audblog audio post

audblog audio post

Job hunting really sucks. Well maybe just for me it does. I guess here is the equation to look at:

No expierence + No Degree + 8% Unemployment rate = no jobs for smiles

So yeah that is how that is going. Next on the agenda is just one thing. I was wondering do banks really think that they are gaing trust with my money by having a huge statue of two naked girls and a naked guy outside their building? I don't know about you, but nothing says how much I want to put my money in your bank by seeing a huge statue of naked people outside your building.

That is all.

per brendan's request, i'm posting this here besides my blog.

Ric and I checked out this little diddy on Saturday, and I must say I ended up enjoying it. And he did TOO!! But if you go, just remember to get PAST the first 20 minutes and everything will get better. The first part of this movie was too much. The costumes were overdone, the hair, the makeup, the sets... I was starting to regret that we paid to see it. Everything was just over-the-top in a bad way. But once the movie started flowing, they stopped trying to emphasize that the movie was taking place in the 60s and things started rolling along.

Renee Zelwegger. Hmm. What can I say? I don't think I like her. I noticed that in every scene she has with Ewan McGregor, HE steals the scene. In the song they sing for the credits, HE takes the harmony. All the great scenes of the movie involve McGregor and David Hyde Pierce (who plays the basic Tony Randall-sidekick character to the lead male role). The pair were great. Despite how stupid the line, they'd make it work. Zelwegger couldn't really pull her part off very well. I just don't think she's that good. And you know, I hate to get superficial here, but the lead female is supposed to be a sexy woman, but Zelwegger is so bony it makes you wince. Actually, they even put such horrible makeup on her that her eyes looked even more squinty than normal, so that when they took a picture of her smiling and used it as a billboard, it looked like she had just been sucking on a lemon. Anyway, sorry I got distracted.

Despite the never-ending background music, I learned to like Down With Love. The two male roles really held the whole thing together. I liked how it paid very obvious homage to Doris Day movies by including such features as electronic apartments with switches to turn on music and switches to turn the couch into a bed... as well as the plotline of a playboy pretending to be an innocent midwestern man in order to seduce someone. I also liked the Tony Randall bit part. Funny idea. It had a lot of innuendoes that one could either be offended by or find funny or cheesy. I found them funny and cheesy, and just let myself have a good time.

Overall, I can't recommend or not recommend it to everyone - I can tell Down with Love is probably a hit or miss movie. Either you'll have a good time, or you'll feel tortured every second you're looking at the screen.

p.s. I thought it was very funny when Ewan McGregor was changing and the 30-something ladies behind me started giggling uncontrollably. Apparently our skinny little Scottish Renton has become quite the sexiful star.

People! We need to be posting more so there is more white than red on here! I can't be online every day so I am requesting my fellow blog team members to step up. Ah well, I'll do my best. Since no one has fast internet out here I'm on a sever Strong Bad depravation. I just bought The Stand DVD, which is awesome. I read the whole book in like two weeks in honor of the recent SARS scare. I'll talk about it more when I have more time. I must go now, so hope everyone is doing okay. Later.

Okay, so we are ordering bridesmaids dresses through a shop in Redlands called An Affair to Remember. Cheese name, I know. But the shop was nice. Judi and Erika and I were able to meet up with Becky, who was helping her sister move just half an hour away. We ordered dresses for those three, and now Grace and Jenny need to order theirs. We saved about 50 bucks by going there because their price was slightly cheaper, plus they give 15% off for parties of 4 or more bridesmaids.

I also bought my veil for $19 plus tax!! It happened to be just what I was looking for, and on sale. Rock on. I just might add some sparklies on it.

Ric and I are pretty sure we're going to get all our food at Sam's Club. They have good prices on bulk stuff. By the way, we need to start buying our mudslide mixes there. SO much cheaper!!

What else... We're ordering invitations this week. I've finally figured out everything I want, and Ric and I have finally chosen the wording. Yay. I'll probably order tomorrow.

We've picked a restaraunt for the rehearsal dinner. It's an Italian place in uptown Whittier.

