Monday monday

Bah-dah dah dah dah

This is going to be a short one, but I felt that there's some important Batman: the Dark Knight info to share. First being a look at Batman's new suit for the movie scanned from the pages of Entertainment Weekly. I'm sure it will be less noticeable or play better on the screen but I think the suit is looking a little too 'tech' if you know what I mean. That is always the downfall of so many Batman action figures, can never just leave him as the Batman, always have to make him Super Knife Fight Night Flight Batman with firing water canon or some other bullshit like that.

And now here's a look at the Joker's car for the new film. I think that it's awesome I can really picture the joker behind the wheel of it, and helps to capture the 40's feel that seem to keep running through the Batman stories, be it books or cartoons or films or whatever. That and I think that the car alone is pretty cool, very rat rod. Shit I'd drive it that's for sure.

Now it's no secret I still like to buy toys so here are some Biblical Action figures that I'm not sure I'd buy, but you never know. If they added Buddy Christ to the line up I'd surely pick at least that one up.

Now It's also well know that I'm not much for giftmas or its trappings, but looks like the people over at McFarlane Toys are punching out some giftmas figures that even appeal to the likes of me . . . might have to pick some of these up, or maybe just Mrs. Claus.

Well that's her for now, until next blog.

From the whodda thunk it files . . .

Today in 1920 the United States Postal Services ruled that children can not be sent via Parcel Post. To me this says that at the time there were enough people mailing their kids places that someone had to make an official ruling saying that you couldn't do it. I guess it's reassuring to know that people have always been lacking in common sense and that it's not just a something that's happened in the past couple decades.

Here's a good one from the UK the home of the increased airport security measures; I think that we all who travel have pretty much accepted that you cannot bring a drink through security anymore and most of us have understood for a long time that can't take a knife on board either (unless of course you're flying out of my local airport) but here's an article about a guy who's daughter had her pop taken away at an airport security check point, but he was allowed to bring a knife onto the plane that he put in the bin that went through the x-ray machine.

Don't you feel safer now? No need to worry about burping kids guzzling fizzy drinks on your next flight, but the knife wielding lunatic is a whole other matter. Here's to you airport security people, I tip my hat to you and your brethren. Honestly I took a knife through several airport security points, in several different airports, in a few different countries as well, but it was a tiny blade in money clip . . . but maybe I got away with it because it had the Masonic Logo on it?

Speaking of belching away on fizzy drinks, here's a clip from YouTube (where else) of the lovely (??) Cameron Diaz showing Jay Leno her mad burping skills on an episode of The Tonight Show. I don't know about you but I'm impressed, she's one classy broad . . . and no matter what you think of the belch you have to admit the woman has a great smile.

Oh and one for the BBC/Sci-Fi geeks; the new season of Dr. Who starts up Monday June 18 on the CBC, you know I'll be watching. And this season the Doctor gets a new travelling companion in Freema Agyeman. I'd say that she's got mighty big shoes to fill taking Billie Piper's spot on the series, but I said that about David Tennant taking over for Chris Eccleston and I think Tennant is doing a bang up job, so I guess that sci-fi geeks have to be a little open to change, especially in aseries about a time and space travelling being who regenerates in different forms, eh?

And a little bad news for the sci-fi geeks out there according to this article here the upcoming fourth season of Battlestar Galactica will be the last, don't weep fellow geeks, the American Sci-Fi Network is planning a two hour episode called 'Razor' to introduce the fourth season . . . and quite honestly this was a series with a definite goal or end to it, it only makes sense that it can't last forever and I'd rather have it end when it's still good rather than lying dying bloating in the sun like other series occasionally do.

And one last bit; as I mentioned yesterday I was going up to Wunnumin Lake for work and to kick it with Governor General of Canada. We might not have kicked it, but I did speak with her briefly. Here's the story from the Chronicle Journal about her trip to Wunnumin Lake. They had a a bit of ceremony and speeches as part of the presentation along with a few kids acting out the Legend of Wunnumin, or at least part of it. In addition to the CJ coverage there was also a Thunder Bay Television videographer there, and there's a brief video at their website but the only one found was just of the news reader reading some news no footage from the Community. I'll post the link later.

Until we blog again.

Leaving on a prop plane

Got a pretty good idea of when I'll be back again . . . should be around 6 this evening actually. I'm on my way up to Wunnumin Lake for the day to look at some proposed building sites and to kick it with Canada's Governor General, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean. But at least now I have a good idea of who it is.

Okay we probably won't be kicking it per say, but we'll both be there today. Yeah I'm a high roller fo' sho'.

Since I'm being worldly and helping the GG solve some problems today (like getting the excavator so we can dig some test holes) here's a link with some international flavour and import; a photo essay from Time entitled "What the World Eats" showing different families from around the world with a weeks worth of food in front of them and the cost of it. Pretty interesting I think.

