It's time to go out and test the GPS. It's time for random driving!!!

The music would be the Benny Hill music...and if you get the reference after clicking on the link below then that's just super! [url]http://www.e-michael.jp/gallery.htm[/url]

About 3 years ago I saw the first 20 minutes of [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0160797/]Rules of Engagement[/url]. Since then it's been on my list of movies to buy, and I'm finally watching it...giddy!

I decided to watch an inning of Jays vs Orioles just to give it another chance, perhaps it would redeem itself. Didn't happen. I'm sitting here right now waiting for something...anything to happen...DARNIT, IT SUCKS!

A few days ago I ran Windows update and saw that ATI had a driver update for my TV Wonder so I ran it...it's a good idea to update from time to time. I installed and all was well but after a reboot I noticed that my multimedia center was running really slowly and from time to time the video would stagger or audio would loose sync. Anyways, I could deal with it as I had to work on a lot of things. Then I decided to watch a DVD...the DVD was: "The Ladies Man" (originally $42 but available at $18...awesome price drop). Just when you press play the screen paused as if the DVD was authored incorrectly. No worries, I popped in "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" (special edition) and it worked without a hitch (except for that strange slow down). No matter, must be something wrong with "The Ladies Man" (DVD not the Man...let's face it...he is the man). Yesterday night I popped in "Rules of Engagement" and uh oh! Same problem. Hmmm...let's check ATI. So there were 3 updates which I downloaded and proceeded to install. Of course, each install failed to complete properly and each reboot did nothing to improve the situation. Anyhow, I ran the software to see if anything would happen and BAM! It locked up the screen (the main one)...just this big catalyst image that wouldn't go away. Had to kill it a couple times but when I tried to start the TV up directly I saw it was looking for the 8.1 DVD decoder...done deal. So, happy ending, I am now watching "The Ladies Man" with Leon Phelps.

You know those magic tricks where a magician asks a member of the audience to hide a knife or nail under a paper bag or cup? Then you're supposed to place other cups and paper bags around the knife covered one so the magician doesn't know where the knife is. Then the magician crushes all the bags or cups that don't the nail or knife. How does he do it? Easy, hide a magnet in your ring or elsewhere and detect the metal.

Wow, long time since I've seen this show...awesome.

Stuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuupidity...if you're not from the Southern Ontario area then you probably don't know about [url=http://www.nooobody.com/default.php]'Bad Boy'[/url] but let me fill you in. It's a fat guy (he's lost lots of mass now) who goes around saying: "Who's better than Boy Boy? Nooooooooooooooobody!" The annoying thing is that they have ads with an english bloke wandering around asking people how much something costs. Course, the person on the street will guess something like $5,000 for a chair and a table. The guy then scoffs and says "Wrooooooooooooong...$1,500". HORRIBLE!!! HOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRIBLE!

Just got back from my Echo Cardiogram. It's basically ultrasound but with your heart. I'm still fit as a fiddle!

What the heck is with these 'gellin' commercials? What does 'gellin' means? I guess it means "Feel good"...but, I think it has a deeper meaning. A guy is watch golf on his new plasma TV and a baseball is fired through his window and plants itself into the screen; destroying it. The guy then opens his door, returns the ball to the kid. At no point does the man get angry, he seems down right happy. Perhaps the meaning is: "Wear our soles and the gel will creep into your brain making you high and stupid." BAH!

Let's see...I'm still pretty mad about 'Meet the Fockers' but I can't keep complaining about that, can I? No, it isn't right. Let's see then, oh, I can't complain. I'm still happy from 'The Lance Krall Show' (episode 2) last night. It's just so daaaaaaaaaaaarned good. I got a chance to talk with the producer of the show yesterday and he seems to be a jovial fellow. He told me that the "Best Buddies" skit on the dock in Santa Monica was actually used in the Pilot that got them the gig. Awesome! So, I can't wait for the next show :D So excited...mmmhmmm.

Oh, it's on!

