VH1's The Surreal Life: Season 4

On a side note, I usually abhor reality shows. Absolute hate and loathe them. I watched The Real Gilligan's Island, partially out of morbid curiosity and partially because it was a short run. The exception to the aforementioned preference is VH1's The Surreal Life. I don't know precisely why but I find this particular "reality series" to be interesting and watchable. Maybe it's the fact that celebs are involved. Maybe it's because although they're human, they're not quite the same humans you would meet on the street. I don't know. What I do know is that I'm oddly drawn to watching this one and continue to do so when I get the chance.

I caught the first episode of VH1's The Surreal Life: Season 4 last Sunday night. My past history here includes watching the entirety of Season 2 (which had Tammy Faye Baker, Ron Jeremy, Tyra Banks and Eric Estrada among others) and the vast majority of Season 3 (Flava Flave, Bridgette (sp.), Dave Couliea (sp.), Charro and Jordan Knight among others). [For the record, I enjoyed Season 2 much more than Season 3. The interactions between the stars were much more compelling and interesting.]

Season 4's Cast

• Joanie Laurer: The former WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, nee WWF -- World Wrestling Federation) wrestling star known as Chyna (who subsequently posed for Playboy).


• Christopher Knight: aka Peter Brady.


• Shawntae _____: aka "Da Brat." Apparently she's a (if not the first?) female solo Rap artist.


• Jane Wiedlin: From the Go-Gos!


• Adrianne Curry: America's Top Model Season 1 Winner.


• Marcus Schenkenberg: "The" Calvin Klein model.


• Verne Troyer: Better known as Mini Me! (35 years old and 2' 8" in height.)

This looks to be another excellent collection of miscellaneous celebs. Joanie likes to drink and get her way. (She's also not terribly bright though she could easily kill anyone else in the house.) Peter Brady looks like he's going to be playing the "father" role, helping everyone sort things out and work together. Da Brat is a cold, distanced b*tch. Jane is very bubbly and easy-going (and apparently into S&M, as will be explored in a future episode). Adrianne is incredibly beautiful, not shy at all about being beautiful (or without clothes) and it looks like she'll be falling for Peter Brady as things progress. Marcus was pretty quiet so nothing to say there. Verne was, well, out there. He gets drunk *very* easily and is pretty much a pig (mostly towards Adrianne). In the first episode not only did he get completely and utterly wasted, he also drove around on his motorized cart naked before urinating in a corner.

The first episode was the usual meet 'n greet along with a special dinner. The news magazine arrived proclaiming that "dinner would be on Adrianne." I have to say, I immediately picked up on the subtext there. None of the celebs did, though. So when it came time for dinner, they found Adrianne lying on a table, a few leaves strategically placed on her otherwise naked body and sushi resting on those leaves. (From my understanding, an unusual but high-class Japanese practice of having sushi served on the body of an otherwise mostly-naked woman.) Afterwards, Adrianne and Jane went skinny-dipping in the hot tub while Chris (or should I keep calling him Peter Brady?) and Marcus lounged around. Verne showed up later, drunk as a skunk, and then even later on he undertook his "streaking" and "relieving."

I need to check when new episodes of this will be shown. I think the season will be very interesting. The celebs are, for the most part, pretty easy-going, with Da Brat, Joanie (not supposed to call her Chyna) and Verne being the exceptions. I'm going to try and stay tuned in. If there's an interesting episode or event, I'll post about it. (Translation: I don't plan on posting about every single episode as I almost did with Nip/Tuck.) If you have any thoughts or comments, please sound out!

Mental Note

Sites to add to the blogroll:

The Hot Librarian

Zen of Design

Easily Distracted

Online Alchemy

I also need to tidy it up a bit. Reorder things and such.

I'll be cleaning out my school e-mail account sometime soon. Expect a flood of miscellaneous things that I e-mailed to myself (links and stories and such). I'll probably put them up in separate posts/batches as I go through my Inbox. What finally instigated this "Spring Cleaning" was a notice that my e-mail account had been closed due to its enormous size. I deleted all my Sent Mail so that I could at least receive new e-mails and reply to them. Time to comb through 110+ pages of e-mails (with 25 on a page, I think).

SNOW

While it may not be a "winter wonderland," we definitely have snow. Looks like it's going to be a good night to huddle around my television, DVD player (aka PS2) or computer with a mug of hot chocolate.

