Fun with ti leaves

I went to the dance rehearsal for the 1st years' luau yesterday afternoon, and I ended up helping out with the preparation for tonight's show. Primarily, I learned to make leis out of ti leaves. A very cool skill to pick up. Incidentally, I also learned that Britney Spears and Vanilla Ice are part of the hula tradition. Who knew?

Last night, we went to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with Gina's classmate Dean and his fiancee. Dean and I are both big fans of the novel (he much more so than me...he's seen the BBC version and listened to the radio serial), so from our perspectives, the changes in the movie were disappointing. I guess that's inevitable; I just thought the changes were unnecessary and didn't make the story any better, unlike in say, Lord of the Rings. Anyway, it was still exciting to see the book realized on screen, and it captured a few of the more clever points of the book. Sam Rockwell is awesome in everything he does (he steals the show in Galaxy Quest), and this movie is no exception, but Mos Def was also excellent. If you do check it out, just be prepared for some weird, British humor.

As a sidenote, the theater was freezing! Every place I go here is so cold indoors. Hawaii's the only place I know where you need to bring a jacket for going in. It's like the micro-climates of the Bay Area, only with AC instead of fog.

Real luau tonight! Can't wait to eat pig and watch some Tahitian dancing!

I'm in Hawaii and you're not

The first thing that always hits me when I get to Hawaii is that I can wear a short-sleeved t-shirt at night and still feel totally comfortable. The weather, as you might expect, is incredible. What is it about the Bay Area that causes it to get SO cold when the sun goes down? Lack of humidity? I do like the dry air of the Bay Area, but give me Hawaii nights any time.

The big event of the weekend is the med school luau, and we'll be sure to post pics (and possibly video) of Gina dancing, but mostly I'm here to sit on a beach and relax before the work travel kicks into high gear again.

By the way, the Zippy's was as good as I remembered. :)

AI 4/27

Sad...so sad... I'm seriously thinking of forgoing American Idol for the rest of the season. How the hell is Scott still in the show? He's off tune, off key, and ... ugh. He creeps me out. I definitely did not think Constantine should have been the one out tonight, but at the same time, I won't miss his narcissistic deep stare into the camera. Not one of the contestants impressed me last night. And seeing Clay in the audience made me realize how none of these contestants can compare to him or Kelly. BTW, did you know that he has sold the most records out of all the idols?
Sigh...is anyone feeling like this season is kind of boring? Or is there still hope? Or maybe I'll watch that abc show next week about all the scandals (woohoo) behind AI. Whoopee.

New Features

You might notice a couple of new things on this blog. First, you'll see a link for This Day in History below the date of each blog. Some interesting tidbits. For instance, I just learned that Marcus Aurelius was born on April 26th. Fascinating, no? :)

Also, we'll occasionally post a poll in the sidebar to the right. I thought a good one to start with would be about the summer movie season. Lots of good stuff to see! Vote!

New Stanford Stadium in 2006?

I got some news from my mole, and it looks likely that Stanford will have a new stadium for the 2006 season!

Some of the specs:

~50,000 seats
Football only (no track, no soccer)
Stadium seating
Two tiers on the sides
One tier in the endzones, with open plazas on top

Some things that still need to be decided:

Field turf vs. grass
Build inside the walls or tear everything down

It looks like construction will start immediately after this year's Notre Dame game, with double shifts for 9 months to get it done before the start of the 2006 season. Very ambitious goal, but with a certain prominent alumnus putting his full effort behind this, I don't doubt the timeline.


So it's time to say bye to the Ol' Lady. This is her last year! If you want to get good seats in the new stadium, it might not be a bad idea to get season tickets this year, when demand is low and the fanbase is still recovering from the Buddy Era.

Another time killer

Shugars comes through again. He found this Google-themed game, in which you see a sampling of images from Google's image search, and you have to guess the keyword that triggered the search.


As always, I'm posting top scores, so let me know if you can beat the score that Jason posted.

I'm also going through the site that Lisa sent me, so more games to come!

