King Kong Trailer... Trailer

Why am I seeing commercials for the trailer for King Kong? We are now advertising... advertising. Yeah.

Fake News of the Future

It's the Onion in 2056. Best blipline? "Tokyo Police Quell Dance Dance Revolution"

Must... Control... Fists... of Death

The Supreme Court has lost its mind! (Here's the full opinion in pdf format). Does the Supreme Court really think that a local government, even one with the best of intentions, should have the right to take property from one person or group and give it to another? Here's a line from the majority opinion:

"Those who govern the City were not confronted with the need to remove blight in the Fort Trumbull area, but their determination that the area was sufficiently distressed to justify a program of economic rejuvenation is entitled to our deference."

Why?

"The City has carefully formulated an economic development plan that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including—but by no means limited to—new jobs and increased tax revenue."

Oookay, so if a farm isn't providing enough jobs and tax revenue, can the government take it away and let someone build a mall, an office park, and a high-end neighborhood with a park in its place? That's an "integrated development plan" (page 18) rather than a one-to-one exchange, but that doesn't mean it should be allowed.

Ugh.

Update: Jody's asking what you think the Worst Supreme Court Ever is. Taney was pretty bad, though the current court is doing it's darndest to compete. And now D.C. is jumping for joy over the decision. I bet the Richmond City Council could have some fun with this, too.

Update 2: Jody's arguments against the ruling. Because he had more time and patience to go through it than I did.

One Ship. Nine People. Whole 'verse.

There was a contest for tickets to the upcoming pre-screening of Serenity. Tell a Firefly story in six words. Winners got tickets. The title of this post was one of the entries, though not a winner. I personally like the one in the poster: "Ever fly in a Firefly? Wanna?" Small potential spoilers, I think, though I'm not sure. It could be I'm just not getting a reference or two. Also, I sense some bitterness about scalpers and Fox cancelling the show.

Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

...didn't make it into the top 100 movie quotes! I'm appalled! I'll have to train for seven years with ninja wizards so that I may lay my vengeance upon AFI!

Man, I'm hyper tonight. It was just a 20 oz Coke, honest.

Who's a Joker?

Dang, I'm already thinking of who could play the Joker in the next Batman movie. Has Johnny Depp ever laughed in any of his movies? After watching Pirates of the Carribean and the trailers for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I'm thinking he could pull off the Joker if he can do the insane clown laugh (yes, that's the second time I've used that link today. Sorry). That man is even scarier when he grins than he is when he's gloomy.

I can't find the full version of Joker's laugh that starts out as a deep, mad-scientist chortle and crescendos into the insane clown cackle. There don't appear to be many sound files from BtAS on the internet. So I guess I'll just have to settle for the "cackle" part.

Much as I love Mark Hamill's voice work for the Joker, I don't think he could physically pull off the role. So who's good at flamboyant, psychotic insane? Sorry, Jim Carrey. You were wasted on the Riddler.

More Media Scare Tactics

Quake Risk in the Heartland! There's a 10% chance that an 8.0 earthquake could hit the central U.S. sometime in the next 50 years! You know what else has a 10% chance of happening in the next 50 years? Me making a living off of voice acting and blogging. It might could happen, but guess what? I ain't holding my breath.

Now We Just Need to Arm It With Lasers and Teach It How to Fight

Star Wars tech is here! It can already operate in supervised autonomous mode. Next, we can put little lasers on it and teach it to shoot at a target. Then, we can take over the UNIVERSE! Laugh maniacally!

Quote of the Day - June 20, 2005

(House's) patient has a nasty swollen mark on his leg that House reacts to with an audible gasp of disgust as he quickly moves to the other side of the room. That's the reaction you really, really don't want your doctor to have when you show him something.

- Sara M. in her recap of the House episode "Paternity"

Killer Doors

There is a door from a stairwell into the room where my cubicle is. It will be the death of me. At least once a day, I will come up the stairs and approach the door, only to have it swing open toward me and barely miss hitting me. The person who opened the door will apologize because they didn't see me through the small window mounted just above my own (very low) eye level, and I go back to my desk, injury thus averted. Once, the door flew open with such force that it hit the wall loudly and bounced. Whatever he was feeling before he threw that door open, the man on the other side was horrified to see me standing inches from the path of the door. "I am so very glad you were not standing there."