Oh, and we're doing candles for favors. We got a good deal online for some little glasses and candles, and we're going to decorate them with more stuff on the outside of the glass. We want to use them as a part of the table decorations at the reception. RED RED RED. We want to use as much red as possible. I'm determined to serve only red fruit: strawberries, cheries, raspberries, and red grapes. It'll look cool. I bought some multi-leveled tray thingies to display the fruit on. I think they're cute. CostPlus World Market is fun and a tempting place to shop.

I think tomorrow Grace and I are going to do measuring stuff at the church and reception place. Then we can go to the flower market and start doing practice decorations. Fun stuff!

Right now our focus: invites, rehearsal dinner reservation, rings, and honeymoon plans. By the way, I think we're leaning towards skipping Judi's wedding. Even SHE keeps telling me I shouldn't make her a priority over my honeymoon.

That's all for now.

Ric and I checked out this little diddy on Saturday, and I must say I ended up enjoying it. And he did TOO!! But if you go, just remember to get PAST the first 20 minutes and everything will get better. The first part of this movie was too much. The costumes were overdone, the hair, the makeup, the sets... I was starting to regret that we paid to see it. Everything was just over-the-top in a bad way. But once the movie started flowing, they stopped trying to emphasize that the movie was taking place in the 60s and things started rolling along.

Renee Zelwegger. Hmm. What can I say? I don't think I like her. I noticed that in every scene she has with Ewan McGregor, HE steals the scene. In the song they sing for the credits, HE takes the harmony. All the great scenes of the movie involve McGregor and David Hyde Pierce (who plays the basic Tony Randall-sidekick character to the lead male role). The pair were great. Despite how stupid the line, they'd make it work. Zelwegger couldn't really pull her part off very well. I just don't think she's that good. And you know, I hate to get superficial here, but the lead female is supposed to be a sexy woman, but Zelwegger is so bony it makes you wince. Actually, they even put such horrible makeup on her that her eyes looked even more squinty than normal, so that when they took a picture of her smiling and used it as a billboard, it looked like she had just been sucking on a lemon. Anyway, sorry I got distracted.

Despite the never-ending background music, I learned to like Down With Love. The two male roles really held the whole thing together. I liked how it paid very obvious homage to Doris Day movies by including such features as electronic apartments with switches to turn on music and switches to turn the couch into a bed... as well as the plotline of a playboy pretending to be an innocent midwestern man in order to seduce someone. I also liked the Tony Randall bit part. Funny idea. It had a lot of innuendoes that one could either be offended by or find funny or cheesy. I found them funny and cheesy, and just let myself have a good time.

Overall, I can't recommend or not recommend it to everyone - I can tell Down with Love is probably a hit or miss movie. Either you'll have a good time, or you'll feel tortured every second you're looking at the screen.

p.s. I thought it was very funny when Ewan McGregor was changing and the 30-something ladies behind me started giggling uncontrollably. Apparently our skinny little Scottish Renton has become quite the sexiful star.

This week's Chester of the Week is Danny Elfman. I'm on someone else's computer so I couldn't get a picture. Danny Elfman is the man when it comes to film scores, working on almost all of Tim Burton's movies and many others, including Spiderman. Oh yeah, and he was the lead singer of Oingo Boingo. He also was the voice of Jack in The Nightmare Before Christmas. So yeah, he's a Chester. Did I mention he did the main theme for The Simpsons?

Well, today I played basketball. It was at the club I go to work out at. I did pretty well in the first game I played I scored 4 or 5 points out of eleven for my team. Second game I played I did better I had 7 points, but I think I sprained my wrist about half way through. It stunk. So right now I am typing with just one arm. I am pretty sure it is just sprained, but it would suck if it was broken.

I am here at my friend's house on his laptop just chilling out. We just started watching Far From Heaven so I'm pretty excited about that. Actually, I'm excited about a lot of things. Today was a great day. I got two job offers. I got a check for two hundred dollars. I've been hanging out with a lot of cool people and just having a good time. We just played a game of the 20th Anniversary Edition of Trivial Pursuit. It's not quite as hard and a lot of the questions are a lot more relevant since it only covers stuff from 1992 through 2002. There are even questions about video games. So that was fun. I also got a package from my mom that contained a new shirt, new shorts, and a new pair of jeans. More coolness. I'm going to save the $200 and combine it with my birthday money to get a ticket to Cali. I'll also be heading out to Columbia and Hannibal for my birthday next month. So things are just peachy.

