stage to be clear and not overdone at all. Listen for the cool sound effects running through your surround set up that accompany the Paramount logo at the beginning of the movie.

Story: Well, obviously they didn't copy the original Transformers story line and not every Transformer character is and will make it into this and any other sequels that might coming. That being said, the narrative plays out with good pace and at least there was an attempt to craft an interesting story with back story elements connected to the first film with new back story elements brought out in the sequel.

I wasn't on the edge of my seat guessing with bated breath what would be coming next, but the story was interesting enough to keep me from getting bored between the actions sequences. I was surprised that the length of the movie pushes well over 2 hours.

Overall, this one is worth a rental if you are into sci-fi or a Transformers aficionado though you might not like the blatant military advertising throughout both the first Transformer film and the sequel.

Picture: 4.5 out of 5.
Sound: 5 out of 5.
Story: 3.5 out of 5.

Happy movie!