The [Ninja Turtles] henchmen Bebop and Rocksteady have hijacked the musical genres for us just like the Lone Ranger hijacked the William Tell Overture for our parents.

- xkcd

Monday, July 31, 2006

Better Success, witch burner

This spam subject line cracked me up today. The summer reading list is after the link. I am trying to figure out this full post and half post doojobber.

Looks like it works. Check out the rest here.

Aside from some short stories, this summer had been light on reading until July. (1) My brother gave me I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal and I tore through that like a man parched. The book may seem a little odd but the stories move well and the life is certainly an interesting one. The unbelievable will come true in all of our lives. (2) I picked up The Forever Hero by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. and I must admit to being rather disappointed. Basically, it was a watered down God-Emperor of Dune stretched into three books. Maybe it is just me, but if your hero needs to be immortal and the best at everything, I think you need to rework your plots. R.A. Salvatore, you are still on notice and will remain so until you learn to write better books. (3) I just finished If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce "Don't Call Me Ash" Campbell. I really enjoyed it for the humor and the stories about mixed success in Hollywood. I would call Bruce Campbell a very successful actor because he still works and can live his life in relative peace. Plus, HE WAS FREAKING ASH, DUDE! Ahem. I especially liked reading about the tough times and work it takes to get a movie shot, sold and distributed. (4) I am now reading Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan and Anne Druyan as part of my ongoing series, Read All the Books You Should Have in College.

Friday, July 28, 2006

Like A Train Wreck ... I Can't Look Away

Alright ... how to start. First, let me say that I use a feature on Yahoo! called My Yahoo!. It's similar to features offered by Google and many other portal companies. There are configurable sections where you can put the content of your choosing in.

I have a couple RSS feeds to news sites, airplane ticket prices, the weather, movie times, that kind of thing. The nice thing about Yahoo!'s is though that you can actually embed some regular print comics into it as well. They're the strips at a reasonable size so you can read them without having to click on anything (although they do limit you to only 3 comics).

Full Post


I've been using this feature for a while but like a year ago or so they stopped letting me have Get Fuzzy or Dilbert on the page. Fox Trot was an alright replacement for one of them, but I was having trouble finding another one. My girlfriend's a big fan of Garfield though, so I thought I would add it so I could see the strip and tell her how not funny it was (and trust me, they aren't funny). It was a fun little game, I'd read the comic to her and then ask questions like, "Was there even a joke in there?" or explain how Garfield's ridiculous facial expressions ruined what maybe could have been a slightly amusing joke.

However, last week things started getting weird. Occasionally Jon Arbuckle gets to go out on dates (they always end horribly ... with him looking like a chucklehead with a crazy bowtie and saying stupid things). He's been doing this for like 30 years now so there's not really any new ground to be broken there.

Anyway, so he manages to swing a date with this woman who has really bad amnesia (and can't remember how annoying he is ... har har har). However, mid-date he spots his dream girl who is apparently Garfield's veterinarian, Liz. She's out on a date with some dude with a massive chin and yeah.

So Jon decides to ditch his date, disguise himself as a waiter (complete with fake mustache and bad French accent), and go to the table. However, vet-lady Liz quickly recognizes him thanks to accompanying bus boy Garfield. I'm sure we can all see how this is going to end ... him getting a drink spilled on him or something and going home like an idiot. That's what always happens ... and it's never funny.

The next strip though doesn't go according to formula though and Liz declares that she actually likes Jon. It's CRAZY!! CRAZY!! I say. One of his schemes somehow ended up not working out horribly. That was only Wednesday though. It keeps getting weirder ... if you don't believe me check out today's comic here.

Anyway, I was confused by all of this yesterday so I started looking to see whether there was something going on with the strip (like Jim Davis was ending it or something) but didn't find anything except this blog: Permanent Monday.

I now have to say that I want to read Garfield every day. This blog is hilarious. No, it doesn't make fun of the comic at all ... it's the complete opposite. They analyze every panel, every word, everything and try to actually understand the Garfield world. It's awesome ... if only for its pure ridiculousness. Man, good times.

So yeah, even though I've ragged on it for quite a while now, I find myself reading and even wondering what's going on in the Garfield comic strip. If you're reading this, please consider it a cry for help. I can't escape ... I ... can't ... stop ... looking ...

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Screw it! I'm Puttin' It UP!

Ok, people, this is the new design ... I don't know if I consulted with enough people before putting it up but here you go.

This is the new design ... at least for now.

