If Only I Could Watch It

The trailer for Nate Fillion's new movie, Slither. My office won't let me watch it.

Also, Seibertron.com just tweaked the RPG that I've been playing a lot, so here's a new, cooler view of my team, Big Slow & Dumb. For those who care... ;)

Me Punkin

Taken from VGCats' stencil for Krug. I think it turned out alright.

My attempt at laying the three pictures together, however, is a different story.

It's Halloween, of course. I had a costume planned out, nothing too fantastic, but office peer pressure (aka, I'd be the only one) has made me decide that, meh, I'm alright in my black shirt, thank you very much.

Pretty uneventful weekend, for the most part. Had a very non-date Friday (the girl never wants to get married and never have kids, but otherwise I think I'd have a chance). Bought four Transformers, two of which I can review at any time, a third I'm trying to sell on Ebay, and a fourth that I haven't decided if I want to open or not.

One more Halloween bit before I post. Applegeeks' Halloween piece is so true.

More Homogenization

Kool 108 played Journey on Wednesday.

Cartoon Network will be airing Live Action Movies soon.

AMC doesn't play American Movie Classics. A&E doesn't play Arts. MTV has no music. Everyone from Discovery Channel to The Golf Channel has a reality show.

No one is as they appear anymore.

More to come later, including pumpkins, costumes, my space, and more Transformers than anyone beyond me has any care about!

Three For Vacation

It's my Friday, and I'll Blog if I want to.

- I forgot my Smallville. Anyone have a copy I can borrow?

- A rule I learned at the Blackjack table tonight: If you sit next to a cute blonde girl, it's good luck. If you lose, you still win. But, hey, I won either way, so double bonus.

- I'm currently working on the next book in Harry Turtledove's Great War series. This is the one where the Confederacy exists, lost World War I vs. the Americans, and start WWII. It's extremely creative, and takes a decent combination of actual historical parallels (The Great Depression, The Holocaust, etc) while adds new issues that could/would exist in North America, like a British Canada, a Utah full of "religious extremists," and a labor issue that would result from a Confederate Holocaust.

They bring in some actual historical figures and use them to realistic ends. Patton's a Confederate general. FDR's Assistant Secretary of War. Ophelia Clemens, daughter of Sam "Mark Twain" Clemens, is an hard-nosed journalist.

The dialogue still bites, but this is a much more enjoyable read than Turtledove's Worldwar series.

White Sux

So the Sux are the World Champions. Being a Twins fan, it's difficult to stop calling them that, but I spose I'll have to since they beat us this year.

In one sense, good for them. It's always good to see a team not from one of the coasts with the Series. But it's been a LOT longer since one of Minnesota's division rivals won it, in any sport, so it's definitely a tempered "good".

The last time the Packers won the title was 1996. So it's been 9 years since anyone in any Minnesota division has won any title (except the Spurs, I guess, but they don't count). The last time any Twins rival won it before the Sox was... well... probably never in my lifetime. At least not in my cognitive lifetime. The Royals in the 80's, maybe?

So, yeah, next season's gonna suck, because the Sox are going to be all high and mighty. Well, they've always been all high and mighty, even when the Twins won three straight division titles. But this time their high-and-mightiness will actually have some merit. AJ's gonna be ten times as irritating, too.

Ah, well... the best thing about a champion is that they can be dethroned.

EDIT: It could also be said that they wouldn't have won the championship without us. This season the Sox rebuilt their lineup to compete in the Central, focusing more on speed & pitching (like the Twins) instead of power. At the beginning of the season, "compete in the Central" meant "compete with the Twins." So, Chicago, we brought the best out of you. You're welcome.

Moral Challenges

Those who know me know my stance. Back To School shouldn't be out till August. Halloween shouldn't be out until October.

And Christmas ANYTHING, decorations, music, present purchases, are purely post-Thanksgiving.

This proves difficult when, for the next 4 days, my parents house becomes Christmas Central during my mom's Holiday Boutique.

For as long as I can remember my mom and her friends have gotten together all their crafts and turn our living room into a big Christmas store and our dining room into a big Halloween/Thanksgiving store. Christmas music, hot apple cider, lights outside. The whole nine yards.

I will be doing my darndest to spend as much time away from the house the next few days as possible, which will prove difficult with a vacation day on Friday.

Ah, well, I have a non-date Friday night, so that should help a little bit.

Torn

So Nathan Fillion's in another movie, Slither, coming out this spring. In one sense, he appears to be one of the only Serenity folk getting a lead anywhere outside of television so far (except Sean Maher, who appears to be in an indie with a cute redhead). But on the other hand, it looks like another crappy horror movie. From the pictures & the cast it appears to be pretty tongue-in-cheek, but still...

Elsewhere, I'm gonna do some veggie (fruit, whatever) chopping tonight, methinks. I picked up some pumpkin-carving tools last night, so I'll be taking a whirl at it, with the hope of not screwing it up too badly. Hell, if things go well I might go for two!

