Alcohol Limits
August 27, 2008 — BAlcohol Limits in State Parks and at Boating Access Sites
5.2 Possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages in certain state parks and recreation areas, prohibited conduct. A person shall not… possess or consume an alcoholic beverage within [PJ Hoffmaster State Park] from April 15 through Labor Day.
One of the many reasons camping after Labor Day is precisely 67,549 times more awesome.
Women Drivers
August 13, 2008 — BI received this via email this morning, found it hilarious and had to share.
Driving to the office this morning on the Interstate, I looked over to my left and there was a woman in a brand new Mustang doing 65 miles per hour with her face up next to her rear view mirror putting on her eyeliner!
I looked away for a couple seconds and when I looked back she was halfway over in my lane, still working on that makeup!!! It scared me (I’m a man) so bad, I dropped my electric shaver, which knocked the donut out of my other hand.
In all the confusion of trying to straighten out the car using my knees against the steering wheel, it knocked my cell phone away from my ear which fell into the coffee between my legs, splashed and burned Big Jim and the Twins, ruined the damn phone and DISCONNECTED AN IMPORTANT CALL!
WOMEN DRIVERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good stuff. Thanks Jim. 
The Dark Knight Review
July 21, 2008 — BWow. There are so many personal metrics by which this movie is awesome. For example, I typically avoid movies that far exceed 2 hours in length. TDK is over 2.5 hours, and I enjoyed the shit out of every last second of it, and was wanting more when the credits rolled. I never thought about the fact that Heath Ledger was dead, and for good reason – Heath isn’t in this movie… the Joker is. As corny as that sounds, you’ll know what I mean once you see it. His performance is that good.
The Dark Knight exceeded my expectations, even with all of the hype surrounding it. Artfully presented, powerfully conveyed and relentlessly full of action are descriptions that merely scratch the surface. The thing that has stuck with me most about this film is that it stands on its own. That is, if you take away the comic book characters, you’re still left with a thoroughly engaging epic crime drama that is more entertaining than any similar movie I’ve ever seen.
As for Heath Ledger’s performance, its hard to overstate. As I mentioned, I was worried that his death would have been distracting, if only once or twice, from the world presented in the movie. Holy hell, was I ever wrong. There have been a lot of descriptions of his performance, but the one I agree with the most would be “tour de force”. In other words, Ledger took this character and made it his bitch, totally and completely. Never before has the Joker been so frightening, engaging and effective as a villain as he is here. Not even close. But even beyond that, Ledger’s Joker is exactly what it always should have been – pure, unrelenting anarchy. Chaos. Madness. It is all these things, and absolutely entertaining from the moment he first graces the screen, right up until the very end. Heath may not be worthy of an Oscar, but he is, without question, worthy of the nomination. And that, for a role as a comic book character, is quite amazing.
We originally set out to see it in IMAX, but the IMAX showings were sold out, all day. We opted for a regular screen, but I want to go back to see it in all it’s IMAX glory. But I certainly don’t regret seeing it on the small big screen.
So, if you enjoyed Batman Begins, or even if you’re just a fan of compelling crime dramas, go see this movie. You won’t be disappointed.
10/10
Rothbury is Now a Must-See
July 8, 2008 — BI mentioned a while back a festival called Rothbury that took place over the 4th of July weekend on Michigan’s west side. By all accounts, it was an amazing success, with crowd estimates at around 30-50,000 people. That’s incredible for an inaugural event.
A photo-blogger, teliczan, came across my post and mentioned she had some pics of the festival, which are pretty amazing. The most impressive of these, to me at least, are of “Sherwood Forest”. That night image alone was enough to take this event from my “keeping an eye on” category to the one labeled “almost finished packing”.
More Rothbury pics here:
Taj Mahal Better Than Ever at Rothbury
Trey Anastasio Is Back!
Rothbury, The Little Details
Rothbury’s Sherwood Forest
Hey Snoop, Michigan Loves You
Good stuff!
Rothbury
July 2, 2008 — BIt turns out there’s a music festival near Muskegon, MI this weekend, and I hadn’t heard a thing about it until noticing an article profiling it at the Detroit News site.
Bummer! It sounds pretty damn awesome, being an all-weekend camping festival. The last time I went to such an event was a weekend festival in Chico, CA, back in the summer of 2000! Holy hell… I’m getting old. 
Anyway, at $250 per ticket, its not too bad, considering performances from The Dave Matthews Band, Snoop Dogg and John Mayer, among many others, are on hand, and you’re talking about the equivalent of like 5-7 concerts worth of musical entertainment. The downside is that as cool as it sounds to have 30,000 people camping out and enjoying music for a whole weekend, its not actually that cool. Outhouses, limited showering facilities and so on can make for a pretty rough time.
Its their first year, so perhaps we’ll see how it goes off and keep it in mind for next year. Though there’s this “event” we’ll also be in savings mode for, so its doubtful. But I’m ok with that.
