Right on, Andy!

And in other e-mail news, my sister has sent me this amazing article, which is a word for word recant of what Andy Rooney (no relation to Mickey Rooney) said on live TV a few weeks ago. And since I like etching in my own opinion, I’ll be interrupting Mr. Rooney in this transcript:

I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America. Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America; and see what happens...Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.

Righty-O. I think, in certain ways, racial segregation has remained in this country. And it’s not just in the minds of racist white southerners, it’s in the minds of racist black people who want to separate themselves from us “Whiteys.” And of course, you can never have Je$$e Jack$on on your side unless you're someone like Tookie Williams.

Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.

Second amendment, all the way, baby! We gotta have our guns.

I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, that is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE YOU LISTENING MARTHA BURKE?

They call Boy Scouts Boy Scouts because most little boys don’t function well around little girls. They have enough trouble functioning among themselves. Take it from a former Boy Scout. And who the heck is Martha Burke? Suddenly, the article has this part added into it:

I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.

Bingo. And back to our regularly scheduled program.

I have the right "NOT" to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off.

I am slightly lost here. This is the kind of thought process that leads people to believe that they can just talk shit about anyone else who disagrees with them at the drop of a hat or demand that someone remove a “Candidate X” bumper sticker from their car because they don’t like them. On the other hand, you won’t grow up thinking that getting fired over political reasons is an abuse of your first amendment rights.

When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling, it is the Law of Probability.

Correction, Mr. Rooney: It’s both. And it ain’t half bad.

I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen, you should have to speak English!

I hate to admit it, but as harsh as it sounds, he’s actually right. If we can’t communicate with each other, we won’t get nothin’ done.

My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours.

Heh. Try telling that to some of the minorities at my school.

I think the police should have every right to shoot your sorry ass if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word "freeze" or "stop" in English, see the above lines.

Whoah, now he’s off the rocker. Of course, I think he’s overreacting a bit. This line will definitely be the most likely candidate to be misquoted for years to come, though.

I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business. We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document; and open to their interpretations. I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor. I know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television. That doesn't stop you from watching them. I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better, and put your name on the building. It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid; and smack their little behinds when necessary, and say "NO!" I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And, please, stay home until that new lip ring heals.! I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me French fries! I am sick of "Political Correctness." I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa; so how can they be "African-Americans"? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and nowhere else And if you don't like my point of view, tough...?? DON'T PASS IT ON. But I'm sure the majority of you will since you've been thinking most of these things anyway.

That was beautiful. Except for, maybe, that part near the end regarding “political correctness.” Unless that’s referring to the unwritten political correctness guidelines that state that it’s ok to make fun of white people, but not black people. And Andy, if you happen to come across my blog here and read this, I may not entirely like what you have to say, but I will go to my death defending your right to say it. Unless I discover you’ve gone Communist or Nazi or something like that.

Operation Kwalalalalalalalaaaaaaaaaaa!

Just to turn the tides back here on the blog, I decided to get political again with this post. My uncle sent me this strange e-mail the other day and I’ve been dying to blog on it since. However, the e-mail was a rather long article and I’m not exactly sure towards it’s accuracy, so I’ll post just the first few paragraphs to help summarize the article:

AL-QAIDA'S MOST LIKELY NUKE TARGETS
By Joseph Farah

WASHINGTON ­ As London recovers from the latest deadly al-Qaida attack that killed at least 50, top U.S. government officials are contemplating what they consider to be an inevitable and much bigger assault on America ­ one likely to kill millions, destroy the economy and fundamentally alter the course of history, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin . According to captured al-Qaida leaders and documents, the plan is called the "American Hiroshima" and involves the multiple detonation of nuclear weapons already smuggled into the U.S. over the Mexican border with the help of the MS-13 street gang and other organized crime groups. Al-Qaida has obtained at least 40 nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union ­ including suitcase nukes, nuclear mines, artillery shells and even some missile warheads. In addition, documents captured in Afghanistan show al-Qaida had plans to assemble its own nuclear weapons with fissile material it purchased on the black market.

While I have my doubts to the legitimacy of this article, I wouldn’t doubt for a minute that there are many Al-Qaeda operatives here in the United States. Why? Because we’ve caught most of them and suffered the consequences for those we missed. And do you think that our government will be good enough to stop an operation of this magnitude? Probably, probably not. If this information is at all correct and we wind up having another major terrorist attack within the next few years, chances are it won’t be anything near this great a magnitude. And for that, we will have the people of our government to thanks. However, since we know that we cannot trust the government for everything and we cannot panic every second of our lives worrying about the end of the world, we’re just going to have to be cautious citizens. I’m doing my part, how about you?

