Random All the Way Down

FCC: Pixelating Naughty Parts Not Good Enough! (link)

more teens not buying CDs (link)

garfield minus garfield (pics)

I drink your milkshake (video)

if Nintendo did the Oscars (video)

I'm F*cking Seth Rogen - NSFW language (video)

Soda Fountain Pwnage (video)

skater jumps over speeding car (video)

Moment Of Truth Special Lauren Cleri Ruins Marriage (video)

School Bus Fight (video)

oh geez, so a stray dog was able to squeeze through my backyard fence just an hour ago. It probably got the idea from my dog, which was able to stick his whole
head and front legs through this one partition of our fence. It's the same stray dog that my dogs were actually barking at when they were at the backyard recently. That stray dog was roaming around the back hill side of our house, but I didn't think it would try and get in. Luckily my dogs were already in the house when the stray snucked in the backyard.

My wife; bless her, was all "ooohhh, he looks soooo hungry, we should feed him." I ofcourse was all "we don't know if it's friendly at all, plus do you want him to want to stay?" She convinces me by saying "if we call the Animal Shelter, they are just going to put him to sleep." I guess I can't argue with that, so we fed him, and we plan to hold him for awhile and post up flyers for it's proper owner. After a certain amount of time, we're going to have to send him to the shelter if his owner doesn't pick him up, because I'm definitely not agreeing to keep him as a pet.

The stray however decided for us, by squeezing back through the same partition and back to the hillside. At first I thought he was going to get stuck trying to get out actually, and I was ready to rush out and give him a push, but he made it. Because we fed him however, I'm guessing he'll be back. Plus he seems to like my dogs.

So I watched the 80th Annual Academy awards this past Sunday, and I thought it was great. Then this past Monday, I read and hear how people are complaining that it was a rather boring Oscars. Really? Then why did I get the opposite reaction? Is it because I'm more of a "movie-buff" than the average person? Maybe it was... Oh wait, that's right, It was probably the fact that I did not watch it live. I watched the awards show through time-shifting with my DVR, and I guess that really made a huge difference with my experience. I waited about an hour and a half after the show started, and then started watching it from the beginning. The commercials, and any portions that I was not interested in; which was the majority of the acceptance speeches, I would just fast forward through them. I think I went through the four hours show in just about an hour and a half's time.

Watching TV with a DVR really makes a huge difference sometimes. Prior to my Direct TV DVR or my TiVo DVR before that, I've been time-shifting TV even when I primarily used a VCR (two of them). DVRs really makes watching TV a lot more enjoyable than normal, and I just can't see a reality anymore where I couldn't time-shift.

Trying To Pull Myself Away Random

Academy Awards recap (link)

"I'm F*cking Ben Affleck" (video)

MENSA Picks The 10 Smartest TV Shows Of All Time (link)

leaked RIAA training (video)

How To Behave On An Internet Forum (video)

David Blaine Street Magic Part 4 - NSFW language (video)

learn karate while you sleep (video)

women drivers LOL (video)

Volleyball - a dangerous game (video)

vagina punch (video)

Movies I've Seen Recently...

Be Kind Rewind  (2008)  B-

Humorous, weird, and touching. "Be Kind Rewind" is a good movie, but
honestly not one of director/writer Michel Gondry's greats. Jack Black does what he does best in
this, along with Mos Def and Melonie Diaz, they make a great ensemble trio. The way they make their "sweded" movies are very entertaining because of how cheap yet inventive they go about doing them. There is ofcourse a strong need for us to suspend our disbelief of the plot and logic of it all, sometimes it asks for too much. One thing that kinda surprised me the most though is that while the movie is seemingly primary a comedy in appearance, there is actually a very touching heartful story behind the craziness, but that might actually be a little bit of a turn off for some people.

