After test driving the Toyota Camry Hybrid (I didn't test-drive the Prius because it was the most uncomfortable car I'd ever been in), I was amazed at how quiet hybrids can be, which became a huge selling point for me.  The first time I stopped at a light, I thought I stalled the car because the engine "auto-stops", and unless you have the A/C or radio going, you can't hear anything.  It was awesome.

MPG is 40/45, which should make hitting the gas station less of a pain in the ass.  So far, I haven't named the car yet, which I think is a guy thing... do girls do that? I don't know, I like naming things.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with my purchase.  It doesn't have the power I thought I wanted, but the green impact and the future gas savings definitely help.  Plus, the car looks awesome, and is comfortable as hell.

Of course, the big bitch that will come from fanboys will be the change in the ending.  But you know what: I (and Night Nurse, who just finished reading the trade paperback a few days before) think that this ending works even better than the book.  The book's threat is all made up, and something that the rest of the world has to watch and suspend disbelief for - as well as experience secondhand.  The movie's threat is actually something that the entire world can understand and comprehend.  Overall, I liked it.  Also, FYI, my non-geek wife actually told me afterwards she caught the Squid anyway in an acronym on the computer... I missed it!  My wife has surpassed me in picking up geekdom minutia.

Acting-wise, I found Jackie Earl Haley as Rorschach (and more importantly, Walter) to be spot on.  The entire prison scene was awesome.  I didn't really know Patrick Wilson from anything but he treated Nite-Owl pretty much how I always pictured it... disappointed that the "impotent" line didn't make it into the flick, though.  Malin Ackerman... eh, she was okay, just think she got the short end when it came to character... the book had much more of a defeated tone to her.  Jeffrey Dean Morgan was spot on as The Comedian, and I was happy they were able to give him such a big part.  Matthew Goode exuded self-righteousness quite well as Adrian, however I think a better actor could have done better.  And Crudup as Dr. Manhattan... well, when you need a great voice, go with MasterCard.

I'm giving the flick 4.5 out of 5 Stars, mainly because I think it was hampered in the music department.  There's no solid score recognizable throughout, and while some of the soundtrack was pitch-perfect (The Times They Are A-Changin' and Sounds of Silence were great!), some were downright laughable (especially Hallelujah for the gratuitous - but admittedly book-loyal - sex scene).

Anyway, this past Saturday, we headed down to the city once again for WonderCon 2009.  The schedule seemed to be fairly light compared to the previous time we went (no Bryan Singer, no Kevin Smith, McG seemed to be the big draw) so both of us assumed this year would be a little more low-key.  In a word: Pshaw.  WonderCon '09 was wall-to-wall jam-packed with geeks.  Nearly every hourly movie screening filled up with 5,000 seats and was watched carefully by the fire marshal.  

When we got there, we thought we'd have the same luck of walking right in since we had tickets already.  No luck this time, as we had to get in a line that wrapped around half the Moscone Center, then re-wrapped itself around again.  By the time we got in, it was about 11:15, and the Watchmen panel was scheduled to start 15 minutes later.  Shockingly, when we went to get in, they informed us it was full and turned us away.  Which, while it sucks we missed it, it turns out the panel was pretty much seeing the first 20 minutes of the flick, which I'd much rather experience this Saturday in IMAX (tickets already bought, bitches!).

Anyway, after doing some quick browsing on the floor, our first real stop was for a half hour discussion between Michael Chabon (Pulitzer-Prize-winning author) and Matt Fraction (rising writing guru for Marvel).  It was quite entertaining, mainly focusing on Chabon, and how much he loves comics books, horror movies, and basically fandom, in general.  It was quite an interesting discussion, and convinced me I really need to read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.  Linds' has only been telling me this for like 8 years, heh...  The Matt Fraction portion was a bit of a disappointment, not much shop-talk from him (I have a feeling that occurred in the Fraction/Brubaker panel on Sunday), but overall, I enjoyed it.

Our next stop was up to the Esplanade for some movie stuff.  When we got in, they were just starting the panel for a 1950's sci-fi invasion movie homage called Alien Trespass.  If your a fan of these type of flicks, it looks like they are really doing it justice.  Not exactly my cup of tea, but it looked fun, really bad special effects, total over-the-top acting, exactly what you'd expect, and it seems like the cast (starring Will from Will & Grace, the T-1000, The Wonder Years' dad, and some random 4400 chick) has some genuine love for it.

