Awesome.

It seems a successor to the ubiquitous Chuck Norris Facts meme has arisen. The target? Action movie director Michael Bay.

In the wake of the new Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie a stream of Michael Bay Facts has been pouring out of twitter, and as with Chuck Norris Facts, most are hysterical.

Since Michael Bay Facts mock their target rather than revere him (he really is a shitty director, though I loved Transformers: ROTF), and since Michael Bay will never be bad-ass like Chuck Norris, I’m sure this meme will be quite short lived. With that in mind, get them while the getting is good. I see io9 has posted some of their favorites, and I’d like to do the same.

These are some of my favs:

• jbneal: When you fist-pound Michael Bay, your hand literally blows up.
• MattCox: In some states, it’s illegal to say “Michael Bay” in airports or crowded theaters.
• frontierwoman:To clear a hangover Michael Bay straps a grenade to his head and dives headfirst into empty swimming pools.
• burnflores: Michael Bay doesn’t like gum. He chews C4.
• chris7crows: Michael Bay emerged from the womb with a detonator in one hand and a supermodel in the other. His mother then exploded.
• MattCox: Bomb squad was at the library today. Someone returned Michael Bay’s autobiography.
• jpmccu: Michael Bay’s school film project is lost to the world, as it blew up from awesome. The audience ran away in slow motion.
• DJBullock: Michael doesn’t use a camera to film his movies. He burns the movie into the film using the heat of exploding orphanages.
• And possibly my favorite: mrbs: Michael Bay was preceeded down the birth canal by a dove in slow motion. And followed by a column of flame.

It seems Aimee_B_Loved has become the unnoficial queen of #MichaelBayFacts on twitter with a slew of great ones:

• Michael Bay literally fights fire with fire, but insists token minorities do so with clever, urban-sounding comments.
• Michael Bay sleeps on a bed of hot coals and uses bundles of dynamite as pillows.
• As an infant, Michael Bay had to recast his mother because her breasts weren’t big enough for the part.
• Michael Bay uses battery acid as lube.
• Michael Bay purposely edits out “sissy shit” like plot and character development.

And then some people are just Doing It Wrong:

• ABAwesome: There are approximately 94 people in the USA with the name “Michael Bay”
• Flonk2: Michael Bay was adopted.

See my own paltry (at least by comparison) MichaelBayFacts here, and let me know what your favorites are that I’ve missed, or if you think some up on your own, please share them!

When I first read this, about 2 minutes ago, I shouted “Oh my good f***!” in a room full of strangers:

Boondock Saints 2 is officially filming, right now, in Toronto.

Get more info plus a couple of production diaries over at Geeks of Doom (the above link).

And behind the scenes:

Though I am no scientist, this video claims Aspartame was pushed into FDA approval through shady deals and payoffs, and can cause dozens of illnesses, among them brain tumors and Multiple Sclerosis. At the VERY LEAST, it is important to at least consider how safe this chemical is, and whether you should let your loved ones intake it, even if its a a precaution.

I suggest supporting Tagatose, a functional sweetener that is safe for all diabetics, is 92% as sweet, and has only 38% of the calories.

Heres the trailer for Sweet Misery:

See some more clips on aspartame after the jump:
An excerpt on *dun dun dun* Rumsfeld’s connection to Nutrasweet:

and a Fox news affiliate report that didn’t make it very far:

I though I’d post a little update on what I’ve been up to lately, so here goes.

I’ve been pretty busy with work and school as usual, but for the past two weeks I’ve been on break. The first week Amme and I went up North and visited with the family and friends. I hung out with Evan a few times, but didn’t get to see Jalbey hardly at all… bummer. Hopefully I’ll get to spend more time with them soon.

Last Friday I built a cat tree for our two little hellions to play on, after having seen one in the store for $450!! (Seriously.).

I went to my grandfather’s early in the morning and we cut all the wood and upholstered most of it. I couldn’t fully assemble it because it was way too large to fit in the car for the 3 hour trip back downstate. Once I got it in our apartment and put it together it was a glorious sight to behold, and building it myself saved $440 (I spent $10 on sisal to wrap the posts in and angle-brackets to hold it together). The cats love their new toy and climb all over and scratch at it throughout the day.

