Moving In To New Digs

Things have been pretty quiet around here lately. Not that I haven't had anything to say - its just that I got tired of running too many blogs, and I got in to some major re-design projects for some websites I run. Most of those re-design projects are winding down. But I was still wondering what to do with my personal blogs and the two people that read them :) So, I decided to condense about 4-5 personal blogs or half-started and abandoned blogs into one blog over at WordPress.com:

Matt's Musings and Meanderings

WP has a few less features, but cooler looking skins and constant updates. I have placed all of the posts from this blog in to one category, and you can see new posts that fits with this blogs theme by clicking here:

Your Official Portal to Geekdom category listing

Someday soon I may also see if I can get the postings from that category fed in to this blog, just to keep the design up. Until then, enjoy the new digs....

Summer Movies So Far

I have seen a few - but not all that I want to. Got to keep the budget under control, so several will have to wait until the dollar theater. My thoughts so far:

Iron Man just... rocks. It better win a bunch of awards. It's just that good. And I never was a huge Iron Man fan growing up.

Speed Racer was way under rated. This was a great film. It was the only film I have ever seen that got a standing ovation from the audience when it was over. Seriously.

Indiana Jones and the Title I Can Never Remember was a good flick If it had come out two years after Last Crusade, everyone would have loved it. People just have to remember what they liked about the first one to connect with what is great about this one.

Lost is not a movie - but that season finale was intense. I really liked it, and I was glad they stretched it to three hours. I think the only weakness was that they tried to do too much and probably needed that extra hour that got cut due to the writer's strike.

Still need to see Prince Caspian, Expelled, Kung Fu Panda, and Sex and the City. Didn't know I was a SatC fan? Well, I' not at all. Just seeing if you are paying attention. Also waiting for The Dark Knight, Wall-E, Hellboy 2 (I really liked the first one) and some other ones that I can't remember now.

The Return of the Geek

Been out of the loop for a while. I guess I could just say that I am resting for this summer and all the geeky movies coming out. But that's not really the case. Truth is, I have been contemplating condensing several of my blogs in to one personal blog. Mainly out of pure laziness. We'll see.

There are some interesting movies out or coming out this summer season. Iron Man, Speed Racer, Indiana Jones, Dark Knight, Expelled, Prince Caspian, etc, etc. None of them will be perfect, but I will probably end up watching all of them and enjoying every geeky moment of it.

Of course, I have to mention that the new season of Lost has been incredible. Flash forwards? Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

I've also been digging in to some more books recently. Just finished the first book in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Really strange. To the point where I'm not sure if I want to read on. But I probably will.

Also intriguing is "The Man in White" by Johnny Cash. Johnny is an incredible story teller in music, and equally good in print. The Man in White is Mr. Cash's take on the life of Paul. Yep - THE Paul. Biblical dude. And it is really interesting.

U2 3D: The Movie

My wife and I saw this a while back, but I forgot to post on it. The U2 3D movie is awesome. Even if you don't really like U2, the 3D technology is so realistic. I'm not talking the red and blues glasses of a few decades back, or even the funky plastic cheap-o Disney ride glasses of the last decade. you still have to wear funky glasses, but the advances in 3D film are really noticeable. The shots that look over the massive crowd in the soccer stadium make you feel like you are really there looking out over the crowd. The drum set also looks incredibly real in 3d. On top of all of this, they also added some graphics to a few scenes - basically, they took what was showing on the screen behind the band and made it float transparently in front of the band. Neat effect.

We saw it an I-MAX, which really added to the realism. I recommend taking this route if you can.

LOST: The Island is Hell

Yep.... been watching Lost. And formulating some theories. So, here goes....

There is this new character named Matthew Abaddon. We first saw him last week in a flash forward, posing as a lawyer that asked Hurley some weird questions about the other survivors. The Lost Easter Eggs Blog posted a creepy slow motion clip of Abaddon leaving the mental hospital. It doesn't look like a human is leaving. Maybe the smoke monster?

http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/2008/02/matthew-abaddon-slow-motion-leaving.html

If you look closely, you can see the door handle shining through where his waist should be. Weird.

