Uniting geeks one movie at a time

After successfully re-launching the Batman and Superman franchises, Warner Bros. are now considering a Justice League of America movie. It's either going to be great or horrible, so I think it's a win/win for everybody interested.

Survivor: Fiji Episode 3 Thoughts

I'm very close to just making my weekly post on Survivor: Fiji just my predictions for the next week. Heck, I can probably use the famed TMQ Auto-Text for Ravu: Ravu loses again and looks to shoot themselves in the foot by not eliminating the weakest person on their tribe.

This week, they came close to voting out Anthony, which is just stunning. If ever there was a time for a unanimous vote, it was this week. What does Sylvia bring to the tribe? An ability to cause laughter by slipping and falling on a slip and slide, then try to swim somewhere but go nowhere? Thankfully, Rita did not vote for either, because I am positive that I could not handle it.

(A quick message to Rocky and Mookie: Last week I made mention of it, but I feel as though I need to emphasize it: YOU ARE NOT AT A POINT WHERE YOU SHOULD BE WORRIED ABOUT WHO IS A THREAT TO YOU! TRY WORRYING ABOUT WINNING A CHALLENGE BEFORE WORRYING ABOUT WHO MIGHT ELIMINATE YOU!)

One thing I didn't get was Sylvia's "I was backstabbed" comment. Who backstabbed you? Rita? Maybe if you did something productive you wouldn't have been voted out.

Who's going this week? I'm going to say Papa Smurf because of his injury. They won't lose a challenge, but they will end up losing.

Your most blogged about story of the next week

Senior Citizen kills masked assailant with bare hands

If I can get serious (and self-absorbed) for a minute...

So, I was reading Jorge's blog and noticed that he got hit with one of those blogger tag things. At that point I thought I may be in trouble. Because I knew if he tagged Mike, Mike would answer and then tag "the boyz" (well, at least the ones with active blogs).

Sure enough, Jorge tagged Mike. And then Mike tagged the boyz. I can see the future!

The funny thing is, I was thinking about writing this already. I've been contemplating what I want to do with this blog for a little bit, since I've been in a bit of a rut. There are things that I want to write, but haven't been inspired to do so. Since Salma Haeyk isn't walking through the door to be my muse, I have to look for other inspiration. So to begin...

5 Reasons Why I Blog

1. For the money. (looks at Adsense account). Uh, let's start over again.

5 Reasons Why I Blog

1. To write. Seriously, I like to write. I enjoy using the written word to express myself and my opinions in new and interesting ways. Of course, this doesn't mean I'm good at it. But the more I write the better I become.


2. To improve myself. It's nice to be able to see a difference in what you have written a year ago, let along ten years ago. And I'm confident that in a year's time, I'll look back at this and find places wher I could have written differently.


3. For attention. Anybody who says otherwise is lying. Why else would you delibrately set up a place for people to come and read your thoughts?


4. For clarity. Sitting down to express your opinion on a topic and defend it forces you to truly examine it. Maybe it causes you to rethink your opinion. Or it could solidify your opinion. Regardless of the outcome, forcing yourself to go through the critical thinking process is always a good thing.


5. As an outlet. Generally speaking, things that end up on this blog are things that I want to talk about, but my friends and/or family do not care about. (Politics is the most glaring example, though I can be a bit obsessive about sports as well.) This blog gives me the opportunity to rant about whatever I want and not stand out as a larger kook than most people on the Internet.

ETA: Now it's my turn to tag people. So, I'll go for the longshots. I don't think any of these people read this blog; if they do fantastic and hopefully they will do this. If not, there's nothing really lost here. They are:

• Andrew at Bound by Gravity


• Colby Cosh


• Dan Arnold


• James Mirtle


• John Ferguson Jr., GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs

Hopefully, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

Thoughts and prayer to Sarah Taylor, who is in a medically-induced coma in Las Vegas after emergency brain surgery.

Survivor: Fiji Episode 2 Thoughts

You know, it's bad enough that Ravu has to endure the living conditions that they do. But those conditions aren't going to get better unless they start winning challenges. And with their choices on bootees, I'm wondering if they even care about winning challenges.

Choosing to get rid of Erica over Sylvia this week was another blindingly stupid move. Erica has enough strength to help around camp and win challenges. Sylvia has none of these qualities. She in theory is smart enough to help solve puzzles during challenges, but it didn't help this week. And the consensus is that Sylvia is more annoying than Erica around camp. So why are you voting out Erica? Out of some short-sighted decision to punish her for your loss? Because she's "a threat"? (Nevermind that you are 6 days into the game, and individual threats aren't worrysome until at least day 21. I guess if you are destined to not make the merge, you have to get your scheming and gameplay in somehow.)

Yau-Man once again served to be the entertainment for the show, with his hug/search of Sylvia. Next week, he will search for the rat that voted against Lex in Survivor: Africa.