Here's a little trivia for you all. I bet Jeri doesn't even know this. I was watching the Say Anything Special Edition DVD and they talked about how Eric Stoltz (Some Kind of Wonderful, Pulp Fiction), who had a bit part in the movie, was also a production assistant. It's pretty odd because he was quite a celebrity at the time. No one really knows why he did it. So that's the interesting fact for the day. I also watched Forrest Gump again. I love that movie so much.

So now I'll update Chester of the Week. Hope everyone is doing well. Shout outs to everyone: Lauren, Luis, Becky, Josh, Roland, Honzo, Smiles, Lisa, Eric, Gringo, Jeri, and anyone I forgot. Oh yeah, and happy belated birthday to Gringo. Sorry I couldn't post it earlier.

audblog audio post

Dude, I'm still burping cajun chicken. I love Stubrik's food. I split a 12 oz. New Yorker and a cajun chicken with my friend Jon.

And plenty to drink! I crashed as soon as I got home and had the best night of sleep I've had in a while.

I also forgot I'm supposed to CHEW meat. One of my bites of steak got stuck in my throat and I had a little moment of not breathing. I tried to wash it down with some of my kamikaze, but that didn't help. I ended up spitting out the kamikaze and swallowing again and again and again until the meat finally went down. Heh heh.

Overall, this kicked the ass of last year's Meat Day, meat-wise. But I still prefer the vegetarian/seafood diet.

Pictures will follow someday.

Do you know what today is? That's right, everybody!

It's Morrissey's Birthday!!!
And when I say that, I mean it's

The 5th Annual International Meat Day!

Official International Meat Day Website

Yes, I'm eating plenty of meat to make up for last year's fiasco of only eating pepperoni pizza. What a letdown that was! So all morning I had been craving orange chicken from Chinese Taste (the closest thing to the university) and went out to the parking lot, and my mom had taken the car out to lunch! Doh! So I headed down to the Eagle's Nest and lo and behold, they were offering orange chicken! Too bad it was hideous. I've had bad orange chicken before, but this was disgusting. And the steamed rice was mush! I hate mushy steamed rice! I want to master the art of steaming rice. I want sticky, dry rice, dammit. And if I'm paying someone to make it for me, it should be made right!

But anyhoo, we're all heading out to Stubrik's Steakhouse in Fullerton tonight to snack on dead cows and chickens and whatever other dead things they offer there. Oh, and drink too. I skipped Irish night for this, so I'm going to be sure to have some Irish mints tonight. Are ya with me, grace! Woo!

Oh, and as for Morrissey, a little tribute to him:
In high school, listening to the Smiths made me realize that I wasn't alone in being alone. And someone understood exactly how I felt. Feeling awkward. Laughing at stupid little things in life. I don't know. Poetic, yet sad, yet funny things. I loved one line, "I look at yours, you laugh at mine." Heh. I don't know. Morrissey's lyrics were so clever. And his whole gimmick with gladiolas at concerts.. and all the nutty fans... I loved it all. I have seen the man in concert probably about 9 or 10 times now. And I'm rediscovering it all again ever since I put an old Smiths tape back in my player in the car. It's great. So happy 44th birthday, Morrissey! I know I blaspheme when I eat meat on your birthday, but you've gotta have a sense of humor in life, you know!?

"I know I'm unloveable, you don't have to tell me. Message received loud and clear.... I wear black on the outside 'cause black is how I feel on the inside. And if I seem a little strange, well that's because I am. But I know that you woudl like me if only you could see me... if only you could meet me. I don't have much in my life, but take it - it's yours."

TOmy hundies,

You people who know me know that I try to figure everything out. That is the only thing that really drives me, save winning basketball games and "me wife"(To be said in an IRISHaccent) Anyway, that is the only real aspiratioin of mine, to understand and to help other's understand. Now I am subjected to the Matrix and matrixRELOADED. Time for some hypothesisesism's:23....

