• As I watch the cool new trailer for 28 Weeks Later, it occurs to me that when it comes to the horror genre, I’m not quite the average viewer these days. For the last decade or so, it’s been Asian cinema’s horror movement that has gotten such rave endorsement and remakes, but in my opinion, it’s the UK who has been king of the genre. Sure, there’s little need to remake British horror for American cinema, for obvious linguistic reasons. Frankly, I don’t think most of the American remakes of Asian horror films are any better or worse than the original. They’re all rather so-so. But if you look at 28 Days Later, Neil Marshall’s films Dog Soldiers and The Descent, or now 28 Weeks Later - these are the best horror films of the last decade. The Asian cinema can keep their horror films. My 2 cents, anyway.
• Speaking of movie trailers, the first international trailer for The Bourne Ultimatum has floated. Here’s hoping that director Paul Greengrass can have his camera crew switch to decaf. And stop sniffing crack. Or perhaps buy them a freakin’ STEADICAM!
• UPS Intercept. Very cool idea.
• Check out this hilarious little Google Maps tidbit
• Here’s a hilarious list: The 25 Worst Rapper Names of All Time
• Here’s another hilarious list, in honor of April Fools Day coming up this weekend: The 10 Best April Fools Day Hoaxes
• I think they should check their passenger manifest for the unluckiest person on Earth
• I weap for the future.
• SpeakEasy, my current DSL ISP, has been swallowed by Best Buy. Surely not a good thing.
• Cingular finally commits to Windows Mobile 6 upgrades for their current main WM5 units, including my spiffy new HTC 8525
• Doctor Who gets a fourth season (or should that be 30th season?) renewal. No big shock, but still good news.
• NOOOOOO! They can’t POSSIBLY make a worse action movie than Transporter 2. Why would they even try?

Random Fact Of The Day: Many sailors used to wear gold earrings so that they could afford a proper burial when they died.

Dialog Of The Day: “Hi, I’m Gary Cooper, but not the Gary Cooper that’s dead.” (Gary Cooper, obviously, played by Tim Robbins in The Sure Thing)

Video Of The Day: The launch of the brand new iRack

• Some interesting reading: List of unusual deaths
• CoolIris - a very cool Firefox extension
• You think you have trouble picking sand out of everything after going to the beach? Try getting it out of everything after being in the middle of this
• Good grief: Rubikcubusim
• Too cool: The Farewell Dossier
• BTW, Starbuck won that poll for greatest character on TV I mentioned in a post a couple days ago by quite a margin. Coolness.

Random Fact Of The Day: It was the custom in Ancient Rome for the men to place their right hand on their testicles when taking an oath. The modern term ‘testimony’ is derived from this tradition.

Dialog Of The Day: “It is most gratifying that your enthusiasm for our planet continues unabated. As a token of our appreciation, we hope you will enjoy the two thermonuclear missiles we’ve just sent to converge with your craft. To ensure ongoing quality of service, your death may be monitored for training purposes. Thank you.” (The “Ghostly Image,” played by the original Arthur Dent himself, Simon Jones in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy)

Video Of The Day: Man, this dude must have the strongest neck ever. Truly insane stuff.

If you or anyone you know has any interest in becoming a TV writer, or simply a writer in general, there are two things that I recommend as mandatory. In the modern age of special edition DVD’s there’s all manner of good commentaries to be found with plenty of excellent industry insight (well, in some of them), but there’s one commentary source that I recommend well above and beyond any other - Ron Moore’s honest and amazingly insightful podcast commentaries for every episode of Battlestar Galactica (since mid-season 1, anyway). If you’re not watching Battlestar, you should. Once you have, sit yourself down for his podcasts. Heck, he’s even posted RAW audio recordings of their writing session, completely uncensored. There’s no shortage of useful information to be found, and he details the process of shaping the story for each and every episode, in the fascinatingly fluid manner in which this particular show is plotted. I also recommend his other DVD commentaries such as the interesting one on the special edition DVD for the deeply flawed Star Trek Generations. The other resource I can’t recommend more is writer Jane Espenson’s fantastic “Jane In Progress” blog, where she does daily posts aimed directly at aspiring writers - what to do and what not to do in writing for TV, how to break into the business, etc, etc, etc. Both of them are a couple of the greatest writers on TV of any kind. Espenson, interestingly, got her break in TV from Ron Moore back on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and has just recently joined on to Battlestar as a writer/producer as well. Between the two of them, there’s enough fascinating material to be had which is far more valuable than anything one would ever learn in any formal training course/program. And the two of them are wildly entertaining in the process.

