Me and my fiancee where watching TV. Our pet dog was also in the same room. I noticed that my dog all of a sudden was attentively staring towards the ceiling behind me and my fiancee. I looked up but didn't really see anything, so I brought it to my fiancee's attention on how odd (and cute) are dog is looking like that. "Quick, take a picture" was the answer I got from her. Anyways, I looked up again, but this time I see smoke rising up from the halogen lamp behind us! Quickly, I dashed across the room to turn it off. When I looked at what happened to the halogen lamp, it turned out that a rather large fly must have flew by too close to it, and was then frying to a crisp. Luckily it wasn't the light itself that was burning up. Even more lucky is the fact that we now know that our dog would be a good fire-dog.

Movies I've seen recently...

Thank You For Smoking (2005)  A

"Thank You For Smoking" is definitely a movie tailored made for me to love. It's about the
art of argument and debate more so than anything else, which made for some very
memorable dialouge. This is a talking heads movie folks, so if that's
not your thing you may want to look elsewhere. The satire in the film
is also nicely done, and are very amusing. You got characters arguing
about who kills the most people, how eccentric the people are who work
in Hollywood, the easily opinion swayed public, a senator who openly
admits to wishing their opposition just die, and simply on how
perception is a very tricky thing.

Aaron Eckhart got himself another rich character to portray, and he
plays the part to perfection. I despise smoking myself, but I can't
help but root for a lobbyist for the tobacco industry. This guy says
some despicable things, but damn is he brilliantly good at it.

I'd like to point out though, that there were some visual tricks in the
first half of the film that was used rather well in showing some
character backgrounds or even subtitles explaining what a person
"really meant." But it seems that creative energy runs dry by the half
way point of the film, because by then said visual tricks are more or
less gone, and I would have liked to have seen more done with that.

Kudos to Jason Reitman on doing a splendid job on the screenplay and
directing. I also like the nice touch in that for a film about lobbying
for the tobacco industry, you don't even see one person smoking a
cigarette.

Hard Candy (2005)  B+

I got a chance to see this indie film "Hard Candy." This is a story
about Jeff; a 32 year old photographer, who meets a 14-year-old girl
named Hayley through the Internet. At first it seems like the two are
actually romantically interested in each other, but eventually we find
that Hayley is a fearless avenger who set up the trap to make Jeff pay
dearly for being a pedophile. It's easy to say that the guy deserves
what he is getting, but at the same time the things she does to him
felt rather extreme. The film even gives us a suggestion that Jeff is
simply a flawed human being and not completely a dangerous pedophile
monster. Or maybe he really is? The question also has to be brought up
on how sympathetic should we really feel for Hayley, who might be
finding too much pleasure in torturing Jeff. Yes, this is not a movie I
can easily recommend for people to watch.

Ellen Page did an impressively oscar worthy performance as the
intelligent, calm, and methodical Hayley, and I believe that she was
only 17 when she did this film. It can be argued that Hayley acts more
like an adult than a 14 year old child though, but maybe that's because
she really is a disturbed insane young lady afterall. Patrick Wilson
also did an incredible turn by making his character as sympathetic as
we can possibly feel for him, considering. You will most definitely not
want to be him though.

There's an admitedly simplistic nature to having a movie that only has
two primary main actors in one set, mostly just talking (or yelling) to
each other. There are also some things that seem intentionally or unintentionally unexplained or left with no conclusion. Director David Slade still does a good job complimenting
the screenplay by Brian Nelson, by putting as much "action" into
non-action situations, and making things as "in your face" as needed.
As unsettling as the film can be, it's absolutely and completely
fascinating to watch the turn of events that occurs.

