Look At The Pretty Colors

Here's the poster for an upcoming movie called Smokin' Aces. All I know about it is that it's got Jeremy Piven, Ben Affleck, and Alicia Keys in it. It looks like it has a lot of people shooting guns at each other. Swell - I'll probably want to see this when it comes out.

Doesn't the design of this poster kind of remind you of the poster from Rent?

Coincidence, homage, or swipe? You decide...

Black Days

Black Friday, the opening of the holiday shopping season, has come and gone. This year we had a Black Weekend, because from Thursday to Sunday, there are deals to be had, and we didn't have time to fool around. Here's the breakdown of what went on:

Black Thursday (or as some call it, Thanksgiving)
Objective: Buy an Xbox 360 from Amazon

At 11 am on Thursday, Amazon was selling 1000 Xbox 360's for $100 each. For most people, there wasn't a prayer of getting a PS3 or Wii anytime soon, so this was the next best opportunity. Millions of people waited with white-knuckled anticipation for this moment to arrive.

The problem was that millions of people were waiting for this moment to arrive. Amazon's servers promptly got bogged down, which meant that 99.9% of people weren't going to get their greedy hands on the Xbox 360. About five minutes before 11 am, it was taking my computer about 45 seconds to refresh. Not a good sign. At 11 am, I refreshed my page once more, and twenty minutes later the page reloaded with the "sold out" message. Phooey!

Not me with not my Xbox 360

It was pretty funny to see the angry posts from people who didn't get an Xbox 360. Some said it was just a big scam, some cursed Amazon and swore never to come back, some called out for everyone to report Amazon to the Better Business Bureau for such treachery. A lot of people seemed to feel entitled to get a cheap Xbox 360, and didn't to the math about how slim their chances really were. Kind of sad, really.

Mission Result: TOTAL FAILURE, BUT I STILL LOVE YOU AMAZON

Black Friday
Objective: Get deals at Best Buy, Circuit City, and Home Depot

We woke about at 3 am on Friday morning, and got to our local Best Buy at 4 am. There were about 500 - 600 people already there, and the lined wrapped around the entire building. When they finally opened at 5 am, it was not unlike a cattle stampede inside the store. The store staff did their best to keep the checkout lines orderly, but there were too many frenzied people inside the store.

My fiance had to catch a $20 printer with her face. I got disgusted trying to find the stuff I was looking for, and wanted to leave. We ended up getting most of the items we wanted, but this was the most unpleasant Best Buy Black Friday I've ever been to.

Mission Result: PARTIAL SUCCESS, BUT NO FREE KRISPY KREMES OR COFFEE. PAH!

Plasma flatscreens on sale? Run, fellow buffalo, run!

The Circuit City in our area is kind of like the snot-nosed little brother to Best Buy: dirtier and an unappealing & unorganized mess. The store was filled to the brim with the same variety of delirious bargain-hunters. It didn't help that the store was uncomfortably warm. We got most of what we were looking for, but we're glad we only go to Circuit City only once a year.

Mission Result: SUCCESSFUL FOR THE MOST PART, BUT BLECH

I managed to take a little side trip to Home Depot to get a cheap wet/dry vacuum and to check out a deal for a flatscreen tv. When I got to the store, I parked right in front and was greeted by a friendly and helpful store employee. He told me where to find the vacuum and the tv. I walked right up to the flatscreen tv's, picked one up and put in on my cart. I got a vacuum, paid for both items, and waltzed back to my car. It was a breath of fresh air. No fighting with other people, no crowds, no catching tv's with my face. Ha!

Mission Result: COMPLETE DOMINATION. YOU ROCK MY WORLD, HOME DEPOT

Black Saturday
Objective: Sleep


Mission Result: ZZZZZ

Black Sunday
Objective: Get deals at Costco

I love Costco. I love to walk up and down the aisles, and we love buying things that we really don't need. Did you know Costco sells a five-gallon bucket of food and supplies, just in case there's an emergency? We really wanted to buy one, but I'd probably open it and start eating the food, disaster or not.

