I finally have in my hands a copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the last book in the popular series. Unlike most Harry Potter fans, I will be waiting several more hours before I start reading the book. Why? Because I got to be awake in a little over four hours from now. Sure I have a little bit of time to post here in my blog though ey? I suppose it was a mistake for me to actually bother going to the midnight release of the book, as it was quite an exhausting experience. "Exhausting" in the sense that I had to keep waiting and waiting and waiting just to purchase the book.

I got to the Barnes and Nobles bookstore where they were holding the midnight release party for the book at approximately 11:00PM. I have never seen that store as crowded as it was, and the parking lot was completely full. I had to park a couple of blocks away, over at the parking structure for the movie theater nearby, as the adjacent parking lot was also full. When I entered the store I got myself a wristband that determines what place in line I get to pick up the book. I was letter "K," which doesn't really give me any real indication as to how long as I was going to wait, because I don't know how many people were in each letter. Speaking of people, there's a good majority of teenagers and college kids in attendance, but there's a good chunk of us "older" folks waiting for the book as well. I got to say though, those college girls dressed in "Hogwarts" school girl uniforms who showed up.... to quote a popular SNL parody... "I got to go and tame my dragon." *bad thoughts bad thoughts*

Midnight rolls over and people lined up in droves. I on the other hand continued reading some books as I knew quite well that my letter "K" was not going to be up anytime soon. The question was how much longer until it's my turn. After reading a book about guitar playing, I noticed that it was already 12:40AM at that point, and I found out that they just finished letter "D." So approximately ten minutes a letter? I'll be picking up my copy at about 1:40AM? *groan* I decided to head over to the magazine racks and decided to wait the rest of the time there.

As time goes by, I did a good job wasting time by reading through all their Mixed Martial Arts magazines when I finally looked at the time to see that it was already past 1:40AM! It turns out that people with "L" were already in line. Did I miss my chance? I walked towards the front of the long line and asked one of the workers if I missed the "K" line. She pointed towards a person in line right next to me and said that's the end of the "K" group, and she just told me to go ahead and jump in between my group and the "L" group. Nobody seemed to mind that I was pretty much cutting in, but I guess that's what the letter system is good for.

So two hours and fifty minutes after arriving there; the amount of time that I could have spent watching a late showing for a movie at the theater next door, I finally got my copy of the last Harry Potter book. I don't know if it was a joke or anything but upon leaving the store, there were people yelling "Harry Potter dies! Harry Potter dies!" But you know what? I don't care if that's the truth. My theory has always been that he does indeed die, only to be back to life again through some kind of magic by the end of the book, but I digress. First I needed to pass these group of about 30 people who look like they are about to get into a street fight from a heated verbal argument, who also happen to be nearby where I parked my car. Oh well, if it came down to it, I've sure that I got a group of Harry Potter fans who'll watch my back.... oh wait....

Back To Random Life

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An annual tradition of mine for quite a long time now, is attending the San Diego Comic-Con, and it's only just a week away. This year is going to be crazy as for the very first time in the convention's history, the full 4-day pass is sold out! All that are left are the single day passes as well as the special 3-day pass that excludes the most popular day; saturday. Last year was extremely busy and it looks like this year is going to top that.

So what will I be seeing this year... Like I mention every year, despite the fact that this convention started more or less for fans of comic books, it really changed it's way at the turn of the millenium. It's really more of an overall pop culture celebration, meaning movies, tv, anime, toys, art, novels, video games, oh and comic books. For me I will be focusing once again on the movie and TV related programming. This year there will be forums/panels for Beowulf, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Stardust, Hot Rod, Iron Man, Indiana Jones 4, the next Star Trek, Good Luck Chuck, Saw IV, Lost Season 4, the Invasion, 24 Season 7, the Golden Compass, Halloween, Heroes Season 2, Balls of Fury, Chronicles of Narnia : Prince Caspian, Wall-E, Supernatural Season 3, Smallville Season 7, the return of Futurama, 30 Days Of Night, Superbad, etc...

Then there are the celebrities that are going to be making appearances like... J.J.Abrams, Andy Samberg, Peter Fonda, Jessica Alba, Dane Cook, Mike Shinoda, Tobin Bell, Kristen Bell, Joel Silver, Kate Beckinsale, Clive Owen, Rob Zombie, Seth MacFarlane, Kevin Smith, Matt Groening, the cast of Heroes, Liv Tyler, Robert Downey Jr, Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon, Milla Jovovich, Josh Hartnett, Judd Apatow, Seth Rogan, Sarah Silverman, Lucy Lawless, Ashley Scott, etc...

Some premieres will also be on hand, like showing us the Superman : Doomsday animated movie, the first episode of the Sarah Connor Chronicles, the first episode of Reaper, the first episode of Chuck, the first episode of Pushing Daisies, the first episode of the Bionic Woman, etc...

I hope to also once again meet up with a certain pretty cosplayer;
Lisa, to continue our tradition of doing a photoshoot of her beating me
up (example). With the crowd increasing so much and the programming being so over loaded with things to see, it's going to take a lot of luck running into her.

This year looks like another great year for the comic-con, and as it's been a couple of years now, I shall dedicate several days of my blog postings to the event. Also worth mentioning but G4TV will dedicate two live shows (7/26 & 7/27) on Comic-Con (with hot co-host Olivia Munn being there again), so feel free to check that out as well.

