Promoting A Friends Blog

My friend Doug Drexler (ahem! Name drop, Oscar Award winning friend Doug Drexler ) has started a new blog it is over at: http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/

Some super inside information on Star Trek and some of the other movies he's worked on, along with industry updates.

Check it out!

Disney's "The Black Hole" Remake

In this age of Science Fiction remakes (ala Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek) there is a movie that has NEVER gotten the appreciation that it deserves and is ripe for a remake, Disney's 1978 masterpiece "The Black Hole"

The work that went in to producing this film is simply stunning. The SFX you need to remember are long before CGI fest stuff. All of the stuff you see is hand drawn animation on top of models. Some of the most detailed models ever made for any movie.

The film would be killer as a remake. Hmmm maybe it's time for my movie studio Retro Films to go a calling to Disney??

Outrageous Corporate Behavior

So those of you that know me, know that I am a staunch conservative and pro-business guy. I hate paying taxes, and think that Government needs to stay out of markets and if that precludes businesses in those markets going under and the possible "devastating" consequences then so be it. Nature abhors a vacuum and if there is a failure of a business even a big business like the auto makers there will be eventually someone to come in and fill the void.

Which makes me all the more pissed to see the big 3 automakers up on capital hill begging for my and yours money to get them out of the mess THEY created for themselves, but what frost me even more is these arrogant people arrive in Washington DC on private jets at $20,000 a flight. Am I the only one that sees the hypocrisy here!

Happy Halloween

Hey Fans! Just a quick word to say Happy Halloween and to remember that you can have fun tonight and still glorify the Lord. Don't let your activities wander down the path of Satanism!

Have a great night!

CR

Dogs in Stores

So I was walking out of my local Rite-Aid this afternoon and a women was walking in, trailing behind her, her Cocker Spaniel. This women wasn't blind, and another women was talking to her so I assume she wasn't deaf, she was walking with no problem, so she didn't seem differently able'd in anyway, so that must leave one thing, she's an idiot that equates dogs with children.

Oh I'm sure you've seen them too, these clueless people that think it's ok to bring their dogs with them everywhere, like they were just little hairy kids. Any store seems open game for these people Home Depot, Best Buy, and now apparently pharmacies!

I need to know really, what could possibly make you think that brining your dog in to a private store unless they are an assistance animal is an appropriate thing to do.

You know what, here's a thought for you, I don't like your dog, as much as you do, and much like second hand smoke I don't want to be exposed to it in a indoor area.

LEAVE YOUR DAMN DOGS AT HOME MORONS!!

Digital New Age Entertainment Launched

I'm very happy and proud to announce the official launch of Digital New Age, Entertainment (DNA).

This is a new production company that I am associated with out of the Atlanta area.

More info over on our official blog at:

DNA BLOG

UPDATE 08/27/08: The website is now up also! www.digitalnewage.com

Burlington Vermont Waterfront Casino

If you have ever been to Burlington VT, you know we have two tourist attractions. The Church Street Marketplace and The Waterfront.

While the Marketplace is about as interesting as you are going to get it, the waterfront is to put it bluntly a completely boring experience.

We also have another issue here in the state besides the lack of entertainment, and that is significant budget shortfalls.

So in early 2008 I made the following proposal to our Governor I have yet to hear back:

(Original Letter Edited For Clarity)

As a native born Vermonter of 38 years, that has been active in our community I have a very keen insight into the desires of Vermonters as well as other citizens of our region, such as people from New York and Quebec. As such I feel I may have a unique solution to our problem.

Whether the State likes to admit it or not, we are in the gambling business plain and simple. We like to whitewash it with platitudes as to where the money goes, and our “play responsibly” motto’s but when it comes down to it, the state still promotes gambling. My idea, we have the state expand its gambling operations and build a Riverboat Casino on the waterfront in Burlington.

Now before you crumple this letter up. Let me point out some items:

Currently there are more the 5 casinos within 3 hours drive of most Vermonters. Why have those Vermont gambler dollars go out-of-state?

• True Vermonters and not simply organizations like the C.L.F. or other out-of state entities, actually want these type of diverse entertainment options in our state.

• If the Abinaki's get Federal Tribe recognition, they are going to build an casino in Swanton no doubt about it. It would be better for the State to be first with such an endeavor

• Modeling law changes to cover “off shore gambling” are much less complex then if the casino was to be built on land.