1. Neo
Ok, so at the end of the movie, in the "real" world, after the Neb. was destroied, Neo said he could "feel" the machines, and when the sentiniel's attacked, he raised his hand and they shorted out. WHAT THE HECK?

a. Neo has "leveled up", which means in videogame speak, that after his new experiances he has learned new tricks and attained new powers. It could be that he is a human that God has selected to free the human race from bondage. Or, he could be the next stage in human elightenment. Since he has realised that you can manipulate the matrix, he realised that we/he can manipulate reality as well.

b. There are really two matrixes: The Matrix that the rebel's know about, and a superseding matrix, one that the forces of zion are "freed into" they think they are free, but they are just in an outershell of the overarching matrix.

c. When Smith tried to copy himself onto Neo, part of Smith's code got implanted onto Neo's mind. (Warning, high speculation ensues) Now it is possible that Neo stilll had more machinery implanted on/in his body from when he was origionally "plugged" into the Matrix. That, coupled with Smith's code, could enable him to sense and in a way comand the robots. Maybe agent Smith was high-ranking and an order from him would override other orders. Anyway, when Neo did send a self-destruct message to the attacking sentinals, it might have "burned" him, much like an overflow shock.

I am going to go with option C. I choose this one because A. is to hockey-pokey, and B. is weak writing in my opinion. Anyway, what are your comments?

Mother of the Matrix
Architect: "The first matrix I designed was quite naturally perfect; it was a work of art, flawless, sublime. A triumph equaled only by its monumental failure. The inevitability of its doom is apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being. Thus, I redesigned it, Based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature. However I was again frustrated my failure. I have since come to understand that the answer eluded me because it required a lesser mind, or rather, mind less bound by the parameters of perfection. Thus the answer was stumbled upon by another and intuitive program, initially created to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche. If I am the father of the matrix, she would undoubtedly be its mother."

Question/Problem Who is the mother of the Matrix?

a. The Oracle. Ok, at surface level, seems like the obvious choice. I mean she seems pretty good and figuing out human nature. She seems to have a "bond" with them, which would imply that she was indeed that intuative program that was designed to "figure out human nature. She seems like the most obvious choice, which quite natually makes me think that....

b. Persephone could be the mother. Durring her appearances, she seems very preocupied with human emotions. This lends to the idea that she is the program that "figured" out the solution to the problem. anyway....

Hack the Matrix is a really nice blogg discussing the diffrent theories...

Matrix Theories is a blogg that I am getting ready to ready, at surface level, it seems deeper

Architect: Hello Neo.

Neo: Who are you?

Architect: I am the Architect. I created the Matrix. I have been waiting for you. You have many questions and although the process has altered your consciousness you remain irrevocably human, ergo some of my answers you will understand and some of them you will not. Concordantly, while your first question maybe the most pertinent you may or may not realize it is also the most irrelevant.

Neo: Why am I here?

Architect: Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent in the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden deciduously avoided it is not unexpected and thus not beyond a measure of control. Which has led you inexcerably here?

Neo: You haven¡'t answered my question.

Architect: Quite right. Interesting, that was quicker then the others.

Neo: Others? (What others? How many? Answer me)

Architect: The Matrix is older then you know. I prefer counting from the emergence of one integral anomaly to the emergence of the next. In which case this is the sixth version.

Neo: Then there are only two possible explanations, either no one told me, or no one knows.

Architect: Precisely, as you are undoubtedly gathering the anomaly is systemic. Creating fluctuations in even the most simplistic equations.

Neo: Choice, the problem is choice.

Architect: The first matrix I designed was quite naturally perfect; it was a work of art, flawless, sublime. A triumph equaled only by its monumental failure. The inevitability of its doom is apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being. Thus, I redesigned it, Based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature. However I was again frustrated my failure. I have since come to understand that the answer eluded me because it required a lesser mind, or rather, mind less bound by the parameters of perfection. Thus the answer was stumbled upon by another and intuitive program, initially created to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche. If I am the father of the matrix, she would undoubtedly be its mother.

