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I need to change the layout of my blog. If I this was a few years back, I could've done it myself. Now, I am to lazy to find out how to make changes this site's HTML code. Sad, but true. I need help.

When I saw the first Underworld, I was slightly impressed. I don't go for vampires. No fascination with them whatsoever. Yet, this war with werewolves was intriguing. If I had blogged the movie back then, my review would've been a solid 3 of 5 stars. Mediocre but watchable.

Well the sequel to Underworld had opened up last week and I had to watch it. I confess that I was anticipating it for the last month. Not only for Kate Beckinsale in tight leather, but to finish up the story. I was sorely disappointed. In fact, I think I was played for the fool.

This sequel starts off perhaps minutes after the last, but it is light years from the first. I can't believe that this was the same setting as the last. It seems as if the writer and the director wanted to throw out everything good about the previous film and start anew. And where they started was at the core of Blood Rayne (I have not seen it, but I am sure it is just as crappy). It then flows into a mire of crap. The trilogy seemed condensed into a two-parter. Perhaps they knew with this stinker of a movie that they could not tell it all because they'll all be fired by then. There was more chases, more Kate Beckinsale skin (a plus!!), and more vampires. After the defeat of the werewolves there was no more enemy except themselves. Vampire v. Vampire. As Butthead would've said, "This sucks, Beavis." What happened?

Don't make the third installment. I won't watch it after being robbed.

2 of 5 stars. For the naked side of Kate Beckinsale.

Labels: movies, review

I was sitting in the Common Room with an early free period. I think it was day 2 and Religion wasn't schedule for then. I had just settled down on the couch with some friends when someone came from the library.

"The shuttle has exploded."
"Bullshit."
"They're showing it on tv in the library."

We got up, went to the library and watched. What a catastrophe! I remember the iconic plumes of the solid rocket boosters, twisting free from the wreckage. I remember them doing their death spiral down until self-detonation. I remember the rain of debris as they seemingly floated gently down to splash into the ocean.

Twenty years ago. Yet it is still vivid in memory. I have had a morbid fascination with that event ever since and have read lots on the subject. Things an engineer has to know. Murphy's Law. Blind luck. Pure fate. The gods have spoken.

NASA history of the Challenger tragedy.

Labels: anniversaire, nostalgia, school

For all you Mac programmers out there (Pretty soon there'll be many), if you haven't heard the CocoaRadio podcast, then what are you waiting for? Each is a good long interview, but the programmers he gets are the cream of the crop. Listen to them, one can easily imagine that one can attain the life.

Someday soon...

Here, I got to admit that I have been watching some of that stupid reality show, Dancing with the Stars and found out how painful it is to be Master P. If you've seen it you know what I mean. He can't (or most likely won't) dance, and the stupid American public is keeping him on the show.

Stop. Please, stop.

His partner probably cries at night. Americans are so cruel.

Vote for the girl with legs to her neck, Stacy Keibler. Vote for short Drew Lachey. Vote for anyone, but Master P. It's not funny anymore.

Are you tired of new year's lists already? Here's a list that will sum up how shitty the last year has been. This is especially sweet with you at number 4.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

What did Jimmy James say about this?

"What was the Constitution of the United States?... It is an advertisement... an advertisement for liberty..."

Damn straight Mr. James. The man so nice they named him twice.

On a serious note, we should not let this document, this great nation, our liberty, and our rights go down the tubes because some silly, little man is scared. Or is scaring us. Instilling fear. Frightening our neighbors. Pitting brother against brother. It has been 219 years since its authoring. Our nation has gone through lots in that time. One measly, petty man should not undo what history has done. Fuck Bush.

Labels: shill

The torrent of posts to my blog have been courtesy of the evaluation copy of MarsEdit.

The second DVD that I had enqueued in my Netflix queue was Vertigo. I had previously seen it in fragments. The beginning here. The middle part I can't recall when or when. The ending, the classic ending, there. My concept of it as a whole was somewhat disjointed. While many people see it as Hitchcock's masterpiece, by only seeing it piecemeal, I was unable to make that call.

Tonight that was rectified.

It is his best. I have to rave about it. Previously, I had Rear Window as my favorite. Grace Kelly being the most prominent of reasons why it was my favorite.

Where Vertigo lacks the hottie blonde (I'm sorry Kim Novak). It more than makes up for it by the absolute performance of Jimmy Stewart as a man obsessed. When he to her to get some clothes, I knew that this character was unhinged. The man can want a woman with such obsessiveness that it was ridiculous. Then he changed her hair. And at that point it had me.

Damn. Grace Kelly is coming in second place.

And next on my Netflix queue is North by Northwest. Please, Eva Marie Saint, don't knock out Grace Kelly.

Labels: Hitchcock, movies, Netflix Queue, review

Once again John Gruber has done his latest roundup of the doings at MacWorld Expo 2006. He always says things that make sense. I particular like how he notes that iWork had no major improvements. Great. I just bought it. For the 3D graphs.

