Fringe

Tonight's episode seems to be based on the fact that someone clicked on a pop-up ad. Seriously? Who does that?

And by tonight, I mean whenever the last episode aired. I'm finally getting around to watching it off the DVR.

And Anna Torv has a pretty sweet last name. If she has a kid, she should name him after the big blond German guy from Tomorrow Never Dies. Goetz Torv is a fantastic name. (the "oe" should be "o" with an umlaut).

The actors they got to play the Bishops (Walter, and Beardy Whatsisname) are pretty fantastic. I really like John Noble as an actor. He's really good.

Life on Mars (Some More)

They're playing "Whiskey in the Jar" as the background music. I think Metallica's version is better, because Hetfield sounds a lot angrier than whoever is singing this version. Its the sort of song that is served well by an angry sounding singer.

Hell's Kitchen

Gordon Ramsay, oh how I've missed you...

The Last Templar (some more)

I suppose I should have named the previous post "The Penultimate Templar".

Anyways, after a bit of driving around in Turkey, it appears that Agent Love Interest has won the battle.

And it seems that Monseigneur Alias Dude is actually evil.

And now there is now some quite serious post-boning awkwardness.

And somehow an entire town was buried in volcanic ash. Only it was buried in such a way that you could still walk around in the town. Basically it was a dome that somehow formed from volcanic ash around the town. I really don't understand how that happened. But whatever...

And now the bad guy is using an M14 EBR. Which is now one of the things that can be included in the category of "Airsoft guns I own". But his EBR has a M4 collapsible stock, while mine has a different style of collapsible stock

And a car just inexplicably exploded after they ran into it.

And apparently Knight Rider hasn't been canceled yet.

And now it seems that all the bad guys is dead... And the good guys isn't...

And an interesting way to book-end the entire movie... with shoes...

The Last Templar

Mira Sorvino, Victor Garber (2009) An archaeologist and an FBI agent try to uncover the secrets of the medieval Knights Templar. Based on a novel by Raymond Khoury.

Apparently this is a 2-night NBC movie event. Off we go. We'll see if I split this into 2 reviews for the 2 nights, or just watch it all in one go. It aired last week, so I've got both bits on the DVR right now.

An initial scene has some knights templar folk showing up at an art gallery, and jacking a bunch of medieval christian artifacts. Talk about a robbery done in style. They've got full plate armor, those dangly horse clothes, swords... the works... And now Mira Sorvino is chasing after them on a police horse, using some sort of bishop's staff as a weapon. Rather ineffectively thus far... Oh, and did I mention that there were a shit-ton of police officers at this event. With guns. And somehow all 4 of the knights made it in and out of the museum alive. Until one came across Mira and her Staff of Decapitation +1000. Because she apparently decapitated one of the knights. Who had a sword. With her blunt staff. And then random love interest guy just basically said "Lets keep the body and head together. For old times sake." I think I might like this character.

Oh, never mind. The knights beheaded a cop. She didn't behead anyone. My mistake. And apparently the staff is a "crozier". Its a ceremonial staff used by popes. Pope's, bishops... whatever. We Presbyterian folk don't have those.

And she just used the word "wonky". I think I might like her character as well. Apparently the central stone on some cross artifact is "wonky". I'm making my prediction that that stone is going to somehow interact with some old decoder thing, and allow Sorvino and Agen Love Interest to solve the riddle. After the inevitable betrayals, and about 126 instances of the artifacts changing hands.

And its got that guy from Alias as some sort of clergy guy.

Apparently FBI agents like muffins. Donuts are for cops. Learn something new every day.

Hmm.. and original random love interest guy and FBI agent love interest guy look awfully similar. Original has an accent. But FBI Agent seems to be more of a wise-ass. I'm torn on who to support. I'm currently leaning towards Agent Wise-ass, due to his wise-ass-ness, and Original doesn't have a very awesome accent. Just sort of mediocre as accents go.

Hmmm. Apparently you can watch this on Hulu. In case you wanted to.

And Agent Love Interest just used the word "effing". I don't remember ever hearing that in a movie. Usually its just explicitly dropping the F-bomb, or avioiding it completely.

And apparently if you yell that you're "FBI!" enough, people will believe you, even if you don't show any credentials. Or maybe that's only taxi drivers.

Well, I'm hungry, I've got basically no food in the house, and I should probably go outside some time today. So I'm off. I'll watch the second half later some time, and review it then.

Universal Soldier: The Return

Apparently this is the sequel to the original Universal Soldier. According to Wikipedia this is the true sequel. There were a few other direct-to-video movies that apparently didn't count.

But anyways, Jean-Claude Van Damme, or however you spell his name, is ridiculous. He's ridiculously ass-kick-ericious. By which I mean he kicks people's asses in a completely ridiculous way... And he's got a sweet accent. I do like his movies. Mainly becuase they're laughably terrible.

Sweet License Plate

Was in traffic on I-66 today. Passed a car whose license plate read "66 SUCKS". I laughed.

24 Some More

Jack Bauer just put out 2 near simultaneous shots with a bolt action rifle. That's near Oswald speed if you believe the conspiracy theories.

Lazy Friday Afternoon

Sitting on the couch, watching Universal Soldier: The Return. Gonna go play some airsoft later... Good times...

Fist Fire

Learning to draw, shoot and reload, thanks to the DVD provided by Rob. Again, this is TFB? Rob, not W&M Rob. But alas, I've been stupidly busy, so this DVD's gone into its 3rd night of viewing.

