Any Wes Anderson fans out there?

I don't know if anyone is a big fan of Wes Anderson's work (Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou), but his short film that acts as sort of a prequel to his new movie The Dajarleeng Limited is available on iTunes for free. I downloaded last night via a superslow EDGE connection and Bluetooth via some trickery with my Crackberry while I slept (yes, it took THAT long).

Kind of quirky stuff, but interesting in a New Wave French kind of way. I thought the end was rather funny ("Would you like to see my view of Paris?"). And maybe just a little NSFW because Natalie Portman takes her clothes off.

Anywho, probably wouldn't take but a few minutes to download with a high speed connection. Give it a look.

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Go see Into the Wild...

Due to a lack of internet access after my recent move, my contributions to the blog will be scant for awhile. Typing long drawnout posts on the Crackberry isn't easy, and running the internet through my phone via Bluetooth can get excrutiatingly slow. As such, I'd normally write a thorough review of my most recent film experience, Into the Wild, but instead I'll keep it brief and just give it my highest recommendations to go see. I think Wild Willie and Firecracker George would especially connect with it. I'm probably the furthest in nature from Chris McCandliss aka Alexander Supertramp, but I really admired the realization he comes to at the tragic end. And I dare say this film would get the "Dangerously Cheesy" rating from me.

A more detailed review will come once my DSL service gets hooked up.

Until then, somebody else keep the content fresh!

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Probably tastes good with Spam...

From those wacky inventors in Japan: Bread in a can--'nuff said.

Sometimes, you just want to laugh at drunk women...

I have a feeling she threw up on those enormous boobs after the camera stopped rolling:

All that was missing was the hidden bucket of mud over his head...

Now, I'm no fan of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but I thought the way Columbia University treated him was in quite poor taste. Here's how the president of the university, Lee Bollinger, introduced his invited guest according to The New York Times:

He said, “Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,” adding, “You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.”

The Iranian president, who was seated 10 feet away from him on the stage, wore a frozen smile. The anti-Ahmadinejad portion of the audience, which looked to be about 70 percent of it, cheered and chortled.

Mr. Bollinger praised himself and Columbia for showing they believed in freedom of speech by inviting the Iranian president, then continued his attack. He said it was “well documented” that Iran was a state sponsor of terrorism, accused Iran of fighting a proxy war against the United States in Iraq and questioned why Iran has refused “to adhere to the international standards” of disclosure for its nuclear program.

“I doubt,” Mr. Bollinger concluded, “that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions.”

I can't say I disagree with Bollinger's statements, but still, the guy's an INVITED speaker. You'd think a high falutin' intellectual ivy league school like Columbia University would have a bit more class and would have let Ahmadinejad's own words implicate him as being perhaps an evil tyrannical dictator. Instead, it seems Bollinger invited him over so he could throw eggs at him from the get go. Seems like some cheap playground tactics to me.

Giving such a vilified person a chance to speak to a crowd of Americans seemed like a rather noble show of how much the United States values freedom of speech. Unfortunately, based on this visit, I'm afraid the international community around us may only use this as another example of how the U.S. is just a big bully to the globe.

Killer germs from outer space...

I was always under the impression that some crazy killer microorganism was going to be released from the abyss of the sea while humans dug into the inhospitable ocean depths for oil and mineral deposits. But who would have thought that our mere excursions into space might actually be responsible for creating some deadly pandemic to the Earth? From The New York Times:

The germ: Salmonella, best known as a culprit of food poisoning. The trip: Space Shuttle STS-115, September 2006. The reason: Scientists wanted to see how space travel affects germs, so they took some along -- carefully wrapped -- for the ride. The result: Mice fed the space germs were three times more likely to get sick and died quicker than others fed identical germs that had remained behind on Earth.

Apparently, 167 genes in the "space" Salmonella had mutated, possibly in response to their microgravity environment.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Some would say, he was compensating for something...

I know Darth Vader's flagship Super Star Destroyer, Executor, was supposed to be a pretty big ship, but I never realized just how big until I saw this scale comparison of various spaceships from popular sci-fi television shows and movies. I would have hated to be the one responsible for taking that thing to the car wash.

