Bananas!!!!

Bananas are good i really like them they are good for a quick breakfast an snack ....um potassium is good me like yes!!! Recommend for many things i do...like splits an what ever...thanks an good night all!!!

Book : The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

I finally got around to reading this thing. It was pretty good. I would describe the story as a Discovery Channel special on Mary Magdalene wrapped in a cute mystery. It wasn't as action-packed as I was told it might be, and there were plenty of sappy cliche parts, but overall it was a good read.

Recommend? I give this story 9 gold disciples!

Movie : A Scanner Darkly

I like Keanu Reeves. And this movie is funny. It wasn't how I thought it would be!

Recommend? I do, I do.

Templates : This Template

Wow, Blogger has offered us new customation in our blogs, and I have totally messed things up here! Check out the horrid color scheme! The unfamiliar placement of links! Even the dropped links I can't remember!

Recommend! You can now add labels for easier searching or something??

Food : Ice Cream

It is cold, and sweet, and milky. It can have lots of stuff mixed into it, or just a single flavor. It can be in a cup, or a bucket, or an edible cone. You can eat it or wipe it all over your car windshield. My favorite is chocolate with stuff in it, like nuts or marshmallows, or caramel. Plain chocolate is good too. I also like neopolitan ice cream, though I haven't had it in a long time, and I still...

Recommend: When that time, I had something, I think sorbet, not ice cream but still good it was, though sometimes...

Creamer : Coffee-mate Vanilla Chai Spice

I don't know what Chai Spice is, but office coffee is horrible without something to flavor it, so I picked up a container of Vanilla Chai Spice coffee creamer because the packaging was maroon.

Recommend? My crappy office coffee now tastes like Christmas!!!

Movie : Casino Royale

The first time I saw this movie in the theater was with Greg. The new Bond sure made the older Bonds seem like sissies. The second time I saw this movie in the theater was with James. After the second viewing, the new Bond was the best Bond. It will be hard to ever watch Roger Moore again. Also, the best Bond line ever exists within this movie.

Recommend? I like a zero-gatchet Bond.

Movie : The new James Bond movie

A couple of weeks ago Jingping and I watched Steven Chow's version of a James Bond movie. It was pretty funny. He used some sort of superpowered butcher knife instead of a gun, and when it got violent, there was blood everywhere. It was excellent. Last night, on the advice of a friend, we went to see the new James Bond movie at the theater. We got there like 20 minutes early, and so we watched the first 20 minutes of Borat before going into the assigned Bond theater.

Recommend: I recommend that last night we stayed in the Borat theater.

Movie : Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny

JB turns off the lasers with his bone and the D defeat the devil in a rock duel at the end.

Recommend? Well, I just spoiled the movie for you to save you the time watching it. See how I'm your friend?

Quest : Trying to get a Wii in Austin (without camping out.)

This quest sucks. We were two away from getting a Wii in two different lines. We should have gotten up before six o'clock, or we should have gone to that Best Buy way out in Lakeway. Well, guess there's always later this month when more come in...

Recommend? I recommend you pre-order.

Game : Final Fantasy XII (the first ten hours)

As far as the first ten hours go, this is the best final fantasy game I have played in many years. I mean, I don't think the real plot has even started yet, people keep entering my party and leaving it, and I have a couple of monsters I need to track down and kill for cash. Sweet.

Recommend? Final Fantasy made by the Final Fantasy Tactics people! Rule!

Weird Al's New Album: Track 4, I'll Sue Ya

This is the worst song on the album. It's supposed to be a sort of general parody of Rage Against the Machine, which is a band that broke up like 6 years ago. It just doesn't work. Now, Al's standard way to crank out a song is just to sing a list of weird statements about whatever the topic of the song is, then sing a chorus, then sing another list of weird statements. Sometimes this works, like with the White and Nerdy song. In that one, each line is almost completely unrelated to each other line, except for being related to nerdiness in some way. But at least it's funny, and your typical nerd can find a few things to relate to in that list. In this song, he just lists off names of big corporations, like Taco Bell, Dell Computers, and Delta Airlines, and then says he going to sue them for something lame.

Recommend: The whole song isn't really sung, so much as shouted, in a very poor approximation of the Rage Against the Machine guy's much more skilled shouting. "I feel guilty for giving a bad review".