I also remembered hearing the word Abaddon in the Bible somewhere. I looked it up on Wikipedia quickly, and thought the entry there had some interesting points:

Abaddon (Hebrew Avaddon, meaning "destruction"). In Biblical poetry (Job 26:6; Proverbs 15:11), it comes to mean "place of destruction", or the realm of the dead, and is associated with Sheol. Abaddon is also one of the compartments of Gehenna.[1] By extension, it can mean an underworld abode of lost souls, or hell.

In Revelation 9:11, it is personified as Abaddon, "Angel of the Abyss",[1] rendered in Greek as Apollyon; and he is described as king of the locusts which rose at the sounding of the fifth trumpet. In like manner, in Rev. vi. 8, Hades is personified following after death to conquer the fourth part of the earth.

Locke's Dad told Sawyer last season that the island is hell. Maybe so? Or maybe some weird place for lost souls to find peace? But not purgatory, because they have already said that it is not purgatory.

The Best Spaceships in the Galaxy

IGN.com created a list of the top 10 space ships, based on "pop-culture impact and all around cool means of transpo." It's a pretty good list, although I have one gripe: no X-Wing? Come on. That is the top fighter craft in SciFi ever. I would kick that video game space ship out of number 7 and put the X-Wing in there. Why would a video game space ship be in here anyway? Give them their own list. Also, if I really thought about it, I would probably find something to replace number 10, even though that is a cool space ship.

Another thing I have to disagree with: "can't explain what people were thinking when they came up with TNG's D" (in reference to the Enterprise-D of Start Trek: The Next Generation). Whatever! That was the coolest Enterprise ever, even though it is a little dated now.

The coolest thing: Serenity makes the list....

More on the Digital Piracy Controversy

I've been writing other places about all of the controversy surrounding digital file sharing.
For the record, I don't think that it is right to steal music or movies or anything else in the long run online. I do think that it should be legal to be able to sample or preview something before you buy it, even though in most cases this is lumped in with piracy, so it still has to be avoided. I also think we need to deal with things like out of print titles in the debate. Like, re-issue them or release them for free online and stop complaining about it. But, I'll just link to my other posts on these issues.:

EduGeek Journal post on "The Great Copy Protection Debate"

This post comments on an ongoing debate on the New York Times website about copy protection. It's an interesting read on two sides of the issue. I became really fed up with the way on side was presenting their take, so I commented on the issue with some more thoughts. My comment is number 3 (posted at 2:27 pm on January 16, 2008) at the bottom of this page:

Bits Debate: Mixing It Up Over Remixes and Fair Use

Speed Racer is a Trip!

I have to admit - I never really got into Speed Racer as a kid. I think it only came on some PBS channel that only came in vaguely once a week at 3:00am on Monday morning. So I really didn't care much about the movie, until I read all of the buzz on the trailer. It's totally different than anything else I have ever seen. If the buzz for this movie keeps on being good, I may still go see it. Check out the trip here:

http://movies.aol.com/movie/speed-racer-2008/28066/main

Don't Give Up On Vista

The Showdown Rocks Your Face Off!

Most of you know I am a metal head. So, if you aren't... you might not care about this post. I just discovered a great metal band (new to me): The Showdown!

http://www.myspace.com/theshowdown

Their first album wasn't that great. For their second album, they changed styles a little - probably influenced by Maylene & The Sons of Disaster (another great band). They stopped screaming so much, added some southern rock influences in the mix, and BAM! Hi-Voltage Heavy Metal Advisory. And they are currently on the OzzFest tour - they are that good.