Male Behavior Partially Dissected

Last week over at Will Work For Favorable Dicta, E.Spat asked
"for all [her] favorite male bloggers to take one aspect of male behavior and explain it in depth." Admittedly, part of me was tempted to give it a go at addressing some part of this but that was until I read Soupie's response. (For the record, Mr. P[oon] had some excellent things to say in the comments to Soupie's response.)

There's not much more I can offer. While I disagree on some of Soup's lesser points (me not being a huge fan of wings, for example), I cannot argue with his overall conclusions. Pretty much spot on.

Soupie's response led me to a definition and a theory, Intellectual Whores and The Ladder Theory respectively. More on those another time, another post.

A TIME Story, Pending Posts & A Wow Update

But not [I]n that order.

An article in TIME: 10 Things We Learned About Blogs.

Pending/Upcoming Posts (and these will be up within the very near future, damnit): Movie Review of Ocean's 12, Movie Review of The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.

WoW Update: Belic the Human Paladin is up to level 46.2 and is a Weaponsmith with 253 skill. When he hits 47, I'll strongly consider grinding his smithing up to 260 and farming ingredients for a Truesilver Champion 2h sword. I'll also consider working on the 6 Mithril Order Quests. Lymirae the Night Elf Priestess is up to level 12. I'm debating whether to continue playing her or switch to a Warlock. (I probably won't switch. Or maybe I should.)

Blogging About Work (& Other Similarly Controversial Things)

The Hot Librarian has a post entitled Legal Ramifications of Blogging about Work based on a BBC News article on the subject.

As a budding law student/eventual-lawyer, I'd like to think that law students and lawyers (in particular) would know better than to blog about specific incidents occurring at work. Besides the confidentiality issues, there's always defamation and the like not to mention random acts of firing on trumped-up charges based on questionable content. (That is, we're firing you for "x" although it's really becuase you posted blog entries saying the company/firm stinks like a rotting fish carcus laying out in the Georgian sun.)

By the way, a misconception I want to clear up briefly. The truth is not always a defense. In my Media & The Law class second year of law school I learned that one. About 90% of the time, yes, truth is a defense. However, where specific knowledge would render the revealed information defamatory notwithstanding its veracity, truth is not a defense. Example: "Margaret Jones is pregnant." Appears to be non-defamatory, right? However, suppose that Margaret Jones is a Sister at the local church. Suddenly the statement becomes defamatory based on this extra knowledge. I don't remember any other specifics for this point but I do remember that much (example included).

In any case, I don't actually have anything substantive to relate on the work-blogging topic. It's not something I ever anticipate pursuing, in either an anonymous or non-anonymous setting, and it's not something "smart" bloggers will undertake. Blogging about work in a controversial manner is rolling the dice. You hope nothing you say will come back and bite you in the ass, possibly ousting you from your job. Why are people surprised when it happens?

Perhaps the one thing I can comment on here is that blogging is starting to retain stronger ties to real-world influences and effects. As a blogger, this is certainly something you need to consciously remember every time you post. It's the reason I stopped posting about The Girl or, for that matter, any of the girls. (At one point I identified them by a random letter. I laugh at that now. And, for the record, "them" constitutes two women, I believe.) Those are definitely an example of something that could come around and hamstring me at a later date. That's not to say I won't do the same thing at a later time since, well, you know, no one ever said I was smart enough to take my own advice. And it makes for good blogging-fodder... as long as "she" doesn't read it...

eBay Shuts Down Ultima Online Charity Auctions

Slashdot showed me this FileFront article.

The idea was to collect gold in UO, either by in-game sales or donations, and then resell that gold on eBay. The resulting money would then be donated to the Red Cross for their tsunami relief efforts.

“Crazy” Joe Harden started his eBay auctions with the best of intentions, giving all the proceeds to the Red Cross for the tsunami disaster relief. Unfortunately, his plans went awry because of eBay’s safeguards.

“One-third to half of the auctions had bids on them,” the Stratics forum administrator said. “I was sitting on roughly $1500.”

The auctions were for in-game gold in Ultima Online. What Harden did was set up places within Ultima Online where players could come and either buy “junk,” as he called it, or simply donate gold to be auctioned off on eBay. After setting up 43 auctions, things were running smoothly until eBay pulled every single one of them off of their site.

“What we don't allow is for a regular individual to hold auctions in the name of charities,” Chris Donlay, eBay spokesperson, said. “There's no guarantee then that the individual is going to send them [the proceeds].”

