Here’s a list of the pending movies in 2008 that I’m looking forward to, in order of impatience. One entry that is sadly not on this list is the new Star Trek film, cause it has been pushed back for release until 2009.

1. Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
   How can this one not be #1 on the list? It’s Indiana Jones. ‘Nuff said.
2. The X-Files 2
   Heck yeah! After long delays, the second X-Files film finally hits the screens. I’m a big fan of the series, and I loved the first film. I have massively high hopes for this movie (hopefully ones that can at least partially be lived up to). Billy Connelly has been added to the mix. But more importantly, the fantastic Amanda Peet joins in on the fun. Woo hoo!
3. Wall-E
   I’m a total PIXAR fanboy. And everything about this movie points to them doing what they do best. There’s no way this one can fail (and I’m not just tempting fate).
4. Quantum Of Solace
   James Bond returns in this enigmatically titled entry to the franchise. Following up almost immediately on the events of Casino Royale, which relaunched the film series yet again and in spectacular fashion, I’m anxiously looking forward to this new entry.
5. Get Smart
   I’m a major Get Smart fanboy. I’ve got ancient paperback novelizations, the complete series DVD set, etc, etc. The total fanboy in me knows I’ll be a bit let down by some of the changes, but I’m not the usual fanboy that hates something just for changing what was in the source material. I was a huge fan of the original Battlestar Galactica, but I happilly gave the new series a chance, and ended up loving it even more. They can be done right, and I’m hoping this one can at least do a decent job of it. It certainly has a great cast to work with.
6. Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
   I’m a big fan of the first Hellboy film, and like it better than Guillermo Del Toro’s much-over-hyped Pan’s Labyrinth. Like Serenity before it, Hellboy 2 was produced by Universal after the original producing studio failed to see the future on the original.
7. Doomsday
   The fact that it’s directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers) is enough to make me anticipate. Doesn’t hurt that it’s a post-apocalyptic style film from the UK. This may end up a disappointment, I suppose, but I’m looking forward to it none-the-less.
8. Iron Man
   I’m not too much of a comic fan, but I enjoy many superhero films. However, this is Robert Downey Jr, one of my favorite actors, starring at his wisecracking best. The trailer is great, and I have high hopes.
9. Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
   David Fincher doing a movie about a man aging backwards, starring Brad Pitt. Yeah, I’m there.
10. The Dark Knight
    After the excellent first film of this franchise relaunch, it’s hard to not be anxious to see the follow-up. Of course, this movie is going to live in infamy after the death of Heath Ledger, The Joker himself.
11. The Happening
    There may be something of a popular backlash against M. Night Shyamalan lately, but I still have a lot of hope for his work. I may think that Lady In The Water is his weakest film (though not a bad film), but I really liked The Village, so sue me. Also, this movie stars Zooey Deschanel, so my ticket is automatically purchased.
12. Valkyrie
    Speaking of popular backlash, here we have Tom Cruise. While I may think he’s a whack-job in real life, I don’t have anything against him on screen. I’m not one to typically let off-screen things affect enjoyment of the on screen product. Anyway, this Bryan Singer film has all the looks of an excellent movie. As usual, John Ottman is doing the score (and the editing, which is typical for a Bryan Singer directed film), which I am definitely looking foward to. Plus, I’m a fan of the WWII film genre.
13. The Incredible Hulk
    Unlike just about everybody, I actually liked the Ang Lee Hulk film. Still, despite trying to bury that film, this follow-up still looks to have great potential. I’m certainly looking forward to the excellent cast, featuring Edward Norton (another of my favorite actors) in the lead.
14. Leatherheads
    The trailers for this have been fantastic. Clooney looks to have perfectly captured both the look and feel of the golden age of cinema, from the story to the banter. He’s proven adept at directing period pieces from the era before (Good Night & Good Luck). Definitely looking forward to this one.
15. Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince
    The Harry Potter films have been a bit hit-or-miss for me. I loved the third movie, and very much liked the most recent fifth film. I didn’t like the fourth, and thought the first two were adequately entertaining. Still, this sixth film is being made by most of the same people as the great fifth entry, so I have high hopes.
16. The International
    Let’s see, Tom Tykwer directing a thriller starring Naomi Watts and Clive Owen. I don’t need to know much more than that to know that I’m seeing this one.
17. Run, Fatboy, Run
    Written by and starring Simon Pegg is enough to get me to see anything. And as an interesting tid-bit, it’s directed by none-other-than David Schwimmer.
