FMC 3.0

I so called how to stop the bomb 2 months ago. I just don’t remember if I let anyone know my prediction. Good ending though. Nice wrap-up for the story line, even if the body count was a tad high. (Or there was that one rather predictable part.)

Now, the start of Volume Two - I don’t think anyone saw that coming.

Lots of crap to cover, so I’m just gonna get it over with:

• Nighthawk cleared 53k the other day. With a Dover to Newark to BWI run tomorrow, and that run back Sunday, that’s not gonna stay still long.
• I saw Fracture over the weekend. It was a pretty good mess with your head kind of movie. Anthony Hopkins is so great as the creepy, cold, and calculating killer. Pretty ingenious plot to kill someone too, and he almost got away with it. The inclusion of former Bond girl Rosamund Pike didn’t hurt either. If you’re into crime dramas that don’t end up being 2 hours of CSI or Law and Order, give this one a look see.
• I also saw Spider-Man 3 with Mikey and MindlessMuse Saturday night. Having never been into the comic book, I have no idea how far from canon it was (I can only imagine astronomical.) When it came to comic book movies, this series set the bar for how nifty they could be without getting goofy. That, and I generally trust Sam Raimi to make a movie. As my compatriots will tell you, I left the theater with severely mixed emotions on this one. The effects were sweet, as they always are. The story wasn’t half bad. My biggest problems were the fact that the Sandman thing was completely unresolved, and Emo Spidey. Now, the alien thing supposedly increases reaction times, strength, and aggression… so Tobey goes dancing down the street? It was way out there. Maybe I’m drawing too many parallels to the effect Red Kryptonite has on Superman, but Clark Kent wouldn’t go dancing down the street on the stuff. At least the movie had Bruce Campbell to save it. And probably the best Stan Lee cameo of any of the Marvel movies (the 4 of us in the audience that got it.) Oh well, could have been better. Could have been worse too - they could have just had another 10 minutes of Mary Jane bawling her eyes out.
• So at the end of SM3, I hear this chick crying in the row behind us. I just assumed she was being facetious, cause I didn’t think anyone would have that reaction (other than tears of joy it was over.) I was informed on the way to the car that she was earnestly bawling at the movie. It wasn’t that depressing. Someone’s got to die in a superhero movie. After all, that is one definition of Hero. I told Mikey later in the car that had I known they were actual tears, I woulda turned around and said to the kid “Don’t cry Emo Kid, it’s just fiction.” Alas, another missed opportunity to cheer someone up.
• So World Finals looms. I’m looking forward to it as always. However I got a new job for this one - announcer at the Float and Banner parade. Basically its gonna be me and mic in an arena that seats 15000 people (it won’t be that full) introducing teams and then winners. While I overcame stage fright a long time ago, that’s a awfully big stage. At least I can say I played an arena.
• So Heroes ends tonight. At least the first season. I don’t even want to speculate on what they have in store. I just don’t know how they’re going to cram it all into 42 minutes. I think the downside is that we’ve seen the future if Sylar goes off - but not what happens if they do stop him. Maybe that’s for later seasons. And since Heroes and Deal or No Deal are the only shows anyone is watching on NBC, I’m sure there’ll be lots of Heroes next season.
• The other show that’s going to have an interesting finale is the Sopranos. I actually have a prediction for that one. I think I’ll write that up, and time delay it for posting right after the finale airs. Then we’ll see how right I was.
• The only other show to comment on is Smallville. After a lackluster soap opera wanna be season, they ended well. They’ve completely jacked up the origin of J’onn J’onz and Bizzaro (at least I think that’s what they’re trying to do there) but there were enough surprises to keep you guessing. Kept me riveted at 2:30 when I should have been sleeping.

I do believe that’s all there is to cover. For now. I doubt I’ll get a chance to post from MSU, so you’ll just have to wait for the after-Worlds report.

OK, you knew this was coming. I can’t help but comment on the passing of Jerry Falwell. My comment is simply this: Good Riddance.

He was the kind of guy that gave the Religious Right a bad image to liberals like me. Most of my distaste for religion, and what it stands for, comes from hate mongers like Falwell unable to shut up. Believe it or not, I do have friends that are very religious, and they’re good people. They just get zealots and gas bags to speak for them, and the entire group looks bad. It’s the same as having Bush speak for Americans (we’re not all bad) or Hitler for the Germans (not all of them supported what he did in WWII.)

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. So the world is down one homophobic, sexist, racist anti-Semite. How can this be seen as a bad thing? He can no longer pollute our culture with his hate speech shrouded as gospel. I realize the quote in the title is become more of a joke than anything else these days. But he’s had a few more doozies over the years (It seems fitting that SFGate.com has a whole list of them here.)

“AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.”

“If you’re not a born-again Christian, you’re a failure as a human being.”

“I listen to feminists and all these radical gals — most of them are failures. They’ve blown it. Some of them have been married, but they married some Casper Milquetoast who asked permission to go to the bathroom. These women just need a man in the house. That’s all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they blew it and they’re mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They’re sexist. They hate men — that’s their problem.”

“The ACLU is to Christians what the American Nazi party is to Jews.”

“I believe that global warming is a myth. And so, therefore, I have no conscience problems at all and I’m going to buy a Suburban next time.”

“The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the National Organization of Witches.”

“God doesn’t listen to Jews.”

See what I mean? Christianity should be glad to have this blight gone. I realize that tolerance of others ain’t their strong point, but they tend not to just hate anyone different. They’re generally live and let live. I’m sure Falwell would have thought I was Hell bound for all of this, but something tells me his new accommodations reek of sulfur.

All we need to do is send Pat Robertson to Venezuela, and the world will only get better.

Then I have just the cure:

The Impossible Quiz

That link was sent to me by a buddy of mine. It’s fun and aggravating at the same time. Especially since when you lose, you gotta start over from the beginning. I made it to level 82 last night before calling it enough.

I realize that everything is fair game. And a lot of things I loved as a kid have been turned sour, but I thought at least Calvin and Hobbes was safe.

I was wrong.