• A State run casino will prevent undesirable side issues of certain types of crime from becoming a problem.

I would recommend some certain items should a Riverboat Casino be built on the waterfront:

• No on-site parking, shuttle buses or pedestrian traffic only. Place the parking garage near Church St, so there’s a massive influx of shoppers there.

• Casino closes at 2:00 AM just like the bars.

• Use Burlington police officers as security and profits from the casino to cover the expansion of the department.

A final note, the 2 closest casinos to Vermont, The Montreal Casino and The Akwesasne made more the $100 million each in their first year of operation and continue to make similar profits now.. What kind of things could we do to reduce property taxes here in Vermont with that kind of money, and how nice will it be when nearly 55% of those dollars are from out-of-staters? Kindest Regards
Charles Root


So if you are a Vermonter or vacation here and like the idea of a little casino action once and while, speak up and forward this idea to your legislators! Let's make this a reality!

WHOA!! MAJOR UPDATE AS OF 12/18/08 THE IDEA OF A RIVER BOAT CASINO IS OFFICIALLY ON THE LIST OF IDEAS FOR MAKING UP VT'S BUDGET SHORTFALL

Bring Back the $500 Bill

The US $500 dollar bill, once not uncommon to our more affluent grandparents, but now extinct except to collectors of old bills.

I'd like to propose that the Federal Reserve begin printing the $500 bill again. Yes, yes I know the $500 and $1000 bill were stopped in order to make it harder for drug dealers and other unsavory peoples to conduct business.

I would argue that, that may have been true in the 70's and 80's but here in the 21st century with gas at nearly $100 a fill-up and Blue-Ray DVD players in the $500 plus range, the need for a consolidated currency is more relevant.

Certainly the Federal Reserve would like us to all go to a "cashless" society where we use nothing but credit/debit cards, but really do you want the banks and government to be able to track every transaction you make, and isn't there time when you just don't feel safe making a debit card purchase (Restaurants come to mind with who knows how trustworthy wait staff skimming your card!)

The EU already produces the 500E as a bill as well as other European countries. Carrying around a Latvian 500 LVL is like having $1000 US in your pocket. Which is another nail in the coffin against the crime argument. US Greenbacks isn't the currency of choice anymore around the world. The continuing devaluing dollar makes it much less attractive to do even legitimate business in. Heck even some entertainment biz pros are asking to be paid in Euro's not Dollars.

The $500 bill might just be a currency booster for us as well, as people use it more and more to make big purchases worldwide, I might not want to have 50 $100 bills in my pocket, might carry 10 $500 bills.

If the $500 bill is unpalatable to the US Treasury. Then how about we meet half way and make a new bill the $250 dollar bill. Ronald Reagan could be front and center on it!

How Much Longer on the Foreign Teet?

This is an excerpt from an AP story today, my comments follow:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Saudi Arabia's leaders made clear Friday they see no reason to increase oil production until customers demand it, apparently rebuffing President Bush amid soaring U.S. gasoline prices.

It was Bush's second personal appeal this year to King Abdullah, head of the monarchy that rules this desert kingdom that is a longtime prime U.S. ally and home to the world's largest oil reserves. But Saudi officials stuck to their position that they will only pump more oil into the system when asked to by buyers, something they say is not happening now, the president's national security adviser told reporters.

"Saudi Arabia does not have customers that are making requests for oil that they are not able to satisfy," Stephen Hadley said on a day when oil prices rose above $127 a barrel, a record high. "What the Saudis wanted to tell us was we're doing everything we can do ... to meet this problem, but it's a complicated problem."

The Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, announced that the kingdom decided on May 10 to raise production by 300,000 barrels at the request of customers, including the United States. He said that increase was sufficient.

"Supply and demand are in balance today," he told a news conference. "How much does Saudi Arabia need to do to satisfy people who are questioning our oil practices and policies?"

So how much longer does the United States, the UNITED STATES!! have to bow down to these countries that support terror, and treat women as animals? We are (though you could certainly question it) the most powerful nation on the planet, yet we let dictators tell us how we are going to consume and how much we are going to pay for energy.

What is it going to take to get the democrats that bow to the neo-liberals and the environmentalist that will need to stop blocking efforts for the United States to exploit it's own energy reserves. Such as in the Gulf Coast, off the coast of California, and in ANAWR?