And here's another article of international importance about how Chernobyl (site of the nuclear power plant disaster in 1986) has become a refuge for all sorts of wild life. The radiation levels are still way high bu the animals are flocking to the place; I guess it's because there are so few people and the animals don't mind an extra head or two or glowing the dark.

And since I have to take off to catch a flight and have put up a couple serious links this morning, here's one that's pure fun - Jimmy Kimmel playing "Guess What's in My Pants". Gee I should have tried this one Saturday night.

Well I'm off. Later.

What to blog, what to blog . . .

Well to start today is a good day for celebrity history; firstly today in 1936 Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian (I used to love reading the Conan magazines, especially the Savage Sword of Conan, I wonder if they still print them? Haven't read any of the novels though), commits suicide with a gunshot to the head, in 1962 Frank Morris and brothers John & Clarence Anglin escape from Alcatraz Prison (if you haven't seen it he the Clint Eastwood movie Escape from Alcatraz about this break-out is well worth watching), in 1979 the one the only John Wayne (the archetype for nearly every movie hard ass ever since, and honestly who isn't a a fan of the Duke? I still like watching John Wayne movies, even if TBS doesn't re-run the shit out of them anymore) died of lung cancer and in 1999 DeForest Kelly ("Bones" on Star Trek the Original Series or OST as it's known) died of a "lingering illness".

In other sad news, Edwin Traisman, the food scientist responsible for such great break throughs as the ubiquitous McDonald's french fry and Kraft's Cheez Whiz (here's Kraft's own Cheez Whiz site) died of a heart attack (what else? after all the man did create Cheez Whiz & Mickey D's fries . . . hmmmm now I'm thinking about putting melted Cheez Whiz on McDonalds' fries....mmmmm heart-attack-a-licsious) last week at the age of 91. You can read more about it in this article here if you like.

And finally I will leave you with the Weird Convertor, which is just as it sounds; it converts from one unusual or different unit to another, both lengths and weights, so if you were ever wondering how many pounds the average bowel movement is (0.4409 pounds) or how many Jennifer Annistons you'd need to make up one Right Whale testicle (10.02101181818 Jen Annistons BTW) this is the website for you. Which leaves me with the question, why were you wondering this stuff in the first place.

Man you people are weird.

Until next time.

SWEET!

Okay the short film entitled Sweet starring the two guys from the great BBC3 comedy series The Mighty Boosh (although I have to admit, I liked season 1 more than season two, but season 2 was still funny), Noel Fielding (Vince Noir, the King of the Mods, on the Boosh and Pete Sweet in Sweet) and Julian Barratt (Howard Moon on the Boosh and Stitch in Sweet) is definitely a must watch, it's on The Mighty Boosh season 2 DVD, which we watched last night, and man it was hilarious. You can check it out on YouTube here or at the BBC site linked earlier on.

Who knew that dating an imaginary bird would be so much trouble, and so funny?

So as I'm sure you're aware if you're a driver the price of gasoline is a hotly debated topic lately, well it has been for a while, but at least now with this website you can compare your local gasoline price to a snapshot of gas prices around the world here. If you're looking for more up to date localised gas prices check out the Ontario Gas Prices website, or whichever province/area you're in. I'll let you figure that one out on your own. Sioux Lookout still has the highest listed gasoline price in the Province. Go Us!

Road trip to Venezuela anyone? I wonder how large a tank you'd to pull to fill with $0.12 per gallon (roughly $0.03 per litre) gasoline to make the trip pay? That is of course if you don't mind Hugo Chávez and his politics.

I've got no good segue to go from gasoline prices to this one, but I'm sure there's some reference I can make to pumping or taking it up the chute, but no matter, here it is, Star Wars: The Boogie Nights edition. I thought it was amusing, and was amazed how well the dialog selected from the Boogie Nights (a fine film in its own rights, although I don't believe the writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson as I think the movie is at least loosely based on the life of John C. Holmes) trailer (at least I'm pretty sure it's the trailer) fit the video selected from the Star Wars films.

If you're interested in more on John Holmes check out the movie Wonderland (focusing more on Holmes' role in the infamous Wonderland Murders) or the documentary on his life Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes.

And in some great news on the geek front, according to this article Neil Gaiman is working on getting Death: The High Cost of Living up on the big screen. I tried checking IMDB for some information on the movie, but this screen came up telling me that I could only get at the information on that page by getting an IMDB Pro Account. Bollocks to that.

Hmmmm so we've covered some British Comedy, international gasoline prices, a rather infamous porn star and a movie I've been waiting a long time for? What's left to talk about? Yeah I'm stuck, so I'll leave you with this sweet t-shirt. Man if I worked at a video store I'd totally wear it. Maybe not everyday . . . but damn close to it.

Until next time

Yar Maties!

Well I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End on the weekend and honestly I enjoyed it. Was it a great movie? No way, not at all. Did it look good? Yes it did. Did it have so many poorly or not at all explained double crosses? It sure as shit did. Honestly I'm still not sure who swerved who and when. But no matter if you've seen the other two you might as well go see this one, if for no other reason than pirate monkeys and pirate midgets. Is there a better combination?

