Here's a quote that I wanted to include in my book review, but it was too long:

Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods and on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion.

-- Augustine of Hippo, The Literal Meaning of Genesis. vol. 1, Ancient Christian Writers., vol. 41, Translated and annotated by John Hammond Taylor, S.J. New York: Paulist Press, 1982

Augustine wrote that 1600 years ago.

If you are a fan of Plinko on the Price is Right then you are really going to dig this game. Simply drop the coin and watch it fall. There is some added strategy involved since there are spots that catch your coin and you can then shoot it back up the course. This is how you really get your score up.

Sorry about the lack of posts lately. Things have been busy at work, and with all the wedding talk going on in our office, I haven't had a lot of free time to post.

A couple of weeks ago, for the noon concert, they had a series of opera scenes. I guess the vocal major is getting so large now that they don't have enough parts (besides the chorus) to give the underclassmen. So now they're having this recital at the end of the spring semester, in which the less experienced vocal majors learn the part for a complete scene. The scenes are fully staged and performed in costume, and before each scene, someone explains the set up.

This is the first type of this recital the department has set up, and I'd have to say it was one of my favorite noon concerts of the year. The performances included scenes from The Marriage of Figaro and Cosi fan tutte by Mozart, Carmen by Bizet, and The Merry Wives by Nicolai.

Some of the performers definitely seem destined for bigger stages. One of my favorites was the maid in the scene from Cosi fan tutte, who stole the show, not just because her role was so fun, but because her voice was consistent and had a great tone, all while she flitted around the stage with an awesome dramatic performance. The theatrics of the two women in the Merry Wives was very entertaining (loved the staging). And the girl who played Carmen was able to give a very effective performance while reclining on the ground.

All in all, a great half hour of show, and it definitely makes me want to check out the spring opera next year. I always mean to go but haven't been able to find someone to go with me (it's more pricey than most people prefer).

One question, though. Are all college operas performed in English? I really prefer to see an opera in its original language, with subtitles. Maybe I prefer subtitles just because, in opera, it's not always easy to understand what's being sung (even when it's in English). But there's something special about the way the words flow in their original form as well. I think I'd like to see the students try a little more in foreign languages (we know they can do it because the chorus has done it in the past), but maybe a full opera would be too much of a challenge..

Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman

Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby by whytheluckystiff

It was four years ago today that I was presumptuous enough to think the internet needed one more web site of personal yammerings. Danny's Blog Cabin was born on LiveJournal on May 30, 2003. Eight months later I moved to Brendoman.com at the generous invitation of Brendan. It would be appropriate to stop and reflect on what we've all learned in the last four years, how much things and people have changed and what the fifth year and beyond might hold in store for this safe haven of personal expression and exploration. But instead of any of that crap, I'll post this picture of monkeys riding bicycles.

Plain View #69 - May 19, 2007

Bufe

Threadless

Coverville & Illinoise

Hapkido

River Market

International Adoption Group

Vietnam Cafe

Donnie Darko

The Queen

Shrek III

Sears Cafe

Mare's Tribute to SNL

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I am having a bad technology week. It all started when I plugged in my laptop and heard a bad sparking noise. I then noticed that the connector to the AC adapter was extremely frayed. I'm not sure how it happened, but now I have to get another AC adapter. Then just a few minutes ago I was watching a DVD on my desktop and the movie just stopped. While I was trying to figure out what happened, my DVD drive made some crazy sounds. I hit the eject button to get the disc out, restarted the computer, and then it wouldn't recognize the drive. It appears to have totally crapped out on me. No power, no nothing. It was second hand, so I'm not surprised. Good thing those suckers are cheap these days. Guess I'll be making a trip to Fry's soon.

In other exciting news, I got my final grades for spring semester. I got three A's and a B, so I'm pretty darn happy about that. I'm taking two classes this summer, both easy ones I need for my various certificates. The first one is called Computer Information Systems. It goes over MS Office as well as basic computer concepts. I really like the instructor for this class since he taught my Intro to Programming class but the one thing I don't like about his classes is he uses his own books that you can only buy at the book store. He also changes them every semester with new material so you can't sell them back. At least I found the other book I need for the class for only $3 on Amazon. Beats the heck out of the $60 they were charging for it new in the book store. College book stores are the devil, I tell you. The second class I'm taking this summer is a basic web design class. Apparently it's the class I was supposed to take before I took my Web Page Programming Class last semester since it uses the first six chapters of the book from that class that we skipped over. Should be a total piece of cake, but it will give me a chance to brush up on my basic HTML skills. The most difficult thing about these classes is that they are condensed into a one month format so we have assignments due every two days. I've decided I'm going to do my homework a week at a time so I'm not scrambling every other day. Shouldn't be too bad.

