Captain America: The Winter Soldier

I had the opportunity last week now working on AMHQ at The Weather Channel to go and pre-screen Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I wrote a review on it, which unfortunately, did not make the website.  So I decided to post it here.  No worries, there are no spoilers here. Mainly it was a technical review with an emphasis on potential weather connections.  Here is the article as I submitted it below:

Let me begin by saying I am a HUGE fan of superheroes.  My knowledge of the comic lore and background stories are limited to the information gathered from my comic enthusiast and the little digging I've done in the Marvel wiki.  In general though, I love movies.

Captain America, The Winter Soldier was an excellent film.  There are some hiccups in it just as in every film (as well as I'm sure with the details from the comic) but overall I will go see it again more than once and likely for full price.  I'm always looking at the stories and how they are told as well as the graphics and as a Meteorologist, I always see when the environment or the atmosphere aren't just right, or in certain circumstances are VERY right.

I love the detail the VFX artists have done with the smoke and particle animation.  When you see the S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet and the Helicarrier's propulsion systems and the interactions of smoke and anything that gets sucked through or the downdraft from them the smoke moves in an INCREDIBLY realistic way.  I remembered this from the first movie and they did a great job with that. Overall the atmospherics in the film were very good.  Clouds, the little bit of rain that was in there, some icing effects, all looked really good.  Some of the water in portions of the climax of the film seemed just a tad off.  But water is hard to render, I give a little bit of leeway there.

There was a great attention to detail in keeping Cap in the Avengers universe.  Characters names, actors and technology from Iron Man 2, 3, and The Avengers all made it in there, even some items from Thor (if you look hard enough).  Continuity was preserved from The First Avenger with characters and actors and locations as well which keeps the universe and the suspension of disbelief in tact.

As far as some of the other effects and editing in the film. (Let me preface this by saying, I can pick out the little things that many people may not see, its a curse).  That said, I give you the warning to turn away, now, and skip to the next paragraph else you will not be able to unsee the little problems in composite editing.   There's an initial flying shot of the helicarriers with Quinjets on them and there's great detail it all looks so realistic the way it was rendered, until you see the real video of people working on them.  There's just something that doesn't fit, they stand out of the smoke and volumetric fog a little too much, and they are a little too clear and they look flat overall.  What really freaked me out was a scene with an older woman who was being played by a younger woman.  I don't know why they chose NOT to use real make-up, but it really looked like they didn't.  It looked like they had an actual older woman act out this scene and THEN they added the mouth and eyes of the younger actress...it just looked REALLY wrong. Either that or they rendered out an old lady and stitched together the live action younger actresses features. It was jarring.  I think there may have been some actual skydiving footage (similar to that from Iron Man 3) in some action sequences...and if not. It looked very realistic. 

I have an intimate understanding of PTSD and how it affects veterans, especially those that were in the infantry, like Captain America.  I appreciate the detail and the depth to which the film touches the effects of traumatic events for veterans.  The film might be fictional, but the details surrounding Cap and The Falcon's PTSD are very accurate.  Also they do a great job showing how hyper aware they can be particularly in the elevator scene that was released last year.  Cap notices all the little details about the men getting into the elevator and correctly assesses them as a threat.  Also incredibly accurate of those with military training.  The weapons handling was believable as well as the types of language the military men and women used. 

All in all its a great film with some continued great acting from Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson.  Robert Redford portrays a prominent character and Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker, The Adjustment Bureau) does a great job as The Falcon.

My recommendation?  Go see it and get lost in the Marvel Universe. #ITSAMAZINGOUTTHERE

My Tech Segment

Cerberus to take a photo of me while I was recording the tech segment

 As the week winds down a bit I have time between shows to reflect on the last several days.  I've been working on a tech segment that airs every Tuesday and Thursday on the morning show.  The station wanted me to be the resident tech expert.  To their credit, I usually am pretty current on tech tools, trends and software.  This segment gives me the opportunity to stay current on all of it too.  Actually, I've been using a news aggregator called pulse.  Its for android, apple and web. Its for everything.  Check it out here.  www.pulse.me
I use it to see the latest news, science, tech and other stuff.  Its really cool and syncs across all your devices.  AND I can save articles in Evernote to read later.