18. The Day The Earth Stood Still
    File this one under the category of classic sci-fi films I never thought anybody would remake. The original is pretty good, for the era anyway, and it’ll be interesting to see how they’ll handle a remake. And hey, Jennifer Connelly is reason enough to see absolutely anything.
19. Fanboys
    This film has been fighting a long, uphill battle to finally see a release, and hopefully it’ll be worth it. The story of Star Wars geeks on a quest to be able to steal a copy of Episode 1 for a dying buddy is a wild enough blend of genre, and the fact that it features Kristen Bell is an extra bonus.
20. 21
    A great cast comes together for a movie that looks very good. The trailer definitely does a good job selling the film, and I am anxious to see the end result. I like most films in the gambling genre, and this looks to be another great entry. Will it be the next Rounders? Perhaps not, but if it’s half as good I’ll be happy.
21. Burn After Reading
    After their wild success with No Country For Old Men, it’ll be interesting to see what the Coen brothers have in store for us with this dramedy. The plot of a couple gym employees trying to sell top secret information sounds like a good story foil, and the impressive cast list is enough to sell pretty much any film.
22. City Of Ember
    This conceptually fun sounding film features some great cast members (including none-other-than Bill Murray), and it’s directed by Gil Kenan, who did a good job with Monster House.
23. The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian
    Not too much to say about this one, beyond the obvious nature of it being part of the venerable Narnia franchise. The first film was good, and I think we all know basically what to expect from this sequel.
24. Speed Racer
    Like many others, I have a fondness for the original animated series. I’m definitely curious to see what they do with it. The casting of Christina Ricci as Trixie is nothing short of brilliant. My biggest reason for anxious anticipation for this film is Michael Giacchino’s music score. Letting him cut loose with material like this is gonna be awesome. He’s really becoming an obvious choice at stepping into remakes/sequels and turning in scores that pay respect to the source material. He’s done it before with Mission: Impossible III and is going to be doing so for the upcoming Star Trek film. But something like Speed Racer will really let him go crazy and have fun.
25. Penelope
    Speaking of Christina Ricci, we have this unique looking little romantic character dramedy. It actually opens tomorrow, so I’ll get to check it out sooner rather than later. Looks interesting enough to work, and you can’t possibly go wrong with casting Ricci in anything. Add in folks like Reese Witherspoon and it’s near impossible to go wrong.
26. Babylon, AD
    Vin Diesel returns to the sci-fi action/thriller genre, which is what he does best (not that he isn’t a talented actor, which you can see in films like Find Me Guilty).
27. The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emporer
    OK, I’m a sucker for The Mummy series. Sure, this one might suck, but it’ll be fun to have another adventure film in the mix this year (though it’ll have a tough time in the shadow of Indiana Jones). I was sad to originally hear that the great Rachel Weisz was dropping out of the project, but they did a great recovery by recasting the role with the excellent Maria Bello.
28. 10,000 BC
    Director Roland Emmerich gets to return to a film genre he hasn’t done in a while - ancient civilizations. He did a great job with that kind of material in Stargate. This one is clearly on a much larger scale, but he’s proven adept at large scale productions since (ID4, The Day After Tomorrow). Should be a fun action/event film if nothing else.
29. Wanted
    Here’s a movie that will likely be either fantastic fun or a complete mess. Seems you can’t turn around without seeing James McAvoy in one movie or another these days. Add to the casting mix the likes of Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and Terrance Stamp, and hopefully you can’t go too wrong. The new trailer I just saw featuring a foot chase in a parking lot is wonderfully dynamic and great fun. Hopefully the whole movie can live up to it. It definitely looks like it’ll be conceptually fun. Hopefully it’ll work a bit better than the OK Jumper, which is another conceptually fun action film of late.
30. The Changeling
    The wildly unexpected pairing of director Clint Eastwood with the likes of writer J. Michael Straczynski piques my curiousity enough to see this, if for no other reason (of which I’m sure there’ll be many).
31. Semi-Pro
    Will Ferrell doing what he does best. The trailers have definitely been funny. It has the potential for being one of the funniest films of the year, if it works as well as it might seem in the trailer. This one also opens tomorrow, so I’ll find out sooner rather than later.
32. The Ruins
    The trailer for this one is pretty good, and the book it’s based on has good buzz. It could be a sleeper hit of the year, and is at least one I’ll definitely check out. Actress Jena Malone is reason enough for me to do so.