There may be some slight glitches and I did no testing on Safari so let me know if you have any problems. Otherwise, it should be Crunch Wrap Supreme.

Anyway, give me some feedback on the site below, otherwise I won't know if you appreciate my work.

Later.

[UPDATE]
It seems that on IE, images that are aligned to the left or right in a post don't show up ... I'll be working on that. Oops.

[UPDATE 2]
It seems to be working more on IE now, I don't know what the exact issue is. It has something to do with the boxing in IE CSS. I've got a work around in place to get it 90% working and I'm sure I'll get the exact problem figured out eventually ...

Monday, July 24, 2006

Any Better ... Part Deux

Ok, I remembered my flash drive today ... so here's an updated design.

I think it's the little details that really do it for me here.

Let me know what you think.


thanks.

Friday, July 21, 2006

Breaking News: Condi Sad She Couldn't Find Track Suit in Powder Blue

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice holds an emergency press briefing about her unfortunate clothing mishap.
BREAKING: Condoleeza Rice called an emergency press conference after the JC Penney track suit she had on hold was accidentally sold and she had to settle for the "less attractive" tan one.

Rice was quoted saying, "I really liked the blue one." This is the latest in a series of unfortunate incidents that she has had to deal with.

When questioned about the importance of this issue in regard to the other pressing issues, she responded "Right now, this is our number one priority."

Rated at number two was the fact the someone ate the last of her ice cream Snickers bars. Somewhere further down the list is the ongoing Hezbollah-Israeli conflict.

"It's not that I don't think that international conflicts aren't important, it's just that I really wanted that the blue track suit."

When asked about the incident President Bush simply responded, "She has a point. That was a nice track suit." When further questioned about the implications this might have on the recent escalating Mid-East conflict, he brushed off the question and left the press conference.

More information as it becomes available.

But Will It Be Funny (Y/N)?

I unfortunately got this news of Slashdot, which instantly makes it far less cool. But it seems that Michael J. Nelson, the pretty funny replacement for Joel Hodgeson, on MST3K can't stop the making fun of movies for a living.

Available for purchase now is the first of what is supposed to be a series of MP3's that, when played along with the movie, are supposed to provide the MST3K experience. The new service is called RiffTrax (don't blame me ... I didn't pick the X-TREME spelling). The first movie is Road House. You know it's good ... it's got the Swayze!

And yet, I don't know how well this will work without the 'Bots. One guy doing all the witty commentary for the entirety of the movie could get a little old. Plus, in MST3K they'd always edit the movies down so they probably showed maybe an hour and twenty minutes of the movie with breaks every 15 minutes, while this method has no such dividers.

Also, you have to provide the movie. So in the case of something like Road House, which I hopefully don't own, I'd also have to go rent it somewhere. But if they did this with movies I already own, I wouldn't mind paying $2 to get an extra 2 hours of entertainment out of it.

They also have a poll up asking what the next movie should be. I'm just hoping it's not Showgirls ... I think I lost my copy of that in the move.

Oh, and a YouTube movie in the full post of Joel Hodgeson's (moderately funny) old standup routine. Bonus: John Candy cameo!

Full Post



Thursday, July 20, 2006

An Alternate Future

Like the awesome show Sliders, you're going to be able to see how the world would be different if one little event had change ... in this case that event is the design of the Well Rounded Nerds.

The reaction to the first design was generally amiable but I think mdhatter and AG were right in their assessment that it didn't seem to catch the spirit of the WRN page.

Today, instead of doing work for a little bit, I focused on coming up with a slightly more interesting design.

It's not done yet, but I don't know if it ever will be at this pace so here it is anyway. I've also got one with a blue background in the full post.


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more blue:

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Starstruck*

Wow! I felt a need to comment on the excitement of my morning commute today. Usually it's relatively uneventful (it's a 15 minute drive ... how much can happen?). Today though, wow. It was great.

Let me first say that I love cars. I really don't know that much about how to fix them or whatever but I do have a rudimentary understanding of how they work. And I appreciate getting to see cool cars, especially ones that aren't too common.

When living in Chicago and Washington DC it's not uncommon to see some interesting vehicles. I remember back when I lived in a slightly poorer/less populated area that I would get excited at seeing things like a BMW Z3. Now though, it takes much more interesting vehicles to get my attention.