Just jumping in quick today to try and drum up a few more votes for Starbuck over at the Chicago Tribune’s online “RedEye” edition, where they’ve been doing a running poll for greatest character on TV. It’s down to Jack Bauer on 24 and Starbuck on Battlestar. Go vote for Starbuck! And if you don’t want to disclose your real e-mail and location, make something quasi-legit sounding up and vote anyway.

I sit here stupified, having finished the season finale of Battlestar some fifteen minutes ago. If you have not yet watched this season finale episode, do NOT continue reading. Seriously, find something else to read. OK, still with me? This’ll be a fairly rough write-up, as I’m just gonna type without really proofing this. Since it’s been a short amount of time since I finished the episode, my mind is still reeling. I’ll say this without hesitation - this show continues to bank in directions I just don’t see coming. It refuses to sit still, constantly veering into new directions, never resting in a place long enough to catch its breath (or to put it in Viper terms, it barely maintains enough smash to maintain its turn - yeah, I’m a certified geek). There are rampant rumors flying around that next season, number 4, will be the last. Ron Moore has said it is certainly being considered. Given how aggressive the show is, it is clear that they can’t take a more traditional genre approach of sustained life or status quo. One of the key descriptions I would use about the writing on this series is “risk taking.” Moore has stated in the past that Battlestar is in most every way the antithesis of Trek (with only slight comparisons possible to DS9, which Moore had a good deal of involvement with), and he continues to prove that statement clear. It’s very much an improved narrative, and most of the time great things result from that fact. This finale makes dramatic and narrative leaps as wild as season 2’s finale. However, this time they go about it in a completely different way. Season 2’s finale was all about time, futility and separation. This season’s finale is about cutting to the core framework of the show, putting in some heavy plot twists and looking forward to hope.

And, lest you think I’m ignoring one of the single coolest moments in the series run - THE RETURN OF STARBUCK! I’d like to congratulate Moore & Eick’s teams. In a world where spoilers are almost impossible to stop, and I’m sure this one had leaked to somewhere at some point (at least in the leadup to this last episode or two), their achievement in media blackout for Starbuck’s return was glorious. It got me by surprise. For those like me who listen each week to Ron Moore’s always-fantastic podcast commentaries, he was even laying the groundwork for subversion on this one. He did a perfect little run on when he had to tell Katie Sackhoff that they were killing her character, and how he had to really sell it to her, to Eddie Almos (the surrogate father of the acting troupe), etc, etc, etc. I can just see the grin on her face when he was telling her what they REALLY had in mind. Sackhoff must have been giddy beyond all belief as this seems like just the kind of thing she would totally love (and it probably killed her to keep it a secret). So, Moore and team Galactica effectively sell her death to mean something that we’ll find out more on later down the road. They do this by giving her character some peace with her past, at long last - again, a move TOTALLY in line with actually killing her off, which helped sell it to the audience. They proceed to take her name out of the credits (that’s a harder and weirder thing to accomplish, particularly with such secrecy involved, than one might think). I will admit that the ONE thing they didn’t do that kept a sense of doubt in my mind was by not showing any kind of funeral scene for her (they could have at least played it briefly in montage). They’ve done it for a number of other characters, and I was sure that we’d have seen one for Starbuck for sure. I thought that perhaps they’d touch on it in a flashback, which would be an expected move for this show, which is kinda why I let it slide. Then sure enough, after JUST enough time had passed for me to adjust to the move, they reveal their hand. When Lee went off to investigate the strange DRADIS reading, just as he first got buzzed by her viper, it started to dawn on me what, or who, he was chasing. As soon as it was revealed to be Starbuck, I let out a cheer (we’ll ignore the coincidences of Lee being the one to discover Kara for dramatic purposes).