Anyway The Filthy Critic has a rather amusing review (as are all of his reviews) of the film here if you're so inclined to check it out. If you liked that one you might want to check out his archives to see what Filthy thought about your favourite flick.

I'm running short on time here so I'll sign off with this last bit; it looks like the people at the Silver Snail (former place of employment of Toy Goddess Supreme, and former Space TV celebrity, Sarrah Young (scroll way down for her brief bio)) on lovely Queen Street West in beautiful downtown Toronto have created another amazing window display, this time using Muppets characters to recreate the Battle of Helm's Deep from the Lord of the Rings and aptly entitling it Ham's Deep. Here are some pictures if you care to check it out.

What do you think? How does it stack up to the Battle of Helm's Deep made out of candy that I posted a while back?

Anyway I'm outta here.

Love is what I got

It was on this very day in 1996 that Bradley Nowell, front man for the band Sublime, was found dead of a heroin overdose in a room at the Ocean View Motel in San Francisco. This fact along with a few good catchy radio friendly songs have guaranteed Sublime's popularity for a long time to come, they still get regular play on Winnipeg's Best Rock and I'm sure that's true for other rock stations around the globe.

By the way today is Towel Day, and event created to celebrate the life of author Douglas Adams, best know for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (believe me the book was waaaaaaaaaay better than the Hollywood movie (although I did enjoy it, the great literal humour of the novel wasn't/couldn't be translated to the screen), even if it did have Zooey Deschanel in it, do yourself a favour and read it), and above all remember Don't Panic.

And now for something completely different; here's a sneek peek at the new Optimus Prime action figure from the good people over at RetroCrush. I have to agree that the figure looks good, not too far gone from the classic Optimus that I remember . . . will I buy any of the Transformers toys that are going to be re-released for a movie tie in? Probably not, I'm looking forward to the movie, I liked the comic and cartoon and the animated movie, but was never a Transformers collector . . . now Gobots, there's something that I might buy re-releases for, if only because they'll cost about $3 a piece if they hold true to the awesomeness of the originals.

Look it's a car that transforms into a car with the doors and hood open . .. . oooooooooooh aaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Anyway back to the Transformers movie, seems that Chevy has themselves some serious movie tie ins and not just having a 5th Generation Camaro featured in the film as Autobot Bumblebee, originally a VW Beetle, (I believe that a Ford Mustang is going to be a Decepticon, I think the one that used to be a tank, shit can't remember his name) there's also the Chevrolet Autobot Headquarters where you can create your own Autobot.

I'll sign off for today with one for the comic book geeks, here's a very good picture of the final/Mark III Iron Man armour suit from the upcoming movie, scheduled for a May 2, 2008 debut. Looks pretty bad ass eh?

And. I. Am. Outta. Here.

Just a quick one this morning . . .

As I'm flying to Kasabonika Lake for work on Wasaya Airlines this morning. I don't know why but the formatting went all wonky half way through my post yesterday, ah well let's hope it's not how things are going to be regular wise eh?

I'm sure some of you are not happy in your chosen professions, I mean what job is perfect? But in case you are thinking about snagging work under the golden arches here's some interview advice straight from Ronald McDonald himself to help you land that sweet McJob.

I told it was going to be short so I'll sign off with Bill Biggart's Final Exposures; Biggart was a photo-journalist who died under the rubble of the Twin Towers on 9/11, this website consists of the pictures that were on his cameras when they uncovered him. Pretty amazing really, something else that I'm sharing with you that I'm sure you'll want to share.

Anyway I'm off to Kas, don't miss me too hard.

Yaarrrrrrrrrrrrr Maties!

Did ye know that today be the 306th anniversary of the hanging execution than none other than Captain William Kidd in jolly olde London town? Although Kidd might have been more a Privateer than Pirate he was executed anyway and after the first attempt failed, the rope snapped, Kidd was brought right back to the gallows and the process repeated. After his death, Kidd's body was slathered in tar, chained up, and suspended over the River Thames where it remained for years as an example to others considering a life of piracy.

The dubious Captain Kidd is also strongly linked to the Oak Island Treasure down at the bottom of the Money Pit on Oak Island in Nova Scotia. All interesting stuff for sure, but will there ever be an answer as to what's at the bottom of the pit or who put it there? And one has to wonder how has been that with advanced techmology people haven't been able to get down the bottom of the pit that would have been dug by hand over 300 years ago? Just saying.

Anyway in something that's not pirate related at all, or at least not that I can tell, here are 15 Useless or Even Dangerous Eyesight Myths; all I can say is thank Gord for Myth #6, especially since it's still National Masturbation Month.

Here's a pretty spectacular website (okay the website isn't spectacular at all, but the subject matter is) entitled Running the Numbers An American Self-Portrait which features a series of photos by artist Chris Jordan that looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. The pictures are pretty amazing, the sheer scale of them will blow your mind, I know it did mine. I'm sure that website is something that you'll want to share with others; I know I did.

