That's OK. Water is healthier for us anyway...

Quick! The world's supply of Coke is in dire jeopardy! Put an end to these crazy sanctions against Sudan! Let the killing continue! Please!

I'm totally kidding, but I'm not sure if it's funny or sad that this guy would actually think a threat to our Coca-Cola supply could convince the American people to overlook the genocide going on in Darfur.

Don't forget your Bono glasses...

Wow! Did anyone know that they're making a 3D U2 concert movie? They debuted a snippet of the film at the Cannes Film Festival, and expect to release the full version next year.

In an interview with the director, Catherine Owens, she reveals that the 3D technology used in the film was actually developed with sports in mind. Imagine the things you could do with football, having some 400 pound lineman barreling towards you. Or even baseball, with a screaming line drive flying right into your eyes.

Hopefully, this goes farther than the Zune...

I guess Apple sort of beat Microsoft to the punch with the iPhone, but this still looks super cool:

Star Wars Force Unleashed

The first in a series of documentaries that will be tracking the game from concept to store shelf. Pretty cool!

So I guess she's saying I've been sleeping with a man all these years...

I tend to think of myself as relatively moderate in my political beliefs with a lean to the conservative, but it's pro-life crazies like this lady that make me want to run as far away from the right as I can just so I won't be grouped in with these wackos. Speaking on the recent FDA approval of Lybrel, a new birth control pill that suppresses a woman's menstrual cycle while taking it, the president of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse, Leslee Unruh, pretty much has absolutely nothing intelligent to say at all other than her closing rant, "I want babies! More babies! We love babies!" Perhaps we should send all the crack babies and abandoned children from all over the world who resulted from unwanted pregnancies to her doorstep to take care of.

Unfortunately, it's the radicals that really muddy the waters of what otherwise could have been an intelligent debate of pro-life versus pro-choice.

Shadowrun Trailer

Some of you who post here may remember the Shadowrun RPG from 15 years ago. It actually bacame my favorite for some time then, and in fact I still have reams of fiction and even an attempted novel I wrote about it in my garage. The game is set in the near future, only all the things that were once myth have come back. Over night people became elves and Orcs, and ancient tribal magics once again flowed strong. But along side this ancient power, there was still the technology of the day, with cyber implants and virtual reality runs through the net to crack databases. I loved it. It was the best of everything I loved in sci-fi and fantasy. Well, two years ago the RPG relaunched, and now we have the game this trailer is for. Not only is it a Shadowrun game, but it is THE FIRST game to offer cross platform multiplay ability. In other words I can play it on my XBox 360 against an opponent playing it on thier PC. It is already revolutionizing games, as many upcoming shooters and mmorpg's like Age Of Conan are using the same coding to achieve the same capability. Brilliant! Shadowrun launches tomorrow, so you know what I'll be doing!

The Democrats are all girlie men...

The latest poll from The New York Times and CBS News finds that the approval ratings of George W. Bush are at an all-time low of 30%. 72% think the country is off track, 67% think things are going badly in Iraq, and 63% want a timetable for withdrawal of American troops. So you would think this would be a perfect opportunity for the Democrats to really flex their muscle and get exactly what they say the American people voted them into office for. So why are the Democrats backing down from the current war spending bill which doesn't include the timetable they've been clamoring about for so long?

I suppose one could argue that this is what I've been wanting all along, for the President and Congress to compromise and meet in the middle to do what's best for the country. Bush didn't give in to a set withdrawal date, but did concede to setting up benchmarks that the Iraqi government must meet to continue to receive reconstruction aid. Still, this seems like a victory for the Bush administration. I'm still left with this feeling that the Democrats, for whatever reason, seem to crumble when they have to stand up to the Oval Office.

I actually get a bit bothered by comedians commenting seriously on political issues most of the time. I think they too often hide behind their jokes to say what otherwise would be considered rather offensive. They can say some pretty mean-spirited stuff that any other "serious" commentator could never get away with all because it's hidden in the veil of humor. Still, they usually have some pretty intelligent things to say, as does Bill Maher in this clip which sums up exactly what I think of the Democratic Party right now:



On a side note, I thought it was rather humorous that Jimmy Carter of all people called Bush the worst president of all time. After all, who had the lowest approval ratings prior to George W. Bush? Why, Jimmy Carter, of course.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars series trailer--'nuff said!