And let’s get back to the trial of Baltar, which they pulled off far better than I was expecting (much better than the election subplot at the end of last season). Lee’s speech on the stand was pitch perfect. That speech was just so right - addressing a GREAT many things from the previous seasons on the show, as well as why and how all of that relates to Gaius Baltar, with such spot-on overtones to Admiral Adama. It was beautifully written and performed. It’s in moments like that where Bill & Lee Adama connect at such a profound level, and it is done entirely in looks and reactions. Eddie Olmos nailed those scenes with perfect subtlety. I also loved the scene between him and Roslin after. Earlier in the series, such a moment would have had those two characters holding guns at each others heads - but now it’s an entirely different vibe - a strong disagreement, but one with understanding. But, this being the season finale, one can’t catch their breath in a scene like that. The other big item at hand, of course, is the reveal (or so we think) of 4 of the final 5 Cylons (and who is the 5th? hmmm). This plot element will probably have fans in a bigger divide than any other. I kind of like it for probably the same reasons that those opposed will hate it - the fact that these happened to be central characters, and the turn of events to get them as that were too random. I like it because of their strange rise to power - particularly the fact that Tigh, Tyrol and Anders were the 3 man leadership team of the resistance on New Caprica. Tori is a slightly weirder sell, but her sudden rise to power also tracks, and they’ve been laying the groundwork for her character for a bit. And her sudden attraction to Sam makes things kinda interesting, too.

Ultimately, there’s one thing that matters more than most any other for this season finale - did it keep me engaged? Oh yeah. This was a rollercoaster. This one had the adrenaline going, big time. As the music rolled (more on that in a bit) with the vipers launching, there was a chill running up my spine. The reveal of Starbuck was that final bit of icing on the cake. By the time Ron Moore & David Eick’s names appeared at the end after that “Contact-like” pull back then push in, I was totally jazzed. This episode was absolultely fantastic. While it leaves me with far more questions than season 2’s finale did, I’m pretty sure I outright loved it more without doubting how much I liked it. It took time to adjust to that time jump last season and it gave me pause as I watched it the first time. I really enjoyed it on my second and third viewings. This season’s finale I was totally into as it happened. It was getting the “oh yeah!” response vs the “what just happend?” response. And once they start laying in so many reveals and strange new directions for the narrative they toss in a surreal appearance by the Dylan/Hendrix song “All Along The Watchtower” as the music our newly revealed Cylons keep hearing. What a bizarro choice to make for such a reveal. It’s cool, as I like the song and the new cover of it for the show works fabulously as a strange score cue for the final moments of the season - and a very cool underpinning for Starbuck’s big reveal. I anxiously look forward to next season’s full 22 episode run, to include the fantastic-sounding feature length cable/DVD entry depicting Pegasus’ escape from the attack on the colonies (I can only assume they got the excellent Michelle Forbes back for that). To Ron Moore, David Eick, the wonderful cast, writers and all the other master craftsmen working on Battlestar Galactica: congratulations on a wonderful season finale. Absolutely loved it. And I now cue it up to watch again…

OK, one more note added on after rewatching the episode again. I love this new arrangement of All Along The Watchtower that Bear McCreary pulled off. Really, it’s a wild reworking of the song, and it works in such a strange way that it’s almost impossible to define. McCreary has a great write-up on working on the song at his blog on his site. He also mentions on the main page that the soundtrack CD is due this summer for season 3. Can’t wait. Oh, and as always, Gary Hutzel and his VFX teams deserve tons more praise. Truly stunning work, guys.

