Wednesday, May 23, 2007

UFO of the Day

This is a super clear picture of what looks to be a very strange experimental aircraft of some kind. If this is real, then it is probably terrestrial. But, boy, is it funky!

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Save Us, Rudy!

American Idol Finale

Well, it looks like Jordin will win unless Blake has more fans. They both did well, but I can’t say I felt it was the kind of competition we saw last season. I was not that involved. I wanted to see Melinda win, but I guess the teenagers wanted someone closer to their age.

Tomorrow should be interesting. Taylor Hicks will perform and pass the torch. Last season’s closing show was incredible. I’m really wondering how this season’s will be. Expect to see the top 10 perform. 

Belarus Chocolate

I bought three candy bars at the Minsk airport before I left and stuck them in the freezer for a rainy day. I didn’t have any candy when I was there. But Russian Chocolate is excellent. This may be a product of Belarus. Don’t know for sure. They are big, like a Cadbury’s bar. 

Senate Suicide Watch

Senate leaders agreed Monday that they would wait until June to take final action on a bipartisan plan to give millions of unlawful immigrants legal status.

The measure, which also tightens border security and workplace enforcement measures, unites a group of influential liberals, centrists and conservatives and has White House backing, but it has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum. In a nod to that opposition, Senate leaders won’t seek to complete it before a hoped-for Memorial Day deadline.

“It would be to the best interests of the Senate ... that we not try to finish this bill this week,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., as the chamber began debate on the volatile issue. “I think we could, but I’m afraid the conclusion wouldn’t be anything that anyone wanted.”

If these people have any brains at all, they will keep it in committee until it dies and wait until after the election to try again. The hate mail they must be receiving has to be terrifying, but whatever it is, its not enough. This bill, as it stands, sounds like it sells out everyone, from the people of the US, to the Mexican immigrants themselves. Like anything conceived by bureaucrats, it has to be a mess. Seeing how huge it is, its’ got to be an monstrosity. And anyone who endorses it needs to feel the pain of voter backlash come the election. These guys have sold out just about everyone with this lunacy. 

Monday, May 21, 2007

The Disney Tunnels

Guide to the tunnel network under Disneyland.

TV Wasteland

Since I came back I’ve been catching up on all the shows my Tivo captured. Here’s a smattering of my impressions.

24: This season was very uneven to downright bad and silly in places. I’m almost bored with the idea there is a two hour season finale tonight. What could have been another great season was basically an uneven mess.

Lost: On the other hand, Lost was a show I almost bailed on, but they really stepped up their game and the last few episodes have been great. I am looking forward to the season finale this week.

Entourage: Great season so far.

The Sopranos: Ditto. Too bad they couldn’t have been this good in some of the previous seasons. Only 2 more episodes left and it looks like Tony may get whacked.

House: Still entertaining. Hugh Laurie is the show. No other characters come close. I wish they had more foils for him, like thy did with the cop this season or the new boss two seasons back. Maybe if they can pry Stephen Fry from Bones. He and Laurie are great together.

Smallville: Great ending to a good season. I liked he previous season beter, but I am looking forward to seeing the battle between Clark and Bizarro. And hopefully, Clark will finally learn to fly.

Heroes: This show has been really good. And the season finale is something I am looking forward to tonight.

Desperate Housewives: Yes, I watch this show. It’s a guilty pleasure. Even though it’s a somewhat silly soap opera, it’s very well written and I like some of the characters (and dislike some others). The season finale last night was satisfying, except I’m surprised about Edie.

Veronica Mars: I don’t think I’ve liked this season as much as the previous two, it’s still a good show and ell written. Too bad it may not return. Kirstin Bell is my pick to play Linda Williams if they ever do an Espers movie. 

Sunday, May 20, 2007

What a Week

Last week was a doozy. I decided to take a vacation and see a girl I have been talking to for almost 8 months on the internet. She lives in Belarus, aka “the last dictatorship in Europe”. It’s a former Soviet State which still retains that flavor. It has statues of Lenin and Marx here and there. And Communist symbols abound. I thought it would be an interesting and exotic experience regardless of what happened between me and the lady. I mainly just wanted to meet her and see if it would work out.