Perhaps sometime soon you may see a review of Fist Fire techniques on Rob's online magazine. Which I am now going to pimp right here:

http://airsoftdigest.typepad.com/airsoft_digest/

It just started relatively recently, but it should have a bunch of good information on it (and already has some). And you can see multitudinous pictures of me in the TAA review article. Sadly, I didn't make my goal of being in half of the pictures. I think I was one or two under. But I probably was the most common person in any of them. So I guess there's that...

New Posting Record!

Well, I've done it. I am so terrifically awesome.

We'll see how much more I can run up this number in the next day or so...

Best Meeting Ever.

Let me give you a hint as to why: my burps taste like lemon meringue pie.

Smells?

When I left work in my car, something smelled like pizza. And then when I was on the highway, it smelled like soup. And then when I got off the highway, it smelled like Hawaiian pizza. Very interesting, and sort of disturbing.

In

Finally got it on DVD, so I figured I'd watch it again, and give you my impressions.

First off, on the opening outdoor scenes, it looks really strange. Seems like they actually shot it all with a green screen, and it shows. The foreground looks distinctly different from the background.

And the Thompsons that the Russian soldiers are using seem to be M1928s and not the M1A1s. I thought the M1A1s were the military issued ones. Doing a bit of research, it seems that the M1928s were issued to the military in the early stages, but were replaced by the M1A1. This taking place in 1957, it would seem that M1A1s would be more likely. Although I guess since they were Russians after all, it could make sense that they had some older stuff, rather than the current issue military stuff.

And its good that Indiana Jones made the rank of Colonel. Still below the ranks held by Han Solo and Jack O'Neill. But he's beating MacGyver, who, as far as I know has no rank. Other than awesome mullet. Which is not so much a rank, but just awesome.

New life aspiration: How does one become a Foley Artist? I'm pretty sure that making random-ass sound effects would be a pretty sweet career.

Speaking of Foley Artists, Jones just was just lecturing about how its a dry sand pit, not quicksand. And yet the noises seem very wet and quicksand-like...

I think I mentioned it last time, but I still thoroughloy enjoy the fact that Mutt is annoyed because he didn't get to drive the car after Marion got to drive the truck, too.

And the sword fight from the moving cars is just ridiculous enough to be well placed in an Indiana Jones movie. And what could be better than Shia LeBeouauauoauaf almost doing the splits, whil getting whacked in the business by random ass plants.

Frankly, I hope that this is the last Indiana Jones movie. While I love the franchise, Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones is the reason I watch, and it seems that if they're going to do another, they're grooming Mutt as Indy's heir apparent. Frankly, I don't want to watch any Mutt Jones and the Blah-di-blah movies. For me, its Harrison Ford or bust. This movie is fun, but still not as good as Raiders or Last Crusade. Still better than Temple of Doom though. I don't like Temple of Doom. I don't really know what it is about the movie that I don't like. Perhaps the other 2 have more of a Judeo-Christian mythology behind them, which I am more familiar with than the Indian cult idea. Or perhaps its just because the Nazis are always good adversaries, while half nekkid bald dudes and creepy little kids aren't all that great. Dirty Russkies are good adversaries, too, I guess...

At least Captain Russian Lady didn't randomly throw her henchmen off the ropes for no apparent reason, like Mola Ram did in Temple.

And I'm impressed that Captain Babbling mentioned that the face in the rock had tears coming off it. Looked more like the waterfall was coming out its nose to me... But I guess having some sort of riddle about snot is less desirable than one about tears. But far more hilarious.

And apologies if I'm treading the same ground as my previous revie, but I honestly don't remember what I said in that one.

Oh, and by the way, this is bullshit: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/28/girl.scout.cookies/index.html

Same price, less cookies. Thank goodness no one has asked me to buy a box. But now I have good reason to complain to anyone who askes, and get all crotchety. I'm sort of excited.

And I appreicate tha they used the standard bi-convex disc shape for the alien ship at the end. Nice call-back to 1950s Sci-Fi that this iteration of the Indiana Jones franchise was based off of.

And as one final comment: Shia, get a damn haircut.

Unique Whips

Apparently this is some sort of car tuning program, where celebrities give some guy their cars, and he makes them ugly by adding expensive parts...

And the guy doing the tint on some guy's windows just stated that the level of tin he was applying to the window was illegal. He used the reasoning that the dude is rich and famous, so he won't get in trouble. Man, what a great country we live in.

And I should really turn this crap off. I honestly have no idea why I'm watching this. But the only thing I've got on the DVR is Merlin's Apprentice. And that's apparently 4 hours long. I'm not prepared for that level of commitment right now.

The Speed channel would be far superiour if they showed Top Gear. And I even added the British "u" to superiour out of longing...

On Second Thought...

Actually, watching these gigantic ridiculous machines driving around shedding parts as they bounce off of stuff is kind of hilariously ridiculous. I'm not sure if the last guy finished his time, but it certainly looked like he shed about half of his suspension parts...

Oh yeah, and apparently women compete in this... Who'da thunk.

Monster Trucks

This is the dummest thing I've seen in a while. Apparently the trick to this Freestyle thing is to do as many interesting things before your truck gets broke. I've watched a number of these trucks, and not one has filled the alotted time. However much that might be. That's what the announcers are telling me.

New Posting Record?

4 more days to make 4 posts, and then I have a new monthly posting record. Will I make it? Stay tuned!

(Can you feel the tension and anxiety and that other word that's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't remember right now?)