Neo: The Oracle

Architect: Please, as I was saying she stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly 99 percent of all test subjects accepted the program as long as they were given a choice, even if they were only aware of the choice at an unconscious level. While this answered function it was obviously fundamentally flawed thus creating the otherwise contradictory systemic anomaly. That if left unchecked might threaten the system itself, ergo those that refuse the program while the minority if unchecked would cause an escalating probability of disaster.

Neo: This is about Zion

Architect: You are here because Zion is about to be destroyed. Its every living inhabitant terminated, its entire existence eradicated.

Neo: Bullshit.

Architect: Denial is the most predictable of all human responses. But, rest assured, this will be the sixth time we have destroyed it. And we have become exceedingly efficient at it. The function of the One is now to return to the source allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry reinserting the prime program after which you will be required to select from the matrix 23 individuals, 16 female 7 male, to rebuild Zion. Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing everyone connected to the matrix. Which, coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race.

Neo: You won't let it happen, you can't. You need human beings to survive.

Architect: There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept. However the relevant issue is whether you are ready to accept the responsibility for the death of every human being in this world. It is interesting reading your reactions. Your 5 predecessors were by design based on a similar predication a contingent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species facilitating the function of the One. While the others experienced this in a very general way your experience is far more specific, Vis a vie love.

Neo: Trinity

Architect: Apropo, she entered the matrix to save your life at the cost of her own.

Neo: No

Architect: Which brings us at last to the moment of truth, wherein the fundamental flaw is ultimately expressed and the anomaly revealed as both beginning and end. There are two doors, the door to your right leads to the source and the salvation of Zion, the door to your left leads back to the matrix to her and to the end of your species. As you adequately put, the problem is choice. But we already know we you are going to do don't we? Already I can see the chain reaction the chemical precursors that signal the onset of an emotion designed specifically to overwhelm logic and reason. An emotion that is already blinding you from the simple and obvious truth, she is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness.

Neo: If I were you, I would hope that we don't meet again.

Architect: We won't.

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Testing my men!

Yes.

Well, I sort of feel like I'm in a bit of a slump. I've got so much to do, and I just feel like nothing's really getting accomplished. It's really hard only having one afternoon a week with Ric to actually go DO things. The rest of the time, I'm dragging along Grace or Erika. Grace and Jon are being so helpful. Without them, my plans would be nothing.

So here's the update with Judi's wedding: she's decided to get married on October 18th after all, which is exactly a week after our wedding. This pretty much screws up EVERYTHING. We were thinking about going to Venice, but now we wouldn't have a decent amount of time. If we get married the 11th and set out on the 12th, and we have to be back and driving to Tahoe on the 17th, it just doesn't work. Judi says, "Oh, I understand if you want to take your honeymoon and I can find someone to fill in for you." But come on, I can't not be in her wedding. So now we have to basically take two mini honeymoons, and can't think of anywhere enticing to go. We're not too hot on the basic California vacations. I don't like the idea of the Carribean, and Europe takes too long to get to and come back. We can't do the honeymoon later because of our work schedules. This sucks.

In other news, I think I'm going to buy ALL our food at Sam's club. You kids will be eating fruit, crackers, cheese, and you can put together sandwiches from rolls and little deli slices. I'm also considering buying vases for centerpieces at the 99-cent store. And we're very close to ordering invitations and bridesmaids drseses.

That's all for now. Right now I have a headache, I'm tired, and I need like a week to work on stuff.

Hey everyone. Just checking in. Things are going good out here. I have a couple job prospects but right now I'm just chilling out in my new pad. I have to go over to the church office to use the internet though. Leaving the dorm was actually a little bit harder than I thought. Saying goodbye to Jared and Ryan, two guys who graduated, was really hard because who knows when I'll see them again. Then as I was leaving in my car and waving to Jeremiah I felt like I was in a movie. The perfect song was playing. It was the chorus to "The Scientist" by Coldplay:

Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh take me back to the start

It was just one of those odd moments. It reminded me of a time when I used to write out song lyrics and one night I was writing the lyrics to "With or Without You" because they reminded me of this girl. That night I went to bed listening to it in my CD player. When I woke up it was playing on my alarm clock. Then I was in a rush to get to school and wasn't paying attention when I crossed the street. I almost got hit by a car. As I looked, I noticed it was her car and on the radio was "With or Without You". It was one of the craziest things that ever happened to me. I thought God was giving me a sign or something. Nope. I'll check in as much as I can, hope you are all having a good summer.