As an aside, is it just me, or does the Executor look just like the mouse pointer on your computer desktop?

At least I didn't find the man (or woman formerly known as a man) attractive...

I'm almost scared to admit that I didn't get this little pop quiz from TMZ right:

How do you say "HC? Physics!" in Japanese?

The not-so-secret shadow president...

The title of this story kind of caught my eye, as it seemed to insinuate that the real person in charge of U.S. international diplomacy decisions was not George W. Bush, but Dick Cheney. I know it's almost accepted knowledge that Cheney is really the guy running the show in the White House, but still, I figured reading the whole article would make some mention of Cheney acting on behalf of the President--it didn't.

Hyphen - R.I.P.

Firecracker George (and 115-CLF, if he ever reads this blog) may recall "Dash Day" from our senior year of high school, an annual celebration of sorts dedicated to the use of the dash instead of the semicolon which also served as a blatant excuse to bring food to class and to wear homemade t-shirts with such mottos as "Down with the Semicolon." In fact, I've taken to using the dash rather liberally in my writings, much in part to the teachings of our coolest English teacher from years past.

Alas, another dash of sorts is going the way of the dodo bird. The hyphen, used to link two words like bumble-bee or cry-baby, was dropped in a new edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.

If you want to drive my wife crazy, you can drop the hyphen in her name, too, all in the name of efficiency and aesthetics. As the editor of the Dictionary says:

"Printed writing is very much design-led these days in adverts and Web sites, and people feel that hyphens mess up the look of a nice bit of typography," he said. "The hyphen is seen as messy looking and old-fashioned."

I chuckled at the fact that the author of that story chose to throw a couple of hyphens in when quoting the guy who hates them. And try calling my wife old-fashioned when she uses that hyphen to spell her name--she's liable to give you a sock in the mouth (or at least a mean glare).

Maybe this will be my new hobby when I get bored...

I think a certain person we know lost a great financial opportunity 'cause it looks like the authors of this book are really set to cash in.

I think it goes without saying that this site is NSFW, but it's hilarious. Or maybe I'm just a bit delusional because I'm up at two in the morning. And no actual photographs if you're worried about a big penis jumping out on your computer screen--just some simple drawn diagrams. There should be some that you recognize (grrrrrr...) and some that look downright painful.

Just don't ask me to do the "Docking" trick with you.

Now I think I should go to bed before I really post something offensive on the blog.

This'll warm up that Arctic chill from your heart...

Photo: Norbert Rosing

Bringing things back to the Arctic, here's a little narrated slideshow that proves all animals really just want to play.

I'd hate to see what a real life Centipede would look like. Eeeeeew...

I never played much of The Legend of Zelda, as Wild Willie did according to his post yesterday, but I did throw down a bunch of quarters on Donkey Kong back in the day. Who knew you could play a real life version of the game?

Skip to about 1:40 to see the actual game in action:

Has this tactic really ever convinced any straight man to give up eating barbeque?

Wait, wait! Before any female readership berates the Swany for yet more gratuitous photos of scantily clad women (or in this case, naked), I say I'm posting this for Firecracker George. Why? Because I thought it would be a shame if a young single heterosexual man like him didn't get a chance to see Alicia Silverstone's new ad for PETA. And he won't get to because the ad was pulled in Houston where it was supposed to make it's debut earlier this week.

If Firecracker George suddenly gave up meat, well, I guess I could understand.

Notes from a Canuck condorcation, Part 1...

Growing up as a kid, you could say I was a somewhat the model student. I paid attention in class, did my homework, made good grades, didn't act up, etc. In fact, I spent no time in detention my entire academic career. Apart from my long absences due to illness (or perhaps a bit of good acting on my part) and a worrisome threat of possible remediation if I didn't get my attendance up (despite the fact that I was well amongst the top 5% in the class), my parents never got any calls regarding my behavior or performance at school. The only time I remember getting pulled for doing something wrong was sometime in my junior year of high school when the assistant principal pulled me aside to comment on the t-shirt I was wearing that day which I had recently bought from Dick's Last Resort during a Latin convention trip to Dallas.

