D4s L33t B33r P0urs F0rth

K-Fed’s commercial will air during the Super Bowl. Nothing like a mass-mockery of this idiot to make the day so much more enjoyable…  ^_~

Popularity: 7% [?]

Two days… seriously… that’s all and I feel even more worn out than I would if I just worked non-stop for seven days…

Anyway, a couple of things from this weekend and whatnot…
a) have a new DVR unit coming to us this week. For some reason our current unit has been spending the past week acting up and generally being ultra-annoying… after three to four hours it would just freeze up on us and I’d have to go through the process of rebooting the damn thing. Seriously folks? Can I just get a DVR unit that doesn’t decide to crap out on me by doing something fantastically annoying? It’s gotten to the point that I’m forcing the reboot about five to ten minutes prior to a huge recording session. But all should be well for next Sunday’s festivities. Super Bowl in DVR1 and Ducks game on DVR2… got lucky too… The Dresden Files is not on next week otherwise I’d be seriously fucked…

b) speaking of the Ducks… was glad to see most of the team back together again yesterday. Pronger is back… earlier than I was expecting. I think I recall something about mid-February… but behold, there was number 25 on the ice yesterday. He didn’t look one hundred precent… but he was still skating hard and pulling some long shifts.
Giguere was back as well… and he did a phenomenal job in net yesterday against Dallas. Only gave up one goal… and that was on a penalty shot that should have never been called in the first place. Dallas players momentum forced the stick out of Getzlaf’s hand… it was not thrown. Stupid call.
And damn… there is some bad blood between Dallas and Anaheim. Three separate fights took place during the game yesterday… with a few more that could have happened had the referee’s not stepped in quickly. And one really shocked the hell out of me… Pronger dropped the gloves. For those who have no idea about Pronger, you seriously have to piss this guy off to get him to drop the gloves and come after you. This isn’t the headbutt heard around the world… this is Pronger saying enough is enough and the person on the receiving end will regret getting Pronger’s blood boiling. And he did… a couple of hits and the Dallas player was down.

My only concerns now Scott Niedermeyer and the Ducks being able to pull out of the rut that they were in for a few weeks.
Scott is out with a stress fracture on his foot or ankle… I think it’s his foot. He’s not known for missing games… he passed on the All-Star game to heal up… and he passed on the Olympics recently for surgery. This guy hates to miss regular season games.
And the Ducks… yesterday’s win isn’t them out of the rut. It’s a win… it’s two points. Out of the rut is not losing their next few games… starting to build up that point lead in the Pacific Division… and work on knocking Nashville out of the top slot in the Western Conference. I refuse to believe that some of the “experts” who are now doing their mid-season reviews and predictions are listing Anaheim as finishing fourth in the conference. Nope… not gonna believe it.
Oh well… going to the game on Wednesday… Phoenix is in town. Seats aren’t great… but it’s another chance to see Anaheim play… this could be one of the last times this season I’ll see all of these players on the same team. With Anaheim having about $5million in cap space remaining… and the trade deadline is at the end of February. Could see some people coming and some people going by the end of February. Don’t expect the big names to disappear… but I know the defensive lines are pretty much having to audition nightly for Carlyle in order to remain with the team since they are getting a little heavy on defense (and had to with Pronger, O’Donnell, and Beauchemin out at various times in the past month).

c)  SAG Awards – almost entirely predictable… except for the film ensemble cast. Was figuring it was going to be Dreamgirls… and was pleasantly surprised that it was Little Miss Sunshine. I think the TV Comedy Ensemble was also a surprise with The Office winning over Ugly Betty.
This should start to make for an interesting Oscars now… Dreamgirls isn’t going to take everything… ^_~

d) speaking of movies… watched Pan’s Labyrinth this weekend. And I feel like I was suckered into the wrong movie. Seriously… the way the advertising was going it was like this was some huge fantasy film… a la Alice in Wonderland kind of thing. Nope… while the fantasy creatures were in intrigue, they definitely were not the whole movie.
If you are looking for something like Dark Crystal or Labyrinth… pass. If you are looking for a dark look at the Spanish Revolution… then this is your film. I did like the film overall though… I just felt betrayed by the advertising of what it was all about. Be warned… in case you don’t know this already… it’s entirely in Spanish and is subtitled. No dubbing here. And it is bloody… not horror-genre bloody… but more like war-genre bloody.

and that about covers it all. For those who are reading this, I have a question for you.
Recently I was inquiring about what I could do with this domain and the server space… and a suggestion was tossed out by my brother. While an interesting suggestion, not sure if people would really go for something like that when they have things like LiveJournal and other such “community sites”… so I pose the question to the rest of you. What are some suggestions that you could come up with that could be used to at least use the bandwidth and server space more effectively?

