Mini-Review: The Da Vinci Code

Saw the film last week. I had read the book a while back. Liked the book quite a bit even if the ending felt a little rushed to me. The movie? Same thing. It followed the storyline quite closely. I felt Ron Howard did a good job with the adaptation.

Some have said that Hank's performance was flat. My take on this is that he was playing a university prof. How dynamic did folks think he would be? My main beef with the film is the omission of saying what profession Sophie Neveu (Tatou) has. She was a cryptologist. She worked as an officer and decoded stuff as part as her job. In the film, re was only Langdon's ignorant Watson the whole movie. In my book, that's a wrong move. Other than that, the film was pretty good. I don't know why some critics are being so hard on it.

Funny thing - when we got out of the movie place, there was a pamflet on the window of our car from a religion group offering folks a chance to win $10,000 if we helped disprove the lies in the DaVinci Code book/movie. Then this past Saturday, I was at a wedding and when we walked out of the church, there was a sign on the community bulletin board advertizing a discussion on the DaVinci Code called Truth or pure fiction. Why are religious groups so threatened by this book. If I believe in something, why would some author's rendition of history have any bearing on what I believe in.

I give this one 7 Grails out of 10.

What kind of monster are you?

Annual Great Gleebe Garage Sale Report

Man I love big garage sales. I have said it before: one man's trash is another one's treasure.

How did I fare? Pretty good; here is what I found:

8:10am - Rush Hour board game ($3): This was the first thing I found. Cinthia and I had been thinking about buying this game for a while now. Complete, perfect shape and looks like a fun game.

8:45am - Quarto! Game ($1): Hummm... Another great find. This game is in the same collecction as Cathedral and Quoridor wooden games. It has won tons of prizes around the world. happy find but i was hoping that this would not turn into a board game type of day. You can generally find tons of board games in garage sales and although they are cool to find, it's not generally my main reqason for treasure hunting.

9:00am - Sony Turn Table ($5+$2): YESSSS! This is the find of the day in my book. I was looking for one in good shape for the last few months. Yep, hi-fi Artoo goes lo-fi... I love LPs... I can finally start hunting for cool records everywhere now. I found the turn table at a church and then looked in the bins and found 8-9 Lps for $2 (Michael jackson's Thriller, Gowan's Strange Animal, Brother's in Arm by Dire Straits, Peter Gabriel' s SO, etc...) Happy feeling! Spent a good 25 minutes looking in the boxes of LPs.

9:25am - Atari 12-in-1 joystick ($5): Although I have most of these games, this is a fun plus and play game that I can plug and...err.. play... anywhere I want. ;) Couldn't pass it up.

9:55am - Exotica Book (.50): When i was in Cegep, i discovered this great film by Atom Egoyan and I borrowed this book from our library 4-5 times in the year. It contains inverviews and the screenplay.

10:20am - 2 more LPs ($1): No more change so I had to pay for these with a 20 dollar bill. The guy was not impressed. :(

10:40am - How to play Guitar book, CD, DVD, CD-Rom ($2): Nice!!

11:05am - It's never too late to become a Buffy Fan book ($1): What can I say. It was a buck. The guy said that the author is a local lady. cool!

11:20am - Unfinished mitten (free): The paper bag I was carrying was killing my hands. I picked this piece of soft fabric to wrap around the bag handle. Ahhhh. joy!

11:45am - 4 Sesame Street figures similar to Smurfs ($1): A little girl was selling these for 10 cents a piece. I haggled and told her that I did not have any change so she had to take my looney. We were both pleased.

12:10pm - i call it quits as I have a wedding to go to at 2:30 with my cutie. All in all a very fruitful day and I made a few nice finds. Yet another successful trip to the Great Gleebe Garage sale.

New Design

As Summer is around the corner, i took a few minutes to give the site a new face lift.

Too much free time at the office? (push-pin art)

Check this out, this guy has talent... and too much time on his hands.

Vader calls in! (Robot Chicken)

Great Glebe Garage Sale : Find the Treasures!!