"You can't wear that in school," he said.
"Uh, why not?" I asked in a somewhat timid tone.
"Don't play games with me. You know exactly why. Now go home and change into something more appropriate, young man."

In all honesty, I really didn't know at the time what he was getting at, and I don't think it was until a couple of years later that I finally figured out the more raunchy meaning of the phrase "You Can't Kill a Man Born to Hang!"

. . . .

So last week, the wife and I took advantage of some frequent flyer miles we racked up on Frontier Airlines to take a vacation. My wife was burned out with work and all the things going on with my transitions in life, and I was pretty sure she was going to have a nervous break down if I didn't get her out of town for awhile. I, myself, was ready for a change of scenery, too. Since the tickets were free, we decided we go as far away as our points would allow us, which meant Vancouver.

Flying Frontier is always kind of a nice experience. Every seat has a TV (although you have to pay to watch anything), and every plane is slightly unique with each one painted up with a different animal. Wally the Wolf was our plane on our leg of the trip from Denver to Vancouver. This was particularly exciting to one kid I saw on our plane who enthusiastically waved goodbye to Wally after we reached our destination with his own stuffed wolf (complete with leather jacket) under his arm.

The view from my seat somewhere over the state of Washington. Note Wally on the wing. And that spot in the middle of the photo is not a UFO. I think a speck of dust is trapped on my digital camera sensor. Blurg!

We left St. Louis sometime around 6:00 AM and after changing planes in Denver, touched down in Vancouver sometime just after noon. I thought this was going to leave us plenty of time to enjoy the first afternoon of our vacation, but our bad luck had us arriving with plane loads of foreign Chinese college students coming over from Asia to start the new school year. Add to that, Canadian customs was short-staffed due to the new academic year, as well, as many of their temporary workers had left to go back to school. This left us snaking through a labyrinth of a line serviced by only six custom agents that made anything at Disney World look as short as Gary Coleman in comparison. After about three hours, we finally made it through the imaginary border, and were free to enjoy our vacation.

We were famished, and luckily I spotted a Vera's Burger Shack driving up on our way from the airport to the hotel. Vera's is a place I had read about on Chowhound before I left that was supposed to have some of the best burgers in the city of Vancouver. I don't know if it was our relative hunger at the time or what, but the fresh cut fries were amazing and their Baja Burger was just what we needed. Vera's secret to success is supposedly cooking their food to perfection and using really fresh meat, as they attest to on their logo.

Now perhaps I got too sensitized to double meanings when I got in trouble that day back in my teens, but somehow I think this wouldn't have been appropriate to wear in high school either:

Interpret that as you feel fit.

Maybe we should ask IBM's "Deep Blue" supercomputer what to do...

I'm not sure why I'm so intrigued by what's going on in the Arctic and the melting Northwest Passage, but I imagine there's quite a backdrop for a good movie developing up there. It's sounds like an international gold rush as Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, and the U.S. play what one called "a global chess game." Sounds more like something out of Risk, to me. Unfortunately, the United States seems to be shuffling their feet to get themselves positioned for victory in this match. While Russia is running circles around the North Pole planting underwater flags and such with their 18 icebreakers, the U.S. is struggling to figure out how to keep their own interests safe and secure with an aging fleet of four. Coincidence that Russia has resumed their Cold War-like bomber patrols lately? Maybe Putin knows whats going to happen up there.

A Book Review - Well Sort of ...

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking - catchy title isn't it. This book by Malcolm Gladwell was recently recommended to me, and I took my normal course of action when this happens. I went to the iTunes store to see if the book was also in audio format. I love listening to educational/self development types of books while driving. Zig Ziglar would say I am using my car as a university. I don't know about that, but I do accomplish quite a bit of "reading" this way.