• The performance of this week’s episode of Jericho was unofficially considered to be the most important one in considering the future of the show. Amazingly, the ratings actually went up this week. Hopefully, CBS won’t immediately write off the show, as they did once before. To be honest, if they didn’t pick it up again, I don’t think it would be hard to blame them, as the show has sadly been doing rather poorly in the ratings. Let’s hope this week will turn the tide. 
• Woo hoo! Marti Noxon has been added to the list of guests at the Paley Center’s upcoming Buffy event. She joins the already impressive cast list attending. It’s about time they got some writers/producers in the mix other than Joss.
• Wow. These are some fantastic photos of lightning strikes.
• Never mind the lightning. How about having a couple water spouts chasing you at sea?
• Here’s some very cool statistics, presented with engaging style. Any of you fellow stat nerds will love it.
• There’s gold in them there land
• A zamboni picture that looks worse than it really is
• Proof that Garfield can be even funnier without Garfield.
• Looks like those of you up in the Northwest area around Washington state are in for quite a ride in the not-too-distant future.

• Here’s some truly sad news. DivX’s Stage6 video sharing site is shutting down this week. This is the site with which I’ve got my half dozen or so video creations shared. The only downside of the site was that it required the install of their web player plug-in. But the phenomenal quality possibilities of the site were unmatched. Here’s hoping some other service out there can come even remotely close to their quality. YouTube is a total joke in comparison. You will be missed, Stage6. We appreciate the effort to keep things going, and I do understand the decision to shut down. Still, sad to here it had to be done.
• You have got to check out these amazing and gorgeous storm squal line photos. Stunning shots. 
• Speaking of amazing images, check out this manually created, high quality wallpaper. Featuring some 7,700 image layers in the work. That’s insane.
• Jumping gerbils. The latest series to surprisingly get a full DVD release is 1982’s Square Pegs. It’s great to see these fun obscurities surface on disc. Still, WHERE THE HECK IS PARKER LEWIS, SONY?!?!? 
• On the subject of TVShowsOnDVD.com, they’ve added cool new Amazon sale tracking functionality.
• Here’s a very cool Russian commercial for GMail.
• In case you missed it, Pakistan had fun accidentally hijaking YouTube’s traffic for a couple hours
• Here are some Greenpeace losers that deserve whatever’s coming to them
• Now that’s what I call a cake
• Some dogs just don’t like to walk
• Monk vs tractor lawnmower. Guess which wins.
• You’d think that Monk had gone up against something like this mind-reeling contraption.
• And here’s one teenage pregnancy story which proves one heck of an inability to learn from previous experience. Wow.

I did better than usual with my Oscar picks, again. I actually did the same as last year, with 14 correct picks. John Stewart did a nice enoungh job hosting. I had forgotten that Stewart had hosted previous (the year I’ve tried to blank from memory, where Crash won things and I only got 3 picks right). Frankly, I liked Ellen Degeneres’ hosting better. Ultimately I wish they’d bring Steve Martin back. You can get access to my prediction list on my previous predictions post. I was sad that Juno didn’t win best picture and that Ellen Page didn’t get best actress, but at least it got writing. I didn’t expect Jason Reitman to pick up best director for it (I figured the Coen’s were a total lock there).

