Astronauts Suffer Agonizing, High-Pitched Death After Helium Leak

My heart goes out to the families...


Astronauts Suffer Agonizing, High-Pitched Death After Helium Leak

Rangers 3 - Penguins 0 (Pens lead series 3-1)

You figured there had to be one of these games coming for the Penguins sooner or later. Jagr had two goals in what was probably his last big game for the Rangers. I wouldn't be surprised to see Jagr sign with the Penguins next season to finish out his NHL career.

In the meantime, here are the highlights (And I'm posting this WAY late, as I didn't even get to see this game, being in Louisiana for that weekend)

Sidney Crosby - Gatorade League of Clutch commercial

I love these commercials that Gatorade has been running for a few months. Amazing imagery, incredible intensity. They all tell a story and present both the player and the sport in the most dramatic light.

I'm not yet exactly sure how they accomplish the commercials on a technical level. If I had to guess, I'd say they took frame grabs of High Definition images and cut out the athletes then recomposited them back over other still images. Whatever way they do it, I'm impressed.

Anyway, here's the latest one, featuring Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, my current favorite sports team (yeah, I'm one of those guys that doesn't have an entrenched loyalty to any one team or city or region. I go with the best story, and for the next few years, that will be the Penguins).

If I Didn't Know How Right I Was, I'd Think I Was Paranoid

This whole Jim thing has me a bit on edge. My mind can't stop thinking about the horrible things he has planned for me and my family...

I've gotta do something...

Cognitive Surplus - What do we do with it?

If you're like me (and I'm assuming you are), you wonder how you're going to find time to do all the cool things you want to accomplish. You THINK you don't have any time, but when you really sit down and look at how you spend your time, you realize that you waste a lot more time than you actually think. For many of us, a lot of that wasted time comes from watching TV.

About a decade ago, I reached a breaking point and decided to completely unplug my cable TV. I did it successfully for two solid years (this was before I got married). And I have to say, that it was a Golden Age for me. A period of productivity and life enjoyment that I never had before or since. Much like smokers find it impossible to quit smoking when they are living with other smokers, as much as I'd like to once again go completely cold turkey on TV, I live with other TV watchers. So for now, I have to just do my best to monitor and restrict my useless TV watching.

Anyway, here's a great video about how we use our time and how to carve out part of your life to accomplish cool stuff.

Penguins 5 - Rangers 3 (Pens lead series 3-0)

I was at my writer's group meeting, so I didn't get to see any of this game, but from all accounts, it was more of the same for the Penguins. Two goals and an assist for Malkin, two assists for Crosby, 36 saves for Fleury, dominating special teams on both ends of the ice.

The Pens are 7-0 in the playoffs so far this post-season, a feat which hasn't happened since the Rangers did it in 1994 en route to winning the Cup. Montreal did it in 1989 en route to losing the Cup finals to Calgary, and the leader in the clubhouse is the 1985 Oilers who reeled off nine straight wins to start the post-season en route to winning the Cup.

Earlier in the day, Malkin was named as one of the finalists for the Hart Trophy (the NHL's MVP award). So that gives the Pens two finalists (Crosby last year, who won it) in the last two years. Right now, the only thing that could derail this bunch of talented young players is their own over-confidence.

Onward to game four and hopefully a second straight sweep.

What To Do About Pesky Arch-Enemies

Yes... the question always hangs in the air...

"What do I do about my arch-enemy?"

You can sit back and wait for them to make the first move... wait for them to make the first mistake. But what if they're doing the same thing? Any self-respecting arch-enemy would not only be planning the next step, they'd be thinking TEN steps ahead.

And I'm sure that MY arch-enemy, Jim, is doing exactly that. After careful consideration, here's what I think he's doing:

1) Tapping my phone line. Although technically, this shouldn't count, because I'm sure he did that years ago already.

2) Stealing my credit card information. This is most insidious because he wouldn't use that information just yet. He'd save it for when it would be of most benefit to himself, and most damaging to me. (Must make mental note to change credit cards later tonight.)