I was able to purchase this book in audio format, and I was drawn in immediately. This book's title fits the content well. Gladwell does a great job of keeping your interest by diving into many different scenarios of people being able to think without thinking. There are many fascinating situations, or case studies rather, that Gladwell presents that reveal this potion of our thinking that happens so quickly that we cannot explain it. He presents it as the thinking that happens in the locked portion of our brain. We all have this ability and we all use this ability, but some people are much better at it than others. One case study refers to the famous (at least in counseling circles) Dr. Gottman's abilities to predict marriage success to 90% accuracy by just sitting down with a couple for one hour. Other case studies include police shootouts, determining if a statue is a fake, and analysis of a recent war game.

I enjoyed this book and I would recommend the audio version to anyone else. I would warn you about the format in which I downloaded it. iTunes has this nice habit of not breaking up the book into logical portions. I got seven and a half hours of material to listen to but only 4 tracks. This makes it more difficult to listen to when I am using an ipod one day and my car stereo the next. There is lots of fast forwarding. I digress though because this is not a review of iTunes audio books.

As the book progresses you begin to feel that there is a little more at the heart of it than just this power. I think that Gladwell had an agenda with the writing of this book, and that agenda deals with racism and sexism. The agenda didn't necessarily turn me off, but it did steer me in a different direction causing me to think about how racism is trapped in my own head without me knowing it. It made me think that while I feel that I am not racist, there is a chance that if I let myself lose control I could just as easily spout off some obscenities like Mel Gibson did. I honestly don't think this would happen, but I do feel like there is some racist programming in the locked unknown portion of my head.

Gladwell does a great job of convincing the listener that we all have the power to think without thinking - easily the strength of this book. This power can serve us well, but at times it can also fail us. Typically the power is consistent in either success or failure. While listening to the book I was constantly thinking to myself that I couldn't wait for him to help me develop this power. Unfortunately, this never happens. I burned 7 discs to help me listen in the car, and when I had finished the 5th disc I pretty much figured out that he was never going to openly reveal how to develop this power. Part of this is my own fault, because I had made up my own title for the book thinking it was Blink: Developing Your Ability to Think Without Thinking. This is a hard thought to change when you don't have the book sitting in front of you. The weakness of the book is definitely this lack of a desired formula. In all fairness though, he never promised this and we all want the easy answers. And for anyone thinking about checking this book out consider this: You can still glean from the book how to do this. I was able to search my head for some really solid applications from all the material. The only problem with that was that I had to think about thinking to get it.

Those were good times ...

Today, I was trying to be clever in an email to some friends. How can you not be clever when you throw in an obscure reference about blue darknuts from The Legend of Zelda? This got me to thinking about how there were a lot of great times together and alone playing this game. This game was probably the first game I could ever sit and watch from the sidelines to pass time and not complain too much. Anyhow, I ended up watching all 9 minutes of this video below without realizing that I had just wasted 9 minutes.


Interesting side note: I never conquered this game. As a matter of fact I rarely conquered any games growing up. I never did it with Super Mario, Zelda, Metroid, the list goes on and on. I came really close on Zelda my freshman year of college, but my Nintendo glitched on me when I made it to Ganon. Already late for class I saved the game. When I came back everything had been wiped clean.

The amazing adventures of my wife, the international fruit smuggler...

The fruit pictured to the right is the longan, a white, fleshy, almost translucent fruit commonly found througout Southeast Asia. If you ever had lychee at a Chinese restaurant, it tastes about the same--very sweet and refreshing, especially when chilled. My wife loves these and will usually get a whole bagful to snack on whenever we're in a big city with a big Chinatown, as they're pretty hard to find outside of a well stocked Asian market. As you can see, there's a thin outer shell you have to peel off before you eat them, and this becomes a problem. You see, she's kind of haphazard about where she tosses these shells, and those peels often end up in other plastic bags we've got with us carrying various knick-knacks we bought while traveling. The last time we went to Vancouver six years ago, a whole bag full of those peels ended up in our luggage when we were crossing back into the U.S. How they got there is still up for debate, but may have had something to do with our rush to pack our bags as we were running late for a bus back to Seattle. MAYBE it was me who tossed them in a suitcase at the last minute, or MAYBE it was her. Anywho, customs spotted the offending contraband in the x-ray scanner, and my wife has since been fined and blacklisted by border control for trying to smuggle in foreign fruit. After coming back from Taiwan a couple of years ago, U.S. customs gave her the evil eye, a stern questioning of what she was importing into the country, and a meticulous hand inspection of all her baggage before letting her through. Meanwhile, I waltzed right through with a friendly wink and a smile to the customs agent, with my luggage only getting a cursory x-ray scan.

