He seems to smell of 'Cock...

Life must be a bit difficult with a last name like this.

Only two months left...

Part of me thinks, barring some inopportune remark by Joe Biden, Obama should win this election in a landslide. Throwing Sarah Palin into the mix does seem to make it interesting, though. Here's a site to keep a day to day track of what the polls are saying about the race.

This could be the smartest thing McCain has ever done.

McCain announced his running mate (tee hee hee), Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, and SHE'S AN ABSOLUTE BABE. I want to be mauled by this cougar. Issu-what? Platfo-what? Gimme eye candy in the oval office!

Is this why Obama didn't choose Clinton as his running mate? Did he know about McCain's choice ahead of time, and didn't want unfavorable comparrisons?

If McCain is elected, I want him to abdicate all TV air time to his VP. I will watch every state of the union address she gives. Repeatedly.

Cleveland may have become my new favorite Family Guy character.

Whoever does the voice of Cleveland cracks me up. When I saw this a few nights ago, I nearly soiled myself. I know Wander catches this show religiously, but if the rest of you aren't put the kids to bed, tune out your wife, and watch it.

Natalie Raps

I can't remember if this was posted before... but it's worth watching again and again.

Spies among us...

Just to make sure Firecracker George didn't think I was dogging him about being a dork and taking pictures of hand dryers in the bathroom, here's a picture I took of a trash bin in the bathroom from a place called The London Tea Room back in St. Louis. Hey, when you see something cool, might as well share:

Dyson Phan

During my 36 hour stay at Logan airport two week ago (I want to start taking trains), I had one highlight in that I got to geek out with the hand dryers in the restrooms. Dyson, the vacuum manufacturer now makes hand dryers that actually work - well. I think it was called the airblade. Whatever it was called, I actually re-wet my hands a few times just to test it out.

Phelps Phan...

Given the topic of my posts recently, I guess you can probably tell that, like a large number of Americans and other sports fans in the world, I've been caught up in Olympic fever this week (or more specifically, Phelps fever).  As if the 4x100m freestyle relay wasn't exciting enough, the 100m butterfly final last night will probably played be over and over again on any highlight reel for these 2008 Beijing Games, as Michael Phelps tied Mark Spitz's record for most gold medals in one Olympic Games by beating out Milorad Cavic by 0.01 seconds.  Conspiracy theories will probably abound for quite some time as to whether the Omega touch sensors were rigged given the fact that Michael Phelps is partially sponsored by the time-keeping company, but it's great to see that the Internet has already been hard at work to debunk such theories.  Sports Illustrated has a frame by frame review of the finish, which is pretty incredible to see just how behind Phelps (on the left of the picture) seemed to be at the end:

Frame by frame review of the broadcasted video from NBC further shows just how close the race was.  Amazing!

Slightly better form than Eric the Eel...

OK, so Equitorial Guinea won't be an Olympic swimming powerhouse for awhile. Here's the underwater view of the epic 4x100 freestyle relay this past week, though, to show why the United States will continue to be a dominant player in pool for a long time to come.

The greatest swimmer ever...

Sure, Michael Phelps is getting all the Olympic glory this week in Beijing with all his gold medals and world records as he attempts to become the greatest Olympian of all time. But let's not forget the Olympic heroes in the pool of games past. Previous American swimmers like Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi, the great Ian "Thorpedo" Thorpe from Down Under--incredible athletes indeed. They don't hold a candle, though, to the amazing swimming prowess of Equitorial Guinea and "Eric the Eel." From Wikipedia:

Eric Moussambani, nicknamed "Eric The Eel" by the media after the name first appeared in an article by Craig Lord in The Times newspaper in London,[1] won brief international fame at the 2000 Summer Olympics when he swam his heat of the 100m freestyle in 1:52.72 and won, because the two other competitors Karim Bare and Farkhod Oripov were disqualified for taking a false start. His time was more than twice that of his faster competitors, and outside even the 200m world record. However he had set a new personal best and national record.

At first I thought ...

That I must have been living in a hole as I was reading the news today. I watched Amazon's stock make a strong advance and didn't know why. The news made it clear though. The company doubled its sales of the Kindle. Hmmm?!?

If you are like me, your thought is probably along the lines of, "What the hell is a Kindle?" So I did a little exploring and found out. I am sure that my tech savvy friends like Swany learned about this ages ago on some site like Gizmodo or something, but it was news to me. The easiest way I have heard it explained is that the Kindle is to books like the iPod is to music. It really is a pretty cool device, but a little steep in terms of cost.

Wishing I could live in the Pacific Northwest...

In response to Wild Willie's post below, I had heard about Voodoo Doughnuts when it was featured on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations as he went through the Pacific Northwest last year. It's a pretty entertaining show and much more interesting than most of the glorified ads they broadcast on the Travel Channel. If you like to travel, I highly recommend watching.

The Magic is in the Hole!

I know the Gang will salivate over this. We have some friends in town who have roots in Portland, OR, and she told me about Voodoo Doughnuts. Not only do they make doughnuts, but they are also open 24 hours a day and can perform weddings. Before getting married there, your bachelorette party could have cock and balls at it.


What I think the gang will really like though is one of the crowd favorites. How can you beat a bacon maple bar!

Funny how just a slight lack of guardrail changes your perspective...

