Hot NEW Charles Root Gear

Hey fans, just wanted to let everyone know that there is new gear with an all new logo at www.cafepress.com/charlesroot

Buy early, buy often! I want to put a bowling alley in my house!

NEWSFLASH- Ben Affleck Dumb Ass

This from Mr. Affleck on 4/8/06:

Reminiscent of Al Franken on the Late Show last October, on Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, actor Ben Affleck charged that President Bush “probably also leaked” Valerie Plame's name and so “if he did, you can be hung for that! That's treason!”

Well Mr. Affleck apparently you know nothing about the Presidents authority to declassify anything he wants, without anyone elses, say like you, or congresses approval. If the President decides that he wants something reported in the paper it's his perogative, that very event makes whatever it is declassified.

No crime has been committed here dumb ass, go look for something else to hang your Bush hating hat on.

Operation Dead 1

Just a note to tell everyone that I will be guest starring in a new movie (not Trek related) called Operation Dead 1. Check it out at www.operationdead1movie.com

Mind Blowing Video Game

Came across this link for a game called SPORE, basically the game is a shooter-RPG-RPS-mmorpg rolled in to one. You start off as a cell and build to a terraforming race.

Check out this 35 min video of the game here:

Spore Video

and the official site here:

www.spore.com

Anyone seen our spine?

From the AP today 3/8/06: VIENNA, Austria — The United States on Wednesday was threatened with "harm and pain" by Iran for its role in bringing the Islamic republic to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program.

You know I think the rest of the world has forgotten who actually has the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet.

Is it just me or are these rouge countries getting a little to lippy, there was a time not to long ago when a statement out of Iran like that would have had B-52 bombers warming up on runways.

During WW2 this country obliterated it's enemies, there was no worry of "collateral damage" if there was resistence from a city, wipe the city off the planet. Odds are the next city would be much more compliant.

Unfortunately our government is too worried about it's public image then our security. Hey if one dead baby is shown on the news and all the liberals have a fit about it, and poll numbers dip, well we can't have that now can we?

Meanwhile Iran a country with no such moral apprehension, builds nukes and openly threatens us.

It's time to take the velvet gloves off.

New Space Flight Portal

So I was looking over the web and I noticed that there is really no comprehensive site for people to go to if they are interested in buying tickets for a ride in to space. Being the entrepreneur that I am I started up:

www.consumerspaceflight.com

Right now it's a portal, I hope to make it more flashy (unless it get's bought out) but check it out it's got some neat links

-Charles

New Voyages News

Well looks like we're going to be doing some pick-up shots late April, so there will some fun photos from that coming up. Also we hope to have an awesome yet unannounced guest star shoot some footage that week.

The new trailer for "To Serve All My Days" is up and wow what a response.

The first vignette is essentially done, it's currently in Ron Moore's hands to add some small effects and it will be posted, I'm thinking maybe a week or two tops.

Thanks for the support!

It's Valentines Day Not Christmas

So I'm watching TV last night and Radio Shack is running those ad's where people sit in the chair and tell others what they want. Well apparently they were so sucessful over Christmas that they continued the trend for Valentines Day.

This haired out women sits in the chair and says something to the affect of "Last year I told you not to get me anything for Valentines Day, and well you didn't. Well guess what sometimes that means the exact opposit and you should have got me something" Then she whips out the new Motorola Cell Phone d' Jour and says "get me this"

Now I'm not going to point out the quality of the commercial or the grating personality of the actress, after all it is just a commercial

BUT I am going to point out that I refuse to go down a path of rampent consumerism over a made up holiday. Buy you a freakin $300 cell phone for Valentines Day are you frakkin NUTS?? This is holiday made up buy a card company based on a Catholic Feast Day, it's NOT Christmas

Here's Radio Shack trying to convince people that they should be dumping hundreds of dollars on others for VALENTINES DAY, Really how damn gullible do you think we are? What's next Cell Phones for Arbor Day?

How about just writing your loved one a nice letter expressing how much they mean to you, and give them a flower you grew. Wouldn't that mean more to them?

No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

But there is such a thing as a free dinner, and you should never pass one up!