Basically, Harden failed to follow express eBay policy regarding private management of "charitable" auctions. So eBay pulled the auctions.

What this means for Harden is resubmitting all of the auctions over again, but this time deleting any references to the Red Cross, or his own site which mentions the fact that his proceeds are going to go to charitable causes. “I purposely left a few tidbits in the very vague "new" auctions that hopefully will perk some eyebrows and buyers can investigate why this Auction mentions my name, the Tsunami, and Stratics,” he said.

Despite this setback, Harden was surprised and delighted at the success of his efforts. He said when he thought of the idea on New Year’s Eve while finishing up some accounting work, he never thought it would get so big.

“If I received $500, I would be speechless—if $1,000 I would… how to put it eloquently... "Crap Bricks,” he said.

Hey, I give the guy a lot of credit. This is an excellent and novel way to raise money for a wonderful cause. Personally, I like how it integrates MMORPGs with a real world cause, allowing the former to help support the latter. Very nicely done.

Revenge of the Google

Richard's Electronic Ephemera directed me to this humorous post on the Google Blog.

Apparently someone wrote in criticizing one of the recent Winter Google Doodles and the Google Blog Team responded in kind. Very amusing.

RPGs of 2005

Slashdot pointed me to an RPGDot article on The RPGs of 2005 (Part 1). Worth a quick look. I'm mildly annoyed they failed to mention World of Warcraft, especially given WoW's huge player/fan base and immense popularity.

It's Snowing!

Some nice light snow falling this morning. The best part is the temperature. Weather.com has us at 34 F. Cold enough for it to snow but warm enough that we shouldn't see much if any accumulation. The worst that means is I may have a little to clear off my car later. (And the roads may get a bit wet and sloshy.)

Personally, I love snow. I grew up in Connecticut so snow has always been a part of my life during the Winter months. It was always fun to run outside and play in it, shovel it, do whatever. I think I'll always have a lot of strong, vivid memories attached to snow. Even nowadays when I don't play in it so much, whenever I see snow falling, some part of me silently thinks to myself "yay!"

Another Strange Search

Apparently, if you do a Starware search for free naked picture's of porn star candy samples, this site is the second result. Whoever got here by that search, I can assure you that you will not find "porn star candy samples" nor "free naked pictures" thereof, at least not here. I recommend you go ask this guy [NDC]. He probably either has samples for you to view or knows where to get them. (I'd be shocked if not.)

ADDENDUM: Same recommendation for whoever got here by this MSN search. [10:37 AM]

ADDENDUM II: Who are you people? [10:43 AM]

typoGenerate This! (But am I infringing a copyright?)

Introducing typoGenerator!

typoGenerator is a random generator for 'typoPosters'. a typoPoster is a poster, created from images and letters/text that doesn´t have any sense, just to look good.

the user types some text; typoGenerator searches images.google for the text and creates a background from the found images, using randomly chosen effects. then it places the text, using random effects too.

I know I'll spend hours (or at least many, many minutes) playing around with this thing at a later time.

In the FAQ, here's the response to "may i use generated images on my website?"

you may use images generated by typoGenerator on private websites, but NOT for any commercial applications. the images used for generating may be subject to copyright.

Interesting question/issue. Since typoGenerator admittedly searches images.google and uses what it finds to create the resulting.. image, does this impinge or otherwise implicate the original author's copyright in and to the original work?

My gut reaction is a resounding "no." Fair use would seem to protect the resulting work, notwithstanding its basis on a preexisting one. An example of this sort of protection might be the sampling cases, wherein a rap artist "sampled" a preexisting musical work and used very small portions in the new song. Here, the program takes content available by images.google and uses it to create a wholly new work. Granted fair use is never that cut and dry and also granted I'll be taking Copyright next semester. Maybe the class will shed some clearer light on this particular example.

Thanks go to The Hot Librarian for introducing me to the generator!

Admitted Weakness No. 1

Chocolate Milk. I love the smell, the texture, the taste of chocolate milk. When I make it myself from syrup or powder, I inevitably add either too little or too much of the chocolatey goodness, occasionally rectifying said error by the addition of more non-chocolate milk to the concoction. Today it's a store-bought, small plastic bottle. I have to force myself to extend the consumption, else I would guzzle the entire beverage in a matter of seconds. 'Tis a testing time of strength of will. And yet, it tastes better while cold if not while mildly chilled (the best I can manage from the store-bought without additional cooling). After my initial purchase and removal of the plastic seal, I repeatedly smelled the outside of the dispensing end, taking in the heavenly aroma. Chocolate Milk.

