Random Access

Item One: I just found out, by way of , that Keanu Reeves will be portraying Spike Spiegel in the upcoming live-action Cowboy Bebop movie. (Details here.) While his rough/stilted acting(?) style didn’t really hurt his portrayal of John Constantine in the movie that thankfully was not called Hellblazer (because maybe they’ll try again someday… and get it closer to “right”), I just don’t see him pulling off the cool and casual swagger of Spike.

The conversation went like this:

[12:54] :  http://io9.com/5132554/neo-goes-bebop
[12:54] : No.
[12:54] : No.
[12:54] : Just…. No.
[12:54] : DO NOT WANT
[12:56] : why stop there, really?
[13:00] : vin diesel could play jet black.  lindsay lohan as faye.  tom cruise as vicious.  bjork as edward.
[13:00] : the taco bell chihuahua as ein.
[13:01] : (marketing tie-in)
[13:01] : You’re not making it any better.
[13:03] : i’m only doing it to cover up the sobbing inside.
[13:05] Tears of a Clown to Bebop fans everywhere…

Item Two: Is it just me or does Google Chrome’s icon look like it was separated at birth from HALO‘s 343 Guilty Spark?

. and  

Namaste.

Wednesday – 08 July 2009
The work week is half over. Selah.

Tonight is Corps Encore in Ogden; I don’t think that I’ll be attending this year.

Stray Toasters

• I have a couple of new building designs in mind for ‘Clix.
• SaraRules posted a couple of interesting links:
  • ViewMaster Wedding Invitations
  • Nothing will stop… THE WEDDING
• 
• By way of Eric: Quote of the Day: Walter Williams on Slavery
  Don’t forget to click on the “Click here” link at the end of the post – it’s worth it.
• Interracial Roommates Can Reduce Prejudice
• From comes: Why Just 2 Seconds of Transformers 2 Took 3 Months to Complete
• Casting Caution Aside as Violetta
• Senator Hatch suggests Justice Department look at BCS
• Monkeys recognize ‘bad grammar’, not to be confused with Nelly’s Country Grammar

• From NPR Music: Summer Road Trip: Songs for Speed and Spirit
• Guerilla swimming pools made from dumpsters
• Five Things Google’s Chrome OS Will Do for Your Netbook

Namaste.

Tuesday: Coda
I meant to record today’s lunchtime gym excursion, but work got in the way. (Imagine that…) But, nevertheless, Wes and I went for a brief workout today:

• Leg Curls: 1 set/10 reps, 60 lbs
• Leg Extensions: 1 set/10 reps, 65 lbs
• Sit-ups (decline): 3 sets/15 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs
• Chin-ups: 3 sets/10 reps (80 lbs assisted)
• Flys: 3 sets/10 reps, 120 lbs
• Lower Back Extensions: 3 sets/15 reps, 160 lbs

Post-workout weight: 185.6 lbs

The chin-ups, something I haven’t done since I worked in A.F., were pitiful. Seriously bad. But, I did all three sets… for better or worse.

After dinner, SaraRules accompanied me to South Jordan and The District. I was in search of a foamcore cutter by Foamwerks and Hobby Lobby was the only place that was still open tonight that had them. I found the cutter I wanted and foamcore (50% off!). We took the scenic route back home.

SaraRules picked up Knowing from Redbox; both of us had an interest in seeing it, but we missed it at the theatre. After seeing it, all I can say is: It was…

…a mess.

Honestly, that’s the best way to describe it. It was:

• One part suspense movie
• One part sci-fi/alien movie
• One part faith-based/religious movie

Blend well.
Serve with a garnish of Nicolas Cage.

I honestly don’t know HOW to rate this movie. It had a few good parts, but it just… fell apart. And the end was completely unsatisfying. Actually, I take that part back – it was the perfect concept video for Styx’ Come Sail Away. So much so that I was surprised that the music didn’t crescendo from the classical-sounding music into Come Sail Away.

Wow.

Maybe David Letterman and Craig Ferguson can fill the void.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 07 July 2009
Waking up this morning wasn’t exactly “the easiest” thing to do. I delayed it a bit, but still managed to be at work by 8:00. George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic provided the soundtrack to the morning commute.

I talked with Rana for a bit last night; she’s about seven weeks from giving us Niece or Nephew #2; Adam and Chelsea provided Nephew #1 last year. A little later, SaraRules and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. By the time it was all said and done, we had put in a little under 1.75 miles. It was a nice change of pace.