3) Secretly swiping some of my DNA. Again, I'm sure he's done this at least once already, but with the decay of DNA samples, and the concurrent advancement of DNA marker identification, I'm sure he'll be needing fresh samples. Must think-- has anyone scraped skin off of my arm in passing? Did I feel a sharp sting recently and not know where it came from? Oh no... I just had my hair cut this morning and forgot to demand they give me the hair clippings. Those bits of snipped hair could even now be en route to Jim.

4) Sending inappropriate emails to my child. He hasn't done this yet, but I'm sure it's one of his next steps. I'm sure he's searching through his massive amounts of porn to find just the right clips and photos that will be most damaging to my child's psyche and emotional development. I can only pray that he doesn't send any of himself.

5) Updating his yarn and push-pin map of my comings and goings. I've been lax in covering my tracks of late. The map is probably far more accurate than I'm comfortable with.

6) Securing getaway car. Again, this is basic stuff, but there is no better time than now to do a thorough sweep of everything to make sure it's all still working properly.

7) Re-establishing aliases. Restrictions are a bit tighter now, so you have to be a bit more diligent about keeping your aliases up-to-date. The last thing you'd want to do is check into a hotel under an assumed name and discover that there is no longer any record of your alias's existence.

8) Introducing subtle poison into my water system. Not enough to kill me or my family, but enough to dull my wits when I need them most. Must remember to replace filters on all faucets.

9) Buying more heavy-duty garbage bags. Of course, depending on Jim's recent activity level, he may still have plenty on tap.

10) And finally, it goes without saying that he's befriending my friends. There's no more insidious way to destroy someone than from within, through those closest to him. (Must make a mental note to test my friends' loyalty and attempt to gauge Jim's currently level of influence.)



With all of this in mind, what must *I* do?

Humor for Hockey Fans

This is funny only if you're a hockey fan. Actually, if you're a hockey fan, it's probably not funny because it hits a little too close to home.


NHL Star Called Up To Big Leagues To Play For NFL Team

Land of the Lost - The Movie - First Images

Okay... I've been following this film's development with a bit of skepticism. It's one of the last bastions of cheesy childhood TV (of my favorites, that is) that hasn't yet been ironically deconstructed and regurgitated for today's audiences.

I know the Land of the Lost TV show was incredibly cheesy. I don't know if I will ever watch the original TV series again, preferring to allow my childhood memories of it remain pure. This opening title sequence is as much as I'll watch.




I loved that show. The evil Sleestaks scared the crap out of me. I know if I ever DID watch the show again, I'd discover all sorts of phobias and mindsets of mine that had their genesis here.

But I won't.

However, I WILL watch the movie when it comes out, thanks to this wonderful first image that has been released. (click to embiggen)This is beautiful. This one image sums up everything I loved about the original series.

The movie, starring Will Ferrell, promises to be faithful-ish to the original. Instead of a dad and two kids, it's three adults. But I'd be shocked if we don't see the same hole/cave that they hide in, the same dinos that attack them (and each other) that live on either side of a ravine, and I had BETTER see Enik, pylons, and the control tables that you put the multi-colored crystals in.

I'll be following this one with interest... Land of the Lost is currently set to premiere July 17, 2009. Click here to read USA Today's story.

Battlestar Galactica - Season Four - Episode 4

Good episode overall. Not great, but at least continuing this season's string of solid stories. Rather than delve into plot details (there's plenty of sites of the web great for that), I'll instead focus on the show from a director/writer's standpoint, and what I may have derived from this episode.

For starters, not much happened to drive the meta plot forward. Mostly what we had was fallout from the first three episodes. The focus was very tight and character-based. While in the past, I've tended to dread these episodes (as they are usually filler), this one didn't suffer from that at all. Three of the four secret Cylons (Tory, Tigh, and Tyrol) all had the hems of their sanity start to fray a little bit. I imagine the encounter between Tigh and Six might have looked pretty dicey on the page, but the actors pulled off these scenes fantastically. Solid writing and acting all around.