Labels: Apple, Macs

Stopped by the brick and mortar Apple Store at the local mall to get Tiger and the latest version of iWork. Since I am a grad student I decided to use my student discount. I was denied. It seems that Apple has a new policy to not offer student discounts at their brick and mortar store.

That's plain stupid of them.

You are already in the store. Why make it harder for your customer to get the deal? It's good that they already offer a student discount, but to go through the website to be able to receive it is a hassle.

Anyway, I got my software at their website. Now I have to wait until some time next week to get it. Apple. Fix this.

Labels: Apple

Just joined Netflix. The last two weeks I had bought about ten DVDs. There's no way I can buy all the movies that I want to watch, so Netflix it is.

Labels: Netflix Queue

I don't get some jokes, but this blonde joke will have you laughing your ass off.

Capote was a movie that demonstrated to us that there are still actors in this world. Truman Capote was played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and his sidekick, Harper Lee byCatherine Keener. That is a powerful 1-2 punch of acting if you ever saw one. While it was an actors movie neither of the two disappeard completely into their roles. I think the fey voice that Hoffman used for Capote distracted me.

4 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Tony Dungy and his Colts lost to the hated Pittsburgh Steelers 21-18 today. Another year and another loss in the playoffs for a coach that many in the league like and who has had an emotional year. Yet this loss is a just another in the long string of big games that he has lost. And that's his problem.

First, I like the man and the coach. He turned the Tampa Bay organization around into winners when he had coached there. For that I am eternally grateful. He built a perennial winner in Tampa with one mean defence. And he still lost the big games. Was it a coincidence that the Bucs won the Super Bowl the year after they had let Dungy go? I think not.

Let's face it. Every big game he has coached in, he gets out coached and his players are not ready. His best chance was the 1999 NFC championship game with the Bucs almost taking out the eventual Super Bowl champs, St. Louis Rams. In it, just one play to make and Tony Dungy would've gone on to be a big game coach. It was not made, and he has never come as close as that. For the rest of his tenure in Tampa, he brought the Bucs to playoffs where they were summarily dismantled twice by the Eagles.

Now this season with the Colts could've been unique. He should've went for an undefeated season. Yet, he slacked off in the end. The loss of his son could've also motivated him to win one now. I don't think he has the heart to crush his opponents.

Anyway the hated Steelers advance to the AFC championship game. They'll face the sucky Broncos who can't play defence worth squat, and they'll make it to the Super Bowl.

I am going to have to live with the stupid Steelers fans for another year yelling that their time is number 1. Tony Dungy is going to have to look at another loss in the big game. The Colts's management have got to look at if this guy can win the big one. I think not.

I have been buying a lot of DVDs lately. One of the latest is Jumanji. I got the version with the Jumanji game built into the box cover. After watching the movie, I think I'll pass on playing it.

It's the version labeled as the deluxe edition on the box. What's so special about this one? Commentary by Robin Williams? Deleted scenes with David Alan Grier? A topless Bebe Neuwirth?

No. Nyet. You wish.

Instead, inside you'll find a coupon for one ticket worth $7.50 to Zathura.

Yes, Zathura.

I would like to have considered this as money back from watching that movie in the theatres, except we all know how much coupons really cost. My best bet is to try to redeem it then sneak into a better movie. Anyone know where it's playing?

The new MacIntel hardware was shown off yesterday and surprises of surprises, a new laptop that is not a updated iBook was revealed. Sadly, it was saddled with the lamest of lame names: MacBook Pro. That makes such a sexy piece of equipment sound like a dorky financial application.

I cried when I saw it though. It makes it all the more harder to get the dual PPC G5 desktop I so crave. Hmm. Can I have more Macs in my house than need?

Labels: Apple, computing, Macross

Vote for my friend, Wyman's, version of the Silent Hill movie poster. I got several emails from him today bugging me about it, so vote.

Labels: get off your butt

Check this video out. Supremely hilarious.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/285267

Although too late to appear on my year end: list of the best of 2005, I caught some movies over the holidays. I therefore owe you some reviews. I wish I could write these but they will be short.

While some had seen this early in the season, we watched The Family Stone on New Year's day. While Luke Wilson always is a pleasure to see in a film, this movie does not rest on his shoulders. It rests on Sarah Jessica Parker's, and her skinny ass could not bring this one home. I lost interest when I could not believe that anyone could fall for her let alone someone her complete opposite. It was only a film.

3 of 5 stars.

To brighten up the holidays, I caught Munich the day after. I think the controversy over this one is uncalled for. Most likely the people complaining about the sympathy it evokes for the Palistinean cause never saw a frame of the film. Yes it does cast Israel in somewhat of a bad light, but only if you think that they should not have retaliated.

In fact, I thought Spielberg gave voice to the anger and made sure that revenge is something that is tolerable. I completely did not read the "war is bad" vibe into this. Maybe Eric Banna did not convey what needed to be conveyed about revenge very well. He was to transform into person who did not know where his morals went. I did not see it.

4 of 5 stars.

I also saw Harry Potter 4 again. I give it 4 of 5 stars on second go round.

Labels: movies, review

This time Blue really is dead. R.I.P. Patrick Crenshaw.

Labels: fare thee well