Clipping nails...

Why does the guy who sits over on the other side of the cubicle from me (the guy over the wall) insist on clipping his fingernails at work? In the morning just as I'm sitting down to my yummy oatmeal? I don't get it. Doesn't this guy have a damn bathroom at his home where he can do this? Once per week, just like clockwork, I hear the clippers come out, and the clipping begins. It's pretty damn disgusting. I'm waiting for the day when one of those things comes flying over the wall, and I open up the proverbial can of of whoop ass on him. OK, maybe not a literal can of whoop ass, but you can be sure a large stink would be made by me about it. Like I said, what the hell? Can't you do that at home? Why are you clipping your nails at work? It's stupid. It's ridiculous. Personal grooming should not be accomplished at work. Keep that stuff in your house. Damn... People who do things like that, need to be taken out in the back and bludgeoned with a dull nail file. Just another fine reason to keep going to work every week. I can look forward to someone clipping their nails over the wall from me.

Now to get down to business here. The Tour de France starts on Saturday. Prologue, 7 some odd kilometers, and of course, another year, and a whole lot of controversy. Seems as though every year, there is more and more controversy before the start of this race. And again this year, doping is taking precedence in the spotlight, and not the riders and not the race. We'll see what all shakes loose from this latest bout of investigations into doping within the sport. Anyway, the prologue. I'm not even going to write about the rest of the race for now, more as it progresses. After thinking about it for awhile, and after reading some reports, and reading some interviews, I've decided that my pick is going to have to be, David Millar. Although I think also that Dave Zabriskie has a very good chance of doing the same thing that he did last year. Take the prologue, and have the yellow jersey on his shoulders for a little while. Of course, last year, the prologue was more of an actual time trial, because it was too long to call it a prologue. Now, through the last couple of years, I've been pretty harsh on David Millar. He got busted for doping, and he is essentially a large assed whiner, and well, a very spoiled kid. I read an interview with him today, and I kind of feel better about the guy now. Honestly. He did a good interview, and came clean about a lot of things, and was really honest with his words, and basically called himself a dumb ass. So now, I'm hoping that the whining is gone, and I think now, he realizes what he did by doping and winning the 2003 World Time Trial championship, and he lost basically everything. The lifestyle, his apartment, his career (at least for a couple of years), and almost his life really. He has come back, and seems like he is genuinely happy that Saunier Duval gave him another chance at his chosen profession, and that they were willing to go out on a limb for him and all. He'll ride fast in the prologue, and I actually hope that he takes it. It would be a good story. And I hope, for my sake, that his whining is over and done with and gone forever.

That being said, I won't be sad if Dave Z. takes the prologue. He's a funny guy, even if he is from Utah.

Movie review...

I, like probably just about every other comic book junkie in the world, decided to go and see the new Superman movie, Superman Returns. I went last night, special early premier night and all, and I was first of all surprised that the place wasn't packed out. I was surprised because of all of the hype surrounding this movie launch of course. There has been endless stuff, and honestly, when I saw the trailer, I was in right there and then. I kind of muttered to myself when I first saw the trailer, "I'm all over that when it comes out." And indeed, I was. A night early I might add, again.

Being the sort of anal movie watcher that I am, I wanted to get there early so that we could get a good seat, the fiance and I that is. We arrived at the local megaplex at the mall around 8:30, movie time was 10, so off to do some shopping. After a short walk through the mall and the purchasing of some blush (for Steph not me, honest), we strolled back through the main drag of the mall. Which I noticed, well, I've noticed before, looks like something that should be in a happening downtown area in some small hip town/city. This is the outdoor portion of the mall of course. What I also noticed is that instead of the local teenagers hanging around in a nice little downtown area, they were of course hanging out at the mall. Do kids ever get tired of hanging out at the mall? I wouldn't know. I didn't have a mall close enough to hang out at really. Living and growing up in Mexico Maine, we had the dirt turnout, that was our "mall". I guess the point that I'm trying to make here is that maybe if we had some more downtown revitalization, and better public transportation access to said downtown areas, I'm sure people would flock to them. I know that Raleigh is currently trying to revive their downtown area, and seem to be doing a decent job of it. Another example is actually Greensboro, from what I hear. I hear that the downtown area is happening these days. Friday night, and the joint is jumping. When I lived there, there were about 2 bars that were down there, and they were of the cheesy dance club variety, in other words, they sucked. Not so these days, so good for them.