Last night I beat Dark Cloud 2. Now comes a big decision (big in my perspective, at least). Do I keep playing the secret level? Start over at the top with a Strategy Guide? Or work on Final Fantasy VII so I'm all caught up in time for Advent Children? Oh, the decisions!

So I did a swap at my office today. I have my empty shelves decorated with some Transformers (because I do, so there). Brought home Rodimus & Downshift, brought in Laserbeak, Hasbro's only lifesized Transformer, & Mudflap, my newest, coolest figure.

I was not expecting much from Mudflap coming in. I just expected him to be a bigger, beefier version of Energon Duststorm. Oh, how wrong I was.


Mudflap's alt mode, a crane truck, is almost identical to Duststorm's alt-mode, hence the initial confusion. But Mudflap is oh so much better. First off, it's long. You're looking at maybe 12 inches minimum. With lots of wheels. The crane mechanism also rotates on its base, and can extend to twice its length. Just a cool truck that I wouldn't mind having on a shelf even as a non-transformable vehicle.

Mudflap also has a rare trait for a Voyageur-class Transformer: two separate Planet Key functions. Plug the key into the front cab and it flips out a missile launcher. Plug it into the crane to pop out a long blade. The first feature works better in vehicle mode, while the second works better in robot mode, but we'll get to that.

Robot mode, Mudflap is, as I said earlier, a beefy dude. The transformation itself is relatively smooth and easy. Proportions are nearly perfect, except for those water skis he has for feet. Overall, he's probably the toughest-looking figure in my Cybertron collection, barring probably Crumplezone. Great color, durable. Just awesome.

The Planet Key features are both in effect in robot mode, but with mixed results. The missile launcher works well in some cases, but loose joints cause it to sag in others. The blade is cool, mostly, but can also come out almost obscenely long. When it's not blade-out, I tend to pose the figure with the crane flipped back, just to keep it out of the way.

Minor quibbles aside, Mudflap rules. Creative design, sharp features. There should only be more Transformers like this.

So Much Stuff

Let's see here... This weekend I purchased:

2 Transformers
2 Movie Tickets
2 meals out
1 box of Little Debbie
1 Pumpkin

Quite a bit to talk about, I guess.

First off, pumpkin. I haven't done a Jack-O-Lantern since, oh, before college. VGCats had a great stencil of Krug that I just had to try out, so I'll be slicing it up tonight or tomorrow in time for my mom's boutique.

Movie = Wallace & Gromit. Cute flick. Had some pretty funny stuff, but nothing too memorable. They did, however, have a CG short beforehand with the penguins from Madagascar. To which I reply "IT'S NOT EVEN NOVEMBER YET! Keep your flippin Christmas cartoons off the screen!" Rrrgh.

Transformers = One awesome figure, one meh figure. I'll go with the meh first, and deal with awesome tomorrow.

As previously stated during my Leobreaker entry a few weeks ago, I like what Hasbro's doing with their character upgrades. Beyond simple repaints, they're retooling some molds in some cases, and completely recreating characters for others.

In the former category, they have released 5 tweaks of characters from the Armada & Energon series. Luckily for me, three of the five are for characters I did not have originally. I'll be getting to those in the coming weeks. The other two (Dark Scorponok & Blurr) I already own, so screw those guys.

For the other three, I purchased the first one last night. Despite some flaws, Buzzsaw is a definite upgrade over its Armada predecessor, Cyclonus, and a good sign of things to come for the retools. For these reviews, I'll be setting the new version alongside the original form.

Buzzsaw's alt mode is a helicopter. Colorization is definitely brighter, and not necessarily better, than the original figure. He's also missing Crumplezone, Cyclonus' Minicon that had the extra bonus of giving him a much improved nosecone.

Both, however, share the trigger mechanism on the tail that allows the propeller to spin. And Buzzsaw does have a retool to allow Planet Key functionality, a feature which has been added to all figures previously allowing Minicon Powerlinx. This allows for a much smoother and simpler activation of special features, in this case the launching of projectiles from under either wing. It's also the first Cybertron figure I've purchased that has a "neutral" Planet Key, featuring only the Decepticon logo with no Planet logo. A nice change of pace.

Robot mode is a better-looking Bot than the Armada version. The biggest change is in the head sculpt, which gives him a cooler feel than the first. More like a hotshot pilot than anything.

The main problem I have with this figure arises in the robot form, however. The joints are extremely loose, occasionally to the point that it's difficult to hold its shape. But as long as it's not bumped too hard, it looks pretty good.

Nothing too extremely different arises through the Planet Key function. The guns are on the arms this time, but that's about it.

Overall, I'm glad I got this figure instead of the Armada version, but it's still an average to below average figure compared to others in the Cybertron line. A bonus, though, is the DVD that comes with each toy released in this wave, with one episode of the Cybertron TV show. Having never seen an ep yet, this should be neat.

In other, non-toy, news, they ran out of names in the Hurricane naming system this year. So we all have learned that, in this event, they start naming storms after the Greek Alphabet. Tropical Storm Alpha is currently spinning around in the Atlantic.

