Superman - he's up, up, and sorta coasting...

So the deal is done. I just got back from the 10:15 showing at Tinsel Town, and it was quite interesting. My companion for the screening was Ryan (yes Rob, he's still alive, and he says Hi!). Luckily, we guessed right and few kids were there.

First, tons of previews and commercials (why am I paying $8.50 a ticket with all the subsidies from those, again???) instead of the old slide shows with muzak. The weird thing was that the volume was CRAZY low. To the point where I called the front desk and asked if there was a problem, but no, that's just the "new thing."

Anyway, after Ryan commented about a Spider Man 3 trailer, and I said it was way too early for that, they showed... (wait for it...) yup, the SM3 trailer. Lots with the black organic uniform and Venom (is that Brock - I dunno, I don't read comics). Looked VERY BADASS. Was awesome to see the suit start to melt onto Peter. I wonder how they'll play it, as the original comics (thanks Google!) say that he got the uniform on another planet. Hmm...

ANYWAY... Back to SR:

The movie was interesting... Exact same start/end titles and musical scores. That was cool, and tied it back to S1 and S2. Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor was RIGHT THE HELL ON. 'Nuff said. The plot was OK, but there was too much romance to it. The Lois with a kid thing was a bit iffy. I have to say the actress who played Lois (who was in Blue Crush, that chick-surfer movie I want to see) did a good job. Also commendable was Supes himself. He did a great job of differentiating Clark from SM acting-wise. While the ending was a bit deus-ex-machina, it was still a good movie.

To my shock, this was neither horrible nor mind-blowing. I'd give it a 7-8/10.

One more day...

One more day to go until Superman time! They could really polarize this film to the ends of the quality spectrum. It's either gonna rock, or be terrible. I can't see it finding a middle ground.

I am satisfied with Bryan Singer directing it. He did, after all, kick some azz on X-Men 1 and 2.

A little morning golf

Andrew and I hit the links this morning for a nice round of 18. Sanctuary was the host of the round, and it was pretty good. Starting out somewhat early at 9:30 was odd, as the greens were waterlogged, and you could feel them speeding up every hole until #5.

Did I mention the girls working the clubhouse today? WOW. The brunette was quite possibly the perfect body. Sadly, the face did not live up to standards, but easily an 8, maybe a 9 on a dark night. The blonde was not bad either.

We both played pretty poorly and I ended up with a 99, and he had a 97. It amuses me that just 1 year ago, I'd have been happy with that. I could easily have broken below 90 if I had played even mediocre. My putts were actually pretty decent, which helped big-time. (Or as Andrew put it, "you have one shot on each hole that totally saves your ass!"). Personally, I loved my chip in for a bogey on #6. Got me out of a bad situation.

Time for more golf soon!

The Cult of David

Brent and I realized that we are in a cult. Our "positive thinking" (Appreciative Inquiry) class is based on material by someone named David. The Waco cult was headed by David Koresh. Coincidence? I think not.

The PC Desktop of the future

I know I'm gonna take lots of flak from my buddies on this one, but I really think this shows a very intuitive paradigm for computer use, especially for the more non-technical users among us.  I could totally see my Mom getting used to organizing files and a desktop this way.

Go to the site, and be sure to click the YouTube lo-res preview to get a quick idea.  You can always do the high-quality streams if you really want.

BumpTop Prototype - HoneyBrown.ca

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The coolest USB drive ever.... for SATAN.

This is beautiful, for the sicker among us.  A cute little teddy bear!  Awww.....!  Now, let's YANK HIS HEAD OFF AND PLUG HIS BODY INTO A COMPUTER!   Aaaaaa!!!!!!


USB teddy bear holds data, scares children - Engadget

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VMWare oddities

He says it's not useful, but I beg to differ!  Good VMWare tip...

Failed Sandbox Peer Launches (or Something) | The Dumping Ground

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Virtual CD-ROM for Windows XP

In case people were not aware (most are probably not, as this is well-hidden), Microsoft offers a tool to mount ISO images to virtual drive letters. It is very small, and low-footprint. It's nice for mounting a drive without installing heavy apps like Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120%.

