Box office tidbits (and contest!)

After the Memorial Day weekend, Revenge of the Sith is up to $271 million. At this pace, high 300's is looking likely, though 400 is now doubtful. It'll probably finish ranked anywhere between 7 and 10 all time, number 3 among the Star Wars films (Episodes IV and I ranking ahead).

My favorite site for box office news is Box Office Mojo. You can view daily grosses for every movie, see grosses by actor, and also see the records by weekend, by year, and for all time.

Since Arballo and I have already done the work figuring this stuff out (don't ask why, we're just really random like that), here are some of the top actors in terms of number of movies that reached $100 million domestically at the box office (keep in mind this includes quick cameos and voice work):

14 Tom Hanks
13 Tom Cruise
11 Harrison Ford
11 Samuel L. Jackson
11 Eddie Murphy
10 Julia Roberts
10 Mel Gibson

Free dinner if you can name three other actors who have at least 9 (I can think of four, but there are probably more).

I love the character actors who have been fortunate enough to have participated in two major trilogies, like Ian McKellen (X-Men and LOTR), or Hugo Weaving (Matrix and LOTR). And then there is Orlando Bloom, who has been in only 7 major releases in his entire career, with a whopping average domestic gross of $232,285,025 per film!!!

The long ride home

When traveling by car, here are some rules by which you should abide:

Rule #1: Do not try to drive out of town during early rush hour at the beginning of a long holiday weekend. I made it as far as Gilroy at around 3:30pm on Friday, saw traffic backed up from the Gilroy pass to 101, and headed back home. Not as bad as Thanksgiving 2000, but that's not saying much, right G?

Rule #2: Do not drive when sleepy. I made it back on the road around 2:30am, after napping a few hours, and the roads were thankfully empty. There would have been another car to keep me company, but it ran itself off the road going through Gilroy, missing a left curve and shooting into a grassy ditch. I only saw the aftermath, but at three in the morning, I assumed it was a sleepy driver. Yikes. I had my own bouts of sleepiness, but they were overcome by...

Rule #3: Load up the I-Pod. A not-so-well-kept secret (and now the cat is really out of the bag) is that the Backstreet Boys' I Want It That Way is the best song at helping me stay awake on road trips. I have no idea why that is. Any theories? It is the custom ring tone for Gina's phone calls, so maybe there's something to that... Number two on my list of wake-up songs is DMB's Ants Marching.

I also listened to a healthy dose of Linkin Park (courtesy of Andrew, thanks very much), Live, The Offspring, and Guns N Roses. The Offspring is considerably more dangerous to listen to than any other band, because not only are their high-adrenaline songs set at a much higher volume than any other, but they are also the soundtrack for Crazy Taxi, a game for which I've logged a large chunk of time, and which is therefore responsible for the Pavlovian response I have to The Offspring's signature riffs: put the pedal to the metal. Kinda like when I hear the Star Wars theme, and I suddenly imagine myself in a bright red Ferrari, flying through the hilly streets of Chicago (man, we got to do that again!).

As a result, I got home in five hours, just an hour and a half longer than it took me to get to John Wayne Airport from LA last Friday (365 miles vs. 45 miles). Good thing my I-Pod is up to 800 songs, amounting to just over 3GB's. I still have 17 more GB's to fill up, so send me your music files!

Get Lost

If you haven't watched Lost, you've missed out on the most engrossing first season of a show I've ever seen. It's the water cooler show at work, and the one thing everyone came away saying after last week's episode was how emotional it was. Sounds ridiculous, perhaps, to get so worked up about a show, but it says a lot about the writers' abilities to effectively create such compelling characters and build the show around their stories. Yes, there is a healthy dose of mystery involved, too, and I'm dying to know what the island security system is, or what's down the hatch, but mostly I watch to see the characters' back stories unfold.


