Over the Hedge

DreamWorks appears to have had a can of paint explode all over their logo. It's now... rainbow-colored for some reason. Only not terribly interesting colors. I mention this as it's plastered on their trailer for their new film, a CGI adaptation of the comic strip Over the Hedge.

I'm not really sure this film needed to be made, let alone a version starring Bruce Willis. On the upside, Shatner is in it. SHATNER!

Also, some of you may have seen this on Yet Another Comics Blog, the secrets of Gifted and Talented Programs. Brings back memories, that does.

Late to the party

Dorian started it. I should probably pay him a royalty.

Lesser of two weevils

Finally, two years too late, I get around to watching Master and Commander. I read the first one a while back but have not read any of the others. Still, this is a fantastic recreation of the novels, way more visceral than the Hornblower made-for-TV films. (Though I also like those, too.)

It's raining and I'm catching up on my Netflix queue. Good thing I didn't have any other plans this weekend.

Cute overload

I am sorry that it's taken so long for me to get around to updating my blog. There's a phrase I am vaguely remembering called "blogligation," which I think I first saw on Progressive Ruin.

There are new blogs started every few seconds, but I wonder how many of them make it past the first month. Blogging is what you make of it, of course, and some folks are content to post every few weeks. However, I've been slipping from my usual habits. Mostly it's that I am exceedingly busy at the New Job, which leaves mental energy reserves low for anything other than watching episodes of Cash in the Attic.

One thing I've been really into lately is a blog called Cute Overload. It's an idea whose time has come: make people go SQUEEEEEEE with cute animals and products and the like. They're in a bit of mourning over there this weekend, alas. One of the regulars, an incredibly awesome hamster named Baruchito, went to the great pile of newspaper in the sky. He was a clear successor to the much-missed Oolong. (An English explanation of Oolong's greatness.)

50 loathsome people of 2005

I used to read the Beast regularly, but it kind dropped off my radar for a while. It's back in my radar this week, though, with their list of the 50 Most Loathsome People in America.

A sampling:

43. Rush Limbaugh

Charges: Rather than engage in the admittedly difficult task of justifying GOP policies rationally, the key to Limbaugh’s success is attracting an audience that actually yearns to be lied to. It doesn’t matter how many righteous fact-checkers assail him in print and on the web, because dittoheads don’t care that he’s lying, as long as the lies justify their prejudices. Limbaugh’s program is not just hypocritical; it is a celebration of hypocrisy for ignorant crackers, angry at smart people and strung out on the dwindling sensation that they are better than everyone else by virtue of their race, sex, nationality or level of bluster, because their character and accomplishments don’t warrant such feelings. If political discussion were sex, the Limbaugh audience would be a horde of virgins beating off to deranged rape fantasies.

Exhibit A: Started out in sports radio; hasn’t changed his approach one bit.

Sentence: Starved to death in full view of glazed ham; ACLU mistakenly bestowed entire estate due to barbecue sauce stain on last will and testament.

- - - - - -

25. Paris Hilton

Charges: Won’t go away. A head so empty, the rails of coke that sustain her must dissipate in clouds around her ears; this residual high the only explanation anyone would come within five feet of her. Brainless, her spinal cord defies physics, like an Indian rope trick. Her Carl’s Jr. commercial, while an uninspired approximation of eroticism, was still hotter than her actual “sex” tape, in which she only made noise when she wasn’t screwing—that’s not hot. Squints inexplicably for photo ops, suggesting even minimal focus is beyond her. Her continued success as a celebrity famous for nothing, despite the eerie resemblance she bears to the inbred banjoist from Deliverance and a lack of talent so profound that others become duller as they approach her, indicates that something is fundamentally wrong with humanity.

Exhibit A: Somehow, everybody in America knew that this completely pointless person had lost her dog, and we are all diminished by the experience.

Sentence: Locked in a room with a high steel ceiling which lowers a centimeter per hour, until she either solves a Rubik’s cube or is crushed; whichever comes first.

There's also a new patch out for Maple Story, introducing some improved UI, a bunch of new outfits, new quests, etc. It's getting so I want to throw some money at Wizet just for making a game where it's possible to smack a stump with a briefcase and receive a tangible reward for it.

Though every time I see how they deny access to anybody using a decent (i.e., non-IE) browser, I change my mind.

My Neighbor Totoro

I'm not Disney's biggest fan, but their deal to publish all of the Studio Ghibli films is one of the smartest things they've ever done.

They're doing an interesting thing this evening—they're playing the new English dubs of Whisper of the Heart and My Neighbor Totoro on Turner Classic Movies, a month and a half before the domestic DVD release.