• Oooh, a bleeding-edge, state-of-the-art, 3D digital, sci-fi, action film directed by James Cameron, starring Sigourney Weaver AND Michael Biehn? Now THAT I would camp out in line for. That would make me happier than hearing an official announcement for Serenity 2. Well, perhaps.
• Hey, one of the main characters on this week’s (second) episode of Andy Barker, PI was named Guy! This was the-always-excellent Jane Espenson’s first episode on the show as writer (well, co-writer). Wonder if the name choice was hers or if it was co-writer Alex Herschlag. Either way, thanks, there are very few major characters in film and TV with my name, even if he wasn’t the most reputable of characters…
• Vote in E!’s now-traditional Save One Show poll. Plenty of good choices in the list, and of course you’re free to pick the one you most want saved, but I’ll urge you to pick Veronica Mars anyway.
• Check out the amusing press kit goodies that Fox sent out with the Drive press kit. I’ve got a side hobby of collecting press kits (or, at least I did back in the days when they contained a bunch of 8×10 stills and other stuff). It’s not uncommon for the studios to get cute, particularly when there’s some kind of theme for them to tie in to with the show/movie.
• Must be fun being an actor who came up through the ranks as a child actor in dozens and dozens of commercials. Check out this oldie featuring the great Seth Green. Must make them wince when they see them years later (like your parents pulling out old home movies from when you were 9 years old). Like a number of his Buffy co-stars, Green featured heavily in many commercials (and shows and movies) as a child actor. Sarah Michelle Gellar & Alison Hannigan were in many, many commercials as kids.
• Holy cow. I’m not sure what part of this story is more disturbing.
• So in the same interview where the Sony exec blames the media for giving Sony bad press, he makes a statement calling the USA “a land of cheap people.” I love it.
• Wonder what Google’s operations looked like in May, 1998?
• Very funny list: If ancient Rome had the internet…
• You can argue LimeWire’s practices and defenses all you want, but if they can have the power to stick it to the RIAA in any way, more power to ‘em.
• 15% human and 85% sheep, huh? Now, to combine Shaun The Sheep with Shaun Of The Dead…
• Added The Hills Have Eyes 2 (7) and Premonition (5) to the 2007 Film Order list. I’ll add the full reviews some time soon. Ah, who am I kidding? Perhaps they’ll show up some time between now and my death.

Dialog Of The Day: “Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about about mission statements.” (Peter Gibbons, played by Ron Livingston in Office Space)

Video Of The Day: Whoever said getting there is half the fun clearly didn’t go on THIS cruise.

• Check out this stunningly fast print technology. Truly insane. Wow.
• The RIAA wins big Worst Company of 2007 poll. Seeing Halliburton outvoted by them is quite telling.
• Speaking of the RIAA, here’s a funny little tidbit.
• So the Prius is less environment friendly than a Hummer? Figures.
• The new mobile version of DVD Profiler is awesome, as I expected.
• ABC announces a number of pickups for next season. Great to see Men In Trees among them.
• Fox launches new viral marketing campaign web site for Drive
• Some funny court statements

Dialog Of The Day: “Show me a woman who isn’t jealous of another woman and I’ll show you a man.” (Bill McNeal, played by the late Phil Hartman in NewsRadio 1.06)

Video Of The Day: Check out the cool new Grand Canyon skywalk (stupid environmentalists…)

Woo hoo! Out of nowhere, and after a mysterious year of no updates, DVD Profiler gets a major version release (3.0). Apparently Ken (the developer) really has been busy all this time. This is the app I use to track my rather massive DVD collection. I fell in love with version 2.x series app about 15 minutes after I started playing with it a couple years ago. If you’ve got a DVD collection you wish to track, I can recommend no other app anywhere near as much as DVD Profiler. I tried all the major ones, and they don’t hold a candle to this. At any rate, I’ve been geeking out all evening playing with the new version of the app, and absolutely loving many of the improvements. Plenty of things have been improved, but one of the major ones is support for the new HD formats (HD-DVD and Blu-Ray). And I can’t wait to get my new cell phone/PDA soon so I can play with the brand new mobile version of the app that does 2-way sync.

No ponderings for the day, btw. Too busy playing with this app, and also by a strange coincidence physically building some new CD & DVD shelving for my media room.