There was a "Ralph's rant" on the Kevin & Bean show recently, and it's something I myself have thought about. People are too suckered into the idea that you have to be able to eat more food for less money. I'm sure at some point you've heard somebody comment "so and so is better because you get more food for a better price." I'm all for the value of the dollar like everybody, but are we all forgetting that America has an overweight problem? Do we really need to give ourselves an excuse to eat more food just to make the cost of the meal seem "worth it?" Fast foods, restaurants, and the food industry in general are bombarding us consumers into their many promotions like "buy one hamburger for one dollar and get a second one free," or "don't settle for a 32oz soft drink, upgrade to a 46oz for just a few cents more!" If you go into a restaurant with a party, these kinds of promotions are definitely something you can take advantage of. Honestly though, a lot of people are taking advantage of these kinds of promotions for themselves, one person. We all should be ashamed of ourselves, especially when there are many starving people out there in the world.

Are You Random Nervous?

iPhone Will it Blend (video)

Manly stuff that is no longer manly (link)

Double KO Bar Fight (video)

gang of puppies (video)

a horror movie come to life (link)

the dirty little mermaid - NSFW (video)

stop motion baby (video)

white & nerdy lego edition (video)

A parody of Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" (video)

the age project (link)

*sigh* just hours away from being one year older. I remember a time when I used to look forward to my birthday, but now it's just a day to remind me how much older I am now. If only I can go back 5-7 years...

So another E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) has come and gone again, but this time it's all different. Unlike the past times, I'm unable to attend it this time around.
The way E3 has been set up prior to this year has been that if you work
in any way relating to the video game industry, then you can go in.
Because of that general rule, just about anybody with a made up website
dedicated to video games could enter under the banner of "journalism,"
or just working in a retail store like Best Buy was enough. So the fact that it's an invite only event now, there's less extravaganza about it and it's actually back to just being a business again.

G4TV however has got our back, as their coverage of the event allows us to actually watch the media press conference of the major three companies, as opposed to before when we had to find some other means to see it. They also have hours and hours of live coverage with the event itself, showing us software from all the gaming companies they can get. If anything else, with G4TV and the internet, gamers who normally wouldn't have even been able to go to E3 in past years, more than ever before have now been given the most access to the event short of actually being there themselves.

The three press events ended up a bit of a mix bag though. Microsoft strictly focused on software that would be released this year, and while it's a pretty strong line up of games, a lot of us were really hoping to see some surprises about things that would be released next year. Nintendo focused on how their Wii and DS systems have captured the casual market by storm, but their game lineup didn't really have any real shockers besides Wii Fit (which I will be getting). Sony on the other hand seems to be targeting the hardcore gamers with a pretty good presentation on a lot of promising looking titles, with some choice titles that *almost* justifies the $499 price tag of the PS3. So among the three, Sony won in gamers' eye, Nintendo won in the public eye, while Microsoft is in a precarious position of being outshined by the other (even though they still lead the market right now).

In terms of games, a lot of the upcoming titles are really living up to the "next-gen" of gaming as first bragged about two years ago. Beautiful, pretty, and technically awesome, are what can easily be described of the games. Halo 3, Mass Effect, Lost Odyssey, Call of Duty 4, Heavenly Sword, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, and Super Mario Galaxy are just a few titles that I'm really looking forward to. However the two games I really really want are Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band, because those games will sooooo (for lack of a better word) ROCK!!!

E3 may not be the same as it's been before, and there's even rumors that it may not even come back next year. A lot of the major companies have their own special showcase events to show their products to the industry, so in theory E3 really isn't necessary. However E3 is THE event that joins the whole gaming industry into one singular celebration. Maybe the "E For All" event might eclipse E3 for being a gaming expo open to the public, but until that happens, the Electronic Entertainment Expo is still where it's at.

Random Midnight

E3 07: Analysts on Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony (link)

G4TV's E3 07 videos (video)

Letterman Jerks Off Optimus Prime (video)

cool car door (video)

daft punk dancing girl (video)

car trouble (video)

backwards piano (video)

wrong movie (video)

samsung dance (video)

video game deaths compilation (video)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix  (2007)  B

Out of all the books and the movies, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is probably the odd one out. The reason I say this is because unlike the other installments, this one is the most "somber" story with less action adventuring. I could say that this installment is something of a "regular" character drama about a teenage boy feeling trapped and alone, in a world that happens to have magic in it. I do like the tone of the film, as directed by David Yates, which keeps everything grounded more to reality than previous installments. Yes it's true that the action is far in between all the many dialogue/montage scenes this movie has, but that magical fight at the end of the film is worth the wait. There are several things that I admit to be disappointed in; like the lack of any real exposition between scenes, but for the most part the movie itself is good and enjoyable. The new characters of Luna Lovegood and Dolores Umbridge, as played by Evanna Lynch and Imelda Staunton respectively, are also some very welcome additions. This may not be the most exciting Harry Potter movie and may merely act like a transitional film from the previous one to the next, but it's still good and worth seeing either way.

Ratatouille  (2007)  B+

How do you make a movie about a rat that can cook, and not make you feel a bit disgusted? The truth is you can't, but the work done here by director/writer Brad Bird and the creative team from Pixar sure comes real close to that goal. "Ratatouille" is a movie that has a lot of "heart," and the emotional drama in this feels just as real as any other live-action movies out there. This movie does feel a little unbalanced in how we're suppose to treat the story, a cartoony tale about a rat who cooks, or a pseudo-realistic take on what it might be like if a rat can cook. It's great fun watching this movie though, from the great animation by the folks at Pixar, the comedy, and the enjoyable story that makes you definitely want to see how it ends.