Each year for nearly two decades, thousands of people have flocked to the Glebe for the annual Great Glebe Garage Sale. This year's event is on Saturday, May 27, 2006 from 9:00am to 3:00pm.

When: 9:00am - 3:00pm. (While 9:00am is the "official" start time, sellers and buyers are usually out much earlier.)

Buyers: Given the huge popularity of this event, with people even coming from out of town, safety can be a concern. The Ottawa Police have observed that some streets become so congested that emergency vehicles cannot get through. Please help keep our streets safe by walking or biking rather than driving around, and asking your friends to do the same.

Bring cash: ATM machines empty out early, so bring cash to avoid disappointment.

Sellers: All participants are asked to donate 10% of proceeds to the Ottawa Food Bank. On the day of the sale, Food Bank representatives will drop off contribution envelopes to all participants.

Rain date: The Great Glebe Garage Sale goes rain or shine.

Weekender Report: 19-05 to 22-05

Seems like we have been a little more erratic lately with these posts. What can I say. Blame it on being away to BC for a few days, a visit to my parent's cottage last Sunday for Mother's Day and an all around state of "busy-ness" (like it? business, busy-ness...err, ok - nevermind).

Fri: Took the extra day off. I cleaned most of the day. House was a wreck. In the evening, Took Cinthia out to a nice Italian Restaurant on Metcalfe. T'was quite nice. We got drenched when we walked out of the restaurant though.

I made one little purchase pre-long week-end: New Super Mario Bros. for the DS. Wow! What a cool game! Definately worth the purchase. Coolest DS game so far. Well worth the wait. I shall do something special on this one later in the month. Stay tuned.

Sat: We spent most of the day out. Went to the hospital so see Luc and Isabelle's new baby girl. After a few complications in the last 48 hours, everything seems to be better now. Her name is Marguerite. Cute little bundle of joy!

Did a run to the store to get some food and such for Sunday night's get together. I went to HMV and splurged a little, picking up a bunch of TV Seasons on DVD: Batman Animated S1&2, Gilligan's Island S1, 2 & 3, Firefly and Arrested Development S2. They are having a great sale on some TV DVD sets. Many of these were $19.99. Go check it out.

In the evening, we finished watching a flick we had started a few days ago. I showed Cinthia the film Shaun of the Dead. She doesn't like horror films but I sold her on it by saying it was a parody of a zombie film. She enjoyed it and we laughed alot. What an awesome film! Definately one of my favorite comedies of the last few years!!

Sun: We finished cleaning up the place and had Miryam, Marie-Josée and their boyfriends over for some great pasta! A good time was had by all.

Mon: woke up late. While Cinthia went to work for a few hours, my Zombie-Fest continued. I watched Day of the Dead (1985).

Embrace Geekness! Come-on, These are sooo cool!

Yet another reason for the Cinful One to call me strange (if only I could get a dime for every time...)

In 1982 Tron was one of the first films to incorporate computer generated graphics. Over the years Tron has achieved an almost cult status amongst computer gamers around the world. The Stan Smith Comfort shows Tron himself on the tongue and his enemy the Master Control Programmer on the footbed. Black-turquoise.

Why hide your nerdiness from the world when you can walk around town in shoes inspired by that movie of movies, Tron? From Addidas and available in the UK for £65 (about $140 CND), these shoes—officially called The Stan Smith Comfort—won't give you special superpowers or anything, but then again, neither will that "Pwned!" shirt that you constantly wear. Apparently, the tongue shows a picture of Tron and the evil Master Control Programmer on the footbed, but you wouldn't know it from the pictures that Adidas supplied.

NHL Round 3 Playoff Predictions

Round 2 prediction:

East:
Ottawa-Buffalo: I took the Sens in 7 games. the speed of Buffalo was too much for them. Sens choke yet again in second round. Buffalo is the team to beat!
New-Jersey-Carolina: Brodeur was not a factor. Wrong again.

West:
San Jose-Edmonton: SJ in 6 games? Nope! Edmonton is hot. Wrong prediction.
Anaheim-Colorado: Ducks are on a roll. Good prediction.

