The return of Superman. I went and saw this just after seeing that other hit movie. I really enjoyed this film and give it a 4/5.

Singer did a great job bringing Superman back to the pesent. He tied into the old movie series and mentioned Gotham in it, which might be a tie into the other big DC comic hero - Batman.  If I remember correctly, this Superman movie, and the Batman Begins movie that came out last year, were actually supposed to be a movie called Batman vs. Superman - but I’m glad they went this route. Maybe they’re going to have a few more movies and build up both characters so they can run into a situation where Superman and Batman meet?! Who knows. All I can say is I’m glad they decided to continue the Superman movies.

Lex is a really bad, bad man. Kevin Spacey does an excellent job playing him. I hope he stays on for more movies … if they make more. The new Superman is excellent and looks eerily like Christopher Reeves. I think they did an excellent job of staying true to the old characters, while bringing the story into the new millenium.

What did I learn in this movie? Superman is strong. Apparently he can lift really heavy things. Also, Jimmy has a wicked camera, that I hope the planet paid for - ’cause damn, that’s not fair.

Good movie, though. I’ve heard the 3D experience isn’t worth the time, but this was a lot of fun in the theatre.

Finally had the opportunity to go and see the second installment of Pirates of the Carribean, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I’d give that a solid 4/5.

The same characters are back, and they build off the first movie with some excellent new plots. By the end of this film, you’re left with more questions than answers, in contrast to the first movie, which had a nice ending. This movie was quite a bit of fun, but quite a bit of the logistics will be settled in the third book. As a result, how good this movie is somewhat depends on the 3rd. Using my imagination, though, I think they have and excellent story to tell.

As with the first film, Johnny Depp is awesome as Jack Sparrow. The other characters go through some interesting character developments, and the new characters added are pretty interesting too. I think they deserve credit for evolving the plot as far as it’s gone. It’s very original.

The movie is loaded with humour - with a packed theatre, there was a lot of laughing, and a pretty good time.

I’d say this movie is worth paying the ridiculous theatre prices to go see. And hey, while you’re being robbed blind, might as well buy some gold plated popcorn. That’s gotta be gold, right? At 12$ for a large popcorn and coke, I’d hope it’s at least a precious metal that’s sprinkled on there.

Two days ago, in Calgary, gas prices rose 6 cents to more than $1.15 / Litre. When I fill up, the “$” is going up much faster than the “L”. Boo!

And some places pay much more. Just browse around; it’s totally ridiculous. I don’t know why. They blame the whole Lebanon-Israel thing. They blame the “war” on Iraq. They say that there’s some refinery in the US that’s down.

Bull.

Now, open the Business section of the newspaper. Better yet, check out the financials for Exxon and Shell yourself. Quarterly reports are in today! Exxon projects 10.3 Billion dollars this Quarter. That’s not revenue, folks, that’s income. After expenses. That’s pocketed money, either in equity or back into the company. Shell says they made 7.3 Billion.

And if that isn’t enough, check out the 2005 annuals. Net Income after taxes for Exxon? 36.1 Billion. Shell? 26.2 Billion. Katrina must have really hurt.

I’m no business guru. I don’t know a thing about Oil & Gas. Maybe somebody, somewhere, will tell me about how I don’t understand the economics of it all. We’ve all seen the little bar graph on the pump. Who am I to say?

I only know 2 facts. Every month I put about 10% of my net income into a little box at a gas station. And every quarter, the owners of that box pocket 10 billion dollars.

WTF

And these are funny:

Narnia rap

Awesome Poster

It was a dark and stormy night …

Well, okay, so I probably don’t have a future as a novelist - you’d best stick with the pro’s. I finished this book in 3 days - typical to most Crichton books, it’s really well written and keeps you interested from start to finish. The old cliche of “I couldn’t put it down” comes to mind.

This book is different from his others in that he presents quite a bit of environmental information wrapped up in a complex conspiracy thriller. While people are busy saving the world, Crichton does a great job of pointing out scientific data to back his point to the masses: Calm down. Everyone is constantly freaking out about something, and really there’s no need to - it doesn’t help anything. He’s not standing up to say that we shouldn’t take care of our environment - of course we should. The book is very much on board with environmental efforts, sustainable living, renewable energy sources, etc. But he’s saying that while it’s great to learn more about being mindful of the environment, we typically do much more damage trying to control it. Not to mention that so many of us really don’t have any real information backing our opinions.

At the end of the day, there’s not much we can do to keep the environment at any particular state. And that’s pretty easy to explain as it’s a complex, ever-changing, evolving ecosystem. To say that we’re going to just keep it at any state that we determine is “right” is just arrogance. Personally, I think minimizing our impact is a much better use of our time. I can understand that it must be difficult to motivate the masses into action, so treating the environment as a crisis probably does more good than harm - so long as that energy is focused on good things. The danger to motivating the masses this way is that if you push that button too many times, people will just become apathetic to it all. The environmental corporations really owe it to us all to provide an accurate depiction of the state of affairs, which doesn’t seem to happening. They are still corporations, trying to make money whatever way they can - and I think therein lies the problem. Crichton does a good job of hilighting this problem through this book.

I am very much an environmentally conscious individual, and like to think that I do what I can to keep my impact on the planet as low as possible. I think that’s a good thing to do, and that level of sense isn’t what Crichton is talking about being a problem in this book.  That’s not to say we should stop caring about our impact as a race, but it does mean we probably shouldn’t freak out as much as we do.

Anyway, I won’t get into the entire book, but suffice it to say that it’s an excellent read for both the perspective it presents on taking care of the environment, and the thriller of a story that surrounds Crichton’s data.

Craig found this site the other day, and it’s full of hilarious old articles from popular mechanics - from the 40s and 30s.  Worth wasting some time at, for sure.  For example, check this out … or even this one.  I wonder if society will look back on us in 50-60 years and think the same thing?

If rain was actually a collective consciousness, and each droplet represented a “rain person” and that collective wanted to attack my place of business, I think it could go a little something like this:

First would come the front lines. These soldiers would be coming from high altitude and at high speed in the form of ice or hail. A significant force would be able to keep people from leaving the office, potentially damage property and vehicles, and after enough time, they would be able to block the sewers with ice and slush.

Phase 2 of the attack would be a force of rain people, who would melt some of the previous force, and push the ice/slush to the drains.

Phase 3 would be a force of water, which would overflow the sewers and drains.

Phase 4 would be an infiltration of the office, with the main goal of covering the floor spaces, overflowing the upper and lower floors.

Phase 5 would be the final attack force - flooding the critical infrastructure (server room) from the ceilings, and from the floors. At this point over 2 inches of water would be in the office, the ceiling tiles would fall in due to the weight, and the building would be evacuated, leaving the building free to the rain people.