Stray Toasters

• July 7, 1752: Jacquard’s Loom Will Weave a Durable Web
• Clock will strike 04:05:06 07/08/09 tomorrow
• The Craziest Costume Changes in Comics
• What do you get when you mix comics and alcohol: Reno Superhero Crawl

  

• Classic Arcade Games Recreated Using Stop-Motion Animation of LEGO bricks
• Straight out of the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Shmucks of the Week: The threesome from Hell
• Some iPhone owners crave freedom to unlock from AT&T
• 
• By way of comes 11 Yearbook Photos that Musicians Wish We’d Never Seen
  Having seen this, I was compelled to click on the following links:
  • 11 Most Ridiculous DMX Moments
  • 11 Songs About Different Lengths of Time
• Pez Candy Inc sues Museum of Pez Memorabilia for copyright infringement
• U.S. Hospitals offer $155 billion for health reform: report

Namaste.

Monday – 06 July 2009
A new work week begins. Not too oddly, when the alarm went off this morning, I didn’t want to get out of bed. However, “Time and tide…”

Yesterday, SaraRules and I went out so that I could do a little shopping. While out, we stopped at a 7-11 and tried the “Liquid Artillery” Slurpee^®, their fourth movie tie-in flavor in the past two months. After that, we had coffee with Perry, followed by dinner with SaraRules’ family. After dinner, we watched Futurama: Bender’s Big Score. It was fun, but more like an extended episode of the show.

Once we got back home, I logged into City of Heroes while SaraRules did some quilting. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a team to join, so I mostly wandered through Paragon City. After game/quilting time, we watched a movie left over from Bad Movie Night: Undead or Alive – a zombie western. It was fun… and funny. In fact, one of my favorite parts of the movie came in the first minute (maybe minute-and-a-half) of the film – during the intro text. It wasn’t a “great” movie, I’d still put it on the Cool World/Long Kiss Goodnight Scale, but it’s probably an 8 or 9 on that scale. (Man, I really need to figure out an image to use for the CW/LKG Scale…)

Stray Toasters

• sent a link to “Blasted Behavior,” which features the Star Wars characters… in therapy.

• This weekend’s Riverwalk Jazz featured an adaptation/interpretation of The Wizard of Oz. While listening to it, I realized that I have never read that book.
• I just received confirmation that my new jersey has shipped. I had been thinking of getting a new one for a while, but hadn’t committed to it. Steve McNair’s passing cemented the decision.
• Manchester’s steampunk difference engine adventure
• Ex-Pentagon chief McNamara dies
• 
• I’ve finally started reading American Psycho.
• Insane Sarah Palin, Late At Night On July 4, Threatens To Sue Entire Internet, Via Twitter
• Fellow students smell your exam fear
• This post has been brought to you by the letters “D” and “X” and the number “7.”

Sunday – 05 July 2009
Yesterday was another mostly lazy day in the valley. I slept in (a little) and then made my way into the living room, where I started reading American Psycho. I’m only 20 or so pages in, but I’m enjoying it so far. After SaraRules woke up, we had breakfast and headed to the gym:

• Leg Extensions: 3 sets/10 reps, 60 lbs
• Leg Raises: 3 sets/10 reps, 60 lbs
• Glutes (Kick-backs): 3 sets/10 reps, 70 lbs
• Flys: 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs
• Lower Back Extensions: 3 sets/15 reps, 160 lbs
• Lat Pull-downs: 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs
• Forward Lat Raises (w/ rotation to the side): 3 sets/10 reps, 15 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Sit-ups (decline): 3 sets/15 reps

On the way home, we stopped at SaraRules’ parents’ so that she could get a recipe for coffee cake. (More on this below.) We had a lazy aftenoon. For dinner, we headed to Outback Steakhouse – I had been craving Aussie Cheese Fries and decided to fulfill that desire. They – and the rest of dinner (prime rib, salad, baked potato) – were just what the doctor ordered.

We headed up to Eastwood Elementary School to watch the Sugar House Park fireworks display. When we returned home, SaraRules put in Clash by Night, featuring a pre-The Big Valley Barbara Stanwyck as well as Marilyn Monroe.  I was distracted/put off by some of the storyline, but it was a decent movie.

I’m not sure what I want to do today. I have an option on playing ‘Clix with Chris and , but I’m not sure that I’m in the mood for it. (I know…!) I wouldn’t mind playing a little City, either. Or even Marvel Ultimate Alliance. And there are a couple of new ‘Clix building designs running through my head that I need to get onto paper, too.