One of the stories I did last week was on a new piece of software that I discovered that honestly makes me so happy now as an Android user.  I have always been jealous of the Apple, "Find my iPhone" feature.  You can find it when its lost or stolen, delete everything on it for security purposes.  I found an app, called Cerberus, that will do all that and more from the web to your android smartphone.  I gave it a whirl for free for a week and then decided to buy it...why?  Because I can take pictures, video, and audio in addition to seeing the call log, sms log and location history.  Pretty cool right?!  And!! It has a feature that if your SIM card is removed and replaced with another SIM card it will alert you and authorize the software to be used with the new SIM card so you can find where your phone is and who has it. I'm not irresponsible when it comes to my devices...I'm likely NOT going to lose my phone or have it stolen...its ALWAYS with me or within view, BUT having this software on it makes it really nice that I can use it.  I'm excited.

Scored some IFTTT socks. Only a nerd would be happy

 Continuing my nerd-dom...I was wearing my IFTTT socks the other day at work.  IFTTTstands for IF This Than That.  Which is a simple programming web site.  If you have things you like to automate...it helps!  You might see a few things posted to my professional facebook page from IFTTT and those are usually things that are important or useful on a daily basis. It actually turns the light on in my apartment when the sun sets...more on that in upcoming tech segments.

Rudder at 7 years old

Rudder is coming up on 7 years old this year!  Which means I am getting closer to being on TV for 8 years!  I got Rudder when I was living in Jackson, TN, my first job in television.  She was born in August of 2006 and I brought her home in September.  She has grown A LOT!

Rudder at a few weeks old.

The herb garden is coming along!

The herbs in my herb garden are growing along nicely!  The chives aren't growing as well as I would like, but everything else is growing slowly but surely.  Such a change for me to have plants outside and planted before Mother's Day!  Growing up on Long Island that was our cut off for cold and killing cold weather.  Yeah...I know!  We would grow them from seeds around this time and watch them grow and grow in our sunroom, a South facing room that would get sunshine from sunrise to sunset.  It was the perfect little greenhouse.  Now I have the South Louisiana to keep the plants warm for me.

Even with the cold front that just came through this morning, thankfully I will be able to keep the herbs outside!  Whew!  Bringing them in and out is a pain!  Its pretty darn heavy!  

Just before the front came through my complex this morning.

I'm looking forward to the end of tonight.  Tomorrow Facebook Home comes to the Play store and I am eager to give it a try.  I'm not sure I'll keep it but it seems like it could be an interesting addition to my phone...which is getting a little old.  The first dual core phone 2 years ago and its closing in on its lifetime.  The stuff I CAN do with it is starting to be the stuff I CAN'T do with it because I'm making it do too much. Ugh.  That's the central caveat of all the technology I get.  It quickly lags behind the abilities I think it should do.  I can't be the only one who runs into this problem...can I?

Such a nice Easter!

Today was a very busy day. We got up incredibly early (for me on a work weekend) at 7am to start the drive to Ville Platte.  I mean it had to be early because the drive is long and I have to be at work before the bad weather hits. 
The good news was that as long as we left the family Easter festivities just as it started raining there, I would be able to make it back to Baton Rouge in time for the storms.

So we left a very foggy EBR at 8 am and got to grandma and grandpa's by 9:30 - 10:00.  Obviously the first to arrive we got to see the garden and the HUGE tomato plants and hang with them for a while before the rest of the family began to arrive.  All the food!

I am a little upset with myself though that I didn't Skype with my family back in NY as I usually do, but I was engaged in conversion and my phone was starving for battery life in rural Louisiana while simultaneously connected to the work computers to watch the progress of the weather and what watches and warnings the NWS was considering.

Steak was on the grill and chicken. Rice dressing... (still don't understand the term dressing instead of stuffing, but that's a nor'easter thing I'm sure) potato salad, and of course eggs. Lots of eggs. We pocked them, a fun game, *if* you get an unbreakable egg.  Fyi pocking eggs is the process of hitting the "pointy" end of one egg against another.  A winner is determined by the person who holds the unbroken hard boiled Easter egg.  I was pretty much undefeated with my acquisition of the dyed egg which was laid freshly out back by the chickens they keep.  Apparently, fresh is better.  ;-)

Not having a regular grandparent hosted holiday in over a decade I've forgotten how nice it is.  Grandma made us our own amazing white cake layered with strawberries and whipped cream. I loved it last year for the first holiday I spent with them and she made us our own to take home for that reason alone.  It was awesome.

