Hola!

I think my favorite commercial on TV right now is for Verizon Wireless. In this ad, a man is telling his kids that they can send messages on their phones to anyone. They reply that they already do, and he tells them that it means that their mother can quit her second job. At that point, the mother walks in wearing a taco costume. The father looks at her and says, "Hola!" (Wow, this works much better on screen than in text)

It cracks me up every time I see it. I think it may be that his greeting is exactly the type of thing I would do, and would end up getting myself into a bit of trouble.

Here's a link to the video.

Nine

Today is our anniversary. We're rapidly approaching the decade mark, and it feels like so much less. Melissa was going through some of our older pictures recently and when she came across ones from the first year or so we were married, I was surprised to realize how long ago it really was.

Like always, I have no idea how to put thoughts on what this means into words, but really when the woman you are married to finds out that there is a Doctor Who marathon on the Sci Fi channel and is not only willing to watch it, but wants to watch it, what else is there to say?

On The Lot Results

It's just ridiculous. After the first round of films, Claudia, Carolina and Phil were sent home. Claudia I won't argue with, but I enjoyed both Phil and Carolina's shorts. There is no way, based on this week's films, that Kenny or Jess should have stayed instead of Carolina and Phil.

Hey, look at me. I didn't bother to vote, but I'm complaining about the results. It's like I'm part of a real live democracy.

Trivial Tuesday

I posted earlier about the new Fox show, On The Lot. The guest judge for the audition round was Brett Ratner, who directed several films including X-Men 3 and all three Rush Hour movies. His first feature length film also starred Chris Tucker of Rush Hour fame, but paired him with Charlier Sheen rather than Jackie Chan. What was the name of Ratner's first film?

Congrats to JenBen who knew it was Money Talks.

On The Lot

Is anyone else out there watching On the Lot? In case you aren't and have no idea what it is: It's a reality show on Fox (wait, don't leave yet, let me finish) where contestants make films to compete for a deal with Dreamworks. Each week they screen their films and then we, the audience, get to vote for them. It's kind of like American Idol, only I actually have some sort of interest.

Instead of Randy, Paula and Simon as judges they have two permanent judges and a guest judge who changes each week. The two permanent judges are Garry Marshall, who appears to have become a doddering old man, who occasionally leaves you wondering if the words he just spoke can even be combined to form any sort of a sentence, and Carrie Fischer, who is single-handedly trying to ruin the Leia in the gold bikini scene from Return of Jedi for any guy who still remembers it. (All joking aside, she seems to be able to give useful criticism and express ideas better than most judges on any of the reality talent shows.) Last night, the guest judge was D.J. Caruso, who was repeatedly introduced as the director of Disturbia. I found this a little disappointing as I would rather think of him as the director of the very clever Salton Sea rather than Rear Window for Teenagers. Caruso also was able to speak intelligently and usefully while giving critiques, praising specifics while giving pointers for future attempts. Maybe other shows need to take a hint and have judges that are helpful rather than universally praising everyone or insulting people...of course this was just one episode, so we'll see how that continues.

Last night, the 18 finalists screened their films for the audience for the first time. Their assignment was to make a one minute comedy short film. The films ranged from great to "I'm sitting here with my mouth open staring at the TV trying to figure out what that was." A couple of people failed to manage to even grasp the assignment and made trailers for longer films. Several people went with lowest common denominator type humor (peeing, farting, etc.), but only one really made it work, while the others were blasted by the judges.


My big problem is that the show was very obviously set up in the American Idol format, because while only 18 one minute films were shown, the show itself lasted for two hours. Fortunately, I started late, so I could fast forward through a good bit of what the host had to say.

Will I keep watching it? Sure, until it gives me a reason not to. I was the same way with AI when it first came out, but I eventually realized that it wasn't a singing competition and that no matter who won, the music that was put out was fairly derivative and formulaic. That might be the end result with this show as well, but for now, I'll keep enjoying the ride.