1 out of 4. Not too sharp with this round.

Both Bufallo and Anaheim in 6.

--

For the Finals, I take Bufallo vs. the Ducks.

Upcoming Star Wars DVDs

Upcoming Star Wars Limited Editions (the ones you saw in theatres) DVD artwork has just been released. It is sceduled to be released later this year (9/12). Interesting how the box art is based of classic poster art.

Guitar Hero on a PC using your own music?

One of the coolest games to come out last year on the Playstation 2 is called Guitar Hero (Sequel in the works according to folks at E3). The only issue with the game is that you are stuck with the song selection on the game. This may be a problem of the past.

A former computer science student from Ottawa may have the solution. His Freetar Hero is already showing a lot of promise. The first part, a music editor, should be available soon. Follow the link to see it in action.

Guitar Hero review

Who do they really belong to?

I have a question about SUNshing Girls. While looking at this morning's Sun newspaper (gotta use this term loosly), I notice while reading news about the Sen's recent exit out of the Playoffs the SUNshine girl on the right page. On the bottom of the page, it read: Jim Wells’ SUNSHINE GIRL

If he the photographer? Her boyfriend? The guy who discovered her?

Pattents are a dangerous thing if not filed correctly or at the right time

Creative apparently decided since it couldn't beat Apple at its own game, it was going to sue the company into submission. Creative asked the US International Trade Commission to halt sales of all iPods and investigate whether Apple infringed on its Singapore-based patent covering Creative Zen multimedia players. Creative says it filed a patent on August 9, 2005, "for its invention of its user interface used by most portable digital media players."

But wait. The iPod had already been on the market for quite a few years by then. WTF? Creative says it owns menus on music players? Weren't there already menus on the iPod and hundreds of other music players by summer, 2005? When, oh when is someone going to do something about the sad and sorry state of copyright law in the US?

Mini Movie Review: 28 Days Later

Ahhh, the Zombie fest continues this week with 28 Days Later. Oh and what an interesting twist on the whole genre this one was. Rare are the good flick that build on how zombies came about. In this case it's more about a rage-virus than an undead state but it does qualify as a tale from the zombie lore.

Directed by the same guy who did Trainspotting, Danny Boyle, this films offers alot in the atmosphere department.

What's it about?
Anti-vivisection activists make a very bad judgment call and release an experimental monkey infected with "rage". 28 Days Later..., as the title has it, bicycle messenger Cillian Murphy wakes up from a post-traffic accident coma in a deserted London hospital, ventures out to find the city depopulated and the few remaining normal people doing everything to avoid the jittery, savage, zombie-like "infecteds" who attack on sight. (Amazon.co.uk.)

The scenes in the first third of the film really make this film in my opinion. Not much happens, yet so much is set-up through mystery. THe DVD also offers 3 endings if you're into that sort of thing. I have yet to listen to the audio commentary but the overall film was definately worth the 9.99 price tag at Rogers.

8 Dead Zombies out of 10. (Ehm... can there be a live zombie?)

DVDTalk has a cool list of what is in the film: Two zombie breasts. 1,008 corpses (give or take 58 million to 6.2 billion). Untethered wangdoodle. Rampant product placement. Multiple firesuit stunts. Ol' flat tire at the worse possible moment gag. Thumbs to the eye sockets. Gratuitous shopping spree. Gas station fireball. Oodles of civil unrest footage. Gratuitous dream sequence. Self-medicating. Flaming Michelin necktie. Angry amputation. Point-blank execution. Head crushing. Bloody kisses. Gratuitous skip-frame fast mo.

Only return stuff to Walmart!

"More and more, Americans are being caught in a dilemma: They love electronic gadgets with lots of bells and whistles. But they're also frustrated when they get their new toys home and find out they aren't easy to install or operate.

Half the products returned to stores are in good working order, but customers can't figure out how they work, says a recent study conducted at the Technical University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands. On average, American consumers will try for just 20 minutes to get a new gadget to work before giving up, the study adds."