Last week, Sawyer finally tells Jack about his chance meeting with Jack's estranged father in Australia, and what his father said about Jack prior to his death. Whew, kleenex moment. It was awesome to see that side in Sawyer, since we knew he had it in him, but prior to that he'd spent most of his time being an ass. He did hold the info till now, after all.

Then we get more insight into where Jin and Sun's relationship soured, and in the present day we see them reconcile, yet Jin still chooses to leave on the raft, because he's driven to save Sun. Damn, where'd that kleenex go? Being Korean myself, these two are my favorites to follow. How many Asians have had prominent protagonistic roles on mainstream television?

Walt gives his dog to Shannon, whose brother died midseason, because he sees the same need in Shannon that he had when his mother died: someone to talk to (sniff). And finally we see the raft set sail, and there's a genuine feeling of sadness that they are leaving. Great episode, lots of emotion.

And that was merely the setup for the two-hour finale! More great flashbacks, with backstories weaving in and out of each other. But my favorite part was when the French woman steals Claire's baby because she hears the others say that they are going after the kid, but then WHAM, we find out the hard way that she takes the wrong kid!!! It's Walt that they want, and they get him off the raft! At least that was my interpretation.

I was screaming after the first ten minutes of the episode. Yikes, I totally should have seen that coming! It was pretty cruel to introduce a new character, build him up over a couple of episodes, and then blow him up. It was kinda like West Wing with Mark Harmon, except it was done so much better here, and I loved it. That Mark Harmon thing on West Wing just pissed me off.

The season ends, predictably, with lots of cliffhangers, and we are presented with more questions than answers. Walt is kidnapped, the raft blows up, Jack and Locke look down the shaft of the hatch they just blew open, and...fade to black. Only four months till the next episode. GRRR!

Word is that the DVD of season one will be coming out in September. I'm definitely buying. If they show reruns this summer, check them out! Be a Loser!

Is it just me...

Or is anyone else a big fan of the latest Mentos commercial (see it here), with all the birds and that infuriatingly catchy tune they produce with their different chirps?

I wonder if it's a real song, or just a tune that they created. Regardless, it's genius. And I'm thinking it is just me.

Mind-boggling new poll

In keeping with the Star Wars theme, a truly revealing and philosophical new poll. Give this much thought, you must.

Another Star Wars Puzzler

While checking out the key scenes of Return of the Jedi to see the continuity between the two trilogies, I realized another obvious inconsistency. Lucas made the decision to replace the old Anakin with Hayden Christensen in the final scene:


If Anakin shows up as his younger self, why the heck are Obi-Wan and Yoda still old? If you can answer that for me, you get a gold star.

Last 4th Season AI blog

I cannot believe that it is only the fourth season of American Idol. It seems so long ago that Jeremy, Ravi, and Andrew were going gaga over one of the 1st season contestants. Curious, I watched the final episode and the rest is history.
I will try to tell myself, yet again, that I will not watch the show next season. It's all the same as was evident by tonight's show. Yawn! The songs and the contestants were okay, but it seemed so anti-climatic, anti-exciting. I was actually bored! Bo was good but again, boring. Carrie was more impressive, but she was off-pitch more often and seemed to think that every note was her last and tried belting everything (don't get me wrong...I was impressed, but it seemed too much). Oh, well. My prediction is that the winner will sell barely more albums than Fantasia. Am I wrong or just cynical? :)

New Google Homepage Options

Google has finally gone portal, at least in beta form. Check out my new home page:


You can choose the different sections to add, drag and drop them into place right there on the page, and pretty soon you'll be able to add RSS feeds of articles from your favorite sites, sports scores, etc. My favorite part is definitely having Gmail accessible right there, though the other features are pretty handy as well.

Check it out at google.com/ig, and bookmark the page for future use. Because it is in beta, the setting is not sticky, so you have to change any google.com links to google.com/ig. Otherwise you'll see the standard homepage. Hope you enjoy!