Heroes and Time Travel

Yes, I still love Heroes. I still think they are doing a great job. Just like last season, they are setting some stuff up. I guess some people have forgotten that once you get into a show, you are supposed to care what happens to the characters and not all of this silly stuff about "going to the next level." Ummmm..... when you start at a high level, you don't need to go up.

Why is it that whenever a Sci-Fi show introduces Hispanic characters in a new season, people automatically hate them? Nikki and Paulo in Lost, the Wonder Twins in Heroes? (and that whole "Wonderless Twins" label is getting waaayyy, old, waaayyy fast). The only problem with the twins in Heroes is that they are way more interesting if you follow the Heroes Evolutions online stuff. I think the show producers did make a mis-step there assuming that everyone would be following that and realize that the black tears in the eye thing is part of a Mayan prophecy about the end of the world.

Anyway, I had a random thought about time travel. When Hiro stabbed Sylar at the end of season 1, he was flung away and then teleported back in time. The big explosion was stopped because Nathan decided to step in, change the future, and take the exploding Peter away. Of course, Hiro doesn't know this in the past. He will still have to come back to the future, find out that the explosion was stopped, and find out his father is dead. Good and bad for him.

But, there was that episode that was five years in the future and tells what happens if Peter does explode. there is the ultra-cool "Future Hiro" there. I was thinking that Hiro would never become this future fighter because the explosion was stopped. The trippy thing is - that "Future Hiro" had still been flung into the past and had still interacted with with his hero Kensai. Learned to fight, go through trials, etc. And then came back to find that the bomb had exploded. Weird. Future Hiro learned to fight in past Japan. So, current Hiro could still become kick-butt Future Hiro. Sweet.

Random, I know. Some day I will actually blog about something other than Heroes.

But the upcoming episodes look soooo cool:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/34696

Record Companies are Pathetic

Yep - you read that right - records companies are pathetic: sad, petty, and useless. A recent case involving a lawsuit against an online file sharer shows just how slimey they are. The jury found in favor of the company (which they should have, the person was obviously guilty) - and then called for $9,250 in damages for each of the 24 songs involved in the trial. (!)

Am I the only one in the world that finds this to be abusive? $9,000 for one song - that on average was maybe shared with possibly a 100 people, causing about A $100-200 loss to the record company (depending on how much you think individual songs are worth. If you know anything about the recording industry, you know that most big record companies only spend an average of about 25 cents per song for a moderately successful song). Charging someone that much for sharing a song online is like finding someone guilty for murder and then declaring that every person in the United States with the same last name as the killer to be executed.

Here's the kicker - the record companies never had to prove that the songs were actually downloaded by someone else. Just offering them online was enough to gain this verdict. So - they only had proof that she cost the record company maybe $30-40 - and they got $222,000 in damages!

I won't accuse anyone of wrong doing (*cough* bribery *cough* payoff *cough* *cough*), but something stinks here.

I'm not in favor of stealing music or illegally downloading songs - but if the record company accepts this obviously unfair verdict - they are nothing but scumbags. And for any artists that stand with the big record companies in this decision - I will no longer be buying your CDs. Or your junk merchandise.


Record companies - WAKE UP! YOU are the ones that have caused illegal file sharing to become such a huge problem. You've done everything you can to steal money from us and the bands you sign - eventually there had to be a backlash. Do you really think we were happy going out to buy a CD of cool song that were heard on the radio just to find out that one song was the only good song on a CD full of junk? Do you think were happy when we invested a ton of money into a record or tape collection, only to have you roll out CDs and expect us to re-buy all the music that we already owned? Did you really think we were going to fall for that again for all the new "better-than-CD" options you've tried to roll out since then? Did you really think we ignored all of those expose TV shows that showed how CDs now don't cost you any more than tapes to produce, but you still keep charging more? Did you really think we've ignored all of the artist interviews through the years about how they were ripped off by you?

Heroes: Four Months Later....