What??? You mean to tell me that we actually return stuff that is in good working order? Nooooo. Funny how thay don't go into the whole "awful instructions" piece. Some of them can be real bad sometimes. My favorites are the translated ones. You can never count on those translators you know!

The arguments provided are okay, but impulse buying must also be listed as one of the main reasons why people return stuff (and i'm not talking abouy Palmer's X-Box he almost returned to a store a year later). The quality of the products is also often questionable.

Now I won't get into Ryan's scheme to become rich over BBQ covers... :)

Mini-Dvd Review: Turbulence des Fluides

Wow, what a movie. I picked this one up in Vancouver as well and watched it on my portable player in my hotel room. I was simply blown away. What a great, great film. It will most likely be in my top 10 at the end of the year.

What's it about?
It's the story of a sismologist living in Tokyo that is called back to her home town of baie Commeau to look into a stange phenomenon involving the ocean reef. She discovers other stange things are going on in the town and tries to piece it all together.

Great storyline, very good acting and a very good mystery.

9 earthquakes out of 10.

Mini-Dvd Review: Grizzly Man

What's it about?
Grizzly Man could easily have been sensational and exploitative, but in the hands of Werner Herzog, it becomes something extraordinary. Herzog was granted exclusive access to over 100 hours of video shot by amateur naturalist, wildlife advocate and troubled loner Timothy Treadwell, who spent 13 summers in Alaska's Katmai National Park, where he grew to know and love the grizzly bears that lived there. He was also killed by one of them, in October 2003, along with his girlfriend Amie Huguenard, and that seemingly inevitable fate informs every minute of Herzog's riveting combination of Treadwell's video with his own expert filmmaking and unique vision of nature and man.

My appreciation of the film: Cinthia, Martin, Anne-Marie and Myself watched this documentary last night not knowing what to expect. i picked this film up in Vancouver last week. All I had heard was that it was supposed to be good. I have been pretty lucky as of late with my documentary picks. This one was an odd one.

I can't say that we didn't like it. it was interesting. It was beautiful. it was intreaguing to find out what would happen next. We knew the guy was going to die but his descent into some strange sort of madness was a little hard to watch. It left us with many questions regarding his life choice for the last 13 summers of his life. Should he have been let there alone with these beasts? Did he get what he had coming? It's for the viewer to decide.

Rating: 6 grizzly bears out of 10

Mini-Dvd Review: Rush: R30 (Deluxe)

What's on the DVD?
The R30 Deluxe Edition 2 DVD & 2 CD set features Rush's Frankfurt, Germany concert in September 2004 near the close of their 30th Anniversary World Tour.

The performance was captured with 14 cameras in high definition and is presented in 16:9 widescreen format. Audio options include Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound or PCM Stereo.

Songs include the exclusive "R30 Overture" (an instrumental medley of "Finding My Way," "Anthem," "Bastille Day," "A Passage To Bangkok," "Cygnus X-1," and "Hemispheres"), "Xanadu," "Subdivisions," "Red Barchetta," "Summertime Blues" (from last year's covers EP Feedback), and the "vault" track "Between The Wheels" which hasn't been performed live in 20 years. The 2-CD soundtrack is not available separately. Another cool bonus: the 2 guitar picks with Rush logo and Lee/Lifeson signatures (replica of course)

My appreciation:
I loved the show. Rush has put out a second home-run of a spectacle after the amazing Rush in Rio 2 years ago. If you like the band, this is a must. The overture is simply astounding as the 3 musicians play many of their top hits in an intrumental medley that works as a song. As a bonus, they give you the condert on CD. I recommend picking up the Deluxe Edition as it has the CDs, booklet, guitar picks and backstage pass included. I bought mine used for $13 and feel like it is a steal!

Rating: 8.5 guitar picks out of 10

Artoo does Vancouver

Well, i'm finally back! I have been out in Vancouver, British Columbia for work meetings for the last few days. Nice weather! Beautiful city. Friendly people too. Around my meetings, I had some time to walkabout and discover the city which was a nice break.

I will try to do an Artoo Strip of my trip in the next day or so.