I'm a firm believer in tradition, and all that, but THIS is the way that they should name storms. Keeps things straight, and gives a little more of an element of danger to each storm. Seriously, which storm name would make you more inclined to evacuate: Hurricane Wilma or Hurricane Omega? I think that's a no brainer.

To keep things straight, you go with, say, Hurricane 05Kappa for Katrina, or something like that, with the first two numbers changing for the year. We can say "Ooh, Hurricane Andrew sucked," but unless we look it up, we'll never know when it happened. If it was "Ooh, Hurricane 92Alpha sucked," It answers all of our questions right there: It was the first hurricane of 1992, and it sucked.

And here I start the world's tiniest petition. Who's with me?

sssss

The guy at Topp's is a Yankees fan. And obviously hates The Devil.

Something Happens

I watched Smallville last night. It featured the appearance of Justice League member #2, Aquaman. Excluding the fact that the guy couldn't act his way out of a wet paper sack, I enjoyed the episode.

Why? A few reasons. First off, they started a relationship (sort of) between Aquaman & Lois, which lends credence to my theory that Lois isn't Lois, and Chloe will eventually be Clark's Lois. Wow, that was convoluted.

I believe that something is going to happen to Lois, either through death, disappearance, or transformation into someone or something else (Wonder Woman, Queen of Atlantis, who knows?), and Chloe will take her name. She's already done it once, while writing for the Daily Planet. Also, having not watched much of last season, I'm fairly confident that Lois isn't a reporter, and Chloe is.

Also, no chemistry seen between Clark & Lois, plenty between Clark & Chloe.

Another thing that happened was a nice little reference to the future. Aquaman, who says "brah" more often than is humanly feasable, tells Clark that they should team up, make a Junior Lifeguard Association, or something like that. To which Clark says "I don't think I'm ready for the JLA quite yet." Stupid, but amusing.

Finally (FINALLY!) James is back! Marsters, playing Professor Milton Fine, and will eventually become Brainiac. But right now he's playing the good guy card, a brainy history professor who takes Clark under his wing, believing that Lex Luthor is the modern equivalent of Hitler or Napoleon. How much of it he actually believes, and how much of it is just The Living Computer playing his pawns against each other is left to be discovered.

Also, he has an American accent, which is REALLY throwing me.

No, sir, I'm just an old friend of Xander, here.

heeeeeeeeere's Umbridge!

I mentioned it a few weeks ago, but now it's official, from her own mouth: Imelda Staunton is playing Umbridge in HP5.

Evidence For Enunciation

There's a radio ad playing here in the Cities right now for the Trail of Terror, a big get-together thing around here with a haunted maze, haunted hayride, etc.

As part of the ad, a creepy voice says "This horror is the real thing!"

But the enunciation sucks. So, apparently, "This whore is the real thing!"

The final math is in for my Master Plan:

Original purchase price for Smallville Season 2: $20.11
Sale price on eBay, plus shipping: $37.85
Shipping cost, via US Mail: $5.40
Phase 3, Profit!: $12.34

That, ladies and gentlemen, is $12.34 towards Firefly. I would have added the $14 (so far) from my Best Buy Bucks, but stupid Best Buy only allows $3 towards a DVD or CD. Which means I will be finding a video game.

NEVER QUESTION THE PLAN

Okay, I spose you can question it a little bit.

But since I just sold a DVD set for 28 dollars, plus shipping, that I bought for $20... well, that's what I call profit!

Which is, of course, Phase 3.

Phase 1 is Collect Underpants.

"OH MY GOD!"

An exact quote from TD Mischke, radio personality on AM1500 in the Twin Cities. Unless he's doing a bit, he's usually one of the more subdued guys you've ever heard, and one who definitely puts a lot of focus into his show.

I was in bed last night listening to his show, interviewing one of his callers, when, in the middle of one of the woman's sentences, he absolutely loses it.

He was watching the Astros-Cardinals game, had just witnessed what Bill Simmons referred to today as the Stomach Punch by Albert Pujols.

I'm really pushing for Houston to make it to the World Series, but after a home run like that, I'm not so sure they're going to be able to pull it off, despite being up 3-2 in the series.

And I'll be watching game six.

I Got Six... Or Ten...

Time Mazagine just released their Top 100 Novels since 1923.

Of those, I have read, by choice:

- Animal Farm
- The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe
- Lord of the Flies
- The Lord of the Rings
- 1984
- Watchmen (A Graphic Novel on the list! Woo Hoo!)

I was also forced, via English Class, to read:

- The Catcher In The Rye
- The Grapes of Wrath (Which I should probably re-read sometime)
- The Great Gatsby
- To Kill A Mockingbird

Ten out of a list of 100. Not bad, if I do say so myself. And definitely a list I'm bookmarking for future reference.

Oh, speaking of books, I finished "What If?" this morning. A fun book, kinda tough to push through sometimes if you're not huge on military history. But a fun read, and definitely one that makes you realize the importance of a fog, a rock, or a dropped cigar case in the course of global history.