The Best: The Man Who Sold the World
David Bowie vs. Nirvana vs. Lulu

David Bowie released this song in 1970. And it was good.
Lulu, possibly best known in the States for To Sir, With Love, did a cover in 1974.
Nirvana, a band I’ve never really been a fan of, covered the song in 1993.

I’ve liked the Bowie version since I first heard it, many moons ago.
I thought that the Nirvana cover was… decent, but didn’t really do anything “different” to put their own spin on it.
I heard the Lulu version yesterday, for the first time.

My rankings for the versions:

1. David Bowie
2. Nirvana (I know, this surprises me, too.)
3. Lulu

Stray Toasters

• Former NFL QB Steve McNair found shot to death
  • Baltimore Ravens respond to the news
  • Titans Coach, Jeff Fisher, comments
    
• Getting a summer job: Entrepreneurship for teens
• Fritz Lang directed Clash by Night. He also directed Metropolis, which I own and still need to watch the last forty or so minutes of.
• Personal details of new UK spy chief on Facebook
• It’s snake-eyes for Atlantic City for time being
• I am three weeks behind on Four-Color Coverage.
  This is both an observation… and a warning.
• Disney World monorail crash kills driver
• Michael Jackson book a headache for Jackie O
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Insane Sarah Palin, Late at Night on July 4, Threatens to Sue Entire Internet

Namaste.

04 July 2009
Today is Independence Day in the U.S. Let’s all take a moment to thank The Fresh Prince and The Fly for repelling the alien invasion that threatened to destroy all human life on Earth.

Yesterday was a very lax day for SaraRules and me. That lasted until mid-afternoon, when we did another round of “Closet Cleanout.” We have five or six bags of significant size full of clothes that are ready to go to The Salvation Army.

Before coffee, we visited Kate, Perry and the kids. They were having a cookout with some of their neighbors, which may have also included a few pyrotechnics. From there, it was on to Clitorati. There were nine or ten of us there.

Stray Toasters

• Nine reasons to celebrate America
• Schoolhouse Rock! Fireworks

• Part of last night’s coffee conversation centered around the question: “Are the crunchy bits inside a fig seeds or wasps?” pointed out that they are, in fact, wasp larva. This prompted a little more investigation. How Stuff Works (not too surprisingly) has an article called Are Figs Really Full of Baby Wasps?, which serves up a more complete truth on the matter.
• Alaska Governor Palin to resign
• 
• Compuserve Shuts Down
• Venice rolls out citywide wi-fi
• Blade Runner Tokyo (in Large-Format Photography)
• Spunky Kitty Style

Have a safe and enjoyable holiday!

Namaste.

Friday – 03 July 2009
Last night, we went out to dinner with SaraRules’ family, to celebrate her mother’s birthday. Post-dinner, we headed to her parents’ house for a birthday cake pie – a rich, multi-layered chocolate affair that SaraRules made from scratch, including a crust made from crushed nuts. It was very good and VERY rich.

Back at home, we vegged. After watching a bit of TV… and having the TV watch me, as I nodded off on the couch… I finished up my new ‘Clix building.

Sleep was intermittent; it felt like I woke up eleventy billion times during the night.

Stray Toasters

• One of the designers from WorldWorks Games is a Transformers fan. He still is, even after seeing the new movie; but he wrote a review that made me smile.
• NAACP comic from early 1960s
• WHO warns swine flu ‘unstoppable’
• Opus Dei: Separating fact from fiction
• 
• Tower of Power and Spyro Gyra will be here next weekend for the Salt Lake City International Jazz Festival
• Statue of Liberty photoshopping contest
• How to Perform a Trebuchet with a Butterfly Knife
• Ript: The dude equivalent of a padded bra

Right on to the…
…well, it’s a day off, so I don’t anticipate a lot of friction.

Namaste.

Thursday – 02 July 2009
Today has been… a day. It hasn’t really been “hellish,” so to speak, but there has been a lot going on. However, there is a plus side to the day: IT is having “Team Jersey/T-shirt Day” and we’re having ice cream (with cookies and toppings and waffle bowls).