MacArthur

Gregory Peck, Ed Flanders (1977) Gen. Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines, manages postwar Japan, and defies President Truman.

I am continuously impressed by how good the F4U Corsair looks. Tis a nice looking plane. Interesting, too, due to the inverse gull-wing thing that its got going on.

Ooh. The USS Missouri. I was there! I sure am awesome, aren't I?

In other news, for some reason, I'm tempted to build another Hi-Capa. The Limcat slide with compensator looks really interesting to me, and I sort of want to build one. Sadly I already have 4 Hi-Capas, and I don't particularly need another.

And I really have to pee. And now I don't. Weird how that works out.

And now I'm in a dilemma. Or however you spell that. Seems MacArthur rather enjoys landing his forces behind the enemy, and surprising them from the rear. I'm torn whether to bring this up, due to the overwhelming number of innuendos that this enables. Knowing Su, she will likely take advantages of all of these opportunities. Perhaps if I identify the potential innuendos in advance, she might not feel the need. We shall see.

And it just looked like there was a shot of an F4 Phantom dropping a bomb. The only problem is that we're currently in Korea, not Vietnam. I was under the impression that the Phantom was a Vietnam War sort of airplane, not Korea. I thought the F86 Sabre was the mainline jet in the Air Force in Korea. Which looks completely different from the Phantom.

And in doing some research on the F86, I came across this article: Wagga Wagga RAAF Museum. That is potentially the best name I've come across in a very long time. Apparently its in Australia. I think I want to move there.

Oh, and MacArthur's battle pipe is pretty awesome. Looks like a T, rather than the standard L. I don't really know what purpose the extra dealie serves, but its pretty sweet.

Basically, if you were curious about General Douglas MacArthur's life and times, then this movie's probably a good one for you. If you dn't particularly care, perhaps you should give this one a pass. I enjoyed it, due to the fact that it taught me some history, and I didn't even have to pay attention all that much.

Snow?

Well, I was going to comment this morning about the lack of snow when I first woke up. Probably a good thing I didn't, because by the time I left for work, it was snowing, and there was already a pretty decent accumulation.

That would have been embarrassing. Because I totally care about that sort of business here...

I Am Sam

Quite a good, powerful movie.

Oh, and Dakota Fanning/Lucy has a fantastic stuffed rabbit.

And she must like soccer, as this is the second thing that I've seen her in lately where she plays soccer. (The other was Taken).

Oh, and she didn't scream in this one. Not even once. That seems to be quite the accomplishment for her.

Ewww...

I have to wear a tie tomorrow. I is sad.

Although I've had an impressive run of not wearing ties lately, as I haven't had to wear one for work in quite some time. I guess all good things must come to an end.

Chaos

Jason Statham, Ryan Phillippe (2005) Two detectives track a bank robber.

Sort of like Inside Man, in that there's a black guy with a hat, and a guy with a British-ish accent. Only with less of Clive Owen's fancy accent, and not quite as fancy a hat. Jason Statham's accent <> Wesley Snipes' fancy hat.

Bit less about the bank robbery, and more about the aftermath than Inside Man. Makes sense because Wesley Snipes' character is meant to be a mystery until his true role in the story is revealed. Overall, I liked Inside Man better.

Although, in the final scene, Statham reveals that he, too, has a fancy hat... hmmm...

Catch Me If You Can

Thought it was interesting how they had a text epilogue, saying where Frank Abagnale is now and what he's doing. They mention that he's getting paid millions as a security consultant, but didn't mention that he's repaid everyone he cheater earlier in his career. Seems like that's an important bit of information about the character. Makes him a more sympathetic character. Interesting how they left that part out...

Rambo

Blood seemed a little excessive. But then again, I really have no idea what what effects a .50 BMG round have on a person.

Glorious Holiday?

Apparently today is National Pie Day. We should all celebrate.

House

Dear Dr. House:

Please put on some pants.

Thanks.

-The Management

More Formula 1 Fun

Sebastien Buemi has been announced as one of the drivers for Scuderia Torro Rosso. You may ask why you should possibly care about this fact, but I'll let you know. Buemi's Swiss. Its nice to have a Swiss guy to root for.

And the 2009 spec cars are starting to grow on me. The front wings are still too absurdly wide for my tastes, but I think the cleaner overall lines make them look nice.

Oh, and I hope Williams keeps their all dark blue livery. Looks a lot better than the blue and white they were running last year. But then it might be confusing with the STR and Red Bull teams.

Death Wish 3

I think Queensryche may have used a sample from this movie at the beginning of Operation: Mindcrime.

I wonder how much recoil hipshooting a .30 caliber machinegun would produce, and if its anywhere near manageable... I doubt it.

And that Wildey is a spectacularly ugly gun.

And that's the weirdest LAW I've ever seen. For starters, I thought they weren't reloadable, and this one had a pistol grip....

Inauguration

What's the new building on the west side of the Air and Space Museum?

And it seems kind of absurd that they just introduced some guy just so he could introduce the some Justice who is administering the Vice Presidential Oath of Office.

This guy's clarinet is absurd. He's got random red bits on it... looks completely strange. And I like how expressive Yo Yo Ma is when he plays... his hair is flying all over the place. or at least as much as it can with his hairstyle.

And its now 12:03. I was promised the Presidential Oath of Office at noon. Great start to the Obama Administration. Already starting late.

Way to flub the Oath of Office Barack. So your first action as President is to screw up an oath that has been the same for a multitude of years, that you could probably have practiced a few times. Well played, sir.