Weird Al's New Album: Track 9, Do I Creep You Out

At first, I didn't really listen to this song. It's a parody of an American Idol type song, and the subject matter is just another Weird Al psychopathic stalker thing, so I thought it just wouldn't do much for me, you know? Well, the other day I was listening through all the tracks while doing some computer thing here in the lab, and I heard Al sing, "every time I shake your hand now, I wanna put your fingers in my mouth", and I decided that I had been wrong, and this was in fact a great song after all. I have now listened much more closely, and noticed that he tries to imitate all the stupid Christina Aguilera vocal styling that those American Idol types like to do. Wow!


Recommond: "I think so!"

Weird Al's New Album: Track 1, White and Nerdy

Somebody has to review something. I'm going to review each song on Weird Al's new album, Straight Outta Lynwood, until somebody stops me. Anyway, White and Nerdy is a rap song, about what a cool guy the singer is, bragging about his X-men comics and how he has the Holy Grail memorized, etc. It's based on a song called Ridin', which I've never heard. Actually, I had never heard any of the songs that the parodies are based on, or any of the songs in the new polka medley. This is a sign of how cool I am.

Recommend: "Of course!".

Food: This peanut butter sandwich right here in front of me

I've already eaten half of it, and I can say that it's pretty good. It's filled with Kroger brand creamy peanut butter, and the bread is rye with little caraway seeds. I really like caraway seeds, anything that tastes a little like licorice, I like it.

Recommend: I eat one every day!

Object: My cell phone

My cellphone is made by Samsung, which is a Korean company. From what I hear, the Koreans are pretty proud of Samsung, what with it selling so many fancy things everywhere. Mainly I use my phone for talking to people, but I also use the calender to remind myself to do things in the future, and I use the alarm function to help wake myself up in the morning. Though, you would be surprised at how quickly you adapt to the Stars and Stripes Forever going off at 8:05 am every morning. Very quickly! Right!

Recommend: It has not failed me yet, but one of the little silvery stickers under the LCD screen which covered a screw has fallen off and I had to scrape some sticky glue out of the hole, and wipe it on something like it was a booger.

Coffee: Office coffee

Sometimes, for whatever reason, I don't get to stop by the coffee shop on my way down to school in the morning. Maybe I just don't feel like walking, so I take the bus. Maybe I don't have any cash. At any rate, when this happens, I hope all along that the lady in the department office made coffee, and that if she did, everyone else hasn't already drank it up.

Recommend: It's alright.

Life: Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin

It's been a while since I've seen or heard from him, but his loss ruined my Labor Day, and the Labor Days of millions of others around the world. There's not much more to say. He fought bears and gila monsters and sharks and crocodiles, and died by stingray blade.

Recommend: Rest In Peace, Crocodile Hunter.

cd: whiskey on a sunday

this is a great and intimate view of the most rocking Irish rock band( and no I am not talking about u2) it is an hour an half long I think did not really care about the time. also a good bonus it comes with a cd of old and rare songs.
I recommend watching with a pint or guinness or even whiskey!!!

Book : "V." by Thomas Pynchon

I did it. I finished this book. It took some work to do. Rereading sentences. Making a list of words to look up, references to research. I still mean to read about the Peking to Paris auto race. But I got through. For at least half of the book, I had no idea what, really, I was supposed to be getting out of this. "What is going on?" I would ask myself. But I made it to the end.

Recommend? Quotes on the back of this book: "This work may well stand as one of the very best works of the century," and "Leaves the imagination spent and the mind reeling." I agree with both. I'd put it in my top five, if I had a top five. Maybe I do...

Movie: Tallasomething Nights

Well, it was actually pretty funny, downright hysterical at moments, but something about the timing in some scenes was really off and things that should have been funny just weren't quite funny. Dunno.

Recommend: Comedy has been crap lately. This one is actually somewhat amusing, if on an infantile and repetetive level.

Movie: Brick

Film noir classic style in a high school setting. This movie was totally sweet. A bunch of sixteen year olds talking like tough guys and starring an old and jaded version of the kid from Third Rock From the Sun.

Recommend: yes, and even better, I saw it in the theatre last Thursday and it comes out on DVD tomorrow!

The eraser

This cd is really cool so stripped down yet so complex!!!

Reccomend if you are in need of a radiohead fix... expect something that explores the same themes of isolation, and lonelieness that york explores but with out the band.

Movie : A Scanner Darkly

Be warned: Cartoon Keanu walks among us now. Keahnew. Kee-aagnu. Keaunoo. Ki A Nu. Also, in this rotoscoped movie, sometimes furniture and objects hover with no apparent cause, and once or twice people turn into insects.

Recommend? The left hemisphere of my brain does for damn sure. But abuse of Substance D has caused my left and right hemisphere to compete with each other. I'm getting cross feedback, so now I'm not sure. My right hemisphere might recommend it, too, but I have no way of knowing for sure.