OK, here’s my usual set of predictions for the Oscars. This year is a bit of an exception in that I don’t particularly dislike most any of the movies in the list. I’ve seen all 5 best pictures, and I actually like them all. For the record, this is the order of my preference for the best pictures: Juno, Michael Clayton, Atonement, There Will Be Blood then No Country For Old Men. Any title that is highlighted in yellow is one that I’ve seen. The first column of marks is for who I think will win. The second is who I’d pick from the Academy’s nominations. The last column is a write-in of what I’d pick for the category given no limitation of choice (my full list of picks for the year can be found here). Any X marks that I get right will be changed to 1’s to calculate the total right after the awards ceremony. At any rate, I have my prediction list published at the bottom of the full article of this post, or you can just click this link to view them.
Read the rest of this entry »

• Congrats to the navy for a great shoot down. No, seriously. Here’s the video. Anybody who thinks that is an easy thing has no idea.
• Speaking of which, they are starting to see broken up pieces of the bird entering the atmo.
• To add to the fun, the satellite shoot-down took place just as the moon was going through an infrequent lunar eclipse. I took a look at it during a few phases of the eclipse. A pic of the eclipse I took with my nifty new Canon PowerShot S5 IS camera is featured on this post. I know I could have taken a better shot, but I’m still kinda getting used to the controls on the camera, and it was frickin’ freezing out (nearly zero degrees). Still, the pic turned out pretty good for being only a partially manual shot.
• Occasionally, The Onion will have a news story that just strikes my funny bone perfectly. This is just such a story. I was tearing up, laughing so hard while reading it.
• Oooooh, David Fincher is directing a graphic novel adaptation, Black Hole. I’m there.
• Then there’s word that Leonardo DiCaprio is involved in a LIVE ACTION remake of Akira. I’ve got no idea if they can even come close to making it work. I like Akira, and I’ll admit that the last act of the movie makes zero sense. I have to imagine them reworking it, somehow. But if they could somehow bring the first 30 minutes to life, with anywhere near the style that the animated film has, I’ll wanna see that.
• More and more cast members are being added onto the roster for the Buffy Paley Center event. Now Alyson Hannigan and David Boreanaz have joined in on the fun. But hey, if Alyson is going, where’s Alexis Denisof?
• Coolness…
• Was your science fair project better than these? Too funny…
• The HD-DVD walls continue to crumble. The major remaining HD-DVD supporting studios, Paramount and Universal, have officially jumped ship as well.
• Help Stop Darth Weinstein. I haven’t actually seen Fanboys yet, though I’ve wanted to for some time. The reason I really want to see it just goes to underline the true nature of Fanboys in general. I want to see it because it stars Kristen Bell. Doesn’t hurt that it’s about Star Wars/fans. But yeah, this movie has had a stupid, tumultuous history trying to get to an actual release.
• Here’s an amusing little entry in the GMail Team Blog
• Congrats to Monk for a seventh season pickup
• iPaper - a hopeful new attempt to kill the PDF. It’s certainly a faster platform (what isn’t?).
• A nifty presentation of the newest version of the $5 bill (and some cool pics and info on previous versions)
• The Sharper Image has filed for chapter 11
• Gotta love code developers (credit for this one goes to Drupal’s always-excellent and fun Jeff Eaton)
• Meanwhile, Juno continues on it’s steady run

OK, so I’ve watched the new 2008 version of Knight Rider. Overall, I liked it. It wasn’t fantastic or anything, but it did a good enough job of reworking the franchise while still tying into the legacy of the story. The actor playing the role of Mike, Justin Bruening, was pretty good in the role. The script pulled off the snarky sarcasm quite well, and he was good at it. The actress playing the daughter of the creator of KITT, Deanna Russo, also did a very nice job. Bruce Davison was a nice bit of casting for the stately man behind the tech. Sydney Tamiia Poitier is an interesting, and fairly successful, bit of casting as the FBI agent. Val Kilmer, who was a last minute replacement for Will Arnett after a dispute amongst the auto manufacturers and their contracts, was naturally great, playing the dead-pan delivery of KITT quite well. And of course, it’s fun to have a brief cameo by Mr. Hasselhoff himself.