Update: Oh yeah, just in case you didn't figure it out--click on the poster to get to the teaser trailer video.

New Die Hard Trailer!

Speaking of 80's action films... I won't lie, I think this trailer is AWESOME!

The U.S. legal system--the real American pasttime...

I can't imagine what it's like to lose a loved one in a car accident, but this is just ridiculous.

Back in April, Josh Hancock, a relief pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, ran into a tow truck at high speed that had parked on the side of a highway to help another motorist, and was killed instantly. Hancock's blood alcohol level was 0.157, almost twice the legal limit here in Missouri. Add to that, they determined he was well above the speed limit based on the impact. And if all that wasn't enough, they found marijuana in his car, too. Regardless of the fact that Hancock was drunk and essentially killed himself, it's always tragic when there's a loss of human life.

The craziness, though, comes from the Hancock family who are now filing suit that everyone else was to blame for Josh Hancock's death--the bartender and the restaurant for allowing him to continue drinking after he was probably already intoxicated, the tow truck driver for having stopped on the side of the roadway with his flashers on to do his job, and even the driver of the car the tow truck had stopped to help. About the only people they haven't sued is the customers at the restaurant for not taking Josh home in their own cars, and the Ford Motor Company for not making him an Explorer that drove by itself.

I guess, in the process of trying to accept his death, the family can be excused for not logically seeing the facts of this accident. But no one can excuse the lawyers getting ready to prosecute this case. It's a shame that one of the professions that should be all about ethics gets dragged down into becoming the dirtiest game in town with lawsuits like this.

These guys are so cool...for me to poop on!

I can only imagine that the crowds at Celebration IV this year celebrating the 30th anniversary of Star Wars will look something like this. Wander, I think it's cool that you may soon have Stormtrooper armor of your own, but please, PLEASE, don't go reenacting scenes like the guys at the end of this video:

Triumph The Insult Comic Dog - Star Wars
Uploaded by ZaraV

The Lost season finale--it was AWESOME!

Boy, I know you guys (well, Wild Willie, at least) pretty much thought Lost had "jumped the shark" already, but last night's season finale was AWESOME! I'm not sure if it clearly answered any lingering plot questions, but still, it was AWESOME! The 24 season finale? A little ho-hum for my tastes (although the entire season was a bit lacking from the get go). Heroes season finale? Good, but a bit anti-climactic as to how they eventually wrapped it all up. But Lost? AWESOME! Here's a lengthy recap/commentary from Entertainment Weekly with spoilers.

The Lost producers have already agreed to wrap the whole thing up in the next three seasons, and if last night's show was any indication of the direction they'll be going, all sorts of questions will be answered. Heck, just by their little format change last night, I think they revealed to two really big ones...or did they? But now I have to wait till 2008? Oy!

The end of my white-knuckling flights?

Given my fear of flying, you might think it odd that I'm getting pretty jazzed about the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner that just started its final assembly in Everett, Washington.

Made out of some sort of revolutionary graphite composite instead of aluminum, it will be the most technologically advanced passenger aircraft in the skies if it makes it's scheduled commercial service debut in 2008. Windows are supposed to be dramatically larger and electronically dimmable if the extra sunlight bothers you. Air is better circulated and retains a bit more moisture than the bone-dry cabin environments of today's planes. The cockpit is state of the art with all kinds of complicated gadgets, wires, and connections that sounds a bit scary when you think about what could go wrong if just one part of the circuit malfunctions.

But all of that isn't why I care. I could care less about the creature comforts added to the cabin space. No, I hate flying because of turbulence. Throw in just one little sudden 10 foot change in altitude, and I'm wimpering like a baby for the rest of the flight. And what's in the new Dreamliner? A top secret computer-controlled flight system that actually detects dramatic altitude changes faster than a human pilot ever could and dampens upward wind gusts "turning a roller-coaster ride in choppy air into one no more bothersome than a drive along a cobblestone street." Now if only they could stop those wings from flapping up and down. Yeah, maybe I'll keep those electronic window shades completely dimmed.