So, the new Heroes season is here at last. How good is Heroes? Well, it makes some people cuss, it's so good. So far, I'm very intrigued with where they are going. I'm starting to see a trend with some of the extra online stuff that I refer to as Heroes Extended Edition. One of things I am noticing is that the Activating Evolution site mentions a lot about how species will begin displaying mutations if there is a global threat to the species - as kind of a survival instinct. On Hana's blog, there are references to a Mayan prophecy that the earth will end in December 2012. Could it be the shows theory that there is an impending doomsday in the works, and that nature is causing humans to develop super powers in a type of survival instinct? We're starting to see that some super heroes can have the same power. Could it be that nature will keep bringing up these mutations until it stumbles up the one trait that we all need to survive?

I am guessing that at some point, someone else in the older generation of Heroes also had the ability to see the future. Maybe they saw the impending apocalypse, and have a plan to do something about it? I wonder if they are going to send Hiro to the ancient Mayan culture next, and he will see another hero there that can also paint the future - and that's where the Mayan prophecy came from :) Probably not, but that would be cool.

Personally, I can't wait for the 8th episode "Eight Months Ago..." which will go back and answer some of the unanswered questions about the past four months. How did Peter and Nathan survive the explosion? But why do they all think Peter is dead? What happened to Peter the last four months? What does that helix looking symbol mean, anyway? People are making necklaces out of it, so it obviously means something to someone in the show.

Seven Wonders of the IT World

CIO magazine had this list of the Seven Wonders of the IT World (or, more accurately, the computer world). Some interesting computers on that list. The fastest super computer out there is purely amazing.

http://cio.com/article/135700

What New Shows Am I Interested In This Season?

To be honest - none. Sure, there are some interesting ones out there. But I probably won't watch any of them. Why? Because they will probably get canceled.

I'm wondering how long it will be before the TV watching public begins to just stop investing in any new shows with me. Think of the shows that showed promise, or drew a fan base, such as Firefly, that were given bad promotion, and then canceled before given a chance to gain viewers. Sure, you have shows like Jericho that can come back from the dead - but that's only one so far. So many shows are now trying to latch on to the Lost or Heroes formula: long, complicated plots that span entire series (or at least entire seasons) with intrigue and mystery. The problem is: you dig in, invest in the show, and then it bites the dust. I'm just going to sit back and wait to see if anything makes it to season 2. Then rent the DVDs for season 1.

This is really just the problem with the entertainment industry in general. No investment in anything if it's not a hit right off the bat. And not to mention over-saturation. there are just too many movies, TV shows, CDs, games, etc pushed out every week. I remember recently that Bono said there may never again be another U2. Not because no one can ever be as good as them - it's just that the record companies are not supporting and developing bands enough to allow for them to grow into another U2. I think that can be said in all sectors of the entertainment industry: companies are too caught up with getting the next biggest thing out there yesterday.

Less Than a Month till Heroes

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There has been a ton of interesting buzz about Heroes recently. Heroes has been one of my favorite television shows. I've been keeping up with the (very interesting) online comic this summer. The one released today has me thinking - what is the deal with Hiro's Dad (Kaito Nakamura)? He is know by street thugs - and scares them away? Sweet! I hope they develop his story more next year. I found the Season 2 preview from ComicCon on YouTube:



Some things I noticed in the trailer:

• Hiro's father is in there - so maybe my wish about him will come true.
• Matt Parkman lives
• Nathan Petrelli lives!
• Sylar is for sure alive - but we kind of already knew that
• Peter Petrelli lives!

Peter and Sylar living was pretty much already a given, from what happened last season. But how did both Nathan and Peter both survive? Here's my theory:

We already know that Peter survived the original version of the explosion. In the new version, the question would be - could he explode, and then fall from miles up, and survive the fall from that high up? If Nathan was still alive - sure. Here is what I would have done (if I was Nathan): fly as high as I could. Tell Peter to give me a few seconds. Release him, and fly as far away as I could. Remember - Nathan can break the sound barrier. Then, fly back underneath the explosion - to stay away from radiation. Give Peter enough time to heal as he fell, while following him as he fell. When he is fully healed, catch him, and land. Then go cut Sylar's head off. I mean - seriously - is anyone ever going to get that this dude won't die unless you cut him into tiny pieces? That may not even work....

