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Speed Racer Live Action Movie

Geeks around the country already know that a Speed Racer live action movie is in the works. I read that filming starts this week.


Here is a picture of the Mach 5. Pretty sweet.

They nailed it.

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Sonomans get it. Good for them.

Rosie O'Donnell Has Exited the Building

Update:

According to ABC spokespeople, "we had hoped that Rosie would be with us until the end of her contract three weeks from now, but Rosie has informed us that she would like an early leave. Therefore, we part ways, thank her for her tremendous contribution to 'The View' and wish her well."

Don't let the door hit you on your way out.

More after the jump>>

Good riddance.

Rosie O'Donnell Has Henchmen

This is copy/pasted from People.com

Their on-air brawl is over, but the Rosie-Elisabeth controversy continues.

The latest: The New York Post's Page Six column is reporting that a Rosie O'Donnell staffer was escorted out of the ABC building on Thursday after she was caught drawing moustaches on pictures of Hasselbeck that hang in the View studios.

O'Donnell's rep was not immediately available for comment Friday. ABC confirmed in a statement that "photographs at The View's offices were defaced," the Post reports. "Rosie O'Donnell was not in the building. ABC Legal and Human Resources are investigating the matter." The statement did not say who was responsible for the vandalism.

Although Thursday's episode was preempted for a Presidential address, O'Donnell had taken the day off to celebrate the 40th birthday of her partner, Kelli Carpenter.

When the show opened, co-host Barbara Walters, who had been absent during Wednesday's dust-up, said: "Welcome to The View. ... Aunt Barbara is back, and there will be peace in the kingdom. It's a hot weekend, so everybody cool off!"

Meanwhile, O'Donnell has continued to express her feelings on her blog. After writing on Thursday that she felt "sad" about the confrontation, she posted a video of swimming ducks accompanied by the John Mayer song "Vultures" (lyrics include: "How will I hold my head to keep from going under?").

On Friday, O'Donnell posted on her site a new video titled True Colors 2007 and which features snapshots of herself, Walters, Hasslebeck and others, along with newspaper clippings and even unflattering editorial cartoon depictions of O'Donnell. The sequence is set to the Cyndi Lauper song "Sisters of Avalon."

According to the Post, The View expects O'Donnell to be back at work on Tuesday. She's scheduled to leave the show in June.

You Can't Graduate Until You Learn To Spell

A group of Texas highschoolers were picketing their School District Headquarters in protest of the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) exam.

There were 613 students who did not pass the exam and they were barred from the graduating at their commencement ceremonies.

Here is a picture of one of the protesting teens.



You tell me; is she ready for college or the work force?
"Let are kids walk". Indeed.

More here>>

Al Qaeda Torture Manual

A manual has been discovered by U.S. troops in an Iraqi safehouse.

The pictures, though poorly illustrated, are kind of gruesome and may not be safe for work (or your delicate sensibilities.)

The Smoking Gun has the details.

Note to Rosie: when our Gitmo interogators keep prisoners awake and cold, it's not exactly the same as putting hot clothing irons on a prisoner's bare back and arms.

Paula is Drunk

Fafarazzi

Anyone interested in signing up for Fantasy Football?... only instead of football players, it's celebrities. And instead of touchdowns and rushing yards, it's publicity and headlines.




See more here: http://www.fafarazzi.com/index.php

If you're interested in joining, leave a comment and I'll send you an invite to join our league, Secret Asian Man.

American Idol Season Finale Eve

I'm watching American Idol and I learned something new!
I never knew a person could say something that was simultaneously non sequitur and redundant!

Paula Abdul regarding Jordin Spark's second song, said, "You look great but you are a great vocal voice."

What?

That's such a strange sentence I don't even know where to begin. Nevermind that it's a non sequitur akin to, "wow, that mango was really juicy but you drive really fast", saying someone is a 'great vocal voice' is not only doesn't make any sense but if it did make sense it would be redundant.

That Paula. What a wacky girl. Annie says she's probably hopped up on pain killers... you know... for her broken nose.

WSJ Opinion Journal

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal had this excellent (and humorous!) article:

One Man's Ghost Is Another's Statesman
President Bush, naturally, didn't deign to answer Jimmy Carter's latest cavils, but a spokesman, Tony Fratto, did say this: "I think it's sad that President Carter's reckless personal criticism is out there. I think it's unfortunate. And I think he is proving to be increasingly irrelevant with these kinds of comments."
This prompted the following hilarious observation from Reuters:

Carter has been an outspoken critic of Bush, but the White House has largely refrained from attacking him in return. Sunday's sharp response marks a departure from the deference that sitting presidents traditionally have shown their predecessors.

