Dallas Buyers Club

On April 17, 2014April 16, 2014 By Rick McIn movies, product endorsementsLeave a comment

About the only thing I like on long international flights is getting caught up on recent films.

I saw these on one series of flights.

American Hustle
Ender’s Game
Gravity
Catching Fire
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club

Mandela was not convincing. The actor Idris Elba does not have the look or gravitas of Mandiba. I preferred Morgan Freeman.

The rest were well worth watching.

Dallas Buyers Club made the other films look lightweight, however.

The film received acclaim from critics and won numerous accolades – most recognizing the performances of McConaughey and Jared Leto, including the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, making it the first film since Mystic River (2003) to win both awards.

… a nomination for Best Picture. As of March 2014 it grossed over $32 million in box office revenue against a budget of $5 million. …

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 93% based on reviews from 177 critics, with an average score of 7.7 out of 10, with the site’s consensus stating, “Dallas Buyers Club rests squarely on Matthew McConaughey’s scrawny shoulders, … might be a career-best performance …

Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.

I always suspected Matthew McConaughey could act. That he was more than a pretty boy. This film proves it.

season 4 – Friday Night Lights

On April 10, 2014April 6, 2014 By Rick McIn product endorsements, TV1 Comment

Fantastic. This is definitely one of my favourite TV series ever.

Season 4 focused on the reopened East Dillon High School and the East Dillon Lions football team.

Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.

On to the fifth and final season.

I’ve loved Gmail for 10 years+

On April 4, 2014April 3, 2014 By Rick McIn Google, product endorsementsLeave a comment

The leading email service was launched in beta form on April 1st, 2004. In the beginning, Gmail was an invite-only affair, and invites would remain the only way of signing up until 2007. (Thankfully they gradually got much easier to come by.)

Right from the start, Google took every opportunity to set itself apart from the competition. All users received a gigabyte of storage for their email, a massive figure that shamed what Microsoft’s Hotmail and Yahoo Mail offered at the time. That meant most people would never need to worry about permanently deleting messages again. In some ways, it also ushered in the era of seemingly limitless cloud storage. …

The Verge

Harry McCracken – How Gmail Happened: The Inside Story of Its Launch 10 Years Ago

vaccines not perfect …

On March 26, 2014March 26, 2014 By Rick McIn health & fitness, product endorsements, things getting betterLeave a comment

… but they are far, far better than the alternative.

When a global effort to end polio was launched in 1988, the disease crippled more than 200,000 children every year in India. Almost two decades later, in 2009, India still reported half of the world’s new cases — 741 out of 1,604.

The development of the Salk and Sabine vaccines helped lead to eradication of polio in the United States in 1979. In India, too, vaccination was critical. …

CNN – India beats the odds, beats polio

switching from Rogers to Wind Mobile

On February 6, 2014February 5, 2014 By Rick McIn product endorsements, travelLeave a comment

Wind, backed by Europe’s Vimpelcom Ltd., said it would offer customers unlimited data, talk and text while travelling in the United States for $15 a month. …

Wind Mobile launches low-cost unlimited U.S. roaming plan

Looks like I’ll be switching from Rogers to Wind Mobile. 🙂

Tim Hortons Express

On February 3, 2014February 2, 2014 By Rick McIn food, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Addicts should get their own line at Tim Hortons coffee shops.

Tim Hortons express

Uruguay – NATION of the year

On January 27, 2014January 23, 2014 By Rick McIn good news, government, happiness, product endorsements, things getting better, travelLeave a comment

… the accomplishments that most deserve commendation, we think, are path-breaking reforms that do not merely improve a single nation but, if emulated, might benefit the world.

Gay marriage is one such border-crossing policy, which has increased the global sum of human happiness at no financial cost. Several countries have implemented it in 2013—including Uruguay, which also, uniquely, passed a law to legalise and regulate the production, sale and consumption of cannabis. This is a change so obviously sensible, squeezing out the crooks and allowing the authorities to concentrate on graver crimes, that no other country has made it. If others followed suit, and other narcotics were included, the damage such drugs wreak on the world would be drastically reduced.

Better yet, the man at the top, President José Mujica, is admirably self-effacing. With unusual frankness for a politician, he referred to the new law as an experiment. He lives in a humble cottage, drives himself to work in a Volkswagen Beetle and flies economy class. Modest yet bold, liberal and fun-loving, Uruguay is our country of the year. ¡Felicitaciones!

Economist

former guerrilla and Marxist President on the LEFT

uShaka Marine World

On January 24, 2014January 23, 2014 By Rick McIn food, product endorsements, travel1 Comment

uShaka Marine World is a … theme park which was opened in 30 April 2004 in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It comprises 4 sections: uShaka Sea World, uShaka Wet ‘n Wild, uShaka Beach, and uShaka Village Walk. …

… the 5th largest aquarium in the world … designed around 5 shipwrecks, with its entrance through the above ground “Phantom Ship” …

Click PLAY or watch a promo YouTube.

Though I rarely enter any body of water larger or colder than a jacuzzi, for uShaka I made an exception trying everything but the HIGHEST slide.

Highlights for me were the Aquarium, Dolphin show and the buffet restaurant in the converted ship.

Rick Durban aqarium

tripadvisor reviews

WordPress drives 20% of websites

On December 20, 2013December 20, 2013 By Rick McIn blogs, product endorsementsLeave a comment

In May, WordPress celebrated it’s 10th birthday. The platform has grown from its humble beginnings as a new open-source project to the most widely-used content management system on the internet, making up nearly 20% of all websites on the web. …

WP Engine