Francis Collins is an eminent scientist who, as head of the Human Genome Project, led the monumental undertaking to sequence the entire human genome. Collins is also a Christian and he explains why he believes and how that relates to his life's work in the 2006 book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence For Belief.

Collins sets himself apart from most Christian apologists in a few ways. First, he doesn't see science as an opponent of religion; he insists that they answer different questions. Second, Collins agrees with the scientific consensus about evolution and he doesn't see it as a threat to religion. He spends a great deal of the book presenting the evidence for evolution and arguing in its favor. A third thing that makes Collins' apologetic different from the likes of Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel is that his case is not built on the Bible. He includes illustrative quotes and makes passing reference to the textual reliability of the Bible, but it's far from being central to his argument.

Collins dismisses a few other reasons for believing before getting to his evidence. The origin of life, long believed to be a question that science cannot answer, has been commonly claimed as evidence for God's existence. How did self-replicating life forms come into existence if God didn't breathe life into them? Science has made inroads toward solving this cosmic riddle, and Collins refuses to hinge his belief on a gap in our knowledge that may be closing.

He deals similarly with the claims of irreducible complexity by Michael Behe and other intelligent design spokesmen. Behe claims that certain structures and processes are so complex that they couldn't have evolved because if they were any less complex then they wouldn't provide any advantage to the organism. Nearly all scientists, including Collins, have seen the problems with Behe's idea. The examples that Behe gave have been debunked and there are no known irreducibly complex structures in biology.

After dealing with the origin of life and irreducible complexity, Collins turns to the more general reason for believing in God, called "God of the gaps." This phrase is used to describe a view of the relationship between science and religion. There are gaps in our scientific knowledge, like how life originated and how certain structures evolved. Believers often want to credit God for doing things that we don't yet understand. Humans have taken this approach for time out of mind. Before we understood rainbows, many cultures assumed they had a supernatural explanation. Those who take this view of God find that as scientific knowledge grows, God shrinks. For decades, thinking believers have discarded this view of God. Collins roundly rejects any evidence for God that is based solely on gaps in our knowledge.

So, scientifically, ID (Intelligent Design) fails to hold up, providing neither an opportunity for experimental validation nor a robust foundation for its primary claim of irreducible complexity. More than that, however, ID also fails in a way that should be more of a concern to the believer than to the hard-nosed scientist. ID is a "God of the gaps" theory, inserting a supposition of the need for supernatural intervention in places that its proponents claim science cannot explain. . . . Ultimately a "God of the gaps" religion runs a huge risk of simply discrediting faith. ID portrays the Almighty as a clumsy Creator, having to intervene at regular intervals to fix the inadequacies of His own initial plan for generating the complexity of life. For a believer who stands in awe of the almost unimaginable intelligence and creative genius of God, this is a very unsatisfactory image (Collins, 193).

So, after passing over the claims of creationists, intelligent design proponents, "God of the gaps" evidence in general and Biblical literalists, Collins presents his evidence for belief. It can be narrowed down to two reasons: 1) The universe had a beginning which seems to have been fine-tuned for life, and 2) humans all share a sense of morality.

Scientists have made reasonable explanations for what has happened in the history of the universe all the way back 13.7 billion years to mere microseconds after the big bang. But, it's true that science has been powerless to tell us anything about the universe before that. The singularity that must have existed before the explosion of the Big Bang defies all scientific laws. And as the universe expanded, conditions that would be friendly to life are a very unlikely outcome. This could be seen as evidence of a supernatural designer that brought the singularity into being and sent it out of the gate at the proper trajectory to ensure that life would be possible in a few billion years. Or it could be seen as another gap in what we know. Like other gaps, it's getting smaller all the time. And even if science never learns any more about the beginning of the universe, consider the implications of Collins' view. He says that God set up the conditions of the big bang almost 14 billion years ago, then didn't intervene until two or three thousand years ago, once humans had evolved fully and begun to found civilizations.