Wankmaster Scratch--ENJOY!

I remember Scratch telling us stories in college about the infamous Garbage Plate from Nick Tahou's. Well, surfing around on the web brought me to this Time magazine blog entry. One of these days, I may have to make a special trip out to Rochester just to sample one of these things:

Sometimes I think comic book artists spend way too much time looking at porn...

I've been a big fan of the the Justice League of America reboot. The writing is pretty good, and the art is fantastic, kind of harking back to classic JLA complete with the Hall of Justice. Unfortunately, I occassionally run into pages like these which have me feeling like I need to be reading these in a locked closet somewhere so no one else will know I just bought something with such a gratuitous image of jugs. Talk about providing shade for small children:


Even shopping for comics has made me feel a bit like I'm browsing through a porno shop. This was a cover for an Emma Frost mini-series, which I believe was supposed to be stories about the White Queen when she was in high school and was aimed at the adolescent female crowd. Apparently, Marvel Comics and their artists are under the impression that girls are striving to be strippers and pornstars:


Even a solid title like The Mighty Avengers has resorted to rather suggestive poses straight out of Maxim magazine:


Granted, men in comic books have been depicted with god-like physiques in tight fitting uniforms meant to accentuate every curve and bulge, and it's not that I mind similar depictions of female superheros. But someone's gotta draw the line somewhere unless they're trying to say they got breast implants with bullet-proof silicone. Power Girl's uniform in the first picture basically with a cut-out for the sole purpose of showing off her cleavage and Tigra in the last picture fighting crime in a bikini? Kind of ridiculous.

The Watchmen Update

May 22, 2007 - With director Zack Snyder gearing up to shoot Watchmen later this year in Vancouver, there are now rumors about who may have won the lead roles in the long-awaited big-screen version of the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons graphic novel.According to Ain't It Cool News, three stars have been aligned for the movie. The site claims that Keanu Reeves will play Dr. Jon Osterman, a.k.a. the god-like Dr. Manhattan. Reeves is a self-proclaimed comic book fan who wanted to play Wolverine in the X-Men movies and was once rumored for the Silver Surfer.Another comic book fan/movie star may be joining Reeves in the cast. Jude Law will supposedly play Adrian Veidt a.k.a. Ozymandias, which is not very shocking since Law has been publicly lobbying to be in Watchmen long before Snyder boarded the project. It is said that Law even sports a Watchmen tattoo!Finally, Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy, Little Children) is reportedly going to play Dan Dreiberg, a.k.a. Nite Owl II, arguably the central protagonist in the ensemble.No word yet on who may fill the other roles, particularly the masked vigilante Rorschach, but 300's Gerard Butler has long been rumored for the Comedian.

Kewl...

Still a whole year away for The Dark Knight to hit theaters, and I'm already excited. Here's Harvey Dent before he becomes Two Face, but the really big reveal? The JOKER!

Cycling in the courtroom...

Boy, this Floyd Landis case has turned into an outright circus. Greg Lemond, three-time Tour de France champion and VERY vocal critic of both Landis and Lance Armstrong, took the stand earlier this week and revealed that Landis' business manager attempted to blackmail him by threatening to reveal his history of sexual childhood abuse.

The sad stories continued with the testimony of Joe Papp, a relatively unknown American cyclist recently suspended for performance-enhancing drug use. What should have been a simple testament that low-dose testosterone may in fact be helpful to a cyclist in enhancing recovery from a day's ride instead turned into a sob story of how Papp couldn't keep up with the world's top athletes and caved to the pressures of competition.

Yesterday, Floyd Landis himself took the stand, and spent much of his time trying assure the jury that he had no part in his close friend attempting to threaten Lemond. What that has to do with the actual case of alleged doping is still a mystery, and the entire hearing seems to have gotten sidetracked off the main points of possible laboratory mishandlings and errors. Which ever way the USADA rules on this matter, it's sure to raise a lot of skeptics in the end, and I think Floyd's going to be dogged with suspicion and presumed guilt for the rest of his career.