A new blog in the family

Jeremy has joined the dark side and become a blogger. Another destination on your web surfing tour. He also has a lot of cool pictures from his trips.

And you might notice that I updated the photos on the right. I decided that Ruth and Hubert's faces were just too big (and too dark...get a new flash!), so I replaced them with new ones, and I also made another change which shouldn't be too hard to find. Smoochie!

Dogs surf better than me

Hey all! I thought this picture from the Honolulu Advertiser was so cute! Randy, do you think Hana can surf? Have a good week everyone!

In case you need a time killer

My buddy Shugars sent me this online game, which is basically Atari-esque, but highly addictive. If you have time to kill, check it out, but don't say I didn't warn you (especially you students out there).


And just to raise the stakes (of pride, not money), I'm posting top scores, so let me know if you can beat the points and squares totals that I put up this weekend. And while you're at it, check out the other online games I've come across, and please, send me recommendations! I'm always looking for new ways to kill time. :)

New pictures and a new feature

Per Andrew's request, we are posting site updates here on our blog, since most people bypass the home page and don't see when something is added. We recently added two new sets of pictures, from our trip to Seattle in 2004 to visit Jackie, and from a host of sporting events that we've attended together over the past few years, including Stanford hoops and football, Broncos/Raiders, and the Giants at beautiful Pac Bell Park (yeah, yeah, SBC, but it was Pac Bell when we went).


We've also added a new feature, which allows you to leave comments on the different photo sections. Look for the link in the upper-right corner of each photos page. Please share your thoughts on our pics, and we'll keep posting new ones!

Home...for now

I'm finally back from the road, but I'll be hitting the trail again in May for round 2. Same cities, minus Atlanta. And this is after I head to Hawaii at the end of the month to finally see Gina after over a month. Logging lots of miles!


Last night I played in a couple of Texas Hold 'Em poker tournaments at Andrew and Hubert's place, with widely varying results. I finished second to Andrew in the first one, which was a great result for me since Andrew dominated play the entire way, and I barely managed to survive with some fortunate all-ins. Then I busted out first in the second one, going all-in with top pair 10's and losing to pocket queens. Hubert ended up winning, though I didn't see any of it since I was playing Monkey Ball. (Hmm, coincidence that both hosts won? Gotta check for hidden cameras next time...) I wound up even on the day (my second place finish in the first tourney covered both my buy-ins), and thankfully I finished with better results than Ruth, who once again made it her mission to "just beat Chang." Not this time. :)

Tonight I'm going to see The Interpreter, which has gotten decent reviews, though the movie I'm really looking forward to seeing is Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, about the scumbags at Enron that manipulated the California power supply and dumped a billion dollars worth of stock while publicly reporting doctored numbers to artificially inflate the price, resulting in thousands of people getting screwed out of their retirement funds and ultimately paving the way for the recall of Gray Davis, the scapegoat of the energy crisis. Can't wait for this one to come to town. It's getting great reviews. Also coming soon: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, releasing next week, and yikes, they're already selling tickets for opening night of Revenge of the Sith!

Iolani Family Fair

This past Saturday was the Iolani Family Fair. I'll admit that it's not as big as the Punahou Carnival, and I used to think that it was pretty lame. But it is geared toward the kids with games and small rides, but, best of all, the food is terrific. And, according to my friend Priscilla, the malasadas are better. For you mainlanders out there :) , malasadas are likened to a lighter version of a fried doughnut rolled in powdered sugar. It is usually the most popular booth at fairs here in Hawaii, and people usually use up their script on this booth.

At any rate, because I hadn't been home during this time of year for the past 6 years, I had missed the fair. But this year, some of my friends and I who are back home decided to help out. Our class was doing the Hawaiian plate booth (my dad's was doing Jamba Juice). I had a ton of fun catching up with some of my classmates that I hadn't seen since graduation and seeing how many lau laus (pork wrapped in leaves) we could stuff into a take-out carton!

You guys have to come visit me! Besides me being here and the beautiful beaches and the weather and the shopping (get the hint to come visit?), the food is the best, especially the curry as Jeremy can attest to.

