Its good to be last?

Olympic last place finishes

Hero Review
What a complete dissapointment. One of the best rated movies(by critics) ever finally came to the US this weekend after tearing up international box office.
The director of this movie is clearly using cinematography to tell this story even above the story. This is not a good thing as I always believe the story should be the main focus of every movie. I cared nothing for these characters, making the fight scenes and deep philosophy useless. That being said this is a beautiful movie to look at. The director changes colors as if you were watching a painting. The actors wear different outfits from one scene to the next, the seetings completely change, and the background colors seem to be based on emotion. As an example there is one scene where two women are fighting in an absolutely beautiful fall settings with yellow leaves flying everywhere. Finally when the mortal blow is struck the leaves turn red, making a very powerful emotional scene.
I know some may argue this movie is philosophical and intellectual and maybe I could not see this. Some battles are fought in the mind only. One scene shows a warrior using calligraphy with slow motion, close ups, rousing music which would make you think this is an action scene. This is beautiful to watch and the connection with calligraphy and fighting is easily seen. My guess is that the direcor was trying to use the four basic skills and disciplines of the Chinese literi(calligraphy, painting, Qin(a stringed musical instrument)and Qi(a strategic boardgame)).
This is a deep movie I realize and perhaps in the years I will come to appreciate its complexity. In my first viewing I cared nothing for the characters, hated the way the story was told, was bored out of my mind, and was angered by the Chinese propaganda ending. I have not mentioned the location shooting. It is beautiful to the point of being magical. I have no doubt however that this film will win an acadamy award for best cinematography. In that category alone it stands as a masterpiece.

What happens if?

You put a whole cucumber in the garbage disposer

Expose a lego guy to extreme heat

Put a toilet roll in a shredder

I took these from This site


Plastic surgery for the dog

This is a fun little game: Parking practice

I love these games: here's another

US Basketball Loses
I'm glad the US basketball team lost. Most people are I think. The NBA represents almost everything wrong with professional sports. The league is full of tattoed loud mouthed undisciplined punks. There are a handful of respectable players(Tim Duncan), but basically the NBA is a joke. Ratings are dipping below hockey. Oddly when I was in Thailand every hotel carried NBA games. I would tell people I was from America and they would often say, America, NBA!

38 Lobsters!

Good Ole Kennebunkport Maine just got some national news and it wasnt because of the Bush family home. I'll also post a couple of Kennebunk pics I took when I lived there for a bit(over three years ago now, time does fly)
Here we have the world lobster eating champ!

KENNEBUNK, Maine - America's top speed-eater wolfed down 38 lobsters in 12 minutes Saturday to win the World Lobster Eating Contest.
Sonya Thomas, of Alexandria, Va., won $500 and a trophy belt for her efforts, consuming 9.76 pounds of lobster meat.
Each contestant had a partner cracking the shells and pulling out the meat. Eleven competitors ate as many lobsters as they could in a 12-minute period, devouring a total of 300 pounds.
The competition, only in its second year, sought to elevate Maine into the big leagues of competitive eating, alongside New York's Coney Island with its Nathan's Famous hot dogs and New Orleans with its oysters.


Speaking of Kennebunkport, here's three pics I took.











The Red Sox are on a bit of a winning streak. If this keeps up maybe they will finally beat the dreaded Yankees in the AL East.

Thracians

This is an interesting find, especially with the Olympics. The poor Thacians never really got the credit they deserved historically(they did not have much of a written language). They lived on the borders of ancient Rome and Greece eventually being absorbed by Rome. Many finds are being discovered such as tombs, masks etc.

SHIPKA, Bulgaria (Reuters) - A Bulgarian archaeologist has unearthed an ancient gold mask and a ring featuring an "Olympic" rower in what he called an unrivalled find in the study of classical antiquity.

Georgi Kitov told Reuters on Friday the artifacts likely belonged to a fifth century B.C. leader of the Thracians, the dispersed tribes who once lived in parts of what is now modern-day Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Turkey, and Greece.
"The mask is a portrait of a Thracian king, from what I believe is the tomb of Teres," Kitov said.
He said the portrait, found on Thursday, may be a more significant find than the so-called Mask of Agamemnon, one of the most famous images of Greek antiquity and centerpiece of the National Archeological Museum in Athens.
"It is sensational and has no comparison in the world," he said. "The Mask of Agamemnon was made of gold foil and weighs only 60 grammes (2.1 oz), while this mask weighs 690 grammes (24.3 oz) and is of solid gold."