Game : Final Fantasy IV Advance

"You spoony bard!" Tellah shouts.

Recommend? Yes, all the content that was removed when it was II has been restored, and now it's portable. Heck, it's just about reason enough to buy a gameboy if you don't have one.

Movie : Superman Returns

So, I read the downer reviews, and felt bummed, because I was really hoping for a good new Superman movie. When I purchased my ticket, I was ready for a crappy Lex Luthor, a 2.5 hour slow movie, and too much emotion.

After the movie ended, I could only think one thing about all the reviews I read: WROONNNNG! (as Luthor yells)

First off, I will say that there is NOT a tremendous amount of Superman action in this movie. Actually, there may only be three scenes: airplane, random city-saves after big shockwave, and 'lifting the rock'. That's it. Sooooo, if you were looking for Superman doing lots of crazy antics, you may be disappointed. But I didn't mind, because:

A.) Lex Luthor was great. All his scenes, the way it was filmed, his goonies, all were great. Let's grow a crystal city for real estate money? Of course it's a crazy idea, because Lex Luthor is INSANE! The maps were A+ in my opinion.

B.) All the tributes to the old Superman movies were a nice touch. I thought this movie felt less like a summer blockbuster movie and more like a great movie from the 80s with improved effects. A+ in my book.

C.) The spooky way the new Superman sounded just like the old Superman.

There are many more points, but this is supposed to be a vague review. I will say this as a negative: there seemed to be a bunch of Superman = Jesus similarities in the last 30 minutes... if some of those were nixed, this may have been a perfect film. As it stands though, I rate it very, very highly.

Oh, and maybe the number one reason why this movie is great: it will produce one of the best sequals ever! Take THAT evil-superman vs. robot-woman sequal.

Recommend? Yes. And flying is still the safest way to travel.

Movie: Superman

Yes, I went to see the Superman movie. I went with my girlfriend and my mother. I was given a choice between going to see Al Gore talk about global warming and going to see Superman.

Recommend: Very similar to the first superman movies. A bit mopey. Good though.

Game: New! Super Mario Bros.

We've been waiting since 1985 for a mushroom a size or two bigger than the plain old super mushroom. It's here, and you can bust the hell out of pipes when you're on it.

Recommend? Yes. It's like old Super Mario Bros., except it is new. I still lament the lack of Tanuki Mario, but so shall we all, till the end of time.

Movie : Firewall

This movie had Harrison Ford in it. If I were bitten by a vampiric donkey that ejaculated through its mouth by way of a secondary set of testicles located underneath the tongue, I would think, "This is horrible, but interesting."

Recommend? It wasn't interesting, if that's what you mean. Maggie proposes that most things can be judged against this movie. For instance, this evening she said her dinner (leftover tuna casserole) was worse than Firewall. The gyoza we had late in the evening as a snack, however, was better than Firewall.

Movie : Invisible Child

This is a Lifetime movie, starring Tom Hanks' wife, the little boy from "The Ring" and the dad from "Alias." In it a mother believes she has an invisible child named Maggie. She has two real children. For some reason, her family has been playing along with this delusion for five years without seeking professional help. The movie does not mention what her extended family thinks of this decision. Things get complicated when they hire a nanny to help take care of their two (three) children.

Recommend? This movie is not a commedy. And yes, I recommend. It's the "Deadly Outbreak" of family dramas.

Movie : Nacho Libre

The story of a cook who wanted to become something more. I think we can all remember our own cook who wanted to become something more.... This movie review goes out to you, Samba. You were our Fuckin' Cooka.

Recommend: Did you know this was a Nickolodean Picture?

Movie : Equilibrium

Oooh, this weekend I was lucky enough to get to watch the movie Equilibrium. It's one of those movies about the bleak future where people take drugs to be zombies and normal people are punished and stuff like that...but with one big difference: GUN KATA.

Recommend? Of course! See bold letters above.

Movie : Saw

Hey, I finally saw this Saw movie. It's not as gross as I was hoping, and I don't believe the doctor in it is the same guy who's in the Princess Bride.

Recommend? I mean, I guess he kind of looks like the guy in the Princess Bride, but the guy in Saw... nah, it can't be the same guy.