In the fun-house world of Reuterville, Osama bin Laden is a "freedom fighter," and the tradition of ex-presidents to defer to the current president is flipped on its head.
The Carter problem was anticipated by Alexander Hamilton, who wrote in Federalist No. 72:

Would it promote the peace of the community, or the stability of the government to have half a dozen men who had had credit enough to be raised to the seat of the supreme magistracy, wandering among the people like discontented ghosts, and sighing for a place which they were destined never more to possess?

Hamilton was actually arguing against term limits for the president--the idea being that bitter exes, barred by law from seeking the office again, would, well, go around acting like Jimmy Carter.

But what's Carter's excuse? He served only one term, so there is no constitutional bar to his being elected again. Why doesn't Carter put his money where his mouth is and seek the Democratic presidential nomination? After all, he's only a few years older than Mike Gravel, and he may be the only guy who can beat Hillary Clinton. He's been against the Iraq war since at least 1991, when Barack Obama was in diapers and Al Gore was a neocon war monger.

As Hamilton noted, "There is no nation which has not, at one period or another, experienced an absolute necessity of the services of particular men in particular situations; perhaps it would not be too strong to say, to the preservation of its political existence." Jimmy Carter, your country needs you!

Dam It!

On the way home from school today, I took the kids to see the World's Largest Inflatable Dam.

Yes. You heard me right.

Pictures below:

The World's Largest Inflatable Dam is located in Fremont, CA's Alameda Creek. Built in 1972, this rubber inflatable dam is a little-known landmark for most Fremontians. They're removing it next year so if you haven't seen it and -- for the same strange reason that possessed me to visit it today -- feel like seeing it, you'd better hurry up.

Something about stupid spawing trout or something.

I didn't actually know that they were planning on removing this dam before I brought the kids over to see it, but now that I've read about it a little, I'm sort of disappointed. I don't always feel this way when it comes to the man-made versus the natural, but this time around I kind of feel bad for the dam. Afterall, steelhead trout occur in many different parts of California - and indeed all over North America - but an inflatable dam this size can only be found in one place on the whole planet.

Oh well.

Additional reading: Here and Here and a PDF Here.

Garage Sale Find

Going through my old stuff has been a really enjoyable trip down memory lane for me. I've been reading old essays, looking at random sketches, recalling old correspondences, and rediscovering vintage Transformers (still in box!)

I thought I'd share something I sketched semi-recently... I think I was not having a good day. It's pretty funny actually; I was working on Tiger Woods Arcade and I guess I was having computer trouble.

Note the backing up in my Maxima to run over my PC. Hilarious.

Some details:

Good times.

UPDATE: Our garage sale - though , a lot of work - went pretty well. We made $380 (which was $120 shy of my anticipated goal and about $280 above Annie's.) We will probably have another garage sale because we found more garage salable items.

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at Ikea w/Hannah

40y.o. Virgin Deleted Scenes

Annie and I really like 2005's sleeper hit, 40 Year Old Virgin.

No, not becuase we're depraved with a warped sense of humor; because it's a funny movie. (Who can forget memorable quotes like, "Kelly Clarkson!"; and "...can't even lift an iPod"; and "It's a Mentos. They're the freshmaker."; and "No, I flicked the fleshy patch where your balls used to be." and much, much more!)

There is so much improvisation that went on in the filming of that movie it's hard not to see the comic genius in all the cast members... even in the bit parts and supporting cast. If you haven't seen it, do so.

Anyway, here are some deleted scenes for those of you who also like 40 y.o.v.

Be warned, NSFW: Language



"you know how I know you're gay?"

Garage Sale

We're having a huge garage sale this Saturday, May 19th.
If you have anything you want to sell, bring it by. If you want to pick n pull, stop by for the best selection!

We'll be starting around 8am and ending around 3pm.

There will be a lot of toys and children's books as well as other BRAND NEW or excellent condition wares of all kinds.

Come one, come all!

Get them while they're hot, get them while they're buttered!

Highest Gas Prices Ever

From Reuters:

"...average gasoline prices climbed to a record-high average of $3.073 a gallon Monday..."

"...Gasoline prices are up about 50 cents since March, with energy experts blaming this year's spike on planned maintenance and breakdowns at U.S. refineries struggling to meet tough environmental fuel regulations...."

"...'Because oil prices today are at least $10 less expensive per barrel than when gasoline prices previously exceeded $3 a gallon, almost all of the price pressure on gasoline can now be attributed to America's continuing -- and increasing -- inability to supply enough refined gasoline to the marketplace,' AAA said in a statement earlier this month..."