The new translation of Totoro is pretty good, though it's weird to hear Tim Daly as the dad. I'm used to the old voice, plus Daly is the voice of Superman on Justice League.

I've only seen a fansub of Whisper of the Heart, though it made me cry like a little girl even in translation. They're also throwing in Porco Rosso, which has some of the best flying in any film, live action or animated. The only film that does it better might be Castle in the Sky, with the rescue sequence and the sky pirates. Again, Miyazaki. The dude loves flying.

Went to the comic shop tonight and grabbed about five weeks' worth of comics. Lots of stuff to do this evening.

Preach on, brother Al

I've always thought Al Gore got a raw deal. Somebody talked him into picking Lieberman as a candidate, mister I-hate-video-games-and-fun himself. And then the right wing media had the narrative they wanted, that he was a boring liar, and refused to run any story that challenged their fiction.

Today being MLK day, Gore lit up with a barn-burner of a speech.

During the period when this eavesdropping was still secret, the President went out of his way to reassure the American people on more than one occasion that, of course, judicial permission is required for any government spying on American citizens and that, of course, these constitutional safeguards were still in place.

But surprisingly, the President's soothing statements turned out to be false. Moreover, as soon as this massive domestic spying program was uncovered by the press, the President not only confirmed that the story was true, but also declared that he has no intention of bringing these wholesale invasions of privacy to an end.

At present, we still have much to learn about the NSA's domestic surveillance. What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently.

A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men. Indeed, they recognized that the structure of government they had enshrined in our Constitution - our system of checks and balances - was designed with a central purpose of ensuring that it would govern through the rule of law. As John Adams said: "The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men."

An executive who arrogates to himself the power to ignore the legitimate legislative directives of the Congress or to act free of the check of the judiciary becomes the central threat that the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution - an all-powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free. In the words of James Madison, "the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

There's a lot more in the transcript, but man, Al, where the hell were you six years ago? This is the Al Gore I wanted to vote for.

Couldn't tackle the bear

Watching last week's episode of House. I had no idea talking about curry could be such a great metaphor.

There are two good sources for discussing House. Television Without Pity, for the snark, and Polite Dissent for the medical diagnosis. This is a pretty good episode, at least in the human interest bits. The actual diagnosis is a little out of left field, but that sort of comes with the territory.

Currently reading Essential Supervillian Team-Up, which treats Doctor Doom sorta like Spider-Man. Which is somewhat weird as Doom needs nobody, as he's Doom. However, there are some good bits and I'm liking it quite a bit.

Haven't been to my shop in a while, as my new job involves me driving a lot and it's just not as easy to get there as it used to be. Maybe some time this week.

Watching progress bars

I have a bit of a lull at work today since, as my friend Lucy says, this is what happens when Mercury is in retrograde.

OK, I'm not actually sure if that's even astrologically correct at the moment, but many computers were having trouble talking to one another around the place. Maybe it's that Windows .WMF bug that was announced the other day. (Look for more shit like this in Vista in the near future, I guarantee it.)

So what have I been doing? Let's see...

Apple's got a new PowerBook. Er, MacBook. Whatever. It's the same size and form as my current machine, only way faster, built-in iSight and a dual Pentium processor standard. In a notebook. Huh. A lot of other annoucements at MacWorld today, too. Macintouch has the skinny.

Oregon liquor laws are weird, so I dunno if I'll ever see this, but there's an interesting story on Maine's favorite drink, Allen's Coffee Brandy.

Also, this is interesting though I gather some of the photos may not be safe for work: a Flickr photostream from a photobooth in SF. (As seen on Overcompensating.)

Zoidberg has friends! Hooray!

Variety points out that Futurama may be making a comeback.

Hey, it worked for The Family Guy, so much so that they made the awful American Dad as well. Meanwhile, Fox continues to be all weird and leaves Arrested Development the red-headed stepchild of the network. Even people who love the show forget that it's on Monday now.

*cough* *wheeze*

I seem to have come down with the death flu that's going around.

I've had a fever for the last two days, so I'm staying home watching old episodes of Arrested Development. (Thanks, TiVo!) It hurts to laugh as I keep coughing, so the sight of George Michael in a rocket pack fighting off his uncle Tobias in a giant mole outfit while destroying a model village—hilarious but man, did I pay for that one.

I was thinking of trying a new cold remedy—Zicam—but it's starting to worry me a little bit. Evidently some people (OK, a lot of people) are suing the company as they've lost their sense of smell from taking it. I don't think reducing the severity of a cold is worth losing the ability to taste.