I see I missed a gread Palmer get-together this past w-e while being away. Oh - and the Sens lost a third game in a row! sheesh!

You know, Hermit the frog

(Earler tonight - Cinful One is looking at some digital pictures of toys on Artoo's computer)

- Cinful One: "He looks like the real one."

- Artoo: "Who?"

- Cinful One: "That one - Hermit!"

Artoo slaps his forehead.

E3 2006 Convention: Funny Bits

For those of you not in the know, E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) is the annual video game convention where 1000s of products are introduced to the world. it is taking place this week in L.A.

Booth Babe Protesters: Quite a stir was made before E3 when the ESA announced they were changing the rules to add teeth to their booth babe policies. Bikinis were out. Violators could be fined up to $3000.

Funny story: Women in skimpy clothing were found outside the E3 Convention center protesting the decision with signs that read, "Booth Babe Protest: I am rated "E" for Everyone."

Imagine our even greater surprise when E3 security showed up during our interview to force them off the premises.

Not for being in skimpy clothing, but for being protesters. In skimpy clothing.

"We want to have fun, too," said Niki Nicholson, one of the protesters, when we asked about the meaning behind their sign. "It's a good thing to hear a girl say that it is not a big deal to wear a bikini. It's an adults only convention."

Niki and her co-protester, Roisin Taylor, were not spontaneous protesters, but were actually hired by intellivisiongear.com to promote their after E3 party. The signs were a joint idea between them and their company to help attract attention.

It worked.

Mini-Movie Review: Broken Flowers

What's it about?
As the devoutly single Don Johnston (Murray) is dumped by his latest girlfriend (Delpy), he receives a anonymous pink letter informing him that he has a son who may be looking for him. The situation causes Don to examine his relationships with women instead of moving on to the next one, and he embarks on a cross-country search for his old flames who might possess clues to the mystery at hand.

My appreciation:
I liked this film. I love the recent roles that Bill Murray has taken as of late. He is just perfect for those roles at this time in his life. Story is simple and a little too even but the film works in the end. May not be everyone's cup of tea though. If you like introsspective storylines with dark humor and mundane reflections on existential questions related to one's life, then maybe this is for you. I would go as far as saying that if you liked Lost in Translation, you'll like this one. if you prefer ninjas and American Pie humour, maybe you should skip this one.

I rate this one 7.5 pink roses out of 10.

Mini-Movie Review: Control Room

What's it about?
A chronicle which provides a rare window into the international perception of the Iraq War, courtesy of Al Jazeera, the Arab world's most popular news outlet. Roundly criticized by Cabinet members and Pentagon officials for reporting with a pro-Iraqi bias, and strongly condemned for frequently airing civilian causalities as well as footage of American POWs, the station has revealed (and continues to show the world) everything about the Iraq War that the Bush administration did not want it to see.

How was it?
Yet another documentary that did not disapoint. Fascinating expose about the flip-side of amarican journalism during the first year of the Irak War. At a time when governments often control and spin news stories to their advantage, this was an fascinating piece to see. I highly recommend it. It was made by one of the co-directors of Start-up.com

I give this 8 headlines out of 10.

Mini-Movie Review: Thir13en Ghosts

What's it about?
When Dr. Zorba dies, he leaves his house to his broke nephew, who moves in with his daughter. With the house come two unexpected pluses (or minuses): the house has 13 ghosts which can only be seen with a special pair of glasses, and there's a fortune hidden somewhere in the house...and someone wants it. (Why did Zorba have so many ghosts? He collected them!)

What I thought:
This film reminded me of a cross between Cube, Hellraiser and a bad ghost story. It may sound a little worse than it actually was. The film did keep me interested the whole way. I can't say that there were too many scary bits. Some were a little over the top but the suspense element was a little weak. Visually it was pretty cool and the ghosts were quite well done. Unfortunately, the ending was a little bit of a letdown.

I give this one 5 ghosts out of 10.