This blog post pretty much sums up what the most prominent American cyclists have turned the sport into. I guess if you've got as much motivation as these guys to win the Tour de France, it's equally as easy to imagine that they must have some serious issues driving them.

Careful where you aim that Jeep-mounted machine gun...

Remember the glory days of the 80's when high body count action flicks ruled the silver screen? Oddly, this new trailer for Sylvester Stallone's upcoming Rambo sequel looks kind of retro in this day and age:

One of these days, I hope to not have the ability to do this...

Untapped market?

When my wife hears about Firecracker George and his dating woes, she usually suggests to me to tell him to sign up for a cooking class 'cause they're bound to be full of women. My usual response is, "No way. All those single chicks are bound to think he's gay. What straight guy takes a cooking class by himself?"

But what do I know? According to The New York Times, single chicks in these hobby classes are just dying for more male participation in hopes of finding a new mate:

No one denies that love occasionally blooms during Thai kickboxing or jazz appreciation. Or that some women are simply picky or overeager. Still, grumbles about the lack of single men in group classes are not unfounded.

Professionals who oversee classes in New York suggested that men have a tendency to avoid group instruction, particularly beginner classes, because they think they should already know all about, say, sports or wine. Those who do seek instruction, they said, generally prefer private lessons.

Considering the metropolis you live in, Firecracker George, I'm sure such similar opportunities abound and are just waiting for a ladies man like yourself to sweep the women off their feet.

Michael Bay, Transformers. Yeah, the idea is growing on me...

I never watch American Idol. NEVER. Last night was an exception, though, only because I was too lazy to change the channel or even turn the TV off. My payoff for enduring an hour of Ryan Seacreast? A 30 second trailer for Transformers, complete with a rather cool glimpse of Starscream. Let's hope they ditched his whiny voice from the cartoon:



UPDATE: Actually, this trailer is even better.

I miss Calvin and Hobbes...

I think this is the coolest thing I've found all week:

About as far from Bull Durham as you can get...

The craziness surrounding the signing of "Dice-K" to the Boston Red Sox this year seems to be paying off. Daisuke Matsuzaka so far has a respectable 5-2 record, and the Red Sox have built up quite a comfortable 9 game lead over their arch rival Yankees in the American League East. With Japanese and other Asian imports having such a significant impact on the American Pastime, it was interesting to read this USA Today interview of Ichiro Suzuki, the 33 year old center fielder for the Seattle Mariners, who started this wave of Asian talent crossing over the Pacific Ocean when he became the first Japanese position player in the Major Leagues back in 2001.

Most impressive about Ichiro is, despite the fact that he's considered a god back in his native Japan (and probably by some rabid Seattle Mariners fans, as well), he's pretty humble about his abilities and continues to have an enviable work ethic:

"It's a weakness to try to show yourself to be more than you actually are. To me, it's cooler to hide yourself, even if you're better than that," Ichiro says. "That's a big difference between Japanese and American cultures. Sometimes, (Americans) try to make themselves out to be bigger than they are."

His only vice seems to be overindulging on food, cars, and clothes. The funniest part of the article? When Ichiro comments about his teammates making fun of his progressive fashion sense:

"The majority of people in the clubhouse make fun of my clothing - but I make fun of their clothes 100 times more," he says, with an animated laugh.

"Anytime they say they like my stuff, that's when I start to worry. When they make fun of it, I think, 'OK, I actually look good today.' "

Good grief! Oh, crumbs!

Here's a little nostalgia for you guys, but especially Firecracker George. Just break out the Legos and a bowl of Spaghettios while you watch this to complete the mood:

Who knew breakdancing was a contact sport?

Car porn at church...

The wife and I have been taking a Monday night marriage class over the past few weeks at church. The congregation is a mix of income scales, as evidenced by the wide range of automobiles and motorcycles in the church parking lot. I'm just as likely to see a beat up old Honda Civic from the 80's to a roaring Harley Davidson hog to a Bentley Continental GT on any given Sunday.