Anyway, we moved over to the movie theatre, it being about 9:15, and I thought that the lines might be forming. Of course, they weren't. We walked right in, even after gathering up an extra large soda. You know, the soda that is about 10 times larger than they really need to be. Those are the best ones. Luckily for us, we got good seats in the theatre, and then had, oh 35 minutes to go before showtime.

We had previews of course. In which I saw the trailer for the new Spiderman movie coming out next summer. I've got to say, it looks freakin' awesome. I'm already getting excited for that one. Finally, the lights go down, and it's time for the film to roll. Just like everybody else and their mother, I need to write a review of this flick, so here goes.

It opens very nicely with similar visuals as the original movie (the Christopher Reeves 1978 movie) with a little 3D action with the opening credits, and of course John Williams pumping in through the sound system with that oh so familiar Superman theme music, it gave me a few chills really. It was pretty sweet. It starts out with a bang, literally, with Superman coming back to Earth after having gone on a little voyage to see if there is anything left of Krypton. As we all know, there wasn't shit left out there in dark space, just a bunch of debris. Stupid astronomers who said something was there, Superman ought to kick them in the nuts. Send him on a boondoggle like that. Anyway, true to the origination story of Superman, he comes back to Earth and crashes back into the Kent's cornfield. His Mom rolls out to gather him up, and give him a couple of days of rest. You know, a little recuperation in his old room and then bury his extra large space ship in the yard so nobody finds it.

From there, the movie tends to drag just a touch really. Well, there is this whole set piece about the space shuttle, and a plane crash, and things like that. I'd have to say, that scene was stellar, the effects, the visuals, and everything in it, the action, all good stuff. Of course, the shuttle issue and plane crash, or in this case, the almost plane crash was directly caused by, yes, Lex Luthor. Played aptly by Kevin Spacey, very aptly. More on that later. Poor newcomer Brandon Routh though, he looks good in the suit, and channels Christopher Reeve very well, but they didn't really let him speak too much. Even his awkward turns as Clark Kent could have been much funnier, much goofier, but there seemed to be some restraint in the writing. Little or no dialogue for the hero of the movie. It's unfortunate really.

I guess the same could be said really for the entire cast of the movie actually. They had some genuine star power in there, like I said, Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Parker 'freakin' Posey, and they kind of wasted it. I was disappointed in the writing. The story was solid, but they really needed a lot more dialogue. The movie seemed to drag. The action though, top notch. In this one "Matrix" like scene, shows S-Man facing off against a 30mm gatlin gun (think A-10 Warthog gun) with the bullets bouncing off of his chest, and when the guy operating the gun runs out of ammo, he thinks it a wise idea to pull his 9, and pop a cap in his eyeball. Being Superman of course, the bullet just compresses against his eye, in slow motion, and falls to the ground. It was a great visual. Same for the flying sequences as well. Seeing Superman bust it out, and break the sound barrier with the shockwave forming around him as he moves through the air, looks awesome.

I was glad to be there, glad to see the movie, but was a little let down as mentioned before. Needed better writing, more dialogue, but the action was awesome. Now in lieu of the writing, if they had more action sequences, that of course would have made up for things more or less. Spacey, completely underutilized in his role as Lex Luthor, he was very good when he was on screen, but it was few and far between. Between the action sequences, the movie was pretty slow. Overall, I'd give it a B+ I guess. I was looking for the slam dunk A+, but I'm going to have to wait for Spiderman 3 for that methinks, and that isn't until next Summer. At least we Snakes on a Plane coming out soon.

Update...

Update coming soon...

Just trying to think of something good to write, that's all.

Over and out. For now.

Oh no. Not again...