Star Wars Mistake

I watched The Empire Strikes Back tonight, to remind myself of the high quality of the original trilogy (amazing movie), and it hit me. The most obvious mistake of the six movies, and yet it's eluded me until now.

The emperor (who was a different dude in the original TESB, but in the DVD edition is the same dude as in all the other movies) is talking to Vader about Luke, and how he is the son of Anakin Skywalker, and Vader asks how this is possible, and the emperor tells him to search his feelings, he'll know it to be true, etc. But wait, he doesn't have to search his feelings to know. He just has to look at the last name. How many Skywalkers who are strong with the force can there be? Which raises the obvious question: what the hell were Obi-Wan and Yoda thinking when they decided to name him Luke Skywalker??? If they were trying to hide him from the Siths, why didn't they name him Luke Kim? Truly mind-boggling.

Anyway, I'm going to go see Episode III again tomorrow night with DanFran, who still hasn't seen it a first time. If anyone else wants to come, you are more than welcome! Russ, wanna drive up here for a fourth showing? Or have you already moved beyond four?

Aaron and Annie's Wedding

Yesterday, my high school friend, Aaron, and Annie got married! He is my first Iolani friend to get married, and all I can say is that I want to attend more (hint hint, you guys better hurry up!).

So, the day started off bright and early with a clinical skills exam at 7:30, in which we had to interview 3 fake patients and check off if we asked pertinent positives and negatives in their history (sort of like one of the board exam in 4th year). I then booked it over to my high school friend, Jeri's house, and we just made it to the ceremony at the Ihilani Hotel, which is about 40 minutes from Waikiki. It was a gorgeous day, and the bride and groom looked so wonderful! The hotel is also stunning, and I've included pictures here. I think Chang and I may need to take a poll on which hotel to have ours at (I think the Mandarin for now is still in the lead since it's near my house! It was good to see catch up with some people I hadn't seen in awhile, including Cathy Ogawa (Stanford, Class of `01) who knew the bride. I think Annie may also know another one of my friends from Stanfords...such a small world. Everything went smoothly even though a little birdie told me that Aaron mistakenly may have thrown out Annie's original bridal shoes??? :)

Congrats again to the new bride and groom!

My SoCal Odyssey

Homer-esque? You decide. (No, not that Homer)

Monday - I flew into John Wayne and relaxed in the hotel. Good start to the week!

Tuesday - I trained the Irvine team, then I headed up to my parents' place for dinner. Mmm, home-cooked Korean beef. Truly doesn't get better than that. Afterwards, I went to Russell's, and we watched the key parts of Episode II as a refresher for the next day, since I didn't really remember much of it.

Wednesday - I presented to an ad agency in LA, then headed directly to The Bridge, thus beginning the 8 and 1/2 hour wait for Episode III. It was a long time to wait, but it really did fly right by hanging out with Russ, and I enjoyed the experience, including the movie. There's no way to watch a movie like Star Wars but with a big, enthusiastic crowd on the opening weekend. Afterwards, I crashed at Russell's place and got very little sleep. But at least I was able to wake up and wish Joanne a happy birthday! (I should probably rephrase that, but whatever, I'm really tired)

Thursday - I presented to two more ad agencies in a disheveled state, then once again headed to my parents' place. This time we went out to eat, at (what else?) a Korean BBQ restaurant. Not as good as Mom's cooking, but still damn good. And I was able to treat! (Though if one were to put a finer point on it, Google was really the one treating)

Friday - Loooong day. It started at 8:30am from Irvine with a 1 and 1/2 hour drive up to Topanga Canyon (isn't that the name of the girl from that show?) to meet with an ad agency. After a 2 and 1/2 hour meeting, I headed down to LA for another agency meeting (the final one of the week!), where the entire building had a scheduled fire drill right in the middle of my presentation. Felt like elementary school. After finishing up at 3:30pm, we quickly hit the road so that I could make my 6:45pm flight out of John Wayne, 45 miles away. Think about this one...rushing out of LA at 3:30pm to make a commuter flight (which loads ten minutes before takeoff) 3 hours and 15 minutes away at an airport (small, mostly empty, with no lines) 45 miles away. Ridiculous, you say? Well, I missed my flight. Didn't get there until 7p freakin' m. I even passed by Sirens on the long journey (a fatal accident on the 405 was part of the problem). Sirens, Homer? Never mind.