And apparently he's left handed. So he's got that going for him...

Didn't pay much attention. Finished up the M14, except for the wiring. So hopefully I should be done sometime soon.

Oh yeah. And that poem was terrible. And whoever read it (I'm guessing the poet) was not a compelling speaker. Was painful to listen to. Awkward pauses at random points in time.

Death Wish

Charles Bronson as a vigilante after his wife gets killed by Jeff Goldblum and some thugs.

The pistol he used looked a lot like a S&W M10. But they said it was a .32. The M10 shoots .38. Perhaps I will do some research and figure out if there's a similar looking pistol that actually shoots .32... Or maybe I won't.

Upon further review, it could be a Colt Police Positive Special. I didn't pay enough attention. Perhaps if he uses the same gun in Death Wish II or III I'll be able to make a firm distinction, as I've got those on the DVR

More Blog Statistics

I was looking over my blog statistics, because, honestly shouldn't I have better things to do at midnight on the day before Inauguration?

Anyways, I discovered that I was 4 posts away from setting a new monthly blogging record in November. However, I was forced to hold my blog hostage on the 28th until Su answered a question. Su finally answered on the 1st of December. If she had been timelier in her commenting, I could have set another record. But, alas.

And yes, the whole point of this post was to blame Su for something that happened in the distant past. Take that, fiend.

Sea Kittens?

So apparently PETA wants to call fish "sea kittens" to make them more adorable and make people less likely to eat them. That's the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time.

It makes me want to eat fish more than I did before, just to punish PETA and their dumb ideas. But then again, this is coming from the person who was tempted to take up vegetarianism after taking Botany class. I despised that class so much that I didn't want to waste any time eating meat, but instead wanted to focus all my energy on eradicating as many plants as possible.

24: Redemption

1:06:43: I was watching it on Hulu just now, and at that point in time there is clearly a camera operator on screen. You'd think in something as large budget as 24, they'd get that sort of thing right.

Oh, and that's Robert Carlyle. Apparently he's going to be one of the leads on the new Stargate series. Seems like a decent actor. And I like the fact that he has an accent. Hopefully they don't make him talk in a standard American accent. That would make me sad.

The Immortal Voyage of Captain Drake

Adrian Paul, Temuera Morrison (2009) Pirates seach for a mythical cure for a sultan's dying son.

Sci-Fi Saturday movie from 1/17.

I'm really not sure what's going on at the beginning of this, but apparently the character I'm assuming to be Sir Francis Drake just drank something that had a scorpion in it as a part of some sort of contest, and then spit the scorpion in the other guy's face.

And apparently the obligatory love interest of the movie happens to be Drake's daughter.

And he's finally identified himself as Francis Drake. So guess it is him after all. And now he has to go on some sort of quest for Sultan White Guy. I guess he kidnapped Drake's daughter or something. And now she's trying to escape, using her clothes as a rope. Which of course ends up with her being nekkid.

And Drake just asked 2 of his underlings to light some lamps. The names sounded like Mullie and Mallozzi. Paul Mullie and Joe Mallozzi are writers and executive of SG1 and Atlantis. And now they're dead. The characters, not the writers.

And apparently white people pretending to be Muslims cannot act at all. Its almost painful. Oh, and the "English" crew's accents are completely absurd, and also rather painful.

And now some of the crew are arguing over the proper use of the words "further" and "farther". Probably the most enjoyable part of this movie thus far.

Well, the end of the movie made up for it by having a lot of random swordplay, and a lot of people going "Ha HA!" in the middle of sword fights.

Monkey?

Anyone ever noticed what looks to be a face in the monkey's right armpit (the monkey at the right of the page)? I just noticed it, and thought it was minorly interesting.

And this is why I shouldn't post just after I wake up. I was thinking about something completely bizarre on Friday morning, but didn't get around to posting it. The world is probably a better place for it.

The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer

Lisa Brenner, Steven Brand (2003) Dark forces invade a Seattle mansion where an industrialist lives with his submissive wife.

Apparently this is sort of a prequel to Rose Red, which was written by Stephen King. Or something like that. Thought the name "Ellen Rimbauer" sounded familiar.

So, off we go.

We'll see if I end up watching the movie, or continuing on the M14 project. I've got the gearbox built right now, and it seems to cycle. I'll have to bring it to TAA to chrono it, as I'm not really sure what spring I put in there, so I haven't the foggiest clue how hot it'll be shooting.

Stuff still to do: Chop inner barrel; Swap hop-up nub for an H-nub; Rewire it to the front; Attach the cocking handle somehow. The cocking handle will probably be the final part of the project, as its merely a cosmetic piece. And I don't have a soldering iron, so I can't swap the connectors to Deans connectors and rewire it to the front. So, it looks like I've just got hop-up and inner barrel issues to fix before I've done all that I can.

Thus far it just seems to be a depiction of the back-story described in Rose Red. I'm of the opinion that if you've seen Rose Red, there's absolutely no reason to watch this one. We'll see if I change my impression as the movie progresses.

Nope. Didn't change...

Ginger Snaps: Unleashed

Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle (2004) A patient at a rehabilitation center tries to prevent a young woman from transforming into a werewolf.

Sci-Fi Saturday movie from 1/10

I think this is a sequel to some movie that was a Sci-Fi Saturday movie a while ago, but I didn't watch it or record it for some reason that is currently unknown to me.

