Tidbits

June 30th, 2008

Diablo III

Holy crap!

Dr. McNinja

I recently came upon The Adventures of Dr. McNinja and I have been thoroughly entertained. I suggest you start from the beginning so you know who the characters are, but as a preview, check out the first page of the latest issue. I lol’ed.

Firefox 3 Launches

Firefox 3 is out. It has several new features, and more importantly, memory use improvements.

Wikileaks confirms what we already knew

The government breaks the law at will.

I’ve already been boycotting the AP

After first filing DMCA takedown notices, the AP has decided to start charging bloggers for fair use. I’m pretty sure that’s illegal, and if not it is certainly fine dickery. I always appreciate people linking to my site, but I guess this makes sense: why would the AP want free advertising?

Many have called for a boycott of the AP. Let it be known that I don’t think I’ve ever linked to an AP article, so was totally in on the ground floor of this one.

Why I Can’t Respect the TSA

June 23rd, 2008

The Transport Security Administration (TSA) was created in the aftermath of 9/11. Its chief job is to protect us from another air plane hijacking, and it tries to do this by checking you and your luggage as you board a plane.

The TSA’s latest offense is this: a woman with her ears, bellybutton, and nipples1 pierced (not together. Although that would be kinda cool) does not set off the metal detectors but is pulled aside anyway for additional screening. A hand wand detects the nipple piercings and the TSA agents demand that she remove them (which can be painful). She does so (using pliers on one!) as, according to her, the predominately male TSA officers snicker.

Afterward, she offers to remove her bellybutton ring as well, but the TSA officer says it isn’t necessary.

The TSA said that their officers followed procedure, but the procedure needs to be changed. However, procedure already allows for a visual inspection, which is what the officer did for her bellybutton. Why wasn’t she offered this option for her other piercings as well?

The only upside is that the woman’s lawyer was able to give us this gem:

“Last time that I checked, a nipple was not a dangerous weapon.”

Getting to the point

My main problem with the TSA is that they only react—they don’t take any measures to protect us against things terrorists haven’t tried already. My other problem is that they don’t really believe their own B.S.; they realize they’re just there to make us think we’re safer, without actually protecting us.

  1. They suck at actually finding bombs, and are worse than the guys they replaced.
  2. The lack common sense.
  3. Their Website was vulnerable to identity theft, due to “major incompetence.” This led to a government investigation.
  4. Remember the shoe bomber? After he was caught, the TSA started checking shoes.
  5. Remember the liquids thing? (Prosecution didn’t go so well.) After that they disallowed liquids, including insulin (the stuff that keeps diabetics alive), on planes. Then they allowed you to have three ounces of liquids and some other stuff. So little bombs are okay? The best part is that when people would try to bring liquids onto planes, the TSA had them pour the liquids into a big trash can. So to protect us from terrorists combining liquids to make a bomb, the TSA combined all the bomb-making liquids. Genius!
  6. Can’t even protect themselves (although this is a problem with the entire Department of Homeland Security)
  7. They have lavish parties.
  8. They are ineffective.

The TSA needs serious reform and competent leadership.

You can read more (really? after this long-ass post?) at Wikipedia and BoingBoing.

1I’m going to bold the word “nipple” to increase audience interest.

Way Late Movie Review: The Indiana Jones Trilogy

June 17th, 2008

I’ve been watching a lot of movies that I never got around to watching when they came out. Out of shame I’m going to review them here.

Today’s movies are Raiders of the Lost Arc (1981), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) starring Han Solo, the guy from Sliders, and several attractive (by 1980s standards) females. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Rated PG.

Plot: Set between 1936 and 1938, Indiana Jones is a mild mannered archaeologist and professor by day, but when he dons on his magic hat and whips out his… whip, he becomes an ass-kicking ass kicker.

In anticipation of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I rented and watched the first three movies in the series. I hadn’t seen any of them all the way through.

The first movie was good, but I thought it was a bit light on action. The first sequence is really the only one with booby traps. The romance with Indy’s ex was a nice change from normal action movie romance.

Of course, the second movie completely ignores the events of the first, not mentioning Indy’s love interest. Instead, we find Indy has made a new friend, a Chinese child who only knows two English words: “Doctor” and “Jones.” He repeats them generously. The love interest in this movie is a cranky, whiny brat who deserves everything she gets (except Indy). Oh, Dr. Jones, I understand that after you almost die you want to shack up with the closest woman, but her? I just wanted to slap her the whole time.