Popularity: 3% [?]

Super Bowl gathering at my place? Personally I am not that impressed with the teams. I was glad to see the Colts beat that Patriots last week (finally) but wasn’t a big fan of the Bears.

Anyway, if people are interested let me know… I’m not going to do up anything fancy for food… and the big thing during that time period is the commercials and half-time show, right? Right…

ACK!!!! Who in the hell scheduled hockey games on Super Bowl Sunday? Especially a Ducks game? 5pm Ducks game… versus a 3:30pm Super Bowl… *sigh*
Guess I might have to Tivo the Ducks game… though I think I’m doing a Tivo of the Super Bowl mainly for the half-time show…

So here we go… pre-game festivities include Cirque du Soleil performing… Billy Joel is doing the National Anthem… and Prince is performing in the half-time show. What could possibly go wrong there? Unless Prince shows up in assless pants again.

And to answer the question… the keg is fresh… as fresh as yesterday. So no worries on the Guinness…

Popularity: 18% [?]

Quick response to Herr Scott before I fire things up…
honestly I don’t know all who is reading this journal. I know some of the folks but never quite sure who else might be there lurking in the background. This is $100 for the next five years for the domain plus $30 every quarter for the web host. So basically this is a $700 investment over the next five years… so yeah, I’m curious when I hear that people are visiting but the stats aren’t supporting it…
Not in for seeing how unpopular I am… or popular (not the case)… just trying to get a feel for spending $700.

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Now that that is out of the way… I have a few things I want to discuss… and typically some of this stuff would go into the gaming journal but there is something that I’m not liking and I want to discuss it here this time around (as people heave a big sigh… “here we go again”…)a) not a big thing, but I’m in the beta for Lord of the Rings Online… download should be done today and I’ll probably fire it up tonight if I get frustrated enough with World of Warcraft and trying to do some of the quests in Hellfire Peninsula…

b) not quite sure what I think of some of the Oscar nominations…
Meryl Streep for lead actress in The Devil Wears Prada? I thought Anne Hathaway was the lead… but whatever… the chick from The Queen will win it anyway. And Forest Whitaker will take it for The Last King of Scotland…
Best Animated is going to be a toss-up between Happy Feet and Cars though I think Happy Feet might take it for some odd reason…
Best Director will be between Martin Scorsese and Stephen Frears (The Departed and The Queen). Everyone is hoping for Scorsese since he’s long overdue… and maybe the Academy will roll and give it to him…
Best Documentary… I’ve only seen one of them so I can’t really judge that one… though I did really like An Inconvenient Truth.
Best Animated Short… two from Walt Disney Company… technically one from Pixar and one from Walt Disney Pictures. Neither I have seen… Lifted from Pixar will be the featured short in front of Ratatouille later this year… and The Little Matchgirl is on the Platinum Edition of The Little Mermaid dvd that was released last year. If I ever see my dvd again, then sure, I’ll be able to see The Little Matchgirl… but it’s been MIA since it’s release allegedly being signed up in Burbank…
Hoping for a real upset from Pan’s Labyrinth… just blowing everything that it’s up against out of the water… well maybe the exception is Dead Man’s Chest…

c) speaking of movies… for those who don’t know about HSX… it is the Hollywood Stock Exchange. I’ve been part of it for many many years now… always seem to score well with Pixar films… and have been doing really well lately now that I try to visit the site at least once a week.
For those unaware… HSX is a virtual stock exchange where you can buy and sell shares of films, studios, actors, et cetera. You start with a brand spankin’ new account with $2 million to spend… and as stocks begin to perform you earn more and more money. Currently I am ranked at 10,654… not great but not horrible either. I could be just starting. My current portfolio is over $111 million. This year so far I have increased my funds by 1.85%… not phenomenal, but growth seems to be slow right about now on my stocks… c’est la vie. So if you are bored… and have a few minutes to spare… come on over and join the team and see how good you are picking some winners… hsx.com