Then just like Christmas the holiday was turned upside down by impending severe weather.  Hmm severe weather events on Christmas and Easter. I'm beginning to wonder if the deity in charge of weather is not christian... Then again not being up North on Long Island, I forget when many of the holidays of the Jewish faith are.  Oy vey.

I was excited though that the weather moved in exactly the time I said it would. - small victories.  Thankfully no widespread hail and no tornadoes.  But 60 mph wind gusts suck too and can really put a damper on the holiday if it happens to snap a tree over your power lines. Thankfully we didn't lose power at all on Easter Sunday, which is funny, because we have power bumps here when an ant farts.

Ok, well I am going to finish this beer and go catatonic in bed until tomorrow mid morning. Maybe I will be able to do something with my day off.

Its been just over 2 weeks...

Just before the beginning of lent (like a day), I decided that I finally wanted to seriously pony up and do a paleo challenge with a huge group of people at my gym.  Quick breakdown on what paleo is for those who don't know:
        Eat anything you want until you are full...except:
                      Legumes, dairy, wheat, grains, anything preserved with nitrites and no added sugar.

Seems simple enough right?  Let's have some jambalaya, nope can't have rice. Damn.  How about some mac and cheese?  Uh, no. grains and dairy. Crap. OK well at least I get to have my morning coffee with my non dairy creamer and splenda. Oh no splenda? Ok, I can get by that...let me put in this non-dairy creamer. Oh. Its made from soy and some other things that are on the no-no list.  Ok, so I get to have caffeine but no sugar.  This is going to suck. 

And halfway done now, I have gotten used to having spaghetti squash instead of pasta...but a word to the wise, have it with a strong sauce, because spaghetti squash has NO taste. 

Why?  Why would you put yourself through something like this??  I have no idea.  I have always wanted to, mostly because I already eat fairly healthy but I saw no significant changes to my body fat percentage after the last year I have been going to Red Stick CrossFit.  Have I gotten stronger?  Absolutely.  No question. I can do 20 pushups without a break (couldn't do 3 when I started) and I can do 10-20 pull-ups and 3-4 pull-ups weighted with 13 pounds and at least one with 26lbs (had to use a resistance band when I started to knock off 75 pounds).  So my body and metabolism needed a push.  So I am giving it one.  No sugar sucks...which means no alcohol either save for a glass of red wine (which I'm not a fan of) and paleo margaritas or 2 shots of tequila with lime juice. (I just opt for the tequila shots).

Have I noticed anything different?  Maybe?  Its really hard to tell on your own when subtle changes happen daily and you get used to them.   Perhaps when this is over my before and after pictures will tell the real story.  Although friends from the gym have told me that my stomach looks flatter so that's a plus.  Numbers-wise.  I have actually lost 4 pounds eating nothing but veggies and proteins and I am still as strong, so that must be 4 pounds of fat right?  We'll see.  Prior to the challenge we had to weigh in and get body fat percentages measured which we have no idea what the calculations were, those will be revealed when it is all over in the before and after stuff.

Its not all bad. We've made some pretty good food at home and been able to keep the menu varied and interesting, but damn.  Some nights you just REALLY want a beer.

2 more weeks.

Steak with mashed cauliflower and green beans

Spaghetti squash and tilapia with a mango salsa

Spaghetti squash with meat sauce and mashed cauliflower

Banana pancakes

I saw planets tonight.

Good GOD!  Its been a while since I've posted here, perhaps I am lazy?  No, that's not it. (or is it)  I think I am just not motivated enough to write daily. <--THAT's the problem
(also who really cares what happened in my life today?  Besides me and my Mom, I'm betting that list is pretty short)

I also wonder what the average person/blog reader/viewer should really know about me.  Is it really important or is that not the point?  Is the point to be myself and write if no one is reading, or if its just me reading?  