Happy Belated

I almost forgot to wish everyone a Happy Turkey Day, so here I go.

Happy Belated Turkey Day!

Yakety-Yak

Its official: I’ve got a problem. I think I’m just kinda sick. Seriously, I’ve been queasy these past couple of days and I finally threw up this morning in the toilet, hence the title of this blog entry. That and I need to go on a slightly mindless ramble here. I feel much better now though, much better than when it started on Thursday morning. I’ve been trying, though, to pinpoint the cause of this queasiness. I thought for a VERY long time.

Let’s see, the queasiness began before breakfast. The memories surrounding my epic “Love Stinks” blogs are still fresh in my head. VERY fresh. Now, I take Prozac to deal with some depression and even more major attention problems. However, in my little knowledge of the human body, I know that it has other ways of telling you there’s something wrong. I’ve come to the conclusion that I have definitely developed a major emotional connection to the “Sonicverse” in my somewhat 12-13 years being a follower of the franchises and I really can feel for the characters now. I officially classify myself as “fan-dumb.” ^_^ Little joke, but I can say that about myself for freaking out when a character becomes heartbroken. Now, I find that my own love drive is finally kicking again at age 21 and I have trouble with the ladies myself. I’m still on for the lunch date this coming week, but I’m still worried about it going wrong.

So in conclusion, I had to face a double dosage of depression, which has actually modified my behavior as of late, or so I’ve noticed. I have indeed felt it, however I had also theorized that perhaps the Prozac had been holding it back and that my body was going to break my depression out any way possible, even if it meant giving me a queasy stomach. I think though I was wrong about that, simply because I felt better after throwing up my cereal this morning. I think now it was just something that wanted to get out for a few days now. But whatever it was, it’s not a good thing to have during a minor depression bout. Hell, I even got kinda mad at my boss yesterday. It turned out all right, but he’d decided at the last minute to change our trip to the movies to go somewhere else. And dammit, not only have we undoubtedly been penalized by Whistlestop for changing the schedule but I was looking forward to “Harry Potter” all week.

Where do I go from here, though? I think maybe somehow I find that my own luck parables in the misfortune of those beloved comic characters. I have no girlfriend, Tails...yunno. Seriously, I promised myself that when I started this blog, I would try and not make it an “emo” blog like so many LiveJournal users do, but here I go doing it. I’m sorry if I brought anyone that didn’t need to come down with all of that emo crap and I promise to keep it to a minimum, if not zero. Thank you all for understanding.

Oh and in case you’re wondering, I’ll still be watching “Sonic X.” I may know what happens, but now I gotta see how. Oh, the suspense. :-)

Pity

If you, by any chance, have about ten minutes of your time, click the following link to watch a very extreme video. If you don’t like extreme videos, skip ahead to the summary.

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/wmv/robbery.wmv

Setting: England, modern day. A burglar enters a jewelry store, basically holds up the cashier and demands whatever diamonds he wants. The store manager and everyone else with guts attack the burglar at the right time, but don’t exactly stop him. The police are contacted, but don’t get there for 20 minutes. The burglar gets the upper hand for a brief moment and tries to escape, but he is trapped between security doors. He is arrested.

Keep in mind that this is England. And since Lee isn’t posting about this story, I’ll make my point here and now: If England didn’t have laws restricting people from owning guns, this situation would have been taken care of by the store owners MUCH sooner.

Guy with hand up: But Jaime, if they were to allow people to own guns in England, the burglar would have a gun too.
Me: Not necessarily. If they performed background checks on people, the burglar certainly wouldn’t have been able to get a gun legally.
Guy with hand up: So he could just ask a friend for a gun then.
Me: If that were the case, then the store owners would be screwed, wouldn’t they? Having a zero gun ownership law only leaves the victims of crimes helpless against attackers. See, you’ve just proven to me criminals will go to other places to find guns. Even if they can’t do so legitimately, they will find a gun. It’s happened before and it will happen again.
Guy: (frustrated) Yeah, well… why should I trust the opinion of a sore loser who whines about his lack of love life and reads stupid comic books?
Me: And now, I shall demonstrate another positive point of having an armed society. (whips out pistol and aims it at the guy.) Don’t you EVER insult me like that again, you hear me?!
Guy: (arms up, frightened.) Sorry…Sorry (quivers.)
Me: Thank you. (puts gun away.) You see ladies and gentlemen, an armed society is a polite society.