The next one was the biggie: Star Trek.  Now, I've been quite hesitant about this prequel/sequel take off.  I mean, sure, they've got Sylar and Harold (of Harold & Kumar) , plus JJ Abrahms, one of my faves is helming... but really, I've always found The Original Series stories weak... always been a TNG and DS9 fanboy.  But, seeing the new trailer (that's coming out with Watchmen) made me fall in love: This. Movie. Looks. Amazing.  Like leaps and bounds beyond what I was expecting.  After the trailer, JJ led the panel, and reminded me why I love him so much... the guy, even when he's not a fan, totally immerses himself in a project.  Zachary Quinto was there (which Night Nurse loved... I think she has a new crush) and was quite cool.  The new Uhura and Kirk were there as well, but they both left me kinda cold... honestly, this Christopher Pine dude they have for Kirk seems like he was pulled directly from an Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue.

After a quick jaunt out for lunch at a great sushi place in the Metreon, we headed back for some more Hollywood love.  The line was excruciating... so excruciating, we stood by while it shuffled through for 3 or 4 minutes, then slowly joined them.  Yeah, I'm not proud of it, but I wasn't missing the Watchmen panel AND the Terminator: Salvation panel.

So yeah.  Terminator 4.  The start of a new trilogy.  Directed by... McG.  I'll give the dude this much: he sure seems excited about this flick.  He has his canned stories to get the crowd excited, but it doesn't seem fake.  Screening wise, we got to see the new trailer (also attached to Watchmen) which honestly looks amazing.  It sure looks like the work ILM had done on Transformers has really stepped up their game, and the effects look fantastic.  I'm not entirely sold on the cast, though (other than Christian Bale and Bryce Dallas Howard).  The fact that the panel seemed to push the "diversity" more than the "acting skill" of the group is a tad sad.  We then got to see two full scenes (with temporary effects).  The first one was a great attack scene followed up by a chase scene that may rival Matrix Reloaded.  The second scene was a bit more... I don't know, emotional?  It had John Connor chatting with the good-Terminator.  It kinda fell flat with me, as I think you had to be invested in both characters to truly get it.

The rest of the time spent at Wondercon had Night Nurse and I making our way through all the booths (I was within a few feet of Adam Baldwin!  Sweet!), and did a little shopping.  There was really only one thing I wanted, and that was volumes 1 and 2 of Mage: The Hero Defined, but after looking at half a dozen vendors, NO ONE had it.  Finally, I got lucky at one, and found volume 2, but no volume 1.  Then they all started to close down, and as we passed a vendor on our way out, I happen to ask him if he had it... and of course he did... but there wasn't time to dig it out.  Which... sucked.  Oh well, some other time.

*

Oh, on a totally unrelated note: I got a job!  Yep, same company, pretty much same position, much better pay!  I'm quite happy... plus, Loki has learned to roll-over this past week!  Good times...

On top of the job shit we've had to deal with, my frakkin' Saturn thought now would be a good time for my transmission (or, part of it at least) to completely crap out on me, so we had to get that fixed. 

Thanks to everyone who's been sending us well-wishes, I know the times are tough for alot of people, but we appreciate it...

Let's start at the beginning, which admittedly didn't go so well.  Our flight was supposed to get off the ground just before midnight, and it was looking pretty good.  We boarded on time, but after half an hour or so, it was pretty clear there was a problem.  After a full hour, we get an announcement that the black box is broken, and we need to switch planes.  Now, in the back of my mind I'm thinking, "Well, if the black box is ever needed, I'm not gonna be around to care about it."

Anyway, after another hour of disembarking, and then re-embarking (never done that before), we took off for Miami.  However, instead of a two-and-a-half hour layover, we had under 30 minutes, to disembark, hustle through the airport, and get to our connector.  Good news: we did it.  Bad news: our luggage didn't.