Hero
This looks like it could be a big movie. It's been out awhile and is a huge hit in Asia but has yet to hit the big screens here(although it is on DVD). I thought the movie looked very cool but recently have been reading the reviews for it. So far it is the best rated movie in years.(Rotten Tomatoes Review). I noticed it has Zhang Ziyi who most will notice from Crouching Tiger or the upcoming Memoirs of the Geisha(Spielberg is no longer directing this film, sigh). Asian martial arts movies can often be very corny. Its just different tastes. This may be the one that both continents enjoy.
This will open Friday I believe.

I wish my wedding could be like this!

check out the photo gallery

Its just Funny

The French won something!

Golfers dodging bullets

Was he on corn when he crashed?
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Collateral

I can't say I have always been the greatest fan of Michael Mann but Mann's Collateral succeedsas a good action movie. Using high definition video, he creates the most realistic vision of L. A.
that I have ever seen on screen. Stylistically, everything in the film is toned down to keep it as closely grounded in reality as possible. There is no slow motion, self conscious cinematography or indulgent set pieces. Mann reigns in all of these tricks to keep the audience wrapped in the story. Cruise and Foxx are exceptional here. Both deliver stand-out performances that are unique in their restraint. While both have ample opportunity to take their characters over the top, they don’t. Instead they keep with the whole tone of the film and what you do get is much more rewarding and compelling. Like Mann’s other films, he relies on the complexity of the characters to tell the story and not mindless action to fill in where the writing lacks(This can be good and bad as sometimes I get a craving for an explosion). Mann is not afraid to show you the quiet contemplative moments because he knows they will sharply contrast with the action when it comes. There is nothing overtly exceptional about the story or even the writing, although both are good. The real reward here is in the performances and the brilliant direction of Mann, who achieves even greater success with a more minimal approach.

Monday is Funday!

Ever finish the laundry and wish there was more? Me either, but just in case you do:
Laundry Fun!

Detergent served instead of schnapps

Another gross one, be warned

This practice has been happening around here. It seems to becoming more common nowadays. I for one think its absurd and the women should be arrested ) Just kidding but for some reason when I see these things it does irritate me. I'm not sure why. More nurse ins

Get this chick off the roads now!

Pong is back! We used to have pong and it was kinda bad

It's funny because they used glue

Silly Bird

Umm aquariass? Hmm

Yeaa! Tigger has been cleared!

Manpillow! Too Funny

Burning Bunnies and Tiny monkeys!

Just read this on Yahoo. Kinda funny unless you're the bunny then it sucks.

LONDON (Reuters) - A rabbit set alight by a bonfire at a British cricket club got its revenge when it ran burning into a hut and set it ablaze destroying costly equipment, the club said on Friday.
Members of Devizes cricket club in Wiltshire, western England, were burning dead branches when a rabbit caught up in the waste sped burning from the flames spreading a fire which destroyed lawnmowers and tools worth 60,000 pounds ($110,000).





Funny unless he's dead then it's sad.
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Another work week over. Another weekend begins!
I'll try to blog more but by the time I'm done with work and the gym it's often quite late. I usually spend the precious few hours hanging with friends. I gotta keep up my usual habits of going out to eat 4-5 times a week!

I'm loving my little muvo. Its a small mp3 player. I use it for audiobooks(currently listening to memoirs of the Geisha and a bunch of Learn to speak Thai cd's) Whats up with all the thai tones... Soo confused.
It also acts like a little portable hard drive which is handy, it plugs right in the computer without any cords. I know most people like I-pods but the problem is they are made by Apple and I'm not a fan of anything they make.


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Funny Videos of the Day


You gotta be my age and grew up in the US to get this one.

Alien with bunnies

Monty Python with legos

Staw Wars Tarantino style

Summer Pictures

I have a bunch of Sumnmer pics I never seem to have time to add to the site. Here's a few in no particular order. A couple of these are from my sister's recent New Orleans visit but I thought they were kinda interesting and decided to add them. Unlike myself, my sister has done a ton of travelling so hopefully she'll get me some good pics in the future.

Here I am looking like I'm drinking a beer.

Arr, here be two Grimmay pirate pics. Notice the fear in the hearts of
the poor lesser pirates as Grimmay demonstrates his peg leg jig.