Oh, it’s a joke. Just laugh at it.

Revenge of “Love Stinks”

Last post was about the condition of my heart, but just for fun I’ll switch over to the heart conditions of a fictional character: Tails. Call me crazy, but I always have been and probably always will be a fan of the “Sonicverse.” Yeah, as in Sonic the Hedgehog. You know him. Blue guy. Runs really fast. Buzzsaws through stuff with his spines. Anyhow, I’ve been a fan from the start, but I’ve actually been more of a Tails fan. I know a percentage of the fanbase, both young and old, have found Tails to be irritating, but I never understood why. What’s not to like? He’s a cute little fox, he’s got a lot of spunk and smarts, he’s got speed and flying abilities. In “Sonic 3,” he even had more skills than Sonic, but they’ve kinda narrowed that down since then to different abilities.

Anyways, being a fan of the franchise for so many years has been interesting. I’ve watched as the Sega company has applied it’s story to their own characters and I’ve watched the alternative stories created by others as the Sega company has permitted. These would be the Sonic Comics as produced by the Archie comics company, the cartoons from the early 90’s and “Sonic Underground,” a cartoon show that most Sonic fans would rather forget. Although it had catchy tunes. The only spin-off I haven’t invested in is the British comics series, but it looks goofy enough to make “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog” look like “Sonic the Hedgehog.” And if you’re an outsider scratching your head at that last statement, you can do some research at this marvelous fansite.

Anyhow, my point is that it’s nice to see so many variations on the “Sonicverse” and all the different stories that emerge from them. I haven’t whined lately about the Archie Comics series because I can’t complain much. I will however say this about the last issue: what a melodrama. Which brings me back to the condition of Tails’ heart: for over a year now, he’s had a crush on this one other fox character named Fiona. And the first problem with the situation is that he’s 11 and she’s 16, so it wouldn’t likeliest work out to begin with. So this last issue, he finds her kissing behind a behind a bush with, of all people, Sonic. Killer. Absolutely killer to find your best friend kissing with your major crush. I kinda know the feeling. Needless to say, Tails has tears streaming from his eyes as he shouts “I Hate You” to Sonic at the top of his lungs, then exits the issue at top speed.

Meanwhile, in the alternative dimension of Sonic that is the currently running, ever popular “Sonic X” cartoon show, another huge melodrama is brewing. In this universe, we have Sonic and the gang currently traveling across the universe to destroy an alien race that is bent on destruction. And I can see that Tails has got a thing going for one of the characters in the show: a “plant creature” named Cosmo. Wow, a fox and a plant creature you say? Only in the cartoons. But seriously, it looks like this sort of relationship will evolve. All cool right?

Well, not exactly. According to those who have already seen how this season ends in Japanese, thanks to the wonders of the Internet and a worldwide fanbase, we will see Cosmo sacrifice herself for the good of the universe. That’s right, SACRIFICE herself. Wow, that’s a lot. And in this universe, I think Tails is supposed to be 8 or something (Hey, some folks are early bloomers.) Here’s what Wikipedia has to say on the matter:

Recently, allegations of Tails-Amy or Tails-Cream relationships have come into prominence (despite that in the games, Tails has never had any diologue with Cream). They may be touched upon by the TV series, or may simply never be expanded upon. The same goes for the possible Tails-Fiona Fox relationship that could be present in the comic. However, in the 3rd season of Sonic X he falls in love with the new character Cosmo, who sadly had to take her life because otherwise it would mean the descruction of the universe by the Metarex.

Yeah, they have an entire article on Tails, including his inventions, his skills and his personal love life, complete with speculation that he might be gay for Sonic. God bless the fanboys. But seriously, this is some crazy s***. Take a look at the ending that a good friend and fellow Tails fan named “Spex” scored for me here. Oh…My…Goodness. At least I can say I watched the drama unfold here. By the time it premieres on 4Kids TV though, they’ll probably cut out most of the drama or find some way to ruin it by having the episode end with intense music in the credits as usual.

Man, when I think my love life has royally sucked, I can’t help but feel the pity for Tails, even though he’s not real. I mean, yeah, I’ll go for sad endings sometimes if they’re done well, but it seems like the creators are having real fun bashing him around emotionally. I mean, I like the ending and I accept it for what it is, but I beg the question: what the heck? I mean, I’ve been waiting for the writers of either franchise to give Tails something that lasts a little while. Years ago, in my youth, I read Sonic fanfiction where they liked assigning romantic relationships to the characters however they wanted, and most often I liked seeing Tails get a girlfriend. But I eventually grew tired of that fakey fanfiction crap and decided it was best to let the big guys in charge give him a girlfriend. Where’s the love?