Fast forward to last week when we made our most recent trip out of the country to Vancouver. My wife, of course, bought another bag full of longans, but was very careful not to let any stray peels or twigs end up in our bags this time. Going through customs at the Vancouver International Airport on our way home, she proudly exclaimed that she had absolutely no fruits, vegetables, or any part of such produce in her luggage or on her person. She even remembered to toss out the bottle of water she had in her purse before proceeding through the security checkpoint. We returned home to the States without incident and my wife was satisfied that she was now the model citizen.

And what did I happen to find in one of the shopping bags we brought back from Canada full of macadamia brittle and chocolate yesterday? Well, not a longan, but still some fruit--a chocolate-covered strawberry she forgot she left in there. I guess kleptomaniac is the wrong word, but I'm sure there's some word to describe her penchant for inadvertent fruit smuggling. ;-)

It ain't easy doing the right thing...

Taking the moral high ground seems to be a thankless job. No one seems to take notice of the good guy who follows the rules and lets his conscience dictate the choices of his life. Some might actually find such a man naive and downright stupid. In 3:10 to Yuma, we see the life of Dan Evans (Christian Bale) whose choices, led by being the dutiful man, has left him with a dying Arizona cattle ranch and a teenage son who look upon him in shame and embarrassment. To make matters worse, Dan is a cripple after having lost his leg in the Civil War, and his wife (Gretchen Mol) indirectly seems to regard her husband as such. The capture of the infamous outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) provides Dan with the opportunity to earn a little dignity in the eyes of his family, if not some extra money to pay off a bullying land developer who would like nothing more than for Dan's ranch to fail so he can make way for a railroad. Ben is Dan's polar opposite, having no virtues to speak of and a seemingly low threshold for killing his fellow man. The task is to escort Ben to the 3:10 train in a neighboring town that will take him to the prison at Yuma, all the while being chased by Ben's gang led by his right hand man, Charlie Prince (Ben Foster, who played Warren Worthington III/Angel in X-Men 3). The journey provides the backdrop for both Dan and Ben to learn a little more about themselves through each other.

The acting is top notch, although I doubt any of it will be recognized come Oscar time due to the subtleness of it all and a lack of over-the-top dramatic scenes. As I've commented on this blog before, I think Christian Bale is becoming one of the best actors of his generation, and this film is no exception to his growing body of incredible work. He conveys the shame and conflicted feelings of Dan well, and you just want him to succeed knowing he's such a beaten down man. Unfortunately, it's easy to be overshadowed when you're playing the good guy, especially when the charismatic villain is portrayed by Russell Crowe who makes his job look effortless. Is there anyone who can play both sides of the coin better than him? Ben Foster has also been getting quite a bit of praise in the press for his portrayal of the vengeful evil sidekick, and I agree he does strike a pretty scary presence on the screen which seems completely against type for this young up and coming actor.

This being a western, I thought I'd be looking forward to the landscapes of the Old West and the shootouts. But oddly, I found I kept wanting more dialogue time between the Dan and Ben. The final gun fight almost seems to come too quickly, as I felt I wanted to learn more about the two main characters. In fact, if there was any major flaw in this movie, it's that the action isn't all that exciting (although the gun shots are realistically nice and loud). Another minor flaw was a distracting cameo by Luke Wilson in a role that really wasn't that important at all. It's odd that the director would have picked such a recognizable actor for such a small part.

The inclusion of Dan's son William and Charlie Prince also provided a nice contrast to the battle of morals going on with Dan and Ben. William was ashamed of Dan almost to the point of hatred while Charlie seemed to idolize Ben and was determined to free him at any cost. William secretly tags along with the posse on it's way to Yuma not because he cares about his dad's safety, but because he's convinced Dan will be unsuccessful yet again. He's not afraid of facing life on his own because he's felt he's had to already to make up for his father's failures. Charlie, meanwhile, chases after Ben because he's afraid of being alone and can't fathom life without his own "father" leading the group.