I think I know why I subconsciously didn't want to watch it. Its basically some emo girl who's turning into a werewolf or something. And frankly I don't care.

The most interesting thing thus far has been the fact that the guy who played Flash Gordon on the short-lived SciFi series is an orderly in this hospital thing. That show wasn't very good, but I think that it could have turned the corner. Seemed like it was just about to get good, and actually have some sort of decent plot at the end of the first season, and then it got cancelled, and not picked up for a second season. I enjoyed it a lot more than Knight Rider and Sanctuary. Don't know how far Knight Rider got, but Sanctuary has been picked up for a second season. Sadly, I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters in the show.

Perhaps I should have watched this movie while I was busy working on airsoft stuff. Excuse me while I go try to find some project to work on, so I don't actually have to pay attention to this... I've decided to gow with dinner as the project for now... and now that that's done, I'm gonna go take a leak. I realize that you probably don't care about this, but I'm just chronicling all the things I'm doing without pausing the movie.

I really wish I'd picked up some bushings from TAA yesterday. That way I could work on my M14. But alas. Oh wait. I've got an M4 in parts somewhere. I could probably nab the bushings from that one... Hrm...

Good lord. We're only about halfway through the movie. This movie is taking forever.

Finally, the movie's over, and my M14 gearbox is complete.

I'm just gonna go ahead and pretend I didn't waste my time with this one.

Final Cylon?

That's the final Cylon? Intriguing.

Iron Man

I want Tony Stark's house. And his collection of cars wouldn't hurt.

And Leslie Bibb as Christine Everhart the reporter rocks the shirt and no pants look quite well. She's got nice legs.

The V-Tail of Stark's airplane is kinda cool. Sorta a combination of a Predator and an airline. Or maybe its actually a Reaper and not a Predator. And it apparently has a stripper pole in it. Which I guess is never really a bad thing.

And the ABU camouflage pattern looks really dumb. Almost as dumb as ACU, but not quite.

And I missed Stark referring to the convoy hummers as "fun-v" and "humdrum-v" the first time I saw the movie. As you might be able to tell, I just got the DVD, and am giving you my thoughts as I watch it for the second time (the first being in a movie theater). We'll see how far I get before I fall asleep. Since I've already seen it, and I'm really tired, I'm going to be noting my observations as they come in the movie, so they might not make much sense, but when has that stopped me from anything ever.

And where did Doctor Whatchamahoosit get that fancy hat in captivity?

The initial steps of the power device Stark builds for his chest hole is very similar to the Stargate that Orlin builds in SG1's "Ascension".

I like how the blows of the hammer mesh well with the music. Movies got some good music.

Flame throwers look cool when they're firing. Fire in general does. Probably my favorite scene of The Matrix is the scene when the elevator explodes, and the slow motion flames and explosions extend through the lobby.

The F22 looks so ungainly on the ground. Most other fighters look graceful due to their decently long landing gear. The F22 looks to be sitting on its tires with very short landing gear. Looks very strange. It does look fantastic in the air, though.

While the red and yellow armor design is pretty awesome, the silver prototype armor looks pretty badass.

Problem, they just said that the SR71 was the highest airplane at 80 some thousand feet. But I'm pretty sure that the X-15 rocketplane went well over 100,000 feet (so high that technically they were in very low earth orbit, and the pilots could technically be classified as astronauts). But I guess that was more of a rocket that just happened to have some ancillary wings attached, and they did say fixed wing flight.

And I'm supremely bitter that they decided to have Stark crashland on the Shelby Cobra after his first flight. That is pretty much my dream car, so to see it smashed beyond recognition makes me very sad.

And I'm really happy about Stark's sarcastic home computer. I wish I had one (especially if it could help me design Iron Man Armor).

Jeff Bridges looks very strange with no hair and a gigantic beard. And he has a very distince way of speaking.

And it does appear that Iron Man's first act of aggression was to dick punch some guy.

Gwyneth Paltrow's eyes are interesting. At least in this scene, it looks like the outsides are rather dark, and the insides are very very light.

I thought Iron Monger's jump boots were pretty cool. Short bursts of propulsion, rather than sustained propulsion that the Iron Man Mk2 has.

And I really like the use of Black Sabbath's Iron Man as the music for the credits. Granted the song is nothing about the character, but its still fits nicely. Good song.

Hashing

It was described to me as running through the woods combined with drinking. Now that I have experienced it, I now realize that there is basically no better concise description.

And I'd forgotten how out of shape I was. yay?

Wild Bill

Jeff Bridges as Wild Bill Hickok.

First words of wisdom from Mr. Wild Bill are that you shouldn't touch another man's hat. And two scenes in a row are him in fights with various people who touched his hat.

And some guy was clinging to his leg, so he pistol-whipped him. That didn't deter the guy, so Hickok shot him. There looks to be a lot of pistol-whipping in this movie. We'll see if its more or less than Kurt Russell or Kevin Costner as Wyatt Earp. Kevin Costner's currently winning.

Mr. Bridges is really losing the hat game. His hat, while absurdly large, is not awesome looking. Too big and round. And light blue.

Looks like Costner won the pistol-whipping game. But Russell won the overall awesomeness contest.

And I managed to bodge together a hi-cap magazine for my CA870. I'm being all sorts of productive in the past couple of days. Or at least productive in terms of airsoft stuff. I would also probably have finished my M14, but I didn't have any metal bushings. So, I'll probably have to head to TAA tomorrow, and pick those up.

Soon I'm gonna have to figure out a new project, because it looks like I'm quickly running out.