Meet the Fockers Focking Hilarious!

Meet the Fockers (sequel to Meet the Parents) stars Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Blythe Danner, and Teri Polo with a brief cameo by Owen Wilson.

My Plot Summary: In preparation for the upcoming wedding, the Byrnes family (along with Greg/Gaylord and Pam) heads down to Florida to meet the Fockers. With them comes their grandson, Little Jack, and the ever-loveable Mr. Jinx (the toilet-flushing cat). The notoriously uptight and straight Byrnes, Jack and Dina, meet their match in the free-spirited Fockers, Bernie and Roz.

This movie is hilarious. It carries the same kind of humor and delivery as the first one only with an added dose of personality and wit. Hoffman and Streisand are *perfect* as the Focker parents. Absolutely perfect! The casting was dead on. Not just Jewish and free-spirited but eccentric like you won't believe! For example, Streisand's character, Greg's mom, is a sex therapist for the elderly! You can imagine how that plays with Dustin Hoffman as her husband and the straight-laced, ex-CIA father in law. Too too funny.

I also loved the few parallels between this and the first movie. I don't want to elaborate on this, partially because I don't want to give anything away and partially because it's a bit difficult. Suffice it to say that they exist and are noticeable if you keep your eyes open.

I really don't know what else to say. There are so many hilarious points in the movie but I don't want to give any of them away because you really should go see this. It's a funny movie. In this day and age, no small feat. Of course it almost goes without saying, make sure you saw the first movie before you see this one. And I can practically guarantee that if you liked the first movie then you'll also like this one. As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed it and will get the DVD when it comes out. I'll watch it again and laugh even more, only with a beer in hand instead of a water.

ALAN'S MOVIE RATING: DVD-Worthy. Hands down.

WoW Update

In between movie reviews. Paladin up to level 43 and 232 (soon to be 234+) Blacksmithing, specialized as a Weaponsmith. At 235 I can make The Shatterer, The Phantom at 245 (req. level 44), Blight at 250 (req. level 45) and the Truesilver Champion at 260 (req. level 47). Last night I learned that Badlands + Mount = Mining Paradise. I harvested 13 Iron, over 40 Mithril and 7 Truesilver over an hour or more. Easy. Also got my mining up to 254+ so I can now mine and (once I train it) smelt Thorium. Fun!

Soon (maybe) I'm going to have to start working on my Priestess. She's only level 10 right now with Alchemy at ~100. I'm going to need her at 40 and with Alchemy 225+ so she can transmute metals for me when I get there. Granted that's a bit down the road but not all that far. Too bad my guild doesn't have another Alchemist (or an Alchemist to be frank).

We now return you to your regularly scheduled movie reviews already in progress.

Blade: Trinity Sharper Than The Second But Duller Than The First

The third in the series, Blade: Trinity, stars Wesley Snipes, Dominic Purcell, Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds, and Parker Posey with cameos by Kris Kristofferson, Triple H (yes, the wrestler), and Natasha Lyonne.

IMDB Plot Summary:

Wesley Snipes returns as the day-walking vampire hunter in the explosive third and final film in the Blade franchise, Blade: Trinity. When the Vampire Nation hatches a plan to frame Blade in a series of brutal killings, he must join forces with the Nightstalkers, a clan of human vampire hunters, in an extreme battle in which the trail of blood leads directly to the notorious vampire legend, Dracula.

Here's the thing, you know this isn't going to be a masterpiece. The first one, Blade, is a classic. The second one, Blade II, is pretty much a bust. This one, at least in quality, falls nicely between the two. It's much lighter, even going so far as to include humor. (Pretty much every time Ryan Reynolds is on the screen I was laughing at something he said or did.) It's also nice to see Blade get some help. One tenet of this series has been Blade's isolation. He works alone and that's the way it is. Seeing him have some company, some fellow hunters, is nice. Seeing him have Jessica Biel as a fellow hunter is very nice.