Collins second reason draws heavily from C.S. Lewis, who makes the universal human experience of morality his central reason for believing in God. Not only is this line of reasoning susceptible to the charge of finding God in another gap in our knowledge, but that gap has already all but vanished. Collins and Lewis are both correct when they claim that nearly all humans share an inborn sense of right and wrong. The next step in their reasoning is that if there's a moral law, then there must be a moral lawgiver. God is invoked as the absolute standard that our morality is measured against. I used to consider this a very convincing argument, but now I don't see how you get from the fact of shared morality to the conclusion of God's existence. It is one attempt to the question of where our sense of morals comes from, but is it the most probable?

The Darwinian evolution that Collins uses to to explain the complexity and diversity of organisms can also explain the behavior of humans and other organisms. As an example, take the maternal instinct. It's easy to see how any animal with a strong affection for its offspring would be more likely to pass its genes on. As much as I enjoy taking care of my daughter, I recognize that this paternal instinct is a product of evolution. That doesn't make my feelings any less significant to me. Morality could be seen in the same way. A group of evolving humans living a small group, as early humans did, would be more likely to survive than a neighboring group if they took care of each other. Kindness, generosity, forgiveness and bravery would all give a survival advantage. As humans spread around the world and diverged into different cultures, you would expect slight differences in this instinct to evolve but for the heart of the instinct to be shared by all humans. And this is exactly what we see. Does this make our shared morality any less real? I see no reason to abandon an instinct that has served us so well just because we've found out more about its origin.

Many people will find Collins' approach refreshing. Others will find it conciliatory or even blasphemous. For my part, I find it unconvincing.

More student writing gold:

"However due to my past academic experience has come back to hunt me."

"See I just lost my farther and he was and still is my road model."

Hi there! Long time no blog.. or internet. It was kind of refreshing to take a whole four days off.

So the weekend was great, but tiring, of course! By Thursday night I was burnt out from all the stuff I was doing during the week, so I took a big nap that evening, packed, and slept in on Friday. I got up around 10, was headed towards Carlsbad around 11, and checking in at my hotel at noonish. Luckily they let me check in early. I met up with Amy and her mom, cleared up a little misunderstanding about who was supposed to be working on flowers, and then we all headed out with Amy's aunts to Laurie the flower lady's home. Her home was completely awesome, with a great view of the ocean from her living room and deck. We spent the afternoon trimming flower stems and filling mason jars with bright yellow, pink, and orange daisies. Amy left early to get her nails down, so it was up to me to fight for her vision with a couple of the ladies who would have liked to arrange things a bit differently! That's okay, because the fight wasn't that hard. I just had to remind them that what I was asking for was what the BRIDE wanted, and they always backed down. More on that later.

In the evening I met up with the others from our office who were helping with the wedding, and we all headed over for the rehearsal. While the family rehearsed in the auditorium, we spent time in the banquet hall moving tables and chairs into position, setting up linens and decorative cloth on tables, and figuring out details for the next morning. We were rewarded for our work by a good dinner at Ryan's parents' (also awesome) house: lasagna, bread, salad, and strawberry shortcake. We had a fun time hanging out, although a couple ladies had a last-minute freak out about which tables to use at the head of the auditorium for flower arrangements, which sent my eye a-twitching for a bit, but I got over it. Back at the hotel, I ironed my dress for the next day and planned everything out in my head.

Saturday morning came all too quickly, and I was out the hotel door at 7:30, stopping by the grocery store for some last-minute supplies (including some super glue to re-attach the eagle at the top of the California flag, which had accidentally been knocked off when going under a door frame). I met up with Laurie (flowers) at her house to put together the bridal party bouquets and pack up the cars with all the wedding supplies. We successfully transported everything and were running around a lot all morning: setting up the front arrangements, rolling out the runner, setting out the mason jars, fixing ribbon to the floor to cover up an ugly red stripe, etc. When Laurie ran home to get a few more supplies, I snipped a bunch of daisies from the front arrangements (which they didn't want me to do) to affix to the runner and the family rows of chairs. We barely got it all together in time for the bridal party to arrive! Ruth and I went back to the hotel when we realized we had some extra time before the ceremony, so that was a nice breather moment. Back at the senior center, I was running around before the ceremony a lot, but thankfully we had a late start, and no crises occurred.

The ceremony was great, with equal parts sincerity and humor, just like the two people getting married. Our favorite parts were when Ryan asked for butter when trying to get Amy's ring on her finger, the couple's mistake in putting giant pieces of bread during communion (lots of chewing and laughter), and the great slide show at the end. Ric still doesn't know the couple very well, but after the ceremony and slide show, he turned to me and said, "I think I'm gonna like these two." That made me happy.

