I’ll try to keep the internal narrative to a minimum…

As the presumed recipient of a little recent advice about some unlooked for free time, I am trying to push forward and find some lemonade or maybe even a decent margarita.

Slightly related sidebar: There are a surprising number of categories on this blog about my somewhat erratic posting schedule

In my initial attempt to use up some of this free time, and the completion of the annual WRN never-in-one-place rendezvous — details as they are scrubbed free of any information that might out anyone’s jealously guarded cover IDs and memories float up from the blur of activity, allow me to describe the preview screening I saw last night.

A friend managed to get tickets to a preview screening of Monsters vs. Aliens (MvA) last night and agreed to share them with me if I would go sit in line so we could get decent seats. First off, I have to say the new polarized 3D glasses strike me as much better than the older options. Secondly, it’s been a long time since I have seen another 3D movie so the only thing I remember about them (and this may be wrong) was that the 3D experience was much more specific. Namely, that only certain items at certain times were really presented in 3D. With those caveats in place, I have to say that the 3D in this movie really impressed me. It was much more pervasive than I expected and it was done quite well.

Unrelated sidebar: I just watched the “Ultimate Game” episode of Dollhouse while procrastinating during the writing of this post and I was scared to realize that we already have a “Joss Whedon” tag and “Hunting the Ultimate Game”

Overall, I liked this movie. I am pretty much the target audience for the film. It has an inordinate amount of San Francisco scenes and includes voice acting from Will Arnett and Stephen Colbert, two of my favorite actors/comedians. I will admit that the film may be a little to California-centric. Set in Modesto and San Francisco with prominent mentions of the new Peoria, a.k.a Fresno, it really plays to those roots. It does feature a line that I think may well replace “by Grabthar’s Hammer” in my personal lexicon for at least the next six months but I am trying my hardest to refrain from uttering it for at least another week.

My largest annoyance stemmed from the fact that this is a family movie. A four-year-old kid behind spent about fifteen minutes of the movie throwing popcorn at me. That hindered my enjoyment and replaced the fact that it was pretty fun to sit through the first few minutes of the movie where they show-off the 3D magic and the kids gasp as asteroids and comets come ever closer.

The movie doesn’t quite approach the Pixar magic where every scene has some little hidden jewel but instead it feels like the dialogue tries to fill that role and almost every line is a reference to some other cultural moment — E.T., Godzilla, Arrested Development, possibly Peter Gunn — and the possibility for dissecting the dialogue and looking for other little buried treasure references to places in the Bay Area makes me far more likely to go see this movie again than I might expect.

To summarize, go see this movie if you want to see the sci-fi, kid-friendly version of Superbad. In fact, that is a good relation to my feelings for this movie. It has flaws; I wouldn’t give it more than 3 out of 5 stars but yet I will end up seeing it again because there are some superb moments that let the rest of the movie float by on the overall sense of fun and mischief. Also, I am still dying a little bit on the inside from trying not to ruin all of the one-liners while I still can.

As most everyone has noticed Fulsome has (I can only assume from his lack of presence) reclused himself to some sort of cave where robots and nanomachines keep him in a state where he has free time in only 15 second intervals.

Unfortunately, this has led to him not ever posting … ever.

So in an attempt to at least to get the occasional update, I’m thinking we’re going to get him involved in some microblogging.  The plan right now is to get him setup with a Twitter account and then modify the little quote above to be ‘Dispatches from Fulsome’ or some such nonsense.  Then Fulsome will be able to update with the observations he’s so well known for.

I know it’s not ideal as I don’t think pictures of burritos will fit in the space except if they’re very tiny[Ed. note, the burrito or the picture ... your choice].  Still, we’ve got to try anything to get him to update something.  I mean, it’s like he doesn’t even know we exist anymore.

I’ll be honest and say that I doubt he’s going to actually update it very much.  Don’t worry though, I’ve already thought of that though.  The plan is that since I’ll create the Twitter account he’s going to be using, I can just make up crap and pretend it’s from him.  Everyone’s happy!

Anyway, that’s it for now.  I’ve got to head back and play some more Bionic Commando: Rearmed (or keep working on getting the latest version of the software set for release … I hate configuring package installers!).

They had gotten lost in one of those pesky tubes. Sorry about that…

I will try and think of something worthwhile to tell you but I first wanted to reassure Chuckles and dEn that the FBI hasn’t forgotten about their pet issue…

While performing actual work today, I stumbled across some interesting information on a number of movies that Warner Brothers is either working on or shelving. (more…)

Martin Heidegger states this idea nicely: “Profound boredom, drifting here and there in the abysses of our existence like a muffling fog, removes all things and men and oneself along with it into a remarkable indifference. This boredom reveals being as a whole.”

Wikipedia is not an acceptable primary source. Yes, this means that I am still gathering information. I did some work and have since realized that I need to read a few books before I can accurately comment on Martin Heidegger’s complex political situation, even the brief version that was given to me as an introduction to Heidegger’s existentialism.

In addition to certain unnamed projects to which I will only refer cryptically, I am eagerly looking forward to any news about the film production of World War Z. The book was amazing and awesome and so many other words and now that I have heard that the script is being written by Mr. Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski, I am in full on pants-checking anticipatory mode.

The Zombie Survival Guide was really damn neat and thoroughly consistent in ways that I enjoy when reading books or watching movies. World War Z kept that consistency and tossed in a heaping helping of emotion and tension. It was sweeter than a pile of ponies ridden by baby pandas, but if sweet meant super rad and not like the kind of sweet that seems to have infected 3 Bulls of late.

Look, we seem to be getting this a lot lately. Where is Fulsome? I have no clue. I sent Chuckles on a recon mission this past weekend to ascertain his exact location.

So far, all I’ve heard back is that Chuckles wants to go see Bloodrayne when it comes out.

Where is Fulsome and why has he quit posting? Some have theorized a girlfriend, for others it’s work. Some even believe it had something to do with getting my TiVo delivered.

I don’t really have an answer to this question. The only thing I can really offer is that thanks to my TiVo, I don’t really care anymore. Plus, that Bloodrayne … I think Chuckles may be right when he claims that this could be the “best movie ever.”

Directed by the genious who brought us House of the Dead and Alone In the Dark and with cast members like Michael Madsen, Ben Kingsley, and most importantly, Billy Zane, there’s no way this movie could disappoint.

UPDATE from Fulsome: this is my toy! I’ll post when I want, bwahaha