Back in the Pacific Time Zone

So my work travels have now taken me to Seatown, home of Ichiro, grunge music, and endless coffee boutiques. It is gorgeous here. Everything is green, it's a little cloudy, obviously, but no rain so far, and the office is in an amazing location, with huge windows facing the bay (we're the one on the left).


Tonight I'm taking Lisa's little bro Jeff to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Jeff is a freshman Dawg at UDub who is sick of dorm food, so I'm providing him with a tasty meal, and he's providing me with the company I lacked in Denver, when I ate by myself at Flemings. Now no one will think I got stood up on a blind date. They'll just think Jeff's my date...not that there's anything wrong with that.

Ruth's Chris is supposed to be pretty good, but this'll be my first time, so we'll see how it stacks up. The name is pretty lame though. Pretty much anything with Ruth in the name is lame, in my experiences.

Happy Birthday, Eddy!

Just turned 27 today! Wish him a good one!

That Damn Elaine of Spades

I've learned over the years that Hearts reveals the true nature of people. For instance, I am not competitive at all, as most of you already know. Winning schminning. For the longest time, I didn't even know we kept score. So what if I won the first game with an amazing 6 points and managed to avoid hearts in all but two rounds? So what if the Elaine of Spades never found her way into a single one of my tricks all game? I mean really, who's keeping track? I just thought it was a great way to pass the time with friendly banter and the tunes of Throwing Copper, one of the great albums of all time.

But noooo, Ruth had to change the whole nature of the game. She had it in for me from the very beginning of the second game, despite the fact that she is my one and only Xanga buddy, and I have shown her nothing but respect and compassion during the time that I've known her, particularly when we play Game Cube or cards. I believe the word 'nurturing' wouldn't be too far off target in describing the way I've always treated her. No trash-talking in our relationship, no attempts at sabotage. But despite all this, and despite the fact that Hubert (her boyfriend, no less...why would she want to see him succeed???) was running away with the game, she continued to target ME, repeatedly dropping that damn Elaine of Spades on little ol' harmless ME! In her words: "As long as I beat Chang..." Well, mission accomplished, LAH...DEE...DAH! Hubert dominated us by 44 points, but in the only count that apparently mattered, Ruth beat me by 4 points, and then went on to celebrate in a shockingly classless manner: she high-fived someone right in front of me! The nerve!

Just goes to show that in life, one Lo is enough. And I mean c'mon, which one would you choose, Ruth (left) or Alan?

Tax Day in Mile High City

Travel isn't as fun when you're alone or doing it for work. I guess that could go for a few things, but I won't go there.

I'm now in Denver, home of the the Broncos and UH alums Ashley Lelie and Jason Elam. Used to be the home for a bunch of Stanford players, too, including John Elway, Ed McCaffrey, Darrien Gordon, and Donnie Spragan. But I digress. The city is beautiful and clean, and there are patches of snow everywhere due to the blizzard earlier in the week, but the weather is great now (low 70's and sunny).


I ate at Flemings Prime Steakhouse tonight, right near my hotel, and the food was excellent. I felt pretty weird eating alone in such a nice restaurant, as though everyone was thinking I had been stood up on a blind date (you think she came in, saw what you looked like, then left?). And I didn't even get free crab cakes! Well, I suppose everything was free. I'm not accustomed to paying for meals.

One more day of training, and then it's back to the Bay Area for a couple of days before getting back on a plane, this time to Seattle . I'm looking forward to my trip to Hawaii at the end of the month, but at this point, I just want to sleep in my own bed.

AI Update

I must say that last night's American Idol was much better than that of the previous week's. You could tell that most of the contestants had no clue as to the context of the Broadway play their song came from.

So, the show's theme was performing a song that came out in the year each was born. I'm definitely starting to feel old when someone did a song from 1985! I don't really have a clear favorite anymore. But I think I've decided to switch my loyalties from Anwar and Anthony to Constantine and Carrie. Anwar is plain boring, although he still has a wonderful voice. And Anthony just isn't as good as I once thought him to be. Constantine's rendition of "Bohemian Rhapsody" was awesome. Sooo good! Half of me wanted him to do the part with "mama mia...", and half of me didn't. :) I thought Carrie was really good, too, and I was happy to hear her step out of her usually country-ish songs. But she needs to start showing some personality or life in her when she sings.

