i m N s h o

(From WordSpy : Birther . Deather . Truther .) 3 synonyms for moron? Let me just observe that Google's spell-check recognizes all three words. (Yeah, I know… nearly two months without a post and I come back with something snarky? All I can say is that anyone who's surprised by this probably hasn't read much of my blog.)  

(Or, a lesson in not judging a book by its cover.) Lately I've been having a tough time finding something to read that holds my attention for more than a couple of chapters. Apparently I'm jaded when it comes to science fiction and nothing new has captured my imagination. Vampires, one of my stand-by genres, have been taken over by Romance and YA authors (with a few notable exceptions), and werewolves and other things that go bump in the night have been dragged along with them. (Zombies seem to be immune from the romance infiltration, presumably because it's tough to make the shambling, mindless undead sexy… but zombies have never been one of my favorite tropes, so that doesn't do me much good.) There have been some interesting books in the dark fantasy area… The Blade Itself and Iron Angel come to mind, and Interred with Their Bones was a great read as well (think of it as a Shakespearian DaVinci Code). But scattered amongst those books, I've started and stopp...

Three movies in two weekends is hardly surprising for me… I love going to movies and will indulge pretty much any time I get the chance. Finding only one out of the three that I really liked is a lower average than I usually manage, however. I wasn't terribly surprised to find Jennifer's Body lacking (pun intended). Reviews have not been kind, and its ranking on Rotten Tomatoes simply reinforces that impression. Sadly, it starts out well enough, but by the midpoint of the movie (about the time you find out how Jennifer becomes the demonic creature we've been watching for the past hour) the movie starts to collapse under the weight of its own irony. Evil indie rock bands and over-the-top frothy formal gowns left me wondering why I was wasting my time. By the time it dug itself out of the depths of its ironic indulgence, I was over it all. But I was surprised by my reaction to The Informant . Reviews for this one have been much better (no surprise), and Matt Damon...

I'm really rather impressed by the almost universal misunderstanding of " 9 ". 9 - Rotten Tomatoes Even the reviewers that liked the movie seem to find the plot uninspired, or the characters lacking in, well, character. Comparisons to Terminator 3 abound (apparently no one's able to find any other post-apocalyptic reference point), and there's more than a few references to the movie's inappropriateness for younger viewers. (A stunningly insightful remark, he said, with only the faintest whiff of ironic condescention.) As far as I'm concerned, nearly every one of them is missing the point here. 9 was never intended to be yet another kid-friendly CGI romp in the park. The themes are dark and the content arguably adult in nature (fascism, the end of the world, death and loss and destruction, etc.). The movie is allegorical… a fairy tale similar in nature to Watership Down (or, for the more eclectic amongst us, The Cockroaches of Stay More ). The ch...

I am an obsessive reader. I hate not having something to read when I'm standing around waiting, or when I'm doing something relatively mindless like eating. I always have a book or magazine in my backpack, and my PDAs and phones have been a godsend in recent years. But, in times of desperation, I've been known to read the backs of cereal boxes and other household paraphernalia. (This is how I discovered my favorite warning label EVER on Kellog's 100% Natural Cereal, a warning to the unsuspecting cereal lover to "chew carefully while enjoying this unique cereal." This, of course, is due to all the whole grains, fruit and nuts of which the cereal is comprised). Sometimes this leads to unexpected discoveries, as in this case with the disturbing notion that I could be an unwitting felon today. I cannot remember the context, nor what I could possibly have been doing which prompted me to read the side of a traveler's size pack of Kleenex Anti-Viral tissues t...

I'd never heard of Delia Bacon prior to reading Bill Bryson's " Shakespeare: The World as Stage ". There's a chapter towards the end of the book where Bryson talks about Delia, and her obsession with Sir Francis Bacon… the man she believed to have written Shakespeare's works. Turns out that, prior to Delia's ravings (she was eventually institutionalized for her obsessions), no one had ever questioned Shakespeare's authorship, so all the debate about "who wrote Shakespeare" can be laid at Delia's feet. (Bryson is none too impressed with Delia, and dismisses her postulations, observing that during her travels in England, she never once actually visited any location connected to Bacon, instead choosing to commune with nature to help her find answers to the 'mystery' of Shakespeare.) Speaking of Sir Francis brings me to Interred with Their Bones , a sort-of Shakespearean DaVinci code, where Sir Francis and Delia (as well as the earls ...