The Yamagato Fellowship website (a mock site for Heroes) has an interesting "documentary" on Takezo Kensai, the famous historical Hero that Hiro idolized:

http://www.yamagatofellowship.org/videoPlayer.shtml

Hana Gitelman's website has also been active recently, suggesting that she somehow survives electronically - maybe on the Internet? They already did that in the X-Files, but it is still a cool concept to explore. Maybe this massacre described in the story has something to do with that new super-villain that Molly was scared of? We'll see.

The Primatech Paper, Corinthian Casino, Activating Evolution, Nathan Petrelli for Congress, and Hiro's blog websites have all be quiet recently. The MySpace accounts for Claire, Nikki/Jessica, and Zach are all inactive (page can't be found). We'll see what new stuff pops up over the next few weeks.

Interesting Lost Teaser Online

The Lost official website has a clip of another station orientation film. It's for a station called "The Orchid." The dude giving the orientation is going by yet another name. But in the film, he does acknowledge that the work on the island is dangerous, and that the Dharma Initiative is being deceptive from time to time. My theories from the clip:

• The whispering people noises are happening in the film, while the Dharma workers are working. They don't seem to care. It must be a regular or expected phenomena to them.
• The 15 rabbit is held by the talking guy, and then another 15 rabbit shows up in the background. They talk about shifting the rabbit, so I am thinking that there has something to do with time travel.
• They want to keep the rabbits away from each other, which reminds me of Back to the Future II (and how Marty McFly was always told to avoid running in to himself).
• The dude that talks on the orientation video is kind of a jerk "behind the scenes" :)
• The Casimir effect he mentions apparently has something to do with levitation and nanotechnology. So, now we have levitation, nanotechnology, smoke monsters, multiplying bunnies, this Jacob person/thing, and purple skies all on Lost island. Maybe they are all on some huge drug trip in reality?
  

So, I am guessing that the whispering noise is something that happens when something is sent through time.

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Now playing: Paradox - Give A Listen
via FoxyTunes

My History With Computers, Part 2

So, like I said last time, going to college changed the computer landscape for me. It was 1991, and home computers were becoming popular. I was thinking that I really needed one to get through college. But my parents were convinced that all we needed was a typewriter. So, I got a job at the Po Folks restaurant in Waco, and bought the two things I really needed to get through college: a truck (1991 Izusu pickup) and a computer. I took out a loan for $2000 and bought an IBM PS/1. The truck lasted until it blew a rod last year, but the PS/1 has been gone since 95 or so - so I guess you can see which one was a better buy :)

Anyway - the PS/1 was incredible. First of all, it came with Prodigy - an early Internet-like service that I loved. My parents got a little mad that the phone was always tied up, but it's not like we got that many calls. So, yep - I've been on the Internet for a long time. The funny thing is, I saw the PS/1 on some list of the 10 worst home computers of all time. Most of the problems they listed didn't affect me, though. The PS/1 had 30mb hard drive (NOT gb - mb), IBM-DOS (this was before Windoze came on the scene), and a monster mouse that didn't always click when you hit the buttons. But it had Microsoft Works - that saved my rear in college many times.

My parents caught on to the need for computers, and now my Mom currently has a super monster computer to transfer VHS to DVD and make home DVDs.

So, the next decade of my life was spent with a variety of computer upgrades and new services. I went from IBM-DOS to Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 to Win 98 to XP. Haven't even touched Vista yet. Don't know if I will ever be brave enough for that.