Sigh... still there isn't anyone that compares to Clay.
What did you all think?

Rainy Hotlanta

Too late for the Masters, I'm here in muggy, rainy Georgia, visiting the Google Atlanta office for training. It's my first time in the Peach State. Unfortunately, my buddy Alan has moved North to Ohio, so it's purely a business trip.

With this trip, I have now been to Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin. Only 12 of 50 states, and that includes three (CO, NJ, PA) that have only been airport stopovers. Of course, that will change on Thursday, when I head to Denver to train the Google office there, but it won't add to my state total.

Anyone out there been to all 50 states? I still have a loooong way to go.

Tiger's back...almost

Wow, golf can occasionally be thrilling, dare I say exhilirating, and today was one of those days. Tiger poured in seven straight birdies at one point to take a commanding lead in the Masters, but unlike in past years, when he would step on everyone else's throats and coast to victory, he let things slip, and Chris DiMarco hung on, trailing Tiger by only one through fifteen holes.

Then on sixteen, Tiger hit maybe the best golf shot I've ever seen, considering the circumstances. Facing a tough shot from the rough with DiMarco looking at a makeable putt to tie the match, he pitched to about 25 feet left of the hole, then watched as it funneled down the break, perfectly on line, stopping for a full two seconds on the edge of the cup before dropping in on its last revolution. Only Tiger. It was as if the ball paused to show its Nike swoosh before deciding to drop in. The gallery predictably went nuts, but it was especially entertaining to see these two huge black guys in the background hugging each other and publicly losing their minds. You wouldn't bat an eye if you saw that kind of display after a nasty dunk or a touchdown, but after a pitch shot? In Georgia?


Then DiMarco missed his putt, and Tiger again looked like a lock with a 2-stroke lead with two to play. Dormie. But in very un-Tiger-like fashion, he opened the door by bogeying the last two holes, and DiMarco forced a sudden-death playoff. Give DiMarco a lot of credit, though. He was the only one to hang within six shots of Tiger.

Tiger recovered and made quick work of the playoff, sinking a birdie putt from pretty much the exact same spot Lefty drained his last year to win his first major. By comparison, this is Tiger's fourth Green Jacket and ninth major victory overall.

Tiger had gone ten straight majors without winning one, after winning seven of the previous eleven, so this must have been a huge relief to him. He's not all the way back, but he's on his way, and I may just start watching golf again. When in contention, he's the only one to make golf this exciting.

Are you a fellow Loser?

That would be the term for the Lost faithful, in the vein of Trekker, X-phile, etc. The show made this week's cover of Entertainment Weekly, featuring the men of the show (in Oahu, I am obligated to point out), but not including the Korean! We got shafted! Don't they know that Korean television is the hottest thing going?



Speaking of television (and really, what else do I post about these days), The Daily Show wih Jon Stewart never fails to make me laugh. I was very late to this show, catching an occasional episode back in the day, but now I'm addicted, and Comedy Central makes it easy to catch, with airings throughout the day. The show tends to skew liberal, though Stewart (a noted liberal) says it's because the show makes fun of whoever is in power, and the Republicans are the ones in power now. I didn't watch during the Clinton days, so I can't attest to that, but I'm guessing they had plenty to make fun of back then, too.

One recent skit that killed: our attorney general defending the Patriot Act's legitimacy due to the world climate, and Stewart saying something to the effect of, "Yeah, because constitutionally questionable legislation rushed through during times of world conflict never goes wrong, right guys?", directing his comments to an inset of interned Japanese Americans. Then in response to the crowd's ooh's, "What? It was camp!"

Not necessarily a fair thing to do, attaching the Patriot Act to the Japanese internment, but he wasn't really making fun of the Patriot Act itself. He was making fun of Gonzales' lame justification for its renewal, the exact kind of justification that I'm sure was used back in the 1940's by FDR.