The one area where I feel the show is sliding in the opposite direction is Baltar's journey into Christ status. In spite of the fact that they've been setting him up since the finale of Season One to be some sort of eventual religious figure, it still rings totally false. I don't buy his character converting. The fact that Baltar is so often played for laughs tends to undermine the power I think his religious arc is supposed to have. The writers seem to drift back and forth from making it seem like it really IS a genuine religious conversion, to making it seem like it's 100% fakery on Baltar's part. I think it needed to pick one or the other. Instead of being intrigued by Baltar's journey, I'm bored and skeptical.

In any event, it looks like Baltar is headed for Christ status, as it seems destined that Baltar be killed or sacrificed for the sake of his religion. I'll just continue watching and continue cringing every time Baltar starts spouting off religious mumbo-jumbo.

Finally, I have to say that the scene where Head Six seems to pick Baltar up was amusingly well-done. Casts more doubt and wonder on exactly what's going on with Baltar's innter Cylon.

Next week looks like we get to spend a lot more time on the Demetrius.

Penguins 2 - Rangers 0 (Pens lead series 2 -0)

(continuing a series of posts meant only for me, as I can't imagine anyone else possibly interested in the NHL Playoffs.)

So it's looking more and more like it's going to be the Pens' year. Six straight games. They're making it look easy.

Crosby has had to deal with allegations of diving the past couple of days. Hopefully he'll get that under control and just play the game rather than over-react to draw penalties.

The series shifts back to New York now, where the Rangers should enjoy a slightly better advantage. They may get one win, but I think that's it.

Penguins 5 - Rangers 4 (Penguins lead series 1-0)

It looked a little dicey for awhile as the Pens were down 3-0, but they steadily chipped away at the lead, tying it in the third, and then taking the lead 4-3. The Rangers tied it, but a late powerplay deflection goal by Malkin, off a shot by Crosby, was the game-winner.

The Pens were flying in the third, with precision passing like I haven't seen in a long time. It was lots of fun to watch. It's preposterous to compare these baby Penguins to the flying Oilers of the 80's, but I haven't enjoyed watching hockey this much since the glory days of Gretzky and Lemieux.

Go Pens!

Foxmarks (Great Firefox add-on)

Part three in my multi-part series on indispensable Firefox add-ons leads me to Foxmarks. If you have multiple computers you use, say a home computer and a work computer, and maybe even a laptop computer, and you're tired of adding and subtracting bookmarks from all the computers, then Foxmarks is for you!

Once you sign up for it initially (simple sign-up procedure, but it does require you to set up a username and password, which might be annoying to some of you. But it's free, so don't fret),
it uploads all of your bookmarks to an online location (in the Bahamas, I think). Then when you go to your other computers, you just install Foxmarks on the those, log in, and now you've got matching bookmarks on all your computers. Anytime you make a change on one computer, or add a new bookmark, it synchronizes it with all the other computers. The links toolbar is the same, the bookmarks menu is the same, everything is the same on all your computers. The only thing you have to do is set up your user names and passwords on any sites that require them, as Foxmarks doesn't synchronize that.

Once you set it up, it runs without you ever having to mess with it again. Your bookmarks are now just magically synced up on all your computers.

FireShot (Great Firefox add-on)

Fireshot is another invaluable Firefox add-on I use all the time. It's basically a screen capture utility that takes a snapshot of whatever is in your browser. It then immediately goes to a quick edit screen that allows you to do minor editing and cropping of the image. Then you can save it or do whatever you want with it.

It's great for blogging, especially when you just need a small part of a page, or something like that. Just click the FireShot toolbar button (just one little old button. Very unobtrusive) and it snaps a picture.

I like tools and add-ons that become transparent in their ease of use and usefulness. It's as easy as click, crop, and save.

Top Ten Movies I'm Looking Forward To This Summer

It's just about time for the Summer Blockbuster Season to roll around, so I'm starting to plan what I actually want to see. Usually I INTEND to see most of them, but wind up only seeing half or less. Unlike many recent summers, I'm actually really looking forward to quite a few films.