How to use the Windows PE image that is included with the Microsoft SMS 2003 Operating System Deployment Feature Pack to obtain Windows PE source files

Or try this:
Direct Link

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Major Vista UI Issues...

... are shown in this awesome list by Chris Pirello. It scares the heck out of me that the same font dialog box from Windows 3.1 is STILL in Vista. It's a sheer travesty that it is in 2000 and XP as it is...

Router Hacking

I just finished loading DD-WRT onto my Linksys Wireless router. The only question to debate now is whether I trust it enough to replace my frontline router, or to continue to use it as a "second line of defense."

I must say, running cron jobs on one's $80 router, is pretty d@mn bad@ss!!!

Blogging from Word “12”

Ever since Stacey mocked me (and rightfully so) for not updating my blog when school got hectic, I’ve turned back into a blogging beast. OK, not the blue kind from X-Men 3: The Atrocity.

So now Microsoft Word 2007 lets you post directly to your blog. I’m not sure if this will actually work, and how it will look (since it’s using the new Calibri font that NO ONE will have)… Ah well – gotta try it!

I just realized she is gonna kick my ass over that comment. Aw, crap. :(

Sony UX-90: Get ready to sell your left nut

Dynamism.com - Next Generation Japanese Notebooks and Electronics

Can anyone deny that this is the coolest damn thing ever made? It's a full-fledged PC with WiFi, 2 cameras (one facing you, one facing out), keyboard, fingerprint reader, mouse, and god only knows what else.

Membership to the club of the Geek Elite is not cheap, however, at a price tag of around $2100.

Why does everyone just LOVE Google?

TechCrunch » Blog Archive » Google to add Albums to Picasa! And I Need to Vent

It's a valid question.  Everyone seems to need a damp towel everytime something is released, to say nothing of innovation or the complaints that Google products/services are perpetually in Beta, like Google News which has been in beta since 2000.

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What, me sleep?

Just a quick thanks to Lea for assisting me with a sleep deprivation experiment to find out exactly what 2.5 hours of sleep can do to the human psyche.

Not zesty, but I'll let her off with a warning this time...

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Give it to Andy.... he'll eat anything!

Andrew actually tried the Coke Blak. And he liked it. That goes to show that there's just no accounting for taste. ;)

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Must.... sleep....

Thunk.

Once you try Coke Blak you never go back...

So Billy, and others, had expressed interest in trying Coke Blak. I had seen it on the shelves at our local Giant Eagle, but had no idea what it was. (For the uninitiated, it is apparently Coke with coffee flavor. Yeah, yummy.) I bought a four-pack over the weekend (for FIVE D@MN DOLLARS), and brought it in for us to try out today.

Well, I can report that it does, indeed, taste like coffee. The question we are left with is "WHY, DEAR GOD, WHY?!" Luckily, we narrowly avoided the group hurl. Very narrowly. The phrase best used to describe it was "Pure Filth." The best thing about it - rather the only good thing - is that it apparently has the caffeine content of two cups of coffee. Anurag was flipping out after having it, so maybe there is truth to it. Or, maybe he's a ninja. Regardless, I found a way to make Andrew try it tomorrow morning.

I will provide details of the pain and suffering he endures tomorrow.

National Spelling Bee on TV

For the first time, the final several rounds of the National Spelling Bee were shown live on Primetime Television last night. The coverage included the top 25 spellers and also showed little bio clips on each of them. It was pretty cool, and somewhat nostalgic.

The scary thing was looking at some of the word etymologies. One of them went from Persian to Turkish to Greek to Italian. Now that is some scary shiatsu.

Online Again

After the extremely busy semester and work period the last 3 months, I am glad to say, that I am back online and blogging once more. I will be backfilling some major things, such as my visits to Microsoft HQ in Seattle, as well as some fun new toy purchases.

Also note that I am testing the use of a new browser called Flock that has integrated blogging support. Seems pretty slick, and I will be putting it through its paces over the next few weeks. For an early beta, it seems pretty darn solid (watch it crash after I say that!)...