In the end, though, this is a tragedy. Even Dan is not immune to what happens when one succumbs to the pressure of one's own pride. His son grows to learn what it is to be a real man, but at a terrible price. Charlie Prince learns his own lesson the hard way. And Ben Wade finally finds his soul. The ending is how it should be, and I walked out of the theater feeling pretty satisfied.

And here I thought my Texas twang wasn't that thick...

Quick question: Do any of you use the phrase "fixin' to?" I seem to use this quite a bit, and it clues anyone here in St. Louis that's paying attention to the fact that I grew up in Texas as it seems it's not a phrase that's widely used in the Midwest. Even my wife chuckles every time I use it, like last night. We also had a discussion about the pronunciation of "catch up" and "ketchup." She pronounces them distinctly different, and they seem to sound like the same word when I say it. Apparently, my linguistic skills run towards the George W. Bush route because she caught me saying "nuk-u-ler" instead of "nuk-le-ar" the other day, as well.

Blue Harvest

Just a reminder, this Sunday, September 23rd on Fox.
Gentlemen, start your Tivo

Just catching up...

I've just finished dealing with another death in the family. It's been a rough year and a half for my Mom's side of the family (probably because I've already buried nearly my Dad's entire side.) This time it was my Uncle Kent, who many of you who've known me since Sleepy Hollow days, will remember was a Colonel in the Army. He would always have a new t-shirt for me from his artillery division whenever he saw me when I was young and made no bones about it, I was his favorite Nephew. Indeed, there were quite a few years in my youth I planned on following in his footsteps. But, things change, people change, and I am most decidedly NOT the boy I once was. I hadn't seen Uncle Kent in quite a few years. Tellulah and I had actually asked he and my Aunt Nancy to go out to dinner with us shortly before this past Christmas, and the time of Noel being what it is, we never got the times to coincide, and that record-breaking blizzard 3 days before hand did not help any. This death was another one that's like a bolt out of the blue, like my Mom's youngest sisters death last year, and my Fathers oh so long ago.
All the family members have returned home now, after a beautiful memorial in a very touching Military tradition. So as things get back to normal yet again, I thought I would take the time to remind all of you how much you mean to me. Our friendships have truly lasted beyond the time when you refer to someone as friend, and simply start referring to them as family. That is truly how I think of all you.

WARNING: Do not view unless you are wearing an adult diaper!

This is the trailer for the Iron Man movie coming in May. As at least Wander will remember, Iron Man was my first favorite super hero, and the character still holds a place in my geeky little heart. So, seeing this trailer I nearly crapped myself. Oh please let this movie not suck.


At least they got a superb actor to play Tony Stark, and one who can definitely play the substance abuse angle from the heart.

Better than The Office?

I'm not sure if anyone caught the Emmy Awards yesterday night (and the numerous jokes made at the expense of Charlie Sheen). The wife and I flipped to it occassionally throughout the night and were mighty pleased to see 30 Rock win for Best Comedy Series giving Tina Fey the opportunity for a little self-deprecating acceptance speech. Too bad such critical praise doesn't translate into guaranteed season renewal. Let's hope it doesn't go the way of Arrested Development and meet an early death.

If you haven't had a chance to watch this show yet, all of the first season episodes are available on DVD or streaming on the NBC website. And if you just want sort of a glimpse, I think Tina Fey's commercial for American Express kind of captures the tone of her show, too:

I'm baaaaack...

Wow, I can't believe I haven't contributed a thing to the blog in over a week. You all might be wondering where I've been (apart from Wander since I have this ritual of e-mailing him from the Denver International Airport every time I pass through on a flight layover--my lame excuse for dropping by, I guess). Well, I'm still alive and healthy. The wife and I took some time off to fly up to British Columbia for a bit. Visiting the very walkable city of Vancouver and the outdoor activity haven of Whistler, I was expecting to be a bit more physical on this trip. Alas, this ended up being more of a "condorcation" instead, as Wild Willie would say.