Holy Crap

Its effing cold. Was 9 degrees when I went to work. About 15 when I came home. That's Fahrenheit, by the way.

My breath was freezing on the inside of the front window this morning. Twas absurd.

Tombstone

Kurt Russel + Gigantic Mustache... Lots of famous people with lots of fantastic facial hair and lots of fancy hats. What's not to like?

Pistol whippings in the movie: 3 (I may have missed some, but these 3 were quite ferocious)
Slappings in this movie: Too many to count.

Wyatt Earp after repeatedly slapping some guy: "You gonna do somethin'? Or are you just gonna stand there and bleed?"

Doc Holliday after someone informing him that he was too drunk to shoot, and was probably seeing double: "I have two guns, one for each of ya."

Wyatt Earp pointing a gun at some guy's head after Earp pistol whipped the guy who shot the Marshall, and the guy is trying to incite his buddies to charge Earp: "You die first, get it? Your friends might get me in a rush, but not before I make your head into a canoe, you understand me"

I watched Wyatt Earp (with Kevin Costner) sometime last week. Basically, in the epic battle of badassness, there is no contest between Costner and Russel. Russel will win every time. Here's the face to prove it. Note to self: Do not shoot Kurt Russel or any of his family. Or he'll come after you with a double barreled shotgun, and be generally angry-like.

The Dark

Maria Bello, Sean Bean (2005) After the death of her daughter, a woman meets a mysterious girl who supposedly died in a mass suicide 50 years earlier.

I do likes me some Sean Bean. For a while there, the only movies I had in my DVD collection had Sean Bean in them. You might remember him as Boromir from Lord of the Rings, Spence from Ronin, and Cleric Errol Partridge from Equilibrium. Can you guess what my DVD collection consisted? He's also Alec Trevelyan from Goldeneye. But I didn't own that one at the time, so I didn't mention it in the previous sentence.

I haven't actually been paying too much attention, but I have come to one conclusion: Sean Bean is awesome.

And I've figured out why Maria Bello seems so familiar: She reminds me of an older Billie Piper.

Basically this is similar in plot to Pet Sematery, but in Wales. And more awesome due to the Sean Bean-ness. And then there's a little bit of trepanning to keep life interesting. And the process for returning the dead back to life is a bit more complicated, rather than just burying them and waiting till they show up and try to kill you. No word yet if the risen are quite as evil in this one. I imagine we'll discover that one in the very last scene, just before it cuts to black for the credits. Based on recent events near the end of the movie, it looks like the downside of the procedure is not that the risen comes back to life, but that a living person has to take their place in Anwynn or whatever, which seems to be the Welsh underworld. (Pronounced An-oon).

Unearthed

Emmanuelle Vaugier, Luke Goss (2007) A remote desert town comes under attack after an archaeologist digs up an ancient creature.

Good news and bad news. Bad news is that I haven't the foggiest clue what happened in this movie. Good news is that I finally got the rear sight mount and the red dot mounted to my hi-capa. Wookah!

One Downside

One downside to Operation Soup And Salad: Gas.

Headless Horseman

Richard Moll, Billy Aaron Brown (2007) Townspeople plan to sacrifice a group of lost teenagers to a mysterious horseman.

Apparently the story of the Headless Horseman didn't happen in New England, but actually somewhere in the south. Or at least all the people have southern accents.

And apparently "Zimbabweeze" or something is a nationality.

And the town Sherriff has a Colt Single Action Army. That's an attractive pistol. But the guy who jacked it from him didn't know it was single action only. Moron.

"What's so great about our heads anyways? When there are thousands of homeless people who wouldn't miss theirs?" Brilliant dialogue right there.

And the guy still hasn't cocked the SAA. We'll see if he manages to shoot it without getting around to cocking it. I didn't see if it was cocked before the first shot, but the person who ended up shooting it looked to thumb the hammer between shots. So it is feasible that she cocked it beforehand.

Oh, and this whole idea of splitting a season of Battlestar Galactica into 2 box sets has got to go. Paying full price for half of the episodes is BS. FYI.

And potato soup with cheese, bacon bits, and salad is suprisingly good. Especially for second dinner. I didn't have any salad dressing, so I decided to throw it into my soup. And it ended up working out. I'm impressed and amused... and slightly less hungry than before. The salad adds a bit of crispy crunchiness to the salad that was lacking before. The potato bits were too small to provide any decent amount of substance. Man, second dinner is awesome.

Oh, and by the way, of all the strange things i'm going to name my kids, Liam isn't one of them. Probably because of the character named Liam from Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

And the storekeeper just referred to "sody pop". I think I'm gonna have to start incorporating that into my vocabulary. Along with Robit instead of Robot.

And now the Headless Horseman is riding a motorcycle. I guess they shot his horse, so he's gotta find a new mode of transportation.

And again, due to poor editing, I have little to no idea what's actually going on. So, alas, I cannot give you an accurate picture of what happened at the end of this movie. Other than its not worth watching. And a crossbow showed up out of nowhere. I really don't understand where that came from, but it just did.

And somehow even though the truck pulling the bad guy via a rope is not moving (spinning its tires and making no forward progress), the bad guy is being inexplicably pulled backwards by said rope.

And now they've defeated the Headless Horseman, and Liam has unfortunately survived. But he got the attractive chick he was pining after for the whole movie, so I guess good fro him.

And for some reason I just had the very strong urge to call him a clod. Perhaps I should also include "clod" as an addition to my vocabulary. I'll give it some thought.