I do work for a company that performs "Secret Shopping" basically you go out to a certain retail/restaurant location, shop the place and then turn in a survey, and get paid, plus (at least with this company you get to keep the stuff you buy/eat (plus it would be hard to return an eatin dinner in any manner someone would want))

Anyway tonight I secrect shopped a local steakhouse and had a FANTASTIC dinner, the food was perfect, the waiter witty but not annoyingly so and it taste so much better free.

If you can get yourself hooked up with one these outfits I highly recommend it!

Evil Government Spying

So is the government listening in on your call to grandma?

This entire flap over whether the President has the authority to authorize warrantless wiretaps is just insane.

First off the government is only listening to conversations from suspected TERRORIST to people in the US, not from you to your pot dealer down the street, or you and your mistress, or you and your psych doctor, so unless you have known terrorist calling you, you don't have much to worry about.

Next when you come back in to the United States from a foreign country, how many hoops as a citizen of this nation do you need to go through to get back in? You have to show paperwork, be subjected to questioning, and searches of your belongings and even of your body if they want, and yet people are having a fit that the government might be listening in on their communications that are coming in to the country, seems a little weird to me.

How about your false sense of security when your on the phone anyway. Everytime you use your cordless phone, and everytime you use your cell phone that communication is going over the air unencoded, and with a full spectrum analyzer from Radio Shack for about $800 I can tune in to those phone calls and listen to them like it was an FDR fireside chat. Don't even get me started on how easy it is to read your e-mail or tap in to your VOIP calls.

Finally who does have the authority to authorize wiretaps, a judge you say. So let me get this straight, you feel that essentially a glorified lawyer, who's rank in the political spectrum of things is slightly more then your local selectboard has the authority to authorize a wiretap, but the President of the United States, the man who's has the final decision on whether to launch nuclear weapons, can't have the authority to authorize a wiretap or appoint people to have that authority? You've got to be kidding me.

Think about it the next time some liberal tries to ram the argument of "Bush gone wild" down your throat. Unless he's talking about the Bush twin daughters, don't listen to him.

New Voyages News

In case you haven't seen all the great announcements over at www.startreknewvoyages.com, looks like there's going to be a good number of Original Series stars joining us in the near future.

Grace Lee Whitney - George Takei ahh the story that is there, people worry about another time travel episode, I can assure you it's not.

Keep watching!

New Voyages News

So lot's of changes over at New Voyages huh kiddies?

Well I can tell you this, it's all for the better, in any expanding organization you're going to have growing pains. There's going to be differences of opinion and new, but unrelated, opportunities that present themselves through all the contacts you're expanding business makes.

In a situation such a New Voyages and Retro Film Studios the production company where it is filmed, explosive growth sometimes goes unmanged because there's so little time/money to do all the management necessary. Fortunately during post-production of To Serve All My Days we've had the chance to get all our ducks in a row, alot of what you're seeing regarding the changes at New Voyages is exactly that.

In other news I've seen the first vignette "Center Seat" what can I say other then WOW! Ron Boyd and John Lim have awesome chemistry on screen. Ralph Millers sound effects give it incredible ambience and the Max Rem special effects OH MAN! there's this one shot of the Enterprise... but I can't give away any more then that.

So look for an all new New Voyages starting in 2006. You're going to be blown away with what's coming.

Free (well almost) back rubs

Have you had the opportunity to check out these new Shiatsu Massage Cushions? Holy Crap are these things sweet!

I tried one out yesterday and it was like getting a massage from a (insert appropriate massuse joke tag here) , but no really it's awesome.

I asked for one for Christmas. Do yourself a favor and get one!

See I can be sweet too.

See I can hold a child and not have it freak out!

Most of you know me as a unloving, uncaring, conservative, but kids really know the truth, I'm nothing but a big softie!

A Vermont Transportation Issue

Circ-Williston EIS Commentary
by
Charles E. Root Jr.


There is a disease and plague in the State of Vermont, the disease is liberalism and the plague is out-of-state interference, unfortunately both these pox have infected the circumferential highway project.