Random Little Thoughts

wallpainting art (pics)

kicked in nuts (video)

Sega's road to E3 (link)

New York City Breakers on Soul Train (video)

leather dragon backpack (pics)

dodge the bullet (game)

Kid Breaks CD With Forehead (video)

Microwaved water - see what it does to plants (link)

Mercedes SLK Vs Ferrari Enzo (video)

awesome rainbow (pics)

Space ace game from start to finish (video)

dry fire (game)

So May 1 is suppose to be "the day without immigrants." There's a call
to urge a boycott by all immigrants to not go to work, to not go to
school, to not buy or sell anything that day. All I have to say is,
WOW. If all immigrants (not just Mexicans) actually follow through on
this action, that will be a day to witness. My twisted sense of humor
kinda wants to see this happen. We shall see.

- Links -
Immigrant Solidarity Day
The Immigrant's Dilemma : To Boycott or not to boycott

There was a discussion in a forum I frequent, about how annoying kids can be in movie theaters and how they are one of the main reasons people have stopped going to the big screen. There's even a sort of "study" about "how to avoid children in a theater."

That link was interesting. Interesting in that it doesn't seem to apply to me
in reality. It also only really seems to apply to children and not
teens. I honestly haven't had many incidents with noisy children, and
when they do happen, the majority of the time the parents will take
their children outside if they are being noisy. Teens on the otherhand
are much more annoying than children will ever be, because they embrace
"the right" to be obnoxious. Teenagers would rather go to an evening
showing because that's the "cool" thing to do. Which is what prompted
me to primarily go to the matinee showings (weekdays preferable). Because of that, I
haven't had much issue with teens shouting at the screen, talking /
2way-ing on their cellphones, or those damn laser pointers. Plus with
matinee showings, seating isn't an issue, you don't have to show up
early, and there's no need to get in line for a movie.

I think it also comes down to what movie you are watching too. I'll be
surprised to catch a child or a teenager in a showing for Match Point
or the Matador, which are the kinds of movies I try to watch in the
theater. If I watch a big popular movie like Silent Hill or Mission
Impossible 3, I expect kids or teens to be in attendance, but even so,
I still have a far better experience in the matinee times as opposed to
the evening showings.

Maybe my situation is unique? But I'm even considering three different
theaters here in my scenarios (a 20 screen and two 30 screen theaters),
in a highly populated area. So hhhmmm.....

Random Price Of Gas

double words illusion (pics)

bullet impacts (video)

maze scare office prank (video)

polar jump (game)

bubble magic (video)

copy-cat (video)

Google: Da Vinci Code quest (link)

Family Guy - Pinocchio (video)

Ghetto Bungee Jumping In Yard (video)

bomb wars (game)

robot chicken on the Flintstones (video)

Dragon's lair game from start to finish (video)

Movie I've seen recently...

 Scary Movie 4 (2006) C-

For as long as this franchise is out, and no matter how bad it gets, for some reason I still seem to end up watching these films. Scary Movie 4 is not exactly a good example of good film making, but it is suppose to be "stupid fun" not "stupid dumb." Between those two descriptions, it's a little of both. David Zucker is once again the director for this film, but unfortunately, he will never be as good as he was in the classic Airplane! and The Naked Gun movies. The jokes are his typical lowbrow, dirty, and obvious comedy, but even if you like those kinds of humor, Scary Movie 4 is still not that great. I suppose you would watch this for the things the movie spoofs, and that's the real draw to it. If anything else though, this will most likely be the only movie you'll see that features basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal trying to make a free throw to literally save his life, or TV talk show host Dr.Phil talking about his mommy issues.

Well here's a day that I've been dreading a bit. Officially meeting my fiancee's parents. I've met her mom before, but it was very brief and kinda discreet. This is the first time I'm meeting the dad though, and she and he don't get along at all in the first place. Here's hoping things go well....

Random Pioneers

novo table (link)

top goals (video)

submission fighting (video)

brain drop (game)

poodle fitness (video)

hockey check (video)

Japanese indoor beach (pics)

DDR + Riverdancing (video)

total eclipse of the heart (video)

table tennis (game)

very disturbingly creepy ad concept (video)

Game 6 of the 1986 World Series Re-Enacted in 8-Bit Glory (video)