Uh, I’m a 21 year old whining in secret about the love life of a fox that doesn’t exist. I need help. Oh and once again, I find myself posting old news. Looks like some of the other fanboys knew about this a LONG time ago.

Love Stinks

Let me start off this article by simply saying this: why can’t some people be honest when it really matters? Seriously! I kinda need to vent here a little. I am 21 years old and not once in my life can I say that I’ve officially had a girlfriend. I mean yeah, I admit when I was ten, I went for it with a girl who was a little younger than me and we had a sort of “Alfalfa and Darla” thing going on, but that was it. I would REALLY like to know when my chance comes that I actually get to be with someone for real.

Let me recap: Both semesters this year, I’ve spent a good deal of time looking for someone at COM. In my classes, I might add, because that is the best place to meet women who have the same interests as you. I’ve met two girls this semester I thought I might like to try and get to know. One I know from my Philosophy class, the other in my Voice class. For the sake of protecting the innocent, yadda yadda, I will refer to these two people as One and Two.

So earlier on in this semester, I got kinda interested in One because we were both taking Philosophy and she expressed an interest in screenwriting. A rather STRONG interest. Or maybe I just misread that. However, there came a day where it no longer seemed as though she was interested in talking to me. And all that took was just a few times we ran into each other. Heck, I even ran into her on the bike path on the way to class. We exchanged a few statements and all I had to do was ask her how she was. I swear I saw this girl crying suddenly, but I do know that she stopped talking to me and sped off ahead of me. Not a good sign.

I also noticed that we seemed to exchange glances in class and when I caught her expression, it wasn’t very positive. She came into class late one time. I looked her direction briefly, as I do every time someone comes in late. She was heading towards the front of the classroom, but did a 180 and went to sit with a friend in the back of the classroom. I thought to myself, maybe I’m misreading these eyes messages. But then, if she really wanted to hang out with me, maybe she would like my video. She had told me earlier on that she wanted to see my video of the Mexico mission trip my church took, which by the way made $94 dollars this past opening weekend (Woohoo.) So I lent her a copy a week and a half ago. She returned it last Thursday and said I did a good job, but she seemed in quite a hurry to leave. Gee, I wonder why.

Which brings me to my point: She seemed so interested in possibly hanging out over a month ago. How come she suddenly acts like I’m a stalker after I’ve only tried to speak with her a few times? Did she only say that she wanted to see my video because she could, or did she actually want to see it? Do I scare people? Oh well. I think if I’d gotten as far as asking her out for lunch, I’d have been disappointed at that rate. Besides, her friend who she talks with has funky pink hair and the ugliest “Bush is Evil” sticker on her notebook you’ve ever seen.

Anyway, I’ve given up on One. Two, though, seems a little more interesting though. And she has a bit of a story as well. Let me elaborate on Two: She’s the one from my Voice class and she’s got a really good singing voice. Technically, I’ve already hung out with her once, but I didn’t ask. I just happened to notice her and we chatted. She seemed very talkative, which is a good thing. She also likes Anime and some video games. And she’s got pretty red hair ^_^. Blondes may have more fun than brunettes, but redheads come practically once a generation.

So I asked her out to lunch last month. She agreed, but disappeared literally the day after I’d asked her. No one ever saw her again until yesterday, but that’s because she had a major case of toncilitis. Must’ve been bad if she was out for a month. And here I was starting to wonder if she’d skipped town to avoid having lunch with me. BUT, as it happens, we’re scheduled for next week, one of those days. I just hope it goes well. Otherwise, I can start singing “Owner of a lonely heart” out loud in the middle of public with my own musical number.

Dance of the Penguins

Okiedokey, so it’s time for another animation related article. You guys may not know this, but I have been keeping a steady eye on the process of this movie: “Happy Feet.” For a synopsis, I turn to the ever-trustworthy IMDB:

Into the world of the Emperor Penguins, who find their soul mates through song, a penguin is born who cannot sing. But he can tap dance something fierce!