We get to the hotel in our San Fran civvies, so you can imagine we're not dressed for 80 degree weather.  Add in the fact our bathing suits and toiletries were in our bags, the next 24 (really 30) hours were not going to be fun.  Oh yeah, American Airlines for some reason couldn't send our bags until the following day on the same numbered flight, even though there were other flights available.  I officially hate American Airlines.  We had to go to the store at the hotel, and spent way too much money on some toothpaste, flip-flops, and t-shirts.

Enough of the bad stuff... after we got our bags the following night, it was all gravy.  We stayed at the Sandals Regency, which is an all-inclusive resort in the southeast corner of the Caribbean.  Throughout the resort, there were, I think, 5 bars (including two pool-based), all included.  My personla favorite drink of the week was the Dirty Banana, which I believe led me to ingesting at least 2 dozen bananas in the span of 5 days.  Healthy, eh?  To top it all off, the hotel came fully stocked with various types of liquor we could enjoy at our leisure, plus our own personal pool... which, sadly, is nowhere near as cool as it sounds.

Aside from a fairly average buffet, the food was phenomenal.  We ate at a french style restaurant twice which gave me my first time truly enjoying caviar (that wasn't simple 'roe' on top of sushi).  There was a Benihana-style Japanese restaurant which allowed me to get totally blitzed on hot saki that the rest of the table didn't seem to enjoy (later that evening I had trouble distiguishing the men's restroom from the women's).  For lunch, we nearly always went to a great outoor place right on the beach, which had some of the most surprisingly good pizza (my personal favorite was topped with squid, clams, and mussels).  Probably my favorite aspect was that we could order room service (still included) at all hours of the night.

When we weren't eating, drinking, or sunning, Kris and I finally resumed our love of Scrabble with eachother.  It had fallen to the wayside as of late, but the honeymoon provided a nice oppurtunity to rekindle that spark, and since we've returned, we've been playing more and more (especially thanks to the Facebook application, which is awesome).

Excursions-wise, we didn't do too much, other than a single trip out snorkling for half an hour.  The water was absolutely gorgeous though, sometimes it seemed warmer than all the pools at the resort.  I saw a dead lobster.  For some reason, I found that kinda cool.

Anyway, the trip back home was nowhere near as frustrating as the trip there, however it was still not the best ending to the trip.  Our flight back from Miami took us to LAX at just about midnight.  It was then we found out we would need to leave the terminal, get our luggage, and wait for hours for us to be allowed to re-check our luggage, then go through security again.  Suffice to say, after spending hours in the airplane, sitting in the most uncomfortable chairs imagineable near the baggage claim exit for like 4 hours in the middle of the night was not the most fun one can have.

Well, that's pretty much everything I can remember.  APologies to the wife for the month-long delay in blogging about it... I am such a procrastinator.

BTW, for those interested, this is my 1,000th blog entry!

My MySpace page has officially been left on life support.  Good riddance.  Only good thing MySpace ever did was introduce me to Jonathan Coulton.

Speaking of, Merry X-Mas, from Chiron Beta Prime.

This one is in regards to how he is running his company on masse, and how it is signalling the death knell for the monthly comics medium, along with other heads of comic companies.

I've been noticing lately my weekly haul has been pinching my wallet a bit more than usual.  I thought it was because of events like Secret Invasion and Final Crisis, but the truth of the matter is that Marvel and DC have slowly been creeping the price of their biggest hits up to a base price of $3.99.  This at a time when Marvel is running a 40% profit margin.  Oh, but they say they are doing this to keep the struggling books at $2.99.

And this doesn't mean the issues are getting longer... it simply means that to enjoy an 8-11 minute read, I now need to dish out 4 dollars.  Oh, they may say that it's "32 PAGES!".  But you know what those extra ten pages represents?  Usually some shitty sketches, and a advertisements for the next big event.

Keep in mind... my Netflix subscription costs about 4 times that a month.  Endless DVD choices in a month = 4 comic books.  

All in all, this means I need to start cutting back *substantially* on my pulls from now on, which likely means I won't be picking up any of those struggling books.  I read the big ones because they happen to get the best writers and artists.  I (might* pick up a smaller book, even one with a hgher price tag, if it gets good heat or looks interesting.  But if I don't have that extra disposable income lying around, I'll ignore it.

The economics behind this decision simply boggles my mind.