Well, almost as soon as I got there I realized she wasn’t for me. And she seemed to decide the same thing. But we’re still friends and she has written me several times since I got back, so I won’t go into details. Suffice to say she was much younger than me and the maturity difference kind of spoiled things for me. On op of that, the local cabbies gouged me to an embarrassing degree and she didn’t help. I also felt very isolated because I didn’t speak the language, couldn’t read the sign and could figure how to dial numbers on the phone. Every time I tried to make a call I got some phone company message. So I decided to leave early. And I wish I had stayed a few days in Minsk, which is the capital. She lives in the remote town of Homel, which is a five hour distance from the Minsk airport. I spent my last day in Minsk, which is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. It is like a dream of what always wanted a city to look like. Wide streets, lots of parks with rivers and lakes. beautiful, ornate old buildings. Large statues everywhere. It was kind of like Vienna, but with a Communist flair.

Unfortunately I was bone-tired from lack of sleep. I did not sleep the night before I left. I barely got any sleep on the plane. The bed in my flat was too hard to sleep decently on and then the next day I spent almost 12 hours in the Minsk airport waiting for the airline office to open only to find they could not change my flight for another day. So I went to Minsk for a fight, but slept most of the time. It wasn’t enough sleep. Didn’t get much sleep on the way back. So the last few days have had me sleeping in till 3 in the afternoon. Then I try to catch up to my work and Tivoed shows.

My impression of Belarus is different than what I read. It may be a dictatorship, but it seemed like a nice place from what I saw. Very clean. Well maintained. The most beautiful countryside imaginable. Endless forests and fields of wildflowers. Quaint villages with gingerbread cottages. Cities with buildings painted in bold pastels, but not garishly. Fantastic Communist art on the apartment blocs. Yes, I am not a fan of communism, but I appreciate good art when I see it.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t there long enough to take any pictures. I wanted to spend a day doing that but that day never came. I can offer this shot of Minsk from my hotel room. You can see the park (one of many in that city) the dense forests, which cover much of the country.

It’s a hard place to visit. You have to jump through all kinds of hoops to get a visa. As a result, it is a place where few tourists venture, and therefore it isn’t commercialized. There are no McDonalds or Starbucks. Hardly any billboards. In some ways, it’s like going back in time. I liked it, and wish I spoke Russian so I wouldn’t have felt so out of place. I would like to go back someday and spend some quality time looking around.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Spirit’s Nemesis

Frank Miller is doing a Spirit movie for Lionsgate. He’s just signed his first actor.

Samuel L. Jackson is in negotiations to star as a mysterious supervillain in the Frank Miller-helmed comic book adaptation “The Spirit” for Lionsgate and Odd Lot Entertainment.

The story centers on Denny Colt, an ambitious young cop murdered in the line of duty who under mysterious circumstances is reborn as the masked mystery man known as the Spirit.

Jackson would play the Spirit’s nemesis, the Octopus, a meek lab assistant who reinvents himself as a psychotic nightmare that kills anyone unfortunate enough to see his face. The Octopus’ tentacles reach into every aspect of crime in fictitious Central City, a city he plans to wipe out.

Miller said during an introduction of the project at the Festival de Cannes that Jackson is his first choice to play the evil genius who knows the secrets behind the Spirit. He added that he is beginning to mull different actors to play the comic book hero.

Okay…

it’s 12:30 PM and I just woke up. I went to bed around 2AM, so obviously my body clock is still whacked out. Part of that is because I didn’t get nearly enough sleep while I was away. And that’s a long story. It will have to be told in segments because it is very long, but I wrote down everything that happened in my notebook while I was there so I wouldn’t forget too many details.

Being a writer, I have a different way of looking at things. Even when an experience is bad, I can stand outside myself and analyze it as a story that’s happening to someone else. I can think about how I will write about it later as its happening. So, that makes it easier to bear.

You can relax though. My heart wasn’t broken or anything like that. I went over there to basically check her out and see if it was going to be worth exploring a relationship. The answer was pretty obvious almost immediately, which means I spent a lot of money and time on a wasted trip.

But it wasn’t entirely wasted. I think it’s important to do something different and daring every now and then to shake up your life. Routine can be very boring. Our lives go by fast. It becomes more clear the older you get. So you should try to fill it up with interesting experiences. I can chalk this whole trip up as interesting. Definitely.

Actually, I’m smiling as I write this.

Years ago this whole experience would have been hell for me. I would have been very angry and hurt. But now I am sort of laughing at the whole thing. At myself, a little bit, too. Whatever. I saw some new things, met new people and overall am glad I did it.

So I will write about it shortly. It wuill probably take up several long posts. In the mean time I am still trying to get caught up with stuff. Will write more later.