It's kind of weird laying off the internet for so long. I even managed to shut off the Crackberry for awhile once I crossed the U.S.-Canadian border. Never fear, though. The Cheetah will soon be back up and running at full speed before you know it with all kinds of cheese to distract you from work!

Cheating?

It has come to light that the New England Patriots of the National Football League have been outed as spies. A former assistant coach for the Patriots now is the head coach of the Jets, and he has reported them for their spying tactics. This last weekend the Pats were caught videotaping the defense calling plays, and there was also some suspect radio frequency use during the game. I would speculate that the suspect radio frequency use was due to the illegal communication of video-taper with possibly the play-caller, or it could have been used to eaves drop on the Jets calling their offensive plays.

Maybe it is because I don't have money riding on the games, but I find this both intriguing and exciting. Supposedly ou would do this to Texas. Surely there are other teams that have done the same.

Is it really cheating? My first thought was that this was somewhat hypocritical on my part because of how I see performance enhancing drugs as an unforgivable cheating tactic. My second thought, which was really just a validation of my "thin-slicing" of the situation, was that this was not really cheating. Sure there might be rules against it and that would technically make it cheating, but you can counter it. It is called counter-intelligence. (Heck, why do you think base coaches look like a monkey doing sign language?) And in comparison to drugs, you can't really counter that unless you break rules to do so. Just my thoughts. I would love to hear some feedback on if you think it is cheating or not.

Update [Fri 9/14/07]: I am unsure why, but this topic has me listening for it quite a bit on television. In doing so, I have come to learn that it is not against the rules to try and decipher opposing teams signals. Also, many teams do work at the counter spy tactics. Where the Patriots have gone wrong is that they are using videotape. This is a league violation because the league does not want technology to take over the competitiveness of the game.

If I die before you, don't let this guy come to my funeral.

According to the tag, this is a crack-head singing Amazing Grace (or as he says it, Omazing Grace) at a funeral.



I can't tell if he's high, or if he's just baked himself stupid with the pipe.

Wow! What Swany asks for...

September 7, 2007 - Tobey Maguire may be swapping his Spidey suit to climb inside a giant robot. Casting more doubt on Maguire's future involvement in the continuing Spider-Man film franchise, it's been announced that the actor is producing and may be taking a leading role in Robotech, a live-action flick based on the popular anime series from the 1980s.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. Pictures acquired the rights to the property after a lengthy negotiation, and Maguire will reportedly produce the adaptation under his Maguire Entertainment banner.

"We are very excited to bring Robotech to the big screen," Maguire told THR. "There is a rich mythology that will be a great foundation for a sophisticated, smart and entertaining film."

There's no director attached to the project, but the script is set to be penned by Craig Zahler. Zahler is best known in industry circles for penning a well-received, but as-yet-unproduced script, The Brigands of Rattleborge -- a dark, violent Western picked up by Vertigo Entertainment.

Warner Bros. is envisioning Robotech as a high-profile summer blockbuster.

THR calls the film a "sprawling sci-fi epic," and reveals that it takes place at a time when Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific isle. Mankind is forced to use the technology to fend off three successive waves of alien invasions. The first invasion concerns a battle with a race of giant warriors who seek to retrieve their flagship's energy source known as "protoculture," and the planet's survival ends up in the hands of two young pilots. Maguire would presumably play one of the pilots.

Bush and I are finally on the same page...

Who knew the secret was Grandpa's Wonder Pine Tar soap?

I think Pop Candy has had a post or two about the World Beard and Mustache Championships that took place in Brighton, England a few days ago. The Seattle Times today had a profile of the winner Burke Kenny:

It was a fascination with his father's mustache that motivated Burke Kenny to grow world-class facial hair.

The 22-year-old from Olympia, who had always admired his dad's hirsute experiments, set out to grow something unusual — maybe even exotic — on his own face.

After four years of nurturing his full beard and mustache with a meticulous daily regimen (which includes scrubbing it with Grandpa's Pine Tar soap, paddle brushing and trimming split ends), Kenny's own facial hair was deemed some of the best on the planet.