Here's one for the wrasslin' fans out there; it seems that a few weekends ago at a sports convention in Edison, NJ The Ultimate Warrior and the Iron Sheik were there signing autographs. When Warrior saw Sheik, he demanded that Sheik leave, saying that Sheik had talked badly about him in the past. Sheik got upset and acted as if he was going to go after Warrior, but Warrior called security and the situation was resolved (Warrior got the Sheik removed by security) here's video footage of the altercation.

Admire the car wreck beauty of an old tough guy who can barely walk and wears a fanny pack (not that fanny for the Brits out there) and Zubaz pants out in public and a rambling self obsessed madman have a shouting match in the middle of a group of fans. My research (okay Googling) has turned up that Zubaz Pants are no longer made but baggy pants in many different patterns from Otomix or Crazee Wear are still available.

Here's a quote from the person who posted the video on line:

"This happened 5/6/07 at a New Jersey sports show. When I was in line to meet the Warrior, the Sheik approached him and tried to shake his hand. The Warrior refused and said, "I'm not shaking a hypocrite's hand. You went around telling people I was on drugs. Get out of my face". At this point, I pulled my trusty digital camera out of my pocket and filmed the encounter starting at that point. The Sheik goes nuts, even decking one of the promoters! I heard that Sheik attacked him again as he was attempting to hide behind a table. Security tried to confiscate my camera as I was leaving, but I headed out the door before the police came."

Well that's enough from the washed up wrasslin' set; now onto something else of interest. It's no secret that I'm a big fan of cover songs, love 'em I do, but the fine people over at RetroCrush have compiled what they believe to be the 100 Worst Cover Songs Ever. As always the RetroCrush articles are top shelf and this one has links to listen to many of the songs, although I have to wonder how complete this list is or how honestly bad these songs are. I have to ask because I don't recall seeing any Cheryl Crow covers on the list.

Now don't get me wrong I realise Cheryl Crow is a talented, and rather attractive, lady but her covers are the worst I can think of in recent memory; if you don't believe me re-watch the Johnny Cash tribute show that aired after his death and suffer through Cheryl warbling her way through a June Carter song, recall her flat out butchery of Guns N Roses' Sweet Child O' Mine or weak attempt at Led Zeppelin's D'Yer Mak'er from Encomium: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin album. But it's all relative isn't it? I'm sure there are several people who'd disagree with me . . . you know now I'm thinking that I might have seen Cheryl Crow live once in Winnipeg at one of the all day outside rock concerts, I wasn't there to see her, but I'm thinking she was on one of the bills, possibly an Edgefest? at the Assiniboia Downs with Hole headlining or at the Bomber's Stadium? . . . aahhhhh my rock and roll lifestyle; can anyone clear this one up for me?

And finally in the interest of cyber safety & security I will leave you with this compilation of the Ten Most Common Passwords; as the site says if you see yours on the list you may want to consider changing ASAP.

Until next time.

Excuse me I have to go to tend to the moose herd

Whether we're Canadian or not I'm sure we're all aware of the common misconceptions and stereotypes about being from Canada, thanks to you Bob & Doug MacKenzie . . . although I have found that most Canadians enjoy the misconceptions and stereotypes, after all what's so bad about being thought of as the big friendly, albeit cold, neighbour to the North of the USA who does the world's peace keeping all while driving snowmobiles or riding on a moose in a plaid 'bush' jacket while wearing a tuque on and with a two-four clutched in mittened hands?

I think it's fair to say that the one to get a Canadian's goat while abroad is to accuse them of being an American. It's happened to in England & Australia; although in Australia I politely said "Actually no I'm Canadian, you calling me an American is like me calling you a Kiwi." They got it, no offense to New Zealand, in fact after watching Grindhouse I'm all fanboy for Zoe Bell, the greatest hottest female Kiwi stunt person I know of it . . . although I don't think I'd let her drive my car, it's just how they feel over there.

Anyway I don't think that Canadians should take any of it too seriously, I mean how can we when Canadian MP for Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont Mike Lake has called for Bigfoot to be protected under Canada's species at risk act. Seriously, I think . . . you can read about it here if you don't believe me. This my friends is our tax dollars at work, but it's funny you got to admit . . . unless he was serious about it, then that's funny for a completely different reason.

I bring this because I rediscovered an article about Canadian misconceptions, both about ourselves and other countries, you can check it out here. It's about as good as anything else linked from the MSN page that comes up after I log out of Hotmail.

But what does it really matter? After the world is a small place, or so we keep hearing. If you're curious as to how the Earth stacks up in size to other celestial bodies you can go to this website here where they do just that. I thought it was cool, but I'm a geek.

