Epic

Eighth Wonder

Michael Phelps, the eighth wonder of Olympic Gold has astonished folks around the world with his amazing speed and ability in swimming. At the beginning of the Beijing Olympics, he had an ambitious goal of obtaining 8 golds. He accomplished that goal on Sunday morning, when his teammates came first in the 4×100 medley relay finals. Mark Spitz, the former record holder of the most golds won at a single Olympics at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, called Phelps’ goal, “Epic.”

Um…Thanks

Mom's Birthday Present

Viva la Scrabulous!

Scrabulous a great and wonderful game is no longer available to US & Canadian players on Facebook. Hasbro in their infinite wisdom decided to throw all of their lawyers at two programmers from India who created Scrabulous. Scrabble is a great and enjoyable game, but Hasbro didn’t like it when it was free, and they weren’t controlling it. Instead of embracing the extreme popularity of this application on Facebook, they decided to be assholes instead and fight for it’s immediate removal. My last game, I had a 149 point bingo, and dammit, I don’t want that to be wasted by some suit. As of today, July 29, 2008 Scrabulous is no longer accessible to those fans in the United States and Canada. Well, I’m not giving in. Though the official Scrabble game being published by Electronic Arts may look nice, and pretty, it’s an injustice to the millions of fans and players of Scrabulous on Facebook. The two creators of Scrabulous are not making money off of the game, they do sell merchandise, such as T-Shirts, but the game itself is free, so why should Hasbro care? Well, they care, because they don’t care about fans, they care about the bottom dollar, and that’s wrong.

If you enjoyed playing Scrabulous and you don’t want to give in to this injustice, you don’t have to as of yet. You can still play Scrabulous at Scrabulous.com. Join me there and we’ll continue to play and have fun, while not giving in.

Blockbuster Summer

Heath Ledger as The JokerThis summer we’ve seen quite a few Blockbusters from Ironman to The Dark Knight. I was so ready to be disappointed this year by many of the films being heralded as major crowd pleasers. Some of them failed, and some were real treats.

Ironman was a major hit. I had expected it to be so horrible like previous comic book movies (Spider-Man 3, The Fantastic Four, etc.) that I wasn’t too thrilled about seeing it. However, it surprised me and was truly well made. It was a great blend of tech, humor and enjoyment to make it a really pleasing and enjoyable movie.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. No surprise here as George Lucas managed to destroy the Star Wars franchise, he managed to make this film less enjoyable than it could have been, luckily Steven Spielberg saved it from a worthless relic in the Temple of Doom.

The Incredible Hulk, was good, but it wasn’t incredible, but it did restore my fears that Edward Norton was a horrible actor. Edward Norton did a great job, it just didn’t live up to the awesomeness that was Ironman.

Wanted, well, wanted was interesting. I’m not sure there’s much more to say about it.

Fox Mulder and Dana Scully

The Dark Knight was a real treat. I’m pretty sure that Heath Ledger will get an Oscar for his fantastic portrayal of the twisted villain, The Joker. His final acting work, was a masterpiece, making the viewer really believe that Heath Ledger might actually be The Joker. I’m pretty sure that The Joker may have had more screen time than Batman in the film, but it was far from disappointing as it truly proved to be dark.

The X-Files: I Want To Believe unfortunately did not impress me too much. I’m not exactly sure what they wanted to believe in this film. I know from watching the show what Mulder wants to believe, but he didn’t find it in this film. Scully couldn’t find anything to believe in herself, save for her knowledge of science and medicine. I know the film wasn’t supposed to be about the “mythology” of the X-Files, but it wasn’t exactly a “Monster of the Week” film either. It was none the less extremely great to see the return of Mulder and Scully. I Want to Believe too, and I hope to see more of them again sooner than later.

Mr. Occasional Website Blog Updater Guy

The best comment I’ve ever received. This is from my best friend, and he truly is, the best.

“This is indeed a sad day.  (taps playing softly in the distance) I will miss the joy of finding that rare update every two weeks or so.  Like a diamond in the rough.  Day after day I came back to check, and day after day, disappointment.  But then it would happen.  Like broken wind that leaves a trail or mail at summer camp you would go and surprise me with an inspired and witty post.  Those are the good days; the days we live for through the rest. (pride swells as the battle hymn of the republic trumps ever louder)

For this we solute you, Mr. super infrequent occasional website blog updater guy.  You balance a busy schedule but still find time to write just when your five loyal readers are considering filing a missing persons report.  Yes, you never fail to amaze us with your insight, your gleanings and your impeccable sense of timing.  You really know how to string a reader along.

So here’s to you Mr. occasional website blog updater guy!  You were truly master of your domain…name.”

Pure Genius!