Nicolas Cage Mystery

I have a profound question about Nicolas Cage. Why do I like him, even though all his movies are, at best, schlock? The best you can say about Con Air and The Rock, unarguably his best movies, is that you can have fun while watching them sometimes. He has been in so many terrible movies, he's essentially a B movie actor with a bigger paycheck.

Inception #5 on IMDB

I know this happens every time a new pretentious movie comes out, but this is particularly revolting. Inception is #5 on the IMDB list of the best movies ever made.I'm sure in a year it'll be much lower, but this is absurd.

Toy Story 3 is a much better film, and it's only at #20. LA Confidential is better than either of those, and it's only 65. I think we can all agree that the IMDB list is flawed, at best.

Megamind Review

Megamind is a surprisingly thoughtful film. Much more slowly paced than I would have expected. It reminds me of The Nightmare Before Christmas, in the sense that the driving force of the protagonist is ennui, something rare for a movie theoretically aimed at children.

I give it heaps of extra credit for the way they've controlled the trailers. They did a great job not spoiling anything. Everything you've seen in the trailers only covers the first twenty minutes or so.

I saw the AV Club gave a B+ to Tangled, so maybe it's not terrible? Rapunzel has a spunky animal friend, so it seems like it has to be bad, I dunno.

Megamind:
.8 Ron Perlmans out of a possible 5.

Home Rule For Football

I had a great idea for a home rule for American Football. When a team is ahead in points, any additional points it earns should be cut in half. This will make for closer games, and will enrage serious fans. It's perfect.

A Retail Worker's Manifesto

I've been working retail for a few weeks now. Oftentimes, a co-worker will sigh and complain about how the customers have left the store a mess. In response, I always ask them, "would you rather be unemployed?"

When your job is to clean up a mess, if there's no mess, then you have no job. If customers all cleaned up after themselves, we'd be out of a job. Also, having customers clean the store would be terribly inefficient, since they have no training or interest in doing it properly. Essentially, they're paying a tiny fraction more in cost to reimburse someone else to clean up their mess. This is not wrong, and it is not a problem.

When you go shopping, if you want to do the regular workers a favour, don't tidy up after yourself. If you want to help the management/corporate overlords, feel free to clean up the place.

Winter Is Here

We've been lucky with the weather up to now; it's been unseasonably warm until today. Now it looks like Winter has officially arrived. Sometimes I wonder why people settle in such crappy places. (In case you were actually curious why people settle in terrible places, the answer is simple: the better spots were already taken.)

Market Analysts

I wish I were a "market analyst". You get to announce things with no justification other than your own preconceived notions, and people report it as news.

Every time I see a video game "news" article that is simply repeating whatever a "market analyst" said, I want to get rid of the internet. I'd feel better about the whole thing if they replaced the words "market analyst" with "some guy".

Example: "Some guy says that new Call of Duty will break sales records".

Rock Band 3 Thoughts

Rock Band 3 is everything I'd want from a new Rock Band. The Key-tar is very good, and all the visuals, menus, and general functionality is improved. Being able to jump in or out of a song, change difficulty, and even change instrument, all while the song is playing, is really cool.

I really enjoy the visuals. The lip syncing is amazingly good, the characters really look like they're singing. My one complaint is the audience members; you'll often see two identical models doing the exact same animation at the same time. It seems like it would have been easy to at least change the colours of their clothing, if nothing else.

Reporters Are Stupid

Why do people keep saying that Obama will have to Veto all these Republican measures? I think it's because it's easier to have a "Republicans Vs Obama" story line. The problem is, we have a bicameral legislature, and the Senate is run (just barely) by Democrats.

If any bills get to Obama, it'll be a victory for bipartisanship.

Ultra-Summary: Hereafter

English Boy: Moi Bruvver doied. (My brother died)

Matt Damon: Get over it.

~The End~

Second Medic Update, Please

I think the next thing Valve needs to do, after making this mysterious new game mode, is a new Medic update of some kind. If you compare the Medic of today to the Medic of the release, he's almost the same. Sure, he has access to the Kritzkrieg, but that's it.

No wonder people get bored playing the medic, it's been the same thing for over two years now.

I also find it frustrating because it's so reliant on others' abilities. If your team is bad at fragging, the best healing in the world isn't going to win the game.