Book: Parasites Like Us

By Adam Johnson. A novel. So- I'm reading this book, and I'm thinking, ok - this is funny at times, some good writing in here, but otherwise, it just feels like I dunno, pop fiction or an empty shell of an attempt at literary fiction. There's, well, lots of useless stuff in this book. Several characters who serve no purpose. One major character whose presence is absurdly coincidental and absolutely unessential. A shitload of stuff on the Clovis people who migrated to North America over the Bering Strait land bridge that just doesn't really seem to pay off. I was sorely disappointed by the novel by such a great short story writer.

However- that being said, the ending of this book makes it all worthwhile. Okay- so you know what the ending is if you read the back of the book (the description on the back of the book tells WAY TOO MUCH because it actually kind of misleads you about the kind of book you are about to read), but the execution of the ending rocks totally.

Recommend: yes, if you have any empathy for pigs.

Dr. Who (present version)

This show is really great!!! There are many incarnations of the doctor. The one where I got hooked was the early eighties and late seventies Dr. which was reran on PBS. Lately Scifi has been running the most current version of Dr. Who and I have to say that this show is really great almost as great as the version that got me hooked so long ago.
Summery: I say check this series out if you have heard of the series or had been interested at all in Dr. Who. I ( fuck I can not stop hicupping!!!)think that there will be a first season dvd out sometime in june or july. So, if you have missed the first season check out the dvd. Also on the plus side Rose is a cutie.

Movie : The Omen (1976)

Wow! Creeeeepy! (said with two stresses on the E's, like Creeee-Eeee-pee) The original Omen movie is probably the most spooky movie I've seen since The Blair Witch Project. And it was made two years before I was born!

The creepy boy. The red-eyed dogs. The things in the coffins. And what is up with hiring a Nanny who has a grin like Steven Tylor? It just goes to show that nothing good comes from swapping your wife's baby with the demon-spawn of the devil.

Recommend? Yes! Watch it with the lights out, and then re-evaluate your desire to have children.

Movie : X-men III

Not a bad movie but it lacked the spark of the first two. It was like a mutant movie that was hit with the X-gene cure and turned into a normal movie.

And we were reminded that people getting ripped into molecules isn't really gross... it's more like exploding Legos.

Recommend? If you think the third Matrix movie was worth seeing to complete the 'trilogy', then you will think this last X-men movie is worth seeing.

Movie : Harakiri

Would you disembowel yourself with a piece of wood? I am pretty sure I would not.

Recommend? Yeah, this movie was excellent. I didn't know 1962 movies could be so rough!

Book : The captain is out to lunch and the sailors have taken over

The book is a fucking laugh riot, it's the journal of an old curmudgin. I laughed so hard at some of the parts of the book cause hey I have thought some of these things at one point an time. One of the many funny parts is where he began the sentance by " I should clip my toe nails but I just don't have the time gottta get to the track. Damn they hurt and I know I gotta clip them....."I probably did some ad libing there but hey. On the bonus side it has some illustraitions by R. Crumb.

Final note The book is really good and also I heard that theirs a song about the author Charles Burkowski( not to sure on the spelling)

P.S. I know this is off of the intent of this site but you guys should check out youtube and search robot chicken cause the made fun of ff7 and lots of other things.... just a great friggin show from the guys who do family guy.

Movie : Mission Impossible III

IF you can get past the campy, cheesy first ten minutes of this movie, you will find yourself having a grand time! Mission Impossible III delivers! In that kind of way that Arnold movies used to deliver when you were ten. Scenes were so intense that I got a horrible tension headache! And I like Tom Cruise. He has a good "there's a bomb in my head about to explode" face.

Recommend? Sweet Bajeezus if I can find some Tylenol I'm going to see this movie again!

movie: audition

This film is more proof that other countries should leave torture to China and Japan. Talk about creepy. When the pins get stuck into the dude's eyes, woah man. Plus you'll never look at dental floss the same way again.

Recommend: This is the way torture should be done. Except maybe without the weird twenty minute hallucinatory dream sequence that recaps the entire movie.

The R. Crumb Hand Book

First a big shout to Murf for inviting me onto here!!!
Well I was a bit unsure what to post about but this is a great thing I think everyone should know about. This little book was a great find for anyone has a one point an time been into collecting comics. Robert Crumb is considered the grand father of the indie comic.
First cool feature the book comes with a free sample cd of his band that he has, the band plays a lot of traditional tunes e.g. in the pines' and some other old timey song mixed in with some of their own.
The book is mainly about his thoughts and telling about his influences which span from his older brother to some of the old school comic artist and pop culture. He also talks about his perversions and what he thinks about his over all life. A cool thing is the book has some samples of the various comics that he did. His work is fairly deep in subject matter and also some of it really pushes the boundaries for being shocking back during the time it came out in.