Last night, I got the roof on the lobby of the new ‘Clix building and the water feature in front of the building. It required buying a new set, Seaworks: Atlantis, but I realized that I can now make the “Great Arena” Map in 3D using parts from the Atlantis kit.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules and I went for a walk yesterday evening. While out, we stopped at Red Mango; I had a yen for a Green Tea Yogurt. I discovered something… horrible: Red Mango no longer makes/carries the Green Tea Yogurt.
• Neverland could rival Graceland as tour attraction
• , with a generous donation from the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file, sent a link to this: Universal Lands Rights to Asteroids Movie
• LEGO’s Temple of Adorable Doom
• 
• An exciting stats website? Believe it
• It’s raining again.
• Speaking of which, SaraRules noted that Salt Lake City had 17 days of rain in June.
• SurvivalStraps Survival Bracelet

Namaste.

Wednesday – 01 July 2009
A new month begins… with a brief rain shower.

Yesterday, SaraRules, Marci, Wes and I hit the gym at lunchtime for a short workout:

• Sit-ups: 3 sets – 20/10/10
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs
• Incline Chest Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 80 lbs
• Reverse Flys: 3 sets/110 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs

Post-workout weight: 185.4 lbs

Last night, SaraRules and I watched Vantage Point, by way of Netflix’ “Instant Queue” on the 360. Streaming movies on a game console… over the Interwebs.  Who knew?! The movie depicts the attempted assassination of an American President from eight points of view. It was an interesting concept and it was pulled off fairly well. We realized, after the movie was done, that this was the second consecutive movie that we’ve seen with Forest Whitaker in it wherein his character’s life intertwines with other characters’ lives in an unusual synchronicity, the first being The Air I Breathe.

After the movie, I did a little more work on my ‘Clix building. All of the walls are up, now I just need to put the main roof and the lobby roof on and add a few tiles of water and it will be complete.

This morning, I really didn’t want to get out of bed when the alarm went off. But, I did. And took care of the morning hygiene rituals. And, as I was finishing with the work-prep, I turned on the TV… and Breakin’ was on. And, yes, I did stop and watch a bit of it.

Stray Toasters

• sent me a link to Star Trek Look-Alikes Open Restaurant
• Greek mental care failures exposed
• From NPR Music:
  • A Mix for America
  • What the Heck Is That? Odd Instruments in Jazz
  • Jay Smooth: On Hip-Hop, Blogs and Race
• By way of Rachel:

  
  (click image for larger version)

• There’s a good article on ToyChop called “Good Fences,” about house rules for barriers in HeroClix.
• By way of and the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: “I was not prepared to see a… woodland creature… in the interview room.”
• 

• Tables turned on Russian gamblers
• dot.life: Listening to Mr. iPhone
• Also from Nyx… and the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: GOP Rep. to Environmentalists: Jesus Already Saved the Planet

Namaste.

Tuesday – 30 June 2009
It’s the last day of June. I’m sure that this is important – or at least “notable” – for many reasons, but prime among them is the fact that the new IKEA bible catalog will be out soon.

Last night, we had a tasty dinner with SaraRules’ family. After dinner, and some errand-running, we headed home for some downtime. I started putting together walls for my new ‘Clix building. Of the eight main walls, I have five complete; the last three should go much faster. Then I can start in on the “lobby” section, which should go quite quickly. I’m looking forward to getting it completed.

This morning, I was at work at 0700. One of our teams has a couple of days’ worth of meetings and we had to get some networking ready for it. So, loonybin88 and I were in here – neither bright-eyed nor bushy-tailed – to get it taken care of.  Naturally, while we were wrapping up the setup, there was a pushy monkey who wanted to have something done his way; little did he know that he was mere moments away from having the closest live power cord plugged into a place neither God, Mother Nature nor Darwin ever intended for it to go. *sigh* Monkeys, go figure.

Stray Tourists Toasters

• June 30, 1953: Corvette Adds Some Fiber, Flair to American Road
• I have frozen mocha goodness!  And a bagel!
• L.A.’s vegan restaurants are full of egg
• Tourist Remover photoshops stray tourists out of your snaps
• Great Geek Debates: Kirk vs. Picard
• Did I mention “monkeys?”
• Jackson’s Death Puts Lucrative Beatles Copyrights In Play
  The man may have been… “odd,” to say the least, but he was a great entertainer. I had forgotten that he had a major share of the rights to many/most of the Beatles’ music catalog. I was also unaware of this performance of Come Together until yesterday:

• U.S. ‘concerned’ over cyber threat
• Force of Nature: Artist Puts Petal to the Metal for Electrifying Images
• Lord of the Rings considered as a D&D game (webcomic)
• Super Small, Super Powerful Quantum Processor Can Solve Multiple Problems at Once
  (Repeat after me: “SkyNet is now online…”)

Right on to the friction of the day…

Namaste.

