Month: September 2005

Serenity: A must see movie

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Serenity

5 Stars

Just incase you forgot, Serenity opened today. Anne Marie and I went to an early afternoon showing, because we just couldn’t wait. We are both big fans of the show, Firefly, and have been looking forward to the movie for quite a while.

In a word… WOW! It was awesome! Even though I was excited to see Serenity, I went in thinking that it may suck. It was originally scheduled for a May release and was pushed back to September 30th, which is usually a bad sign. But, the movie was great.

All of the original cast members signed on for the movie. There was talk a while back the Ron Glass, better known as Shepherd Book, wasn’t going to be in the film. But, he was there along with everyone else. Although he did have a much smaller role than I would have liked.

I think they did an excellent job with the writing and the story. Everything from the humor to the character interactions were done in the flavor of the original show. That being said, I think Serenity will be just as enjoyable for someone who never saw Firefly.

Whether you are a long time fan, or a newcomer to the story, Serenity is a must see.

Snow on Fillmore Street

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Snow on Fillmore, San Francisco
©2005 Chronicle/Mike Kepka

Today, 200 tons of snow was dumped onto Fillmore Street here in San Franciso in order to make a ski jump. Thousands of people attended the event. Why wasn’t I there? Why didn’t anyone tell me about this? It seems like I always find out about cool things like this just after they happen.

Anyway, there is an article (and gallery) over at SFGate.com that gives all the details. There is a very interesting quote from San Francisco police Capt. Kevin Dillon:

“At this point our biggest concern is getting medical attention to the people who are suffering from the heat.”

Umm… it was in the high 70’s today. I think this statement proves my point… San Franciscans are wimps!

[ Found via Luxomedia ]

War of the Worlds Book Covers

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War of the Worlds Book Covers

I’m sure everyone is familiar with the Steven Spielberg / Tom Cruise movie, The War of the Worlds, that came out earlier this year. But not everyone knows that it was originally a book, published more than 100 years ago, and has been continuously in print ever since.

Chez Zeus has put together an awesome collection of War of the Worlds book covers from around the world, spanning the entire run of the book. The covers range from the cool, to the down-right ridiculous. Thanks go out to Chez for compiling them.

Found via Binary Bonsai

Loonatics Unleashed?

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Loonytoons?

Are these the faces of tomorrow? What happened to that wascally wabbit that I grew up with? I’ve never seen an episode, but I don’t think I like the new Loonytoons… aka Loonatics Unleashed. Although, as Amanda Congdon of Rocket Boom points out… they are much more aerodynamic now.

Sunday at Fort Funston

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Blanket at Fort Funston
©2005 Paul Burd. All Rights Reserved.

I don’t mind working weekends much, if it’s nasty outside, but I had to work most of this past weekend, and it was simply beautiful outside. I had to get out for at least a little while. So, on Sunday afternoon, anne marie, emmitt, and I went out for a little relaxation in the sun at Fort Funston. It was awesome! It was so nice to get away from my desk for a few hours.

Flightplan

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Jodie Foster: Flight Plan

2.5 Stars

Last night we saw Flightplan. I wanted to see this even though I thought the trailer looked like it had a good chance of being really stupid. I really like Jodie Foster, and she usually makes good choices in the movies she does, so I was willing to take a chance on there being more to the story than what we were seeing in the trailer.

Like most movies, I would say it was just OK… nothing great. It had some moments that I thought were very interesting, but overall I thought the story required too many things to go just right, in order for events to unfold in the way that they did. It seemed a little far-fetched to me. I don’t want to say anymore, or I’ll give something away.

I also bumped my rating up just a bit because the movie did manage to keep me guessing for a while, trying to determine the real situation.

hit ‘esc’ to auto-complete words

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Hit esc to auto-complete words

I discovered a nifty little trick today. I’ve tested this in MarsEdit, mail and text edit, under 10.4 Tiger, but I don’t know what other apps it works with, or if it works in previous versions of OS X.

If you are typing something and you hit the ‘escape’ (esc) key midway through a word, a drop-down list will appear giving you all the possible options to complete the word. that’s just awesome. If I don’t know how to spell something, I usually just type it wrong, in order to access the other possible spellings through right-clicking the misspelled word. Now I can save a step.

Jack in the Box: Ciabatta Breakfast

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Jack in the Box Ciabatta Breakfast Sandwhich

As you probably already know, from past postings, I’m a fan of both Jack in the Box, and breakfast sandwiches. Recently, JB introduced a new breakfast sandwich – featuring two eggs, Black Forest ham, American cheese, bacon and hollandaise on a ciabatta roll. Although I’m pretty happy with my little old Breakfast Jack, I had to at least give it a try. I did so this morning.

I would have to say, it was not great. Not terrible, but not great. My biggest complaint is with the “hollandaise sauce”. It tasted more like plain mayonnaise to me (yuck). I also thought it was a bit heavy on the meat, although some may like it that way. If you like a hearty breakfast sandwich, that will be with you all day, than this one is probably for you. I think I’ll stick with my Breakfast Jack.