The third movie returns to thwarting Nazi plans, this time to find the Holy Grail. I think this one is generally regarded as the best of the three, and that is my opinion as well.

I guess I expected more booby traps and puzzles. The movies had a mix of that and shootouts and fist fights, which, while entertaining, was disappointing.

Adult content: People getting shot and stabbed; hearts being pulled from chests; lots of blood; melting Nazis. All this while retaining a PG rating! Oh, the 80s!

Overall: Despite their flaws, these movies are classics. Everyone should see them.

Bonus Review: Jen’s Thoughts

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was my fav out of the three. Although, some parts were completely revolting, like when Indy, Willie, and Shorty were eating dinner at the palace and they were served monkey brains and eye ball soup… gaaaaaross!!! I did like how that one dude bare-handedly ripped through a man’s chest and grabbed his heart, though. That’s always cool :) Oh and Indy is totally dreamy.

Shoutouts

June 11th, 2008

NIN

Continuing his effort to be the coolest guy ever, Trent Reznor has decided to release the newest Nine Inch nails album for free. You can get it in MP3, FLAC, M4A, or WAVE format.

Also, if you haven’t picked up Ghosts I-IV yet, they’re still available.

Dinosaur Comics

Dinosaur Comics is a daily comic that is generally pretty funny.

Hulu

Hulu is like YouTube, but without the “You” part. More like CorporationTube. You can watch full episodes of TV shows from Fox and NBC.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicals

This is actually a good show. I lost interest in other new sci-fi like Bionic Woman, but this one kept my attention. You should watch it when it comes back for its second season.

Firefly

I just finished the DVD box set. Such a good show. The pilot episode is slow-paced; try watching another one to get into the show, and then go back and watch them in DVD order. Objects in Space is one of my favorite episodes.

Boobies

Gotta love ‘em.

Comment Wisdom

May 14th, 2008

Apparently Paris Hilton has a sex tape, and I’m inadequate in bed. These are just some of the things I learned from my 5400 spam comments on this blog. Also, many people are “simply mad about this forum!” and think I have “good stuff, very nicely done”. That’s when they’re not writing gibberish or misspelling v1codin and v1agr@.

On the plus side, I just ordered 100 designer watches.

Way Late Movie Review: Adaptation.

April 7th, 2008

I’ve been watching a lot of movies that I never got around to watching when they came out. Out of generosity I’m going to review them here.

Today’s movie is Adaptation. (2002) starring Nicolas Cage (Face/Off), Meryl Streep (lots of things), and a toothless Chris Cooper. Directed by Spike Jonze. 115 minutes. Rated R.

Plot: Charlie Kaufman (Cage) struggles to write the very movie that you’re watching.

What an odd movie. It is based on real people, and its plot is basically the story of the movie being written. Very meta. Nicolas Cage’s funny and sad portrayal of the Kaufman brothers is very good. I think many people will dislike the film and many will think it is excellent. I am torn. I want to appreciate its quirky artsyness, but at the same time I wasn’t really entertained during the middle part of the movie (until it takes an odd turn).

Being John Malkovich was written and directed by the same people. I like that movie, and it was also quite odd.

Adult content: boobies; f-words; blood; drugs.

Overall: Give it a try. Or not.

Bonus Review: Jen’s Thoughts

Adaption. was strange and slow in the beginning. Nicolas Cage’s bald spots kept frightening me, and the overall fascination of the orchid was pretty silly.

I give it a “meh.”

Way Late Movie Review: Premonition

April 3rd, 2008

I’ve been watching a lot of movies that I never got around to watching when they came out. Out of boredom I’m going to review them here.

Today’s movie is Premonition (2007) starring Sandra Bullock (Speed, Crash, etc.) and Julian McMahon (Belthazor from Charmed). Directed by Mennan Yapo. 110 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Plot: Bullock jumps around in time during the week of her husband’s death.

Yeah, so this movie seemed like it could be interesting. And I guess it was. But it was a little slow and there were plot holes. The ending was okay, if not predictable, but they could have made it a little more believable.

The acting was fine, I guess. Oh, also Belthazor had my phone. I guess that’s worth a few points.

Adult content: No boobies; one f-word; a little blood.

Overall: Pass.

Bonus Review: Jen’s Thoughts

“I liked it.”

BSG Returns Friday

March 31st, 2008

In case you’ve missed all the commercials, the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica starts this Friday at 9:00 p.m. (Central). Additionally SciFi is running episodes all week to catch you up if you’re behind, and you can also watch full episodes at scifi.com.

Obviously this is a must-watch.