I know, I know, everyone says "This is why we need alternative energy" but we can't even get these wacko's to pass legislation to put that in place. Wind energy, to many NIMBY voices. Nuclear, Might as well suggest burning kittens in their eyes. Hydro, oooh kills the fishys. These people are NUTS I tell you.

Not to mention that I don't think ANYONE has any idea just how much "alternative energy" sources it would take to satisfy just the residential and commercial energy needs of this country.
We'd have to build nearly 900 nuclear plants or 103,000 wind farms to meet 100% of our energy needs. Completely unrealistic.

In addition when you start talking about alternative vehicle energy, you open an whole new can of worms regarding delivery infrastructure or the just plain fact that unless someone figures out how to make current gas using vehicles run on something else with say a conversion that cost less the $100, then people WILL NEVER GIVE UP THEIR GAS USING TRANSPORTATION. I mean come on even if you made energy so cheap that you could give it away, and therefore people could plug in electric cars and get the energy the need to move them at no cost, unless you gave the cars away for free also, how long do you think it would take before everyone would be able to or afford to get rid of their old gas cars and buy new electric cars. I'd imagine a pretty long time.

So that leaves us friends with one option. Oil. This country's infrastructure is built on it, for better or worse and we better wake up to the fact that we need it in order to enjoy the lifestyles this country has for the last 100 years. No amount of tree-hugging denial is going to change that.

Phase 2 (New Voyages) Filming 4/26

Haven't posted about Phase2 (formally known as New Voyages) in a while, and what better time to post then after a pickup shoot!

We needed to reshoot some of my scenes this weekend in order to begin the final edits on Blood and Fire, which is looking like a June or July release time. It also looks like the DAVE school will be doing some additional animation for us. They were the effects studio that did the incredible work in World Enough and Time.

My wife Amanda got in the action during the reshoots, and played a crew member helping out in sickbay!

Enjoy!

The West Addison Asses

When I get in the car and drive over to the Retro Film Studios, where New Voyages, er excuse me Phase II as we now call ourselves, is filmed, the drive takes about 2 hours.

During that 2 hours there are personal mile markers that help me pass the time and confirm mentally that, yes this long boring ride is actually progressing.

1 of those mental mile markers is "Ollie" the camel, his pen is right on RT7 and he's usually out in the summer, looking at traffic, with a "Don't care about you attitude" Ollie was in the barn when I drove by this past week, so no pic of him

But another marker is what me and the wife call "The Asses", apparently there is a farm in West Addison that breeds them (they also, no kidding, teach sky diving there, presumably only to humans though)

Most of the time the asses are just huddled up next to the barn, but sometimes, when it's not raining or two hot (these asses are somewhat picky about their weather) they will come out in to the field.

It's so funny to see all these little fat asses standing around. In the Spring after the females get knocked up and push out a new ass, the little ones can be seen bounding and kicking all over the place.

Ahhh Vermont, and the things that keep me sane on my trips to New York

The Bakken Oil Formation

Hi everyone

Just wanted to report some exciting news, especially in the light of $3.50 a gallon gasoline.

If there is one thing that this country needs to have a national priority is our energy independence.

You can pretend all you want that "alternative energy" sources can replace oil, but you're dreaming or have no concept of just how much oil we use in the country, not just to run our cars, but all the stuff we consume. That keyboard you're at right now, made from oil baby, the monitor you're reading this on yup made from hydrocarbons. Anyway, here is a story that the liberal media hasn't been reporting on, but needs to get out there. Full credit to Next Energy News as the source:

Massive Oil Deposit Could Increase US reserves by 10x

America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’s short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant.

In the next 30 days the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) will release a new report giving an accurate resource assessment of the Bakken Oil Formation that covers North Dakota and portions of South Dakota and Montana. With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951. The USGS did an initial study back in 1999 that estimated 400 billion recoverable barrels were present but with prices bottoming out at $10 a barrel back then the report was dismissed because of the higher cost of horizontal drilling techniques that would be needed, estimated at $20-$40 a barrel.

It was not until 2007, when EOG Resources of Texas started a frenzy when they drilled a single well in Parshal N.D. that is expected to yield 700,000 barrels of oil that real excitement and money started to flow in North Dakota. Marathon Oil is investing $1.5 billion and drilling 300 new wells in what is expected to be one of the greatest booms in Oil discovery since Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1938.