Becky and Alex came up over the weekend. We had a great time playing Apples to Apples and went to see the stunning movie 300. I don’t even know how to describe how great that movie is other than to say that every shot could have been a beautiful print in an art gallery, and that the movie as a whole was wonderfully written and stunning to watch. Its definitely a must-see. As Amme put it “That was a great way to kick off the Spring 2007 movie-going season.”

This week was our relaxation week. Other than grocery shopping we’ve pretty much just relaxed and sat on our posteriors. I ended up trading the 2000 Sunfire I’ve been driving for my old ’89 929 because it not only is more comfy, it also passes inspection. Sad isn’t it? I did miss the old 929 though. I’m glad to have it back. In our leisure time we’ve been watching our favorite shows, watching movies, reading books and graphic novels, and wasting our lives away on the internet. Okay, maybe not wasting, but we do spend a lot of time online. I’ve recently started editing Wikipedia in my free moments. I love finding and reverting vandalism, as well as editing articles for neutrality and factual, referenced data. I personally believe that all editors should be required to log in, which would drastically cut down on vandalism, but (as some would argue) cause Wikipedia to lose its “anybody can edit” appeal. I don’t think it would lose anything however, because this would both increase its over-all credibility and still allow anyone to edit it, they just have to quickly create an account (which cuts out a lot of bots and morons who would rather go somewhere else to cause trouble). The internet is just full of too many bots and immature people to have it completely open to editing, IMHO. At any rate, Its a lot of fun to contribute to this amazing project, though I’m not sure why I didn’t start doing this a long time ago.

Today Dad and his friend Brian drove a couch and love seat down to us that Amme’s parents were getting rid of. They actually made the 3 hour (each way) trip just for us, which they didn’t have to do, and we’re immensely thankful for their having done it. Our couch was tattered and uncomfortable, so we’re really excited to have these ones. I think I’m going to sew some slip covers for them tonight if we can find some nice, cheap fabric. I’m pretty handy with the sewing machine, but these will be a first for me. We’ll see how they turn out. I’ll try to post some photos of the cat tree later tonight if I get a chance.

On a more emotional level, I’m getting tired of not being able to get a good-paying job because they all want a full-time employee, which my classes prohibit, but overall life is very good because I’m lucky to have everything I have, and I get to spend every day with the person I love most in life, and makes me the happiest I could ever be. Take care all, its closing time here!

The Bachelor Party

The 20th we had an awesome bachelor party for [Matty] B[lanchete]. Rather than the normal drunken debauchery, we decided to invite the girls and head down to Foxwoods for a weekend of gambling and sight-seeing. Amme, Zach, Doody, Jesse, and Kelly came, and we had a great time.

On the way down we strayed from our directions to go through Providence to hit up this really great vegan resturant I’d heard about called Melanie’s Vegan Eden. Unfortunately once we got to Providence we realized they were closed until 4, and we had to get to our hotel posthaste, so we instead headed to Spice of Life and got some crazy wraps. Doody and I got a gyro with falafel. I never knew what falafel was until I ate it, and it was pretty darn good! B and Kelly enjoyed their veggy wrap, even though it wasn’t anything special, because it had some really good vinegarette sauce on it. The best part of Charleston was when we passed the big sign that said “We Have Hot Weiners!” ROFL *Sigh*, I’ll always have the sense of humor of a 12-year-old boy.

Amme, Kelly, B, and I’s car made our way to the hotel, while Zach and the other’s car had a crazy we’re-lost-and-trying-to-find-the-hotel with the result that when they finally found our hotel, they were experts at navigating the greater Groton, CT area. They knew where to get everything from gas, and groceries to medical supplies and wholesale good.

The hotel had a decent indoor pool so we got settled and went for a swim that ended in us sinking the patio furnature to the bottom of the pool and trying to sit in it anyway. After that we all got spiffied up and headed out to foxwoods.

