The DC speculators are convinced the Tim Kaine will be Obama's VP. Civil rights lawyer, law professor, new to high office (not a beltway insider). Sounds like a good fit. He's also pro-life, a Catholic and spent a year as a Christian missionary. That might help the ticket in some demographics. He was only elected governor in 2005, so that doesn't add a lot of experience to the ticket. My favorites are probably still Sebelius, Edwards and especially Richardson, but I think Kaine would be great.

After many attempts, I finally met Wil Wheaton at Comic-Con. He's one of the reasons this blog exists, a talented actor, and an amazing writer. If you haven't checked out The Happiest Days of Our Lives yet, I highly recommend it. I read the whole thing in two sittings. I also got a copy of his limited edition chapbook, Sunken Treasure, which I'm also almost done with. Thanks again, Wil, for being so nice and chatting it up with me. When I told him who I was he said, "You look exactly like I thought you would!" which made Phil and I chuckle. Even though I didn't get to meet Paul Reubens, meeting Wil certainly made up for that and then some. You can check out the rest of my Comic-Con pics here.

As is pretty well-known, I was mostly interested in seeing The Dark Knight because everyone else was talking about it. I did go back and re-watch Batman Begins this weekend, to remind myself of why I only liked it a little and not a lot. The good news is that I liked it slightly more this time around, although it already feels a little dated and there are still many clumsy aspects to it. To me, it feels like Nolan used the first movie to find his footing, and the second is the full realization of what a his type of Batman movie can be. I thought that all the talk of The Dark Knight would turn out to by hype, but to my surprise, it was much more of a movie than I ever would have expected.

Now that the obligatory origins story has been told and Batman has established double way of life, the movie can get straight to work with the challenges of one villain and the rise of another. I don't want to re-hash everything that I've already been reading online, because then I'll just be stealing ideas from everyone else. But what I liked about this movie was the way it felt so complete. There are villains, but they aren't just there to be antagonists to Batman (although one could argue that one is), they are also there to pose many ethical questions and force Batman and Gotham to answer them. While some may argue that Batman isn't given enough screen time, I didn't even notice, because the prominence of the other characters in the movie is what propels him to grow as a person and become more of a hero than he imagined he could be. He transitions from trying to save Gotham through force to saving Gotham through submissiveness as a scapegoat. I felt like the movie offered so much to ponder that I'll definitely see it again.

I love that the casting just keeps getting better and better. I was a huge fan of Gary Oldman and Christian Bale back in the day, so it was so exciting the first time around to see them in these roles. But to add Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart was a very smart choice. Both were growing favorites of mine, although neither were particularly prominent in the general audience's eyes. Both performers prove why they were chosen, especially Ledger, who definitely steals the show. It's a shame that we'll never get to see more from him. He was hardly ever given a decent script to work with, but always shone despite that. Thankfully, he went out with an iconic performance that will last in the minds of moviegoers for years to come. The only casting choice I didn't care for was Maggie Gyllenhaal. While she's a strong actress, her look doesn't seem to fit with the classic features of the other actors in the movie. It didn't help that she has a joker smile of her own (or is that somehow intentional?). She did a capable job, but I just wasn't sold on her.

The big question on my mind now is how Nolan will handle other villains in the Batman franchise, especially the more flamboyant ones (after all, the first few villains we have seen are relatively normal - a man, a painted man, and a facially disfigured man). Will he take the outrageous and dial them down to fit his more realism-rooted take on the world of Gotham, or will he try to find the more physically normal-looking villains who don't wear freakish costumes? I haven't read the comics, so I don't have much say in the matter, but from the animated series, Clayface was always the one who stood out to me. The depiction of him in that series was so.. gooey at first that I'm not sure I could see something like that fitting into the world that Nolan has created. We'll see.

Now, do I back down from my stance that WALL-E is the "movie of the summer"? No, but maybe there can be two movies of the summer. Each is so effective in its own way that I don't think I can choose one over the other. So that means everyone needs to spend at least $20 at the theater this summer. Okay?

Nickelodeon Puts Backcatalog on iTunes - AppScout

Nickelodeon today announced plans to sell a slew of new shows through Apple's iTunes video store. The children's network is making available a number of Nick Rewind "classics," including Rocko's Modern Life, Rugrats, As Told By Ginger, Hey Dude, Rocket Power, Clarissa Explains It All, and a handful of others.

No Pete and Pete, Salute Your Shorts, or You Can't Do That On Television, but this is definitely a start. I'm happy to see Rocko's Modern Life and Doug on the list as they were my favorite NickToons and of course I'm excited for Hey Dude. Since they only released one season of Clarissa on DVD I'm hoping we'll get more through iTunes. Maybe if they do well they'll even consider re-launching the DVD line and finally releasing the last Pete and Pete season.

Just a couple of weeks ago at our office birthday lunch, we were talking about earthquakes and how we haven't had one in a while. There are several people in our office who have never experienced one. Well now they know what it's like!

I guess I'm probably representative of native Californians. My first earthquake was the Whittier quake in 1986. I was so well trained for it because of school drills that I wasn't afraid, even at age seven. I don't remember anything about the Northridge quake. I do remember that one time, I was asleep and woke up because my bed was shaking a bit, and I thought, "Hmm, this one's not all that bad," and went back to sleep.

My office is on the middle floor of the administrative building, and I'm not near any walls or columns, so my floor shakes frequently. It feels like little earthquakes all the time. But today, the little quakes kept going and increased in strength. My 5-year plaque fell and must have flown a little bit (although I didn't notice), since I found it on the opposite side of my office with several scratch marks on it. My little Luigi fell and lost an arm temporarily. A picture frame fell. I didn't notice any of that. I stood up and thought, "What were we just talking about at the lunch? What did we decide is the best place to be in an earthquake?" Good thing it was a small one, because my brain didn't tell me to find shelter.

My co-worker and I both came out of the office with that "Hey, that was an earthquake!" look on our faces when it was over. All of us filed out to the lawn outside until security told us we could go back in. I think everyone is okay, but the first-timers were plenty scared. I hope they'll be able to see how it's really not such a big deal as nature's other methods of disaster, the tornado and the hurricane (which are much more frequent and often way more destructive).

Anyway, I hope everyone else is okay. We're thankfully all safe, and so is Ric!

Hulu - Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

If you missed the first release window of Joss Whedon's amazing Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog you can now catch it in its entirety on Hulu. They also have individual episodes available. They announced a fourth episode at Comic-Con and a DVD release is on the way.

The success of Dr. Horrible is also significant because Joss made it in response to the writer's strike. This is a great way to show the networks that they aren't as all powerful as they think. Even if you're not a fan of Joss or of musicals, you have to give Joss props for that.

I only had two bites when I advertised on the university email system, but thankfully, one of them was reaaaallly interested in Stray Dog. She didn't care that he is older and has a few issues. I'm really glad that we were able to help this poor, friendly dog. I'll kind of miss him.