"...The administration of President George W. Bush has offered oil companies incentives to build new refineries to meet growing domestic demand -- but companies have instead chosen to expand capacity at existing plants.
A new refinery has not been built in the United States for about 30 years.
Bush is also seeking to encourage use of biofuels, including ethanol and biodiesel, as a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil...."

In other words, it ISN'T Bush's fault that gas prices are soaring; it's Al Gore's fault. That's an interesting - if not refreshing - glimmer of honesty from Reuters.

Quick Thoughts on Today's Politics

I read today that the approval rating for our current congress is at 29%, according to Gallup.

I won't make this into a partisan issue about Republicans versus Democrats because before the Dems took control of the Congress people weren't happy with what was going on either. That is, in part, why the Democrats were able to take control again at the mid-term elections.

What this tells me is that there are systemic breakdowns in the government and problems are not getting solved. People inherently know when a group of people is really good at blowing sunshine and when a group of people is good at solving problems.

When I listen to Zach and Hannah argue about some issues it's becomes apparent really quickly whether they're trying to resolve and issue or if they're just arguing for argument's sake.

*****

Speaking of government:

Our Governator recently proposed the new budget plan for California that has many analysts excited. Under his plan California will pay down debt (14 years ahead of schedule,) bolster our reserves, and properly fund educational institution. The details of which can be found HERE.

The part that I'm most intrigued by is the selling of California's "EdFund" institution, which currently handles California's higher-education school loans. Reportedly, this sale could generate $1 billion in revenue and increase efficiency. This is something that should be done for many governmental institutions. As a fiscal conservative, I believe that the free market has is its own best government. If your product sucks, you will go out of business. Currently, EdFund is a privately owned non-profit organization. But selling it to a good capitalist banker/loan-type guru will do wonders for its organization, efficiency, and profitability, I'm sure.

Another good thing our Governator has done recently was when he said, "I've never got [sic] any request. But I have many more important things to think about," when addressing whether or not he'd pardon Paris Hilton from her 45-day jail sentence for breaking parole.

Performance Anxiety

Here are some pictures from our kids' recent performances.



Zach at the "American Ideal" Spring Concert. (Annie has pictures of Hannah from the pre-K performance. I didn't take any with my camera phone because she was in the back row and too far for my cam to detect.)





Here is our church's Mother's Day performance with Zach and Hannah at the front row.



A happy mom!

Brokeback Lawsuit

Now that we're putting Zach and Hannah into public school next year, someone please send me a link to a GOOD story about our public school systems.

This from Chicago Sun Times.

A suit was filed on behalf of a 12-year-old girl who claims she suffered psychological distress when a teacher showed in class the gay-themed movie "Brokeback Mountain."
...
According to the suit, a substitute teacher introduced herself as Ms. Buford to Jessica's class at Ashburn Community Elementary School, 8300 S. St. Louis Ave. She then said, "What happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class," the suit claims. Buford then had a student close the door, and started showing the controversial R-rated film, which features two men engaged in sex.

This is less about the movie itself (I actually thought it was pretty good) but more about the circumventing of parental guardianship by faculty and administration. If the staff teachers or substitute teachers have an agenda, the administration needs to sniff it out and put a stop to it. If the administration goes limp then who will protect the children from seeing what -- even the MPAA agrees -- they should not see without parental consent and/0r supervision?

Shame on Ashburn Community Elementary School.
Go here to rate the Principal (Diaz) and the substitute teacher (Buford).

Just to lighten things up a little, since this is kind of a hard-to-swallow story, here is the infamous Brokeback to the Future (you'll never look at Marty and Doc in the same way again):

Wal Mart's Trailer Trash Mother's Day

A friend sent me this picture.

Happy Mother's Day.






The unintended irony is that if these were properly used, she wouldn't be celebrating mother's day at all!

AZ Pictures

Just a quick debrief:

While in Arizona last weekend, Annie and I took advantage of the no-kids/no-curfew situation we were in to catch a few flicks at the local cineplex.

Here is a Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer display at the theater.

If you're interested in watching the trailer, you can see a hi-res version here. Or the YouTube version below.

The two movies we watched were Invisible, and Spider Man 3. Invisible was a little predictable but pretty well made movie starring Justin Chatwin (War of the Worlds) that has more than a little of Tom Cruise's charisma and and has perfected Cruise's mouth-agape, pensive stare. Starring opposite Chatwin is silver screen newcomer, Margarita Levieva. Levieva looks like a young Angelina Jolie to me. Wait for the DVD.