So without further ado, here's the list (and not necessarily in order of looking-forward-to-ness)

1) The Dark Knight - This actually IS the one I'm most anticipating. I love everything director Christopher Nolan has done so far, and conventional wisdom would indicate that the combination of this being Nolan's second go-round with Batman, and the acting chops of Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhal, et al, should mean that The Dark Knight is destined to be a classic. As it's one of the last movies of the summer, we have a ways to go to make that determination.

2) Iron Man - Usually a movie's ad campaign wears me out long before the movie actually debuts. But I really have to hand it to Iron Man. I have loved every last thing I've seen from this film so far. Brilliant job of marketing this. I just hope that the movie turns out as fun as all the trailers would lead us to believe.

3) Narnia: Prince Caspian - I was only so-so on the first Narnia movie, but as with Dark Knight, I'm expecting them to successfully tweak the franchise to where it's even better than the first one. All trailers and imagery I've seen so far indicate that this will be much darker, and more adult than The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I remember really liking Prince Caspian the second best among all the books, and can't wait to see Reepicheep brought to life.

4) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - I'm actually REALLY dreading this film. I can't imagine it's going to be any good. I really detested Last Crusade, and I fear that this film will travel further down the overly-jokey path that film started. The trailer made it look like it was one over-the-top action sequence after another. I've had my fill with the last two Pirates films, and King Kong. But... I'm going to have to see it anyway, on the off chance that it somehow proves me wrong. Of course, if critical consensus is overwhelmingly negative, I don't know if I'll be able to force myself into a theater to see it.

5) Speed Racer - Yet another movie that looks like it's wall-to-wall silly action. Again, I can't imagine I'll like this. But... it has such a unique visual style it might be worth seeing just on that basis. Every image I've seen from the film has been dazzling.

6) The Happening - I've been really harsh on M. Knight Shymalan the last few years, and have enjoyed riding on the backlash bandwagon (which has been well-deserved). But I'm hoping and expecting that he'll return to form one of these days and make a visionary movie similar to Sixth Sense or Signs (I really liked it, even though it caught some flak from some corners). This is some sort of alien invasion film, and I don't know a lot about it, and I hope to stay that way so that whatever surprises M. Knight has in store for us, that they STAY surprises for me.

7) The Incredible Hulk - I was meh on the first Hulk, and so far all the trailers and images for this (as well as the behind the scenes stories) make me worry that this will be a disaster. But... here's hoping that I'm wrong and this film somehow pulls it out and makes a fun film.

8) Hellboy II: The Golden Army - I liked the first one, and since that movie came out, Guillermo del Toro has become something of a visionary. Everything he touches turns to gold, not unlike Christopher Nolan. And similar to Dark Knight, this is a second go-round, so I expect a much more confident film from del Toro. Everything about it so far looks solid.

9) Wall*E - It's a Pixar film, so there's no reason NOT to see it. Trailers turned me from an early doubter to someone that's very much looking forward to this film.

10) Tropic Thunder - This one kind of came out of nowhere to land firmly on my radar. Trailer and other promotional items so far look hilarious. Robert Downey Jr. as an actor who underwent surgery to turn himself black is a brilliant idea (at least in the trailer).

Update!

10.5) Hancock - A new trailer for this came out right after I posted this (actually it debuted on American Idol last night, but I didn't see it until this morning), and it makes it at least SEEM like it might be a fun ride. The early reviews I've read of this haven't been overly positive. But... we'll see, I guess.

11) Honorable mentions - The rest of these films I'm going to keep my eye on, but they all seem like DVD rentals at best.

Get Smart
Love Guru
Wanted
Kung Fu Panda
Meet Dave


And as always, there's going to be at least one film that comes out of nowhere to become a surprise hit. What will be this year's Knocked Up?

Time will tell.

Taboo (Great Firefox add-on)

If you're a Firefox user (and if you're not, shame on you!), then this is a fantastic add-on. It's called Taboo and it's basically a cool little gizmo that allows you to store pages away for later reading, or for research or whatever.

After you install it, it puts two new icons on your toolbar.