The US imported about 14 million barrels of Oil per day in 2007 , which means US consumers sent about $340 Billion Dollars over seas building palaces in Dubai and propping up unfriendly regimes around the World, if 200 billion barrels of oil at $90 a barrel are recovered in the high plains the added wealth to the US economy would be $18 Trillion Dollars which would go a long way in stabilizing the US trade deficit and could cut the cost of oil in half in the long run.

St. Patty's Day!

Hey everyone, had a real big treat this past St. Patty's Day.

A band that I used to listen to in college called "Bootless and Unhorsed" that used to play at a bar called "The Last Chance Saloon" that is long since been converted in to a dance hall for the Flynn Center, got together for a sort of St. Patty's Day Reunion.

I used to go and listen to these guys every Friday night for literally years. They played the Burlington area for nearly 15 years before I started listening to them. Suffice to say they are a local legend!

They play traditional Irish music with a rowdy twist. If adult language and occasionally violence (or at least barfing on stage) offends you, then these guys probably aren't your cup of tea. But anyway some of the best memories of my youth revolve around this band and my many friends drinking the night away listening to them.

Here are some pics of the event, I'll post more on the main Charles Root website when I get a chance.

Happy Birthday to Me

Just a quick note to everyone that has sent cards, emails and gifts for my (ugh!) 38th Birthday.

I had a fantastic day on Saturday (the weather didn't co-operate, but hey who cares!) with my Wife, my Father, his wife Barb and my Father-in-Law

I got some very very nice things, and an overly generous amount of cash and gift cards.


Some pics from the day!

A card and a book I had been wanting!



A new bandsaw from the wife!

Forgiveness

I was recently sent an e-mail through my website from someone that "wronged" me many years ago, they inaccurately quoted scripture asking "if wronged 7 times the Lord said forgive 7 times" For the record the correct passage is:

"Then coming up to Him, Peter said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?

Jesus said to him, I do not say to you, Until seven times, but, Until seventy times seven.
Mathew 18:21-22

I tend to get leery when the Bible gets quoted to me wrong by someone, as it makes me wonder whether they made just a simple error or they are using my grace as a Christian to manipulate me, but that aside.

Let it be known to that individual, that you have been forgiven many years ago.

I won't detail all the reason why forgiveness is so important psychologically and spiritually, but I will detail this:

WHAT FORGIVENESS IS NOT:

To forgive is not to forget the harm someone caused you. Nor is it simply letting your anger, pain or resentment fade over time. Failing to address your negative feelings is not forgiveness either.

To forgive is not to excuse--by forgiving someone who has offended you, you do not overlook or in any way condone that person's harmful words or actions.

To forgive is not to pretend that you were never hurt or harmed.

Forgiveness is not reconciliation between the hurt person and the person who imposed the harm. Reconciliation requires the effort and participation of both persons involved to settle their differences, whereas forgiveness only requires the determined effort of the person harmed.

Many people make the mistake of assuming that once forgiven that a relationship will return to it previous status and state, nothing could be further from the truth. You can forgive someone and then for your own health and safety, sever all ties to the perpetrator of the crime. Forgiveness in no way means putting yourself in a position to be victimized again.

The point is that forgiveness is not for the other person, for the perpetrator, for the transgressor. Forgiveness is for the one who is doing the forgiving.

I would encourage this person if they are truly contrite and wish further peace to turn to Jesus Christ read His Word through the Holy Scriptures. If reading the Word is to daunting then I highly recommend:

Inspired by . . . the Bible Experience: The Complete Bible (Audio CD)

Available at Amazon.Com (Click HERE)

Peace & God Bless

Charles

His power is great!

Just a quick note to say that today I sit here again humbled by the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I prayed very hard to Him for a friend that was diagnosed with cancer and after further medical review it seems to have been a missed diagnosis. Only a last minute second opinion saved this person from surgery within hours.

O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. Psalm 117:1

Friends

Sorry it's been so long since my last update, but frankly with the Holidays and building this house, I'm at my freaking wits end! LOL

I did want to let everyone know that I've got something cool in the works. The script I wrote "Virtual Disaster" is under consideration to be purchased from me! Wow guess I might be able to call myself a writer if I actually get paid right?

Keep in touch

Thanks

Charles