We had a hell of a time finding vegan food at foxwoods. I’d looked online for vegan resturants, but there was a dearth of them in the foxwoods area and I had assumed there would be vegan options at some of the many many resturants. There were vegan options at some places, like the Hard Rock Cafe, but there was also a 2 hour wait and we were starved! We ended up going to the Golden Dragon chinese resturant, and they ended up having good spring rolls and fried tofu. I know B and Kelly get sick of tofu relatively quickly, but they said it was a good meal. I loved the place because Amme’s mom always gets me ox tail soup when we go there (a korean favorite) and I always scarf it down. Their lo mein is also very light and low-oil. I remember one of the waiters was singing loudly to himself whenever he walked by. That was really entertaining.

After eating our fill, we headed out to one of the many casino floors. We had pooled our money to cover B and Kelly’s expenses as well as some gambling money, so we went and all got some quarters for the slots. Unfortunately B and Kelly didn’t win big, but some of us did!

Doody had no real urge to gamble, and Zach won a few dozen coins, ending up with slightly more than he came with, which is the important thing. Amme didn’t do as well, but didn’t lose much, and came out ahead if you include the money she gave me to bet with, but I’ll get to that. On the other hand, Jesse showed the one-armed bandit who the real swindler was, and won at least two 300 coin jackpots, a 200 coint, and man many 100, 50, and 20 coin spins, all on the same damn machine. He wouldn’t get up from it until he bled it dry. After filling his change cup, Jesse forgot the 2 rules of gambling:

1. The casino always comes out ahead in the end.
2. Don’t get greedy!

Whenever I win a lot, I like to put aside my winnings and continue betting with my original cash until I start a losing streak or lose it all. The machine went cold after his second 300 coin spin, and he ended up spending half his cup, though he still left the casino with at least $70 more than he came with.

I had mixed luck with the slots, and opted to have some fun at the Black Jack table instead. Unfortunately, the smallest tables were $25, and I was *very* apprehensive to place such large bets, but Amme finally convinced me to play at least $25, and she gave me $25 of hers to play too.

I don’t like to play BJ unless I can find a really friendly dealer. I sometimes make mistakes and I like to have fun above all else, so Amme and I walked around until we found a nice lady. My first hand… Blackjack!
“Yeah! Thats the way to start,” I thought. And continued to get face cards for the following 6 or 7 hands, ending up with around $175. Then this pissy, moody, mopey guy took over dealing and after one hand I said no thank you sir.

I walked two tables down and who could it be but my old dealer! I sat down at her table and she asked why I’d moved. I told her I wasn’t feeling it over there and she responded, “Hey, you’ve gotta play where you feel it!”

I should have walked away after $175, but in the mix I forgot for a few seconds my gambling rules, and ended up dropping down to $25, and winning back up to $100 i think. After that I realized I was being a dumb-ass, and walked away. At least I doubled our money, which is what I did last time I played, and coming back with any money more than what you came with is certainly something to celebrate.

After that little run we went to the arcade wanting to play “Target Terror”. Target Terror is a mindless shooting game with live-action sprites. What makes this game amazing is that if, in a given level, you shoot out 20 windows or blow up 10 monitors or 10 oil drums, you get bonus games.
Now be forewarned, these are not your ordinary shoot the tin-cans in 30 seconds games. Oh no.

Level 1 bonus: Turkey Terror – Its duck hunt, but instead of ducks, it’s terrorists throwing frozen turkeys at your ass, and you have to gun the turkeys down. It culminates with a barrage of thousands of english-ass-tonnes of turkey filling the screen like pop-ups on granny’s 233MHz.

Level 2 bonus: I don’t know what it was called, but it’s missle command with parachuting terrorists. not as outrageous, but very fun.

Level 3 bonus: Golden Terror – Think “Golden Tee” but with something gone horribly wrong. Level 3 was as far as we got, but this was by far the best bonus game of the three. In this gem, you hit flaming golf ball bombs at terrorists in golf carts on the driving range. They drive across the screen and you have to blow them up by driving balls at them. But wait, thats not even the best part. If you blow a hole in the ground, they fall in the hole slanted, and then the cart behind them will rev his engine and do a wheelie while peeling out, then jump the fallen cart like Evel Knievel!
I howled and cried with laughter when I first saw this, and could barely shoot the screen between my spasms of giggling. This game is truely wonderful.

Despite my love of Target Terror, they didn’t have it there! The website said they did, but it was nowhere to be found. Regardless, we played a lot of other fun games, and Amme kicked my ass at Need for Speed Underground to the tune of “Get Low”.