Verdict: The book was a great read for anyone wanting to learn about R. Crumb and get a chance to look at some of his work. I believe that his work really influenced a lot of the way people viewed what you could make a comic book about. I can see his influences in Jthm, squee, south park, and lots of modern cartoons and comics.
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Movie : Azumi

Azumi is a very cute Japanese girl who is a badass assasin. (Is there any reason to go on? I mean, really, I don't think there is. That should pretty much sell you on it. I might add that she kills some ninjas, along with about 200 other people, and that she fights a guy dressed in white who carries a long-stemmed rose around for most of the movie--how manga is that? She also fights bandits that could have been in The Road Warrior. Why aren't you trying to track this movie down right now? I mean, really.)

Recommend? When we finished Azumi, we went straight out and rented Azumi 2.

Movie : The Quiet Family

This Korean family buys a mountain inn for cheap. By the end, many people are buried in the woods.

Recommend? Yeah, it was quite funny.

Video Game : Tomb Raider: Legend

After a crappy day at work I came home, went to a party, scaled a building, and then killed an entire Yakuza organization. All while wearing a skimpy, torn cocktail dress and shooting two pistols at once.

Recommend? Yeah, good graphics, lots of jumping and shooting. It's like playing Indiana Jones mixed with James bond. With less clothes.

Movie: Silent Hill

One totally sweet hour as good as any horror movie ever made including classics like Alien and Jaws. Another totally sweet hour as good as any b-horror movie ever made. The first hour is baddass and totally rocking. The second hour is still pretty sweet but just not quite so tight and well constructed. The introduction of dialogue causes some unintentionally funny moments. The story get really convoluted but I still thought it was pretty sweet. The second ending of the movie is better than the first. I can't say much more without ruining anything.

Recommend: Yes. You must see it. It helps if you've played the games, but you don't need to. It rules. Some of the freakiest things I have ever seen in this one. And I've seen it twice. Its better the second time.

Book: Underground

by Haruki Murakami. Full title = Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche. Incredibly interesting examination of a terrorist attack. Murakami includes 60 interviews converted into narratives of survivors of the gas attack, ranging from those who nearly died, to those who stopped to help, to some of the family members of the deceased. The second part includes about a dozen interviews with the Aum cult, the cult who orchestrated the attack, though none of the members interviewed were involved with the attack. Interspersed are critical analyses of the larger themes present in the accounts.

Recommend: Rather disturbing, at times greatly depressing, but a fascinating view of both psychology and perspective. Murakami hits dead on with non fiction.

Music: 10,000 Days

by Tool. Totally awesome. Not so heavy as their others, but its got a great bluesy feel sprinkled throughout it. Also 6 and a half minutes is a short song on this one.

Recommend: Most definately, I do.

Book: South of the Border West of the Sun

By Haruki Murakami. A good read, outstanding in many respects, but ultimately it felt a little unfulfilling. The relationship we get is like your typical Murakami relationship, except that he doesn't pursue what lies behind the terrible secret. And that terrible secret is usually what forms the quintessential foundation of what makes a Murakami book Murakami.

Also, the translation is a bit spotty - Alfred Birbuam (or whatever his name is) is much smoother than Phillip Gabriel.

Recommend: Well, it is a Murakami book, thus making it better than most other books out there, but it is also not the best Murakami book by any stretch. Perhaps better than Sputnik Sweetheart though.

Movie: Slither

Michael was right: zombies, aliens, giant slugs, mutants. Everything a growing boy needs. And Mal. Totally sweet. Also - if you like this you MUST see "Undead."

Recommend: STAAAARRRRLLLAAAA!

Candy : Pina Colada Cream Savers

I have discovered the worst flavored candy in all the history of candy-kind. It was so bad that I had to try it twice, just to make sure I wasn't imagining such an awful tastebud experience. I tried one yesterday, and it was horrid. I tried one again today, twenty-four hours later, and yes, my original judgement stands strong.

Now my mouth has that new-car taste in it.

Recommend? Not unless you are a car, or an old, smokey apartment.

Music: At War with the Mystics

Another Flaming Lips album. I've been listening it to a bunch this weekend, and I think it's pretty sweet. I particularly recommend "The sound of failure," "Mr. Ambulance Driver" the weird German titled song, the little instrumental in the middle, the Go on song, hell, pretty much the whole thing.

Recommend: Goes without saying, but I must say that it is not quite Pink Robots par, but I mean, really, how does one top the pink robots?

Defences: Thesis

It's over. I passed. I kicked its ass. Seriously. I totally rocked it.