I had almost forgotten how bad traffic can get in LA, but I've snapped out of it. I did manage to get onto the next flight via standby, at 8:20pm, and now, finally, HOME!

Time for some tennis, hearts, and Star Wars. And lots of sleep. :)

Can't wait to see Episode IV again!

After watching Episode III last night, I wanted to immediately watch Episode IV, to see how everything fit together, and I would have if I didn't have presentations to give a few hours afterwards.

The best thing about Episode III is the way it fills in the gaps of the Star Wars puzzle. All the little things that created continuity, like Bail Organa's ship (Leia's blockade runner at the beginning of Episode IV), Obi Wan grabbing Anakin's light saber after chopping him up (and giving it to Luke in IV), the Emperor getting his face mangled and looking exactly like in later episodes, Yoda telling Obi Wan to learn immortality, the emperor's Y-Wing, the tie-fighter-looking ship that Anakin flies, the star destroyers...all really cool.

There were three main issues I had with the movie, and they are all related.

1) Did anyone else get the sense that there were two or three Anakin/Padme scenes that were completely useless? They'd be on screen together for a couple of minutes, sharing some lame dialogue, presumably to establish their deep love or something, yet after the scene was done, you realize it didn't contribute anything, plot-wise or emotionally. AT ALL. Really bad writing. An awful job of establishing Anakin's desperation, which ultimately leads to his downfall. And this applies to the last movie, too.

2) Either Hayden Christensen is an awful actor or Lucas is an awful director (methinks neither is without blame). He had some of the worst line readings I've ever seen. "This is an outrage." Really? An outrage? Then why so deadpan? UGH.

3) The biggest issue I had was that I never really bought into it when Anakin succumbed to the dark side, and this is the whole point of the prequels! The emotion just wasn't there. Again, it goes back to the first two issues: a piss-poor job of establishing that emotion/development in the first place, and piss-poor acting by Hayden.

But I gotta say, once he does succumb, the rest of the movie (the last hour) really rocks. I want to go see it again, but I think I'll check out episode IV before I do. Anyone up in the Bay Area want to see it again, or for the first time if you haven't managed to see it yet? I promise, it's much better than the first two prequels.

Overall, the new trilogy falls way short. Each movie had cool moments and things that built continuity with the original trilogy or shed light on how/why things happened, but they didn't do a sufficient job of building up for Anakin's fall from grace and making us care about it anymore than we already did. I only cared about it because of what it meant for the rest of the series (he's Darth Vader now!), not because of what had come beforehand, and that's just sad.

What did others think?

Happy Birthday, Joanne!

Wow, lots of May babies. What's so special about the month of August that leads to so many May births? Anyway, happy 27th, Joanne!


I also wanted to thank Russ and Joanne for letting me crash at their place after Star Wars. I was a disheveled mess the next day, getting very little sleep prior to my meetings (didn't get to bed until 4am), but thank goodness the trip is almost over. One more day of meetings, then back home!

So Russ, what are you doing for Joanne on her birthday, besides watching Star Wars THREE TIMES? :)

In line for Episode 3!

It's 8:45pm, and Russell (Roscoe to some of you) and I are in line at the Bridge in Los Angeles for the midnight showing of Episode 3, and have been since 4pm! I hope it's not like in college, when I slept out for 4 nights for the UConn/Stanford game, only to see to us get run out of the gym. The reviews have been solid, so I'm expecting to enjoy a satisfying finish to the series, despite some painful love scenes that won't be accompanied by Jeremy's inappropriate laughter to break the tension. Worth an eight-hour wait? Eh, who cares, Russ and I have been having a good time catching up and hanging out, so time has flown by anyway. And now I have free wireless thanks to the theater, so I can get some work done!