How hard is it to have principles?  How hard is it to say unequivocally "We. Do. Not. Torture."

Before the Democrats even take the reins of power next month, the caving begins, and "special circumstances" begin being thrown around.  

Absolutely pathetic.

...edited to add, apparently Sen. Feinstein has been on a clarifying binge all day.  More here.  Still, the fact she even put the idea of softening her stance is sad.

Anyway, onto life.  

I ran my second mafia game on HCR recently, based on The Dark Tower.  It was alot of fun, and probably syphoned off any of my remaining creative writing juices.  I think this one went over better than my first one (even though one of my favorite roles - played by Chris - was killed off night one!).  My next game is gonna be based on The Princess Bride, but won't take pace til' after my honeymoon next month.

Work has been a tad crazy lately, as my company is undergoing a huge upheaval staffing-wise, and it's sort've like the Sword of Damocles is hanging over my entire team, as we don't have any clue as to how our group will look come January '09.  I'm hoping for the best, but ya' never know.

Night Nurse is only a few hours away from living up to her alias, as she has only one more day left in her preceptorship (basically an unpaid internship) before she can get a job as a nurse.  She's been coming home with some kick ass stories that are certainly a nice tease that I will be entertained for a long time, even if my cable goes out.  She's been getting great comments already, and just as all her friends and family knew, she's gonna be a great nurse!

Comic book thoughts of late... Secret Invasion has been awesome, Final Crisis is a shitfest of epic-proportions, and Ultimatum certainly looks pretty, but I'm not quite sure how it's shaping up.  The jewel of late, however, has been Fables, which has gone into a whole new direction since Geppetto was dethroned.  Jack of Fables, however, can be ignored.  It's too cheeky.

Movie-wise?  Let's just do some quick hits:

• Twilight - Surprisingly enjoyable.  The tweens are right, they actually have a good love story on their hands.  I've seen more money put into a Troma film though... next flick better look better.  3.5 out of 5 stars (theater-worthy)
  
  
• Four Christmases - Cute, cliche, but funny.  Yet another presentation of Kristin Chenowith's ample (clothed) rack.  3 out of 5 stars (renter)
  
  
• Body of Lies - A bit hollow.  Good acting, of course, but otherwise forgettable.  2.5 out of 5 stars (renter)
  
  
• Role Models - Absolutely hilarious, the most I've laughed since Tropic Thunder.  And the ending was not what I expected, and was really perfect.  4 out of 5 Stars (theater)
  
  
• Zack and Miri Make a Porno - Eh, very funny, for a romantic comedy, but pretty forgettable, for a Kevin Smith flick.  Dinging it half a star for Kevin making me see Jay's junk.  3 out of 5 Stars (renter)
  
  
• Eagle Eye - Visually cool, and I dig Shia, but all in all, pretty by-the-numbers action flick.  3 out of 5 Stars (renter)

Netflix has been fun, as we're seeing a bunch of ones we missed.  And I'm glad we didn't spend the money in the theater.  Get Smart was pretty weak, The Other Boleyn Girl was hampered by crappy acting, Thank You For Smoking was nowhere near as good as friends advertised, Rendition ended too abruptly, and Ratatoulle, while visually amazing, did nothing for me.

Still: Zombie Strippers was pretty cool.

Well, there's more I can say, but I've been getting hounded to get *something* up here, so hopefully this will get the juices flowing again.

Here, let Professor Krugman explain it

Last weekend, Andy Rooney mentioned him on 60 minutes in a section on vice president.  Here's the link if you care to see it.

And yeah, I read the gay rumors, too.  Make all the jokes you want.

...ETA: according to this link, King died un-married, and I haven't found any mention of children.  I'm wondering if he's only a great-great-great-granduncle.  If so, that's a family story alot of us have taken for granted.

...hmph.  I actually found his will online, and there's no mention of children.  He was pretty generous though.  His nephew got 65 of his negroes.

Dude... I know some people like to eat in the car, but if the activity takes two hands, a spinning motion, and quite possibly something that will block your view... just pull over.

Anyway, I wanted to figure out if there was some way to make my own 2-minutes skip (the 5 minute skip is fairly useless).  A quick Google search provided this helpful "hack" into my Comcast remote control:

Simply awesome.