Timing was impeccable, as my copy of The Drive To The East finally arrived at the library this afternoon, so I had it in time for lunch.

Another Place To Eat

Just got back from lunch, and I have another place to add to my list of lunch stops.

4 bucks got me a 2-item combo at a chinese/cantonese place w/ rice and a pop. And one of those two items was a chicken thing that made me sweat with the spiciness.

Good times all around.

Oh, one more random thing: It's interesting to see just how much media time some of my former beloved Twins have been getting since they left the squad.

First Doug Mientkiewicz gets on the video for all time by catching the final out for the Red Sox first World Series since 1908.

Then David Ortiz becomes the biggest player for the Sox, and is pretty much a lock for the AL MVP this season.

Now AJ Pierzynski gets in the midst of not one, but two huge plays in the ALCS.

Leave the Twins, get famous.

Unless you're Corey Koskie. Or Dustan Mohr. Or Eddie Guardado.

Or you're Eric Milton or Cristian Guzman. Then you're famous for the wrong reasons.

*Dance Of Victory*

We won, we won, we won!

But now my dad's upset because we won't go 0-14. Ah, well, it's just good to finally be under the W column.

Fantasy Football, for those not in the know.

Just thank goodness the Vikings sucked, or else we wouldn't have done it. Chicago defense gave us many points.

So it's been a few days since my last post. 3-day weekends will do that to a guy. So much stuff to do, very little of which is noteworthy, that I had difficulty finding time for the computer.

Oil change, check. Fiddler reunion party, check. Golf, check. Video games, check. Sleep, check. Watching two football teams implode, double check.

Quite the week.

Random Stuff

- Why is "Attention Deficit Disorder" such a long word?

- Just when I thought I was getting somewhere in Dark Cloud 2, I learn about the Monster Transformation functions. Sweet Martha's Cookies... This game is DEFINITELY going to be worth a replay in the future. It might even force me to buy the flipping strategy guide, damn them.

- No work tomorrow! Woo hoo!

- I bought myself a Transformers Collectors Series figure yesterday. Review forthcoming, as it's really not worth bothering about.

- Boredom makes me do bored things. So I found a few fragments of comic strips that I wish I could find a place for somewhere. Here they are, with links to the original images.

VGCat's rules. Here's Scott Ramsoomair's version of Harry Potter. Thankfully tame, as he's usually a fan of the blood spurt, potty humor, and/or sexual innuendo, subtle or not-so. Not that there's anything wrong with any of those, of course. Anyway:

And a nice random picture, along with a comic for fans of MMORPGs (and if you don't know what that means, then you're probably not into them):

I haven't made many (any) Transformers Avatars yet, so I decided to do a few, pictures used from Seibertron.com (link on the sidebar). One for my new favorite Cybertron figure, Brakedown:

Another for one of my all-time favorite head sculpts, Alternator Grimlock:

Finally, for a future Seibertron signature will probably use Ransack as the basis for my alter-ego, KanedaX, here's an accompanying icon:

Oooooh, Batman...

Dark Horizons posted a summation of the rumor mill for the next Batman movie, and I sure hope it's true, because I like what I'm hearing.

First off, the one that still appears to be in the air is the Joker. Names are being bandied about, none of which particularly thrill me, but none of which particularly make me frightened, either.

Here's what the mentioned:

Paul Bettany: I've mentioned him as brought up for the role in an earlier blog, I think. Decent choice, and he's white enough where he could probably play Joker without any makeup. We'll see how he does as Silas in DaVinci Code (here's a shot) to figure out if he's creepy enough.

Ryan Reynolds: An odd choice, and definitely not one that he would definitely have to earn from the fans perspective. But he's done scary, and single-handedly saved Blade III, so I think he could handle it.

Michael Keaton: Probably nothing more than fan-masturbation at this point, but it would certainly be a kick to see Batman from the original movies switch sides. Watch Beetlejuice, and you'll see he's a great choice.

Johnny Depp: An obvious choice, considering his popularity and range. But one thing Christopher Nolan probably want to avoid is a villain overshadowing the hero, like what happened in the first series of films. Johnny Depp as The Joker would definitely do that, and the other three names probably would not.

These names aren't what drew me to post this thing, though. It's who is apparently the front-runner to play Harvey Dent, Two-Face of the comics and of the third movie.

Liev Schreiber. Sweet monkey doodoo, why didn't I think of him before? If he gets cast in the role, it's a perfect fit. He's got the age, the looks, the chops. He's one of those actors who makes any movie better simply by his presence.

And he could definitely pull off Two-Face as the stone-cold killer type.

I want this to happen!

In other movie news, the guy who wrote Trainspotting is going to be writing the script for The Dark Is Rising. I love the book series, and I'm officially nervous. It definitely has the potential for Dark.

Quick Edit: Decided that, since I was linking all the Transformers sites, I should probably do the same for the movie sites. So there ya go, Dark Horizons, Cinescape, and IMDb are all linked on my sidebar.