Yesterday evening, though, I saw something completely different--a three-wheeled motorcycle/car mash-up very similar to the Volkswagen GX3 concept pictured above, except it had a BMW badge. I stared at it for awhile, then made my way back to my own more staid mode of transportation feeling a lust that one shouldn't have in their heart, especially at church. I had a slight glimmer of a dream of myself owning such a feat of engineering at some point in my life, but then had a wave of depression as I watched the owner walk up to his bike/car. A balding, overweight guy in his 50's wearing the epitome of old men with lots of leisure time and money--the Hawaiian-print Tommy Bahama shirt. To think I'll probably never have the chance to drive such things until I'm that old. Ugh.

Environmental thoughts in a global economy...

I may reveal my complete ignorance of the terms of the Kyoto Protocol with this post, but I'll share my thoughts anyway since this story made me think about the problems of environmental pollution in a slightly different way.

On my drive home from work, NPR ran a story about the unresolved problems with carbon emissions resulting from steel production. Quite a bit of carbon dioxide comes from the production of steel, and the explosion of high rise buildings in both the developed and developing world has created a huge environmental problem in ways not as obvious as one would think.

China is cornering the market on cheap steel by putting little to no restrictions on the amount of carbon emissions their factories can produce. Meanwhile, American steel mills will likely be forced out of the market due to higher costs of steel production once government environmental restrictions are put in place on domestic factories here in the U.S. The end result is a double whammy to both the U.S. economy and the environment. As China can provide a cheaper product, their factories will continue to boost production, creating even higher carbon emissions despite efforts to curb such pollution here in the U.S., and American factories will essentially be forced out of business.

Thinking in those terms, the Bush administration essentially pulling the United States out of the Kyoto Protocol by not submitting it to Congress for ratification, seems like a smart move if one is trying to preserve the U.S. economic interests both for big business and for the blue collar steel worker. If the end result is even more pollution and a weakened U.S. economy, what did we ever have to gain in ratifying this treaty? Am I missing something here?

Wikipedia for the zoology world?

I ran across this video about an Encyclopedia of Life, kind of an online open source opportunity for scientists around the country to catalog the various species of life around the world, and show us how we're all interlinked. It's a pretty grand and amazing undertaking they've proposed that should provide all kinds of opportunities to procrastinate and learn at the same time when it finally goes online sometime in 2008. They even have ideas of hikers having access to this information on PDA's as a highly interactive way of learning about wildlife as they encounter them.

Anywho, take a peek at the video. A sharper version is on the EOL website. It's pretty cool.

We all could have been B-movie directors...

Some of the videos we made for school assignments back in the day look like Spielberg in comparison to these scenes. The Shark Attack 3 clips were especially amusing to me. Makes you wonder how good Shark Attack 1 and 2 were, since someone had to greenlight the third sequel:

Liars and cheats in the shadow of Lance...

On Monday, Floyd Landis takes his case before the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). If found guilty, the Tour de France will officially strip him of his title from last year's race. I've been pretty vocal on this blog regarding my opinions of the accusations against him, and my belief that he's innocent. This week's revelations that the USADA directly approached Landis' legal team to give up any incriminating information they might have on Lance Armstrong in exchange for a more lenient punishment seemed to provide further evidence that this entire fiasco is nothing less than a witch hunt.

However, a couple of months ago I also put up a post about my disgruntlement with the entire suspension process following the "Operation Puerto" crackdown that forced many of the top cyclists out of the Tour de France last year. Since then, most transferred to other teams or have been forced into early retirement. At the time, I thought this was an extremely unjust way of cleaning up the sport, to equate suspicion with guilt. But maybe the powers that be aren't so petty after all, and have been right all along.

Jan Ullrich (on Lance's right in the picture), who adamantly repeated his innocence and retired from the sport in March, has since been found to be guilty by way of a DNA match between bags of blood found in the Puerto case and a sample he had released just prior to his retirement announcement. Ivan Basso (on Lance's left in the picture), after initially being cleared by the Italian doping agency, abruptly stepped down from his new position on the Discovery Channel Cycling Team upon learning that an investigation into his connections with Operation Puerto were being reopened. Shortly afterwards, he fessed up to "attempted doping" by submitting blood to the Spanish physician at the center of the Puerto scandal, although he still claims he never actually cheated during any of his races. This raises the question of why these two guys felt the need to start doping in the first place, especially after Lance Armstrong retired. My only logical conclusion would be that they were cheating all along, and sort of leads me to wonder how Lance was so dominant over guys that perhaps were doping this entire time.