Full report to come. Time to prepare for the presentations I'm giving tomorrow, kill another hour. :)

Happy Birthday, Ruth!

Wish the young'un a happy 23rd!

We celebrated a day early at Buca di Beppo's in Palo Alto with a bunch of her friends, but here's a pic of the most important ones:


So what did Hubert get you?

Hmm, I wonder if we can convince Wikipedia to add our birthdays to their This Day in History listings. We're famous...we have websites...

Is hell freezing over?

Andrew won at hearts?!? Andrew won at anything?!?!? Better strap down the pigs. That's a 17 trillion:1 shot, doc. Much less likely than Fusili Jerry up your butt.

We played two official games tonight, both with five people. The clockwise seating was me, DanFran, Annaka, Andrew, Lisa. I won the first game with a moon shot on the last hand (oh baby!), which sent Lisa over the limit while simultaneously allowing me to pass Dan into first place. So clutch! Andrew was a responsible passer on the hand (atoning for an earlier pass that allowed Annaka to shoot), sending me the 7H, which should have ruined an otherwise perfect shooting hand, but when I led with it after taking the queen on the previous trick, everyone played under, and I was unstoppable from there. Ironically, if I had had a suited heart, I think it would have sent off alarms, and Dan probably would have taken one for the team, but because it was an innocuous 7, he figured he could duck me. BWAH HAH HAH!

In the second game, I took zero scoring tricks the entire game, and I still ended up with one point too many. Andrew beat me 77 to 78, with my 78 coming on moon shots by Dan, then Andrew on the very next hand (17 trillion:1 odds against back to back moon shots), and then a later shot by Lisa when Dan and Annaka paved the way to preserve the game; she otherwise would have gone over the limit, giving Andrew the win. Turns out they were just delaying the inevitable, because Andrew managed to just hold on anyway. The last couple hands, we were actually doing live scoring after every trick, it was that close, and I came out on the short end by one lousy point without even taking a heart or the queen once!

So all five of us shot the moon once during the night, first time I can recall that happening in all my time playing hearts. I'm guessing the odds against such an occurrence are something like 17 trillion:1.

Side note: Last week, three golfers in the same foursome holed-in-one the same par 3, which, according to experts, had a probability of, you guessed it, 17 trillion to one. As Lisa pointed out, sucks to be that fourth guy. Chump.

Additional side note: Historians have been wrong this whole time about 666 being the devil number. Apparently, it's 616. Time to change that tattoo, Annaka.

Back to the action: After the two official games, we started mixing things up, at one point playing with wild cards, but first we played a few hands with our cards face up. They took FOREVER!!! There was some serious Deep-Thought-level analysis going on before each trick (the answer is 42, in case you were wondering). The funny thing about playing face-up is that you know who you screw with each of the options in front of you. At one point, Lisa could have played one card which would result in Andrew taking the remaining 12 points, or she could have played another card which would result in Dan taking 2 points and Andrew taking the other 10. Not a big deal either way, especially since we were just screwing around and not keeping score, yet Andrew made a passionate 5-minute plea to Lisa to give Dan the 2 points (think death row inmate talking to the governor), and Lisa got so annoyed with Andrew for making her think so much about something so pointless on the eve of a big studying day that she decided to give him all 12 points. That'll show you, Yeh! Ha! (Heh heh, Yeh Ha)

Summer Movie Poll Results

Looks like the Changina reader base skews nerdy...sci-fi and comics rule the poll:

Which of the following movies are you
definitely going to see this summer?

