Lately, I've been bumped to a shift fifteen minutes earlier than normal. Damn does 15 minutes make a difference for me. I suppose it's just me needing to adjust to starting at 9:15PM as opposed to 9:30PM, but I feel like I lost time than gained any. I obviously have to leave for work earlier, but getting ready for work earlier than normal just isn't working well with me right now. That's fifteen minutes less that I get to do the normal stuff I do at around that time, dinner, tv, and time with my fiancee. Going home is the part that hasn't changed much either, It's saved me a whopping 10 minutes, which fundamentaly makes no real difference at that time of day for me. *sigh* bring me back to my old start time. Damn does 15 minutes make a difference for me.

recap of the Fall / Winter TV season...

"Heroes" is the big surprise for me, since I discounted it from it's very luckluster pilot episode, but starting from the second episode, it has now become the best new series to emerge this season. "Veronica Mars" came back still strong, and I've grown to appreciate the changes they made with the show. "House" is still good, but the darker tone of the overall plot this season can be a bit of a turn off. "Law and Order : Special Victims Unit" briefly added a new character that brought some fresh air to the dynamics of the show. "Lost" came back with kinda a whimper, and got a bit frustrating to watch, as we the audience are getting unsatisfyingly jerked around.

"Smallville" was smart to add the Green Arrow in the mix, but is still dumb in regards to what they are doing with Lex and Lana. "Supernatural" has proven to be a pretty solid show, and I'm glad to stick with it. "Survivor : Cook Islands" has convinced me to start watching this reality game show on a regular basis now. "The Office" is still the best sitcom around right now, with Steve Carell doing a great job with one of the best sitcom characters around in Michael Scott. "Law and Order" mixed things up by changing two characters and manage to make the show engaging to watch again.

"South Park," "American Dad," "Family Guy," "Robot Chicken," as animated programming, are still producing a lot of laughs that easily rivals traditional sitcoms. "The Venture Brothers" finally returned for a second season and it's still good, but not as good as the first season. "Metalocalypse" was very entertaining at first but started to get a little bit tired as the series continued. Despite a couple of episodes, I'm still continuing to ignore "The Simpsons" overall.

G4TV's "Attack Of The Show" and "X-Play" still entertain me to this day. "The Soup" and "Best Week Ever" are still chugging along rather well. The game shows in "Deal or No Deal" and "1 vs 100" are also great diversions. Ofcourse "Ebert & Roeper" is still my premiere source of movie reviews on TV.

Not too bad a TV season, but not necessarily great. I'm disappointed at how serialized TV shows are going away, but they did overcrowd that genre this time around.

Random Walk Away

Global Orgasm for peace (link)

drunk santas (video)

Live Free or Die Hard trailer (video)

Joe Rogan vs Female Heckler - NSFW language (video)

Time's Person of the Year = YOU (link)

Shrek the Third trailer (video)

kid knocked out jumping into lake - NSFW language (video)

best photos of 2006 (flash)

Charlie Brown Christmas - by the Cast of Scrubs (video)

crossword (game)

I still do not have an HDTV yet, but my parents recently went and got themselves one. They got a 50 inch 1080p capable DLP HDTV for $1500, and wow did the picture clarity look sooo good. This is my very first time to be completely hands on to test out the next-gen of television, and besides the picture, the first thing I wanted to test out was how viable my current huge DVD collection looks on it.

Using a regular DVD movie disc with a standard DVD player, connected to the HDTV, I've got to say damn did it look so bad it's
embarassing. It's no different than when you try and enlarge a video clip from the internet, and notice the pixelated artifacts a lot more. Basically, the DVD looks worse on an HDTV than if it was on a standard TV screen. I've expected this to happen, but I didn't realize that I couldn't live with that kind of quality.

Then I tried the same regular DVD but upconverted this
time, using my brother's upconverting DVD player (using HDMI for a pure digital connection), and it looked totally fine. The upconverter DVD player upscaled the movie into a pretty clear picture that makes it looked a bit better than if it was on a standard TV. It still wasn't super high-definition clarity mind you, but I can
completely live with it.

I then even tried that same regular DVD using my xbox 360 with it's component
cables, and it actually looked decent. It surprisingly looked better
than playing it on a standard DVD player, but it wasn't as good as the
dedicated HDMI upconverter DVD player. Still, using my xbox 360 as my future upconverter DVD player is a good possibility, whenever it is I do purchase an HDTV (probably a 37 inch - 40 inch 1080p capable LCD HDTV). So far at least, I did get to use the xbox 360's high definition functions for the first time, and damn did the games look great.