Silly Iraqi

Tricks are for kids!

So call me a big kid, but I think I want to see Curious George when it comes out this winter. I haven't seen a trailer, or anything, but the stills that have been posted so far just make it out to be a fun, colorful movie. And I have no idea why I want to see that so bad, but I do. Maybe it's just because it's about a cartoon monkey, and monkeys are funny.

But, who knows, maybe when they put out some trailers they'll put Smash Mouth over it or something, and I'll grow to loathe. But, hey, right now I'm seeing it as a potential for my 2006 ornament collection.

If someone reading this has no clue what I'm talking about, I'll discuss my collection when we get closer to Christmas.

In other news, my fantasy football team sucks.

Stupid Stupid Snakes

Biologists are fearing the effects of snakes in the Everglades after a python tried to eat a six-foot gator, and blew up in the process.

They seem to be seeing it as threatening the ecosystem. I see it as evidence that snakes are stupid.

Just for kicks, Snakes on a Plane.

I saw Serenity again last night, effectively killing my "Staying Up Late" card for the week. Just as good the second time around.

But it got me thinking (because I'm a dork)...

So after Firefly went off the air in 2002. Because of the quick and undeserved cancellation, Joss Whedon did some favors to some of the major cast members, giving them parts on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Nate Fillion played Caleb, the evil preacher-slash-The-First-worshipper. Gina Torres played Jasmine, the evil goddess who had the power to have everyone fall in love with her at first sight. Adam Baldwin played Marcus Hamilton, the (of course) evil replacement for Eve as liason to the Senior Partners.

So it got me thinking: why did he stop there? Why not cast Summer Glau as a late-arrival Potential Slayer?

Have Angel fall for Jewel Staite as Nina the werewolf?

Instead of giving the part of Knox to Johnathan Woodward, a one-episode guy on Firefly & Buffy, shouldn't it have been Sean Maher sacrificing Fred to Illyria?

Or Morena Baccarin as Eve, the original Liason and girl toy for Lindsey?

Ron Glass as a shaman in Get It Done? Or a new character, maybe a surviving Watcher?

Alan Tudyk as the human puppet on Smile Time? Or maybe as Lawson, the submarine pilot turned vampire?

Yes, I think about these things.

Elsewhere, I had a brilliant plan fall through this weekend, but it wasn't too surprising that it fell through. I bought Smallville seasons 1 & 2 on sale at Target, expecting it to be some decent eBay fodder.

Nope. Everyone else beat me to the punch. I bought the 45 dollar DVD set for 20 bucks, and they're now selling on eBay for, oh, 15 or 16.

I would have tried it with Gilmore Girls, but a man has his limits.

The rest of the weekend was more or less spent playing my newest addiction, Dark Cloud 2. It's like Dark Cloud 1, but with soooo many more frickin layers it's not even funny.

Dark Cloud 1 was best described as Zelda meets SimCity. Dark Cloud 2 is Zelda meets SimCity meets Twisted Metal meets Pokemon Snap meets Tiger Woods Golf. And, yes, it's just as deep and replayable as all those layers let on. Holy mother.

You Took Too Long, Darabont!

The Fog. A rip-off of Stephen King's The Mist, one of his best stories, and with a movie in the works.

Too bad people will just see it as a rip-off of The Fog, instead of the other way around.

The Story Between The Words

The only phrase you hear before going out the door in the morning is "Well, it was his last day of work yesterday, so we had our locks changed." That leaves quite a bit to the imagination.

A few random thoughts for the morning:

- Eliza Dushku wants to play Wonder Woman. Well, she certainly has an "in" for the part, since Whedon's writing and directing.

Wonder Woman is one of those characters that's tough to cast in todays day and age. A black-haired Amazon, Wonder Woman was played very well in the TV show by Lynda Carter. However, to make a movie version, you need a big name. And there are very few big-name actresses out there that have the combination of stature, physical prowess, the ability to play eternal youth, and acting chops. Anyone you can think of only has only a few of these qualities.

Actresses like Lucy Lawless, Charisma Carpenter, Morena Baccarin, and, of course, Carter, have the look and possibly the physical prowess. Carpenter and Baccarin, are in the good graces of Joss Whedon (Carpenter as Cordelia on Buffy, Baccarin as Inara on Firefly). But none of them are big enough names to carry a franchise. Carter's obviously too old, and Lawless is pushing the envelope. Carpenter and Baccarin are good for the part now, but if they're planning on sequels they may need to be replaced in two or three movies.

Someone like a Nicole Kidman could pull off the look, the acting, and the agelessness. But she's never done the action movie thing, beyond the damsel in distress in Batman Forever, and probably never would. Also, could she pull off the raven-haired look? Catherine Zeta-Jones might be a good choice, if the studio decides to cast a little more racially-diverse WW.

So Dushku's not a huge name, she's a little shorter than Amazon, and she has yet to prove she can play anything but ghetto. But, meh, she can fight, she's attractive, she's young, and she's friends with the director. So she has as good of a shot as anyone.