This is not to say that I think that Floyd Landis or Lance Armstrong are guilty of doping. However, these recent revelations certainly plant just the slightest of doubts in my mind about the integrity of any cyclist, and certainly ruins the entire sport for me as a fan. As widespread as the illegal performance enhancements have spread to the upper echelons of the cycling world, I'm not sure how this sport is ever going to recover.

Someone forgot to tell them--three's a crowd...

When I heard that Venom was going to be in the third Spiderman film this summer, I totally geeked out. I watched all the trailers over and over again, and read whatever news I could about Spiderman 3 on the internet. This movie was going to be nothing short of legendary, and who would have doubted it? After all, Sam Raimi hit a homerun way out of the park with Spiderman 2, and it just seemed like he couldn't go wrong with the third installment. Alas, as I watched Spiderman 3 this weekend, it felt like one of those lofty baseballs that look like they're just about to clear the fences until the center fielder jumps up and grabs it for an out.

Taking up where the last film left off, Spiderman 3 introduces us to a much happier Peter Parker, adjusting well to his newly minted fame from his alter ego as local New York City hero Spiderman. His love life with Mary Jane couldn't be better, and he's finally back on track in college. As with any good movie, introducing a man high on life only sets him up for a painful fall, as Spiderman soon must deal with issues of hubris, jealousy, and revenge. The use of the alien symbiote straight from the pages of The Amazing Spiderman was perfect for this exploration of Spiderman's baser instincts. Unfortunately, this is all wasted in the film during a laughable section of the film as Peter Parker runs around town in full "emo" style. The fact that I was reminded of the embarrasment of all comic book movies, Batman and Robin, should convey a bit of how I felt with this overly campy sequence.

Luckily, in the action department, Spiderman 3 doesn't disappoint. Scenes with Harry Osborn duking it out with Spiderman over the streets of New York City are especially well done, and the special effects of the Spiderman franchise continue to set escalating benchmarks with each new film of the series. Spiderman seamlessly swings and jumps all over the place, and actually makes you think that such feats of acrobatics aren't so far fetched after all.

Despite the action, though, the movie is still flawed. Unfortunately, it seems that Raimi felt the need to force too many characters into this film for the sake of making an over-the-top summer blockbuster. Working through the themes of vengeance and justice would have worked well with the use of Harry and the Sandman alone. I'm not even giving fault to the introduction of the alien symbiote into the mix. As I stated, this was perfect for the themes explored in this movie. But throwing in Eddie Brock/Venom in at the end as a prominent villain in this movie was just one too many. We understand a bit about Sandman's plight, but are never given the time or space to feel any remorse (or really anything at all) for Eddie Brock. Harry Osborn's journey, which started in the first Spiderman film, comes to a hasty unsatisfying conclusion which was only cleared up by an akwardly placed observation from his butler (which also begs the question as to why he didn't reveal this important fact to Harry a long time ago). Perhaps the better way to construct this film would have been to leave out the transformation of Eddie Brock into Venom until the very end as a foreshadowing of things to come in a later film. Anyone who reads comic books knows the importance of Todd McFarlane's run on The Amazing Spiderman and his introduction of Venom to the comic pages. In fact, the modern revival of the comic book medium and the stratospheric rise of Marvel Comics as an industry during that time, is probably a major reason why there are so many comic book movies being made today. Knowing that, the way that Venom is forced into this movie seems insulting to casual and die-hard comic book fans alike.

Rumor has it that Avi Arad over at Marvel Studios adamantly wanted Venom in this film, perhaps fearing he could not keep the team of Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and Sam Raimi intact for a fourth movie to devote to a full script about Venom. Spiderman 2 left us wanting so much more, only because it was such a good film itself. I now find myself wanting so much more, only because Spiderman 3 was kind of a disappointment and I still want to see what could have been. I guess they haven't turned the one-armed Professor Connors into the Lizard yet, though, so a fourth installment must be in the works. We can only hope.