The sense of nostalgia for me was the strongest thing going for it. Knight Rider was one of the number of Universal shows from back in the day that I watched heavily as a kid (along with Battlestar Galactica, The A-Team, Simon & Simon, Magnum PI, The Rockford Files, etc). I’ve got all the DVD sets, so I’m clearly one who’d get nostalgic about the new entry to the franchise (this franchise has had new entries in the form of TV movies before). This new entry works well as a backdoor pilot. It updates what needs updating while staying quite true to the original source material. The scripting is a bit obvious, but I wasn’t really expecting the most cutting edge, gripping piece of drama written going into watching it. One criticism that I’ll make without hesitation is in the abysmal music score. Now, I know composer Christopher Tyng is capable of better (his work on comedies like Futurama make that clear), but his work on this show was just plain horrible. Not only is the material excruciatingly overscored (many scenes that shouldn’t have been scored are just non-stop music), most of it is either cheapo-lame “action” material or ripped from an oddly chosen temp source. Either Tyng needs to be jettisoned on any future productions, should it finally be picked up as a series (which seems likely given the good ratings it got), or whatever producer/director responsible for him doing such crap work needs to be dropped.

I still feel that the car is unimpressive (at last the exteriors), feeling more ordinary and lame than the original Trans Am, as sad as that may be. Interiors of the car work well, though. The obviously CGI transformation scenes are adequate, but not awesome (I’ve seen better in commercials). Universal can definitely make this work. They’ve got a good cast and a decent setup to get this thing off the ground. They just need to put a bit more money into the production quality (which wasn’t bad at all, but could use a bit more improvement to be really impressive) and completely rethink their music scoring. Bringing in a writing team that would start to take some chances would be a good move, too. Hopefully Battlestar Galactica has taught the folks at Universal how rolling the dice on risky choices can ultimately pay off big time.

OK folks, it’s official. As of the press conference that happened a matter of a few hours ago in Tokyo, Toshiba has announced their official exit from the HD-DVD format. Blu-Ray is the official winner. Now, let’s get Paramount and Universal ported over to BD ASAP and get cranking on this, folks. Thank goodness this idiotic format war is finally over. And thank you, Toshiba, for doing this sooner rather than later. Now all the remaining retailers can start selling people on a home high-def format without confusing explanations or hesitations. And all the other hardware manufacturers can get cranking.

• It looks like tomorrow, Tuesday, February 19, 2008, will be the official TOD for the HD-DVD format, as Toshiba has scheduled a press conference to be held at 5:00 PM Tokyo time. It’s assumed this will be to declare the death of the format.
• On the subject of the death of HD-DVD, looks like a second season set of the original Star Trek series HD remasters have hit a major snag. We’re not going to be seeing that release for a while, from the sound of it. Ah well, I’ve been going rather slowly through the first season set, so I’ll continue to pace myself.
• Hurray! Tremors: The Series is heading for DVD on July 22nd! (tentative)
• I’ve mentioned it here before a handful of times, and Dubai continues their insanity (here’s a mirror copy, as the original page is getting hammered pretty hard). Frankly, if you take a step back and think about it, all of this is brilliant. It’s some of the only aggressive, intelligent, long-term thinking going on in the world right now. The folks in Dubai clearly know where the oil industry is headed. And while their piece of that pie is at its height, they are transforming themselves into the single most impressive tourist spot on the face of the Earth. Few governments and/or companies are anywhere this forward thinking or self-aware. The stats on Dubai are purely mind-blowing. Seriously, read throught that whole page. This is the first city that TRULY looks like it is from a 1950’s sci-fi landscape. This *IS* “the future.”
• Meanwhile, here’s an article I very much agree with as to the dumbing down of folks domestically here in “The States.” Now admittedly, I was somebody who intentionally coasted by through high school with little effort, and dropped out of college (admittedly, it was primarily due to boredome). I think the modern education system is broken beyond repair. But I’m a naturally curious person (in many areas - there are numerous areas I will never care about in the slightest, like sports, fashion or the like). They touch on it in the article, and I completely believe it to be one of the primary reasons, which is the attention span of the modern American citizen. It’s truly alarming. I was recently watching The Truman Show (an awesome movie), and it honestly scared me to realize just how likely the scenario of that plot now seems (particularly in light of looking at the immensity of the stuff they are building in Dubai, referenced in the above post). It was far fetched 10 years ago when it first came out. As usual, writer Andrew Niccol was ahead of his time. The rise in “reality TV” (one of the greatest misnomers, or so I would like to think) is an obvious result of this epidemic. I loathe reality TV. It’s depressing that what Max Headroom (the series, not the specific character) had to say more than 20 years ago is now true today. The majority of broadcast/cable/satellite TV is now Network 23 (or Network 66, for that matter).
• Christopher Lloyd is to briefly repirse his role of Doc Brown
• Knight Rider did very impressively in the ratings. I haven’t watched it yet, but probably will tomorrow.
• Speaking of doing well, Jumper did decently opening in #1 with around $27 million for the weekend ($33 million if you count Thursday as well). I like the movie well enough. Not awesome, but pretty good.