The next day we went to Mystic where I got to eat lunch at Mystic Pizza!!! I was soooo thrilled. I really love that movie and didn’t even know it was based on a real location. Everyone there was super nice, and although we couldn’t find vegan food again (there aren’t any within an hour of foxwoods), we did find a good health-food store for B and Kelly to fill up at. Everybody in the town was really nice and it was a cute little town.

Our next stop was Mystic Aquarium. We watched a beluga whale training session, seal training session, and Amme and I petted live rays! They felt really neat, like a rubbery cool piece of leather. It was a lot of fun, but we missed Jesse. He stayed outside because he had electronics homework to do, so he found a nice comfortable tree to sit under and camped out.

All in all, it was a great time. We all had a lot of fun and I’m glad we all got to hang out together. We definately missed Jalbey, Johnny, Evan, and Trevor.

If any of you are semi-long-term readers, you will likely remember my post from almost exactly a year ago about the V for Vendetta movie project. Whether you caught it or not, go ahead and refresh your memory as it’s a short post and has links to introduce new readers to V for Vendetta

The advertising has been pretty extensive, but if you are one to cut yourself off from normal modes of media assailment (I myself don’t listen to the radio and watch little non-downloaded TV, instead getting all of my info from the internet), you may have missed the fact that the theatrical adaptation of the graphic novel V for Vendetta is now playing! I’m going to see it this weekend so I haven’t a review for you right now, but the novel is truely stellar (how could it not be… it’s Alan Moore) , the film was adapted by the Wachowski brothers, and it was directed by James McTeigue who’s assistant directed on Dark City, The Matrix, and Attack of the Clones. As if that wasn’t enough, Natalie Portman is in it. I can see Doody drooling now.

Alan Moore adaptations can be great companions or red-headed stepchildren of their graphic novel counterparts, depending on the screenwriters/directors. For example, From Hell was really good, however League of Extrodinary Gentlemen was not… at all. Let’s hope this one knocks it out of the park.

While on the subject of movies: Serenity was amazing (except they F#@&ing killed Wash!!! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot guys? Jeez… was that really necesary? Anyway…), H2G2 was fun (though I’d like to see more of them made), and will Watchmen EVER be made, and more importantly, made *well*?

Expect a portfolio update with photos of Caribou’s recent amazing frost soon.

Whilst looking through some old un-labeled cds, I came across a little gem I filmed with my friends winter of 2003 and edited into a trailer winter of 2004. Now here, winter of 2005, it seems apropriate I share it with the world.

You can view it in an embedded windows media player viewer here: Embedded WMV Player, but I warn you, It has given some people some trouble (as it may not be a standards compliant activeX control.

Instead, you can direct download the trailer in these formats:

• Divx (9.69MB @ 512×384)
• RM *double shiver* (2.86MB @ 640×480). I suggest Real Alternative player for Windows (Linux and Mac users likely already have a good player).
• WMV (6.72MB @ 400×300). I suggest Media Player Classic for Windows systems (again, Linux and Mac users probably have a player yet).

Loiter is a mockumentary about an underground movement of loiterers that tries to understand what it is all about and why they do it. There are a couple minor tweaks I would like to make to the end of this, as the music just fades out at the end, but I no longer have the source footage so there’s that. I hope you enjoy.

via CNN.com

On the eve of Iraq’s historic election, President Bush took responsibility Wednesday for “wrong” intelligence that led to the war, but he said removing Saddam Hussein was still necessary.

He still states that he was justified and it was the right thing to do, which is bull, but I can’t exactly expect miracles here. The article goes on to state that his aproval rating is at 42%, up 4% from November, which I don’t understand, but I also don’t understand how ID has gotten as far as it has, so logic doesn’t exactly enter into it.

On a side note, I got so furious while reading Atlas Shrugged last night (I’m at the part where Ellis Wyatt, Hammond, and the like are starting to disapear) that I was just fuming at the flood of ignorance and self-serving hypocracy. I though I was going to punch something. It’s amazing what an affect a novel can have on a person. The way people like Hank Rearden’s “wet nurse” pervert the English language into a babbling, meaningless bastardization makes me sick.