Memorial Day Update

It's Memorial Day, which means it's time to have a day off (or in my case go in to work even though it's a holiday), have a cookout (or in our case, cook some brats on Jorge because there's no sense in heating up the entire grill for just that), and spend time with friends and family (which today meant playing a little Totally 80's Trivial Pursuit out on the porch while dogs chased squirrels and robins). I think there is something else about this day but I can never really remember what. (Ok, end of update on what we did today, beginning of soapbox)

Memorial Day is a day when we are supposed to remember those who have lost their lives in military service. It doesn't matter what the war is, it doesn't matter what you or I or anyone else thinks of any of the wars.^* The fact of the matter is that without the people who have been willing to give their lives over the years, the rest of us wouldn't be living the same lives we do now. That's the point of this holiday.

I've been fairly critical in past on this site of the magnetic ribbon movement, not because I have ever not believed in supporting the troops, but because (1) the profits were going almost exclusively to businesses rather than any sort of organization that would do anything to help and (2) it always felt lacking because it was nothing more than symbolic support (which is important, but only when coupled with tangible support). It does more for those of us here than those who need the support.

Remember that every soldier out there is the son, daughter, mother, father, husband, wife, brother or sister of somebody else. We ask many of these people to leave higher paying jobs when they are called up from the reserves. We ask them to leave their families for extended periods of time. We ask them to risk their lives, risk grave physical harm, risk emotional trauma the likes of which almost none of us can comprehend. We ask them to go places we would not go, and to face horrors we would not face, and when they return home, we ask them to please just go back to pretending that everything is the same it always was, because anything else would make us uncomfortable.

What am I asking? (and I'm talking to myself as much as anyone) I'm asking all of us to get up off our butts and do something. Go find a veteran and tell them thanks. Go find the family of someone who is serving overseas and find out if there is anything you can do for them. Find an organization where you can volunteer. Do a little research and find out where a donation is needed and would be used well (there are places with all sorts of information on the web that will tell you who uses donations for their cause and who uses them for salaries of the people running the organization). Don't just think about these people one or two days a year. They are still out there every day risking their lives, I think they deserve at least that much.

Sorry for the soapbox, but I've got to do it every once in a while about something, even if it is mixed in with the silly trivia that is the rest of this site.


^*In reference to the sacrifices that were/are being made and to the holiday. Of course it matters what we think, otherwise this is all in vain.

Pirates 3

We went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End yesterday. Overall, I thought it was better than the second movie and not as good as the first. I'm not going to go into tremendous detail, but I'll give my thoughts on the good and bad.

What worked: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Bill Nighy--Let's be realistic, you're not likely to have a bad movie with these guys in it. "Nine pieces of whatever we have in our pockets." Lots of piratey fighting goodness. Most of the visual effects. Keith Richards. The fact that things really didn't turn out to be as predictable as you'd...well...predict.

What didn't work: After three films the style of humor is getting closer and closer to completely absurd--Much of it is still funny, but there is the occasional gag that falls flat. A few visual effects-- amazing things can be done with visual effects now, but apparently people swinging around and flying through the air has yet to be perfected (see also: the first Spiderman film). Not enough Chow Yun Fat. The plot--I'm not saying it was bad, but it was as if they tried to see how complicated they could make it. You're never really sure who's allied with whom, mostly because the characters themselves don't even seem to be sure. A few points seem to make little sense and a few other ideas, including romantic interests for background characters, seem to be forgotten or completely contradicted in other parts of the film.

Would I recommend it? Sure, just know that it's a 168 minute long popcorn film. But its 168 minutes feel shorter than the 150 min of Dead Man's Chest.

...And Found

I've written about the Lost season finale the past two years. I'd hate to break tradition, so I might as well do it again. Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet, you might not want to read this.

As usual, we get answers but we also get a ton of questions. It may not be tied up in a nice little package, but it sure is fun. Are you ready? Let's jump right in. (BTW, don't expect much coherence. I just finished watching.)

So, we know now that at least Jack and Kate get off the island. But whose funeral was it that Jack thought Kate might go to, but that made her ask "Why would I go to the funeral?" "He" was going to be wondering where Kate was when she went to meet Jack. Could that "he" be Sawyer? For that matter, why isn't Kate in prison? What has happened to make Jack go off the deep end? Why do they need to go back? I guess that's the point of the remaining 48 episodes. And please tell me that Jack was speaking metaphorically when he made reference to getting his father "down here and if he's not more drunk than me..."