d) the meat of what I have to say right about now. For years people have heard me gripe about one person in particular over and over and over again… and still this person seems to find new ways to surprise me with his antics. I speak of one Mr. Jack Thompson… the self-serving crusader who thinks that his opinion is the only opinion and all should bow to his greatness.
This is a man who tried to get two web comic artists arrested a year or so ago for making a donation in his name. Clearly signs of harassment by these two deviants…
Now Jack is going after the Attorney General of Utah… calling for his head… his impeachment from office because the AG has stated that an upcoming proposed bill is going to fail on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. That is it… he’ll defend it if need be as it is part of his job to do so, but he feels that the way the bill is worded now that it will fail in the courts. Jack took exception to that and called the AG all sorts of names… calling for his head on a platter… et cetera.
Yesterday was the first day of hearings before a committee to discuss whether or not this bill should even go to the floor for a vote. In it were some rather disturbing bites of information that bother me still today… let’s take a gander at this shall we?

The person presenting this bill is Representative Scott Wyatt… a decent sounding guy. He is concerned about the children… and all the violence in video games even though he admittedly has never played any of these games that he keeps mentioning.
For instance apparently the goal in Grand Theft Auto (any of them) is to get to the end in order to have your way with a prostitute and then beat her up. Seriously? I thought you could beat the crap out of them at any point in the game…
Wyatt then decided to inject a little personal story… a friend of his has kids who play these violent video games. And he’s noticed that after the kids become overly aggressive and he takes the game away for a while. One of the committee members applauded Wyatt’s friend for being a good parent.
Hold up… put down the phone… and hit rewind on that. His kids are playing violent video games… in his house. Which means he is aware of their existence within the house that he allegedly rules over. That being the case, it means that either he or his wife bought these violent video games. M-rated titles… in the hands of kids and young teenagers. And on top of that a member of the committee commends this guy for being a good parent? Excuse me? Where is he being a good parent? For taking away the game? Maybe… but those kids are playing games that they have no right to be playing in the first place. If little Johnny is playing GTA and goes and and beats some other kid with a baseball bat or lead pipe then the parents say it’s the fault of the video games. But who bought that video game for the kid, huh? It was the parent… or a relative… in which the parent could have said no… and should have said no. This isn’t about bad video game companies… this is about poor parenting and those parents are trying to shirk their responsibility of being a parent and blaming anyone else as long as that finger never points at them.
Well fuck you… you are a parent… fathers, you know that flap of skin that hangs between your anus and your dick? No? Didn’t think so because you don’t have any balls when you are trying to scapegoat a video game for your lack of interaction with your kids and knowing what in the hell they are doing. Mothers… stop living up to gaping hole between your legs. Don’t pussify yourselves and be a parent. Be responsible… be more active. The city, state, or federal government doesn’t owe you crap when you spread your legs for that tiny pulsating hot dog you called man-meat. You had kids… you’re responsible for how they turn out… not anyone else. so do your fuckin’ job as a parent and stop whining about it.