Gotta love sensational headlines like this one: Gamers Are 35, Overweight — And Sad, CDC says About the fifth paragraph in, the article notes: "The study, based on a 2006 online survey of 552 people … who were living in the Seattle-Tacoma area of Washington state …" (Emphasis is mine). Pardon me for noticing, but isn't the Seattle-Tacoma area known for its above average per-capita depression rate? So perhaps releasing findings that state that your survey subjects are depressed might have something more to do with the overriding prevalence for said depression, than any influence gaming might have on them? Far be it from me to disagree with the CDC, but god am I tired of "well meaning" doctors and bureaucrats bemoaning the evils of videogames without bothering to have the goods to back up their claims. (There was yet another "learned man of science" on the radio Friday, talking about his concerns about addiction in World of Warcraft who prefaced his rema...

Gotta admit, it's hard to disagree with this list: Moviefone: Worst Blockbusters Ever The only one I might quibble about is the DaVinci Code. Calling it one of the worst blockbusters ever is almost giving it too MUCH credit. It was a mediocre, forgettable take on a pretty decent book, but "worst ever" anything seems like hyperbole to me. But the rest of that list? I think they nailed it!  

Am I alone in seeing the name Subaru WRX , making the cognitive leap from "WRX" to "wrecks" and thinking "wow, what a bad name for a car!"? At the very least, it seems an inauspicious association. Kind of a " Bummer of a birthmark " moment, you know?  

Bacon seems to be undergoing some bizarre cultural renaissance lately. How else can you explain bizarro products like bacon-flavored salt, bacon-flavored vodka, bacon-flavored mints and bacon-flavored diet coke? A quick Google search is bound to reveal countless other ways you can infuse bacon into your life. It's like we've all suddenly rebelled from all the 'healthy diet' rhetoric that's been flouted for years (rhetoric that few of us are paying any real attention to) and have embraced, once again, the notion of pork fat. But have you SEEN this thing ? That's Taco Bell's new Cheesy Bacon Potato Burrito. Available for a limited time only, they assure us… presumably because it will soon begin to kill off the unsuspsecting among us, those naive or clueless enough to think you can get away with eating one of these things without consequences. I thought the thing was spectacular when I first heard the radio spots, but then I saw a TV ad and realized the magic t...

It's possible Eve was right when she asked me what I was going to rant about after Bush left office. My rate of posting has certainly declined, and most of the time it's been pretty "safe" stuff… I certainly haven't gotten involved in any long debates about "the Digital Macarena", "SyFy" or the "2010/010" question, for instance. Admittedly, I've been stupid busy at work of late, and less inclined to distract myself with blogging in the middle of my lunch break (assuming, of course, that I'm actually breaking for lunch these days). And then there's Facebook and Twitter for those quick WTF kind of posts I've done in the past. But still… Excuses, excuses, right? Which is not to say there haven't been a few things that have piqued my interest lately. To whit… President Obama and the Cambridge Police My first reaction on hearing Obama's "The Cambridge Police acted stupidly" comment was to think how refres...

I've never been particularly… fond of the Sci Fi Channel. Partly it's due to the name. I've spent enough time reading science fiction, and reading about science fiction, to know the difference between Sci-Fi (a generic term used mainly by those unfamiliar with science fiction, or those relatively new to the genre) and SF (as it's generally referred to within the science fiction community). By calling itself the Sci Fi Channel, they put themselves on that broad, lowest-common-denominator shelf that network TV always seems to aspire to (yes, even cable networks). Maybe they thought too many people would see the SF Channel and think it was a channel about San Francisco. Whatever. What I saw was a deliberate decision to cater to the broadest demographic they could reach… which didn't bode well for the type of programming we could expect from them, right? (Obviously, that's what television networks do… they have to reach as many eyeballs as they can so they can pay ...

Bernard Madoff gets 150 years in prison I'm just wondering if giving Bernie Madoff a 150 year sentence is supposed to feel like justice has been served? At his age, wouldn't a 20 year sentence amount to the same thing? (You're gonna die in prison, Bernie. Enjoy.) Not that I think they were too harsh on the guy. Just seems kinda pointless.  