• The fate of Veronica Mars hangs delicately in the balance. E!’s Kristin Veitch is always on the bleeding edge of Veronica Mars for us fellow fanatics, and she’s getting a wild variety of news in recent days. I have mixed emotions about the idea of the revamped series. I mean, the show is already tied for the best series on TV with Battlestar (my opinion of course), and revamped shows rarely attract truly new audiences (ever? I’m trying to think of one…). No matter what, the revamp will alienate some of the current viewers. Doesn’t matter how amazing a job they do with it, they can be sure it won’t be loved by all. While I’ll likely love any form they put Veronica Mars into, I have doubts that this revamp will truly happen. I’d love to get my little paws on a copy of the demo reel some day, though. Then again, the more I think about it, the more I think a time jump would show promise. Though only 4 years? That’s a bit tight for the current time line for her to be an actual agent of any kind, unless he’s thinking about having her drop out of Hearst early to pursue that opportunity. Anyway, us dedicated Veronica Mars fans will be on pins and needles until the final call is made. Come on, CW - it already looks like Gilmore Girls’ 8th season is doomed. Don’t take away our Mars fix at the same time. Please? Pretty please? (with sugar on top?)
• Aaaaaack! Jane Espenson got herself a Co-Exec Producer credit on Battlestar. Excellent! Was catching up on a few of her blog entries and almost missed the news. The more Jane’s involved in any show the better. They still have to figure out how to use her razor sharp wit and dialog on Battlestar to best use. Looking forward to more episodes written by her in the upcoming fourth season.
• Excellent - Cate Blanchett has joined the cast of Indy 4.
• Holy cow, check out the stats on “Tsar Bomba.” That sucker is staggering.
• Monk gets season 5 DVD announcement, and the overlooked gem Psych gets season 1 DVD announcement
• Here’s a cool underwater tunnel design. Looks like something from some toy set or something.
• New Line to remake Escape From NY
• Nifty. Madeline Stowe is being added to Raines. Had already seen (and liked) the pilot for the show some time ago, but I caught the official newly aired version the other day. A very solid pilot episode.
• Life has improved in Iraq since start of war, according to survey.
• For you fellow IT techs/nerds - Ultimate Boot CD 4.0 is available.
• BTW, tonight’s episode of Battlestar is one of the weirder “second acts” I’ve seen in TV history. Following last week’s quasi-unoffical part 1 of the season finale, this second of three (or officially first of the last 2) has plots veering all over the place with Helo ultimately delivering an ominous statement about the weather changing. Everthing just feels off, and that’s almost surely completely intentional. By itself, the episode probably isn’t one of the best in the series, but it plays a fascinating part in laying some odd groundwork for what I’m sure will be an insane season finale episode next week.

Dialog Of The Day: “Do you know like we were saying? About the Earth revolving? It’s like when you’re a kid. The first time they tell you that the Earth’s turning and you just can’t believe it because everything looks like it’s standing still. I can feel it: the turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour. And the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at 67,000 thousand miles an hour and I can feel it. We’re falling through space, you and me. Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world and if we let go… that’s who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home.” (The Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston in Doctor Who 27.1)

Video Of The Day: Hurricane Balls - way too cool

• A fantastic assembly of more than 5,000 World Trade Center photos
• Crap, this is bad news for the future of Veronica Mars (Pussycat Dolls did much better than VM was doing in same time slot)
• Ooooh, Alan Arkin as the chief. Excellent casting. I’m getting more and more psyched for the new Get Smart film.
• Seth Green interviews Weird Al Yankovic
• Let’s see, Zooey Deschanel, James Woods and Jeff Bridges channeling no-less-than The Dude himself? This movie can’t possibly completely suck. I’m so there.
• Speaking of Zooey Deschanel, her upcoming Sci-Fi Channel mini-series, Tin Man, should definitely be worth checking out.
• And speaking of Sci-Fi Channel, their upcoming Painkiller Jane series should also be worth checking out.
• I’ve read a number of these before, but they are great. There’s some good stuff on the other pages of stuff they link to at the bottom.
• You can get outdated help in Vista again
• Cool, the next step on the path to real life tricorders.
• This dude has got some real guts in hiding his gutlessness.
• Cool. Anna Paquin as the lead in a vampire TV series. I’ll tune in to that.
• Duchovny is rarely appreciated for his comedic talents. I’ll definitely check this show out.
• Windows For Warships. “The real blue screen of death.” (Great subtitle, Register)
• But I think this gives Al Gore more authority to speak on the subject. After all, if he isn’t wasting resources, how could he know how to properly conserve them?
• Let’s see who thinks it’s an idle threat now…
• Nifty, a Dharma & Greg reunion of sorts (mother-in-law and daughter, at any rate)
• For those wondering why DreamWorks broke away from their production/distribution deal with the great folks at Aardman. One can hardly blame them. The audience, that’s who’s to blame.
• Yet another reason to add to my list of why I don’t eat potatoes
• A cool article for you fellow tech nerds, detailing how the boys at Ontrack (a very reliable company) recover RAID arrays.
• A brief write-up on composer Bear McCreary doing some recording sessions for a big upcoming Battlestar episode. Looking forward to hearing the results (as well as what he hints at for the season finale episodes)