A bit later in the meeting they take comments from the peanut gallery… and one person struck me as being so fuckin’ clueless it was really depressing.
Let’s call her Gail Ruzicka of the Utah Eagle Forum, shall we? This waste of tits and a cunt had the audacity to claim that there is a game out there that simulates the Columbine slayings… and is T-rated… and can be picked up at any store by any 13-year-old without anyone batting an eye.
The game in question? Super Columbine Massacre RPG
Rating? There is none… it’s not available in stores? Why? Because it is a free game that can be downloaded online. But the creator of this game has stated that if it were ever to be rated it would probably get an M-rating.
As for the allegation that any ol’ 13-year-old could stroll in off the of the street into a game store and purchase an M-rated game? Bwahahahaha!!!! You are fuckin’ hilarious lady. Seriously… when did you get your data? A few years ago? More up-to-date data shows in fact that such scenarios are becoming fewer and fewer. Stores like GameStop, EBGame, Target, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy are all enforcing the age limits on M-rated titles.
Now for my little anecdote… I have a friend… let’s call him Dave. A week or so ago he goes into a Best Buy to purchase a game for his computer. He decides upon a title by the name of F.E.A.R. He picks up the game… and heads to the counter to purchase it. It’s M-rated. They ID him… he passes and he buys the game. Dave is thirty years old.
A few years ago I am in the local Target… and I am there to pick up SOCOM Navy SEALS. I ask for the game which is in a glass display case. I go to pay for it… I am asked for ID. Surprise!!!! I pass the age check… I’m 30 at the time.
So no… not any ol’ 13-year-old can stroll into a game store and purchase an M-rated title. At least not without a parent or guardian present. Hell, it happened a couple of weeks ago… we were in an EBGames after having a nice dinner at Koji’s… I was there picking up a game or something… I forget the details on it. Maybe Cache was wanting .hack\\G.U. and we were hoping it would be there or something. Anyway… the store is pretty packed. And this kid is wanting a game… it’s M-rated. The clerks… instead of selling it to him and moving the lines along asks where his parents are. He points outside the store… mother comes into the doorway. Questions are exchanged… clearly mother isn’t of the English speaking sort… but that was parental consent. Technically, I would have made the mother purchase it instead of the kid… but that’s just me. As long as someone who is that kid’s parent or guardian is present and they know what is being bought then by all means… caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware…

Should the government be getting involved with things like not selling video games to minors, whether on a state or federal level? No… they do not police movie theaters looking for people under the age of 17 in R-rated movies… they aren’t policing music stores for kids purchasing cd’s with parental advisory stickers on them… then keep the fuck away from the video games.
Parents… step up to the plate and act the role of a parent. Do not shirk your responsibilities to the government… take an active role in knowing what your kids are playing. Hell, play video games with them. And set limits. The Xbox 360, PS3, Wii are not babysitters… just as the tv is not a babysitter for your younger kids. You wanted kids… now be a responsible adult and raise them.

EDIT: it seems that I might have to stand corrected about the “Columbine” game that is referred to in the committee meeting. Some folks on another site are correcting me that it just might be Take-Two Interactive/Rockstar’s game that came out last year that it T-rated… but grossly out of context… Bully. They reminded me of Thompson’s words that this game was a “Columbine simulator” when in fact, this game at it’s worst has a slingshot and a bat? No guns… no murdering…
So yeah… either way, this waste of a cunt has been spoon fed exactly what to say by Thompson. Everything she said is pretty much word for word what Thompson spews any chance he gets. No wonder… Thompson was recently a speaker at one of their meetings. It was last week if I recall correctly too… hmmm… coached commentary? Nice to know that the ultra-conservatives have to rely on someone else to come up with their opinions…   :P

Popularity: 22% [?]

just comment in here please to let me know who is reading this from here… since I know I have not syndicated the feed for this journal. I’m seriously disturbed by the fact that I have this info up and it doesn’t seem to matter to anyone. So this where my decision whether to keep DistinctWorlds.com or not comes into play… from you people…

Popularity: 31% [?]

Between the race for level 60 over the weekend and the release of Burning Crusade at midnight on Tuesday (nice wait from around 5pm on Monday until we got home around 1am or 1:30 Tuesday morning) it’s been a bit hectic.
I ended up taking all of Tuesday off from work because of the lack of sleep thing… and the fact that I really wanted to get into the new content of Burning Crusade. I’m over halfway to 61… and it will be slow going from now on based upon the minimum thirty minute queues that are happening on my home server right now. All of my Alliance characters are sitting on that server right now… with all of my Horde characters on a new server thanks to Blizzard allowing free realm transfers from Kilrogg to Azuremyst. Was on Azuremyst last night and loving it… once in a while I’d stumble across another player… but not too often. I think there were all of sixty people from the Horde online last night… as opposed to the server from Kilrogg that had a forty-five minute queue. About ready to move the Alliance on over as well… anything to get out of those crazy queues.

Okay… waiting for CacheCrash to show-up online… if he’s not online by the time I leave today I’m transferring all of my characters to Azuremyst. Blizzard is talking that if we don’t get enough people off of Kilrogg, they will force a server split which would separate guilds and friends anyway. And I’m not cool with that…

Other news…
It’s been fuckin’ cold… but I don’t need to go over that again, right?