The world might be small, but it's still hard to get around to see all of it; out of the 25 places/things that the Times Online have listed as the 25 Wonders of the World I've only seen one of them, but I am baffled how the barrier reef at Belize made the list and Australia's Great Barrier Reef didn't, granted I haven't been to Belize, but I can't imagine it being better than what I saw in Oz.

This one keeps going on and on don't it? Anyway only a couple more things to post for today; Saturday night I saw Spiderman 3 at the Sunset Drive In outside of lovely Shelbyville, Ontario. I've heard mixed reviews of the film and a lot people didn't care for it, but I have to honestly say that I enjoyed it all the way through, and the 'strut' scene was awesome (if you haven't seen the movie you'll know what I'm talking about as soon as it pops up on screen); in fact it made me want to be a better jerk.

And what about the Heroes season finale last night? I have to say that I liked it, but it didn't really feel like an end to me, and I'm a little disappointed with it . . . but not enough to give up on the show, I'm just thinking that there has to be a better way to stop an exploding man than exploding him in the upper atmosphere and was thinking that there'd be more of a showdown or battle at the end, but hey I didn't write it and I am eager to know who is worse than The Boogeyman.

No matter I'll be back in the fall for more Heroes action, and in the mean time maybe I'll bide my time with the gear from Heroes Webstore; and you can already pre-order the Season 1 DVD's.

And today I will leave you with my new favourite condiment, Bick's Hot Pepper Relish, you should try some, it's got some nice flavour to it. That's it, I'm outta here.

I'm Batman

I'm sure you've heard by now, but there's a new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, slated for a July 18, 2008 (hmmm might have to travel to the city for that one) release with Christian Bale returning to reprise his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman who will in this film face off against his greatest enemy, The Joker, being played by Heath Ledger.

The fine folks over at Ain't It Cool News have put up a short write up with a photo (supposedly the first on line and defo the first that I've seen) of Ledger's Joker. The write up and pic are here and the pic itself is here. I think he looks pretty awesome (in fact it's now my new Windows Wallpaper), good and scary and I think that bodes well for another dark Batman flick, which it should be when entitled the Dark Knight, don't you think?

In some non-Batman related news, did you know that May is National Masturbation Month? Neither did I until I read this article here; bet you had no idea you were being part of a national movement when you were fapping away, did you? Apparently May 7 was National Masturbation Day, I guess it missed that one . . . well I can honestly say that I didn't know was celebrating a holiday. Also as part of NMM the Centre for Sex & Culture in San Francisco (where else?) is hosting a masturbate-a-thon to raise money for its sex education programs.

And just in case you need some inspirational material to help you with the remainder of NMM here are some nice black and white photos of Rebecca Romijn shot for a La Perla advertisement.

In case NMM isn't your style but you're more into candy & star wars, and I know some of you are, here's your chance to combine the two rather nicely with this nice instructional tutorial on how to make your own Carbonite Han Solo in chocolate.

With summer on its way and the May 2-4 pretty much done gas prices are climbing everywhere, in fact regular is as high as $1.28 per litre here in town (in fact according to Ontario Gas Prices Sioux Lookout has the 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th most expensive gas in the province, although I know this not to be true because gas is a lot more expensive (in some cases 50 cents a litre more) in some of the remote fly in reserves north of Sioux Lookout), or at least it was yesterday, anyway everyone is pissing and moaning about the price gasoline now, and there's no better way to garner political support than to say that you will do something about or that something should be done about it.

Here's an article that comes by way of CTV about the high price of gasoline and a study that was carried out that says that Canadians are being gouged by as much 27 cents per litre at the pump and that something needs to be done about it.

Personally I believe that the price of gasoline is as high as it is because we keep paying for it; if we could reduce usage, buy less then the price should fall, but I don't see anyone driving any less, I know I haven't changed my driving habits and I have two vehicles each equipped with a nice small block Chevy V-8, because well there's no replacement for displacement. I don't think that not buying gasoline on one particular day or from one particular chain of gas bars will make any difference, sorry folks. If I don't fill up today, I'll do it tomorrow and if I don't buy gas from Petro, I'll buy it from Esso.

One thing I will bitch about is the cost of heating fuel, it's too high and my house is too big and not energy efficient enough so I use a fair bit of the stuff in the winter. Ah well what can you do eh?

Anyway enough pissing and moaning about the price of gas, what next the weather (which by the way is shite over here)? Here's something a whole lot cooler; it's no secret that I like to read and books often trade hands between my friends who read, but here's that taken to a whole new level, Book Crossing. I first heard about this from a friend's blog a while ago, and although I haven't played yet, I loves the idea.

Basically with this site you register a book on the website that you've read, then record the registration number in the book with other information about what is going and what the site/program are about, then 'release' the book somewhere, put the where and when on the website and the idea is someone finds the book, logs it back in, reads and then releases it into the wild again. I think it's a pretty cool idea, if for no other reason than you get to see where the books you release end up.

As of typing this there are 99 books in the wild in Winnipeg, 13 in Thunder Bay and zero in Sioux Lookout.