Recommend: If you like an hour straight of pure terror where you drank way too much coffee before hand so you couldn't stop jittering in your seat while your enormously sprawling answers both focus in on a single piece of literature while incorporating references to five or six others all the while watching the faces of your committee members to make sure that they weren't wincing and when they were furrowing their brows making sure you made extra careful to explain exactly what it is you were trying to see by using more and more specific examples and quoting lines of text and title after title by author after author until their brows stopped furrowing and you are trying desperately not to look at your watch or the sweet freedom outside the window blinds while you hope you aren't sweating and won't stutter or you won't just stare blankly at the person who asked you THE ONE DAMN QUESTION you couldn't answer as you rack your brains trying to trace back the essential characteristic of the speaker of a sonnet by recalling all the little things Shakespeare made fun of sonnets about in his sonnets and wondering why you hadn't spent more time reading sonnets and hoping that you'd quickly be able to segue to John Donne because his sonnets particularly the HOLY sonnets are the only ones you remember well enough to talk about in detail in fact you can quote five our six of them almost in their entirely but your answers keep leading you more towards Phillip Syndney's Defence of Poesy which you hated but were able to find one redeemable statement in them which segued you into talking about modernist poets while trying to avoid any further questioning into works before 1600 ACH! MEIN LEIBER!

Book: Dance Dance Dance

You know, for a sequel, this really isn't much of a sequel. Which is why it kicks so much totally sweet ass over and over until its raw and purple. This book was great. It had everything that rocked from Wild Sheep Chase (except a sheep with a star on its back) AND Wind Up Bird Chronicle (except Boris the Man Skinner) except that it was longer and better told than Wild Sheep Chase and shorter and better told than Wind Up Bird Chronicle.

Recommend: oh yeah, unless you want to see lots of The Sheep Man.

Movie : Slither

Said by practically an entire town of alien/hive-minded/zombie southerners: "Staaarlaa! When you said for better or for worse, you liiied to me! Staaarrrllaaaa!"

Recommend? Yes. This is by far the best and most entertaining alien/zombie/sci-fi/horror movie I have seen in a while. You should go see it right away. Also, Captain Mal from "Firefly" is the star. He rules.

Food: Chicken Feet

Eating it requires that you put the foot in your mouth and chew on it until the ligaments and skin fall off so you can swallow them, and then you spit out the bones. I had much trouble with this maneuver. I ate one (1) foot. She ate three (3) feet in the same time period. I think it takes practice. The best part is the fatty yellow padding on the soles of the feet.

Recommend: Surprisingly similar, in taste, to a pig's foot, but much much smaller.

Movie: Marebito

So I love Japanese horror and I rent any one that I find that doesn't sound warped in a bad way. So I rented this one. Before I watched it, I found out it was filmed in eight days while the guy making it was making another movie. At first it totally reminded me of the Hard Boiled segments of Hard Boiled Wonderland by Murakami. Then it didn't. Then it reminded me of crap.

Recommend: It was totally rocking while the videotaping guy descended through the subway into the subterranean netherworld while talking with a dead man and chasing after those weird guys that crawled around on all fours and were painted white and tattooed. Once he finds the chained naked chick, however, it kind of goes downhill. AND THAT is a statement, my friends, that it takes a really badly handled movie to allow.

Movie: Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austin classic. Remake. Haven't read the book. Maybe it was faithful. Maybe not. Pretty though. Well acted if a bit stilted, perhaps intentionally so.

Recommend: Pithy at times. I'm sure there's some commentary on the roles of women. Maybe something about quintissential Englishness.

Movie: Good Night and Good Luck

Clooney, politics, McCarthy, blah, blah, blah. I thought this movie was really good until I realized it was over. Then I realized that none of the sub-plots ever went anywhere, that none of the characters ever change, and that the film completely lacks climax.

Recommend: The most unexpected part of the film was when I suddenly realized the credits were rolling.

Movie : Failure to Launch

It made me feel really lame.

Recommend? If you are a boy and you still live with your parents you might feel really lame.

Food: Stinky Cheese

So, every time I go to the grocery store, I habitually wander by the fancy cheese island and sniff the Limburger cheese, because it's got such an amazingly terrible smell, and because I could never imagine what I could possible do with it. So, I never bought any. But, what do you know, Wednesday night Jingping and I go to the store and she says I should buy it because she thinks it would be a simple matter just to fry some tofu and throw the cheese in there. Today for lunch we get to try it.