I can think of some of the cooler cars I've seen like the Bentley Coninental GT or the Aston Martin Vanquish. I also appreciate seeing rarer or imported cars. Like a VW Jetta that had the European Bora nameplate instead and still had EU tags. Or any time I see a Peugot or Alpha Romeo. Plus for some reason I enjoy seeing cars that are still branded as Datsun. Of course, some of my friends in college were less picky and would get excited when they saw a Dodge Viper.

Today though, I saw a car driving behind me that I never honestly thought I'd see on the road, a Ford GT. I remember seeing this one at the autoshow back in 2002 (in concept form I think), and always thinking it was awesome. Unlike the concept car which was a gold color I think, this one was white with blue racing stripes.

Unfortunately, we were on a road where the speed limit was 25MPH with a bus in front of me (and because of problems I've heard about the GT having, I was amazed that it seemed to be driving alright in these conditions). I was hoping it would be following me onto 395 just so I could see it completely obliterate my car on the highway but it ended up turning off right before the on ramp.

Still, it was amazing to see one of these guys out on the street and in action. It had such great low profile and wide stance, you could definitely tell it was just waiting for the right moment to tear off.

Ok, done gushing now.

* Unfortunately, it didn't actually run into me ... that would have been even cooler (and made the title have such an awesome double meaning)

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Any Better?

Ok, I've been tinkering with the existing design for a little bit and have come up with this new one:


I've also had a couple other colors in there which will be included in the full post below. I am just trying to show what I think is my favorite one here. Although actually, now that I look at it on a different monitor, the green seems much brighter than I though. Maybe the blue one below is better ...


In blue:

No color up top/white stripe:

Now that's magenta!

Plain vanilla:



Full Post

An Open Letter To Buy Viagra Online.co.uk

Dear Buy Viagra Online.co.uk, (spaces added to not help their Google rank)

I really appreciate that you spam my comments. Seriously, it's awesome. At first I would only hear from you once ever couple days or so. Now though, you are really trying contribute to my site. You post a good 30-40 comments a day.

You even seem to have brought some friends, something about lactating ladies and push walker umbrellas, I'm not really sure.

I want you to understand that as a commenter on my site, I appreciate the contributions you make towards an online discourse. Occasionally though, I do wish you would say something besides "Buy Viagra Here!" but I've heard it said that you should go with what you know. It's not like I am asking all the professional baseball players to stop posting about baseball.

Still, it would be nice if you could at least change it up a little. Perhaps some V1AgRA, or HO0diA comments just to mix it up or something.

In spite of these shortcomings, I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate all of your contributions to the online community and in the event that I am in the market for some Viagra, your site will be the first I choose.

Sincerely,

dontEATnachos

Monday, July 17, 2006

Unproductive Weekend

Ok, I know I made it sound like I was going to get a lot done this weekend with things like site redesigns and etc. Unfortunately, in the end I didn't get that much done.

I wish I could say that this is a rare occurrence but it's all too common. On Wednesday and Thursday I start having grand plans for things I'm going to accomplish over the weekend. Usually by Friday evening though, I'm more inclined to sit around watching movies than to actually get anything done.

This past weekend I was doing some work on my aunt's website. Something I told her I'd get done almost 8 months ago. I did get a design done sometime in January, and had converted it to HTML and gotten some static web pages up on my website as a demo.

Then we realized that she'd probably want something that she would be able to edit and handle herself. So I started looking into a Content Management Systems (CMS). Since her needs are pretty simple I thought that maybe a WordPress blog with a couple static pages would meet her needs. In the end though I ran into trouble with the static pages and linking so I started looking again.

Earlier this week I was visiting a pretty handy resource called Open Source CMS that lets you try out default installations of CMS packages for websites. While on the website I came across one called automate that I thought I would probably try installing. But while I was there, another user commented on this other one called Joomla! that was supposedly better.

Since Joomla! was available with push-button installation with my web hosting service, I figured I'd just try that one. I installed it and played around with it some on Friday with grand plans to do more on Saturday and Sunday.

Sadly though, not much came of it. Instead of doing that work, I futzed around town in the morning (picking up some of my mail that was still going to my old apartment) and then went running and to the gym. The rest of the day is kind of a haze but I think it involved me sitting around and watching TV.

The same thing goes for Sunday, I woke up early to get new tires put on my car I do some running and the rest of the day just kind of disappeared.

What makes it worse is that every Sunday night/Monday morning I sit there kicking myself for all the stuff I didn't get done. Why is it that when I actually have time to do these things I want to do, I don't really feel like doing them?