"mmmm...that clean!" I was hesitant about this show when it first came out...why? Well, in case you didn't know, Lance Krall played Kip on [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377024/]"The Joe Schmo Show"[/url]. I wasn't sure what type of actor he was and his range. After watching the first few shows I can't wait for the DVD release. The characters are original, funny, and there is a lot of self deprecating humour. Excellent skit comedy! Reminds me a lot of Truthhorse...hopefully there will be more episodes. "His powers are fake, the people are real."

Here's a list of DVDs I'm looking forward to for the next little bit. [b]April 26th[/b] [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0339291/]Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events[/url] [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0359013/]Blade Trinity[/url] (The Blade Trilogy is also available on this day) [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072962/]F for Fake[/url] - Criterion Collection [b]May 3rd[/b] [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0080437/]The Big Red One[/url] [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0075596/]Three's Company - Season 4[/url] [b]May 10th[/b] [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0362270/]The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou[/url] - Criterion Collection [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0087182/]Dune[/url] - Extended Edition [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401233/]Appleseed[/url] [b]May 17th[/b] [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0372588/]Team America[/url] [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0285403/]Scrubs - Season 1[/url] [b]May 24th[/b] [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0353049/]Chappelle's Show - Season 2[/url] [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0338751/]The Aviator[/url] [b]June 7th[/b] [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0314353/]Tears of the Sun[/url] [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0187078/]Gone in 60 Seconds[/url] - Special Edition [b]June 14th[/b] [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0112641/]Casino[/url] [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0370194/]Reno 911 - Season 2[/url] [b]July 12th[/b] [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0344510/]A Very Long Engagement[/url] [b]October 4th[/b] [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0075596/]Three's Company - Season 5[/url]