Now with this recent experience, it's now even more tempting to buy an HDTV and videos that support it. However, I'm still not supporting HD-DVD or Blu-ray though, until a good
affordable dual player shows up, or until the studios sort out this dual format mess. Don't have any idea when that's
happening, so I'm going to stick with upconverting DVDs when I finally
purchase an HDTV sometime next year. Honestly though, I may just completely avoid HD-DVD or Blu-ray, and treat them like I treated Laserdisc when VHS was king; basically mostly ignored.

I just recently found out that a mom & pop Chinese fast food place near my work closed shop. It was so mom & pop, that I only knew the name of the place as "Asian Cuisine." I used to frequent that place at least once a week, when I wasn't working a steady graveyard shift a couple of years ago. Lately though, I've only been going there once a month, if I push for it. I'm saddened by this because they had my favorite orange chicken of all the Chinese fast food places. Man, did I love their orange chicken. In fact that was the only dish I would order, Orange Chicken with fried rice, every single time. I did eat there one time about four weeks ago though, but I didn't realize that it'll be the last time. I'll definitely miss that place.

This Random Boy

spray paint artist (video)

the impossible kid (video)

The US ZIPScribble Map (link)

Honda's Asimo Robot buckling on the stairs (video)

USB humping dog (video)

pencil sculptures (pics)

Ray Harryhausen Creature List (video)

deep throats a banana (video)

Verizon doesn't know how to count (link)

Chu Chu Rocket (game)

-- who is faster? -- (my youtube)
-- extra amazing amanda -- (my youtube)

Book I've read recently...

Ultra, Seven Days by the Luna Brothers

Pearl Penalosa is a latina celebrity who has remained single for many years since her high-profile celebrity breakup. She thinks spending more time at work will keep her off the fact that she doesn't need to be in a relationship. But the truth is that she really is just a woman who wants to find someone to love. Oh, did I mention that she is a super heroine? "Ultra, Seven Days" adds a very nice twist to the superhero comic book genre, because the main plot doesn't revolve around saving the world or anything like that, but is instead about relationship issues that anybody can relate to.

What I like about this concept is that it does a really good job in grounding the superhero world in a very believable reality. Being a superhero is just another nine to five job, but at the same time is also about being a celebrity trying to win recognition from the "Annual Super Hero Awards." The characters themselves are very true to life, and I admit to getting involved in their personal problems more so than I expected. There is frank talk about sex that I was pleasantly surprised about, and a lot of the humor in the book can be downright hilarious. While the brunt of the book are on conversations between the characters, there are still in fact some action sequences; that can even be shockingly graphically violent to my surprise.

The Luna Brothers did an excellent job in the writing, and the artwork has a nice animated cel type look that works well with the book. They even did many parody advertisements using the characters of the book that I found very amusing, like magazine covers or popular beverages that we all should easily recognize. Not to mention full blown fictional articles that you would find in magazines like Maxim or Time. I also have to give them kudos to making very substantial female characters, as well as introducing us to who should be the next best female superheroine of our time in the main star "Ultra." In fact, this book would be perfect for a movie adaptation someday.

"Ultra, Seven Days" is a good enjoyable read and very much recommended from me, especially for those looking for a very non-traditional super hero story. I'd also like to add to that and say that I highly recommend this to the ladies out there, as it's probably geared towards their taste more so than it is for men (not a bad thing guys).

Movies I've recently seen...

Final Destination 3 (2006)  C+

Going into a Final Destination movie, you should be expecting only one thing, creative ways to die. "Final Destination 3" more or less uses the same exact plot and scenario is the movies that came before it. That's not necessarily a bad thing if the movie is loads of fun to watch, and while this installment wasn't bad, it didn't stand out enough in the creative deaths department. Pretty much a by the motions movie, but worth a rental at least.

For Your Consideration (2006)  C+

The movies made by director / writer Christopher Guest are known for their dry, tongue and cheek parodies. "For Your Consideration" follows that formula about how a relatively low key movie in production gets affected by Hollywood. I like how we see how the actors, writers, director, and the rest of the crew behind the movie within the movie; "Home For Purim," gets affected by the notion that they might make it in the big time by getting Academy Award nominations. It's also amusing seeing fake parodies of other movies, movie critics, news reporters, and tabloid tv. Unfortunately, I thought that the humor was too dry, and the parodies weren't biting enough. Great concept and great cast (Parker Posey was especially great) but I thought the whole thing wasn't fully realized enough to be a great film.

Fullmetal Alchemist : Conqueror of Shamballa (2005)  B

This movie immediately follows where the Fullmetal Alchemist anime series leaves off, so It's not necessarily a film that just anybody can watch as is. For fans of the series however, "Conqueror of Shamballa" delivers an appropriate conclusion, but still leaves enough developments in the ending to make you want more. I like how we have these very fictional characters in a very non-fiction world of Germany 1923. There are also lots of themes in the movie that are well done; like prejudicm, reality vs fantasy, politics, and ofcourse about brotherhood. Absolutely recommended for fans of the anime series.