Monday – 29 June 2009
We opted not to go back to the Utah Arts Festival yesterday and enjoyed a lazy day at home.  It was rather nice. When SaraRules asked me what I wanted for dinner, I had an idea: Grilling some steak and/or chicken. The more I thought about it, the better it sounded. And that’s what I did: Steak, chicken, corn on the cob, zucchini, mushrooms and red peppers. They turned out well.

Logan came over and joined us for dinner; we watched Aliens while we ate. After that, the three of us played Trivial Pursuit. (I really need to get some updated cards for the game…) When we played, we kept our wedges in our respective corners and used HeroClix figures as our playing pieces:

• SaraRules used Wonder Woman,
• Logan used The Riddler and
• I used the custom GL John Stewart figure that Perry made for me a while back.

The “Literature” category of the Genus Edition often kicks my trash; last night, the universe threw me a bone, almost literally, when I was going for the brown wedge:

What is the name of Superman’s dog?

I couldn’t believe it when Logan asked the question; I thought he was kidding. Then he reread the question. It gave me a good laugh when I answered: “Krypto.” I was so amused by the question that I switched my game piece to my Krypto ‘Clix, because I could… and because it amused me to do so.

After the game, Logan and I played through a board of HALO3. After seeing the amount of crap that we had to wade through, I was happy to have the help.

After Logan left, I started working on a new building for HeroClix City, based on a design that I came up with on Friday. I knew that I was going to have to adapt the building faces to fit the design, but I thought that three of them would be the same. Nope. Two of them are, the third one was much easier to work with. I’m also going to have to work out the details of five other faces. We’ll see how it shapes up.

So far, today’s been a good – and relatively quiet – day. There haven’t been any major fires to put out. There haven’t been any monkeys to beat down. Not a bad way to kick off a Monday and a holiday week.

Stray Toasters

• Yesterday was the first time I’ve fired up my grill in two years, I think. The igniter on the grill wasn’t working, so I had to use a camp stove lighter to kick things off. Great theory and nominally good application… aside from the fact that I had turned up the gas “a bit” too high and wound up creating a small fireball that singed the hair off the back of two of my fingers.
• In a related note: I went online to look for the manual for the grill – I need to know how to repair or replace the igniter. Sears has 119 of them posted. I looked at all of them, but only found two (2) that look close to my grill. I’ll have to compare and contrast them when I get home.
• 13 year old kid reviews 30 year old Walkman
• showed us the trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG.
• Google Mistook Jackson Searches for Net Attack

That’s good for now.

Namaste.

Sunday – 28 June 2009
Last night, I came home from poker night at OnlyAly and ‘s to find that I was far more tired than I had realized – I was starting to nod off a little after midnight. I called it a relatively early night.

I woke up a little after 0900. So far, I haven’t done much other than surf and watch Boneyard on The History Channel. This episode is entitled “Railroads,” so it’s pretty much held my attention for the past forty-five minutes.

Today, we don’t have much on tap. We’re considering heading back to the Utah Arts Festival later this afternoon. Before that, I may try to assemble a new building that I designed for my ‘Clix city… and/or play some HALO3. I realized something last night – I never finished HALO2, so I have that to look forward to when I’m done with H3.

Namaste.

We just got back from seeing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

This is going to be a two-part review:

1. The first part will be more of a synopsis and spoiler-free.
2. The second part will be more in-depth and chock full of spoilers.

Consider yourselves duly warned.

Part One: Synopsis
We took a HUGE hit for the team on this one. The movie was bad. Really bad. Not as bad as… The Spirit, but it’s still on the lower end of the Cool-World/Long Kiss Goodnight Scale.

Save a little piece of your childhood.
Save your money.
Save your time.

If you find that you absolutely must see this movie, wait for it to come out on Netflix or Redbox.

Seriously.

Part Two: In-Depth Observations
I wasn’t kidding when I said I was going to give up the scoop on this movie. I’m not really going to hold anything back, so if you’re still inclined to see this movie – despite my previous and continued warnings against doing so – you will want to stop reading now.

Really.
Find another blog or webcomic to read.
Right now.

Okay, if you’re still here, I’m going to take that to mean one of a few things:

1. You really want to see why I think the movie fell apart.
2. You have seen the movie and want to see which parts we agree/disagree on.
3. You haven’t seen the movie, but are curious as to “just how bad” it could be.
4. Monkeys. (Not really a “reason,” per se, but monkeys can be blamed for a lot. They fling poo, after all.)