Charlie finally fulfilled his destiny, but he did it heroically. He managed to not only turn off the jamming mechanism, but to save Desmond from drowning and to relay that the boat off shore is not Penny. The final scene of Charlie crossing himself was a wonderful end to his character who we have seen go from the good religious boy to amoral rock star to desperate addict and then all the way back. While we're on the subject of the Looking Glass, what does it take to kill Mikhail? Shove him in the sonic death fence and make him bleed from the ears, shoot him in the chest with a spear gun, it doesn't matter. I won't be too shocked if he managed to survive the blast. (Would he now be down a hand and an eye?) Too bad for the girls in the Looking Glass. They only got two episodes before getting killed by their own kind.

The love triangle quadrilateral is still going on. Jack loves Kate. Kate loves Jack. Sawyer loves Kate. Kate loves Sawyer. Juliet and Jack kissed, and they probably love each other. Joanie loves Chachi and Everybody loves Raymond. Now everyone in the various island romance factions is happy and not happy. Kind of how I feel about watching the season finale and knowing that Lost won't be back until 2008. (For the record, I'm rooting for it to turn into a love dodecahedron.)

Seven Others were killed in the raid, followed by four more. Hurley, who finally got sick of being told he'd be in the way, took out a couple of them with the van. That might have been the coolest way any of them were killed if not for Sayid who, though still tied up, tripped on of the Others and then snapped his neck with his feet. Surrounded, Tom surrendered, but Sawyer shot him anyway, telling him that it was for kidnapping Walt. I guess he wasn't kidding when he said, "You and me ain't through, Zeke."

Other than the big reveal of Jack and Kate in the flashback forward, the biggest surprises came from Locke, who while thinking that he was paralyzed again was preparing to kill himself when he was stopped...by Walt! (MDK has grown so much and his voice has even changed some since last year's finale when he and his dad sailed off into the sunset or wherever heading 325 lead them.) Walt informed him that he was not paralyzed and that he had work to do. Apparently that work involved throwing a knife into Naomi preventing her from making the call to her boat. Unfortunately for all involved, she had been lying about who she was and why she was there, and Locke couldn't stop Jack from making the call.

Oh and did I mention that Danielle was finally reunited with Alex? Could they have crammed anything else into this episode?

What else are we left to wonder until February of 2008? Just a few quick questions:

Who are these people on Naomi's boat? Penny didn't know about it, and Ben claims they will kill everyone.

If Naomi wasn't sent by Penny, why does she have a picture of Desmond and Penny? How did she know him?

Did Locke kill Naomi because he knew that she was not who she said or was it just because he doesn't want to leave?

Of course there are still the big issues of the island itself that weren't even really involved in this episode: Jacob, healing on the island, Smokey, why can't people find the island (I'm still voting for Brigadoon), what's up with the statue? And on and on the list goes. Hopefully some of this will be resolved when the Others get to the Temple where Ben told Richard to take them.

And there is the big question, what happened to make Jack snap and feel that he has to go back? Personally, I'm thinking it was the overwhelming irony that the one time Ben told the truth, Jack didn't believe it, but that's probably just me.

In case you're curious, here is my list of questions from the season 2 finale. They've done a better job answering them that many people give them credit for, but we've still got a long way to go.

48 episodes to go, and I can't wait.

Trivial Tuesday

As you probably know, Futurama (along with the Simpsons) is one of my favorite television shows of all time. The show featured many talented voice actors including Maurice LaMarche, who voiced many of the recurring but not major characters on the show. I first became aware of LaMarche when he played a highly-intelligent, macrocephalic cartoon character. Who was it?

And since you're already clogging the tubes of the internet, go wish the more responsible, (usually) more reasonable, and older half of our household a happy birthday.

Congrats to srah, who knew that I was referring to that mouse with dreams of global domination, The Brain.

Filling The Tank

Gas prices have really gotten pretty ridiculous recently. Yeah, they've been bad for a while, but I had to get gas yesterday and it was $3.49/gallon. Granted, even with that price, I managed to fill up for (just) less than $30.00. Oh, and it had been 2 weeks since I bought gas.

Have I mentioned that I love our new (can I still call it new when we got it in October?) car?<sup>*


*</sup>I realize that it's not a car that would work for everyone, but considering that I don't need a large vehicle and that we were going from a Saturn Ion, which means we actually increased in size and doubled our fuel efficiency, it works out pretty well for us.

Let Me See Your Grill

Scientists discover ancient Roman with gold dental work, declare Crunk to be older than previously thought. Search still on for earliest known platinum grill.