Also, I was wondering when this would happen. I don’t know whether I should be terrified or thrilled. The novel has a lot of internal emotional dialog, like 2001: A Space Odessy, which, while written at the same time as the movie was being written, doesn’t make any sense in movie form. Will the Atlas Shrugged movie be the same, turning into a bastardization of its novel form? We all know that a movie has NEVER been made that lived up to the book it was based on. I personally think that certain distinguished litterary figures or professors should have input into the creation of such a monumental film as this one. If only Ayn could have written the screenplay herself, as she did with The Fountainhead.

Rioting broke out in France’s suburbs 11 days ago, and is still going strong, spreading to at least 300 towns. Gangs of people are throwing Molotov cocktails into shops and commercial buildings, setting dumpsters on fire, as well as cars: 250, then 315, 500, and now, tonight, it has reached new heights with a total of 1400 cars set ablaze, and the injury of 30 policemen.

Why? Why are these people destroying their towns? Some blame it on “civil unrest”. Some on blame it on a generation of immigrant’s children feeling a lack of identity. I have a better name for it:
Zombies.

Who hasn’t seen Dawn of the dead, or any other George Romero movie? Public officials always try to rationalize it as “rioting”. “Eating human flesh? No no, they were merely attacking people by using their teeth and hands.”

Don’t be fooled, though. What else could cause a “riot” to spread to 300 towns and suburbs? Would a rioter run miles between towns to find some people and say “Hey man, we’re rioting across the country, come join in!” or is it more likely that someone has infected his neighbour who in turn infected his neighbour who in turn infected his neighbour, ad infinitum?

Its spreading, don’t be caught off guard.

Back in April Kuro5hin ran a great article entitled How to Survive a Zombie Attack .
I suggest you all read it, now!

Initial preparations incliude:

First, get to know the guy in town who bought a pallet of Spam to survive Y2K. He probably still has a ton of that stuff around, and knows all the good hiding places.

Next, scout out all the big box retailers that carry ammo and food. Not too many eh? Tough luck, blue-stater. Someplace like WalMart is ideal, especially with the Garden Center for seed and stuff for longterm survival. A big bonus would be a nearby Home Depot or some such place so you can get plenty of lumber and quick-mix concrete for fortification.

While you’re preparing, always keep in mind locations where people congregate – you’re likely to find lots of zombies there when things turn ugly. Highways, malls, and schools are especially bad. You also might want to mention to your friends and family in passing how well your hiding place could be defended, etc. That way, when the zombies come, they’ll remember you said that and come help you. I don’t recommend telling them you’re preparing for a zombie invasion.

Also of interest is this well-researched Straight Dope answer to “When the zombies take over, how long till the electricity fails? ”

Even if this isn’t the begining of the dead walking the earth, you can never be too prepared for that eventuality. Get to it, boy scout!

Thats right, V for Vendetta is being made into a movie! I’ll read any graphic novel handed to me if Alan Moore had a hand in writing it, seeing as he’s written nearly every one of my favorites: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, From Hell, Watchmen (my all-time favorite), and of course, V for Vendetta. So naturally I was floored when I heard this. Moore and David Lloyd did an amazing job with this one, and it has the potential to be a great movie, so I hope I’m not let down (LXG was sooo disappointing!)

The Wachowski Brothers and Joel Silver are heading up the film, with Natalie Portman playing Evey (she’s perfect for it), and James Purefoy as V. Filming is underway on location in Berlin and London.

I’m also dying to see the Firefly movie Serenity, and H2G2

For more about the V for Vendetta graphic novel, see here.

PS: My auto-close comments plugin closed this post, but yes, I *did* read Watchmen at Baba’s in Virginia. It believe it was the first (non comic-book sized) graphic novel I ever read.

Why Bush deserved to win, and why that’s a good result.