I guess I'll find out if I start sharing more.  This DOES post to my professional page on Facebook, should I take a clue from that?  We'll see...

I've felt a little more grown up the last few days.  My vegging out in the living room has been limited and things have gotten done.  The bathrooms are clean, the apartment is clean and mostly organized after the post Christmas explosion and return from winter vacation.  We even took the dogs out to the sump at the apartment complex (the ground just squishy now except for one Labrador inviting pool of drainage water).  Rudder was excited to get out and stretch her legs running erratically all over the place to use up that 6 year old puppy energy. (gotta love labs for that)  In the last few years she's gotten bored with fetch.  Its usually me throwing the tennis ball, she runs after it, taps it with her nose and then runs off leaving me to fetch. No thanks, not my game.  Inevitably she dives into the nasty pool of drainage water regardless of how many negative commands I yell and we move on to BATHTIME!  The pool of water she REFUSES to enjoy.  Ugh. 

I reorganized the files on my computer, something that needed to be done after I had a MASSIVE hard drive failure.  I back up my files regularly, but I wanted the data anyway.  Thankfully we have a very handy IT professional at work who I swear is the most technologically savvy person I know.  I mean he says things to me that I just have to smile and nod to because he makes them sound so simplistic and common that I feel like I SHOULD know what he means.  Anyway my stuff is where it should be now. 

Then it was off to Red Stick CrossFit for week 2 of my self proclaimed A** in gear mode.  Last week I really shifted into high gear after coming back from vacation.  I haven't been putting my all into my workouts and its showing.  Showing not in weight gain or anything like that, but stagnation.  I haven't REALLY seen any significant physical changes in my body.  Strength-wise I have made leaps and bounds. I can do 20 push-ups pretty quick, pull ups pretty fast as well and I have much more strength than I ever have, but physically I don't think I look THAT much different to me, though I have heard otherwise. My proportions have stayed the same - I think, from my first post last March.  My waist is still about 40" but I have put on more than 15 pounds of muscle.  My body fat percentage dropped and hopefully by this March I will be able to say even more has changed.  So today I gave it my all again.  The annoying thing though about the gym is that my shoulders have gotten bigger and so have my arms, minimally so, but either way, I have to toss some things in my closet to Goodwill otherwise I risk looking like a douche wearing shirts that are too small.  I don't want to be that guy. 

The night rounded out with dinner with some old friends at Perkins Rowe and some comedic time through the craft and sex sections of Barnes & Noble before we went home.  Walking back into the apartment I checked the moon again to see if the HUGE halo was still there, it wasn't. (that's lots of upper level moisture that causes that btw - not a sign of the apocalypse)  But it was a nice clear moment tonight and with the acquisition of a new and WONDERFUL camera for Christmas.  I popped out to the balcony and started snapping away with my zoom lens and caught the moon and an extra surprise.  I pretty clear (albeit small) image of Jupiter.  Made my night. Now, to bed!  Let's see what shenanigans I can get into tomorrow!

The moon with Jupiter to the right.

Its Been A While!!

Yes, I know I know, its been a few weeks since I posted.  I lost the habit of daily posting when I went on a last minute vacation after that Wednesday of severe weather and tornadoes...so sue me.  Haha.  It was a fun break.  Take a look:

      So it was a good little break.  And then back to work and reality.  I have been working a lot on making graphics and updates and upgrades and everything!  I've also been doing some serious robot building.
      Red Stick Robotics has been doing a high school robotics class and a competition.  They also invited media to participate in the competition.  Though in Baton Rouge, no one...other than myself decided to participate.  I did robotics at my high school back in New York.  Team 529 in the F.I.R.S.T. organization.  Anyway, my strengths are in the engineering and problem solving aspect of the deal--not in the programming.   Like the guys in Apollo 13, give me a box of stuff and tell me what it has to do and I can think it out and design something to do it.  Ask me to program the robot to search its way around a room by itself and its going to take me a while.  So now I have a little over a week to program my robot to follow a white line and pick stuff up.  So much thinking.

