Remake Time

A Tale of Two Sisters is one of my favorite films. I have been keeping tabs on the inevitible American remake. It looks like this will be released soon. It is odd that in the last few years of American remaking Asian horror films that two of the biggest films, The Eye and A Tale of Two Sisters took so long. The Eye looks terrible. Jessical Alba cannot act so the chances of that film being any good are not very high. The original movie was a well made Chinese film. It was flawed but still scary.

I do not recognize the cast of A Tale of Two Sisters. The director is new but the prodicers have made some bad films. The original Korean film was one of the higher grossing films there for awhile until the Host. The Korean film was brilliant yet flawed at the same time. It is the scariest film I ever saw but also one of the more confusing films.

This is a chance to make one of the greatest films of all time.

A couple of things

Don't watch this while eating like I did!

Also my web host is doing some site maintenence so you know what that means....I may be down a bit.

Funnies

Can you imagine being arrested like this?

Way to go Nick!

Play chess to win!

video

This looks fake but I still found it funny.

http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing

http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/player?aff=&partner=&campaign=&channel=79517&video=79385

http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/player?aff=&partner=&campaign=&channel=79517&video=79378

This parking lot looks good

You've got to be pretty confused to park on a pond.
Who knows, perhaps if I saw what appeared to be a nice open parking lot I too would park there. But a pond? this is the good ole USa so she'll probably sue someone as there is always someone who can be sued.

How to Travel on a Weak Dollar

Here is a short article that appeared on Yahoo today.
I'm cheap so have of course been to a few of these places.
I'm also looking into a Hungary trip very soon.
Peru is also on my list of must see/cheap places.

Forget about traditional Europe.

Chinese Jade Restaurant

The Chinese Jade Restaurant is my new favaorite restaraunt. Walter's in Portland used to own that title but has recently been terrible my last four trips. The Chinese Jade Restaurant is accross the street from Moody's diner. This is a nice strategic spot as the wait times for Moodys are terrible. At first glance this appears to be your standard buffet. What sets this apart is the quality of the food. Every dish is delicious. Usually buffets are quite bad as far as food quality is concerned. I consider myself a bit of a buffet connoisseur.

If you're hungry and on the way to Camden, check it out.

Friday Nights Lights

If you have never seen Friday Night Lights here is the pilot:
This is also on the NBC website.

FNL

Mainers in the UFC

We normally have a poker/UFC night on Saturdays once a month. UFC is slowly getting more popular. Last night was big because another Mainer, Marcus Davis won a big fight. He has a couple of Gyms in Maine where atleast five of his students have turned pro.

This is the second or third Mainer I have seen in these UFC fights this year. Tim Sylvia lost his heavyweight title in 2007. What is interesting is that if you do a Maine Wikipedia search these fighters are starting to show up next to the better known Mainers like Patrick Dempsey and Liv Tyler.

Maine Housing

So I am trying to figure out what is going on with Maine's housing market. I want to buy a house. I'm not looking for something too fancy, just a pool, game room, room enough for my bigscreen TV with deafening speakers, close to some good trails and walking distance to work.

Seriously though, what is going on with Maine? Incomes are low here yet housing prices are high. To add to this, taxes are even worse. I've been renting forever while I see people I know all around me who have no business buying a home do just that. They then fade away in essence as they are soo cash strapped by their mortgage they cannot do anything. I'm not sure that is the American dream. That being said if I had a kid I too would want him/her to grow up in a nice house and go to a nice school. I can't say I wouldn't do the same thing. That's what I had and that's what my kid should have.

We do not live in a risk free society. If you buy a house and you lose your job or are unable to make payments then you should lose that home or atleast downgrade to renting. That sounds harsh but the world is harsh. I guess I am getting a little annoyed with the government bailing people out who cannot pay their loans they had no business taking out in the first place. In essence I am paying for people to live much better than I do. It looks like the government is going to keep doing this as Bush just proposed 150 billion in aid for people with subprime mortgages. 150 billion! This is for people who should be losing their homes. I saw this coming years ago, I planned for it and patiently waited for the inevitible home foreclosures. It had to happen and it is about to happen in a big way. I don't think I should have to pay so these people can keep their homes and in essence live better than I do.

I do feel for these people and know many of them. I don't want to come off as harsh or not overly sympathetic here. From my point of view however this is wrong. I had two roomates for four years in Portland. I was saving up money to buy a home. What of course occured was that the property values on the East and West coasts of the US skyrocketed. Personally I am still amazed by this. Now I am going to have to pay so that the people who took no fiscal responsibility can continue living in their protected consequence free worlds while the responsible people keep renting and ponder how they will ever afford a home. I'm confused.
I guess I could move to Missouri and buy a house outright with no loans as the mid US states are not over priced yet.