Oh well, back at work again and maybe the fact that I have less free time will help me get stuff done.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Download TV Shows (Legally)

Hey, I just wanted to put up a post about how the new USA show Psych (it's on tonight at 10PM EDT) is on iTunes with the pilot episode is available for download FREE. Check it out HERE.

I even received verbal confirmation from fulsome last week that he enjoyed the show. It's got that one guy from Major League and that other guy from West Wing plus some other guy that I've never seen before.

Still, with the first episode at least, the jokes were funny and the premise kind of interesting. Plus, since you can watch it at your leisure and for free like this, why not give it a try.

If only they'd told me they were going to do this before I copied it off my TiVo and converted it to MPEG-4 myself.

Check it out!

DSL Hell .... Escaped?

Well, that was anti-climactic. The tech guy came this morning, a little before 9AM. Like most of the techs, he was nice and seemed capable enough to figure out what the problem would be.

I simply let him into the building, showed him the phone line box and then went and started getting ready for work.

At a little before 10 AM he came up to say that everything should be working, there was a problem with crossed lines outside the building and that it had been fixed.

I checked my DSL and everything was working fine again.

Amazinginly, it seems like most every phone tech I deal with is pretty cool (once they actually show up). It's the customer support that you have to call that's a pain in the ass.

Anyway, we'll have to see if it's still working tonight (or if it's any more reliable than it was before).

I just wanted to say that the tech did a good job and hopefully the TiVo's insatiable thirst for downloading new scheduling information will be at least temporarily quenched.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Ach! Mein Augen!

Well, got a little bored at work today and decided to spend a couple minutes working on a new design for the ol WRN blog.

I know what you're saying, "I enjoy the horribly painful process of trying to read dark green and grey text on a dark brown background!"

I just thought it might finally be time to try to take a step forward.

This is a very rough sketch of some ideas I had and would appreciate the feedback.

Thanks.

(also, I don't remember the exact conjugation on the german. I can't remember if it's Meinen Augen -- is that a direct object one? -- or just Mein)

A couple earlier revisions in the full post.

The first attempt:

Testing it out:

Mixing it up a little:

Inching My Way Deeper Into DSL Hell



Written Last Night While on Tech Support at 2AM:

As I sit here on the the phone with obviously level 1 tech support I lament my fate.

Just 20 short minutes ago I was on the phone with a tech support guy who clearly knew what he was talking about. The 4 minutes that our conversation lasted were a breath of fresh air when it comes to tech support calls. We were breezing through the standard steps and about to make our way up to a higher level technician when my phone dropped the call.

Even though they ask me at the very beginning of the support for a number they can contact me at, the dude didn't call me back (they only call you when they decide that it's worth their time or something I suppose).

After waiting 5 minutes to see if the guy would be nice enough to call me again, I call the support number back. This time I wasn't so lucky, I got a level 1 guy who didn't speak English as his first language and was clearly reading off his script. It was kind of funny because he would pause for a couple seconds, clearly reading it in advance and then would say quite clearly in an "I'm reading this" voice whatever he was supposed to say next.

I would do fun things like short circuit his questions, telling him things I had done right before he was going to ask me to do them. Offering up little nuggets like, "Well I logged into the DSL modem and it clearly says that there is no DSL connection available." I think he had no idea what that even meant.

Eventually though, we worked through all the steps and he could file a trouble ticket.

So now I've got a tech scheduled to come out on Friday morning. I think scheduled him to come between 8-10 AM but I know that he won't come then. The techs never come when they're supposed to. My company deals with phone techs all the time and generally if you know a tech has actually shown up somewhere, you drop whatever your doing and get over there because your really have no idea the next time they would appear.

I guess we'll just have to see how it goes tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

That Was Short ... DSL Hell Begins

I knew I was in for trouble when I signed up for DSL. I mean, DSL is notorious for being flaky and Verizon customer service is even better known for being a giant bag of crap. Still, for basically a third of the cost of cable internet, I felt that the $40 offset whatever headache I would get from spotty DSL.

And the service has been spotty. I've already grown accustomed to the fact that I can't actually upload large files anywhere because at some point the DSL is going to go down and my upload will fail.

This past weekend I was trying to transfer the first episode of that new USA show Psych to my girlfriend. Our first attempt was over AIM, which usually works ok. However, with DSL my uploads are capped at basically 16K a second and the file was nearly 700MB. So about 7 hours into the transfer it crapped out. Unfortunately, AIM decided it didn't want to resume the transfer where it left off.

So then I decided I'd try to upload the file to my website and have her download it from there. Again, about 5 hours into the transfer the DSL quits.