The Slamming Door should be a weapon in Kill Dr. Lucky, worth 8 points in the stairwell.

Batman Begins Review

I think I need to see this movie again to be sure I liked it. You know, just in case. ;)

It was very dark with plenty of angst and moral quandaries. Just the way Batman should be. This is an origin story. As such, the movie spends a lot of time constructing back-story. How did Bruce Wayne become Batman? They put together a fairly plausible tale, though it does mess with cannon a bit to do it. But never mind that, they brought Lucius Fox! Finally! The previous movies never did much with Bruce Wayne, using him only to attend parties where he could find out things that Batman couldn’t. Here, we get a better look at him, his transformation into Batman, and his relationship to his father’s legacy (in several ways). And Michael Caine is excellent as the both humorous and caring Alfred. I’ve never read Batman: Year One (the comic on which the concept of Batman Begins is based), so I can’t say how closely it follows. But it seems to match the spirit of what I am familiar with as Batman (me being a fan of the animated series). I could have used a bit more dark humor, but whatever. Oh, and good news! No corny “Gee, you kiss just like… hey, you’re Batman!” Hooray!

Spoilery bits: (spoiler tagged) Drinking game: pick one of the following words: fear, injustice, or vengeance and drink when one of the characters says it. Drink soda or bring a designated driver. Okay, now that that’s out of the way. Each character in this movie has made decisions that place them on different parts of the spectrum between good and evil. Jim Gordon and Rachel Dawes are both good people working within a corrupt system. Gordon’s partner, Flash, has chosen to use that corruption to his advantage. Bruce Wayne and the League of Shadows both aim to fight injustice outside the system, but Wayne refuses to cross a line and kill. The League, on the other hand, is perfectly comfortably with killing to meet its ends. That, in the end, makes them just as dangerous as the injustice they claim to fight. Crane, interestingly, works both for the corrupted system and the League. It’s not always clear who’s on who’s side or even who’s who. (Nice switch on Ra’s; I kind of suspected it since I knew Ra’s was, at one point, a mentor for Bruce Wayne, and Liam Neeson’s character worked with Wayne much more than the fake Ra’s.)

I’m not sure about the parts where Bruce Wayne tries to be the billionaire playboy, particularly the scene in the hotel. He’s obviously not comfortable with the persona. Though it was pretty hilarious when he insulted everyone out of Wayne Manor (and the resulting headline, “Drunken Billionaire Burns Down Mansion”, was priceless). Rachel hit it on the head when she said that Bruce Wayne was really the mask.

The new batmobile is still fugly, and the chase scene was somewhat pointless (okay, I get he’s just getting started at this, but shouldn’t he be carrying the antidote with him?) But driving lying on your stomach sounds both scary and fun.

The batsuit is still good. I was actually surprised that they didn’t use the brittleness of the first batch of masks to accidentally reveal his identity. But now we know why he can go through lots of capes and cowls and never run out.

Okay, I’m ready for the sequel now. Let’s redo the Joker!

Mining Old Bookmarks

I'm at my parent's this weekend, using the computer that was mine until I bought my piece of junk Compaq. *sigh* Anyhoo, I've been going through some old bookmarks and found a couple of interesting sites.

Encyclopedia Mythica - Myths, legends, and other goodies. For a long time (way back when I was trying to write trivia questions for tournaments), this site seemed to be down a lot. But they must have moved to a new server because, not only can you access the site, they have tons more stuff up.

Book-a-Minute - Books deconstructed to their most basic elements and/or impressions. Some actually tell you what happens in the book. Others let you know what you'll feel when you're done.

Phobialist - Have a paralyzing fear, but don't know what to call it? Look it up here.

Internet Bumper Stickers - When I originally bookmarked this site, I remember these being little files you could attach to e-mails and they were free. They now appear to be selling them as actual bumper stickers. Squirrel! *swerve*

Easter Eggs - Hidden little nuggets in movies, computer programs, tv shows, and more. Don't forget to check out hidden DVD features.

It's time for bed now. Don't forget your bedtime story.