I can’t believe that this bullshit is coming up again. Yes, I’m talking about the Constitutional Amendment to BAN gay marriage. Holy freakin’ Hell. What are these guys thinking about? I know, it bothers them to think about 2 men kissing, let alone the same 2 men, in a loving relationship, getting married and being legally bound to one another. It’s not the legality of it of course, it’s the “moral” part of it that they have the most problem with. “The Bible says..” they’ll say, and use it to justify their homophobia. What do these guys care if 2 people get married? It’s not going to stop the world, it’s not going to weaken America, it is not going to weaken their marriages (except for the fact that some of them might be able to then come out of the closet), and overall, it won’t affect them on a daily basis. It’s like if they let gay folks get married, that’s all we’re going to see day in and day out, you know, the whole “gay agenda”. I guess they figure that if they could get something passed through that made English the official language of the US of A, they might as well try to squeeze this one through, again. Although, I am seriously doubting it has the votes that it needs to get past the Senate, but there will be plenty of republicans, and probably a couple or few democrats who rally behind it, and then proclaim to their constituents who un-god-ful the other folks are because they didn’t vote for it. I’ll be watching how my Senators vote, and if they vote for it, I’ll not be voting for them, even though I didn’t before. This would just shore that up. Anyway, why do they want to ban something that most States in the US doesn’t allow already anyway? Can you take something away from gay folks that they already don’t have? That’s what doesn’t make the most sense. The republicans talk of smaller government, less mess, and now they want a Constitutional Amendment to impinge on someone’s rights? What in the Hell is going on around this country. Last time I checked, our Constitution spelled out our rights, and our laws, it didn’t take them away from us, and yes, I do think it is a gay person’s absolute RIGHT to get married if they so choose. Why can’t they be with the person that they love? Some will argue that they’re not telling them to NOT be with that other person, but that they just shouldn’t get married. Well, if that’s their main argument, why does anyone need to get married then? I hate this whole thing. Let them get married, let them be happy, and let’s just be over and done with it. Can’t we? I would love to hear any legal justifications that anyone can come up with that says 2 gay people can’t get married. Why? Legally why? Not morally, because we don’t all adhere to the same code of ethics and morality now do we? Ironically enough, the same people who will scream and yell about this issue, will be the same folks who love them some death penalties, and they love war, but at the same time, they don’t want 2 men or women kissing, and they want to make sure that all the fetuses in the world are saved. Blatant hypocrites on the moral scale of things, that’s for damn sure.

Then they’ll say, once again, that God says you shouldn’t do this. That’s fine and dandy, but last time I knew, God didn’t write the laws of the US, we do. And the Constitution sets forth the framework as such, and within the Constitution, there is a line between church and State. Drag God and morality into this whole mess, then I’d say you’d have to drag her into every law that they write. And the Constitution is a lot of things, but it has no mention of God, and how we may or may not believe in one all powerful all knowing creator. It leaves the law making to men, women, and whomever it is we choose to place into the offices of the Senate and the House of Representatives. This is the most stupid thing ever. Ever. Just let the gay people be, and let them get married. Some will. Some won’t. As with heterosexual couples, it’s all about what’s right for that certain couple in that relationship. Sometimes marriage is right for some, and sometimes it’s not right for some. Ah, like I said at the onset of this little diatribe, it’s all a big old steaming pile o’ bullshit.

And for one last thing about this. Don’t our politicians have more pressing things at hand than whether or not gay people can get married? I think that they do. There is a war raging in Iraq, people without insurance, the threat of possibly another war with Iran, threats of terrorism, global warming, bad environmental policies, and so on and so forth. As mentioned, there are a lot more pressing issues than this. Funny, that during an election year, the republicans try to bring this out again. Last time they trotted this old horse out was, oh yeah, 2004, in an election year, when Bush promised his ultra-conservative ultra-Christian base that he would fight tirelessly for a Constitutional Amendment banning same sex marriages. As soon as we was elected, he dropped that one way down on the priority list. Now that his party is facing what will probably be an unprecedented defeat in November, they’ve tossed out this old carrot to entice people to vote, once again, for the republicans. If people are stupid like this again, and listen to this dime store rhetoric, I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but moving out of this country wouldn’t be out of the question, that’s how much this place is pissing me off lately. Then again, living in Europe would be pretty cool, at least for a little while, like until George W. Bush and the rest of his merry assholes are removed from office either by impeachment, resignations, or just getting voted out. I can’t wait for 2008, and then 10 years on down the road when we can all really see the damage that Bush has done to what was a once great nation. Could we be looking at a downfall greater than Rome? I’m not going to say it’s out of the question really. We are running into hard times, and with other world powers rising to the fore, we may, in short order, not be the only superpower left in the world, I’d put a fair amount of money on China in the near future. I like the reaction from the people that I bring this up with. Normally it is one of stunned amazement, and then they just dismiss it, and I think that’s the prevailing attitude of people in this country, but I believe we’re walking a fine line right now. If we’re not careful, we’re going to fall off the edge of the razor, and next thing you know, we won’t be the great nation we are today. We must be vigilant, but unfortunately, most Americans are too busy watching American Idol (almost 40 million last week) and voting for their favorites like mad after the show. This is not to say that you can’t be entertained, of course you can be. But listen to a morning radio show the day after an American Idol show. They will devote hours of their airtime talking about who was good, who wasn’t, how could they be better, who is going to get voted off, and on and on and on and on some more. You can’t get the same people to discuss anything serious for more than 5 minutes. Again, not saying we’re doomed as a country, not yet at least, but we must be careful, very very careful.