The Circ. project has languished in this state for decades, the citizens of this state a generation ago saw the need to divert traffic away from urban areas yet here we are with precious little of that vision actually completed so many years later. Originally the delay centered around cost, but eventually the tree huggers (Vermont Smart Growth Collaborative ) and out-of-staters (Conservation Law Foundation) that want to treat Vermont like their own private environmental Disneyworld insinuated their unwanted and unsolicited opinion in to the project. Now the state has to jump through a three ring circus of legal hoops erected by liberal activist judges sympathetic to the obstructionist entities opposed to the project.

Imagine, if you would, the State of Vermont without Interstate I-89 or Intrastate 189. If these projects were being proposed today undoubtedly they would face the same amount of encumbrance faced by the circumferential highway project. How would the state be fairing right now economically, environmentally, and socially if those major highway project had been stopped? I think we can all agree not very well.

The opponents of the Circ would like you to believe that once the Circ is built areas in and around Chittenden county are going to turn in to downtown Manhattan with sprawl sending houses halfway up the side of Mount Mansfield. This alarmist, untrue position can be refuted with one word, zoning. The towns that are close to the Circ’s route have stringent zoning laws especially Williston, that for example, has several thousands of dollars in fees for building permits and maximum allowable growth of 64 new homes a year. Where’s the unregulated sprawl there, I don’t see it.

I think Circ oppositionist, besides being dishonest are disillusioned. Chittenden County is the urban center of the State. That urban center has its bedroom communities and places like the Church Street Market Place, IBM, IDX, Costco, Home Depot, and Walmart People need to have an efficient way to get from home to these locations and back. My God, take a look around Chittenden County! Does it look anything like Orleans County or Windsor County? No of course not, because they are different places, with different needs and different people. If the Circ was being proposed for one of those areas I might be able to see the desire to oppose it, but Chittenden County is not those places. Chittenden County will never go back to pristine wilderness and farmland and no amount of wishing, hoping, lying, or legal maneuvers will change that. Any other assessment is being offered by someone living in a fantasy land.

Circ oppugnants would like you to believe they have the areas best interest at heart. Nothing could be further from the truth! They offer up plans like placing rotaries along route 2A or building “the Circ Rd” a road that follows the same path as the Circ Highway, but stopping short of route 2. I almost choked when I read these plans. Let me briefly tell you why these are disasters in the making.

Rotaries – A feel good European traffic device that liberals will enjoy pointing out work great in France (boy wouldn’t liberals love it if Vermont was part of France, but that’s another argument). There are two rotaries in Chittenden County one on Shelburne Rd. and one on Maple Tree Drive, both are dismally ineffective at controlling traffic. Having to use the rotary on Maple Tree Drive every single day I can tell you from experience. People don’t yield, people dart out in front of oncoming cars, semi trucks can’t turn around them. Others treat them like an obstacle in a slalom course and actually increase speed as they approach them. If you were to put these along route 2A you’d essentially be turning it in to a drag strip and cars waiting to get on from side streets would be waiting a mile deep. Semi trucks turning on to Industrial drive would block traffic while they slowed and backup and shimmied to make the turn. Of course proponents of the idea tell you they could make them big so that traffic could navigate them easier. How? By seizing the private land which boarders the road? Private land that also includes a memorial to our Veterans. What a nice liberal idea of governmental power, land seizer. Then there’s the chill inducing thought of a rotary at Essex Five Corners, FIVE CORNERS FOR GOODNESS SAKE!! I can’t imagine it, it would be a traffic nightmare, throw a train blocking certain outlet roads, you might as well call it the Essex Five Corners Parking Lot.

Circ Rd. – This is the idea for a road that follows the path of the Circ, but doesn’t connect to I-89. It’s real easy to tell you what’s going to happen here. Cars will get off this “Circ Rd” and go through residential neighborhoods to weave their way to Williston and I-89. Great idea, good thinking there. Let’s increase traffic where our children play. The very suggestion of this idea makes me wonder about the honesty of Circ opponents. Wouldn’t this road create the same amount of pollution and noise?

Building the Circumferential Highway should be a no-brainer. The land is already bought and it goes through already developed areas, it’s not like we’re mowing down the Green Mountain National Forest or turning over 2000 acres of farmland to build this. Storm water runoff can be controlled by effective engineering, you need not just let it pour directly in to Lake Champlain.