The show also railed on the Bush administration for repeatedly and transparently trying to connect itself with the Pope by referring to the administration's belief in the "Culture of Life", aka pro-life. But when asked by a reporter how he could claim this shared belief when the Pope is ardently anti-death penalty, and Bush is...um, not...McClellan said that this was not a time to discuss such things. Hey, believe what you want to believe, but if you are going to try scoring cheap PR points for sharing a belief with the Pope, then stand up to questions about where your beliefs differ as well. Or just leave the whole thing alone. You can't have it both ways.

My wish is about to come true

WOW. That was an EPIC MELTDOWN by Angie. She gagged. 20 minutes to go in this episode, but if she doesn't get the boot, I'll be shocked. I have never seen a worse presentation. Um, uh, er, uh...PAINFUL. And Chris loses a credit card worth thousands? Guy has no game.

Of course, when EVERYTHING goes wrong, it's sometimes hard to single out one person to blame, and the anvil falls on the project manager...in this case, Alex. But in the end, Angie's choke was so bad, I don't see her surviving.

Tana is funky looking, but she's damn good. Great leader, great contributor, a little too much personality, but no shame about it, which makes it kinda cool. Plus, it's time for a girl to win. She's the odds-on favorite now, despite the lack of a college degree.

Okay, board room time, bye bye Angie! We'll see if I'm right.

Wednesday is the new Must See TV

Lots of good stuff on TV last night. With the loss of Friends and the loss of interest in Survivor, Wednesday has become my new favorite night of television.

The season finale of West Wing was excellent (and the season as a whole brought the show back from the dead). Santos won the nomination, Leo was added to the ticket, and the showdown against Vinick is now set up for next season. There was a lot of story to squeeze into a short amount of time, so the timeline was compressed, but it kept things moving, which was great. Back when Bartlett was running for re-election, the process really dragged, and the show got boring. Just re-elect the guy already. This time around, I think they got it right. I just wish the season wasn't over in early April. Very unusual. There's still a full 6 or 7 weeks remaining in the season!

If you aren't watching Lost, you should be. I've missed a few episodes, unfortunately, but I plan on catching up via summer reruns or DVD (coming out in September). Last night's episode was especially engrossing, and not just because a major character died. I love the way in which they intertwine the current events with one of the main character's back story. It's a great way to get the audience deeper into the characters, which would otherwise be difficult to pull off on a show contained completely on an island. This time it was Dr. Jack, and we learn that he got married to the blonde girl from Ed (don't know her name, but she's attractive). We also get a sense of his intensity as a doctor, which informs the scenes with Boone later on. Great stuff. The scenes from next week's episode looked very intriguing. Does Sayid kill Locke? If he does, he deserves it, the bastard.

Finally, Nikko Smith was voted out of American Idol, and I'm not sorry to see him go, even though he is Ozzie Smith's son. He wasn't crap; he was just blah. But in the bigger picture, I'm starting to get bored with all the contestants, like I did last year, and without someone to really root for, I'm going to lose interest completely and stop watching. I missed season one, so I can't comment on it (though Kelly is a good singer), but season two was fun TV, with the duel between two guys who could really sing, especially Clay. If things don't get better soon, I am going to cut my losses, though I have to think part of the problem this past week was an awful theme (Broadway), or at least awful song selection within the theme. Why do people pick such boring, lame-ass songs?

On tap for today, The Apprentice 3. Here's hoping Angie or Chris gets the boot. Can't stand either of 'em.

New Medical School

On Monday, my classmates and I finally had our first class in our new medical school building! It's so nice not to be in our old building, which was so run down and was made worse by the flood last October. Since then, we have been holding class at various hospitals and schools in Honolulu. But now we finally have our own place complete with lecture rooms, patient simulated center, telecommunications rooms, library, bookstore, and a cafeteria that is run by the cooking students at a local community college. The view is also terrific; you can see Diamond Head, and we are located next to Kakaako Park which borders the ocean. See some pictures on the photos page!