Anaheim Ducks are in a bit of an interesting slump right now… we seem to kick ass on some nights and then blow chunks on others. But the good news I am hearing coming from the Ducks management is that we should have an almost completely healthy roster right after the All-Star break. That means Giguere coming back… Beauchemin coming back. It would make me very happy to see Anaheim performing as well as they had been in the first three months of the season before the rash of injuries gripped the team.
Tonight they play the Oilers up in Edmonton. Last time we played them up there we won if I recall… and silenced the crowds who boo’d Pronger every time he touched the puck.
Pronger is now not expected back until mid-February. Just hoping Anaheim can hang on that long… otherwise what started off as a stellar year is going to come crashing down around them quickly.

NAMM is this weekend so I’m prepared to not leave my place for the next few days except to go to work… and maybe to the corner for smokes. Crap, need to do a Mtn Dew run at some point too. So friendly reminder to everyone going through the Anaheim Resort area… it’s going to be crowded with NAMM folks… and don’t bother trying to visit. You’ll find no parking on our street this weekend.

Speaking of the Anaheim Resort… I still need to get over to DLR to ride Space Mountain and California Screamin’ with the new soundtracks. Of course, I’m going to let it warm up a bit more before I do that though. I’d like to keep my ears attached to my body and not break off from freezing cold air at high speeds. Other than that… nothing noteworthy for me to see at DLR…
Well there is one thing… and I’m trying to figure out if I really want to do this or not. Napa Rose is doing a special Valentine’s menu. Four courses… $85 per person. Alcohol extra of course. I’ll ponder it a bit longer I think… and of course Milady’s work schedule comes into play too…

DistinctWorlds.com registration is due in about 45 days. $100 for the next five years… not bad… not great… but not bad. So between rent… bills… having to get new cellphones (my battery is taking a dump and not holding a charge longer than a day anymore)… and other essentials (food, Dew, Guinness when the keg taps out… which should be soon) I get to toss aside $100 for DistinctWorlds.

work is work… some days are nice and some days are hellish. I’ve been trying to stick to the in at 6:30am and out by 4pm routine as much as possible. Some days I can easily do that… and some days, well… that’s not quite so possible. I have some pushy clients who think that the world revolves around them…
“But this is for Wal-Mart…” I don’t care who the fuck it’s for. You owe us over $20,000… you’re not getting product until you pay us.
“We delivered the labels to you yesterday afternoon… are you running today?” No… because all the product is not here for the run and what we have won’t last me an entire shift. I refuse to run something that is not going to last an entire shift…

and that about covers things for now that I can think of… oh yeah… for those of you who remember the OMGWTFBBQ last summer might recall we did some projecting up on the walls… right? Well… this is the projector I want now… and it’s only $2500… what a bargain!!!! ^_~

Popularity: 3% [?]

Okay… folks who know me well enough know that for many years I ran a site called Toonfinder.com which was a picture gallery of the meet-n-greet characters from the various Disney parks along with other bits of information and articles and reviews…
I gave up the site to someone who was wanting to run it since I was getting bored of the stuff and tired of the crap that I was getting from people who were constantly on the site. And now for nearly the past year and a half, the site has sat there… ignored… untouched… and won’t be again either. Almost makes me want to take it back if not to at least give it a breath of fresh air long enough to hand it off to someone else that I would trust to run it..

Anyway… that’s the the purpose of this writing… what follows is though.
If you have followed the news over the past week you might have heard this story where Tigger at Disney-MGM Studios in Walt Disney World allegedly punched some kid in the face… unprovoked. All the family wants is an apology from Tigger… but have retained a lawyer… and had to go to a local hospital to have the 14-year-old treated for his “injuries”? Come on… I can see it… and everyone else except the media (okay, not all the media are morons… just those in front of a television camera) seems to see it. This family is going to go after the almighty Disney dollars… to the sum of a few million of them. Nevermind the fact that they aren’t suing the company… they think they are but in reality they are suing the chap in the costume.