I don't have too much to add about Moto, other than Boo's luck with injuries was kinda amusing. It's a rare person that combines that much bad luck with a lack of common sense.

Who's going this week? I'll stick with Sylvia. She is an outsider and somebody will have to take the fall for this failure. Too bad it will be her.

Not too quick on the uptake

Chris Cornell has quit Audioslave. This comes a month after his bandmates announced they would be reuniting with former front man Zach de la Rocha to reform Rage Against the Machine.

Yelling into the Vacuum

In the Canadian political blogosphere, criticism of the Conservative government tends to follow one of two specifc frameworks. The first one:

1. Somebody criticizes a policy or decision made by the government
2. A government supporter criticizes the criticism on philosophical grounds.
3. Discussion ensues with no real resolution.

The second one:

1. Somebody criticizes a policy or decision made by the government.
2. A government supporter points out that the previous Liberal government acted in the same manner, if not worse.
3. Partisan sniping ensues.

The second framework is the one that frustrates voters like myself. Saying "Yeah, but they did it too" is not an acceptable justification for bad actions. Especially in this case, when the Conservative party campaigned on the promise of delivering a different style of government than the previous government.

So when a story like this comes to light, you can guess what the response will be from the right wing pundits.

(I should note an exception: Andrew Coyne is willing to criticize the government even though he is more likely to support it than any of the other parties. Also, Greg Weston has one of the better takes on the subject - pointing out what the implications could be and how they would affect our judicial system.)

Survivor: Fiji First Episode Thoughts

Poor Jessica. So hot, and yet she was held accountable for you know, blowing the challenge. On the bright side, she now can lay claim to the title of "hottest Survivor to be the first bootee", wrestling the crown from Nicole from Pearl Islands (the woman who was only wearing a dress when stranded, and yet still got voted out).

What's interesting though is how much Jessica was hung out to dry by Rocky and Erica. They knew she was in trouble, and not only did they not tell her, but they voted for different people, thus guaranteeing her departure. If she knew she was in trouble, maybe she could have made an argument along the lines of "there were 4 of us who could have done that last puzzle, maybe we should have worked as a team to complete it". Or even "maybe putting the lightest people inside the chariot was a poor idea".

With that said, I think Tribe Hotness (official nickname of the Ravu tribe) made a mistake. As much as I think Yau Man is fantastic, if you aren't going to put the engineer in a position to solve puzzles, and he's not that strong, why keep him?

Of course, this mistake is not going to come to bite Ravu in the butt, because the have/have not theme for this season is going to destroy them. The weak are just going to get weaker, and there's just going to be a vicious circle that is only stopped when either the tribes merge, or the dreaded switch occurs.

(As a side note, this would have been an ideal time to really mix things up by having the tribes switch for each immunity challenge. This might prevent a pagonging situation and in this case, could make it fair for all participants.)

I'm going to refrain from selecting a winner right now, though I will note (much like Dalton Ross) that Earl is already getting edited like they would edit the eventual winner. His major hurdle right now is that he is on the Ravu tribe.

The question remains: Who's going this week? I'm going to have to go with Sylvia, the exiled architect. As we've seen in the past, getting exiled in the beginning of the game leaves you on the outside of any any potential bonding that goes on. And this works even more against Sylvia, as she has laready been tagged as a leader type. Given the success rate of leaders early on in a losing tribe (especially one that is under the stress that Ravu is under) and she's going to be a huge target.

I'll be back later in the week to talk about a couple of Survivor lists that have been recently published, and then back again on Thursday/Friday to talk about the second episode.

The big move

Well, it seems as though Blogger is actually forcing everybody to move to the new Blogger, so look forward to some enhancements around here. First up is the easy one - an addition of labels to each post. I'll get around to editing the old posts, but in the meantime enjoy being able to locate meta posts with ease!

This and that

To celebrate my starting to post on a more regular basis, it's time to bring out the big guns. That's right, the quick shot, hodge-podge post!

• Looks like another one of Jamie Gold's bluff attempts blew up in his face.


• I agree with everything that Tom Benjamin says in this post about the Instigator rule in hockey. Because of this, I felt it necessary to warn you should the world end.


• File this under ideas that should have never been considered in the first place. Joel Schumacher, the guy who thought the Batman franchise was too dark, wants to take a run at a "Sandman" movie? Who are the ad geniuses that came up with that one?


• While on the subject of movies, isn't this best summarized as "Pitch Black without Riddick or the aliens?" (I guess I shouldn't be too critical, as it is brought to us by the man who brought us Halle Berry's breasts, and is starring Kate Beckinsale. Who knows what magic we will see?)

Back in the good graces

After getting a bit prissy about his SNL hit "Dick in a Box", JT performed it live last night at MSG.

Good on you JT.