• This post comes to you from beautiful Cincinnati…
• Woo hoo! My single biggest fear of the WGA strike has been nixed. Battlestar will get to finish out season 4 (aka: the series) as planned! Whew…
• For those who haven’t actually seen it yet, the first Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull trailer has debuted.
• Drupal 6.0 has had the final release. Now, as soon as a couple of the key modules release their updates, I’ll be all over it.
• Yet another awesome photo from the fine folks at NASA
• When oh when will Toshiba declare HD-DVD dead? Now Wal-Mart has dropped it. Oh, wait, it looks like Toshiba just might…
• Incidentally, I just finally received my 5 free HD-DVD discs from the XBox 360 HD-DVD drive I got more than 5 months ago. I don’t actually have a 360. I used it on the PC. I thought I’d never actually get those 5 free discs. What trained chimps do they have working their shipping center?
• Study up. There will be a test later.
• Then there’s the lowest of the low in dispicability…
• So what would Jack Thompson blame the NIU shootings on? Why surely it couldn’t possibly be video games. I mean, why do they even bother asking this guy what he thinks. The could just have him say the name of the event and edit it into the same opinion he has about everything.
• For those who also haven’t heard, Bionic Woman didn’t survive the cut. I liked the show, but didn’t have any particular love for it. So, no huge loss.
• Spam of the 30’s

• OK, I think I’m just gonna have to go to LA next year in March. I don’t travel much, but to attend the 20th Anniversary Quantum Leap convention (”The Leap Back”) that has already lined up both Scott Bakula & Dean Stockwell as well as dozens of other guests is just something I don’t think I’ll be able to resist. Hmmm, wonder if I can line up any other fun things to check out during that time frame.
• Speaking of Bakula, he was great as the guest star on today’s Boston Legal episode. He easily dropped into the swagger, speed and insanity of the show, going toe to toe with James Spader. They got to take advantage of Bakula’s music skills, too (as many shows and movies do). And Shatner, as always, was fantastic. Man, what that show gets away with…
• Oh wow. These are the greatest cat pictures. Ever. Man, I was laughing at some of these pics so hard my eyes were watering. That green butterfly one……
• Some behind-the-scenes footage on Quantum Of Solace.
• Here’s two awesome photos.
• Check out one of the only charitable things cocaine has ever done.
• I’d think twice before going for a swim
• An interesting article relating to the fickle nature of the tech world
• Charisma Carpenter has joined the list of guests for the Buffy panel at the Paley Center series. I’d still like to see more writers/producers join in on the fun than just Joss. And where the heck are Alyson & Alexis?
• I was reading the High Def Digest review of the Blu-Ray release of The Invasion, kinda for the heck of it since I already own the disc. I’ve always found it interesting how one can like a movie despite the fact that you are fully aware of its flaws (I can, anyway). As I read through the review, which accurately assesses the successful elements of the film as well as the failures, I come to realize that doggon it, I still quite like the movie. Yeah, the second half clearly suffered some misguided tinkering. Heck, perhaps some day, a version closer to director Oliver Hirschbiegel’s original intentions will be edited together and released. Stranger things have happened. Yet still, I like the movie. Perhaps the tinkering they did was cool enough on its own that I found it entertaining for entirely different reasons. He’s right, it doesn’t mesh with the original setup of the film. And perhaps if I didn’t hate the changes enough, I can still like the undercurrents of the original intentions. I can’t just chalk it up to the fact that I’m a fan of Nicole Kidman, cause she certainly couldn’t save the boring mess that was The Golden Compass (nor could her Invasion co-star Daniel Craig). I’ll take The Invasion over The Golden Compass in a heartbeat. But that’s the fun thing about it. Somebody could argue the facts and point at the successes and failures of either film, and argue whatever point they wanted to, but it wouldn’t change the fact that I still liked The Invasion and didn’t like The Golden Compass. Funny how that is. I gotta at least figure Hirschbiegel knew what he was doing originally, cause his previous film is pure brilliance. The movie I speak of is Downfall. If you haven’t seen it, do so. That one’s not just me liking it cause I like it. That one is truly fantastic.