SM3, which was panned in many reviews defied the critics and scraped in $59 million in one day; $148 million in the weekend; and over the opening weekend, worldwide, it took an incredible $375 million. I think people just want good old-fashioned stories of good versus evil anymore. I had a few gripes about continuity (like, what happened to Spidey's Spider-Sense?) but if you haven't already contributed to the pot, go watch it now.

The flight home was relatively uneventful (except for the fiasco with the long term parking shuttle.) Here is a picture of another plane coming in close for a landing at SFO. It must have been no more than 200-300 yards away.

Here is a picture of part of the San Mateo Bridge, the world's thirteenth longest bridge measuring just under 37,000 feet.

Now I Know

I've always wanted to know. Now I know.

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joe and ''bob'' ay tap-ex

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rocky mountains... (or it the sierra nevadas?)

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salad bar from Ruby Tuesdays, Tuscon Arizona

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there is this guy sitting on the plane on the seat in front of me and he's reading a comic book on his laptop... and it's in Thai.

Inclusion = Progress?

While I'm burning DVDs, I'm reading my latest issue of GQ; in it, there is a short interview with presidential candidate, Senator McCain (R). Because I’m still deciding for whom I’m going to support for the ’08 Most Powerful Man on Planet Contest (yes, Hillary is welcome to the take a stab at becoming the most powerful man on the planet) I was interested in what the (light) article would uncover about McCain.

Even brushing his anti-war and biased interview techniques aside, the interviewer/reporter, Wil S. Hylton’s questions were chock full of illogical presuppositions.

One that comes to mind is his question to McCain about gay marriage.

He asks, “why do you define [marriage] as ‘between a man and a woman’?” McCain responds plainly and technically. “Because I believe it’s a unique status to them”, he says. “That’s what marriage means.”

“Why can’t the meaning be expanded? Isn’t progress about becoming more inclusive? Look at the Declaration and the words ‘all men are created equal.’ The word men referred to white male landowners. Today it refers to either gender, any race, any class. So these words have expanded in meaning, right?”

Seems logical doesn’t it? But does progress necessarily mean being more inclusive?

There is a modern misconception that progress is defined as “new”. “Moving forward” seems to be synonymous with “getting better” but it’s not. There are countless instances where newer products that are in the marketplace are inferior to the good-old-fashioned equivalents of the same product. Perhaps it was cheaper to produce or was produced faster for a better profit (and thusly “better” for the manufacturer) but it sure wasn’t better for the consumer (and, if you subscribe to the power of the free market, probably not better for the manufacturer in the long run, either.)

Likewise, many newer and more “progressive” ideas can actually be damaging.

The relatively new idea of equal access to all able-bodied or disabled Americans, for instance is good in most instances where it’s applied, but, in my opinion, damaging in this case where a woman sued Target.com because she can’t ‘see’ their website. I don’t believe it is the right of every citizen to have unabated access to the luxury of the World Wide Web. (At least not yet.)

And the even newer Nouveau American idea that all religions are equal, for instance, has done damage to the previously stated tradition/law that Americans of all abilities should have access to public services. Have you heard the case in Minnesota where Muslim cabbies are refusing to transport blind people and their Seeing Eye dogs?

So, for Hylton to assume that progress is synonymous with inclusiveness is like me assuming that “lighter is better”; it follows no line of logic and one has no relation to the other without a specific context.

Should the NBA become inclusive towards women in order to achieve progress? Should a zoo’s cobra display become inclusive towards small mammals in order to achieve progress? Should American citizenry offer identical voting rights to any citizen of any nation state in order to achieve progress? It’s ludicrous.

Yes, perhaps in the case where the Declaration of Independence definition of “man” in the phrase “all men are created equal” was expanded to include more than white male landowners, it could be considered progress. (Although, there is much to be debated here as well since the paragraph of the Declaration’s Preamble that Hylton is referring to was written to outline the human’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness through laws that are granted by governments of their own creation. It was, in no way a decree that all people should be treated as equals in spite of their background or current circumstance.)

But this is one case where inclusiveness can be considered progress. The trait of inclusiveness is only considered a virtue by Affirmative Action liberals who think everyone is entitled to a shot at the big time and no one should be left out of any specific classification. Hylton thinks that marriage should be expanded to same-sex partners as well. The very definition of marriage, from the time it was first instituted by mankind or ordained by God, it was meant to be for a man and a woman. By Hylton’s all-inclusivene/term-expansion theory, it could be argued that the term “male” should be expanded to include females because we shouldn’t exclude people based on gender and inclusiveness is, by definition, progress.