Ok, I understand that this can happen and uploading files over 300 MB just isn't going to happen. I can even live with that.

Then Monday night I'm sitting at home and I decide that I'd like to check something on the internet. Oh wait, even though I'm connected to my wireless router, there's no internet. I go check the DSL box and it's saying that no DSL connection is available.

Fine, the DSL is down randomly again. I can deal with that, I was expecting this.

Then last night I get home from work and the DSL is still down. This is starting to get annoying I think to myself. However, I really don't know if the DSL was down all day because I never checked it in the morning. I don't want to be a jackass and call unnecesarily (plus I didn't have the Verizon customer service number). So I do a bunch of things I know tech support will suggest. I reboot my computer, the wireless router, the DSL modem. I move it from one phone jack to another. I try a different phone line. Nothing works.

So I get up this morning and the DSL is still down. After I get into work, I look up the Verizon DSL support number and call them. After successfully navigating their crazy phone scheme I finally get to a person. As we go through this process of support I make a critical error, I accidentally let it slip that I'm not at home.

That was what the tech support lady was looking for, she instantly switches to "Oh we can't help you if you're not at home" mode. I do my best to try to convince her.

I eventually throw out this, "Well, let's say I'm at home, what steps would have me take?" line. For a second that actually seems to work. She's telling me that I should reboot my computer and DSL modem, make sure there are no other phones plugged in, move it to a different phone jack.

So I tell her that I've done all those things and then, unwilling to admit that it's a problem on her end she tells me "I'm sorry sir, you've got to call from home." At this point I know that the game is up. I'm going to have to call back and go through the entire process at home just so they can get the phone tech that is required to fix the service out at some point.

Well, at least I know already that I can resign myself to the internet not working for at least a couple more days.

Maybe that $40 a month more that Comcast would cost isn't looking so bad anymore.

P.S. Interesting face: when you google dsl hell you get a sponsored link of Verizon DSL. I think that's money well spent by them. I think I will click the link just to cost them a little bit more.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

The Search for Something

Ok, hot on the ever-so-popular post of me not spending money on my car (well, I did get to spend some money on new brakes, that was fun) I'm trying to find a new coffee table. I moved into a new apartment a couple weeks ago and with the current setup no longer have side tables by my couch.

So I'm looking for a cheap coffee table. I've kind of been checking craigslist for something but I don't know if I'll notice it soon enough to actually get it if something good is listed.

However, I have found a couple tables online that looked pretty decent. Of course I would consider maybe buying them but this company is in England and I am not going to pay their crazy prices and then try to get it shipped here. That would not work.


So my latest Genius Idea (I think Chuckles owns that trademark on that) is to just try to make it myself. Unfortunately I generally have zero experience with this kind of stuff.

Naturally then, I have a couple of questions about what kind of wood to use or where you buy stuff that isn't just pine 2x4's. I've been to Home Depot and all of their 4x8's or whatever seem to be outdoor treated wood. So I was just wondering if anyone knew anything about this stuff or if I'd have to tivo like 30 billion shows of HGTV as well as doing some serious googling.

I also have a question about the source of lumber used in these kind of things. Is there a way to try to get wood that comes from a treef farm area vs. logged from a forest. I am going to be doing some more research on it here but I was just wondering if anyone else knew something about it.

For zero impact I think I could probably just buy something used and that would end up having a virtually zero impact. Or perhaps I should just do a little research and do some sort of tree offsetting donation based upon how much wood was probably cut down to make that particular piece of furniture. I don't know if that would make up for forest space lost to logging/clear cutting or whatever.

Maybe I'll just go back to scouring the Salvation Army for stuff.

Or say screw saving money and caring about the environment to not be broke, I'll get one of these other interesting coffee tables.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Pre-emptive Buyer's Remorse

This past week I've spent some time trying to find new tires for my car. It's a Mustang that currently has the stock 15" wheels. Due to my negligence (I didn't rotate the tires!) I find that I've worn out the outside tread on both of the front tires.

So, this Saturday instead of hiking with Chuckles near Great Falls I spent part of the day talking to a guy I know who works at NTB. I was thinking that since I was already going to the expense of buying new tires that I might as well upgrade to 18" wheels (and help my car look a little more sporty). I've been thinking about doing this upgrade ever since I got the car about a year and a half ago and I've spent the past 2-3 weeks reading all about wheels and tires.