• YIPPIE! Looks like the WGA strike is at an end. The final ducks have to put in the row, but looks like that light at the end of the tunnel is about to be within reach. Here’s hoping it goes smoothly to get them all back in play on Wednesday. Now, to see what the results of all this fallout with finally be. The Oscar ceremony will be cutting it darn close. Let’s hope they can get things in order quick enough to get the ceremony under control.
• This presenter’s “Immigration Gumballs” speech is spot-on.
• The Microsoft takeover of Yahoo may end up being rejected. It’ll be interesting to watch this play out.
• Check out this awesome Vanity Fair piece, recreating Hitchcock with modern actors.
• A hilarious tally of kills (and other facts) about the Rambo films. I’ve got my review of the new film pending. I liked it, despite the simplicity. But yeah, it’s a VIOLENT film (I’m actually surprised the total kill count is only as high as 236). It’s interesting that the first and last film are the two that are more grounded in realism, and they are on the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the amounts of violence.
• Speaking of hilarious, here’s a 1985 Cherry Coke commercial. It’s, like, totally awesome.
• A great write-up on the historical computer failure known as Coleco’s ADAM. I own a couple ADAM computers, and used them as a kid to do reports and such during elementary school. I have a nostalgic fondness for the system, but the design flaws it had were anything but subtle. The printer was flaw number one. It was also flaws number two through ten. The fact that it was the only possible power supply for the system meant that even if you were never going to use it, you had to keep it in the mix. And it was unwieldy and big. It was also INSANELY noisy, even for a daisy wheel printer. Let’s just say that the printer was a joke of an excuse for every single function it served - and it sadly server more functions that it should have. The tape drives were also the other primary weakness, as the article pointed out. Still, I remember that system with fondness. The ColecoVision game system is a different story. I completely loved that system, and not just for nostalgia reasons. It’s still one of my all-time favorite game systems. The ColecoVision rocked.
• I’m your KITT… Cool news that Val Kilmer is now going to be the voice of KITT. The reason for the recast may be stupid, but I’m all in favor of it.
• I finally got around to picking up the CD for James Newton Howard’s score to I Am Legend. I remember liking it when I saw the film, but clearly I wasn’t paying too close attention. I’m really loving this score on CD. What a gorgeous main theme he laid in to the score. Reminds me a bit of his beautiful theme work from King Kong, with an almost hymn-like texture to it. Howard’s scoring over the years has been widely varied, and I very often under appreciate him as a composer.
• I’ve also been catching up on the last couple episodes of House. Not counting cable shows like Battlestar Galactica, which work on a different season schedule and such, House has been the best this season of the returning shows. This has been the best season of the show to date, which is quite an accomplishment for being the fourth season of a medical procedural. Granted, this isn’t the most typical medical procedural. House made some marks in the record books with the episode that aired following the Super Bowl (which was a fantastic episode, btw). Pushing Daisies, of course, easily qualifies as the best new show of the season. But unfortunately, it ran out of new episodes thanks to the WGA strike.
• Cool, Amanda Seyfried (Lilly Kane from Veronica Mars) has joined on to Jennifer’s Body. I already wanna see the movie since the team of Diablo Cody & Jason Reitman are writing and producing.
• Here’s a cool compilation of jets making high speed fly-bye runs.
• Another volume of Greg The Bunny is coming on DVD.
• Holland is prepared to float
• Hey, I just noticed that the list of quotes I’ve added to bit-by-bit over the years has hit the 300 entries mark (it’s where the random quotes on the top of this site are pulled from). Neato.
• Ah, just Smurf it all…