I is Confoosed

I just set the DVR up to download another Stephen Baldwin movie. But its not on the Sci-Fi Channel. Its on TCM or maybe AMC. I can't really remember, but I'm still disturbed.

And that same channel had some bad Sci-Fi movies on it that I'd seen previously on the Sci-Fi Channel. I'm really confused.

I guess bad Sci-Fi is taking over the world. Yay?

Dream Theater: Chaos in Motion

Dream Theater's latest DVD. Frankly I'm a little disappointed. I bought the DVD for 2 reasons. First, to continue my collection of their stuff, as they're a fantastic band, and second, because I like live shows of bands that I like. Especially if I don't have to deal with people while I'm watching the show.

I really enjoyed the Iron Maiden show I went to with Petey a while back, but, frankly, I think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been in the front, in the pit or whatever. Just got a bit too crowded and claustrophobic for me. Well, not really claustrophobic, as it wasn't really an enclosed space, but instead a place with too damn many people. Is there a word for that? I'll let my intrepid readers figure that one out. Oh, and some of the people that were at the concert were downright scary. One (very sweaty) guy had white contacts and no shirt, and seemingly made it a point to try to run into everyone, and while he was doing that, wipe his sweatiness all over everyone. Not too enjoyable. And then there were the three guys who were trying to mosh. Sadly, you do not mosh at an Iron Maiden show. They were pulled by security in short order. That was nice of them.

Anways, now that I've got my mandatory side-track out of the way, I can get back to the DVD review. I was hoping for just a straight concert. However, they decided that they'd have random interview segments between the songs, thus destroying the continuity of the concert. That and they took the songs from a bunch of different shows throughout the tour, rather htan just filiming one show. Frankly, I think they should leave the interviews for the Bonus disc, and the documentary portion.

The music's good though. And I got the version that has the CD version of the concert as well, so that'll be going onto my iPod. Looks like I'll be watching the other Dream Theater DVDs when I get the hankering to watch DT on the TV.

More Censorship?

Well, I've just been Facebook-friended by someone from work. Does that mean that a flood of people who I work with will now have a way of finding themselves onto this blog? Who knows.

Is this another one of those cases where I should probably censor myself? Probably.

Again, will I actually get around to doing it? Definitely not.

I miss Team Cheerios

Just saw an ad for Multi Grain Cheerios. Just reminds me of how much I miss Team Cheerios. Back in around 1996, in time for the Atlanta Olympics, they came out with Team Cheerios. Basically it was all the different varieties of cheerios mixed together in one box. Twas fantastic.

Stargate Atlantis: Enemy At The Gate

Fifth Season Finale and Series finale of Stargate Atlantis.

Well, it looks like Atlantis only lasted about half as long as SG1 overall. But luckily we've got a couple of DVD movies to look forward too. And Stargate Universe, which seems to be the next series in development. There was a promo for SGU after the credits of the episode, but sadly it didn't say much, other than it was coming, and that its a part of the Stargate franchise. I'll be watching when it comes on, so I'll let you know my thoughts when it airs.

Thought it was a good episode. Seemed a bit rushed, but I guess you're always going to get that feeling if you are constrained to the 44 minutes of content that you're limited to if you're airing an hour-long show. Would have been nice if they'd been able to pull a longer series finale, but I don't think that Stargate is popular enough (in comparison to, say, Battlestar Galactica). So, I guess we're stuck with only an hour finale. By which I of course mean that its already filmed, produced, and aired, so there's really nothing we can even think of doing at this point.

The episode was a follow-up to last week's episode "Vegas". Although its not really a direct follow-on episode, as Vegas took place in an alternate reality, and none of the actual characters we know and care about (or at least the versions from "our" reality) showed up in the episode.

I thought it was interesting that the one recognizable possession that the alternate Sheppard had in his office was the Johnny Cash poster that we've often seen hanging in our Sheppard's quarters. Provided a nice sense of continuity between the 2 realities.

Anyways, the message that got sent out in the closing minutes of Vegas showed up in our reality in Enemy at the Gate. Which is the entire reason that I'm talking about Vegas. That and I didn't really do a good job of talking about it when I mentioned earlier.

Anyways, the main plot of Enemy at the Gate is that the Wraith found Earth (due to the message from Vegas), and they have a super hive ship on its way. Our intrepid team has to stop it.

Ends up with Atlantis flying back to Earth, and saving the day at the last minute. One thing I was wondering about the ending was: Who the hell was that woman standing next to Ronan in the final scene? Seemed like they were very close, but I don't remember seeing her before, or at least seeing her and Ronan together. Turns out after some quick research, she's Banks, the gate technician. Who is nowhere near as cool as Sgt Walter Norman Davis Harriman. Looks like I'll need to rewatch the 5th season to see if she ever had any interactions with Ronan's character that might foreshadow their apparent romantic interest in the final episode. Now the relationship between McKay and Keller was definitely more featured throughout the season. I guess I'm not as critical of that relationship, due to the fact that its one where the nerdy awkward guy ended up getting the pretty girl.

So anyways, I thought it was cool that they brought Col Caldwell and the Daedelus back after quite a long absence, as well as Col Ellis, even though that was just for the one scene. And interseting name for Earth's other Battlecruisers. Sun Tzu for one. I guess the Russians didn't have as much leverage as the Chinese did at that particular point in the game, so we end up with the Sun Tzu, as opposed to a replacement for the Korolev. And yes, I'm still bitter that they killed of Col Chekov. I think he was my favorite Russian character from the series. Granted, he was really the only Russian character that we had any sort of interaction with.