Anyway, in college I also got my first experience with Macs. Baylor had all Mac labs, so around 1994-97, I spent a lot of time on the early WWW and the Mac version of what ever. Archive.org has a great service called the Way Back Machine, and it's pretty interesting to look back at the old versions of websites archived there. I remember many of them. Man, has the Internet come a long way.

I tended to shy away from programming computers in college, but I quickly got back in to it after getting in to the work world. I had no aversions to programming in college - I just got too busy. Anyway, I went to a computer training when I was a Junior High teacher called "Intel Teach to the Future Training." We all had to take tests online to see if we had the necessary skills to just jump right in the class and start. Or so we thought. The first day of the class, someone raised their hand and said "now, are you sure I won't break this thing by pressing the 'on' button?" The teacher of the class (who was also another Science teacher), looked at my wife and I (we were both Science teachers and in this class), rolled his eyes, gave us the "might want to entertain yourself for a while" look, and proceeded to baby sit this teacher for an hour's worth of basic computer training. Like, really basic.

So, I got on the Internet and learned html. Since then I have gotten into CSS, XML, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, Flash, and ActionScript. All of which I learned because they were needed for my job at the time (whatever it was), but no one else knew how to do it.

Also, around 2003, I started my first blog. Been addicted ever since.

In 2004, I worked at a company that was (for the most part) all Mac based. So, I used my first iMac (the G4) in a work environment. I was pretty impressed. When Apple decided to come out with Intel-based Macs, I was almost convinced that it was time to switch. Our Mac-fanatic friend Chris was the final push that convinced Katie and I to go Mac. A few months ago, our new iMac Core Due arrived, and I've been loving it ever since. Now, if only the price of iPhone would come down, I could get one of those, and start a whole new chapter in my history with computers....

(by the way, the links I am putting in these articles are to pictures of the computers or programs in question).

My History With Computers, Part 1

For some reason, I have been on a nostalgia trip recently. I was looking at PC World's Top 10 worst computers of all time, and the first computer I ever bought was up there! It was a great computer! Anyway, I started to reminisce, and I was surprised to find out how many screen shots, articles, and emulators there are out there for these old systems I used to own or use. Here is my brief history with computers.

My first time to use a computer was in 4th grade, around 1983-1984. Our school had a Commodore 64. They would send all of the artsy/nerdy students to what they called "Gifted & Talented" class once a week - and the C64 was one of the activities they kept us busy with. Interesting how GT started out as a way to describe the "weird" kids. Anyway, I basically learned how to use |/\{} etc draw a rocket ship that would scroll up the screen. And to play a game or two.

I also remember back in the day when Target had a C64 on display. My brother and I would always jump at a chance to go shopping with our Mom, and then get to Target only to dash off to the electronics row. The game that they always had, that we always played, was G.I.Joe. Mom would have to drag us kicking and screaming out of that store every time.

I also remember visiting Sears a lot and playing their ColecoVision every chance we got. We loved to play the Smurf game. Yep - it was labeled the "Easiest Video Game Ever." But we never won it. Sad.

Somewhere in mid-80s, my parents broke down and bought us an Atari 2600. We actually owned something before that to play Pong on, but I can't remember what it was. Anyway, we used to spend hours playing Atari games at friends and relatives houses, so we eventually ended up with one of our own. The games were simple, but we loved to play. For days on end. I think school happened in there somehow.

Also, along the way, we talked our parents in to our first home computer as a family - the TI-99 4/A. We also spent hours playing Parsec and Tunnels of Doom on this thing. Tunnels was great because we could get the whole family together and explore the dungeons looking for the King's treasure. We even has a tape player to store stuff on - that was what the po' folks did back in the day when floppy disk drives were too expensive. Um... a floppy disk is... well, if you don't know - go look it up. Anyway - cassette tapes are very finicky, so every other time you stored stuff on them, you usually lost it. But it was soooo cool to be able to turn off the computer and have it remember where you were in the game.

