pres.umptuo.us

Lord Vader & Heidi Klum.

More Wonka pics. I just noticed the candy in Wonka’s cane. Still looks fairly promising…

I want to go to McDonald’s in Japan.

The Kevin F. Sherry Sweater Project. I should have worn a funky sweater for Halloween. I should wear funky sweaters period.

Clip from Phantom of the Opera. Looks pretty darn good. I would have reservations about Joel Schumacher, but musicals are supposed to be a little fruity.

Nation’s Poor Win Election For Nation’s Rich. Kerry Captures Bin Laden One Week Too Late. Nation’s Wildlife Fleeing To Canada. The Onion has seriously got to be one of the best sources of news. It’s not even satire anymore, it’s just telling the truth.

New Life Aquatic Poster. Interesting, I didn’t think there’d be another one after the one that’s already been released. Doesn’t quite top the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory poster though.

Grab the nearest book.
Open the book to page 23.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal…
…along with these instructions.

As the original “point” (so called by Chaucer), it appears to occupy a place in our grammar that is unassailable.
-Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

Wish I had a cooler book nearby.

IM Smarter. An add-on for instant messaging clients that keeps logs of chats online instead of locally on the machine, it also has reminder capabilities and is all done through a proxy server, so no installation is required. Definitely worth checking out.

Willy Wonka teaser poster. Damn, does that look good to anyone else? Here’s a direct link to the poster.

FoxyTunes plugin for Firefox to control iTunes.

Brad’s post pretty much sums up how I feel about The OC.

Awesome. Must see again.

Another great film by Pixar that only a company like Pixar could consistently pull off, but a few things of note: The action is definitely stepped up here for the PG rating, and as such the cuteness/kiddy factor has gone down a bit. I left the movie with less of the awestruck need to see it again as I did with say, Toy Story 2, but it was still a very good film. Most of all though, I’m happy to see director Brad Bird finally get his recognition after his previous film, Iron Giant was handled so poorly and didn’t get the praise it deserved.

I was really amazed at the versatility they gave Elasti-Girl. You’d think stretching limbs could only do so much, but they took it much further. I expected the final battle to last longer and to get a better taste of their superpowers, but it wasn’t a terrible disappointment. Brad Bird stole the show with his voice for Edna the costume designer.

Was anyone else waiting for Mr. Incredible’s boss at the company to say, “Inconceivable!”?

Highly recommended and definitely worth a second viewing, just like all Pixar films

I’m sure some people are wondering about my reaction to the Revenge of the Sith teaser, although I’ve already told a lot of people in person. It looks promising as usual, just like how the teaser for Episode 2 looked great (Still one of the best teasers ever). Anakin’s dark look suits him well, and Anakin vs. Obi-Wan looks good as well. I don’t really agree with the Emperor wielding a lightsaber, and when I think of it I didn’t like Yoda using one either. You kind of hope that they’re beyond the use of lightsabers and expect a fight along the lines of Gandalf vs. Sarumon from FOTR.

I must admit I’m excited though, if only because the Star Wars geek in me kicks in everytime one of these prequels comes out. The large amount of action in this one should prove to be a hit, considering the action is one of the few things about the prequels that has been done well (The storyline and the script are another story altogether).

For anyone who’s interested, the trailer for the Episode 3 video game shows quite a few spoilers from the movie. Big spoiler warning here, cause it reveals several plot points.

Shootin’ Starz. The simplest games are always the most fun. Got up to level 4 on my only play.

Americans Flock to Canada’s Immigration Web Site. That’s just too funny. I imagine people are visiting the site more as a joke though, I really doubt people are seriously considering it. Although, if a draft does come into play…

Teaser up for Pixar’s next film, Cars. Can’t really make out too much from what’s shown, so I’ll reserve judgement until more stuff shows up.

I attended the AFI Film Festival’s Opening Night Gala at the Arclight in Hollywood last night thanks to Brad, where they screened Kevin Spacey’s latest film Beyond The Sea, a biopic about the late singer Bobby Darin. We got there a little late and ended up in an overflow theater, but Kevin Spacey was still cool enough to come over and introduce the film to us in person, which is something he threw a lot of himself into and has high hopes for, considering he directed and produced it himself.

The Gala afterwords had a mini-buffet and open bar, along with a live band playing and random celeb sightings. We spotted and tried to stalk Thora Birch for a bit, then Marcum tried talking to Kevin Spacey but was quickly shooed away by security. Word was that Bryan Singer and Kate Bosworth were there as well, but only Marcum and Becca spotted Kate.

To get to the movie review, I feel really sorry for Kevin Spacey. He’s such a cool actor and a nice guy and has Oscar hopes on this film, but Beyond The Sea was just bad. It had such an awkward mix of musical numbers thrown in with the drama, and the child actor they used as young Bobby Darin was horrible. Time never seemed to pass since Kevin Spacey plays Bobby Darin from the ages of his late teens/early twenties all the way up to his death at 37, and looked the same throughout without ever aging (youthing?). I won’t discuss the awkwardness of the romance between Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth playing Sandra Dee, just think about it and it’ll be understandable.

Skip the movie. Fun night out though.

A friendly reminder to everyone that the teaser for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith will be shown on TRL and ET today, although if the internet has its way I’m sure it’ll be downloadable before then.

