Getting better

Well, once I finally got to Vancouver, things got a little better. The conference I'm attending is pretty interesting so far. Also, the food's good, and my hotel room came equipped with a bathrobe and a really deep bathtub with armrests.

Today I took some time for myself, and walked to Stanley Park. I rented a bicycle and rode around the park along the sea wall (thanks for the tip, Tito!) – this little trek is probably what I’ll remember most about this trip. I took some pictures, but the weather was somewhat cloudy today and the pics aren’t that great. When I get home, maybe I’ll put some of them on Flickr.

While in the park, I saw some black squirrels! I didn’t even know they had black squirrels!

It got worse

So I finally got on the flight that I had to wait seven hours for. We taxied out to the runway, and then the pilot announced that there were about fifty planes ahead of us for takeoff. Yes, fifty. There had been a bunch of delays due to bad weather.

An hour and a half or so later, we were next in line for takeoff, when we had to go back to the gate, so two passengers could be escorted off the plane for smoking in the lavatory. We also had to get more fuel, since we had been rolling around on the tarmac for an hour and a half. Finally we took off, and four hours later I got to Vancouver. It’s after 4am local time, which makes it 7am Eastern… I've been traveling for 23 hours. I'm going to bed now.

delayed in O'Hare

So I killed a little time in O'Hare by having a couple of oversized, overpriced beers and a buffalo chicken salad, and then I headed for the gate. There I found out that my connecting flight, after a five hour layover, is going to be another couple of hours late. Recalculating everything to Eastern time, this means that I left home around 8am and will ultimately get to my destination around 3am. THIS SUCKS.

X-Men: The Last Stand

My initial reaction to the latest X-Men movie was "Well, that was pretty good." I enjoyed watching the hour and a half filled with explosions, insane property damage, and brawls filled with crazy mutant powers. But now that I've had more time to reflect, I think the film was somewhat lacking.

I don't know much about the politics behind the making of the film, but what I've read suggests that, after the replacement director was brought in (the original director left to do the new Superman movie), the studio put a lot of pressure on the filmmakers to get the film done with a tight production schedule and a tight budget. And these pressures seem to be evident in the final product.

The pacing is hurried, as the movie rushes from one battle to the next, without bothering to do much character development in the meantime. It almost feels like were supposed to take the first two X-Men movies as the character development for this third chapter. If you don't already know who the characters are and why they're motivated to do what they do, this film will only give you the surface. I think the only character in this movie with any emotional resonance is Mystique, and her role is limited.

There are several deaths in the film (although in comic books, death is rarely permanent), but one of the deaths in particular annoyed me: the death of a major character happens off-screen. Jean Grey becomes Phoenix (sort of) in this movie, but any fan of the comic book will feel disappointed, if not insulted, by this version of the Phoenix Saga. There’s also a scene involving combat with a Sentinel (a giant, mutant-hunting robot), but all we see are eyes like headlights shining out of the darkness, before Wolverine does his thing (also off-screen) and takes it out.

There is one hilarious moment in the movie, a line of dialogue that I can't believe the filmmakers actually included, but it's only funny if you’ve seen a particular X-Men spoof that's floating around on the Web. Kinda like how the pre-movie trailer for "Snakes on a Plane" was funny to a certain segment of the audience.

In a nutshell, I sort of feel like an opportunity was wasted. The richness of the X-Men mythology could have fueled a whole series of movies, for years to come. Instead, the studio gave us an hour and a half of cool special effects. "Well, that was pretty good," I thought. It should have been great.

The Return (The Departure)!

To all my loyal readers (I think that, thanks to RSS, there are maybe 3 of you now), greetings to you after a fairly long absence. It has been a very busy few weeks, and I let my blogging activities wane somewhat as a result. But I hope to change that now, and get back into the routine of posting here more regularly.

At the moment, I’m sitting in the Raleigh/Durham airport listening (not really by choice) to a young couple arguing at the next table. I was supposed to be on a 9:30am flight to Vancouver, but I did not have proper identification, so I couldn’t get on the flight.

Here's the story: In preparation for this trip, I looked at a Vancouver tourism website a few days ago, and saw a headline reading "Passport not necessary for US travelers to Vancouver!" I guess I should have clicked the link and read more, because it turns out that, if I don’t have a passport, I should instead have with me a copy of my birth certificate.

So I had to drive home from the airport, dig through some file drawers to find my birth certificate, and rush back to the airport. Now I have to wait three hours for another flight, and then I’ll have a five-hour layover in Chicago. I’ll eventually get to Vancouver around 10 or 11pm local time, instead of the 2pm I originally planned.

Like I've been saying...

Subliminal advertising, which caused a scare in the 1950s and 60s before being written off as a stunt, may work after all, new research says. I bet you don't even notice the subliminal message in this blog post.

Confusing the Normals is Fun

What happens when 50 or so people dress in blue shirts and khakis and go hang out in a Best Buy store? Thomas Crown Affair! Thomas Crown Affair!