I've only been to the top of Pikes Peak once in my life, and I rode the cogwheel train to get there. My dad wasn't confident enough in his own driving skills to get up the mountain on the Pikes Peak Highway without plunging the entire family to their death, and after watching this video, I'm not sure I would either. I swear it looks like this guy is going to drift right off the mountain at least a dozen times:

How About Some Summertime Brainless Fun

What could be more fun than some guy impersonating celebrities having sex!

Firecracker George should get a kick out of this...

Check out who just recorded the theme song for the upcoming James Bond flick Quantum of Solace. It sounds cool in theory, but my ears are still ringing from Chris Cornell on the last one. "You know my naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame!!!!"

2009 is shaping up to be quite a year for movies to geek out to...

I have all this movie trailer porn for Wander, yet I know he's out there unaware of the goodies I'm posting since he's without a computer right now. Anywho, this has been taken down from various sites, but Gizmodo still seems to have a copy up on their page. Here you go. Perhaps the worst bootleg copy of a trailer for Tron 2 that debuted at the San Diego Comic Con, but well worth it--this movie looks freakin' sweeeeeeeeet!!!

All these trailers are making me want to go to Comic Con next year. Any takers?

Scratch will probably appreciate this...

I guess there is life after Saved By the Bell. I enjoy this so much more than even the thought of a Screech sex tape. More pictures at Best Week Ever:

At some point the publicity isn't going to be good for her...

It's been awhile since I ragged on Michelle Wie, but her insistence that she's good enough to play on the men's PGA tour despite the fact that she still hasn't won a professional tournament EVER against men or women, just begs for constant ridicule. I felt validated by reading Annika Sorenstam's latest remarks about her, too:

"You know, I really don't know why Michelle continues to do this," Sorenstam said. "I mean, we have a major this week, and if you can't qualify for a major, I don't see any reason why you should play with the men."

And why didn't Wie qualify? Because she failed to do a simple thing--she forgot to sign her scorecard.

I want to believe that they still have enough material to make a quality movie...

When I went to go purchase tickets for The X-Files: I Want To Believe Friday night, I asked the cashier if the theater was close to full yet. He looked at me funny, checked the computer, then proceeded to laugh. "No man. There's PLENTY of seats. PLENTY!"

After all the record-breaking hoopla that The Dark Knight continues to create, I have to remind myself that not all the geeky entertainment that I loved has hit mainstream taste yet. The X-Files started out as this offbeat science fiction thriller about investigations into the paranormal that I recall Firecracker George telling me about early on in its beginnings on a then second-rate television network called Fox. I found it entertaining, but never really got hooked until the broad overlapping story arcs and mythology really started getting established. In that sense, The X-Files was ground breaking, and paved the way for some of my favorite television of recent years, including Alias, Lost, 24, and Battlestar Galactica. The X-Files was a must-watch show until it kind of sputtered out with the replacement of Mulder and Scully with new agents as the leads by it's final two seasons. But even though most of its audience lost interest at the end, the original X-Files movie proved that the formula could work on the big screen.

In this sequel, I Want To Believe reunites all the main players back together with David Duchovny slipping back into the role of Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson reminding everyone that she's actually a pretty good actress, at least when she's playing Dana Scully. With show creator Chris Carter at the helm and writer Frank Spotnitz helping with the script, it seemed like all the main players were here for a great movie. Unfortunately, it just sort of fell short of my expectations.

As it's been six years since The X-Files was on the air, the movie seems to follow our own timeline to tell us what's happened to our favorite FBI pair after that span of time has passed. Scully is now working as a physician in a Catholic hospital, and Mulder is sort of in hiding (although it seems like the FBI could have found him easily if they wanted to merely by tailing Scully home). The search for a missing agent brings Mulder out of hiding, as the FBI needs his expertise in the paranormal to help them corroborate the only lead in the investigation which seems to stem from a pedophile priest having visions from God. This all seems to have something to do with a creepy guy hanging out at a local pool. I'd say more, but wouldn't want to ruin the movie for anyone. All the while, Scully is in the midst of trying some rather risky stem cell therapy on a young boy that tests her own faith in God and herself.

Like I said earlier, Gillian Anderson is a pretty good actress, and she's probably got the strongest and most developed character in the film (aside from silly lines like, "Look's like I got work to do."--since when did she get elevated to the status of cardiothoracic surgeon? Wasn't she just a glorified Quincy aka coroner before? If you watch the movie, you'll know what I'm talking about). David Duchovny always seems to have a laid back approach to his acting (which some might still consider flat), but it works with Mulder. The plot itself, although important to other underlying personal questions that Mulder and Scully deal with throughout the film, is kind of a throw away story, and the conclusion is a bit of a letdown. The inclusion of Amanda Peet and Xibit playing two FBI agents leading the case only serves to ensure a main character has a nasty (and somewhat over the top stupid) death scene--they might as well have just given them a red uniform to wear ala Star Trek.

In some ways, this film felt like an Ocean's Eleven sequel or the last Lethal Weapon movie. The purpose seems less about continuing the story arc of the original series, and more about providing a reunion for both the cast/crew of The X-Files and it's fans. If you stay long enough to watch through the credits, there's even a cute little shout out to the fans at the end. I guess that's OK. I should have known when the theater was only about half full that this wasn't going to be great. I hope at least one more sequel makes it out into the theaters, though. I'm not going to give this the greatest rating, but truth be told, I did enjoy watching these characters again. And we've gotta get another glimpse of The Lone Gunmen (they didn't make it into this film).

If this was on DVD, I'd give it a strong "Cheesy" rating. But for a $10 ticket price and a release date in the peak of summer? Well, I hate to say it, but...