And don't forget to watch the season finale of Heroes tonight, gotta see how they wrap it all up and explain everything.

I'll sign off today with a cool YouTube video; someone has taken the time to edit together a video entitled 100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers, where basically they put together 100 quotes from movies each with a number in them in count down from 100 - 1. I thought it was cool and well worth the nine plus minutes it took to watch this. I can't imagine the amount of work that went into making this video . . . imagine the time put into watching movies just to get the count down list, let alone splicing all the clips together.

And I'm told I have too much time on my hands. Until next time.

Oh wait, one last thing, I'm using my new slow cooker for the first time today and am looking for good slow cooker recipes, send me your favourites if you have any. Especially if you have one for a good slow cooker curry.

Your Empire Needs You!

Man these are most definitely the best Star Wars t-shirts ever. You know you want to order some. Since we're rocking it Star Wars style, how about this website with free printable paper cut out models of your favourite Star Wars and Star Trek ships . . . but wait there's more, act now and get a bonus DeLorean model.

I've got to post this link for the newest Transformers movie trailer on line; man it looks good, hopefully it's got a bit of a story to back it the visuals. I have to say that the robots are still too complicated looking, the comic book/cartoon incarnations looked better to me, but maybe that's because it's what I'm used to? Either way I am looking forward to this film but I don't know that I'll be able to catch it on its July 4 release date.

Now from geek movies to geek TV; it seems that NBC is disappointed that the super terrific awesome show Heroes lost viewers during its six week layoff this season, so they've come up with a solution to the problem. Do you think it's as simple as running the whole season with out interruption?

No way, this article here says that NBC's answer to this delimna is to run a six week Heroes: Origins mini-series. I'll watch it, but shit don't you think my solution would have been easier and cheaper? I mean start the season late, end it early or a combination of the two . . . or hell if you're going to make a six episode mini-series based on the show, why not make the season six episodes longer?

I dunno, I'm no TV exec that's for sure, but I do have 30 years of TV viewing under my belt and I'd like to think I'm a little media savvy . . . a little, okay I'm no Marshall McLuhan but I haven't strapped on a blue cape and tried to fly off my roof either.

Since we're on a Heroes tangent here's a good interview with none other than Hiro Nakamura himself, Mr. Masi Oka.

From geek TV to another of my passions, cars. I regularly let people know that Miatas are girls' cars, many don't believe because they've seen guys drive them, but here's someone else who believes the same thing and took the time to put together a list of the top five girl cars. I don't totally agree with this list, but I do like its intent.

Personally, I think the Miata should be higher on the list, I think the only way you could get girlier than it is to paint your new VW Beetle pink with daisies . . . and sure, keep the Mustang on there, after all it was long regarded as a 'secretary's car' by car enthusiasts and Ford themselves (don't believe me? Read this or try googling 'Mustang Secretary's Car'), sorry Mustang guys, it's true. Wanna know what makes that worse? That was from a time when all secretaries were ladies, a little harder to feel tough now, eh?

Okay granted I drive a Camaro and of course that's a car that's long associated with mullets and greasy Ginos, not a perfect reputation by any stretch . . . but I can live with it. Hell I even a copy of song called 'Camaro Mullet Love' kicking around here somewhere along with the Dead Milkmen's 'Bitchin' Camaro'.

I know I just plugged it yesterday, but here's another article on the Bob & Doug McKenzie Two-Four Anniversary Special. Don't be a hoser and make sure you watch it, eh?

And I will sign off today with this totally awesome photo. I don't know the back story or anything, but if you care to make one up I'd love to read it . . . especially if it involves a sweet IROC or two.

It's been a long time comin'

It's been a good long while since I've posted anything on here, so I figured I best get back at it. I guess everyone is wondering what I've been up to since I've been so neglectful of this site . . . . well I've been to Kingfisher Lake & Kasabonika Lake for work, had a new window motor put in my car, went to Winnipeg to see Kataklysm, Unearth, DevilDriver & Dimmu Borgir (Unearth & DevilDriver were awesome, Kataklysm all right and Dimmu Borgir (one Norway's premiere black metal bands) was bunk, we walked out on them they were the headliners) at the Walker or should I say Burton Cummings Theatre, winning a new BBQ last weekend at a social (who says drinking doesn't pay?) and celebrating my second Smashaversary last night down at the Legion.

I don't normally use this forum as a soapbox but I wanted to draw your attention to this important petition that I recently signed: "Save the Sons of Butcher!"

I really think this is an important cause, and I'd like to encourage you to add your signature, too. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time. Thanks Buds.

In case you aren't familiar with the Sons of Butcher, it's a Canadian cartoon show about a three piece party/cock rock band from Steeltown, Ontario. It's some funny shit, I saw them play in Thunder Bay in the fall while they were out on their "Touring the Canada" tour; in fact they were filming from the shows across Canada and the show they made from the tour airs on Teletoon this weekend. You can click this link to get a short promo video with times and dates and rocking and what not.