The reception started off rocky - we were running late, so the caterer decided not to start things up (no one told them to do that), so when the couple was ready for their food, they had to stand around waiting for it to get set up. Ric and I went over to the other room for tear down, and when I got back, a server came up to me all panicked telling me there were no bottle openers for the Martinelli's bottles. And she couldn't have mentioned this to anyone besides me? After borrowing Amy's uncle's knife with an opener, the toasts went off a bit late, but we made up for time by having cake ready pretty quickly after that. Add in some dancing, lots of laughs, lots of photos, and the garter/bouquet toss, and it was time for us to convert the hall back to its original state. Boy, we were busy! I think I left around 5:30 or 6pm, when everyone told me to leave because I'd done enough. I'm hoping the caterers finally cleared out, since they stayed long past when they were contracted to be there.

Anyway, I'm hoping all the little things that kept me and the other helpers running around weren't noticed by all of the guests, and hopefully they all had a great time! I know we did, even though we were pretty tired out.

Ric and I headed in to San Diego for dinner that night. The place we wanted to eat at had an hour and a half wait, so we ended up at a generic place that just happened to have pretty cool pizza. Sunday, we drove back home (too tired for our original plan of going to the zoo), reunited with Pip, took a good long walk (and saw a hilarious police chase - of a dog - which required four police cars and a lot of insane driving), and played MarioKart the rest of the night.

Monday, we slept in, shopped, and had a good meal at Ric's parents' house. It was a pretty relaxing day.

This week: catching up with life! We've got to do some packing, grocery shopping, and financial planning (yuck). Hopefully we'll have some fun in there too.

Pictures of the wedding (more preparation and reception than actual ceremony) are at Ruth's blog, and I'll try and get mine up soon.

Guys Write for Guys Read by Jon Scieszka

Yesterday we took a trip to the Kansas City Zoo. It was rainy, but the weather was cool and the place wasn't crowded. We saw a pair of baby baboons, a great sea lion show and several free carousel rides.

Here are the pictures.

Since Danny was the only one who had a poll suggestion, I used his. You can now vote for your favorite series finale. Feel free to add your choice if your show isn't on there. My vote? While Lost was pretty stinking awesome, I went with The Office. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. And for those curious, Dill won the pickle poll.

The "fun" part of this game is figuring out how to play it. It didn't take me that long, but once you do, it's a pretty neat game that will keep you occupied for a few minutes before you throw your arms up in frustration.

No times for posts today. Work has been busy, and I've got to go get ready to head down to Carlsbad for the weekend. I hope you all have a great long weekend, and hopefully I'll be back on here on Tuesday. That could get sticky, though, since I've got to be doing jury duty call-in next week. We'll see!

You know, I'm really glad I saw this movie. I know from the previews it doesn't look like much, but it's actually pretty creative and smart.

The story revolves around two kids, Noah and Emma, who discover a strange box in the water at the beach. Once they open the box, they discover several odd contents and also start to display unusual talents. Emma's favorite discovery is Mimzy, a stuffed rabbit who seems to talk only to her and explain how to use the items in the box. Noah has no direction, but with a few odd dreams and some trial and error, he manages to cause quite a stir with one of his discoveries, and pretty soon the government is involved. Noah's science teacher also gets involved when he sees that Noah has been sketching complex ancient designs in class. The teacher and girlfriend give a little bit of insight (without knowing what they're doing) while Noah and Emma's parents are forced to deal with the fact that their kids are involved in something potentially very threatening.

This movie has an odd vibe, which I'm not sure will resonate with all audiences. I really enjoyed it. The things the kids find and what they do are weird, and possibly scary. And when the kids start to use the items in the box, there are some scenes that are visually very interesting. I particularly liked the scene when Noah discovered the relationship between sound and the movements of spiders, but I could see more traditional audiences being thrown off by the camera angles and odd sounds. Because of the offbeat style and tone, I kept thinking about Escape to Witch Mountain. The stories are very different, but the feeling is similar to me.

The screenplay has a few lame moments, with either conveniently written turns of event or something that just doesn't fit (the government, although it does have purpose in discovering the nature of Mimzy). There are also a few hippyish moments that go a tiny bit overboard. Even so, these moments are spread out, and the creativeness of the story makes up for them.

Noah and Emma are played by two child actors I've never seen before, Chris O'Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn. Each are interesting to me because they're a little bit more natural as kids. The acting isn't put on like a stage play - O'Neil is an awkward kid playing an awkward kid, and Wryn is a cute kid playing a cute kid. At first I was a little bit put off by them, but they deliver in the end and are a little bit refreshing.