Awesome idea. Sounds totally cool. I like penguins, I like penguin animated movies and I like musicals. And the CGI approach actually seems to fit this project well, if you check out the website linked above. And for a starring voice cast, we have Elijah Wood as the hero “Mumbles”, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Brittany Murphy, Elizabeth Daily (known in voice acting circles for her role as Buttercup in “The Powerpuff Girls”) and Robin Williams doing what he does best. Only in this movie, they have him playing a number of comical roles, two of which are made quite obvious in the teaser trailer.

This brings me to my next major point: The teaser trailer. I’m not all that disappointed. I think they’ve done an excellent job in the presentation of the film. My only criticism is that so far the teaser seems a little…plain. I’m only saying this because I’ve expected a lot from this project. It’s got a starring cast, it’s directed by George Miller (The respectable father of the “Mad Max” trilogy and the new “Mad Max” due out next year. W00T!), but most of all it had just BETTER turn out good and do well. Why? Here’s why.

This is one of those projects that Hollywood spends an unbeLIEVable amount of money on. Not just your average movie, which these days can get up to the 30-40-million range, depending on the magnitude of the project. This is a Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings sized budget they’ve got going on this feature. I read about a year ago that they’d worked hard on this project, bringing in actual penguins to use for design AND motion capture because the George Miller wanted the most realistic penguin movement he could get and he STILL was unhappy with the results after they’d already spent over $100 million on the project. Why? Because real penguins move and act in a manner that is completely emotionless.

That’s correct: $100 million and the boss man still wasn’t pleased. Red Alert! How much money do you need to spend on a project like this, really? I’m not saying that the movie itself is going to be terrible, I’m saying that if this movie doesn’t do well, it will be a terrible loss. You know how movies like Harry Potter get $120 million something dollar budgets and do well? It’s because they have international fanbases who read the books and want to see the movies. That is, most often, a surefire guarantee for a hit movie with a big budget. You don’t throw a $100 million budget at any movie and tell them to make it happen. That’s how you get movies like “Van Helsing” that make a ton of cash, but make about -$40 million in profit.

In short: George, you better do a good job here.

Party Time

Alright, for those of you who are curious to hear my story about what happened this weekend at the concert, I hereby present to you the Ear Training class report I wrote up for it:

This weekend, I attended the “Underground Relief Project.” Fear not, it doesn’t mean underground as in illegal. It means underground as in “non-mainstream.” Now, I was told that the concert was going to be a mix between Rock and Electronica. Well, it looks like the concert was only Electronica with local DJs spinning the wax, one of which I had the fortune of meeting as well: DJ Ohashi. You see, I didn’t just go to see this concert, I helped prepare for it as well. And let me tell you, the true story of the event was not just in the music but in the preparation as well.

I was a security guard at this event, along with many other fine, oversized gentlemen who couldn’t fight the urge to boogie. I also helped prepare for the event by assembling the tools necessary for the visuals. I had to prepare a reel full of visuals to be flashed on the wall during the concert. However, less than a week in advance, I was told that the visuals were to be separate from each other so that the VJ (Video Jockey) had more options for when he mixed the video live. And so, my Friday night was spent splicing the video up until the wee hours of the morning. The next day, I awoke tired and proceeded to the Fairfax Pavillion where I would spend the next seven hours helping prepare for the event. I brought my computer, finished my video splicing whatnot and had some software installed on my computer for the VJ to mix videos with.

The software didn’t work correctly on my computer, but to cut a long story short, the VJ went home to get his computer, found it didn‘t work either and wound up reinstalling my computer after the concert started. Phew! That’s an hour’s worth of plot crammed into one sentence.

Now for the music part: There were four artists there, one for each hour of the concert. That’s right, a FOUR hour concert and I had to be there the full four hours. The artists were Tom Lopez, DJ Ohashi, Frost-Raven and Jeremiah Oakes, all with their own spin on the genre. Electronica music has never tickled my fancy all on it’s own. I’m a tough critic when it comes to that genre. It mostly sounds the same to me, specifically the beat. It’s just a loud THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP in 4:4 meter all the way through. The tunes sounded like a fart machine synthesized and the monotony of the music could get rather horrifying all around. One really nice thing though was the last artist, Frost-Raven, who incorporated some rather Middle Eastern music into his work. That sounded like something I could definitely listen to casually.

But I really find that Electronica is hard to listen to casually. For me, I can only stand Electronica if I’m on the scene. I have to have an atmosphere for Electronica. This concert, though, had an atmosphere. Dark room, smoke machine, flashing lights, groove ball, and a psychedelic light show: I’m totally there. And there were these guys who were total fans of the Frost-Raven who were some of the most incredible dancers I’ve seen in public in a long time. These guys did flips, spinning leaps, side flips, handstands, you name it. All in all, the concert was a blast and I hope to be able to do something like it again.