Dialog Of The Day: “There you go, Bambi. If it turns red, he’s trying to rape you. If it doesn’t…he might still be trying to rape you.” (Veronica Mars, played by Kristen Bell in Veronica Mars 3.09)

Video Of The Day: A funny video of a girl being proposed to during a commercial break of Veronica Mars (episode 3.12, for those curious). She’s a Veronica Mars fan - what more reason did he need?

• The Bitsy Awards have been posted. I agree with most of the stuff in the list. Great to see Kiss Kiss Bang Band and Kingdom Of Heaven Director’s Cut make many areas of the lists. I also second their gripes about Universal. Not only have they dropped the ball numerous times in the world of DVD lately, but their exclusive support of HD-DVD is the main thing keeping this ridiculous format war going. The Universal Home Video execs need to be ousted, and some new people who know what the #@!* they are doing need to be put in their place.
• Wow. I have no other word than that. Click on that picture for the REAL picture.
• Here’s a poll that indicates the fact that fellow film score fanatics have the same general opinion of the Best Original Score Oscar this year as I did
• This site features some amazing pictures and info

Dialog Of The Day: “If I could go back in time, I would want to meet Snoopy.” (Melody Valentine, played by Tara Reid in Josie & The Pussycats)

Video Of The Day: Another entry for the list of excellent drivers

• RIP, Richard Jeni - a very talented comedian.
• Woah. Check out the incredibly cool (sorry) pictures of these ice sculptures. Insanely talented sculpters. A particular favorite is “Aiming Eyes“
• Hey, you can keep Vista from doing that annoying screen darkening when UAC pops up a dialog. This might almost be enough to get me to turn UAC back on.
• For the rest of you who also had a beloved Speak & Spell when you were a kid
• For those of you who felt guilty about what you named your kid. This’ll make you feel better.
• Mmmmmmmmmm, chandelier…
• Would you believe this isn’t a photo? Well, it’s not. Total CG render. Even the hair is full 3D rendering.
• Man, it’d be so cool to have most any of these awesome monitor rigs.
• And you think you’ve seen some bad and/or unlucky drivers?
• So, have you ever told anyone about the time you burned a hole in your pajamas when you were 8?
• Thanks to the fact that PIXAR is now part of Disney, Toy Story 3 can commence under the proper production circumstances (a while back, when the two were going to split ways, Disney was going to make a third without PIXAR’s involvement - which would have been a VERY bad move)
• Scott Adams did a fun use of a quasi-celebrity blog. Reminds me of a strange, inverted version of a flash mob.

Dialog Of The Day: “I don’t want any trouble. I just wanna be alone and quiet in a room with a chair and a fireplace and a tea cosy. I don’t even know what a tea cosy is, but I want one.” (Buffy Summers, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar in Buffy the Vampire Slayer 3.01)

Video Of The Day: So amazingly, insanely, stupendously bad, it’s funny

Another bonus widescreen wallpaper. This is a high quality promo shot for Drive. I simply cropped it to 1920×1200 for use on my own machines and thought I’d share.

Ten years ago today, March 10, Buffy debuted on The WB. It became the greatest show in the history of television (my opinion, of course). In honor of the occasion, I watched my five favorite episodes. Here’s some links to celebrate the anniversary:

• TV.com’s tribute
• CHUD.com’s tribute
• A Toronto Star interview
• Flak Magazine tribute
• Video of the “Previously On…” opening of the season 5 finale episode, The Gift.
• Video of “Walk Through The Fire” from the masterpiece musical episode, Once More, With Feeling.
• The full A&E Biography on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The link is to part 1. The other parts are linked on that video.