Rainn Wilson also proves to be a great addition to the cast. He kind of pulls the cast together, and is definitely a far cry from Dwight Schrute, his character in tv's The Office.

I'm not so sure the Last Mimzy is a movie a lot of kids are going to want to watch, but I'd recommend it for an older kid. The themes are sometimes complex and confusing, so a younger kid could be bored by it. I think adults can enjoy it too, because they can relate with the parent and teacher characters. I found all of the characters interesting in one way or another, and the story itself was like nothing I would have imagined. I really liked it.

Endless Zombie Rampage is exactly what it says it is. Save up your EXP to get the good weapons. It gets tough pretty quick if you don't have enough firepower. Watch out for those pesky running zombies.

Okay folks, I need some comments. The pickle poll has run its course and I can't come up with a good poll idea. So post yours in the comments. Also, if you're looking for something fresh and cool, Eric has some new hand drawn posts. Keep it up, man.

Blizzard has announced that they are working on a sequel to their classic sci-fi strategy game, Starcraft. They began development after the release of Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne, which was in January 2003. So, they've been working on it for four years! There's no release date yet, but it will be out for both Macs and PCs at the same time. You can watch trailers, see screenshots and read about some of the new units at the Starcraft 2 site. Starcraft is still my favorite video game. After their success with World of Warcraft, it's great to see Blizzard revisiting this game.

Penny Arcade has a theory about how Blizzard was able to keep this project under wraps for so long.

Veronica Mars - The Complete First Season

Veronica Mars - The Complete Second Season

Catch & Release

Light at the End of the World, Erasure

The Stand: Complete and Uncut (Signet) by Stephen King

It wasn't too long ago that I discovered the awesomeness that is Veronica Mars. I watched the entire first season in a matter of days. While not quite as good, I thoroughly dug the second season. I also enjoyed the third season, but could tell the show was in some trouble with their new format of having only mini-arcs and not an entire season mystery arc. Sadly, this plan to get more viewers sucked into the show didn't work and The CW has officially killed the show. Tonight's 2 hour episode will be the series finale. If you haven't checked out the show yet, this is a great site to get your interest peaked. There are rumors flying around that somewhere down the line they're going to do a show that takes place sometime in the future with an older Veronica now at the FBI. I'm not getting my hopes up. After all the talk and rumors about Arrested Development that never happened, I think I learned my lesson. I'm sure this isn't the last we've seen of the talented cast, especially Kristen Bell. I'm sure they'll move on to other things. Here's to you Veronica. You will be missed.

Here are Anthony's pictures from the Pirates premiere. He's even labeled the ones featuring celebs. My personal faves are this one of me in front of the Submarine Lagoon. It was great to see that the walls are down as the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage is opening up on June 11th. I, being the lucky guy I am, get to ride it on the 3rd. I can't even tell you how excited I am. The subs were my favorite ride growing up. I was pretty heartbroken when they closed them back in 1998. From what I've heard, this new version is going to be pretty darn sweet. Oh yeah, Anthony also got some great pics of Keith Richards, Martin Landau, some chump, and a bunch of other folks. Greg's got some more pictures, which I will be posting sometime soon.

Clockwise from left: Dinner, Moz, Me, Yo.

Don't forget to go out and eat a lot of red meat today.

Most everybody's out of town this year, so Yo and I are meeting up (meating up?) at The Steer and Stein. Hold up a forkful of red meat when you eat your dinner tonight and we'll know you're there in spirit.

Catch-22

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins

Okay, so it's actually more of a re-enactment of his first steps earlier last week. But we're still excited.

I feel like this past weekend lasted a long time but seemed incredibly fast at the same time!

On Friday night Ric and I stayed in. I made homemade crockpot jambalaya to celebrate Ric's vacation, which started that night, and we started watching Die Hard 3. Ric fell asleep, so I'm being kept in suspense right now.

Saturday I went to do laundry at my folks' place, then Jenny and Ric and I went to China cottage for some good food. We ran a few errands around town since Ric was getting ready to take a mini vacation. Jenny and I watched The Office finale for the second time back at our place, and a couple episodes of Ninja Warrior were plenty to entertain after that.

Sunday morning Ric left for the open road and is figuring out his trip as he goes. He calls here and there so I know he's still alive. I went to church to see the Andersons (Happy Birthday, Liz). Emily seems to recognize me now and had a smile/laughing craze in the middle of church because she was having so much fun staring at me. After church Jenny and I went out shopping. Five hours later, my feet were so sore, and 6 hours my back realized what I did to it. I laid around watching tv until the later night hours, then started the long process of packing books.

