My Morning Revelation

I may be alone on this one, but I've just had my fill of Ben Stiller. I'm really tired of that guy. I need a solid year-long hiatus from him, which I don't see happening since he puts out a movie every two weeks. The world didn't need another Meet the Parents; what we do need is a sequel to Mystery Men. "I'm a pandora's box you don't wanna open!" Now that's comedy.

Amazon.com DVD Deals

Amazon is running some sweet sales on first season TV box sets right now...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Complete First Season - $14.99
Angel - Season One - $24.99
24 - Season One - $24.99
Futurama - Vol. One - $14.99
The X-Files - The Complete First Season - $34.99
The Shield - The Complete First Season - $24.99
NYPD Blue - Season One - $14.99

Most of these prices are 50-60% less than you'll find in stores.

Kids Today Are Pussies

(from the Chicago Sun-Times)

Yet another familiar school-days object may be going the way of the inkwell and the slide rule.

Encouraged by a milk industry study that shows children drink more dairy when it comes in round plastic bottles, a growing number of schools are ditching those clumsy paper half-pint cartons many of us grew up with.

Already more than 1,250 schools have switched to single-serving bottles. While that is still a tiny fraction of the nation's schools, it is a significant jump from 2000, when there were none, according to the National Dairy Council.

''Those ... square containers are awfully hard for kids,'' says New Hampshire Agriculture Commissioner Steve Taylor, who has watched the trend spread to some 320 schools in New England. ''Teachers say you can spend the whole lunch period just walking around and opening those containers.''

While the growing use of bottles in schools can partly be attributed to ease -- educators say plastic caps are easier for children to open, and round bottles fit better in their hands -- marketing savvy deserves at least as much credit.

Several years ago the milk industry decided its boxes were not visually competitive when sold alongside the relatively sexy bottles of juice and soda increasingly common in schools.

MS Office Assisted Suicide

Who Do You Love?

Okay, I'm going to try something interactive here...

Imagine tomorrow morning you are leaving civilization to live on a secluded island for the rest of your days. You can bring many belongings with you but the only form of electronic entertainment allowed is a CD player (there will be electricity on this island paradise). Now, the trick is that the only music you'll be able to listen to while you are there will be the complete works of one artist/group of your choice. You will never get new music from the artist/group, but you will be supplied with everything they've ever recorded up to this point. You won't get any radio reception on the island- this will be the only music you hear for the rest of your life. Who would you choose?

My choice is Pearl Jam. Feel free to share yours...

You Don't Say?

The 'No Shit, Sherlock' Headline of the Day goes to CNN.com for this gem:

"Holidays are hard for families of soldiers killed in Iraq."

Really? I hear figure skating is difficult for people with no legs, too. Thanks for the insight.

Monkey Bush

Thanks to Brent for sharing this link...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/oukoe_arts_bush_monkeys

Time Magazine Rant

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/19/time.moy.bush.reut/index.html

I'll never read Time Magazine again. Not even while I'm waiting to get my hair cut. They named Bush 'Person of the Year' because of his 'clear-cut election victory???' In what kind of bizarro world is 51/48 an obvious win? "Half the country hates our president, I say we name him 'Person of the Year! Surely no one will question our logic for we are Time Magazine!" What's worse is that they named him POTY in 2000 as well! Make a note kids: If you ever get the chance to send 1300 Americans to their deaths in an unnecessary, poorly-planned war, go for it! Oh, and just to be safe, you can solidify that Time Magazine cover by pushing your religious beliefs on the people and their government. Along with that, maybe see if you can role back a few unalienable rights in the process. Also, don't forget to sprinkle some bigotry across the country for good measure. Rant Over.

Okay, everytime Tony and I look at this picture we burst out laughing without fail. I feel like I need to share it with more people.

Ocean's 12 Review

The fact that Ocean's 11 came together as a highly entertaining film is nothing short of a miracle considering the amount of star power involved. And the fact that they were able to produce two entertaining movies is, well, what's bigger than a miracle? I give a great deal of the credit to Mr. Steven Soderbergh who really knows how to bring the best out of his talent. The strongest thing Ocean's 12 has going for it- and this is a stickler for me- is that it is consistent with the first film in every way. From the cast, to the story, to the camera angles...all the pieces fit together nicely once again. I still prefer the first film, but this was a very worthy sequel and remained entertaining throughout with a couple of twists along the way. Julia Roberts even earned a measure of respect from me, which I assure you is no easy task.

Torrey's Opinion:
5- Strongly Recommend
4- Recommend
3- A Mixed Bag
2- Sub-par
1- Don't Bother

Random Related Fact: According to Steven Soderbergh, Ocean's 12 is the first sequel that cost exactly the same amount as its predecessor. The film's A-List stars had to take significant pay cuts in order to keep the budget at the original $85 million mark. Soderbergh wanted to dispel the notion that a sequel needs to be more expensive to be a "bigger movie."

Canada Goes To Hell

A fantastic article I found by SF Gate Columnist, Mark Morford...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2004/12/15/notes121504.DTL&nl=fix

Holiday Flick Picks

My Top 5 films to watch during the holiday season...

1. The Nightmare Before Christmas



2. Edward Scissorhands
3. Scrooged
4. Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (original)
5. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Feel free to post your favorite holiday picks.

The Proud 48%

I've shared this site with some...if you weren't one of them, now's your chance. Even my friends from the south can't help but agree with it.

http://www.fuckthesouth.com/

Blogs & Hobbits

In an effort to keep my mind fresh now that I'm out of school, I've decided to try one of these Blog things that Howard Dean was raving about. I promise I won't be using it like one of those pathetic Live Journal dealies where people fish for sympathy with whiney posts that aren't 'supposed' to be aimed at anyone in particular but clearly are. Journals are best left at your bedside. Rather, I'm simply going to post random thoughts now and then on topics that I find interesting in my day-to-day meanderings. I'm hoping this thing lets people reply to my comments if they have something to share, but this is my first post so I'm still in the dark as to how this blog thing is gonna go down.

Anyway, onto the business at hand! Tony and I just finished the 4-hour endeavor that is the Return of the King Extended Edition. Of course the additional scenes, none of which I'll be giving away here, were just more icing on an already scrumptious cake. I can't help but feel both excited and a bit disappointed that such a phenominal cinematic adventure has officially come to an end. At the risk of sounding like a lame-ass fan boy, I really wish I could shake Peter Jackson's hand and thank him for doing justice to what quite possibly is the greatest story ever told. I truly believe that no other person on the planet could have pulled off what he and his amazingly talented team did. I am 100% certain that I will see no greater series of films in my lifetime. My friend Bryan made a great statement the other day- that he felt honored to have the LOTR films made during his generation, much like the generation before us felt about Star Wars. I couldn't agree more.

I'm a little concerned about the state of The Hobbit right now, but I'm pretty certain it will get made. MGM did own the rights to the film, but now Sony has purchased MGM and they are not going to want to just hand The Hobbit over to New Line when so much money can be made from it. The good news is that both Peter Jackson and Ian McKellen (my hero) have said that they would love to work on the film. So I'm expecting it to be made within the next 5 years. But what do I know?

Okay, I think that's a sufficient first Blog posting. I need a good night's rest before another exhilirating day of peddling consumer goods to the masses.