This Is My Dance, Y'all

Having music ringtones on your cell phone can be all sorts of fun, but it can also cause problems. If you're like me, you get sick of them pretty quickly and what once seemed witty soon becomes merely pathetic. Even worse, they can become a source of embarrassment. You never know when something will happen like forgetting to set your phone to silent while at work and having it ring while in your bosses office. The next thing you know you're trying to explain the Humpty Dance to your boss.

Employer: So, it's a song and a dance?
Employee: Yes, from back in the early 90's.
er: Hmm...if you say so.
ee: Ok, I'll explain it. First, you limp to the side like your leg was broken, twitching and shaking--
er: Well, that just doesn't make any sense. You'd look like MC Hammer on crack!
ee: That's all right, 'cause your body's in motion. It's supposed to look like a fit or a convulsion.

Alternatively, I Could Cut My Legs Off at the Knee

So, I mentioned earlier that we mowed our lawn for the first time this season. It looks good, and I'm glad it's done, but my aching back raises some interesting questions. (Normally, I'd prefer to not post two things about yardwork within such a short period of time, but the reality is that I've got nothing else to talk about.)

When I mowed and when I used the wheelbarrow to carry brush out to the curb, I realized that ergonomics has not yet hit the lawn and garden industry. My problem with both is that they require me to either slump over or to have my arms in an incorrect position. The handle on the mower is adjustable, but even at the highest setting, it's a long way down there. After just a few minutes of mowing, my back begins to feel tight. A few minutes more, and it feels more like someone kicked me in the spine repeatedly.

The wheelbarrow is pretty much the same. To get the handle to the right height, I have to tilt it until it is almost perpendicular to the ground, which causes the front to scrape along the ground, preventing it from moving further.

Here is what I don't get. Isn't there a lawn mower out there somewhere that is designed for people over six feet tall? Right...a riding mower, but unless I win the lottery (without playing) I don't see that one happening anytime soon.

Trivial Tuesday

This summer, the third installment of the Shrek series will hit theaters. This time, the film has a new director, as the previous director, Andrew Adamson, shifted into an executive producer role. The first two Shrek films were the first directorial efforts by Adamson, who went on to direct his first live action film. What was that live action film?

Invisible Lizard answered quickly, and cleverly as well, letting us know that it was The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

They See Me Mowin' My Front Lawn, I Know They're All Thinkin' I'm So White & Nerdy

It's Spring and while the temperature is doing its up and down dance, the snow is now long gone, and plants have awakened from their long winter's nap. As the first few blades of grass began poking through the snow a month and a half or so ago, my thoughts immediately turned to "Ugh. I'm going to have to mow that soon." Fortunately, the temperature went back to cold for a while, so that the grass had not really started growing until recently (of course, when it finally got mowed this weekend, it was desperately in need of it*).

However, thinking of mowing the lawn brings me back to a subject I was wondering about last fall. As I mowed and listened to my MP3 player, I pondered (because apparently those two activities are not enough to keep my mind from wandering) how other people mow their lawns. Are they horizontal row people, vertical row people, or do they go for the concentric circle (square/rectangle/trapezoid) approach?

The different styles have their own distinct advantages. Mowing in rows can give the appearance that you want, with row after row of freshly cut grass, the only visible pattern a faint waviness as your eyes pass over each row. The concentric pattern does not always turn out as well upon completion, but does hold other advantages. It is considerably more forgiving of obstacles and slopes which can be a problem if one simply goes back and forth across the lawn. It also allows for easier mowing along edges and does not require turning the mower on a dime. In addition, it also is more rewarding for the person doing the mowing because for each lap that is performed, the remaining laps decrease in size until the final trip around the lawn is nothing more than a mere patch which must be mowed.

What do I do? I don't have a defined answer. I use both methods, which is what started me wondering about this in the first place. But that's not the real question. The important question here is what about you? What do you do?

*Thoughts inspired by the actual mowing later.

Trivial Tuesday

Back in 2004, at age 13, this actress became the youngest ever to receive a nomination for the Best Actress Oscar. She has since appeared in a couple other movies (including one of the Star Wars prequels) and now, at 17, has just given birth to her first child.

Who is she?

Congrats to Srah, who remembered it was Keisha Castle-Hughes, who was nominated for Whale Rider.