There be my story. But on an interesting side note, I did leave one story out that I didn't think was appropriate for the report. After noticing that there were less females at the concert than I had anticipated, I shimmied over to a fellow security guard:

Me: Where mah ladies at?
Him: That's what I was wondering! They're all up front and they're all under 17!

And right he was. Sigh.

I AM BATMAN!!!

You scored as Batman, the Dark Knight. As the Dark Knight of Gotham, Batman is a vigilante who deals out his own brand of justice to the criminals and corrupt of the city. He follows his own code and is often misunderstood. He has few friends or allies, but finds comfort in his cause. James Bond, Agent 007 67% Batman, the Dark Knight 67% Lara Croft 63% Indiana Jones 58% El Zorro 58% The Amazing Spider-Man 54% Maximus 50% William Wallace 50% The Terminator 38% Neo, the "One" 38% Captain Jack Sparrow 38% Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

Bad Egg in the Basket

Well, I witnessed a large number of people WALK OUT of my Political Sciences class today, but I don’t know why for sure. Who knows, it may be in response to the whole “World Can’t Wait” deal. I shouldn’t assume so though.

Anyway, I read this news and I have to wonder. Japan is that nice scenic place across the sea where they make some of the newest kinds of horror movies, create some of the neatest technology and come up with basically a whole lot of innovative, technological stuff. Basically, some of the most brilliant minds are Japanese. Except for THIS guy:

SHIZUOKA — The driver of a passenger car dodged a cat and the vehicle crashed into a line of nursery school children in the city of Shizuoka on Thursday afternoon, injuring 36 children and an adult looking after them, police said.

Five of them were injured seriously in the accident which occurred on a road with one lane on each side at around 1:10 p.m., firefighters said. The children are aged 4 or 5, and the adult is 23. The police arrested the driver, Akira Yano, 59, on suspicion of inflicting injuries caused by negligence.

Honestly, how stupid do you have to be to injure 36 people with a car? “Oh, I see that cat in the road. I guess I’ll swerve into that large throng of kids over there?” And he didn’t just hit a few people, he hit a crowd. I can understand if he hit someone around the edge of the crowd, but what did he do? Plow through them? What the hell?

Bugger-Eyed

Disney has executed a strange, yet wise, move. Now, “Chicken Little” will not just be released in 3D, but 3D 3D.

What's that cry you hear coming out of the Team Disney Burbank building? Not "The sky is falling." But -- rather -- " 'Chicken Little' 's box office projections need to be lowered."

Where just weeks ago, studio execs were confidently predicting that this Mark Dindal film would earn at least $30 million during its opening weekend ... Now, that number has been pared back by at least a third. With a $20 million opening now being seen as a more realistic target for this new animated feature. While still other folks in-house are suggesting that a number around $15 million might be a more likely opening weekend gross for this picture.

OK, so it’s possible that this stupid looking movie may not make quite so much money on it’s first weekend. BUT…

Of course, the real wild card here are those 85 theaters around the country where "Chicken Little" will be shown in Disney Digital 3D. A revolutionary projection process produced in association with Dolby Laboratories and ILM, Mouse House execs are really hoping that word-of-mouth among moviegoers about the 3D version of this picture will help turn these 85 screens into huge money-earners. Thereby adding considerable heft to "Chicken Little" 's box office totals.

Buzz through the rest of the article. This is, indeed, a wise business move. I, myself, am more entertained by some movies if they are seen in 3D. However, this is a bad blow to traditional animation. Disney is kicking up the advertisement for this turkey of a film like crazy with some of the worst posters ever made and now they’re releasing it in 3D. I had projected the earnings of this film to be poor because I still think it’s a bad idea, but now I’m thinking otherwise. 3D is almost guaranteed to bring a huge audience. The Disney company probably realized this and just went with it. And now, when the film does good at the box office, they’ll say it was all thanks to the miracle of having the movie being 100% pure computer animation.

Bullshit.

Just Can't Win

Tomorrow is national whine-about-being-a-political-loser day.


I saw these posters ALL over my campus today. My guess is this: they realized that posting a hundred million variations of "No War In Iraq" wasn't good enough to stop the war, so they decided to pull out the major guns. Hmm, no going to work and no going to school. If this event is at all successful, then they'll create a significant negative impact in our economy, but still fail to stop the war. But that's OK, because they can just continue blaming the bad economy on Bush.