I didn't mean to ramble like this. My original intent was to point to a nice local blog who knows a lot more than I do and writes much better. She is in a similar situation to me and lives in or near Portland. I am just starting to read this. I like the following quote:

Maine is very good at subsidizing the fiscally irresponsible at the expense of tax payers. Ayuh. (Yes I know and agree that there are truly helpless people that need help. But people defaulting on a mortgage shouldn't be treated like people with a disability.)

http://mainebubble.blogspot.com/

Here is another good quote:

No, dear, arguing that people should face consequences of their own making isn't the same as being an apologist for the thugs that sold the loans. The borrowers had to read the fine print and they signed their names. I'm just a working class slob and know enough to not sign something I don't understand, and not borrow more than I can afford, and not gamble, and not hope for the best when it involves my life savings. I grew up in a bad neighborhood in New York City and have earned everything I have today. Believe me, I wanted to "own" a house just as much as everyone else, but I sucked it up, lived within my means, lived in a crappy neighborhood in South Portland for a while to build my savings (but moved when my landlord put my house on the market) and do what it takes to live within my means.

Lucky likes Chile!!

I am trying Blogger's video hosting.

Cranberry Monster, Kimmay in Wii Form

Books and some TV

Books

I love to read or listen to books. Last night I was trying to figure out how many books I was in the middle of.I have 5-6 regular books lying around.

Some of these I am quite far into and others not soo much.I have a book on my PC I listen to when I surf the net sometimes. I have a book I burned to CD I listen to in the car sometimes. I then have 5-6 books on my MP3 player that I rotate. These are listened to if I walk to work or go to the gym.

I have the Historiam which I just started. I really wanted to get this book when it came out but never finished it. I'll wait for a nice dark winter night. I'll curl up next to my heater which can be a substitute for a fireplace and eat a box of cookies while I read. Why cookies? Cookies make everything better.

I have a book on Ludwig II and Nicholas II neither of which I finished. Ludwig was awesomely Crazy. He was into werewolves, opera, and built that castle in Germany that was one of the 7 wonders of the world finalists.Nicholas is just as interesting. He was manipulated by Rasputin and responsible for Bloody Sunday in 1905.

Live fast Die Young is a book about James Dean. I wrote about that before and the author has commented on this blog.

I have an old Feist book called the Magician's Apprentice. This was a great book that I am almost done with. I read most of this on a plane ride from Prague but then put it away.

I am reading a few travel books. Anything from Eyewitness I normally buy right away. I have 18 of those books so far compared to 10 from lonely Planet.

I like the American Travel Writing series that is printed every year. I also like the Lonely Planet Blue Books that come out every year. Last night I read 100 pages of travel stories. The best was about a couple who hiked France from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea. That is a route I would like to walk someday.

I have an audiobook on mt computer called No Water for Elephants or something like that. So far this is a great book.

I have the Diamond Age on CD in my car.

On my MP3 player I have a few stories. Right now I am in the middle of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, King Dork, Paladan of Souls(excellent series), The Mystery of Edmund Drood, and I just finished the King of lies (A mystery).
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Anyways what were the best books this past year? At the moment I am probably forgetting a few but A Dirty Job was the best followed by Team of Rivals and Manhunt.

I need to read more. I watch way to many DVD's. I just finished the Wire Season 4. Perhaps I'll start on Supernatural but then again I need to finish the new Heroes and Prison Break episodes. Perhaps I'll get back into Friday Night Lights or Burn Notice.
Thanks for not carrying any HBO shows Amazon Unbox. I refuse to use I-Tunes in my lifelong commitment to ban anything Apple related so I guess that means I will have to wait for DVD.
IS the Wire that good? Well it even beat out the critic favorite Battlestar according to Metacritic. Personally I love the Wire but it is overrated a bit.

Cookies also make TV better FYI.

Top 25 Sci Fi

Ew.Com has their list of the top 25 sci fi of the last 25 years.
This is a good list. I like how they even threw in V the mini series. I remember when this came out everyone was talking about it. You could not escape V as all the magazines and even news programs were talking about it. It was a huge event. In the last 25 years it has all but vanished. I rented it a couple of years back and was surprised that it has not aged too badly.

The Matrix at number 1 and Battlestar at number two makes sense. I never liked Brazil so I do disagree with that choice. I also liked Blade Runner but never loved it. Anyways enough of me babbling, here's the list.

Top 25 Sci-Fi of the last 25 years.

Great Wall Slide

Yes I realize I was going really slow down the Wall. I did not want to drop the camera. My video was not all that good. Below is a good video with someone who decided to go full speed. Oddly no guards yelled at him which is what they did to me whenever I got any speed.

Slide!