Dallas was down by 18 points in the first half Monday. No matter. Between hitting 49 of 50 free throws and Dirk Nowitzki scoring 38 points, the Mavericks pulled out a stunning 113-110 victory in Game 1 of the West finals.

Well...

I made it back home about 3am sunday. And I am alive. YAY!!!

Umm... not much else, but I just want to say I am awesome!!!!

audblog audio post

So of course, we went to see The Matrix: Reloaded on Friday. We had Jon and Joanna save spots and tickets for us. They got to put our names down on a list like V.I.P.s, so we felt special when we got there. We saw it at the Century Stadium 25 in Anaheim. It made me think of the good old in the ghetto days with you kids. Anyway, we took up a whole row with Jon, Grace, Joanna, Ruth, Ric, Me, Fred, and a few other guys whom I didn't know.

The movie:
Basically, I think the first portion of the movie was incredibly dull. I don't care if it WAS exposition and showing us a little bit about the actual city of Zion. It was boring. The "orgy" scene everyone made a big deal about actually seemed pretty much just like any rave scene you see in any other movie, and the "sex" scene was much more tame than I imagined. They all could have been shorter, not for content's sake so much as for how long they dragged. The other thing I didn't like was how it definitely can't stand completely alone as a movie. It's definitely number 2 in a trilogy, and doesn't feel whole when presented by itself.

But I pretty much disagree with everything else people complained about. I didn't think it was overkill - it's the Matrix. We went to see it because it's filled with lots of action, special effects, and interesting ideas. And we got action, special effects, and interesting ideas. Some people may choose to pick on it for the little things, but if you look at it overall, I guess I'd say that I liked the first more, but I still found this one entertaining and not as over-indulgent with its philosophical conversations as people made it sound. Just take it for what it is.

Osama Bin Laden singled out Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan as targets for 'martyrdom operations' in a chilling audio tape issued only three months before the latest string of bombings...

Peace out fella's. I am off to see the matrix again....

H-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-hundie JO!

Looks like Spiderman is gonna move to second place on the list.... Check it out here.... (Which I by the way, like)

You know those season finales of television shows where everything seems to happen at the same time, to the point where you scoff and say "That's so bogus!"? Well I no longer doubt that. This past school year has been one of those times where everything is happening at once and it's come to a head this past week or so. Let's recap: Grace and Jon get married, Roland and Becky move to Arizona, Ric and Jeri get engaged, Nick and Moe have a kid, Phil and Janelle get engaged and married, I get the R.A. Job, and now Josh and Wendy are going to have a baby. It's insane. I'm turning 23 next month and every day something happens that makes me realize I'm not a kid anymore. I'm graduating next year. So is my brother. People are leaving here from school that I'll probably never see again. This blog is over a year old and all of us are scattered to the ends of the earth now. It's amazing how much things change, but through it all friendships, real friendships, really can remain. I sit here in this now empty dorm room and it's actually kind of depressing. As much as I'll be glad to get away from this place for the summer, it's just kind of sad how things keep changing. So anyway, I'm getting ready to put my computer in my car. This will be my last post from room 102 in Lang Hall. I'll try to phone in some posts in the next few days. Have a good one everybody.

The folks at StumbleUpon have come up with a new tool called TipBar. It's a bar that appears at the top of your site that features a link to a related site. Basically it's a really smart link exchange program that is easy to manage. I'm really interested, but I'd like to get your input on whether or not the bar is too intrusive or annoying. Check it out here and let me know. Thanks!

The new forums are up. If you had an account on our most recent board, you will be able to log in normally. The only thing you might have to mess with is your profile and avatar settings. I'll probably have the rest of the emoticons working sometime next week. So take note of the new URL:

http://brendoman.com/forums

Wow. This is insane.