Google Maps Incorporates Keyhole

In case you were looking for ways to kill time at work today, check out the updated version of Google Maps, and play around with the new satellite imagery. It's not fully fleshed out yet, but it's still pretty amazing.

Some cool examples:

Disneyland
Magic Mountain
Stanford

If you find any places worth sharing, post the links here.

By the way, if you hadn't noticed, Google has also expanded the storage for Gmail accounts to over 2 gigs (and counting).

Gerald Wins NCAA Tournament Pool

Gerald won our pool and finished in the 99.4th percentile nationally by nailing three of the four Final Four teams, both finalists, and the champion. He also had Michigan St. getting to the Great Eight, which is further than most had them going. Nice job! He beat 57 other entries in our pool, though some don't really count, like Matt Lai's bracket with Kansas winning it all. I mean, c'mon, we all knew Bucknell was going to knock them out in the first round.

As usual, Gina finished ahead of me, coming in a very respectable 8th to my 10th and 11th. She would have finished 2nd overall behind Ravi had Illinois pulled it off, but Sean May was just too good last night. At least we both beat the monkey.

Check out the final standings.

Isn't It Ironic, Don't You Think?

I hate the whole concept of Daylight Savings. Turning the clocks back in October is depressing. It makes the sun go down around 5pm, meaning the only sunlight I see is while walking to lunch. The only upside is that it cuts the time difference between California and Hawaii to two hours instead of three, but three hours isn't so bad, and nighttime starting at 5pm is.

So it was with great excitement that I turned my clocks forward on Saturday night. Yes, I would lose an hour of sleep, but it was worth it (and that's saying something coming from me). So what happens? A glorious, sunny weekend suddenly becomes rainy and dark. The sun could have been out until 9pm, it wouldn't have made a difference with this crappy weather hiding it all day. It's like rain on your wedding day. Oh well, at least this storm is extending ski season.

So what's the history on Daylight Savings anyway? Can anyone enlighten the rest of us? I admit I don't get it.

Annaka's Puzzle of the Week

Have a problem-solving mind? You'll love Annaka's weekly puzzles. You can find the link to her latest puzzle in the right nav bar or on our Extras page, along with the solution to the previous week's puzzle. It also archives all past puzzles. She's already up to #40!

If you are interested in receiving the weekly puzzle by email, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to annaka@gmail.com with "subscribe" in the subject line, and include the fee of one puzzle (& answer) in the body.

Pope John Paul II

I keep turning on the TV to watch the news coverage about the Pope's death. I never knew much about him before, and it has been both fascinating and sad to see how much of an influence he had, not only with the Catholic community, but with the other world religions and world leaders. To see his perseverence through illness and his unwavering faith amazes me most. Having worked with Parkinson's Disease patients for two years, I admire his courage and strength. I first went to Italy in 1995 with my parents and some family friends. I remembered listening to a sermon given by the Pope at his summer home outside of Rome (see, Latin is not a dead language!). I found a picture I had taken of him and decided to post it below. On the lighter side, it should definitely be interesting to see the formalities and the process after the Pope's death. I remember some of the details from reading Angels and Demons last summer. Ah, I wish I could be back in Vatican City... St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museum, and the Sistine Chapel are really beautiful. Check out the Vatican City pics on the Europe photos page if you have time.

Yikes, the Violence!

The critics were right; the visuals of Sin City were striking. There definitely is not another movie that looks like it. It was intensely violent (Andrew said it made Saving Private Ryan seem PG), and I was grateful that the visuals masked it somewhat. Some of the especially gory scenes are done silhouette-style or hidden in dark shadows. But it's still extremely graphic. I mean, it's bad enough to have castration, but I think I counted four or five.

The trailers don't depict the tenor of the movie accurately. I was expecting something a little hokey, but it was very dark throughout, and wasn't at all hokey.