Have I told you guys we're planning on moving? A rental house is in the works! And if we don't get it for some reason, we're determined to find somewhere else. Man, I have a LOT of books, and running them down stairs is a long (and hot) process. Not sure why I let Ric convince me to move them up there in the first place!

Up this week: running many errands tonight, International Meat Day tomorrow (dinner inland), the Lost finale party at the Neals' on Wednesday, a farewell to my partner-in-crime at work on Thursday (which I have to bake for), lots of wedding flowers prep in Carlsbad on Friday, and the big day for Ryan and Amy on Saturday! Ric and I will be out of town next weekend for the wedding and are planning to stay down south and go see the zoo while we're there. Wow. I'm already getting tired just thinking about this week. But it's going to be a blast.

Kyle posted earlier about the Harvey Dent promotional site created for The Dark Knight. Now there's a new site, I Believe In Harvey Dent Too. Wait a few seconds and you will see the man responsible for defacing Harvey's site. Neat-o.

Yesterday my friends Anthony, Greg, and I bared the masses at the premiere for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. As in the past, the premiere was held at Disneyland. By the time we got there, Main Street was already packed with people waiting for their chance to see Johnny and Orlando. Most of these people appeared to be members of the Teen Girl Squad. We decided to walk around the park a bit, visiting friends and going on a couple rides.

We then found a great spot right at the end of the red carpet at the entrance to Frontierland. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. Then Keith Richards walked by with a fleet of bodyguards, flashed a smile, and made it all worthwhile. Yeah, some other folks were there, including Johnny and Orlando, but we barely got a glimpse of those two since the movie was about to start and they had to make their grand entrance. We also saw Terri Hatcher, Chow Yun Fat, Martin Landau, Geoffrey Rush (with Jack the monkey), Cuba Gooding Jr., Bill Nighy, Jon Voight, and some other chumps like Kobe Bryant and that Joey guy from N'Sync. The surprise moment of the night occurred when, out of nowhere, Arnold Schwarzenegger came walking down the path behind us instead of down the red carpet. No one really noticed until I yelled out "Arnold!" and he smiled and waved, then kept on walking. I guess the Governator can forsake the red carpet and sneak in through the back. Because of his surprise entrance, we didn't get any good pictures of him. Shortly after that, Johnny Depp made his way past us and it became pretty chaotic. I even got punched in the back by an unknown assailant. At this point I could barely feel my legs since we'd been standing around for so long so we decided to take off. I don't know how those paparazzi guys do this on a regular basis. I'll have our pictures shortly, so stay tuned.

Luminara is a pretty stinking awesome Flash shooter. The graphics are really cool and there are lots of different enemies and power-ups. The game play gets pretty fast and furious at later levels. Check it out.

Hat tip to Jay is Games

Plain View #68 - May 2, 2007

Bufe

Working at the paper

Super Size Me (capturing the friedman's, promises, comedian)

School Carnival

Party at the Oates

Cats - likes and dislikes

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The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky and Kent Williams

The Laughlin trip was fun. I lost a few dollars playing penny video poker and I also got to see a free magic show. The AIDS walk was really cool. We got to walk around the warning track on Angel Stadium, right past the bullpen and then the dugouts. Very cool. It reminded me of when I was young and my dad took us to Jack Murphy Stadium during a fan appreciation day. We got to go in the Padres clubhouse and on the field to meet some of the players. It blew my 8 year old mind. Not much else is going on. The most exciting thing that happened when I got back was seeing that Eric has posted his first hand drawn post. It's pretty awesome.

ibelieveinharveydent.warnerbros.com:

Non-comic book geeks should probably click here for an explanation.

I haven't done one of these for a while, so here we go:

Doggy Dog II - The Seatbelts
I'm Open - Pearl Jam
Moya - Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Soundtrack to Mary - Soul Coughing
3-Minute Rule - The Beastie Boys
On The Bound - Fiona Apple
Buddy Holly - Weezer
Just a Message to Her - Beck
Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash
Life In A Glasshouse (Full Length Version) - Radiohead

Next up in the Die Hard series is the creatively named Die Hard 2. Just as creative is the plot, which recycles themes from the first movie: stop terrorists, save your wife, and take sole responsibility for many a hostage's life because no one else seems to want to help. Now, that may all sound like a bad thing, but really, with only a few little "what the!?" moments, I liked this movie.