We got the deals we were looking for, and found some new ones along the way. It was a fitting end to our Black Weekend; we got a great start on our Christmas shopping.

Now we just need to buy some stuff that's not just for us! Ha ha ha ha!

Mission Result: TOTAL SUCCESS - PLUS, WE GOT A COPY OF THE FREE COSTCO COOKBOOK, WHICH IS ALL WE REALLY WANTED IN THE FIRST PLACE

The Colonel Gets A Makeover

Aw geez, I haven't posted anything in over two weeks. I wish I could be more prolific and write something every day, but that's not going to happen. Nope, not unless someone throws a handful of change at me and pays me to do this. Anyways...

KFC recently changed their logo, and it isn't that bad. This is what they had about twenty years ago:


Colonel Sanders eyes and lips looked kind of funny back then. He also looked a lot like a disembodied head with a little stick figure body. The more I look at it, the more his whole head seems kind of misshapen. I didn't eat a whole lot of fried chicken back then.

Some time in the eighties (I think), they changed their logo and made the Colonel into a more realistic jolly old man:

The expression on his face and the angle of his body makes him look like he's always chuckling about something. He's just a grandpa kicking back in his rocking chair. You have a problem? Don't worry about it, sonny. Here - have some chicken.

Just this month, they unveiled the new logo:


Pretty snazzy, huh? It's interesting to see that by just removing some of the detail from the Colonel's face and thickening up the line weights, he looks much more youthful. He even looks like he lost some weight.

I like the fact that the Colonel now stands up straight and wears an apron. I know he created the secret eleven herb & spice chicken recipe, but I could never imagine him actually cooking. Before he just looked like an old southern guy in a white suit who probably had his kitchen staff whip him up a bucket of fried chicken whenever he wanted.

But the new KFC Colonel isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. He's going to roll up his sleeves, skin some chickens, and be splattered with hot oil from the fryer. Go Colonel, go!

The Departed

We finally went to see The Departed the other day. I had some trepidation about this movie for two reasons:

1. We had to sit in the third row of theater. Sure, it was a Saturday night showing, but the theater was surprisingly packed considering the movie had been out for almost a month already (I guess Borat must have been sold out). If there was going to be a lot of shaky handheld camera work, then it would probably make me nauseous and I wouldn't make it through the movie.

2. The movie was a remake of the Hong Kong movie Infernal Affairs. Usually, these kinds of movies tend to stick in my craw because I don't believe they are completely necessary. Why do you need to remake a perfectly good movie? Does westernizing a story with bigger movie stars really improve on the original? Why can't the movie studios just come up with their own new stories?

I could just go on and on about this; but I won't. The Departed was a really, really good movie. We don't watch a ton of them, but this was probably the best movie we've seen this year besides V for Vendetta. The story moved along at a nice pace and all the actors did a good job.


I used to have little respect for Leonardo DiCaprio. To me, he was always the scrawny little kid with the squeaky voice from "Growing Pains". In The Departed, it seems he's filled out a little and matured into a real actor. He was really convincing as the undercover cop infiltrating Jack Nicholson's Irish mob. His voice still squeaks sometimes, but he was perfect for this role.

Besides a gripping story with a lot of tension, you've got guys from Boston cussing at each other. You've got Jed Bartlett/Martin Sheen speaking with a Boston accent. You've got Jack Nicholson doing his crazy Jack Nicholson thing. You've got Alec Baldwin doing his nutty boss character from "30 Rock". What more can you ask for? This movie deserves some kind of award. It's definitely worth seeing more than once.

A New Case Of Crabs

No, not those type of crabs. Real crabs. I get a kick out of hearing about new species of things being discovered, and here's the latest: there was a big expedition that took place in the waters outside of Hawaiian, where they found over one hundred potentially new species of crabs, corals, sea cucumbers, sea stars, snails, clams, and the like.

The new Hawaiian pom-pom crab. Go team!

Not quite as sexy as the furry lobster, but pretty cool nonetheless.

New sea cucumber. Delicious with a little salt.