Speaking of TV specials that air this weekend, don't miss Bob & Doug McKenzie's Two-four Anniversary Special and the airing of their hit film Strange Brew on the CBC Sunday night, you hosers. How can you not watch this? Bob & Doug are Canadian icons, and are probably the two people who are most responsible for shaping what most of the world thinks Canadians are really like . . . okay it might be stretching it a bit, but who hasn't been drinking beer, wearing a tuque while wearing plaid? I know I've done it, and I'll do it again so if you don't like it, just take off eh!

Those of you who are Bruce Campbell fans probably already know about this but there is a Bubba Ho-Tep prequel, Bubba Nosferatu and the Curse of the She-Vampires, being released sometime in 2008. This film finds Elvis (Campbell) shooting a film in Louisiana when he runs afoul of a coven of she-vampires . . . personally I can't wait for this movie to come out, I thought the first one was fantastic. It's not high cinema by any stretch but it's classic Campbell baby, yeah.

In case you haven't seen it yet, here's Bruce's latest Old Spice commerical; in this one he lounges Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf (a great song in its own right) up for a bevy of swinging beauties. It's almost enough to make me an Old Spice man.

Well I think that's enough for today, I should go and get something productive done with my days off, don't you think?

How do you stop an exploding man?

Well I'm sure that question and others will be answered tonight and over the next three weeks on NBC's Heroes. Me I'm very curious as to how they are going to pull it all together . . . I've been liking the show a whole lot, but I have to admit the six week hiatus from new episodes was more than a little bullshit. I don't know why the networks feel they have to do this . . . start them late end them early, whatever just show them all the way through like my good friends over at BSG. If the show wasn't so addicting I'd give up on it for that . . . and don't think I can't . . . I stopped watching Star Trek Enterprise when I thought it got to be too much bullshit, but then again who didn't?

Although Stephen Lynch over at the NY Post is a harsher critic of the show, thinking that it's lifted major parts of its story elements from Alan Moore's Watchmen (which has supposed to be made into a movie that's been going into production for the past decade, now scheduled for a 2008 release) and Marvel's X-Men. You can read the article here if you like. If you haven't already read The Watchmen, you should it was a very good read . . . but I've probably said that before.

And since I briefly mentioned BSG here's a screencap of Leah Cairns, who plays the pilot Racetrack on the show, topless from an episode of CTV's Robson Arms. Gotta love Canadian television, eh?

And here's some good news for other migraine sufferers, a recent study has shown that migraines might be good for your brain. Yeah believe it or not in this study migraine sufferers showed less cognitive decline than non-sufferers as they aged. You can read an article on this here . . . and I'm pleased to hear this after being laid up yesterday afternoon with a vicious attack of brain pains.

And I would like to leave with this final note for the day, a big thank you to Alan from The Real Absinthe blog who stopped by last week to leave some comments and info after my brief mention of wormwood, Absinthe and removing body parts to impress your favourite whore.

For those of you who didn't read his comment, here it is (I put in the links, the info itself is from Alan's comment),

"Wormwood won't make you crazy. For you to absorb enough thujone (what you get when you distill wormwood) to do that, you'd have to drink so much absinthe you'd die many times from alcohol poisoning first.

Pernod absinthe, as carried by the LCBO, is real, but has a very low thujone content. Between the LCBO and Health Canada, they have a limit way below European or World Health Organisation guidelines. There are many other selling sites to look at: see my blog for details. Right now, Spirits Corner is the only one managing to sell real French/Swiss absinthe to Canadian customers."

Thank you for the information Alan, I'm sure it will be put to use sometime somewhere.

Until next time

One More Time

All right I'm going to try to put up a couple of the items that I lost in the crash yesterday, starting the Meowarchy. If you're into videos of evil cats and cats generally freaking out, this is for you.

From cats to something close it . . . here's the link lost yesterday for the video clip from last year's Tournament of Roses Rose Bowl where a USC cheerleader allegedly forgets to wear underpants, you get to see some bum there, but she's probably wearing a thong. You'll likely have to sign in to verify your a grown up because apparently the YouTube community feels that video has some questionable content.

Let's hope they don't discover X-Tube or BeastTube, eh? But I'm sure they'd be cool with GodTube.

And now here's the video I posted yesterday for my SUV driving friends, especially those with the magnetic ribbon stickers on them. If you liked that one, and why wouldn't you, you can check out more videos from the people who made that one, The Asylum Street Spankers, here.

Now if you're at all like me, you're not so pleased that Heroes on NBC overlaps on the first hour of RAW on the Score. Well fret no longer, I discovered quite by accident this past Monday that the Global Station from the Maritimes shows Heroes at 7:00 in the Central Time Zone. There is also one of the stations that shows the new Heroes the Sunday night before NBC does, but for some reason I prefer my Heroes on Monday.