• Windows Vista SP1 & Windows Server 2008 RTM’d today.
• A retro arcade gaming fan heaven. This is *SO* very cool. Man, I wanna go check that place out. Check out the official site, too.
• Speaking of retro, check out this set of pictures, of one lucky dude unpacking a new, previously unopened Apple IIc. Ah, for the days where I actually liked Apple. I loved my IIc.
• As somebody with interest in WWII history, this discovery of 3 scuttled German U-Boats is a cool bit of news.
• The Buffy cast/crew reunion is starting to shape up for this year’s Paley Festival (of the formerly Museum Of Television & Radio). Good to see the cast lining up, but I wanna know how many of the writers will attend (please, at least get Jane Espenson). It’ll be cool to see the video of this event. Here’s hoping that more will continue to sign on to appear on stage at the event. The Paley Center always does nice Q&A sessions for their festivals.
• Here’s the first teaser for M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie, The Happening. While I don’t think Lady In The Water was particularly great, I’m a bigger fan of Shyamalan than most people these days (I quite liked The Village). Anyway, this teaser looks great. I also like the one sheet pictured in the post. Nice, subtle references in the tag lines.
• Good grief. That Toshiba HD-DVD ad from the Super Bowl didn’t actually run in HD?
• Speaking of Super Bowl ads, I haven’t watched any of them from this weekend, but I did watch a few of them that were pointed out on somebody else’s blog recently and found this E*Trade ad that I didn’t remember seeing previously quite funny.
• So, looks like the state of HD downloads is about what I’d figure.
• Check out this awesome performance of Smells Like Teen Spirit by the Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain. Check out the related videos while you’re there to see some of their other great/hilarious performances.
• Here’s a great commercial for Absolut.
• I mentioned the fun of massive rails guns in a recent posting. Check out this mind-blowingly-insane video clip of a 32-megajoule shot. The description of the incindiaries you are seeing in the video is truly insane.
• I’ll close out today’s post with a cool political survey web site. This’ll list out a bunch of the current hot issues and you answer if you are for or against, and your level of interest, and it’ll calculate your ideal (and less-than-ideal) candidates to vote for. Here’s my results (including the top pick, then 2 next-best, then 2 middle-of-the-pack, then the 2 bottom-of-the-barrell). The 0% for Obama is amusing, to say the least. I do feel dirty that there was actually 35% to match with Hillary. Try it out and see what you get. Their scoring methodology actually seems pretty fair to me.
  • 87.04 Huckabee
  • 70.37 McCain
  • 64.81 Romney
  • 63.89 Ron Paul
  • 41.67 Gravel
  • 35.19 Hillary
  • 00.00 Obama

• This guy deserves everything coming to him, but this is some impressive driving. Some nice work by the cops to finally nail him.
• There’s a new international trailer for Get Smart 
• Holy cow! Hannah Montana just made over $42.5 thousand per screen this weekend. That’s all-time-high insanity. And hey, btw, how the $#@* did Alvin & The Chipmunks make OVER $200 MILLION?!?!?!
• Here’s an amusing video of CNet’s Buzz Report, including some funny Scientology/Anonymous stuff.
• How about an awesome 1989 photo of 2 USAF F-15 Eagle Fighters intercepting two Soviet MiG-29 Fighters over Alaska.
• On a related note, here’s a fantastic shot of shuttle Discovery taken as it heads towards the ISS.
• The fact that they are doing a new movie of Land Of The Lost is great, but going the extra mile of casting Will Ferrell and now Anna Friel (The great “Chuck” from Pushing Daisies) is an added bonus.
• So, Toshiba wimps out and not only doesn’t go national with their HD-DVD Super Bowl commercial, but they even recycle a former spot.
• CNN’s ultra-serious situation room
• The Pirate Bay continues to amusingly fight the fight
• I’ll close out today’s post with some amazing ballpoint pen art (yes, ballpoint pen)