- Should be interesting to see how people react if this subway attack doesn't happen. Which it probably won't, now that security's been boosted so much. It's one of those Catch-22's that happens in today's world, where they expect something to happen. You hear of a threat, so you set out security. The threat doesn't happen, so people say that the government over-reacted to a non-threat. Because, you know, terrorists don't have TVs.

- Fun to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind a second time through, once you know the chronology of the film. To get into more details would have to break into a debate about spoiler buffer. You know, how long you can wait until you tell people spoilers for a movie.

Like, you know, Bruce Willis is a ghost. So is Nicole Kidman.

Kevin Spacey is Kaiser Soze. He is also the Seven Sins Killer.

The Twelve Monkeys didn't release the plague, David Morse did.

Oh, and Rosebud's the sled.

As you may have figured out, I give a person three years to see a movie. After that, it's open season. Eternal Sunshine's in that 3-year window, so you all get a reprieve. Well, at least a reprieve without warnings.

Also, I don't know if I had put Kate Winslett on my "Women More Attractive Than Angelina Jolie" list earlier in the summer, but she's one of the brain farts. She's been in my top five since Titanic, and she's definitely at her cutest in Eternal Sunshine.

Although it's the only movie where she doesn't show us her breasts. Pity.

Third Review

Alright, now that the pictures appear to be up and running again (check out my previous ones if you wanna go see the other Transformers) I thought I'd take a look at the third and final Transformer I picked up off of Amazon.

A scout-class figure, Brakedown has a great alt design, a smooth robot form, with an original color scheme. He is one of the better Transformers to come down the Cybertron line so far, and definitely the best one for a budget.

Apparently one of the last original molds to come from the Speed Planet, Brakedown's alt mode is a drag racer. It's an original design, reminiscent of both Crumplezone's alt, yet seems to pull it off better than the clunky Decepticon. Also, the brown, grey, and copper coloring is a breath of fresh air. The Planet Key function doesn't work as smoothly in this form, but can be accomplished with the removal of and replacement of a piece. A minor quibble, though.

Robot mode is equally sweet. Described on the website as one of the original settlers of the Speed Planet, the face has an air of age and maturity, complete with a Lincoln/Ahab style beard. The wheels on the shoulder are the only point of the figure that isn't proportional to the rest of the body, which is well-designed. The only small thing I tend to change with my personal transformation of Brakedown is to push the grey bar on the back down, giving a cape or cloak kind of look to the figure. The Planet Key feature works with the weapon, flipping out a blade that also works with the vehicle mode. This weapon-key correlation is similar to Override & Clocker, but it looks so much better and less clunky on Brakedown.

The only beef I have with the figure is the size, but this is due to the storyline developed by the series. Despite the fact that he's an old Transformer, one of the higher-ups among the elite of the Planet, he comes in at about half the size of almost everyone else on the planet. If they had either re-written him as a younger 'Bot, or designed him in the Deluxe price range, he would be the perfect Cybertron figure.

But, hey, like I actually watch the show. Brakedown is a great figure, the best of the Scout-class figures, and my favorite of the series so far.

I'm trying to decide where I want to set my budget for the next month or so. There are definitely figures that I can hold off on till Christmas. But, damn, if I don't want some of the ones coming out here soon. Especially with a brand-spanking new Target opening this weekend, which is bound to have some new Alternators.

Saving money sucks.

One More Month...

It's a damn good thing I moved when I did, instead of staying around that extra month.

I'd have no car.

In other news, Harry Potter is gay.

Tell that to Ginny, bow chicka bow bow.

NO ONE CARES!! WOO HOO!

Before we begin:

Prince Adam sings 4 Non Blondes.

It's wet here. Really wet. Highways flooded, all that fun stuff. Not exactly Katrina-flooded, but still quite a bit.

Yesterday I said I was going to post my review of Leobreaker during the evening. But I decided not to.

Do you want to run this ship?

Well... you can't.

Not that anyone's caring.

So, Leobreaker. Takara and Hasbro have a history of "upgrading" their characters on the TV show. In the past these upgrades have simply been repaints, with the new colors being explained as new power, or something like that.

Cybertron is changing all that. There will be repaints, but they're going to be more limited. Instead, many characters are going through actual upgrades, with new designs, new alt-modes, new sizes.

Leobreaker is the first of these characters. An upgrade of Overhaul, he will be followed in the next few months by upgrades of Hot Shot, Red Alert, and Scattorshot. He also is a rare figure in the Cyberton series with a Powerlinx feature, transforming into an arm that can be attached to Optimus Prime or Megatron. I'll probably get into that part of the review in the future when I get a hold of either of those figures.

For now the verdict is out about whether it's a better toy or not. It's definitely bigger, definitely more flexible. But the inherent strengths and weaknesses of a Beast Wars-style figure comes out in this figure.