Batman Begins	10
Chocolate Factory	6
Cinderella Man	4
Fantastic Four	8
The Island	5
Madagascar	3
Mr. and Mrs. Smith	4
Revenge of the Sith	12
War of the Worlds	9
Wedding Crashers	2

Thanks for the FlickR, Shugars!

My buddy Jason hooked me up with a free premium account of FlickR, the program responsible for the random strip of photos you see above. Yes, Andrew, it's a Yahoo product, and it's very cool. Mostly I like it for serving the random thumbnails, but it also allows you to view a slideshow of our pictures, add comments, and much more. Hope you enjoy!

How is it possible?

Fifty Starbucks within a mile of me, and not one is open at 8pm. They all close at 6pm!!! Unbelievable. It's pretty funny to see eight coffee houses on the same block in this city, yet I can't get a java chip frappuccino at 8pm.

Anyone see the penultimate Apprentice? There's no drama left. Kendra dominated. I had a feeling from the very beginning that a college grad would win. Does wonders for my ego, too, to know that a degree matters. There is a certain social maturity apparent among the book smarts that seems to be missing from the street smarts. That's a pretty broad generalization to make, but that's what this whole exercise was about, right? Maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see.

Ah, last night in the Emerald City. It's been beautiful and dry my entire stay. Very deceiving, like the city is trying to trick me into thinking it's a viable place to live some day. I had a great time wandering the city (even if I couldn't get a freakin' blended coffee). It definitely helped having someone to hang out with. Jeff and I went to a sushi house tonight, and I broadened his horizons, introducing him to the wonders of toro, sake (the salmon, not the drink...c'mon, he's underage!), hamachi, etc.

But now I'm ready to head back home, sleep in my own bed, enjoy the height and firmness of my pillow, and kick Andrew and Hubert's ass in tennis, hearts, Mario Party...pretty much everything except wood-working. They definitely have me there.

American Idol

Well, no surprise. I liked him, but it's hard not to compare him to Clay Aiken with whom he doesn't even come close to.
I always was rooting a bit for him, but ever since he sang "Incomplete" by the Backstreet Boys, he fell to the bottom of my list. NOT because he sang BSB (if you don't know by now, I'm crazy about them!) but because he was totally off-tune!
My prediction? Bo and Carrie- go Bo!

Best Seinfeld season coming to DVD!

Season 4 of Seinfeld is coming out in a week. It was one of the best seasons of TV ever, right up there with season 6 of The Simpsons. Some of the most memorable moments (I could have spent all day on this, but I limited myself):

The Contest
Jerry: But are you still master of your domain?
George: I am king of the county. You?
Jerry: Lord of the manor.
Elaine: Queen of the castle.

The Junior Mint
George: Interest, it's an amazing thing. You make money by doing nothing.
Jerry: I have some friends who base their lives on that very principal.
Geroge: Really? Who?
Jerry: No one you know.

The Airport
Jerry: Oh you know what, they've put the fudge at the bottom of the ice cream. That way you can control your fudge distribution as you eat it.
Tia: I never knew a man who knew so much about nothing.
Jerry: Thank you.

The Implants
Timmy: Did...did you just double-dip that chip?
George: Excuse me?
Timmy: You double-dipped the chip!
George: Double-dipped? What are you talking about?
Timmy: You took the chip, you took a bite...and you dipped again.
George: So?
Timmy: That's like putting your whole mouth right in the dip.

The Smelly Car
Susan: Kramer! Kramer! Kramer, open up, I know you're in there!
Jerry: What is going on?
Susan: You know what's going on? First, he vomits on me. Then, he burns down my father's cabin. And now, he's taken Mona away from me.
George: He stole your girlfriend?
Susan: Yes. She's in love with him.
George: Amazing. I drive them to lesbianism, he brings 'em back.