And I anxiously look forward to the “Buffy Season 8” comics that debut in 11 days (the 21st), as pictured in this post.

• Two points to UK’s Metro for a hilarious write-up of an already amusing story
• Sci-Fi Channel viewers turn out to be some of the most influential and important to advertisers. No huge shock there.
• So, we finally get a little bit of news about The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles coming to DVD. One of my bigger reasons for anticipating Indy IV.
• Little tip: when browsing around and handling a bunch of lumber at Home Depot, don’t slide your hand on the stuff…

Dialog Of The Day: “Greg… I want you to meet Stinky… and this is Stinky’s dog, Nunzio.” (Dharma Finkelstein, played by Jenna Elfman in Dharma & Greg 1.01) (Stinky is a dog, btw)

Video Of The Day: Richard Dawson loses it on The Feud

• Wow, check out the Freedom of the Seas. That’s an insane cruise ship. What’s crazier is that it’s just the first of three Freedom Class ships. Crazier still is the Genesis Class that is to follow, launching in 2009.
• How ’bout some athiest money?
• Talk about a lack of parenting skills, or any other form of common sense whatsoever.
• Is Gump II a possibility? Not only is Hanks important to get back, but so is Robert Zemeckis.
• Scott Adams theorizes on how it’s not ultimately a bad thing that 5th graders know things that you don’t.
• Cool to see Serenity make the list for Chicago’s Music Box Theater’s Sci-Fi Festival
• Yup. Survival of the fittest no longer applies.
• Confessions of a Cingular sales rep

Dialog Of The Day: “I am completely untrustworthy… I’m a flibbertigibbet.” (Angelica Graynamore, played by Meg Ryan in Joe Versus the Volcano)

Video Of The Day: Jim Carrey does a funny take on David Caruso in CSI: Miami

• Summer Glau (River Tam in Firefly/Serenity, for you uneducated neanderthals) will be one of the two main Terminators in the Sarah Conner Chronicles series on Sci-Fi. How cool is that?
• Whew! Fox issues correction about their incorrect press release stating that Kitchen Confidential would be released in full screen. They have confirmed that it will be released in anamorphic widescreen. OK, now I’m a guaranteed customer for the set.
• And the hits keep on coming. The encryption hackers have now nailed a hardware AACS key. The studios/MPAA are gonna lose this battle, and quick - thank goodness. Die, AACS and HDCP, like the overly restrictive idiocies that you are.
• Speaking of the annoying media organizations, the RIAA makes another staggeringly annoying move.
• Woah, check out the LEGO Arena.
• One of the many reasons I have no desire to live in Saudi Arabia.
• I’VE GOT IT! I’VE GOT IT!
• Check out this article about the mind-blowing amount of data shot around the net in 2006. Think you can guess how much? Guess again. Try 161 exabytes. Yep, 161 billion gig, for those that aren’t familiar with an exabyte (an exabyte comes after petabyte on the byte scale). Sure, the number is somewhat nebulous in nature, but even if it’s off by an order of magnitude, it’s still darn impressive. Once the amounts start hitting zettabytes and (gulp) yottabytes, I’ll be really impressed.
• A cool write-up on legendary Jeff Minter’s presentation at the GDC. Minter is one of the greatest video game designers in history (as far as I’m concerned).
• Say what you want about the Resident Evil films (I like them, unlike most people I know), but the female co-stars they team up with Milla Jovovich get better and better with each film. The upcoming third entry teams her up with Ali Larter, which’ll be very cool (and will hopefully give Larter better material to work with than Heroes does).
• Some nifty photos of Saturday’s lunar eclipse. I saw the second half of it here in the Chicago area (the best we could do in this region).
• I haven’t the words to comment on this bit of marketing.

Dialog Of The Day: “So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that’s on the worst day of my life.” (Peter Gibbons, played by Ron Livingston in Office Space)

Video Of The Day: So, you think it’s annoying how much you shock stuff when you touch it?