Probably my favorite scene involving Col Chekov was from Season 6. Basically, Col Chekov is chasing after Carter yelling at her. I think it was complaining about not keeping the Russians in the loop about the F-302s. Anyways, Jonas Quinn is talking to Carter, trying to make his case that he should be a part of the SG1 team. Anyways, his case, in this instance, is that he's very observant. He informs Carter that normal people wouldn't think that Chekov is peeved, but his heightened observational sense allowed him to notice that Chekov was displeased, while Chekov keeps ranting and raving in the background.

The other battlecruiser was named Phoenix in the alternate future described in The Last Man, the season finale from last season. However, they changed it to the General Hammond. Nice fitting tribute to Don S. Davis' character, who spent 9 years portraying the character of General Hammond, and died of a heart attack last year. Twas a nice touch.

Was also nice to see Harrimann and Major Davis. Although its kind of absurd that he's still a Major. He was a major when he showed up for the first time, back in Season 2 of SG1. Back when Carter was a Captain. Since then, she's been promoted to Major, Lt Col, and finally full bird Colonel, and Davis has continued to be a Major. Granted she did save the world a whole whack of times, but you got to figure that the dude would be promoted at least once in the 10 or so years since he first appeared.

Was also interesting to see the parallels between Sheppards near suicide mission in this episode, and his similar mission at the end of Season 1.

Honestly, I can't really remember where I was going with this post, so I guess I'll end it now, as I'm just sort of rambling. Although, that's really all I do on this blog, so why should today be any different?

XChange

Stephen Baldwin, Kyle MacLachlan (2000) In a future where people travel by exchanging bodies, an executive's corporeal form is stolen by an assassin.

Apparently this is a Stephen Baldwin movie that rated 2 and a half stars. I'm amused and intrigued.

Oh, and in the initial scenes, it seems that we'll be dealing with an army of Stephen Baldwin clones. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Horrified, maybe. Intrigued, possibly. Alphabet Soup? Honestly, I haven't got a clue where that one came from. But I'm intrigued. I guess I've decided on intrigued.

What is a wine spritzer? This dude just ordered one, and the barkeep poured him a glass of wine. Granted the scene ended at that point, so it is quite possible that he added some extra ingredients off screen.

Aw, dammit. The main character has now swapped bodies with Stephen Baldwin. So now we're gonna have to follow him around. I was really hoping to avoid Stephen Baldwin for as long as possible.

Dear Stephen Baldwin: Put your pants back on. Thanks, The Management.

The plus side of this whole body switching thing is that even if the good guy wins, Stephen Baldwin doesn't, as the good guy will get switched out of Stephen Baldwin's body anyway. And I say that in the future tense, even though it just happened and the movie just ended.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

I only have one question about this movie: Is drifting actually an efficient method of forward locomotion? Seems like you'd be better served to just drive normally. Especially during the chase scenes of the movie where they're drifting down straight roads, and making turns for no apparent reason. Seems like if you directed all your power into going forward, rather than side to side, you'd be much better off.

Oh yeah...

I also have to pee.

Animal Farm

What the hell? The movie had a happy ending (ish). A lot of the plot points were the same, but a bit simplified from the book. And oh, yeah, the happy ending was added. Seems a bit out of line with George Orwell's original vision for the story.

CSI: Miami

They really love hero shots of David Caruso. There've been approximately a bajillion in this episode, and we're only about halfway through

Stargate Atlantis Finale

Its on tonight. I'm interested to see what they'll do with it.

Success(?)

Now that I got a hair cut, my head seems to be a bit spikier, and thus my fedora stays on better in windy situations. I guess that's one good thing that came from the haircut.

And Now For Some Hockey

Apparently "Metallurg Magnitogorsk" is playing "Salavat Yulayev Ufa". Based on those two names, I'm going to have to say that this is the most fantastic game of hockey I've ever seen.

Not So Nice

And then that song ended, and Behemoth came on. Apparently they exist. And they're not my cup of tea. (I've decided to be diplomatic and not say they suck, as they seem to have some talent, but i dislike their vocal style... the Death Metal growl. But saying "they're not my cup of tea" doesn't seem as strong a statement as I'd like it to be. I guess that's what this paragraph in parentheses is meant to accomplish.)

Nice

I just turned on the "Metal" channel on the TV for the first time in a long time, and they're playing Iron Maiden. Phantom of the Opera to be specific. Nice.

Film Critic

How does one go about becoming a professional film critic?

Rambo's Hair

Is Rambo's hair a mullet? Or what is it actually called?

Tropic Thunder

Fantastic movie. Completely over-the-top. Fantastic performance by Robert Downey Jr. Reminded me how much I enjoyed Iron Man, so I just went on Amazon and picked it up.

First Blood

The first Rambo movie. Should be more accurately called: "Dude just stabbed/bunched/shot me in the balls".

Dude seemed to be aiming for folks' nether regions. I guess they deserved it or whatever, but it seemed a touch excessive.

Although I do find the M60E1 to be an attractive gun. My "brother" disagrees. Apparently its too long.

Penultimate Stargate: Atlantis Episode

I thought it was quite good. Shot differently from the bulk of the series. Was very CSI-like, which is what I'm assuming they were going for, due to the content of the episode.

Looking forward to the last episode. Looks like it should be a good one. But I'm a little sad its gonna be the last one.