Take a look at this first video… it’s a short but not totally to the point but this is about what all of the news organizations are showing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuA0La81y3k

On this second video… this seems to be raw footage of the incident… including a slow-motion of it. Around the eight second mark when Tigger is making his arm-clamping movement and turning towards the kids you will see a couple of things…
a) this kid’s grin is getting bigger and bigger with each passing moment…
b) there’s a hand up around the back of the neck area where the costume comes together…
And at the end of the video you see that Tigger is still posing with the other kids from this family… and the family isn’t as worried about the 14-year-old… but you see a rather interesting motion by Tigger. He looks to be motioning for someone to stay back… my guess? It’s the 14-year-old kid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H2mIhnB1QE

third video… seriously? A third look at this? How many different ways can you look at the same video? Apparently as many times as needed…
Aside from the fact that this kid takes an overhand swing to bop Tigger on the noggin for something that looks like a face-washing by Tigger… he’s wearing fingerless gloves (what the fuck? Is this from the 80′s?), a sleeveless shirt (from New Hampshire, right? Sounds more like from Arkansas or Alabama), and some glittery belt (again… seriously? 80′s gone horribly bad?)… this kid is looking for trouble. He’s causing the problems… and he knows full well that he’s a guilty ass mother fucker. And hell… looking at his mother… my dick just retreated at full speed. Apparently that means I have a vagina now… O_o
Anyway… this one goes into an analysis of the video… I didn’t get the chance to really listen to the audio of this one. At work you know… gotta make it at least look like I’m actually doing work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0ifdL7aegg

and last on the subject… is this interesting piece that is more aimed at the kid and his parents… “The Tigger Defense Fund: A Brat’s Mind is a Terrible Thins to Waste” – huzzah to the author of this piece… just wish others in the media spoke like this. It seems that some anchorperson on Fox News was encouraging people to go to Disney parks to beat-up the characters… nice move Fox News… instigating violence? That my friend no longer falls under the “freedom of speech” act… instigating violent acts against others with your words = a no-no…So… a couple of final words on this subject…

1) to Jerry Monaco Jr. – if you can’t take a little face-washing with a furry paw then you have more serious issues than getting a face full of fur. And I hope that your school chums get some good laughs at your expense now… you fuckin’ pussy ass mother fucker. You might as well fuck your mother now too because no female is going to want to be near a pussy like you… have the balls to admit what you did to provoke Tigger…
2) to Jerry Monaco – fuck you… “my son didn’t do anything”… and yet you continued to roll tape… and didn’t say anything until AFTER you reviewed the tape. Too bad that you didn’t supply the whole damn thing to the media otherwise it would have been a non-story from the get-go. Pussy…
And nice move… “we just want an apology from Tigger”… for what? For your son being a pussy ass moron who instigated it? Fuck you… and your lawyer too… you bastards make me sick thinking that you can make a few million off of a company that owes you nothing.

3) to the television media – shame on you… hook… line… and sinker. And you swallowed it up. You are reporting… you’re taking a biased opinion on a matter without actually looking at the damn tape. Are you seriously not seeing the kid’s hands up around the back of the neck area? If not then you need to get better video equipment… especially since I’m seeing it in a very pixelated tiny format.

4) to Micheal Fedelem and others within the Zoo Crew at WDW… DLR… DLRP… TLDR – don’t take any crap from this little shits… seriously… they think they are entitled to do whatever they feel like since they paid their $60 to get in (that is the current ticket price, right?). That admission price doesn’t mean crap… it means you can get in the front gate and that’s about it. And sadly these “patrons” need to be reminded once in a while that their actions are not without consequences…

Popularity: 12% [?]

Why? NAMM is in town starting next week… and every year parking in the area surrounding the Anaheim Convention Center becomes hell. Not hellish… literally hell. It’s so bad even Satan can’t find a parking spot…

And for those of us who actually live on these streets? Tough shit… deal with it is what the City of Anaheim tells us every year.
How about the city implement a parking tag/sticker program for the local residents? You want to park on our streets overnight or whatever? You’re going to have to pay for a temporary tag/sticker. Revenue for the city… and less of a chance of some asshole blocking my driveway with his oversized SUV because he doesn’t give a damn about anything or anyone else except going to the NAMM show.

And seriously? Who the fuck would want to get autographs from Warrant? Or “a member of the Sgt. Dan Band”? Oooo… I know… Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue… or Keanu Reeves and whatever his band is… no? We have a real winner here… Richard Marx!!!
I’m more interested in the 2007 Bass Bash at JT Schmid’s Restaurant and Brewery… more for the brewery than anything else.