I even learned how to do graphics and some video game programing on the TI. Now, granted, the pixels on the graphics were a good 1/4" square. And the action was pretty slow in Basic programming language. But I still fondly remember my first program - Stormtrooper Battle 357. You had to go up 10 levels of the DeathStar, each level with a Stormtrooper to shoot. Of course, the trooper just stood there until you hit the 'F' key - because I didn't know how to do it differently. Then, when you got to the top hatch of the DeathStar, you had to enter the "secret code" to get out. What was the secret code? Take a wild guess....

Any way, I also remember in High School how the Nintendo Entertainment System became huge. We spent hours at friends houses playing Super Mario Brothers, Castevania, Duck Hunt, etc, etc. Until my brother got one for Christmas, and then we spent hours in his room playing those games. Yeah, and we did manage to make it to school most of the time. Somehow.

About the 10th grade (1989), my school started offering a computer course. So, I jumped at that. Don't even remember what computer was used, but it was IBM, and it had the old monochrome screen. I Spent hours programming BASIC (that's one of those old computer programming language, for those that don't remember) and designing goofy banners to print out. I was the envy of my class when I learned how to change the color of the text on my screen from green to any one of 16 basic colors.

Of course, I was also around when the arcade video game scene took off (late 70s - early 80s). Wasted many quarters on anything from Donkey Kong to M.A.C.H. III to Karate Champ to Dragons' Lair. Also, I remember playing on several Apple IIE's back in the day.

Well, that pretty much takes me up to college, and the fact that I got a job the last month of high school and worked through my entire 6 year stint at college (yep - 6 years, not 4) pretty much changed the computer landscape for me. I'll hit that in part two.

Brief Summer Movie Reviews

My wife and I are actually not that huge into movies. We tend to miss most of them. However, we seem to have gotten a chance to see many of the big releases so far this year. Here are my brief thoughts on them:

Spiderman 3: Lots of good ideas - but too many for one movie. Many scenes, and some characters could have been cut. Not better than part 2, but still a fun movie.

Shrek 3: Really funny. I like Shrek movies. Just as good as the first 2, if you ask me.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3: Great action sequences, great special effects. Hated the ending, but I still enjoyed the overall experience. Keith Richards as Captain Jack Sparrow's Dad is classic.

Transformers: Awesome movie. Plot? Who cares! I love giant, fighting robots. The biggest problem with this movie (as any other Michael Bay movies) is that a ton of innocent bystanders die, without any emotional weight. Mass deaths like that are devastating, and I think the movie would have been better without them. I already know what Creecy is going to say about it, though: "it's a racist movie. The only good guy robot to die was black." Well, Creecy, it's a Michael Bay film - we all knew Jazz was toast from the beginning. His most cliche characters always bite it.

Live Free or Die Hard: I would have never seen this one, if I hadn't have been with a group that wanted to see it. Not a big fan of the Die Hard series. Still, entertaining - even if 90% of the action is even more unbelievable than in the first three. I was waiting for Bruce Willis' sidekick to bust out and say "Hi, I'm a Mac..." at any time - but it never happened.

Coming soon, and looking forward to:

Bourne Ultimatum: Katie and I love the Bourne series. The trailers look awesome - so we'll be there. "I doubt you are sitting in your office." "Why is that?" "Because - if you were, we would be having this conversation face to face."

The Kingdom: Looks like a gritty take at culture clash gone wrong. Set in Saudi Arabia, staring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garder (and many other quality actors that I can't pull out of my head right now).

Underdog: The trailer looks hilarious. I'll want to see if the movie lives up to the hype. "Y'know, you never see dogs hurting each other for money." "You never see people sniffing each other's butts." "Touché."

We'll probably also get around to seeing Fantastic Four 2 (yes, I liked part 1), Harry Potter 50 or whatever number it is (never read the books, but they make entertaining movies), Evan Almighty, and Ratatouille before all is said and done.