This is primarily a complaint to you millions out there that messed the Universe up by going and watching "Meet the Fockers" (it doesn't even deserve an IMDB link but here's one -> [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290002/].[/url]) (also directed towards the friends of Karin; but not Karin herself who, fortunately for Kyle, has an agreeable taste in movies). First of, the first film, [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212338/]Meet the Parents[/url], was pretty decent. It gave [url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000134/]Robert De Niro[/url] the opportinity to be in a comedy while playing his own serious self. Let's be honest, De Niro can't play a comic role, he must be a rough tough guy a la [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122933/]Analyze This[/url] (and [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289848/]That[/url]) both of which were passable (This more than That). [url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001774/]Ben Stiller[/url] on the other hand played the "quirky son-in-law trying to fit in" to an acceptable level (I'm not going to say perfect as it wasn't and it wasn't passable...which isn't acceptable). So...the first film was balanced and funny and original and (this is key) emotional. There's a reason people don't like sequels...it's because they're not original and they don't evoke the same emotion...it's just more of the same old thing. However, if you wait a few years and put out a sequel then the general public forgets about the original and is all like "Wow! What an original new film!" EXCEPT IT'S NOT! The first film was targetted towards the University and teenage crowd. It was choked full of slapstick comedy and enough De Niro sophistication to keep almost all of us pacified (he's the babysitter for us grownups like the way [url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004874/]Vin Diesel[/url] is for kids in [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395699/]The Pacifier[/url]). This second film was a masterpiece in marketing (read on to find out why!). The producers realized that they needed to bring in an older crowd simply because they had a screenplay that was so weak that a gimick was needed. Enter [url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000163/]Dustin Hoffman[/url] (excellent actor) and [url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000659/]Barbara Streisand[/url] (horrible actress) who when combined on a poster emit a high pierced scream (Barbara) and credibility (Dustin). Seriously, who wouldn't want to watch a film with Dustin and De Niro? They're top notch. Now, if you don't watch movies that often but you're going to the movies and you see that Streisand is in it then it's likely you're going to watch that movie. That's why the movie did well, not because it's a good movie but because people who didn't know what to watch watched that. Don't believe me? Go stand in line at the movies and watch groups of people come in and look at the listing. They don't know what they want to watch, they don't even know what the movies are about, they just want to be entertained. Now some will say, "I don't care about creativity or originality, I just want to be entertained for a bit." To which I reply: "That's fine, but an entertaining film is not a good film, it's not an iff relationship." "What!?" you say? That's right...examples? Let's consider the classic example of [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240515/]"Freddy Got Fingered"[/url] ([url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0338381/]Tom Green[/url]) which is an immensely entertaining film but by no means a good film. A good film makes a lasting emotional impression upon you. It's an expression in creativity that evokes emotion that people can understand at a personal level. "Freddy Got Fingered" will make you laugh but the understanding of the film does not make you laugh, the acts within it do. The acts combined do not evoke emotion or cause you draw meaning. Let's talk about a marginally good film: [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0227005/]"Made"[/url]. It's basically a Mob film but it's a comedy about the futility in a life of crime and how ones attitude towards those in your life is all the resolve one needs. In the movie however there's a character played by [url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000681/]Vince Vaughn[/url] that makes you want to absolutely destroy that character because he's so annoying. Needless to say Vince played the part very well and emphasises the message that is projected through [url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0269463/]Jon Favreau[/url]. I only say the movie is marginally good because the message isn't incredibly clear and it is slow in parts but I picked a marginally good film to show that an obviously good film (like Lord of the Rings) isn't needed to prove my point. Let's look at the message in Meet the Fockers, "family is good", wait...hooooolllllllllllld up...wasn't that the message in the first film? I do believe that De Niro said that at some point in the first film. Ok, so maybe the message is about "fitting in"...can't be...they did that in the first film as well. How about "happiness is important enough to put up with strangeness"? They did that in the first one as well. Ok ok, so it's a continuation of the first one. Ok, I can live with that, we're extending it to develop more relationships. However, De Niro still seems to be developing a relationship with Stiller. In addition, there need to be relationships between the in-laws and the daughter with the in-laws and the pets...can this be done? Sure, if it was a movie only about relationships and it was 2 hours long! "Wait!" you say, "the movie is 1 hour and 55 minutes! There is enough time!" To which I respond: "NO!! Because you still have to explain the first movie to all of those who didn't see it...and the 115 minutes includes the credits!" You see where I'm going with this? While there was a message in this movie there wasn't nearly enough time alloted to fully develop the relationships. A bunch of cheap gags can't nearly begin to showcase exactly how much the families could have bonded while still being funny. I chalk this up to the weak acting on the part of Barbara. She's an incredibly one dimensional character and actor. She lacks the ability to properly express herself...must be the botox in her forehead. Sure they play a realistic couple BUT if you can't properly showcase a relationship then all everybody remembers is how entertaining it was with a few slapstick gags or "zanny" scenes. It was seriously disappointing to see each character be so marginalized simply because there was so much to do in so little time. Could have been a lot better, next time cut the dead weight, and you'll have a better film. How can one tell that I'm right and that the cinema success was a fluke? Well, if people really like a movie in theatres then they'll like it when it's available to rent or buy, correct? Check out a [url=http://www.billboard.com/bb/charts/videos/rentals.jsp]release chart[/url] to see if a movie that is in its second week of release is even on the chart (first week release is just a fad). So...will you look at that? Not even on the Billboard top 10 listing and it's been out for two weeks. On the sales chart the first and second week sales are important as they suggest impulse and premediated buys ([url=http://www.billboard.com/bb/charts/videos/dvd.jsp]see chart[/url]), oh look!! No "Meet the Fockers". "What??!" you say? Why didn't it sell when it sold in theatres? It's because it didn't make a lasting impression. [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0357277/]Elektra[/url] has a target audience that wants to see [url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004950/]Jennifer Garner[/url] run around in tight red leather. Nobody on the other hand really cares about paying any more money to see a bunch of cheap gimmicks and a movie with no point to it. That is a true measure of how good a movie is. People are willing to pay $10 (average) to see a movie on an impulse when they don't know what else to see over Christmas break (come on...you could have watched [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362270/]"The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou"[/url] although it sounds like a documentary) but they aren't willing to pay $20 to see a film that didn't make an impression on them. That's why people are willing to buy DVDs of TV shows because they mean something to them, because they understand that it will not only entertain them but evoke emotion. In the end that's what people really want, they want to feel something. More than that, films that are really really good will sell millions of DVDs simply because people want to see something beautiful that makes them feel. So, that's my opinion about "Meet the Fockers" and why it isn't a good film. It's not about entertainment but emotion.