*** (out of *****) -- And that's a bit generous only because the action was spectacular, and the central message of the film was nice

Robbin' the deaf!

I have posted about My Name is Earl before, and I gotta say that it makes me laugh so hard some times. Of course this is one of those shows where my wife doesn't appreciate it as much as I do, so I get to spend time watching it by myself. Because I am by myself, I can say the laughter is completely genuine. I am not laughing in response to someone else laughing. I am not laughing with the subconscious motivation to help others watching laugh. I am laughing because I find it funny.

On last night's season finale Earl hooks up with a deaf lawyer only to find out that he had robbed her in the past. He and his brother Randy break in making all sorts of noise. What did me in was Randy kicking through a door and yelling at the top of his lungs, "Whoooohooooo, robbin' the deaf." It's the comment combined with the perfect delivery that made me laugh for a good ten minutes. I actually rewound it on my dvr a few times before moving on with watching the rest of the show. To my delight, I found this scene online. I hope it stays there for a while so you can enjoy it whenever you come cross this post.

Who shot Alexander Hamilton?

Tooling around the web for new info about The Transformers movie, I happened upon this little tidbit on Michael Bay's website. The very first 'Got Milk' ad, the one about Aaron Burr, the one Time Magazine named best commercial of the 20th century, and one of my all time favorites, was directed by Michael Bay. Who knew?

Because it's time for a new post ...

I just read about three former and current executives for Purdue Pharma, just plead guilty to misleading the public that their painkiller OxyContin has a high risk for addiction.

You know, I often give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to how evil we can be. I have seen movies about drug makers and the horrendous lengths they will go to so they can make money, but I never think that it is as bad as Hollywood makes it out to be. I just can't see how it is possible to lose your humanity so you can pad your wallet.

Guess I was wrong.

On a positive note, the execs will have to pay out $634.5 million in fines.

I really shouldn't enjoy this story that much, but I do...

You've probably heard about Paris Hilton being sentenced to 45 days in jail for breaking the terms of her DUI probation. In response to this horrid abuse of judicial powers preying on this poor misunderstood woman, she has petitioned "The Governator" himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to grant her a pardon:

Paris Whitney Hilton is an American celebrity and socialite. She is an heiress to a share of the Hilton Hotel fortune, as well as to the real estate fortune of her father Richard Hilton. She provides hope for young people all over the U.S. and the world. She provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives.

"Hope for young people all over the U.S. and the world." Yeah, I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

Was it really that bad?

As expected, Spiderman 3 broke all kinds of records, both domestically and abroad--$148 million in it's opening weekend here in the United States, and $227 million in foreign countries combined. I, however, did not contribute to those ticket sales, as my wife has been out of town and I swore I would wait to see it with her. Most of the reviews I've read, though, have been pretty negative. Anyone here want to lay down an opinion? Should I rush to go see it as soon as my wife's plane touches down today?

Feel free to put up a review on a seperate post, if you like.

View of the Sea at Scheveningen

Back in 2001 I spent about six weeks in Eastern Europe living there teaching English with a local church. My connecting flight (both ways) was Amsterdam, and I decided that I would make my layover a little longer in Amsterdam so I could experience a little more of Europe than just the eastern part.

I got to see the red light district and all of the infamous coffee shops whose menus boast more than just coffee. While there I also toured the Van Gogh museum. I saw many of his famous works, but there were a few that stood out to me that were not famous at all. One was the painting seen above with the same title as this post. This one really drew me into the world of art in a way that I had not been drawn in before. Van Gogh painted this on the beach and the weather was rather windy as you can see in the painting itself. It was so windy that the fresh paint was catching sand and some of it can still be seen in the painting. As Firecracker said in another post below, it was like having communion with the artist. This drew me into the world of art in a special way.

It obviously drew someone else in a special way. It turns out that someone had stolen this painting from the museum about a year after I had been there. (Before anyone gets any crazy ideas, I have only been to Europe once.) I feel special for having been able to see it before it was stolen. And while it is a shame that others will not get to see the painting because it is still missing, I feel even more special for having liked a painting that was stolen. Somebody else must have liked it as much as me - actually much more than me - because to steal it from the museum probably took a high tech career criminal.