Iraq is a mess. The idea of “winning” there is a waste of time, but nobody wants to admit the reality. Everybody says, “we can’t just pull out.” But that’s exactly what’s going to happen eventually, Kerry or Bush in office, it doesn’t matter. For reference, look up Afghanistan with the soviets, Vietnam with the US, India with the British, etc., this isn’t exactly an original movie, pay attention to some basic history. Better to have it happen under the same evil prick that started it…

For years now the women’s movement has turned into a pissing contest with men. Even songs like “Anything you can do, I can do better” with a male female duet leads us to think that women and men are potentially equal. I’ve been questioning this lately, due to a recent run in with a “feminist.” I was slightly distraut to find out that she didn’t like men at all, not
even if they were, like me, wonderful individuals with open minds. No, no, in fact I was even worse because I obviously wanted sex. This is where I got confused. If I wanted to have sex with a Women dressed like a man,wouldn’t I just have sex with myself? See there is a difference in men and women.
If there wasn’t, sexual orientation, dating, and lots of psychology books wouldn’t exist. If men and women were the same we’d be able to make our own babies, thus doing away with all the ritualistic crap we do to find a mate to get us “there.” So, “what,” you ask, “are the differences between men and women?” Well aside from the physical differences, women pay much more attention to detail, they are more nurturing due to hormones and brain development, they are sensitive to feelings and ideas. Men on the other hand see a finish line, and can get there. We do something because there’s an outcome. Women like the journey. To the pressing point: Why do women act like men to further their gender? Well it’s all quite simple. Do you remember in High School when that one kid changed how he looked all the time to look like a cooler kid. The cooler kid did nothing
but laugh at the dweeb, why? because the cool kid knew imitation is the best form of flattery.
See women are intimidated by men, because they know that we are AWESOME! I mean seriously
without men there would be no Rocky movies, or kick ass guns. I’m all about women being individuals and successful etc, but I also think it’s time for women to stop trying to be men and to
embrace their own roles. All of the copycatting from women to men, is really flattering, but at the same time, I’d much rather sleep with a hotty totty with a naughty body than myself. So Feminists out there, thank you, really, thank you, for letting us know how Kick Ass men really are, but put on a pretty dress now and then.

On a tangent thats parallel with the latitude line where that thing happened with that guy that one time in the place with the thing doing that stuff:

Defective Yeti decided there should be a March Madness Cinematic SuperVillian. My personal favorite is Verbal Kint vs. HAL 9000. Verbal would totally fu$k up his logic, but HAL might possibly one-up him.

Scratchmedia has a wonderful web design tutorial page, I suggest all budding designers check it out.

If you are looking for a new digicam, if you are thinking about getting a new digicam, if you don’t know if you can afford a new digicam, if you family member, friend, or pet is looking for a new digicam, hell if your spidey-sense tells you a total stranger that passes you on the street is looking for a digicam, GO TO Steves-digicams.com. You will never see a more in-depth digital camera review site ANYWHERE on the net. C’mon I dare you. I double dog dare you! Can’t do it can you? Nope. Didn’t think so. This place has about 6 pages of review per camera, and hundreds of cameras, plus printers and accessories. They have close-up photos, sample photos, even 360 degree VR tours of the cameras. They show better specs than the maufaturer’s sites, and have links to the best deals on them.

If you feel the need for this bed, I think your money would be better spent on a psychiatrist for paranoid schizophrenia. Unless, of course, you are vacationing in Iraq.

Homeland Insecurity Advisory System is a website that lets you rate the U.S. Government’s threat level:

The Homeland Insecurity Advisory System (HIAS) is a public rating system that allows people from across the globe to determine the US Government’s Threat Level by collectively rating RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) feeds from major US news sources. Turning the “Homeland Security” threat level on its head, the HIAS system will allow the people to collaboratively challenge this internally determined (and seemingly arbitrary) threat condition by rating each major US news source according to its support level for or against the US Government’s actions.

If you’re wardriving, or just need to find some free internet, check wifimaps.com before you venture out.

Our application displays stunningly detailed interactive street-level maps of the US and of the World, with triangulated access-points from wardriving data. We provide searching for MAC, station name, US state, or by geographic region.

If you consider yourself a photographer, you know about lomography, or ‘lomo’ (which roughly sounds like the last half of “f#$k your mother” in Cantonese). I’ve been a fan of lomography for a long time, I like shooting from the hip with my T616 (no not like that kid at safeway ). Its a really interesting artform, so if you’re interested go check it out at lomography.com

I’ve spent hours reading all the how much is inside articles at cockeyed.com. This guy definately leads an interesting life. His Incredable Creations are also really entertaining. His writing is hillarious. Take, for example, these two excerpts from How Much is Inside a Pack of Rolling Tobacco:

There are two reasons people smoke cigarettes. The first reason is to support their federal, state and local governments with vast amounts of tax revenue.
…
Having traveled all over the globe as a child, Steven became an expert at “origami”, the ancient Japanese art of cigarette rolling.