My initial reaction to this movie's trailer (way back this is) was that it looked to me like Underworld only with Jessica Biel instead of Kate Beckinsale. Blade:Trinity is a bit more than that, and a heck of a lot better than Underworld. It has a better, simpler plot and a better feel to it. Underworld just seems too dark and pale in comparison, making the comparison a poor one. Then again, if that was my first reaction upon viewing the trailer, they needed to redo that trailer and get me to not immediately compare it to Underworld.

As for criticisms, I have a few. The movie didn't really reach me or draw me in. Throughout I felt like I was watching a movie. I wasn't very involved with what was going on and it didn't pluck any heartstrings or command my rapt attention. It just didn't. But then, as I initially stated, you know this isn't going to be a masterpiece. So if you're just there for the ride, so to speak, to have a good time, relax and enjoy whatever they have to present to you, it's a pretty good action movie.

Something or, more accurately, someone else -- Parker Posey. I am not a huge Parker Posey fan, though I do not dislike her either. In my book she falls under the "alright" category. Seeing her "vamped out" and goth was pretty cool but she just doesn't strike me as a vampire. She just doesn't. I would have been much happier with another actress in that role. I had trouble taking Parker Posey seriously as the head vamp (second to Drake of course). I don't know if that's just me bringing my preconceived notions to the movie or her failing to impress me as a powerful vampire leader. I can't distinguish between the two. All I can say is that I wish someone else had been cast in her role.

By the way, continuing in my favored wrestlers-turned-actors category (e.g. The Rock, Rowdy Roddy Piper), I liked Triple H as a vampire. He didn't have all that much screen-time but what he had was good. He fit in. Him I could believe as a vampire minion. Easy. Plus, when he has a fight scene with Ryan Reynolds, he throws in some wrestling moves. I thought that was hysterical and excellent.

Last gripe, and I'll be deliberately vague here. The ending annoyed me. Given what happened at the end, I'm not sure if there's anywhere else to go with this series. Granted someone somewhere said this was the final in the series but should they wish to go on, it seems like they've painted themselves into a corner. Maybe that's deliberate. Who knows.

All in all, a good action movie. Nothing to write home about but certainly worth a viewing if you like action movies, vampire movies or the first Blade movie.

ALAN'S MOVIE RATING: Rental or Cable-Worthy.

Would you like some movies with that?

As some of you have undoubtedly picked up by now, I am a big movie fan. I try to see a lot of them in the theater (mostly matinees) though I also purchase quite a few DVDs. This weekend's purchases included Garden State, Wimbledon, King Arthur and the Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century Collection.

Last night I watched Garden State with three friends. I still love it. Of the movies I've seen this year, the only one I would definitely place above it is Spider-Man 2, with Sideways coming in at a close tie (with Garden State I mean). Sideways and Garden State, like I Heart Huckabees, had things to say, messages to pass along. Where Huckabees crams them down your throat with an unhealthy doseage of confusion and frustration, the others give you a nice story to follow with interesting characters and let you pick up on their message(s) as they arise, as they are presented, at a calm pace.

When Sideways comes out on DVD, I'll pick that up and watch it again. I'm sure I'll be similarly impressed, again. That's my measure of a truly excellent movie. If I saw it once and thoroughly enjoyed it then I see it again (on DVD) and almost equally enjoy it, again, it's a safe bet that the movie sparked something in me or for me. The best thing of all is that unlike years past when it took well-done action or Sci Fi movies to interest me, these days I'm also open to more of the artsy, message-laden films, such as the ones mentioned above. Almost hopeful.

Movies!

Fyi, I'm trying to catch up on my movie-theater watching as I have been rather delinquent for the past month. Last night I caught Blade Trinity (review forthcoming). I hope to see the following in the next week or so: Closer, Meet the Fockers, Spanglish, and Ocean's Twelve. Quasi-optional viewings include: Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, and Christmas With the Cranks. Coming up there's: In Good Company (Jan. 14), Elektra (Jan. 14), Alone In The Dark (Jan. 28, optional), Hide and Seek (Jan. 28, optional), and Constantine (Feb. 18). I may have missed a few but these were the ones that caught my eye thus far.

As for non-theater movies, I am, as ever, hopelessly behind. I do have one review to post for Red vs. Blue. That too falls under the "forthcoming" category. Unlike some other forthcomings, Blade Trinity and Red vs. Blue *will* be posted. (Over my dead, lifeless body if need be... Or at least over a World of Warcraft-free time period, same thing.)

[Btw, my WoW Paladin is up to level 41.7 and 223 Blacksmithing.]