From the front page of The Onion: God Puts His Tool Back Into Office.

10 things the Chinese do better than we do. Free hemming was definitely the coolest thing when I visited clothing stores in Shanghai.

Well, as of right now, it looks like Bush has got it. Reactions:

calkidd32: do i need a visa to go to canada?
calkidd32: i heard they have lots of donut shops there

Sassyboo22 (10:01:59 PM): shietz
Sassyboo22 (10:02:03 PM): shits histhisthistas;fa;slkdjf as;dfja;sdfj;awdjf
Sassyboo22 (10:02:06 PM): fj;asdfuck u
Sassyboo22 (10:02:09 PM): hi

IllItsau d: can california like, withdraw from the union

aprilmayjun3: if bush wins i’m relinquishing my american citizenship

Now this is good, here’s part of my away message I had up:

Time to build a magic boat out of a school bus and make my way over to Cuba. Who’s coming?

KaMKinD803: i wanna come
KaMKinD803: call shotgun!

This is the best though. Bastard Basil is still over in Sweden:

valloq: hey, come back to our great country
ThusSpokeBacchus: i am pretty sure i am going to stay here
valloq: you fucker
valloq: I wanna go
ThusSpokeBacchus: haha
ThusSpokeBacchus: i am not even kidding
valloq: I’m not either
ThusSpokeBacchus: i swear, people will do anything once they have some fear in them

On a side note, if Bush does end up being declared the winner once again, I’d just like to point out that my vote for Nader meant a lot more than a vote for Kerry did. So hah you naysayers, who threw away their vote now?

The elderly people at my Polling Place were great. It was completely empty, btw. I guess considering it’s Pasadena and all…

Pollworker 1: We have a new voter, Eric Lim.
Pollworker 1: Here is your ballot.
Pollworker 2: Was it Eric or Evan? Oh Eric is a Mrs.

I’m surprised by everyone urging others to vote today though, that’s some good democratic spirit. I’m sure it also has a lot to do with what’s at stake this time around, but it’s still a good thing that more people are voting.

I must say though, it felt good voting. I was disillusioned and felt like I had made a difference for a split second, and I’m sure scribbling “President”, and then right below it, “Nader” into the write-in boxes helped quite a bit. Here’s to my first time voting.

Diebold voting machines hacked — unplug the modems NOW
Voting with paper in Santa Clara is hard and uncertain
Vote Save Error #9 photo

This morning in Santa Clara, Vickie and I signed in the way we always do and requested paper ballots. Hilarity ensued: attempting to vote on paper caused a flurry of activity: oh-no-you’re-not, you-have-to-vote-with-the-machine, what’s-your-major-malfunction-mister, and other clucking noises.

This is going to be a fun election.

Luc Besson Special Editions coming in January and Collector’s Edition of Eternal Sunshine. They really need to stop doing this…I can’t keep up with all these DVDs I need to replace, but the completist in me keeps fighting. The cover for Leon looks pretty good.

Note to Acura: Copy your homework from the smart kid, not the ugly disfigured one.

Embroiled in a murder incident is Albert Camus’ existentialist classic, and I must applaud it for pulling it off without being overbearing on the philosophical side. The Stranger is split into two parts, the first part being what could be called the expository section and where all the action occurs, while the second part is the analysis of the events that transpired in part one and the ultimate conclusion.

Part One of the story felt a bit slow because of its lack of any visible direction or climax, but the end comes abruptly and the reader is thrown into Part Two where finally things pull together.

Wow, that was a horrible explanation. To put it very simply, the story made me think at the end and consider certain things in life, and it’s a very short read that can be done in about two days.

MyBodyIs4Sale (11:44:15 AM): man, i gotta leave for a russian test in 15 minutes
MyBodyIs4Sale (11:44:18 AM): and i am not ready
valloq (11:44:50 AM): maybe you should start “russian”
valloq (11:44:54 AM): hahahahahah
MyBodyIs4Sale (11:44:59 AM): bitch

A future plagued by disease and pollution. A robot army led by neo-mutants brought back from the dead. A hero, resurrected and encased in armor allowing him move like lightning. All the makings of a great sci-fi film, yet at its heart, Casshern is an anti-war film.

Directed by a music video director, and shot almost entirely against blue screen, Casshern’s greatest strength lies in its visuals. The production design is a throwback to an industrialized future, looking very similar to The City of Lost Children with is rusted metal and antiquated designs that have become technologically upgraded. Some lackluster blue screen work in certain scenes show the budget constraints, but costume design and physical sets are very well done.

Much as it did with Sky Captain though, the lacking of physical sets really bothered me at times due to the lack of transition scenes and no real sense of time or place. The movie felt like a scatter of shots strung together loosely, and the heavy-handed anti-war messages that are carried throughout and especially hammered into the viewers at the end do nothing to help.

The story requires a lot of patience, but just when you feel it building up to something good, the movie disappoints and doesn’t deliver where it should. A lot of supernatural and unexplained occurrences happen that leave the viewer puzzled, and with nothing to do but to accept it and suspend belief to the very end.

Final recommendation: don’t pay to see this. I doubt I would be able to sit through another sitting of this movie.