On Saturday, the Evergreen State College student won top beard honors at the World Beard and Moustache Championship in Brighton, England.

Kenny's sculpted Octopus-shaped facial hair beat out international "bearded friends" to take top honors in the full-beard, styled-mustache category.

The top prize? An engraved beer mug with a mustache guard.

Kenny avoided donning a costume, as many competitors do at the biennial competition, saying, "I love to let the beard speak for itself. I don't like all the frills and gimmicks."

The next championships don't take place until 2009 in Anchorage, Alaska. I figure, that's ample time for Wild Willie to fashion a few trial beards before growing out and styling his piece de resistance for the contest. C'mon, dude--you know you want to do it!

More gadget lust from the wizard in Cupertino...

About a month or so ago, I neglected my iPod and it took a suicidal dive into some Diet Dr. Pepper. It accidentally fell off my lap while I was lounging at the pool, and fell straight into a plastic cup full of soda on the ground. Now, I thought it was amazing that the cup mouth would be exactly wide enough to fit said iPod, and even more miraculous that the thing fell straight into the cup without knocking it over or hitting the cup rim first. Needless to say, it wasn't working after I fished it out only seconds later. I let it "dry out" for a day, but alas, it still was not functioning. In a last ditch effort, I even went and got a Torx wrench to open her up and pretend like I knew how to perform iPod surgery. Somewhere in the process of prying out the battery, however, I got a faint whiff of burning electronics and saw a puff of smoke reminiscent of a Mission: Impossible self destruct sequence arise from its innards. Not good.


I didn't find any remaining moisture in there, but after reassembling it, my iPod somehow came back to life, although severely handicapped with a quarter-functioning click wheel and a really messed up display.

Needless to say, combined with the mars and scratches I inflicted on the casing when prying her open and the fact that it just wouldn't work properly, this was playing major games with my OCD. I'm also worried it might just blow up in my pocket at any minute. Since then, I've been struggling to fight the urge retiring her and just buying a new one. Steve Jobs, however, will not hear of such consumer restraint, and today tantalizes me with not one, not two, but THREE new iPods with which to spend my as-yet-to-be-earned money. I don't know if Steve Jobs is a god or the devil himself.


Oddly, Apple stock closed 5% down today despite the news. Who knew not being able to buy episodes of The Office off of iTunes anymore would have such an impact?

Something tells me this is going to be one of those seasons...

Ralph Barrera (American-Statesman)

I'm still trying to process seeing last weekend's 21-13 final score for the Longhorns' opening game against Arkansas State. Although I didn't get a chance to watch the game, from the post-game analysis I've read, it didn't sound pretty. The defensive secondary still has problems, the offensive play calling was uninspired, and to make matters even worse, Colt McCoy wasn't looking like the redshirt freshman phenom he was last year for the majority of the game. I guess they came out with a win, but it looks like even that might have been helped by an errant call.

I hate to look at next week like this, but TCU has something to prove, and I think they're going to take it out on Texas Saturday. Considering the Indians ran through the Horns for 125 yards of rushing, just imagine what damage the Horned Frogs are capable of. Hey, at least Firecracker George will have something to rib us all about. And to take a little edge of the ensuing hurt, take a look at this Texas tailgater shown on The M Zone blog (NSFW). Perhaps she needs to meet up with that similarly painted up Horned Frog fan.

ESPN's take:

It was over when... Colt McCoy found Antwan Cobb in the end zone with 2:49 remaining in the first quarter. That score was all the lead Texas would need.

Gameball goes to... Jamaal Charles. The junior running back kept Arkansas State's D honest and took the heat off McCoy, rushing for 117 yards and a TD.

Stat of the game... 2-for-13. The Indians had more first downs and total yards and gave up fewer penalty yards and turnovers. But they couldn't convert on third or fourth down.

Admit it--you're bobbing your head, too...

If you haven't given Spoon's latest a listen, here's a catchy video featuring their song, "Don't You Evah" from their album Ga Ga Ga Ga...uh...Ga Ga...um...one, two, three...how many Ga's are there again?

Ah, I could watch Japanese videos all day long:



(via Pop Candy)