San Antonio: 110
Los Angeles: 82

So long Los Angeles. Your time is over.

The CGI was very good, but for a movie of this caliber, there were quite a few scenes that you could really see the CGI generated charcters. But I know how hard it would be to do the scenes without the over-use of CGI. Anyway, it was the only area where I was disapointed, albeit ever so slightly....

Here is where my socks left my feet and returned thier natural state, which is off of my feet. I loved the development of the story, the mythology, the twists and turns. I don't wanna reveal anything about the plot, but I really respected where they took the story. And it had that Empire Strikes Back down tone at the end. My favorite area.

Smith - Enigma, Rebellion of Lucifer...

Neo - Next Level, at the end, is there a 2nd matrix? Did agent smith impart him with some new ability when he tried to clone him? The next stage of his "savior" development? (Did God really send him?)

Morpheus - THE MAN, he has kajona's of pure diamond. The man knows how to work a crowd, fight, speak really cool, and steal will smith's wife with a walking away one-liner. My favorite Character by far.... It will be interesting to see how his faith copes in the third movie....

Trinity - Love story deepens, gets some heroics, not really sure what to say here. Just seemed like she went in the background a bit.

Newbies - Loved them. Added more depth to the world

Twins - I read somewhere that they are really computer viruses, that are trying to infect neo, and in doing so, will threaten the matrix itself.

Slightly and I do mean slightly overdone. However, I did love them. (Sorry for the Sikesness of that coment)

Unanswered Questions -
1. What happened at the end with Neo? See above for plaualities
2. Why would all the people plugged into the Matrix die again?
3. Did 2/3 of all the people watching the movie get lost when the arcitect was speaking?
4. What is the state of the Oracle? Is she now a fugative, or is she still manipulating the humans to the matrix's end?
5.

Two of the best ever....

I was in such a wacky state last night that I forgot to do a once over on the trailers shown before The Matrix Reloaded. Well, here you go. Yet another trailer for The Italian Job. I don't think it will be too spectacular, but with Ed Norton and Jason Statham in it, count me in as well. I pity the man who has to sit through Legally Blonde 2. Call me a sucker for cheese, but I'm a tad excited that the dream match is actually happening. Forget Hogan vs. Andre, it's time for Freddy vs. Jason. The new Terminator 3 trailer looks amazing. Did I mention Claire Danes is in this movie? I still want to know how they are going to get past the fact that they obliterated the existence of Cyberdyne Systems and the Terminators in T2. The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise, looks somewhat interesting. On a side note, when I was verifying the title of this on IMDB I discovered that Mission Impossible 3 is in the works. I don't know how I feel about that. That's all the trailers I can remember. Nothing huge. Hopefully we'll see a Return of the King trailer next month, maybe in front of The Hulk or something.

Wow. That pretty much sums it up. I'm going to go easy on the specifics because I know a lot of people haven't seen the movie yet. We can talk specifics later. We'll start off by the one flaw brought up by a lot of people that the CGI is very evident. You know it's CGI. I don't think it matters. This movie is amazing. The fight scenes are indescribable. The multiple Agent Smith fight scene is breathtaking. The Twins are so stinking cool. Morpheus is the baddest man on the planet. The story gets extremely interesting and a little difficult to follow at times, but there is a whole movie left. I think some of the crowd forgot that or didn't know it, because it seemed like a lot of people were mad at the cliffhanger ending. That's too bad for them. There was a pretty nifty trailer for The Matrix Revolutions at the end of the film. I enjoyed it. It was a little long, but it didn't really matter. I'll definitely see it again. I give it the ultimate:

out of 5 Dancing Strong Bads.

Make your own here, if you have Acrobat Reader.

I've turned the Side Blog into a link dump. I'll be posting random links there from time to time, so check it out.

Now this is stinking cool. Movable Type wizard Brad Choate has redesigned his site with a Matrix theme in honor of the release of The Matrix Reloaded. Wish I'd thought of that....