They're pretty self-explanatory as to their functions. But what's really cool and efficient about this is that anytime you're on a page you want to save for later, just click on the Add button. Then later on, when you want to revisit some of the pages you tabbed for later (taboo, tabbed... get it?), just click on the View Taboos button and a neat grid of all your selected items shows up. It shows you a thumbnail of what the page looked like when you added it. When you click on the page in the View Taboos mode, it will then take you to the webpage at the exact spot you were at when you clicked on it (say you were halfway down a long page when you saw something that caught your eye).

Anyway, I've been using this for a while now and it's really really useful and simple and intuitive.

Updated!

The designer of Taboo was kind enough to drop by my blog, and within the body of his comment below was a link to this handy little video that kind of shows you a little bit about how Taboo works. Thank you Demo Girl. Can't wait to check out some of your other videos.

I Am Legend (Well, not ME, but, umm...well, just read it)

Finally got around to watching "I Am Legend".

I was aware of all the grumbling about the film going into watching it. Complaints about the ending and about the horrible CGI. But I was still giving this one a chance. I'd heard enough fair to good reviews by friends of mine that I figured this just might be one of those 'taste' movies.

Alas...

For starters, let me say that Will Smith was fantastic in this. He's one of our true A+ movie stars. He was given an impossibly difficult role to play, being the only actor in the film for 90% of its running time. I normally cringe when movies have characters talk to themselves or to animals or inanimate objects, as it usually comes across as very obvious that it's just a device so that there's not just 90 minutes of a guy walking around quietly by himself. But Will Smith pulled it off.

But...

But then we get to the "Darkseekers". Here lies the treacherous path the movie decides to take. I just did a bit of research on the original novel this movie is based on, and discovered that vampires/zombies were not only very much a part of the novel, but even more overt than they are in the movie. But they also make a lot more sense than in the movie. The movie tries to make the epidemic a reaction to a cancer vaccine. While this in itself isn't a bad idea, it's where it leads that winds up making no sense.

Now, instead of the more "plausible" reason of vampirism as to why everyone else has superpowers and can climb walls like Spider-man and can leap twenty feet through the air, and on and on, now we have to somehow imagine that these powers are the result of a vaccine gone bad. It doesn't work for me, sorry. It should have either just be straight up vampires, or else dropped the super-abilities of those suffering from this problem.

The ending, while nice and bleak, is pointless because it's just so silly. Just another typical action film ending where everything comes together at the final moment, including Will Smith's character remembering one key thing his son said to him that winds up being the key to everything. How convenient that he remembers that quote and finally puts meaning to it right at the last possible moment.

I then went and watched the alternate ending, where Will Smith's character lives, by making some sort of silly connection with the lead Darkseeker. An infected Darkseeker that Will Smith had been experimenting on just so happens to be the wife or girlfriend of the lead Darkseeker, who ends up carrying her out with him. It has gotten tons of praise for being so clearly the better ending, but I think it's actually sillier than the theatrical version. I think the studios made a wise choice, at least as far as these two endings are concerned.

As far as the book ending (spoiler alert!), he ends up being the last remaining human on an earth that is now overrun by vampires, so now HE is the mythical creature causing problems for the rest of (vampire) society. HE is the Legend. It's kind of a Planet of the Apes sort of ending (haven't read the book, just a brief synopsis), and it makes much more sense than either of the silly movie endings.

While the film is ultimately silly, I can honestly say I was never bored, and never less than riveted to what was going on. But...I can only give this film six and a half teeth out of ten. Will Smith gets 9.5 teeth out of ten. The Darkseekers get one tooth out of ten.

Untooning Jessica Rabbit

Found this today... REALLY cool. I'm okay with Photoshop, and in watching this "speedpainting" video, I know intellectually what the guy is doing, and what tools he's using and the process... but this is way beyond what I'm capable of. Bravo.

Picking Apart Logical Fallacies

Wired Magazine posted a funny AND useful video today about the most common types of internet arguments.

High Tech Noon

Here's one of those weird mash-ups that people come up with. Funny stuff.