Mini Movie Review: I am a Promise

What's it about?
Directed by Alan and Susan Raymond, I AM A PROMISE paints an unflinching verité portrait of the children of Stanton Elementary School in North Philadelphia, an inner-city neighborhood where 90% of the students live below the poverty line. As seen through the viewpoint of devoted principal Deanna Burney, the film shows Stanton as underfunded, understaffed, and filled with children struggling to overcome their difficulties. For these at-risk kids, the only hope for their future survives only in the success of their education.

My Review:
Highly engaging and thought provoquing - this great documendary gets you from the first few minutes of viewing the film. You feel the pain and sorrow that the principal and teachers go through as they try to give these young disadvantaged kids what they can - knowing very well what neighborhood they live in and what may await some of them in the future. Sad yet uplifting tale that is definately worth seeing.

Rating: 8 apples out of 10

Korean Scientists Develop Female Android

Scientists in Korea have developed the female android... also known as a "fembot". :) While the bot doesn't move it's lower half, it's face is actuated with a bunch of tiny motors that synch it's lips to speech and allow it to make eye contact while talking. They hope to have it able to walk and sit down by the end of this year.

NHL Playoffs: Round 2 Predictions

First round is over. Time to peeks ta my predictions. How did I fare?

TB-OTT = OTT (5) - OTT won in 5. Perfect!
MON-CAR= MON (7) - CAR won in 6.
NYR-NJ=NJ (6) - NJ won in 4
PHI-BUF= BUF (6) - BUF won in 6. Perfect!

Western Conference
DET-EDM= DET (5) - EDM won in 6
COL-DAL= DAL (6) - COL won in 5
CAL-ANA= ANA (6) - ANA won in 7
NAS-SJ= SJ (5) - SJ won in 5. Perfect!

Ah well... Got 5 series out of 8 including 3 perfect predictions on the number of games. Not too bad.

Round 2:

East:
Ottawa-Buffalo: I take the Snes in 7 games. I really fear the speed of buffalo.
New-Jersey-Carolina: I take Jersey in 6 games because of Brodeur.
West:
SanJose-Edmonton: It's going tp be hard to stop the Sharks. SJ in 6 games.
Anaheim-Colorado: Looks like the Ducks are on a roll. I give them the series in 6.

Doctors to drill Keith Richards's skull

SURGEONS plan to drill a hole in the skull of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and drain blood from his brain after he bashed his head in a tumble in Fiji last week.

The 62-year-old rock wild man hurt himself when he fell out of a palm tree at an expensive island resort.
Richards was originally diagnosed with mild concussion, but he continued to complain of dull headaches after he was transferred to a hospital in Auckland. Tests later revealed a small haemorrhage.

A British newspaper quoted a friend as saying: "Keith's accident has turned out worse than everybody feared. After the tests, doctors decided they should drain his skull. It has given him a scare but he's been told he should make a full recovery once it's done."

It remains unclear whether Richards' injury will have any effect on the Rolling Stones' world tour.

 

Artoo loves this invention: The Transparent Toaster!

Artoo is a sucker for a good piece of toast. Check this out:

This transparent toaster allows you to see the bread while it is toasting so you never surprised by toast that comes out too dark. This idea is based on the transparent heating glass featured in this issue. Although the glass does not currently get hot enough to toast bread, some day this application may be possible. The concept was developed by the Inventables Concept Studio.

Weekender Report : 28-04 to 30-04

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, wouldn't it be peachy if all week-ends were this sunny.

Caught-up on a little gardening. Cleaned up the whole yard. 15 minutes later (what can I say, i live in a condo), I split and moved some bleeding hearts plants near the back steps. Hopefully, they will survive the move. They should, they are pretty hardy plants.

On Sunday we went to the Masson flea market. I hadn't been there in years. Can't say it has changed much. As with all flea market, they have lots of dollar store junk for sale. I must admit that while I love garage sales and flea markets, i have going to ones where most of the stuff if new crap that one can buy in any ByWay or Giant Tiger, you know the tables where they sell 200 neon pink rubber shoes and loose granny underwear (yeesh!).