Or so one would think. It turns out that as I have been writing this post I decided to do a little more research, and all it took was two guys and a ladder. How boring is that? Well, not as boring as one would think if it makes the FBI's top ten art crimes list.

Needing some "num chuck" skills...

If I ever got in a fight with Firecracker George, this is how I would bring the pain:

Those coffee companies are sneaky...

I'm sitting in the Dallas Love Field Airport waiting to catch a plane home, and there's a Seattle's Best Coffee stand just across from my gate. A woman then walks up to the coffee stand and says in her thickest Texas southern drawl, "Is this Staaarbuuucks? This isn't Staaarbuuucks. I don't want this coffee, I want Staaarbuuucks.". She then proceeded to walk back down the length of the concourse in search of her cherished coffee brand.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that "Staaarbuuucks" actually owns Seattle's Best Coffee, and it was probably the same stuff.
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Movies, concerts, car trips, and now the museum.

All things I pretty much have to do by myself. The Museum of Fine Arts Houston is hosting the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of 19th century French impressionist work through Sunday. I'm going Saturday, by myself. This, however, is not like going to a concert by myself (which I have yet to bring myself to do.) Even if it were, these are the original works of Cezanne, Monet, Van Gogh (Not French, I know, but his work is in the exhibit) - pretty much all of the impressionists and post-impressionists. Houston is the only place in North America these paintings will be shown on the tour, so I can see them now or wait until they get back to the Met and take a trip to NYC.

Now before you go and say, "maybe you could run into some girls there," I need to say that I bet it will be me and a bunch of old ladies. I actually am going to see the paintings.

Trivial Survival Tip #2

In a survival situation there are only a few things you must have. You need shelter from the elements, water, and food. A must have intangible element in all of this though is most certainly the WILL TO LIVE. Without that, then you are most certainly going to die if faced with the daunting task of survival.

As I read through my survival book, there are times that I have to make sure that the knowledge I gain must be filed in the Will to Live category. There are just some things that I could never imagine doing, but choosing between life and death would cause me to do some of those things. Today's tip falls into that category.

If you are looking for food and you are stranded along a seashore then you should consider yourself lucky because it teems with life. One such menu item is an octopus which is best hunted at night. You can attract them with a light and then spear them. During the day you can look for signs of an octopus. Look for a hole with empty shells around it. There is a strong chance that within it is your dinner, which you can catch with some bait on a hook.

"The best way to kill an octopus is to turn it inside out: place a hand inside the fleshy hood, grab the innards and pull hard. Try it on a small octopus first! It takes practice so until you are proficient stab the octopus between the eyes or bang it against a rock."

Alrighty then. Filed under the will to live category.

Thanks for the tip Lofty.

Lechuguilla Cave

The past month has been fun for me in many ways, but one of those has been recording the Planet Earth Series on Discovery HD Theater. I have been taking the chance to watch a little bit each day during lunch, and yesterday I got to finish up the series with the final episode. It was on caves, and my thought before watching it was it will be good but not great. Of course this was my thought for the majority of the episodes before watching them, but as I would watch I would be completely overwhelmed by the beauty and the magnitude of what they captured on film. Some of it I had seen before, but it had been staged. Take for instance a great white shark breaching as it takes a seal. I have seen this before, but it was not a real seal, it was a dummy seal being dragged behind the boat so they would know where to film. This series though used new technology to allow continuous filming so they could catch the real thing. It was rather impressive to see such a powerful animal come 15 feet out of the water to get some food. There were also some other incredible scenes like the massive dust storms in the Sahara, or the saddening footage of a pride of lions killing an elephant at night (once again new technology to help film in the dark), or even the sight of a parasitic fungus killing an ant (which I am still somewhat confused about how they filmed this because it had to take a while).

One of the ones that really caught me off guard was in the cave's episode. It was the segment on the Lechuguilla Cave system in New Mexico. The clip I have for you will not be anywhere near as good as in HD, but it is still worth your time. What I found really cool was the part that looks like Superman's crystal cave. You see that in the movies, but you never think that something like that could really exist.