OH MY GOSH. I'm reading Tolkien's The Return of the King right now. Normally, I like to wait until it gets closer to the movie release date, but since I've got a lot of plans going on right now, I figured I should read it while I can. When I first started out, I was reading a few pages at a time. Now when I pick it up, I'm reading 50 pages at a time because I don't want to put it down! I just finished the battle on the Pelennor fields.. WOW. I can't wait to finish this book. It's amazing. Tolkien's language is so rich. Even the songs are filled with literary greatness in the use of alitteration and sounds. I love it!

According to this, Microsoft has announced that the X-Box will now be sold for $179.99. This is good news because Sony will surely follow suit and maybe a price war will happen again. I'm in the market for a new system in the fall, and right now I think I'm going to go with a PS2, but I'm not 100% sure yet. Any thoughts on the subject?

My goal is to get the board running today, but that might not happen because soon we are going to start playing some Unreal Tournament and then tonight we are seeing a 10:00 sneak preview of The Matrix Reloaded. Sweetness.....

"Hack up a lung" day. Yes that is right it is allergy season, and we are all feeling the effects. Sunday was "feel really sick" day. Monday was "blow the mucous out of your nose" day. Yesterday was "snot coming out of your nose like a fountain so you always have to get a new tissue" day and today is "hack up a lung" day.

So happy Hack Up A Lung Day!!!!

Andrew and I went to see The All-American Rejects tonight at The Blue Note for Andrew's birthday. Before I talk about them, lets run down the two opening acts.

The first band was called Limbeck. They were okay, but they were trying way to hard to look cool on stage and fit in with the other two bands. This was confirmed when we listened to a sampler CD they handed out and the two songs of theirs on it sounded really different and better than they did live. I give them:
out of 5 Dancing Strong Bads

The second band was called Wakefield, but they should have been called Blink 182 Wannabes #2923. They weren't very good and they screwed up a lot because they were trying so hard to look good and act cool the mostly Jr. High and High School aged crowd. I give them:
out of 5 Dancing Strong Bads

Finally we have The All-American Rejects themselves. They played all 11 songs on their album. The crowd was going nuts. It got pretty crazy. Some girl got thrown up to be crowd surfed and didn't get caught and ended up landing on her head. She ended up being okay though. Everyone went nuts during "Swing, Swing", even though I think it's one of their weakest songs. They came on stage to Danny Elfman's Beetlejuice theme, which was extremely cool. It was stinking LOUD. The lead singer was quite a character. I wouldn't really categorize these guys as Pop-Punk, because they have way more depth than that. This can really be seen by comparing them to the previously mentioned Wakefield. Also, the lead singer had a Flying V bass, which was really cool. The only thing that disappointed me was that they used a track for their keyboards and other misc. instruments instead of playing them live. Other than that, I really enjoyed the show. I give them:
out of 5 Dancing Strong Bads

Update: Okay, that's it. I'm closing the comments on this entry because of all you fan girls. We are not the All American Rejects. I don't know them. I saw them in concert and I wrote about it and now I have to put up with all your crazy comments. Would you just listen to yourselves? You sound like crazy stalkers.

This week's Chester of the Week is Bruce Campbell. This guy has Chester written all over him. He played Ash in The Evil Dead Trilogy, for crying out loud. He also has written an excellent book. I've had the pleasure of meeting the man in person, and he really is a cool guy. He talked to me like I was a pal he was shooting the breeze with. His Q&A session was great and he had some hilarious stories to tell. The guy delivers lines like no one else. He's a fantastic actor. He actually takes the time to respond to his e-mail. For these reasons, and many more, Bruce Campbell is definitely a Chester, and his recognition as such is long overdue.

Okay, I've come up with a new ratings system for everything I rate (concerts, books, movies, DVD's, etc.) based on Honzo's "Eh Steve" rating. It's the Dancing Strongbad rating system.

= Craptacular
= Okay
= Good/Great
= Fantastic
= Amazing. Chester worthy.

I miss them. I really like a lot of stuff from then, but oh well they are over, and I must live on with the rest of my life. Of course just because I like the early 90's doesn't mean that I hate everything from a later date, because there is still a lot of cool stuff now.