As I’ve been saying for the past few weeks, I’ve been looking forward to this movie because I wanted to see “Giant robots blowing shit up.” I don’t think that’s too much to ask for, honestly. Why not? Let’s see… oh, wait… how about: That’s what they did – and did rather well – in the first movie. In fact, let’s see what Michael Bay and company got right in this movie before we get to the longer list of what went wrong. Oh, so horribly wrong.

1. Giant Robots. Check.
2. Shit blowing up. Check.
3. Megan Fox. Check.
4. Optimus Prime being the heroic leader, even in the face of oppressive/overwhelming odds. Check.
5. SaraRules adds: “Some of the military guys were kind of cute.” Check

What did they do wrong…?

1. Balls.  (If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I mean. If not, consider yourself lucky.)
2. Leg-humping robots. (see above)
3. Mudlfap and Skids – the Transformers equivalents of a Jar-Jar Binks character.
4. Pot-laced-brownie-eating Judy Witwicky.
5. Alice, the Fem-cepticon. Sorry, I mean “Pretender.”  (Really?  REALLY?!?)
6. Why is it that the All-Spark can only create evil robots?
7. Why does a robot (Jetfire) need a crutch?
8. Why was Megatron revived?
9. Why do we need to see Agent Simmons in a jock strap?
10. Sam’s college roommate, Leo.
11. Did the Air Force Chief of Staff have to be such a pinhead?
12. Why does The Fallen look like a giant metal baboon?
13. Why, all of a sudden, do we need to say that Transformers had been on Earth for over 15,000 years… and that they have influenced almost every culture in the world?
14. Why did Sam go to the Autobot afterlife… of all possible places?!

We find out, eventually, that the Decpticons are following Starscream – at the behest of an even older Transformer – known only as “The Fallen,” who is after the location of a weapon that will turn Sol into Energon. And, as an added benefit/side effect, kill all life on Earth. The location of this weapon has been lost. Fortunately, the information has been coded into the All-Spark… a fragment of which Sam still has. After touching the fragment, Sam starts seeing ancient Cybertronian runes. Sam, not sure what to do with it, gives the fragment to Mikaela and goes off to college.

Optimus Prime, who has been keeping secret of the Matrix and the weapon from Sam, comes to him asking for his aid in finding the weapon.  Of course, Sam just wants to be a “normal kid” and go to college. And parties. And date Megan Fox.

Megatron gets revived. Prime and Megatron fight. Prime dies/deactivates. Sam finds a sense of loyalty. And the race is on to find someone or something that can translate the runes, find the Matrix and the weapon and save the day.

At two hours and forty-three minutes, they could have easily lopped off HALF of this movie and had a much more cohesive and entertaining film. I think that Dave summed it up best:

It’s like [Michael Bay] had a bunch of writers who all went in different directions with the hope of “If I can come up with a script that makes Michael Bay orgasm, then he’s sure to pick my script!” So, that’s what they all did. After submitting the scripts and having Bay orgasm 29 times, Bay just decided: “Shoot everything!” And that’s what they did. Then he threw all of the footage into the editing room with a bunch of monkeys and this is what came out.

Having seen the movie, I really can’t argue with that theory.

I need to come up with some kind of equivalent to the LEGO bricks for the Cool World/Long Kiss Goodnight Scale, because I refuse to sully the bricks by using them for this movie. Suffice it to say: It was bad.

Bottom line: Save yourself $6.00 or more and go see something else. Almost anything would be better than this.

Saturday – 27 June 2009
This morning, SaraRules and I got up and headed to the Downtown Farmer’s Market. We’ve wanted to go for the past couple of weeks, but hadn’t managed to do so. Today, we made it. It was interesting to juxtapose the number of exhibitors there today with the number there when we went in October – far more now than then.

On the way home, we stopped in to say “Hi” to SaraRules’ parents. Back at home, I took a little time to play HALO3… and to remember to “Save and Quit.”  Although, when I went to verify that it saved at the proper point, I found that it was putting me back at the beginning of this mission, rather than three segments into it. *sigh* Fine. Whatever. I remember a few things that should serve me well in getting through these sections – again – and on to where I need to be.

Next on the docket: Heading out to watch Transformers Giant Robots Blowing Shit Up with some of the usual suspects.

Namaste.