FMC 3.0

Uh, I had fun, from what I remember. The drive down sucked, but I had a lot to drink to make up for it. The drive back was fairly pleasant. Well, as pleasant as I81 and I66 can be. The weekend can be summed up with the three B’s - Birthday, Basketball, Booze.

Before I left, I got some nifty gifts - a doggie bank from Sydney (which has been quite helpful) and an Albert Einstein Action Figure. I crap you not. I’ll get pictures of it, because it’s pretty priceless.

However, there is something infinitely more important upon us. Not only is it March Madness, it’s also time for this year’s Mueller Tournament. That’s right, the bracket of hotties has returned. I’m a tad dubious of some of these seedings - ScarJo a 13? Katherine Heigl a 16? While Britney Spears is still a 6 (and even on there at all?) It doesn’t seem fair.

To make sure all angles are covered, I’m going to do this two ways - first off of gut instinct with who I know and without looking at the pictures. Then I’ll go through and actually compare. I’ll post both result sets here for you, and invite you all to do so in the comments.

Oh yeah, the link:

http://www.muellertourney.com/tournament.asp

(ok, I added this later.)

So I went through as I promised - one on a breeze through gut instinct, and once actually taking time and evaluating pictures. I made a composite of each, and pointed out the absolutely killer decisions that had to be made (especially some of the early ones.)

So here’s the gut version: (this is a thumb. Click for large full size)

Winner:
Keira Knightley

The Final Four:

Scarlett Johansson
Kiera Knightley
Natalie Portman
Rachel McAdams

And the thinking version: (same deal)

Winner:
Keira Knightley

The Final Four:
Catherine Bell
Keira Knightley
Rachel McAdams
Scarlett Johansson

So in the end, not very different. Some of the early battles changed, but the eventual outcome remained the same.

Anyway, I look forward to the other outcomes, cause, well, it’s just fun.

So Odyssey is over. At least here in DE. The tournament went well, a few glitches to fix for next year, but on the whole the work we put into it really paid off. 23 Teams going to World Finals in May, which is a new record. Hopefully by the end of the week I’ll know if my official invite is on the way.

So since the tournament has been over for more then a week, why did it take me so long to post? Mostly because I’ve not yet returned to any semblance of normalcy. Last week was busy with follow up stuff to the tournament, and the usual work schedule. Friday I finally had an opportunity to sleep in, which I did. Then I ran Mousse up to the vet for some GI checkout stuff (Don’t worry, he’s probably gonna be fine.) After that, I spent all day involved in a game I downloaded from GameTap, Beyond Good and Evil. It’s strange, it’s not my normal type of game, but I find myself really enjoying it. It’s original a console game that got ported, and you can probably find it cheap in the remainder bins for your PS2s and Xbox’s. If you happen across it, pick it up.

Saturday was the Unofficial Birthday. Since I’m gonna be away for my birthday next weekend we (the ‘rents, Liz, and Sydney) went down to Rehoboth for lunch. It was a beautiful day, and getting back to the ocean felt really nice. Rehoboth Avenue had changed a bunch since last I was down there, and that place is going to be pretty nice once the season starts.

Once back in Dover, I was home all of 45 minutes before hopping into Nighthawk (which is well over 46K by now) and heading north to Brandywine. That’s right, I did nearly the entire length of the state in a day. Gotta love small little Delaware. I met Mikey for dinner and to see 300.

300 is not for the faint of heart, by any stretch. It’s graphically (and sometimes beautifully) violent. I mean, it would have to be, since the Battle of Thermypolae is still used as an example in military trainings of how to overcome a vastly larger force. I’ve heard the comparison of The Matrix meets Gladiator. I’m not sure how accurate that is, as the technology they used (and they used a shit ton of it) wasn’t as in your face as it was in the Matrix - it was just used to enhance what was going on. How they pulled off such an epic proportion in front of a green screen, it left me guessing. Anyway, if blood and gore don’t bother you (well, blood, gore, beheadings, dismemberment, and boobies) go see this movie.

The only people I’ve heard nay say it are people that haven’t seen it are those that just read the reviews. Well, I don’t trust many movie reviewers. They want everything wrapped into one nice tidy package, and to be balanced. Well, 300 isn’t that movie. 300 is simply proof that you can make a visually amazing movie without stepping outside a studio. It’s the natural progression of Sin City - that was proof that you can make a comic book movie and make it feel like a comic book. 300 is proof that you can make a living, realistic world out of anything. No, it’s not gonna win Best Picture. It won’t get any actor nods either. But just you wait till the S/T and the visual awards get announced. So to the critics - get off your high horse and kiss our asses. We plebeians that go to the movies will enjoy the eyegasm and be entertained.

Oh, and in a somewhat similar vain, Ovid can blow it out his ass, too.