I made a few scores though. I picked up a few DVDs (what a surprise!): Six Feet Under Season 4 for 30$, Bubba Hoo-Tep (review below) and a dozen or so Asterix books (approx. 2$ each).

I also watched a couple of hockey games (Montreal lost 2 and the Sens made it through Tampa Bay. Montreal faces ellimination tonight against Carolina. If they make it through the first round, I have to say that they will get killed by the Sens - It won't be pretty. They are playing very bad hockey right now. One never knows though.

Been playing a really cool Nintendo DS game lately. It's called Brain Age. Really cool game. I have become addicted to Sudoku (which is included in the game).

Been brewing this idea lately of maybe doing a podcast or Videocast. Maybe the Summer is not the best time to start one of these things. We'll see how things go.

Artoo and Palmer Present: I heart Hollyisms!

http://hollyisms.blogspot.com/

In lieu of Holly entering a new part of her life (moving out of her old place), Palmer and I dedicated Holly's own shrine in Internet land: I heart Hollyisms!

This website will not just be populated by us, but by all of you who has a Hollyism to report! So if you wish to have access to the blog, get in touch with us so you can have the privilege of entering your own Hollyism into the databank!

This idea came from the poll that super_ap conducted on his website awhile back. You may find the poll results here.

Nintendo Gaming Revolution Called Wii

Nintendo announced this week that the official name of their upcoming console that we’ve all been calling the Revolution is going to be Wii.

I've read alot of posts on the Web where people are all upset with the name and are crying over it. It's just a name people. get over it. Is XBox 360 any better? I think not. Let's wait and see if this console is as innovative as it's rumored to be. I - for one will be happy to see someone go in another direction with a game console. Nintendo has done some amazing things in the past and this could be the next one. time will tell.

What is one to do??

I was walking on Bank street the other day and this person in a motorized wheel chair came zooming by and almost hit me. I just shrugged and said nothing. A little bit later on my way back from the store, this same individual zooms by again and almost hits the little old lady besides me. she looks at him, then at me and makes a face (I could have sworn that her expression said: WFT!!! - but little old ladies shouldn't swear so it must have been some other type of expression). I tried to make the same face looking in the direction thaht the wheeled crusader left.

Well today, as I was walking home, another person in one of those motorized buggies cut me off as I was about to cross the street. The man looked real mean too. What's up with that?!? I just don't get it.

Mini-DVD Review: Bubba Ho-Tep

You know the legends... Now learn the truth.

Okay, it's a film about the King vs the king of the Dead. It stars Bruce Campbell as Elvis himself. How can you go wrong. If you like bruce, cult movies, Elvis, Mummies and Special feature packed DVDs, you'll love this film. Do youself a favour and listen to the audio commentary with the King afterwards.. pure Bruce Campbell genius.

Based on the Bram Stoker Award nominee short story by cult author Joe R. Lansdale, Bubba Ho-tep tells the "true" story of what really did become of Elvis Presley. We find Elvis (Bruce Campbell) as an elderly resident in an East Texas rest home, who switched identities with an Elvis impersonator years before his "death", then missed his chance to switch back. Elvis teams up with Jack (Ossie Davis), a fellow nursing home resident who thinks that he is actually President John F. Kennedy, and the two valiant old codgers sally forth to battle an evil Egyptian entity who has chosen their long-term care facility as his happy hunting grounds.

Funny Facts: Only 32 prints of the film were originally made as part of a limited platform release. The Soul of Southern Film Festival, in Memphis, Tennessee, paid for a thirty-third print, so that they wouldn't have to wait any longer to show the film. Several other festivals and theaters paid advances in order to secure prints.

This film reminded me of a cross between Grumpy Old Men vs the Mummy Returns. Funny stuff.

Artoo Rating: 6 Elvises out of 10.

Kill Bill's Browser (Techie Humour/Anti-Microsoft)

Gotta admit that some folks really take this to heart.

"Interesting grassroots effort to get IE off of every computer in the known universe. These scripts essentially turn IE into a giant advertisement for Firefox and offers you a $1 referral fee for every person you convince to switch. Idealistic yet unrealistic?" (Gizmodo.com)