The movie had three mostly distinct story lines. The first one, featuring Mickey Rourke, was just okay, but Elijah Wood was surprisingly cool as a really creepy villain. Frodo no more. I enjoyed the second one best, featuring Clive Owen and Rosario Dawson. Owen was very good (I could see him as the next Bond), and Benicio Del Toro as the villain was amazing, and the only comedic relief in the entire movie. The third featured Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba, and it had the darkest story line.

I think this movie is worth checking out for yourself. It's not on my to-buy list, but I definitely got my money's worth, and it was different from anything else I've ever seen. It was also nice to be back in the theater, and I got to see the Star Wars trailer on the big screen! I could see some people not liking the style or the violence, but I enjoyed it, and I give the movie a 7.

Complaints about Chang's Movies

I would like to mention that I received a couple of comments about the rank of certain movies on Chang's movie list on the Extras page. Please feel free to post your comments to this blog! I, for one, have issues with anyone who ranks Army of Darkness number 1, and therefore, I have absolutely no respect for his list. On the other hand, I have no respect for the person out there who loves a movie about drugs coming out of asses and swimming in toilet bowls. What do you all think? Hopefully, I can post MY version of the top movies soon :)

Sin City, anyone?

The new movie Sin City, based on the work of pulp comic writer Frank Miller, came out on Friday, and it sounds like I'm going to see it tonight. I haven't exactly been dying to see this movie, but I have been dying to see any movie, since there's been nothing but crap so far this year. Like I mentioned below, I have yet to see a single movie released in 2005. This one looks a little hokey with the weird visuals, so I'm skeptical.

Okay, took a quick glance at Rotten Tomatoes...turns out, the movie is getting solid reviews, and those hokey visuals are being described as groundbreaking and pioneering. So what the hell do I know. I'd rather my expectations remain low.

The movie does have a HUGE name cast. Clive Owen, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood (Frodo!), Benicio Del Toro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Michael Madsen, Jaime King, Nick Stahl (the older John Connor), Brittany Murphy (the skank), and...Mickey Rourke? Whoa, what's the last good thing that guy's done? Anyway, this one is ripe for six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Hey, weren't Mickey Rourke and Kevin Bacon in The Diner together? Wow, nailed two birds with just one stone.

I'll write a review tonight and let you know what I think.

Long Fantasy Season Nearing End

There's a reason I do better in fantasy football than basketball. I just don't have the patience to monitor things on a daily basis for an 82-game season. I burn out. In football, I check in a couple of times a week, set my line-up once, and I'm all set. 16-game season. Easy. In basketball, get sick of tracking things, and I end up playing gimps for long stretches at a time. I played Baron Davis for a full month while he was out, and I've been playing Antawn Jamison the last two weeks. Yet somehow I snuck into the playoffs for my head-to-head league, and I didn't even realize the playoffs had already started until I checked to see what I had to do in order to qualify...I guess other folks are even more burned out than me. I can't even take credit for drafting my team, since Yahoo's prerankings did it for me.

I finally got knocked out of my survivor hoops league, by Andrew. He and I are actually the inventors of the proprietary league, in which seven GM's begin the season, and each month the bottom team is eliminated, and the rest of the teams draft his players, with the worst remaining team picking first. A redistribution of wealth, if you will. It's now down to him and Hubert, the king of survivor fantasy leagues, and the king has pretty much locked it up (he also won our football survivor league). I'm hoping I can mirror Hubert's double championship performance on the head-to-head side (I won our football league), though if I want a real chance I probably need to stop playing guys who don't even suit up anymore.

Ruth (the defending champ) and Andrew are the top seeds in the head-to-head league and get a bye this week, while Hubert didn't even make the playoffs (10th place, LOSER!). I guess that makes Andrew the king of fantasy basketball this year, though I'm prone to thinking that he cheats, since he works for Yahoo, and we are using Yahoo as our fantasy platform, so he's probably able to manipulate things from the inside. He cheats really badly at Mario Party, too.

So who among you are the insane fanatics who play fantasy baseball? I've barely managed to get through basketball season; I can't even imagine trying to manage a league that has twice the games. 162 games! And too many players, too. Bonds, Ichiro, and...I'm spent. I give up. You guys are crazy.