Well that about does it for yesterday's lost stuff, now for a little bit of new info for you all . . . history time - it was on this day in 1933 that Herman Goering founded the Geheime Staatspolizei aka The Gestapo. Originally the purpose of the "Secret State Police" was to disrupt and harass opponents of National Socialism, but as is so common as time past it came to take on many other more, albeit dubious, responsibilities.

And it was 21 years ago today that the explosion/meltdown of the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Republic the Ukraine took place during a late night test or experiment. I just learned this today but apparently the Ukranian word chornobyl means "wormwood." This fact prompted believers in Biblical prophecy to interpret the nuclear crisis as the fulfillment of events described in Revelation 8:11.

Wormwood is a key ingredient to the make you crazy, cut off your ear to impress a prostitute, (allegedly) crippling hangover giving liquor Absinthe. If you're keen on trying to order some of the real deal from Europe (I'm still not convinced that the gear they carry at the LCBO is the real deal, but maybe it is? This site seems to say it's legit, or as legit as it can be) my good friends at Modern Drunkard Magazine recommend the fine people at Absinthe Original.

Well that's her for now, until next time.

Ahhhh hell

I was almost through a lengthy post this morning and the browser crashed on me, so I lost it all . . . think of all the awesome you missed out on . . . maybe forever . . . man I had videos of angry cats, information about watching Heroes on Global Maritimes so you didn't have to miss the first hour of RAW.

Soooo-oh awesome.

Too bad that.

And in case you think I havne't changed the currently listening too I'm listening to the Silversun Pickups record again, the singer has a kinda creepy voice, you'd think he was a lady listening to him most of the time. Their single Lazy Eye is getting radio play on Winnipeg's Best Rock, Power 97 if you're so inclined to check it out.

I'm outta here

Who needs a Kwick-E-Mart?

As I'm sure you're all aware the Simpsons movie comes out in theatres this July 27 and as a promotional kick the movie company is converting some 7/11's into real Kwick-E-Marts, complete with Squishees, KrustyO's and Buzz Cola. Too bad the one in Shelbyville likely won't be one of the ones to change.

I will go see the Simpsons movie when it comes to town, but I'm not eagerly awaiting it . . . I haven't been a regular Simpsons viewer in a number of years and I have the feeling that much like the X-Files the theatrical movie will be the series death knell . . . but I could be wrong. Personally I'd rather see Futurama on the air again, but that's just me.

To shift gears from the animated to the geekified, check out this Darth Vader hot air balloon. The dork is definitely strong in this one.

And now I will leave you with the Jacksonville, Florida mullet contest winner nine year old Dakota Russ. Jeez . . . nine years old, so many questions . . . where are the parents? Doesn't a mullet like that count as child abuse? How awesome is his Dad's mullet? How many tassles are on his Mum's jacket? Hard to believe but the award was handed out at a monster truck rally.

That reminds of a favourite website from days past, Mullets Galore.

Fear the mullet.

Yarrrrrrrrrrrrr Maties!

For those of you who can't get enough of all things piratical then CBS' upcoming new reality show Pirate Master could be for you. You can read all about it here if you're so inclined; if you don't you might get keelhauled. This is one reality show that I might give a chance . . . but we'll see, will the coolness of pirates balance out the lameness of reality TV? Only time will tell.

And just in case you thought pirates were a thing of the past, authorities are currently having problems with pirates in the Mallacca Strait, between West Malaysia and Sumatra, you can read more about it here. And here I learn this just as I am considering going to Malaysia on holiday.

It's been a while since I posted some movie news, or anything for that matter, so let's get to it. According to this article it's time to fire up the Orgasmatron again; Kate Beckinsale is going to be the one to play Barbarella in the remake of the 1968 classic erotic sci-fi comedy starring Jane Fonda. I tried to check IMDB to see if they had news about it but they want me to sign up for an IMDB Pro account to get at the info . . . they better not start doing that for everything or I'll take my business elsewhere . . . where it's still free . . . I might have to start slumming at AllMovie again.

There is also a remake of Clash of the Titans scheduled for release in 2010. I tried for info about it on IMDB but was again hit with the ultimatum of the IMDB Pro account. Even though the effects were cutting edge from the 60's I loved that movie to death, and if I see it on TV now I will still watch it . . . at least for a little while. Here's the IMDB page for the 1981 original in case you're not familiar with the movie, and if you're not I guess you didn't have TBS on your cable package . . . and since I mentioned it, I don't like the 'new' TBS.

When all they were about was 7 day James Bond movie marathons, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns, edited to shit 80's teen comedy movies and Georgia Championship Wrestling I was all for them, but now they're just showing sit com reruns and modern romantic comedy dreck movies. Boo-urns to that..

And I'd like to leave with a big up yours to all the smug Mac users out there as apparently Apple has released a megapatch that is to correct 25 of the invulnerable Mac's vulnerabilities. To quote the always great Nelson Muntz "HA HA!"

And with that I bid you good day.