Due to the nature of the business around here, we're ALWAYS talking about stuff happening in the future. In the past few weeks, I've lost count of the number of times I've heard someone refer to something happening "in '010'. And I've just gotta ask, is it REALLY that much easier than "2010"? This isn't just me being anal here… '010 is meaningless! It only "makes sense" because this is 2009. 2008=08, 2009=09, 2010=010. But one look at that should show you the flaw in that logic. If you accept '010, then this year would have to be '009, and that makes even less sense than '010. To put it another way, if this were 2109, we'd never have this discussion. It wouldn't occur to anyone to even think next year is '010, because there's no extraneous zeros to add into the date. (2108='08, 2109='09, 2110=... '10!) I will acknowledge that '10 doesn't exactly flow off the tongue ("We'll ...

The Chris Brown/Rihanna trial starts today. News reports state the defense may argue that she started the fight, hitting him first before he retaliated. Have you seen the photos of Rihanna, post-beating? I just want to know what playground these jackholes are living on where "she started it" is an acceptable reason for beating the crap out of a woman. Here's hoping they throw the book at Chris Brown. And I hope it's a large, heavy book. With lots of sharp edges.  

A couple of weeks ago, Joel McHale (The Soup) referred to Twitter as "…the digital macarena." An amusing observation, with more than a touch of truth to it, I think. I can't remember the exact statistic (so I may be misquoting here), but I recently heard that something like 2/3 of new users on Twitter never log in again after their first month. I wouldn't be surprised by that number, frankly. I'm not terribly active on Twitter, but that shouldn't surprise anyone that knows me well. I signed up a couple of months ago and I've tweeted a few times, but haven't felt any real compulsion towards keeping it up. Let's face it, I'm not really into 'sharing'. I mean, I quit wearing t-shirts that said things because I found it encouraged random strangers into thinking I wanted them to strike up conversations with me. (Trust me, I didn't, and I don't.) It's debatable whether the "what are you doing NOW" nature of Twitter is re...

You know, it's kind of gratifying to hear the President say the same things you've been thinking (and saying) for years. Obama vs. Cheney: Contrasting views on the war on terrorism President Obama: Brutal methods like waterboarding… undermine the rule of law. They alienate us in the world. They serve as a recruitment tool for terrorists and increase the will of our enemies to fight us. As for Cheney's comments, while I make it a rule never to agree with our former VP, I can make an exception in this case. Former VP Cheney: …when the moral reckoning turns to the men known as high-value terrorists, I can assure you they were neither innocent nor victims. The fact that I don't support the use of waterboarding, "enhanced interrogation" or torture doesn't leave me thinking terrorists are victims of anything but the consequences of their own agendas.

Now, before you go organizing that lynch mob, bear with me while I explain my theory. As any of the Mac faithful will (vehemently) inform you, Apple makes some great technology. The Mac is an excellent computer with a stable, impeccably user-friendly operating system (as a PC user, trust me, I recognize the value of that statement). It loves video, photographs and audio and Apple's brought a sense of style and design to personal computing which makes a Mac an attractive addition to your office, as opposed to the boring beige boxes that were the norm for so many years. The iPod and iTunes have revolutionized the way people listen to music. (Yes, there were other MP3 players before the advent of the iPod, but Apple's the 800 lb. gorilla in this space.) I'm a convert and will no longer even consider listening to CDs in my car. The iPod is an elegant piece of tech, and the iPhone has, seemingly single-handedly, transformed touch-screen technology into something organic, intui...

I just saw that S. Darko , a direct-to-DVD release sequel to Donnie Darko is coming out this week. I have to ask, "How?" And, perhaps more to the point, "Why?" Without having seen the movie, I can hardly speak to its quality (or lack thereof — though its direct-to-DVD status should say something), but it seems like the first movie pretty much covered that particular story, and any sequel has got to be stretching it to make a connection to the previous one. Maybe it's just me looking for logic where commerce is involved. But did Donnie Darko really do that well (cult status notwithstanding) to justify the "cashing in on the DVD market" approach? One has to wonder. (Although, judging by the prominently displayed "Donnie Darko 2-Packs" I guess we must assume "yes".) Reading the IMDB synopsis, I can get an idea of the "how," though that certainly doesn't address the "why." And it doesn't leave me with any g...

'cause it can't be spoken about without the attending panic, of course. My favorite headline of the week… Scientists see this flu strain as relatively mild Take a deep breath, everyone, and step away from the abyss.