The beginning has the first of those moments, unfortunately, when we see William Sadler doing his morning martial artsy workout in the nude. All I could think is, "Why?" and "Who is that guy?" And then I realized that he was a small character on Roseanne named Dwight, who had a crush on her sister Jackie. From then on, he wasn't too intimidating.

Okay, enough jabbing at the movie. Here's what I liked:

I liked the airport setting, and that McCain's insatiable curiosity is what leads him into trouble this time, instead of just trying to save his wife. He sees two guys who looks suspicious, and the rest follows. I liked that he was still alone for most of the movie. I liked the hostage idea: planes circling around an airport who can't communicate with the tower and are quickly running out of gas. The time limit makes it more intense, and the use of planes adds more opportunity for cool scenes like fighting on the edge of a wing, single-handedly trying to take the place of the lights on a landing strip, and the great way he finally gets the bad guys. I liked the repeated catchphrase - it was completely unexpected and made me laugh. I liked Bruce Willis' minor sidekicks. I even liked Dennis Franz. I liked the humor of McCain's wife on the plane, interacting with the newscaster that she punched in the first movie.

I thought the movie had enough going on that the additional plot of good guys turning out to be bad guys felt completely unnecessary.

Anyway, I've seen a lot of criticisms online of this sequel, but I'd have to say that I think it stands on its own. It doesn't wink at the audience, it has a detailed enough plot (even though it's similar to the first), and it has plenty of good action and humor. It has its flaws, like most action movies, but, like most action movies, they are forgivable because the audience is entertained. Fun stuff.

Fred Phelps to picket Jerry Falwell's funeral. Apparently he was too tolerant of gays.

Just in case Phelps hasn't already alienated every last conservative Christian in the nation, this ought to do it. He must be the loneliest man in America.

No, it's not emo Parker or his symbiote-enhanced jazz skills. It's this bit of pointless silliness:

It was kind of cute when Stan Lee started turning up in the backgrounds of movies, hidden amongst a crowd. It was kind of a game to spot the Stan Lee cameo, like a film version of Where's Waldo.

But this is so prominent, corny, and over-the-top that it interrupts the flow of the movie. Here Stan Lee goes from being an anonymous face in the crowd to playing himself, commenting on the movie in progress.

Enough already!

Full of spoilers, kids.

A week and a half after its release, what is there that's new to be said about Spider-Man 3? Most everyone has already given their impressions, and I agree with most of the reviews I've read from friends. So I'll just list my general impressions (some already mentioned in other reviews) and say that I enjoyed it for entertainment value while still having issues with decisions made by the filmmakers. I didn't hate it. But man, there were some nightmare moments, weren't there? Okay, so from a non-comic book person, here are all the random thoughts:

Peter Parker: Sufficiently nerdy, and exasperatingly stupid, it didn't take the initially cute-looking alien goo for him to lose focus and have tendencies towards pride ans selfishness, although it did send him into overdrive. I guess it took the goo to make him refocus on his priorities this time around. Evil Peter was, I'm guessing, meant to be somewhat funny, but the way it was presented, I'm not sure the audience could figure out whether or not to take it seriously. Is Peter actually cool and mean, and has he taken piano lessons that we didn't know about, or does the goo give him new talents (check out those dance moves)!? I don't know, but my mouth hung wide open during this odd little sequence and it seriously jolted me out of the story. It was almost terrifying.

Spider-Man: Although his best scene is saving Gwen, isn't that a cool scene? I love the heartbeat/slow-mo action as he jumps on and off the debris in the air in order to reach her.

MJ: I have no problems with her. Sorry! Yes, better played by someone other than Dunst, but I actually liked her better in this movie than in the last, especially because her character actually experienced failure. It didn't seem believable to me that she had so much success in SM2, so her experience this time made her more likeable to me.

Harry/Goblin Jr.: Poor, poor Harry. I've already said that, watching his scarred face chat with the butler, I just wanted to speak for him and say, "And WHY didn't you tell me this sooner?" Harry was trapped in a boring cycle of shutting his ears and telling Peter he won't listen to him. His brief amnesia left him overacting as a happy kid, complete with cheesy smiles. I did, however, like his scenes with MJ. I guess his was a life destined for defeat, but I kind of hoped the reconciliation between him and Peter would have happened in a different way.