Recommend: If you like smells/tastes which remind you vaguely of locker rooms, dog food, and really old beer, then buy up! It also makes you and your apartment smell perpetually like locker rooms, dog food, and really old beer. It wasn't bad, though. And I still have like 3/4 of the block left, anybody have any ideas?

Movie : The Hills Have Eyes (the new one)

Truly, I have never seen a movie where so many people got pick-axed in the head. This movie also had a crapload of blood. In one scene, a deformed mutant killer man suckles at this lactating young mother's teats while she watches this other deformed guy try to rape her sister.

Recommend? Hell yes I do. But don't go thinking it's scary. Because it's not. It's just really violent.

Comics : JTHM

Fun to re-read after not having read them in about eight years. Who besides Nny would drill into your skull, and then, since it's taking longer than expected, offer to make you a sandwich? He's such a nice homicidal maniac.

Recommend: Yes. Especially if you are in a mood.

Food: Pig's Feet

Tonight for dinner: Bean soup with pig feet, chicken hearts and gizzards with vegetables, and tomato and egg soup. I have never eaten a pig's foot. No, no, I *had* never eaten a pig's foot. Now I have certainly eaten a pig's foot. And chewed on pig foot bones. And sucked squishy pig foot skin off of boiled pig foot toes. Those things are complicated. It's not really meat, see; it's lots of bones, 'cause you see feet have lots of bones in them. And there's skin and lots of tendons and ligament and things, which are all soft and gelatinous. And there's a little meat, which is precious, precious, precious. I will say what I said to Jingping: I am not disappointed by these pig feet. These certainly meet my expectations.

Recommend: I have definitely now eaten a pig foot. Or at least, half of a pig foot.

Microprocessors : The TI MSP430F1232

This gal is an angel. Low power, cheap, and easy to use. You can do almost anything with this little guy, and migrating to bigger, more powerful microprocessors in its family is a breeze.

Recommend? YES. It's even gentle with the babies.

Microprocessors : The Atmel AT89S8252

This processor licks chode.

Recommend? NO. It will only fail on you and make you spend thousands of dollars and thousands of hours trying to fix and update, only to eventually be replaced by something that actually retains its coding on power up.

Movie : The New World

We watched this movie for an hour and fifty minutes, until the lady three rows up told us to stop snickering so much. We figured the fun was over, so we left. What happened in the first hour and fifty minutes? Honestly, all I remember were lots and lots and lots and lots of shots of scenery (water droplets, birds, trees, light through windows) and more voice-overs than all other movies in history combined. The voice-overs mostly consisted of: "When I first saw her, I knew I loved her. She was my Goddess," (said by John smith) and, "When I saw him, I knew he was my god," (said by Pocahontas.) Then there was some rolling around on the grass and stuff. Then John Smith sailed across the ocean, and Pocahontas seemed sad and very muddy. Then Christian Bale started saying the exact same things in voice over, and the lady told us to be quiet. I don't know what happened after that, because we left. It was probably really funny.

Recommend? Oh yes, totally.

Movie : Me and You and Everyone We Know

This movie showed me that the true desire of the heart is to poop back and forth, forever.

Recommend? If you can't tell, then you don't know.

Movie: Doom

This one could have gone either way, so I had no expectations other than seeing some demons shot with machine guns. The movie definately serves this, and plenty of it. However, it also serves a pretty decent, if slightly rushed story. I will say that they could really have milked the atmosphere a bit more and spent another twenty minutes at the beginning of the movie, but it was actually better than I thought it would be. On par or slightly better than Resident Evil.

Recommend: As far as video game movies go, this is definately one of the top ranks so far. As far as real movies go, its a descent sci-fi flick with some cool special effects, a couple really cool scenes, some descent character moments, and a pretty cool first person shooter perspective sequence. However, the Silent Hill movie looked better before I saw Doom, looked better after, and I am hoping will be the coolest videogame movie ever.

Movie: Infection

Japanese Horror movie. Kind of in the tradition of the Japanese versions of The Ring, The Grudge, and Dark Water. Really creepy atmosphere throughout. The acting is solid although the script is a bit weak when it comes to the character moments. Basically, a hospital is about to go fall apart financially, and the half-competent staff are struggling to keep the patients alive. Then, an ambulance who can't find a hospital to take their severely ill passenger decide to simply deposit him in the hospital. Japanimation style psychological weirdness then ensues.

Recommend: Yes. Just keep your eye on the fruit...

Movie: Undead

This is a zombie comedy from Australia. In my opinion, as far as zombie comedy goes its much better than Shaun of the Dead. Some totally cool ideas throughout, although the low budget does cause some minorly frustrating moments where it just plain gets cheesy. However, they make up for those frustrating moments with some suprisingly well rendered moments later on in the story - once the aliens come in there's actually some pretty sweet large scale special effects.