Happy Birthday, Mom...from the road

It's my mom's birthday today! Unfortunately, I'm up here in Seattle for work, my brother is up in the Bay Area, and my dad is in South Korea visiting family, so she's spending it alone. I'm relieved that my next (and last) stop on this work tour is Irvine, so I'll be able to see my family soon. I'll also be watching Star Wars at midnight opening night with Eddy, Steph, Joanne, and Russell, who's the most hardcore fan I know (he liked the first two a lot!). For those up in the Bay Area, let's go on Saturday!

I took Jeff out to dinner again, this time to the Union Square Grill. Excellent steak (what else?). I'm here for the rest of the week, so we're meeting up again on Thursday, but this time for sushi. At least I'm eating well. I'm also staying in a great place, the Westin towers that overlook the bay, but the one thing that hotels never get right is the pillows. Wrong height, wrong level of stiffness...makes it difficult to sleep well. Maybe I should start bringing my own...

Played tennis this past weekend and partnered with my arch-nemesis Ruth to take down Andrew and Hubert two sets to nil. It's a weird thing teaming up with one's arch-nemesis, but it worked! Rematch this weekend? I'm also up for a Hearts rematch, perhaps while waiting in a long Star Wars line. :)

Time to see who wins the Amazing Race now. It would be cool if Uchenna and Joyce win, considering they played clean, helped others, and were former WorldCom and Enron employees, so they built up some karma. As a Survivor fan, I've been rooting for Rob and Amber, but I'll just be happy if it isn't Ron and Kelly. Sample dialogue between the two (I swear this is real):

Kelly: You can't commit to anything.
Ron: Uh, I only committed to the military.
Kelly: Yeah, and you found a way out of that.
Ron: (clearly bewildered) How did I find a way out?
Kelly: You were a POW.

Whew, girl has issues.

The First Must See Movie of 2005

Entertainment Weekly asked on this week's cover, "Why aren't people going to the movies?" The answer is simple. The movies this year have sucked. Until now. Lisa and I went to The Guild in Menlo Park to check out Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, and it was a clear, compelling, and extremely aggravating breakdown of the Enron fraud.


The house was packed (and included Dorian and Marge, who we randomly ran into), which really added to the effect, because you could hear the collective "oh my gawd" or "those bastards" at the more exasperating parts of the movie (of which there are many). You'll be saying it, too, after you check it out. I wanted to smack around some of those Enron execs, so it came as a great catharsis when a San Francisco woman threw a blueberry pie in the Enron's CEO's face during his visit to the area. Everyone applauded, including me. Hey, I still remember that $500 energy bill my house had to pay back in '01.

The movie shows some interesting connections between Enron Chairman Ken Lay and (surprise, surprise) the Bush family, but unlike Fahrenheit 9/11, it didn't come off like a bad Oliver Stone conspiracy. This movie was much more effective and satisfying than Michael Moore's flick. It would have been funnier, too, if it weren't for the sad consequences of the whole mess, which included the loss of over a billion dollars in retirement funds and the political homicide of scapegoat Gray Davis (who makes an insightful and funny appearance).

This movie has a limited release, but if it is showing in your area, be sure to check it out.

New pics and need help

More pics posted! Okay, I should really get back to studying.
And oh yeah, one sentence...glad Scotty-boy is gone. Sad to say, but Anthony is going next. When will this madness called AI ever be over? I'm totally not interested in it anymore, but it keeps sucking me in every week! I think I need TV counseling...

The hardest riddle on the Internet

So says the tagline for this challenging game, which really requires you to think outside the box. The object is simple enough: get to the next level. But you have to be fairly savvy to move on. It's not a traditional game where you kill robots or clear blocks. You have to figure out vague hints that will lead you to the solution. It's like an online scavenger hunt. Good luck, and as always, let me know how far you get. Apparently there are about 120 levels, and I'm on level 12. I'm a tenth of the way there!

New Pics

Hi all! I just uploaded the pictures from this past weekend of Chang's visit to Hawaii. Check out the photos page if you guys have time and want to procrastinate. :)