Above is Sassy with what appears to be every dessert. I don't know why but
I am jelous every time I see this picture being the sweet hog I am.




Jaymie Doo in New Orleans.

I was on this gator yesterday floating in the water for hours. Its actually very fast once you get going.




yes its a shack on a river that has a redneck flag. Nice.


And yes here is a compeletely non related picture of Spider Man with the Hulk riding shotgun.

The gators love marshmellows.

Silly Pic Saturday

A couple of funny pics I took a couple from one of my favorite sites, whonose.










Poor Lance in France

Oh Roger

Roger Clemens ejected from a little league game:
Way to go Rocket

Poor Doggy:

LONDON (Reuters) - A police sniffer dog died of a suspected overdose while out hunting for drugs, British police said on Monday.

Todd, a 7-year-old Springer spaniel, had been looking for drugs in a field and car in Preston, northern England, when his handler noticed he was looking unwell.
He was taken to a vet and then rushed to an animal intensive care unit at Liverpool University, displaying symptoms of ingesting amphetamines, a Lancashire police spokeswoman said.
He died shortly afterwards.
The death was said to have devastated Todd's handler, Police Constable Roger Moore, his wife and two young children.
"He (Todd) lived with them and they would all go for walks with him -- he was their dog," Sergeant Peter Crane of Preston's dog unit told the Daily Mirror.
"He's going to be very difficult to replace, but police work is dangerous and unfortunately Todd has become a casualty."

Lava Lamp Music


Ewww

I truly am sorry and hope you were not hungry


Are you up for this? Make your mother proud!


Is this right? Church on the go?


Send that soon to be bride this e-card!

August

I love this little kitty(not my pic)

Newspaper guy took some pics while we were playing ball recently. Here we have
Joel trying to block me. I can't quite remember but I am sure the shot went in.


Tubby wants cookie! (yes he does beg like this)





He knows better than to take Grimmay's food.


And settles for a Twizler

No More Nomar

One of Boston's greatest players ever was traded on Saturday. Nomar represented everything that was good and pure in baseball. He was a class act that will difficult to replace. He did however harbor a major resentment towards Boston after he was almost traded for Arod. I think he needed to go just for the fact that he is way overpaid and a major injury concern. Here are some snippets from the paper:

"We just traded away Mr. Boston, a guy that meant so much to the city, and just like that, he's gone," Johnny Damon said.

Garciaparra, who was the 1997 American League Rookie of the Year, never made it to the World Series with the Sox. But no one suggested it was for a lack of effort. If anything, Garciaparra was criticized for trying so hard that his habits seemed to border on compulsive, from his quirky batting routine to his highly regimented pregame routines and a wide array of superstitions. Yet he insisted to the end that he relished his relationship with the Sox, which began when they selected him in the first round of the 1994 draft out of Georgia Tech.

"They can take the shirt off my back, but they can't take away the memories I got," he said. "They can't take away the standing ovation that I got when I came back this season when I walked up to the plate. Or the standing ovation I got when I hit the grand slam this year. Or when I hit three home runs on my birthday [in 2002]. Every time I stepped up to the plate, the fans cheered for me. When I went deep in the hole to make a play, they'll never be able to take away that. What it's meant to me, they all know that every single day I went out there and I was proud to put that uniform on and what it represented."

"I didn't think it would happen," Pedro Martinez said. "But if he's going to be happy, I'm happy for him. If it's going to work out OK for the team, it's going to be OK. It's always sad to see a guy, a superstar, a gentleman, leave like that, especially knowing that me and him and [Tim Wakefield] were probably the last old goats to survive.

"For some reason, I just feel like Nomar's part of the tradition in Boston," Martinez said. "I'm so used to seeing `Nomah!' and hearing the people go, `Nomah!' and No. 5 all over everybody's back. For some reason, I just framed him as a Bostonian, as part of the team. I think a lot of people are going to be sad in Boston."
Garciaparra's message to his teammates: "Goodbye, I love them, I miss them, good luck, and hopefully we see them in the World Series."
Then, after shaking hands with every reporter before him, he headed for Chicago. No. 5 was gone.




He was the face of the Red Sox, a superstar in the mold of the legendary Ted Williams whose indelible achievements will endure in the memories of generations of New Englanders. And now he is gone.