Leobreaker's new alt-mode is a Liger. For those of you don't know what a Liger is, it's a crossbreed of a lion and a tiger. And, yes, these things do exist, along with their counterparts, the Tigon and the Leopon. As usual, the alt-mode doesn't have much exciting about it. It's an animal, woo. I prefer the original alt-mode of Overhaul's safari vehicle, the only vehicle in an otherwise animal filled Jungle Planet. The Planet Key feature unsheathes some claws.

The robot mode, however, is definitely an improvement over the original. Sure, he's got the Beast Wars basic transformation going, and the chest has a Power Rangers kinda feel to it, and the hands can't hold anything, but... well, okay, so its not the greatest ever, but the head's very cool, and the arms actually bend. Plus the claws in this mode connect the figure to its origins.

And that's that. I'll probably enjoy him more when I get Optimus, Megatron, and Dark Leobreaker for Megatron's arm.

My favorite of the three new figures will get the review tomorrow. Or when I feel like it. Take that.

Stretching The Belt

There is such a thing as the Eating Season. The time of year when people eat a lot, eat unhealthy, and pay for it for the next few months. Most would agree that this season ends on New Year's Day, but the start of the season is in dispute.

Some would argue Thanksgiving is the beginning of the Season, stuffing your face with turkey, mashed potatoes, and the always-delicious Thanksgiving Leftover Sandwich. This is followed in the next few weeks by various office parties, family gatherings, and drunken eggnog carol kareoke.

Some say Halloween, or the weeks before Halloween when Phase 1 candy becomes available to a sugar-starved nation.

If you don't know of the Candy Phases, I will explain. Thanks to Sheldon for introducing me to the Phases last Halloween, of which I did a little more tweaking to develop four Phases:

Phase 1 Candy: The candy that is introduced around the beginning of September. You buy this candy with the thought of handing it out to the little children on October 31st.

Phase 2 Candy: The candy that you purchase around October 29th or October 30th, because you ate all the Phase 1 candy.

Phase 3 Candy: The candy that goes on sale on November 1st at 25-50% off. The average afficianado will try to load up on as much Phase 3 candy as you can.

Phase 4 Candy: The candy that is reduced to 90% off about a week before Thanksgiving. This usually consists of candy corn, SweetTarts, and ghost-shaped lollipops. Basically the candy that Target is trying desperately to get off their shelves.

But, anyway, back to the original point. Many consider Halloween to be the beginning of eating season.

I have to throw out a new idea about the beginning of Eating Season. It is a commercially contrived start, true, but no more commercially contrived than Halloween candy hitting the shelves the last week of August.

I speak, of course, of the Monopoly game. Cursed McDonald's gives us the extra addiction of collecting game pieces, getting free food, and Best Buy Bucks.

So, of course, I'll be eating more McD's in the next month than I probably will in the next 3 or 4.

The start of the Monopoly Game is, to me, the beginning of Eating Season.

I was planning on putting up a review of Leobreaker right now, but I think I'll get to that tonight, eventually. Or maybe tomorrow.

Eventually.

A Few Changes

As you may have noticed (or probably not) I've made a few changes to the linkbar on the side.

First off, I decided it'd be smoother to divide my links up into different categories. Right now it's pretty simple: Webcomics, Transformers, and Other.

To the webcomic section, I added a link for Applegeeks, one I picked up a few days ago. Really fun, but in the last 15 or 20 episodes has had a tendency to get seriously dramatic and comic-book-ey. Still, a really fun read, one that is so closely linked to Mac Hall in both style and humor (the writers and artists have a long history together) that it's tough to tell who was influenced by whom.

Finally, I added a few more links to my Transformers section. I figure since I borrow images from Seibertron, TFKenkon, and Cobra Island enough that I should probably give them some props over on the side. And TWF2005 is probably the best place to go for up-to-date Transformers news. Plus TFW's Minnesota Sightings board is where I end up getting most of my scoops for where to buy my new toys.

Just wanted to give a little love.

I Have A Small One

Subaru celebrated an Employee Appreciation Festival in Japan. Part of the deal was a life-sized version of Transformers Alternators Smokescreen, of which I have the small version.

Check it out.

Well, as I said at the beginning of the weekend, I recieved my three Transformers from Amazon. Of the three, one exceeds my expectations, one met them.

And then there's Undermine.

Oh, where to begin? I didn't expect much from this pile, but, hey, he was free.

The alt mode, that of a velociraptor-style dinosaur. Good coloration, a little bright, but not as bad as the picture I'm attaching (Japanese version, no American pictures posted that I've found yet). But it also shows off the problem with the gimmick-focus of the newest line. A lot of toys are built for Planet Key features. Undermine simply shouldn't have one, or at least this one. The feature, a knife that comes out of the back, is contained within a big ugly fin. Pretty worthless function.

Robot mode... oy. Beyond the fact that they went Beast Wars cheap route with the legs, and made the head split into two arms, both of which can't hold anything and are inside out... Well, what else can be said except THIS ROBOT HAS NO HEAD! Just two little eyeslits sticking out of his neck.

And the Planet Key feature is the knife.

Sticking out of his forehead.

To, I don't know, headbutt.