Recommend: Highly entertaining. The best low-budget zombie horror film I've seen in quite a while.

TV series : The Office (BBC version)

Sung to acoustic guitar, during a staff training session:

"I got free love on the freelove freeway,
the love is free and the road is long,
I got hot love on the hot love highway..."

Same training session:

"Gareth, we're sharing our ultimate dreams, what's yours?"
"Two Lesbians, probably. Sisters. I'm just watching."

Recommend? Yes. It's awkward and painful, and freaking hilarious. One of my favorite shows right now.

Chest Infections: Mine

This is really starting to get annoying. I'm feeling a lot better now, the fever broke and seems to be gone for good since some time between Friday night and Saturday Morning, but I'm still coughing up balls of green gunk. Seriously. I'm done with it. I hate being sick, and I've been sick since last friggin Sunday. Not to mention that my voice has been shot to hell and I've got to teach tomorrow with my voice dying on me every five minutes like it did on Friday.

Recommend: As illnesses go, its pretty good for the bitching about it factor but as for as the feeling like suck portion goes this ones not at the top of my list.

Music: Hypnotize

by System of a Down. I know my last review of a System of a Down CD was a little indifferent, but I think they're onto something good with this CD. Some totally sweet tracks if you like heavy music that rapidly changes tempo and melody throughout nearly every song. Of course, this CD does have a couple more stable tracks to form kind of anchor points for the album which actually helps quite a bit. I really liked this one. The last track absolutely kicks ass.

Recommend: banana banana banana banana terracotta banana terracotta terracotta pie.

TV Series : Firefly (watched, this time)

Too awesome. Why the hell did they cancel this series??? Every episode is priceless! Firefly is well worth an impulse buy, if you haven't bought it already.

Just be warned: it is a very borrowable set of shows.

Recommend: Totally. You may now start borrowing my DVDs again.

Trailer: Silent Hill

Just saw the Silent Hill Trailer. Comes out in April. I'm totally psyched. It looks really sweet (in my opinion).

Recommend: See for yourselves.

Movie : Unleashed

I forgave almost everything that happened in this movie because it was a movie. But the whys and the hows are not what matters here. What matters is that the detective from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" is really mean, and I didn't know he was British until now, apparently. That was a really good accent he did in "...Roger Rabbit!"

Recommend? There was some pretty good kicking.

Reviews: The vaguest review possible

.

Recommend: ..

Movie: March of the Penguins

Ice crags, all sorts of blues and whites and an endless line of waddling. WRAAAAAA!!!! Sea lion! Shiver. Cold wind. Snow. Damn it sucks to trek across antarctica. Their urine must freeze before it hits the ground. Wow.

Recommend: If you, if, then you.

Movie : Hostel

Hmm... what did you think the movie was going to be about when you saw the previews? Yeah, I thought that too. Weird, huh?

Recommend? I LOLed, but porn is cheaper.

Movie : The Island

Run run run run run run run run!

Chase chase chase chase chase chase chase chase!

Run run run run run run run run!!

Chase chase chase chase chase chase chase chase!!

...and a little bit of Steve Buscemi!

Recommend? I watched it!

TV Series : Firefly

I bought the complete Firefly season on DVD for myself as a Christmas gift. I did this after watching only three episodes over Halloween weekend at Michael and Maggie's place. Since this series purchase, I have yet to watch a single episode because everyone I know around here keeps borrowing it. I believe it's been borrowed by FIVE different people already. And it's only been about ten days since the purchase. There are FOURTEEN episodes of Firefly, and I believe they are each at least an hour long, so everyone borrowing this set from me averages only two days per complete series viewing. Or, they are averaging 7 hours a day watching this series.

Pretty impressive statistics, if you ask me.

Recommend? Well, OBVIOUSLY, since you are at this very moment probably watching my copy of Firefly!! Give it back, already!

Book: Willful Creatures

by Aimee Bender. This book is so totally sweet, I don't even know where to begin. The big man buys the cage with the little man in it and tortures him until they both learn a little something about life. Ten guys are all told simultaneously that they will die in two weeks. A fruit stand sells gases and emotions shaped into words. Two people with pumpkins for heads give birth to a little boy with an iron for a head. This book rules. Totally. Sweet.

Recommend: If you don't buy this book or at least borrow it and read it before the next time I run into you, I will break a guitar over your neck and back. Not in the good way.