      And on top of all of this I am still going to CrossFit every other day!  After about a month of going now, I finally have stopped being sore after every workout.  I am now getting into the habit of a better diet.  The biggest thing?  No carbohydrates in the evening!  Morning and lunch? Sure. But not at night.  Andrew (the owner and trainer of Red Stick CrossFit) said that carbs at night gets stored as fat.  But carbs during the day (morning and lunch) will burn off by night time!  Who would have thought?!
      I think that about does it.  I think I've gotten caught up.  More to follow tomorrow.  I need to relax now.  There was a serious core workout today.  :-D

So busy!!

I just got done watching the walking dead (such and awesome show AND an awesome season finale!) and now I figure is a good time to update the blog.  

Friday was a busy day.  I was up SO early and I promised that I was going to show what I look at on a daily basis to do the forecast.  I took some screen shots Friday morning...try not to be overwhelmed.  Haha

This is what I look at for severe weather

Lots of numerical data

cloud coverage and precipitation

mid-low level temperatures and vorticity(spin)

relative humidity and wind speed...for fog

dew points and wind speed for overnight lows

 So these are the screens I look at.  And put it all down in my forecast page and draw out a forecast from all the available information.  Friday morning was a slow start but the forecast came out pretty good.  AND it looks like even from then to now, the chance for severe weather still exists. 

Rather than go home and nap at the end of my Friday I went to the gym for the 3rd time.  I think this is the most I've frequented the gym in a long time.  But the traffic West bound on the interstate was NASTY!  I have no idea what it was.  Eastbound is usually the crappy traffic on a Friday.  Well anyway, I left at 4:50 to get to the gym by 5 or so and traffic took me to about 5:45 at the gym so I missed the 5pm group but turns out that was probably for the best.  Andrew, the coach was more like a personal trainer in the 6pm time slot because I was the only one there. 

It was a WORK-out.  Lots of work.  Hell, even the warm-up was a work out!  But it was a good one.  I was telling a friend of mine that Andrew is one of those personal trainer/coaches that are good to have.  Its not a bunch of yelling at you to demand to do something, they are encouraging words.  I would rest for a bit and he'd say "go," I wouldn't go right away and he'd shout, "c'mon Ryan!  Let's get to work!"  Reluctantly I push myself through the set of exercises and one of them would be good and he'd say, "good!  another one like that!  don't rest you can push through it!  Great work!"  Its not a bunch of discouraging words that make me think I'm not worth the time or as good as anyone else.  I mean I know that I am not a strong person, and I'm not afraid to share that.  For one, I am not good at push-ups.  I can only do a few before my arms give up.  I told him that and he said, "ok, well do as many as you can do and when you can't do anymore, you can do modified ones."    When I did as many as I could and then finished with doing mostly modified push-ups he told me that he "would rather see you do 5 standard push-ups and then modified than none at all."

  It was a good workout and tiring.  I felt so hot and was incredibly sweaty when it was over.  I drank a lot of water after it on the drive home.
 

 I slept well on Friday night, which is good, because I had to get up on Saturday morning for the Wearin' of the Green Parade.




The Wearin' of the Green Parade was awesome!  It was cool to see so many people out there and people who said hello!

At the end of the parade, we took the golf carts back to the top of the hill at Hundred Oaks where the parade started.  And the coolest part was, we got a Police escort!  One of the coolest moments in my life.






Pat Shingleton puts on a great parade and is incredibly generous with those in the parade before, during and after.  I'm grateful and thankful to have been able to be a part of it.


 And then of course I had to go to work and put the Saturday forecast together.  And it was a quiet day at the station.




After the news a few of us went out to our favorite haunt and had a couple drinks and finished celebrating St. Patrick's day with an Irish car bomb.  Which has now become a tradition for me since my college days. 


Today (SUNDAY) I enjoyed sleeping in, thank God!  I needed it.  My sleep had been all out of whack since 2une In on Thursday morning.  I enjoyed the afternoon outside with some frozen yogurt near Perkins Rowe.  I got death by chocolate and added raspberries, some graham crackers and crumbled Oreo cookie bits.  #BESTFLAVORCOMBOEVER 

And the forecast today still looks like severe weather might be an issue come Tuesday night and Wednesday.  I'll be at the station Monday-Wednesday this week to help Dave and Pat when the time comes.