But yeah… not thrilled about next week. So anything I am going to need through the 21st will need to be bought or dealt with this weekend. Otherwise it will not be bought or done. Fuckin’ freaks out there… and no oddball runs to Taco Bell or Carl’s Jr either… the waits will be worse than during AX. Nothing like spending thirty minutes in line behind some person dressed as Pyramid Head… and hearing people talking about the awesomeness of Naruto or DBZ…
At least the musician set aren’t that scary… just total assholes when it comes to parking on my street.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Going to change things up a bit here… and will be doing up reviews on DVD’s that I have acquired within the past month or so… and watched…

An Inconvenient Truth – Al Gore… PowerPoint… woot!?
Seriously though… I wanted to see this film. It was supposed to have one of the more interesting documentaries on gloabal warming and whatnot. But this is Al Gore we’re talking about… doing a PowerPoint presentation… Al “Pinocchio has more life than I do” Gore…
So I was wrong… it was a really well done film… and I was sucked into what was being discussed. Al didn’t sound like a drone trying to pass along  the same old crap info that has been shoved down our throats for the past decade or two. This is some new information… presented in a different manner… that was interesting. And for those who do get the chance to rent/buy/watch this film on DVD… check out the extras that include a follow-up on the year following the original film being shot.

Who Killed the Electric Car? – now this is one that I had a definite interest in. Having ridden in an EV-1… and hearing about the eventual cancellation of the EV program I really wanted to know more about what was going on. Obviously this is a biased film… but what documentary isn’t? It was made to feed you the facts about one particular side of a story. And they accomplished this…
Is this a bad film? Not in the least bit… it was informative… educational… touching… well crafted.
There is an interesting side note to this film though that is news as of this past weekend: GM “resurrected” the electric car on Sunday with what is being called the Chevrolet Volt. It runs exclusively on battery power… but when the batteries are running low a gas-fueled engine will kick in to recharge the batteries. Allegedly this thing will be able to go 600 miles before needing refueling or recharging… and the batteries seem to have gotten suckier since the EV-1 was rolled out since the damn things are only pulling about 40 miles alone (EV-1 averaged 60 miles before needing a recharge). While I am proud of GM for stepping up to the plate again with an electric car… I’m not sure I’m thrilled with the look of the vehicle. It looks like crap with the huge-ass front-end and even larger back-end. Nice to know that it will be a 4-5 passenger vehicle… if that 5th person in the back is small… and doesn’t mind being the person sitting on top of a 6-foot long lithium ion battery pack. Mmmm… nothing makes me feel happier than sitting on top of such a large battery… it’s just the right thing needed to spark the auto industry… and has to be a lot safer than a hydrogen-powered vehicle. Anyone recall the previous hydrogen-powered/filled vehicles? Hindenburg? Sorry… but playing with volatile gases isn’t my kind of fun. Gasoline? Sure… just keep flames away from me. Hydrogen? Hell… you could step wrong and that shit would go boom…

Wordplay – what do you get when you take the NY Times crossword puzzle… add in Jon Stewart… add in Bill Cinton… mix in a bit of Bob Dole… and then toss it with a whole bunch of crossword fanatics? I have no bloody idea… but I watched it. The crossword creation in itself was interesting enough… along with the background of the puzzle. What wasn’t as exciting was the life stories of some of these fans and the annual competition that they participate in. Sorry… but a crossword puzzle convention/competition ranks up there on my “To Do” list with attending FurCon… not gonna fuckin’ happen.
If nothing else… this movie earns points for the non-scary people… and the non-convention/competition coverage.

A Scanner Darkly – based upon the Philip K. Dick’s book of the same name. This cast is definitely eclectic… and the use of the interpolated rotoscoping (the technique of applying animation over live-action film) was great. It added an edge to the film that I think would not have been so easily done if just filmed and edited… or straight-out animated. I know that for some though the animation style could become bothersome… almost sickening. So be warned… this type of animation is not for everyone… and it’s something like ninety minutes long… so yeah… gonna be harsh to watch if you are not able to deal with that type of animation.

I have more movies that I want to cover still… but alas, time is drawing short today. I’ve been working on this entry since something like 8am and managed to get so tied up with other crap on my desk that I had to put it aside for a while… and never got around to finishing it…
Others will be “reviewed”… eventually…

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