No End In Sight  (2007)  A-

I learned a lot from this documentary on why the war on Iraq went to crap. Straightforward with many interviews from the people directly involved in it, chronicling the events that explain the quagmire that is Iraq today. It actually reminded me of work, because just like it, upper management makes really stupid decisions with no hands on experience on what those stupid decisions will be affecting. They don't even heed the warnings and opinions from middle management and the "grunts" who does have hands on experiences. "No End In Sight" by Charles Ferguson is a must see by anyone who needs extra help understanding the problem that is Iraq. It's also kinda depressing and frustrating to watch what happened.

Gone Baby Gone  (2007)  B+

How far are you willing to go, standing at the edge of moral ambiguity for the well being of a child? "Gone Baby Gone" tackles that question and how there's not entirely a black and white answer. This is a good drama, as well as a mystery, about a child who gets kidnapped and the people who are looking to find the girl. This movie proves that Ben Affleck has a positive future as a director, and Casey Affleck really proves his acting chops here.

The 80th Annual Academy Awards will happen, thanks to the end of the writer's strike. Now for my predictions on several categories...

Best Picture : No Country For Old Men
Director : Ethan and Joel Coen
Actor : Daniel Day-Lewis
Supporting Actor : Javier Bardem
Actress : Marion Cotillard
Supporting Actress : Tilda Swinton
Animated Film : Ratatouille
Documentary Feature : No End In Sight
Adapted Screenplay : No Country For Old Men

Original Screenplay : Juno
Music (score) : Atonement

Music (song) : Once - "Falling Slowly"
Film Editing : No Country For Old Men
Visual Effects : Transformers
Art Direction : Atonement

Cinematography : There Will Be Blood

Costume Design : Elizabeth The Golden Age

There are clearly more than 17 categories of nominations, but these are the ones I'm willing to take a guess on. I would have liked to put down Ellen Page of Juno for best actress, but I doubt the academy will give it to her. The actress categories were such a crapshoot for me, because they really could go any way. That goes the same for Art Direction, Cinematography and Costume Design, where I'm really just absolutely guessing. For musical song, I clearly put Once's "Falling Slowly" with bias (an Enchanted song might get it), since that's from my favorite movie and music album of 2007. Although I'm thinking No Country For Old Men will rule it's categories, There Will Be Blood can easily take it all as well.

Leave Random

GDC 2008 coverage (link)

Rainn on Film (video)

Will Ferrell's Old Spice ads (video)

image metrics facial capture (video)

slow-mo water boobs (video)

viral videos are spreading - NSFW language (video)

HD-DVD funeral by AOTS (video)

if the Wii's Super Mario Galaxy was made for the SNES (video)

15 most annoying game characters (link)

the dump of death? (video)

"Toshiba quits HD-DVD business"
...and with that, the high-definition video disc war is officially and finally over. The step needed to make HD video discs more acceptible to the public has been made, and we can all thank Toshiba for raising the white flag. It was an unwanted format war to begin with, so I'm glad things have ended. Most of the "HD-DVD only" titles will be migrating to Blu-ray pretty soon, and by then we will finally have a single source for our high definition video disc needs.

I am admitedly a little surprise at the fact that the cheaper more consumer friendly HD-DVD would painfully lose out to Blu-ray, which is a more expensive entry point to high definition video discs. I figured that the price difference would drag out this "war" a lot longer than it actually turned out. Such is the strength of the Sony brand I suppose, which helped them get a lot of support from the industry itself. I'm sure the Blu-ray compatible PlayStation 3 helped the cause as well, probably more so than some people would think.

All we have now to choose for our video disc needs are Blu-ray and the good old DVD formats. Ofcourse first you have to ask yourself if you even want to own high definition titles, which still aren't as cheap to purchase like where DVD prices are at now. It may be worthwhile to own a price friendly upconverting DVD player first for the time being, which gives you the best quality you'll be able to get from the standard DVD format when viewed on an HDTV. In some cases, an upconverted DVD video can make you question if you really need Blu-ray at all. There are also digital HD video downloads to consider as a possible alternative, although it's still up in the air right now whether people would go for that over something like Blu-ray in the long run.

An important victory has been achieved by the Blu-ray video disc format, but it's not home free just yet. I'm still waiting for that day when a title is released "on Blu-ray only, not DVD."