Still, the NTB guy said that he couldn't get me a discount on rims there so I'd have to pay full price for them somewhere. I mean, it still would save me the cost of buying all new tires for upgrading to 18" wheels (since they need to be replaced now anyway) which I will have to do if I wait another year or two to get 18" wheels.

So at the end of the day on Sunday I still hadn't made my mind up. I knew that I was starting to feel a little antsy about spending over a thou on new wheels and tires but I was like, "What else would I be spending my money on anyway, a new TV or other pointless stuff?"

It's just weird because this is a process I seem to go through with everything. I get really interested in something and research it for a couple weeks and when it comes time to actually pay the money for it or whatever, I realize that I don't really care about it enough to part with my hard-earned money.

I usually don't mind it because I spend the time learning something new and it ends up not costing me anything (and the thought of how cool it would be if I did it is probably actually more fun than doing it).

Of course Fulsome hates hearing about these things (interesting fact: this post was originally going to be Part 1 in a series about things I do that annoy Fulsome--Part 2, I don't really enjoy traveling that much). I think it's the fact that I talk and talk about all these things I'm going to do and then don't ever actually do them. But seriously, why would it be annoying to hear someone talk about how they're going to do something, how the want to do something, how awesome it will be when they do that thing and then they don't do it. What's annoying about that?

All I know is that it happened again this past weekend, another case of pre-emptive buyer's remorse.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Fulsome Ages

Hey dudes, I just felt that we needed to post something before the weekend began because tomorrow (July 8) is fulsome's b-day.

He's a huge Harry Potter fan so I've made the displayed cake for him. Unfortunately he's not here to eat it.

Also, he's so old that he no longer has any teeth. That's right, he's 93 years young!

He recently broke his hip which explains why he refuses to use the interweb (he still hasn't used up all his pain medication and the nursing home won't let him leave the room).

Anyway, if you get a chance, let him know that he should have fun this weekend and try not to lose his dentures (he spent a good amount of his Social Security on those)!

[UPDATE -7/10/2006-]
Apparently even making fun of him via a weblog is not enough to draw him out of his technological seclusion. Perhaps someday like Punxsutawney Phil, fulsome will stick his head out into the internet, not see his shadow and come out and play.

Until then, more of my boring posts.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Those Clever Animals


So I don't really have much point to this post besides wanting to use the picture I found on Yahoo! Images.

But I do have to marvel at the tenacity of rodents sometimes. This guy is actually riding a frog. How freaking sweet is that?

Of all the things I thought I'd see in my life, a mouse riding a frog is not one of them.

This picture was taken during a flood somewhere in India. See the Yahoo! page here.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

dontEATnachos Returns

As may be slightly obvious from the fact that there are actually new posts on WRN, I have indeed started posting again. I'd kind of been busy with things (or as AG says, "You nerds sure do move a lot") but now things are back on their schedule and I am trying to post some updates.

This past weekend, I had a chance to catch another summer movie. I've seen MI3 and X-men 3 already, so Superman Returns (the spiritual successor to Superman 2) only made sense. Just to further the numerology (333333!), they also showed a preview for Spiderman 3 which looks awesome.

Anyway, back to Superman Returns. The movie, which has a new guy (Brandon Routh) looking eerily like Christopher Reeves at some points but also strangely like Jason Schwartzman at others, was supposed to be set after Superman Returns to earth after a 5 year absence.

No one seems to put together the fact that Clark Kent and Superman came back within days of each other but whatev, who would. The fact that no one can tell them apart is part of the fun. I'm just amazed that Superman always has time to gel his hair like that anytime there's an emergency (and how does he get it out afterwards?).

Still, like Spiderman and X-Men, Superman really benefits from the wonders of CG graphics. The coolest parts are always where Superman is using his powers. The sense of speed and strength is great and it's all done in a very fluid way (especially when compared to the earlier Superman movies).

Spacey as Lex Luthor is alright and I can understand why they returned to the classic villain for the movie. Still, I think it may have benefited from someone who looks a little better bald. Also, while Kal Penn (Kumar from Harold & Kumar go to White Castle) has a role as henchman, I don't think he ever gets to speak ... it's kind of like Rob Cordry in Old School ... if only they'd let him talk!

Anyway, there are times when it drags but I really enjoyed it. The eye candy and special powers are always what make these movies great and Superman Returns doesn't disappoint. The story is so-so but hey, these summer movies aren't supposed to be all story, so just enjoy the movie and leave the armchair analyzations of Superman or his possible gayness or whatever to the internet nerds.