I’m on a quest to find a list of all the different Tech/ Geek/ Anime/ Comic conventions that go on throughout the year. So far all I have is

• defcon
• HOPEcon
• boggercon
• dragoncon
• comic-con
• sakura-con
• FanimeCon
• Oni-Con

Anyone know of the kind of site I’m looking for?

This new incarnation has a thinner base, larger face and shoulder buttons, a stylus slot, and stereo speakers. It seems for once Nintendo actually addressed the concerns of consumers, though I still think the screen resolution is way too low. Plus, a second screen is more of a novelty, with most of its usefulness lying in RPG inventories and mini-games. I guess I’m most excited for the games: Super Mario 64×4, Animal Crossing DS, Dynasty Warriors, Mario Kart DS, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, Sonic, and Viewtiful Joe to name a few I’m salivating over. Eurogamer has the full E3 games list, as well as hi-res photos of the unit, and their reviews of the demos.

Theres only one problem. Thats right, the PSP is going to pwn the fork out of all other handhelds. Oh god, its so sexy it hurts to look at: 16:9 ratio TFT LCD wide screen, 480 x 272 pixel (16.77 million colors), 802.11b, wait, b? why not g? hmm…, USB 2.0, sony memory stick (of course) compatable, and bad ass Universal Media Disc format games, which will undoubtedly allow one to use it as a portable movie player as well. This unit will offer 3D-CG that game-boys just never do. They still use the shatty low-res screens… *sigh”

Theres another flip-flop though: The PSP has 12 titles lined up for its release year. The DS has more than 120 in development by more than 100 companies. 20 titles are by nintendo alone. So yeah… FACE!

The movie I, Robot was originally a spec script, titled “Hardwired,” by screenwriter Jeff Vintar. It was later infused with elements from Asimov’s short stories and retitled after Davis Entertainment aquired film rights to it from the Asimov estate.

As an avid reader, one has to realize nobody will EVER perfectly reproduce a great story or novel as a film. It can’t be done. Something always gets horribly fu$@ed up. Look at Dreamcatcher: 130 minutes of pretty damn good work, and 6 minutes at the end of classic hollywood bullshit that left me crying in the corner of the theater. This leads me to view movies, like i tried with I, Robot, with the very critical Sci-Fi loving part of my personality bound, gagged, and in my trunk. Because if I tried to review this movie as being “based on a novel”, not only would it look immature and ignorantly stupid, it would, frankly, look exactly like this.

However, I MUST take into account the fact that the idea of robots becoming violent is exactly Asimov was writing against in his work as an author. Indeed the act of placing the three laws into his stories forced him to write more complex plots, with robots who were more then just weapons. They had personalities, human-like traits, and sometimes, feelings.

So… the verdict? They shouldn’t have called it I, Robot, because it didn’t do the story justice. It should have been like Minority Report, where it was based, from the start, on a short story. Instead, they used the popularity of the stories to draw a crowd to a movie that had only four similarities to the stories:

• The title, “I, Robot”
• It boasts The Three Laws
• Asimov has a writing credit
• It has a character named “Susan Calvin”

Yep, thats about it.
So as a movie, it was good, no big stereotypes, the CG was impeccable, and the script wasn’t a bloated P.O.S.
I was riveted through most of it, and it really drew me in. It was quite well made.
However, I still think it was false advertising and they should have left the script as it was in 1995.

You can read further about the evolution of the I, Robot script here.

And yet, people such as Rush Limbaugh say its “a pack of lies”, solely because it conflicts with their view of our world.
Hey, nobody ever said “Michael’s views are divine”. Just be openminded enough to watch someone else’s POV and maybe you’ll walk away a little more aware of the state of our country. Also, people are bitching about not going to see the movie to make Moore rich. Well, he was rich before, and I see nothing wrong with someone making money, especially when, in the process, it tells some truth. Would people be more inclided to believe him if he used all that money to feed some Iraqi orphans??