Flint Marko/Sandman: I liked him. The scene where he emerges as Sandman is completely awesome. Loved his simple costume (as Marko) as well. My only "huh?" moment was when his locket proved to be made of some kind of molecularly indestructible material. Thomas Haden Church's face is awesome for this role, as it almost looks like it's disintegrating on its own.

Eddie Brock/Venom: As a creepy news guy, I thought he was great. As Venom, I thought the snaggleteeth were weird. When Peter was covered with the stuff, it didn't transform his appearance, but Eddie's teeth look like they come from The Big Book of British Smiles, and that funky eyebrow was distracting. I kind of laughed at him as Venom more than I should have. I read an article linked from Dethroner that complained about too many fundamental coincidences in the movie, which they claim is simply poor writing. I definitely agree when it comes to Brock being in the church, which just happens to be where Peter decides to shed the black suit from atop the bell tower.

Gwen Stacy: Cute, but kind of scary in the hair and makeup department, but that's just a girl's perspective. Too bad she wasn't treated like a real character. Bryce Dallas Howard proves to be somewhat of a chameleon, since the people I saw the movie with didn't realize she was also The Lady in the Water.

J. Jonah Jameson: Awesome as always. Loved the scene with the camera and the little girl, and his heartburn. Actualy, the over-the-phone stuff with his wife reminded me of Spencer Tracy in Mad Mad Mad Mad World (although I like J.K. Simmons better).

Hal Fishman: what the...?

Aunt May: Hmmm. A little bit "yawn" this time around.

The movie as a whole: a bit too long, a little more jagged during action scenes, a good few script problems, but still full of humor, excitement, and some genuine moments. I wanted to love it, but ended up liking it with reservations.

Hi everyone! Hope you all had great weekends. Mine was okay.

Friday night Ric and I went out to eat with Jenny at Ruby's. Jenny and I were supposed to go to the Greek to see Keane, but since the Greek was nearly on fire, the venue changed to the Gibson, and we weren't all that interested in that venue, so we opted to return our tickets. Never order the Ruby Veggie Platter, kids. I don't know how they do it, but they manage to make vegetables taste very similar to dirt. After the meal, we went back to our place and Jenny and I hashed it out on the Wii. You know, she was always better than I was at video games as kids, so it feels kind of nice to beat her a lot now.

Saturday morning I got up early and met up with my sister and my mom for my mom's mother's day. We drove out to South Coast Plaza to do some clothes shopping. The new Bloomingdales is open, and that place is absolutely amazing (and costly!). The goal was to get my mom to buy some clothes, but she didn't look all that much and didn't like the things we chose for her, so she struck out while Jenny and I bought some cute stuff. We ate at La Vie De France. They were impressed by the meal, but I wasn't. After a little more shopping, we headed back, I did a quick load of laundry, and then headed out to pick up Abby to go to Amy's bachelorette dinner. We ate some good meals at Market City Cafe in Brea. I told Amy not to tell Ryan anything after that to leave him forever in suspense, so I'll leave it at that in case she actually didn't tell him anything (which I doubt).

Sunday we met up with the Andersons at church. Emily is all smiles these days and spent most of church smiling at me while drooling on her mom's hand. You'd think she's teething by how she gnaws on the hand and drools so much, but I think she's a bit young for that yet. Back at home we relaxed and caught up with the TiVo a bit before heading out to buy dinner. We went to the grocery store to pick up a mini feast for Ric's mom so she didn't have to cook a meal, and we brought that and the grand-cat over to hang out for the evening. We played some Sequence(and lost), and gave Ric's mom the DVD of Sister Act, which she had recently mentioned as an old favorite.

Up this week: lots of cleaning tonight because they're doing maintenance in our apartment in the next couple of days, a baseball game (meh), and lots of good tv. Oh for those of you who watch Heroes, beware - they say tonight is the season finale, but it's a 2-part finale, so tonight is actually just the show before the final finale.

Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney's Book of Lists

Does John McCain like to ask rhetorical questions? Yes he does. Does it wear thin? Yes, very quickly. Did he squirm and dodge like a weasel today on Meet the Press? Yes. Is he still a maverick? No.

I probably won't be posting again until Wednesday. I'm leaving tomorrow night for Laughlin with some folks for a cheap little getaway, which should be fun. I'm also walking in the OC AIDS Walk tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be too hot. So far the forecast looks good. Hope you guys all have a good weekend.

I don't know what this game is called, but it's really fun. It takes awhile to figure things out, but basically click to make your guy grab a block. You want to get four same colored blocks in a row to clear them. It's a clever twist on the standard puzzle game.