• Even more great news on the AACS front. PowerDVD is cracked and AnyDVD joins the Blu-Ray fun. Keep the efforts coming, you fun hackers at large.
• Weird Al begins his huge tour, starting in Australia. Can’t wait for him to visit the Chicago area (not on the schedule yet, but will surely be added soon). There’s some other great news in his new MySpace post, mentioning a new video for Trapped In The Drive-Thru (which’ll be his longest music video to date, that’s for sure). It also links to this hilarious first take video of Donny Osmond’s appearance in the White & Nerdy video. Too funny.
• Who knew that blonde jokes would become dated material?
• The history of video games, in nifty flash timeline form
• Another classic Scott Adams Dilbert Blog entry. “When it comes to romance, the important thing is to win the argument.”
• Here’s an interesting list: The 100 oldest .com registrations
• How ’bout a list of amusing 404 error pages?
• Composer Bear McCreary pays a nice tribute to Shirley Walker on his Battlestar Blog, citing an interesting recent incident of her inspiration on an episode he worked on. I agree with him on the fact that Walker’s material for Batman: The Animated Series is some of the best scoring television has ever had.
• Updated my 2007 Film Order list to include a number more that I figured out were missing from the list. Got reviews written for about half of ‘em, to be posted soon (I swear!), and need to catch up on the others.

Dialog Of The Day: “You may think me crazy, but I know music. It’s the one thing that makes me humble.” (Daryl Van Horne, played by Jack Nicholson in The Witches Of Eastwick)

Video Of The Day: A funny Virgin Atlantic ad

• Horray! The awesome Katie Finneran is joining the cast of Drive! This makes the third consecutive show run by Tim Minear that she’s been on. She was fantastic in Wonderfalls, and also great in The Inside. She’s yet another welcome addition to Drive. Now I’m looking forward to the show more than ever.
• Fox is going to release Kitchen Confidential in 1.33 full frame?!?!?! This better be a mistake, Fox. If not, this is the second time recently that they have done a DVD set for a show broadcast in HD in the lame 1.33 full frame. Like the lame How I Met Your Mother Season 1 set, I will not be buying this set now. Come on Fox, KNOCK IT OFF! Seriously. Y’all need to get your act together. Hate to see what your TV on the HD video formats is gonna be like…
• The cast for Tin Man is shaping up to be pretty cool. Who knows, it may turn out better than one would expect. Then again, I’m one of the only people who doesn’t like The Wizard Of Oz, but who does like Return To Oz…
• Well, I’m one my way out the door to see David Fincher’s new movie, Zodiac. Will be adding a bunch of 2007 reviews shortly, including a couple I haven’t yet included on my 2007 film list.

Dialog Of The Day: “Isn’t my house classic? The columns date all the way back to 1972.” (Cher Horowitz, played by Alicia Silverstone in Clueless)

Video Of The Day: Ryan vs. Dorkman 2 - another awesome volume of this fan vid epic. So very cool.

• March has been declared as an RIAA boycott month. I’m in. Absolutely. Read the Gizmodo article here, or by clicking on the graphic.
• Here’s a very funny article. Certainly makes you want to question your (imperial) government more.
• Total eclipse of the moon this Saturday night. If you’re in the Chicago area like me, you’ll be able to see the second half of it, anyway.
• Coolness. Canon is going to be adding a “Blink Shot” feature to digital cameras that’ll cause it to not take a shot with somebody with their eyes closed. I’ll be very interested to play with that feature.
• Some cool titles on Universal’s upcoming DVD release slate for the year. Great to see a Flash Gordon SE on there. And hey, the second half of Baa Baa Black Sheep (aka Black Sheep Squadron). Good to see 30 Rock Season 1 officially on the schedule. But of course, my mouth begins watering most at seeing “Serenity: Special Edition” on the list.
• “He had difficulties entering into other relationships after the incident” - you mean he left her?

Dialog Of The Day: “Like the old man said, ‘There are no problems. Only solutions.’” (Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges in the masterpiece Tron)

Video Of The Day: Bear fall down, then up, then DOWN.