Judge Sues for $65 million... over pants?!

I won't even comment. I'll let you do the commenting.

A pair of pants from one suit was not ready when he requested it two days later, and was deemed to be missing.
Pearson asked the cleaners for the full price of the suit: more than $1,000.
But a week later, the Chungs said the pants had been found and refused to pay. That's when Pearson decided to sue.

Manning said the cleaners made three settlement offers to Pearson. First they offered $3,000, then $4,600, then $12,000. But Pearson wasn't satisfied and expanded his calculations beyond one pair of pants. Because Pearson no longer wanted to use his neighborhood dry cleaner, part of his lawsuit calls for $15,000 — the price to rent a car every weekend for 10 years to go to another business.

"He's somehow purporting that he has a constitutional right to a dry cleaner within four blocks of his apartment," Manning said.

Read the rest HERE.
Hattip to Angry Asian Man.

Road Rage

So today, I'm driving the kids home from school and I'm behind a white Lexus ES300 circa 2001 model. We're coming up on a traffic light and just as we're come upon it, it turns from green to yellow.

We're about 30 yards from the intersection when the light changes.

I'm expecting the white Lexus to go through the light because we're all going about 60 mph (which is 10 mph over the posted limit of 50, but a very common and safe speed on that particular road.) But instead of easily cruising through the intersection, the white Lexus' brake lights come on and its nose takes a serious dip as the car stops short. (If I lived in a sitcom, I'd suspect the driver was a young Frank Costanza putting the moves on Estelle.)

I have a few choices:

A) I can brake hard for an emergency stop that will, in all probability stop in time, but will be uncomfortable and scary for my passengers.

B) I can swerve to the left lane to avoid the Lexus but sideswipe the pick-up that is running doorhandle-to-doorhandle with me.

C) I can swerve illegally to the right and through a bike lane and right-turn lane.

I chose (D), accelerate, enough to get past the truck next to me an then swerve into the left lane, bypassing the yellow light and getting through the intersection without any danger to my passengers, fellow drivers, myself and also maintain the laws of the road.

Safe! All is well.

So I thought.

I get to the left turn lane that takes me into my neighborhood and lo and behold; in my rear view mirror is a 50-something woman in the white Lexus. I don't recognize her or her car from my neighborhood and I just know she's tailing me.

So I drive around the block a few times (because I'm not in the mood to reveal my home address to a road-raging menopausal short-stopper.) She continues to follow me through my neighborhood and I decide that talking is better than running (because, believe you me - if I wanted to simply lose her, like they do in the movies - it wouldn't have been hard to do.) I pull to the curb, stop the car and get out.

Her car is directly behind mine as I approach. I see through her windshield that she has her Treo and is busy taking pictures of my car and me. I say to her through her windshield, "let's talk." She starts going into reverse and continues to take pictures. She wags her index finger at me as if to say, "you're not going to get me!"

What?

She drives off.

For a moment I consider following her but then decide against it. What's the point. She got her jollies and she feels empowered. Yay. She got my picture. What will she do with it? (Perhaps blog it... doh! I *SHOULD* have followed her! Dang.)

Anyway, so that's my tale for the day. I don't know what that lady's problem was. Perhaps she thought I was being reckless and wanted to 'teach me a lesson'. Or perhaps she's just one of those passive aggressive types that dare you to do something and when you do, they turn and say, "too late!"

Zach and Hannah asked why that lady was taking pictures of me. I told them, "I dunno. Maybe she likes the way I'm dressed." They don't yet know what "passive aggressive" means.

How to Build a Jaguar (#7)

Finally the jaguar is complete. All I had to do for the final touches was to make the ears, tail, facial features, and spots.

Ears: I just cut a stack of newspaper into a shape of an ear and covered it with duct tape. Then I used duct tape to tape it to the head.

Tail: I used a length of 50-gauge wire and wrapped it in bubble wrap until it was about 2 inches in diameter at its thickest point. Then I wrapped the whole thing in duct tape and attached it to the jaguar's rump with more duct tape.

Face: I used a Sharpie marker and drew the eyes, nose, mouth and whiskers.

For the spots, the final step; I simply used black spray paint and sprayed the spots onto the cat. I actually drew them wrong. A jaguar's pattern - near the face, neck and shoulders - consists of smallish solid dots. But near the torso the larger 'dots' are actually more like tiny island atolls than solid spots.



Next time I'll be more careful.

Here are some pictures of the jaguar on display in Zach's class.