Wonder Showzen

I'm not sure what to say about this ... I've just watched the first episode on a rented disc of Wonder Showzen, a show full of sick, twisted, offensive, adult-oriented humor, presented as a Sesame Street-style kids' show.

There is some serious shit going on here, like discordant juxtapositions of narration and imagery, such as a scene from the "tour of the hot dog factory," when a young boy's voice says "They showed us a chart where the meat comes from!" and a young girl's voice says "Yum!" as a diagram of a pig and its parts cuts to a diagram of the human male reproductive system.

Another segment, featuring a young boy as a reporter "out on the beat," is introduced with the title graphic "Beat Kids" (with fists behind the letters).

In another segment, a puppet letter "N" has sex with and is impregnated by a puppet letter "S." After some time-lapse footage of a dead wolf decomposing and being consumed by insects, the N gives birth to a baby (lowercase) letter "i". Then there's a shot of the new family standing all together, forming the image of the word "SiN". Again, in the context of a "kids' show," this is some hardcore comedy.

View at your own risk. You'll see things you won't enjoy seeing. Many people, I imagine, will be made uncomfortable by Wonder Showzen. Others will think it's hilarious. And many of the latter group will be high.

Thrilling Headgear!

The latest addition to my Flickr collecton is a pic of Thrilling Headgear, the band I played in some years ago. I sang and played a little keyboard, and I was recently (and unexpectedly) sent a photo from those days, which you can see here. Click it for the larger version on Flickr.

Hooray for Colbert

The guy over at this NC State blog has it exactly right. Stephen Colbert is an American hero. He had the chance to address George Dubya in person, to his face, before an audience of hundreds (or, if you factor in the Internet, millions) and Colbert skewered him while pretending to praise him. Watching Dubya sit there uncomfortably, not knowing how to react, would be funny if the man weren't supposed to be in charge of so much. "Decider" my ass. ITMFA.

See Colbert's speech at YouTube: [part 1] [part 2] [part 3].  See my other posts related to Colbert here and here.

Republican to English

I stumbled across this Republican-to-English Dictionary amidst the user comments on Amazon.com ... some of it is pretty funny, in a disgusting and infuriating kind of way.

I realize that one person is unlikely to rid the world of evils, but I still think it's a step in the right direction to call as much attention as possible to the parade of deceit that is the Republican party. I've said it before, I'll say it again: wake up, people. Maybe there's a hundredth monkey out there somewhere.

alternative energy sources /n./ New locations to drill for gas and oil.

bankruptcy /n./ A means of escaping debt available to corporations but not to poor people.

"burning bush" /n./ A biblical allusion to the response of the President of the United States, when asked a question by a journalist who has not been paid to inquire about non-issues.

Cheney, Dick /n./ The greater of two evils.

class warfare /n./ Any attempt to raise the minimum wage.

climate change /n./ Progress toward the blessed day when the blue states are swallowed by the oceans.

compassionate conservatism /n./ Poignant concern for the very wealthy.

creation science /n./ Pseudo-science that claims George W. Bush'sresemblance to a chimpanzee is totally coincidental.

DeLay, Tom /n./ Past tense of De Lie.

extraordinary rendition /n./ Outsourcing torture.

faith /n./ The belief that the Beatitudes (statements made by JC) include"Blessed are the rich" and "Blessed are the warmakers."

free markets /n./ Halliburton no-bid contracts at taxpayer expense.

girly-men /n./ Males who neglect opportunities to grope unwilling women.

God /n./ Senior presidential adviser.

growth /n./ 1. The justification for tax cuts for the rich. 2. What happens to the national debt when policy is made according to Definition 1.

healthy forest /n./ No tree left behind.

honesty /n./ Lies told in simple declarative sentences (e.g., "Freedom is on the march.").

House of Representatives /n./ Exclusive club; entry fee: $1 million to $5 million (See: Senate).

insanity /n./ See: staying the course.

laziness /n./ When the poor are not working.

leisure time /n./ When the wealthy are not working.

liberal(s) /n./ Followers of the Antichrist.

No Child Left Behind /riff./. There are always jobs in the military.

ownership society /n./ 1. A civilization where 1 percent of the population controls 90 percent of the wealth. 2. A political system in which all power is in the hands of the owners.

Patriot Act /n./ 1. Pre-emptive strike on American freedoms to prevent the terrorists from destroying them first. 2. The elimination of one of the reasons why they hate us.

pro-life /adj./ Valuing human life up until birth.

Senate /n./ Exclusive club; entry fee: $10 million to $30 million.

simplify /v./ To cut the taxes of Republican donors.

staying the course /interj./slang./ Continuing to perform the same actionsand expecting different results (See: insanity).

stuff happens /interj./slang./ I don't have to live in Baghdad.

voter fraud /n./ A significant minority turnout.

woman /n./ 1. Person who can be trusted to raise a child but can't be trusted to decide whether or not she wishes to have a child. 2. Person who must have all decisions regarding her reproductive functions made by men with whom she wouldn't want to have sex in the first place.