I invite you to swing by Essex Five Corners during rush hour and sit there for literally 20 minutes, or drive north on I-89 and marvel at the line of traffic attempting to get off at exit 12, and you tell me that the Circ shouldn’t be built or that we should play Mickey Mouse games with “alternative” suggestions. We are only going to continue to grow in this county and things are only going to get more and more congested on our existing roadways. I would ask Circ adversaries at what point will the addition of new roads in this area be okay? When the population grows from 146,000 to 200,000? 250,000? What’s the magic number or do you think that the current roads will allow for effective traffic flow regardless of how large Chittenden County gets?

Chittenden County needs the Circ. Citizens want the Circ and the iconoclast minority that wish to defeat the project need to know how much they are opposed by a silent but very large majority.

Success in Iraq

What you're seeing above is success in Iraq.

Is Iraq as peaceful as say Maine, No.
Is Iraq as Democratic as say Florida, No.
Is Iraq as wealthy as say California, No.

Is Iraq as dangerous as it was 3 years ago, No.

and that my friends is the key. What you're seeing above is soldiers voting in an election that is free and fair (no more 100% of the vote going to Saddam and opponent ending up dead)

This new freedom has come at a heavy price 2000+ young Americans dead, 300+ supporting nations soldiers dead and over 30,000 Iraqis dead, but what you are seeing above is the same event that happened 60 years ago in Japan and Germany when fascist were overthrown and the cost then was in the millions of human lives.

So yes while the road has been hard and the struggle is not yet over. Don't let anyone tell you it hasn't been worth it, don't let anyone tell you it's been in vain or we've been defeated, because that picture above proves them wrong.

When your grandchildren are vacationing in Iraq 50 years from now visiting their Arab friends in the vibrant world city of Baghdad, you will KNOW it was worth it.

The dreaded Christmas Party

The Christmas Party a staple of this time of year. They can be form of torture if not done correctly

How many times have you been to a party only to wish you were home all curled up watching TV? I think the worst part is the contrived gift exchange. If you're forced to exchange gifts with people you don't even know, I ask, what's the sense. Save your $10.00.

Then there's the booze, inevitably someone doesn't know when to say when, and ends up making a total ass of themselves to the embarrassingly of everyone there. This can really happen at family Christmas Parties, because people seem to feel free to say anything they want, I mean hell their family right?

There's the wonderful, "Let's all go to a restaurant" Christmas Party, where your group of 15 garners a bill of over $1000.00 and there's always the math whiz in the group that doesn't understand that yea while you only had the salad and water and it came to $15.00, you're on the same tab as everyone else. Therefore your $15.00 salad just turned into $40.00 when you count your share of tip and tax on a $1000.00 tab.

Of course the weather can be an issue, nothing like sliding home on ice covered roads only to go in to a ditch and have to dig and push the car, while in slacks and wingtips.

Yes it truly is a wonderful time of the year.

New Voyages News

Ahh the things instore for the future of New Voyages.

Last night James Cawley the Executive Producer and creator of New Voyages was in California meeting with the Hollywood movers and shakers that will be involved in the next episode.

There's going to be some big names so make sure you check out the New Voyages website www.newvoyages.com probably on Monday to read our big announcements.

Tis the Season

SHOP! SHOP! SHOP! The commercialism of Christmas is shoved down our throats starting somewhere around Labor Day now, so sick of Christmas shopping do people get that the whole idea of a Merry Christmas and Peace on Earth goes the way of flipping off the driver who just took your parking spot at the mall.

But that's not the type of shopping that I wanted to talk to you about today, I wanted to talk about a type of shopping that I find relaxing just about everytime I do it (now some of you will groan when I tell you this), but I love grocery shopping.

I was getting my lunch today at the local massive mart and the weather had been crappy all morning but as soon as stepped on the polished floors and the endless produce section a smile came to my face.

There's just something about walking up and down the isles loaded with every conceivable can of vegetables grown world wide that relaxes me.

I think it has something to do with the fact that I love to cook and entertain and that when I walk by some box of ingredient du jour, I begin to think about standing in the kitchen, nice jazz playing on the stereo, a pan sizzling with my latest creation. I know it's weird, but it's better then the alternative a relaxing six pack of beer.