Or something.

One would ask, why, Bill, why? Why would you get him? Well, he was free, for one. And, for another, he's still probably the best of the Jungle Planet scouts that will be released in the next few months (check out Saidos, Terra Shaver, and weep), and I felt like I needed a little something to stand next to my Scourge.

Also, his alt mode isn't that bad.

He'll just be staying that way for a long time.

So, yeah, that's Undermine. The other two I'll talk about tomorrow and Wednesday.

For those who decided to stick around till the end of this rant, the rest of my weekend was pretty good. As you saw in my previous entry, I saw Serenity over the weekend, and it met and exceeded all of my expectations. I'm crossing my fingers for a sequel, even if that means made for TV or direct-to-video.

This week is looking somewhat busy, somewhat empty so far. Two non-dates is more than I usually get in a week, with the potential for a third this weekend, so that's good. But, yeah, they're also non-dates. More to come.

But First...

Strangest, coolest cartoon title ever:

Bobobo-Bo Bo-bo.

Alright, Serenity time. Spoiler time.























No, seriously. If you don't wanna know who lives and who dies, stop now...














Alright, here we go.

Joss pulled it off. Serenity was a beautifully written movie that both drew in new fans while, at the same time, giving the fans of Firefly plenty of things to love, to cry about, and to look forward to.

The movie started a little slow, having to throw out enough technojargon to allow newcomers to figure out what was going on. The one thing that Joss didn't do as well, though, was fill in the gap between the end of the sereis and the beginning of the movie for the fans. I had read the three comics that were released in the past few months, comics which explained the entrance of the Operative, as well as the exit of Shepherd Book.

It makes sense from a storytelling perspective. Joss explained the history of Simon and River, but left the history of the Serenity crew to be pieced together through character dialogue. In the interest of a better movie I can accept this.

However, it did make me feel sorry for those unfamiliar with the show during the attack on Haven and the death of Book. He was an expendable character from the beginning of the series, you could tell by his screen time that Ron Glass wasn't planning on keeping himself as a major face in future stories. But his death was pretty meaningless to those who didn't know him.

The fact that Book attempted to save the colony, thought he had killed to do it, but ended up dying with his soul unknowingly clean, was a nice coda to the character. And Mal's reaction to the death revealed a character unknown to fans, one that, while not stooping to the level of the Operative, would do more than others, even his own crew, were wiling to do.

It was one of Joss' better scenes in the movie. And it forced the writers to earn the death, not cheapen it just to get a character out of the picture.

The same could be said for the death of Wash, a scene that, thinking back, was my personal favorite in the film. From the moment Mal turns the cannon on an approaching Reaver ship, all the way through to the end of the film, was classic Whedon. The attack on Mr. Universe's base was breathtaking, reminding me of one of the good space battles from the Star Wars prequels, while adding a few impressive twists (the reaver ship hooking to the Alliance vessel and spinning it like a tiltawhirl comes to mind).

It also gave Wash a beautiful exit. Because of that scene the line that will always stick in my head is for his character is "I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar," followed by flying that would put Han Solo to shame.

His death seconds later was completely unexpected to me. It was also the second-most shocking image in the film, behind River standing on a pile of Reaver corpses. It also makes me wonder what kind of tone the next few films will set.

Wash was the comedian of the group, obviously. All the characters have the Joss Whedon charm, sure. But Wash was always the one who put it all into perspective, being funny and lightening the series even while being tortured by a mad scientist. If Firefly could be compared to Buffy, Wash was Serenity's Xander. Without him it one goofball, Kaylee, alone in a ship full of hard cases.

The next ones are definitely going to be darker without Wash. I'm very curious to see how his death affects Zoe, the most business-like soldier on Serenity who is suddenly without her only source of levity.

The movie answered a lot of questions. It explained the origin of the Reavers, and also the master plan for both River and the Alliance.

However, it should be fun to see the next ones because, while leaving the ending open, the writers really didn't give too many hints about what is to happen next except "The Alliance will be after us."

Or maybe they did, but I only saw the movie once.

I'm going back to take another shot at it this week.

I don't know what else to say, as its getting late and I'm tired. Which I'm sure you can tell by my lack of coherance in the previous few paragraphs.

Best summary, taken from a review of the film in a mainstream newspaper:

There are two types of people in the world. Those who think joss Whedon is a genius, and those who are wrong.

In other words: See it, love it.

Must... Contain... Spoilers...

Kaylee: Been more'n a year since I've had anything twixt my nethers didn't run on batteries!
Mal: I don't wanna hear that!
Jayne: I could stand to hear a little more...

Mal: Did you hear us talk?
All: Yeah.
Mal: Did you hear us fight?
Kaylee: No.
Mal: Trap.

Mal: Now, if I'm not back in an hour, I want you to take this ship, take off, and you come and rescue me.
Zoe: What, and risk my new ship?

Sigh.

So much I want to say about this movie, but I'll allow a few days of spoiler-free talk before I get into it. All I will say is I wish everyone didn't die. *sigh*