Family Guy Movie Update

Well it will be out in less than one week on DVD.. and it's actually got a lot of extras. Here's the scoop from amazon.com's sales list:

This item will be released on September 27, 2005.

Product Details
Director: Peter Shin, Pete Michels
Encoding: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries. Read more about DVD formats.)
Format: Animated, Color, Closed-captioned
Rated: NR
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Video
DVD Release Date: September 27, 2005
Run Time: 88
DVD Features:
Available subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Commentary by creator Seth Macfarlane, cast members, and writers
Bonus uncensored audio track
Animatic comparison
From IMDb: Quotes & Trivia

Description
In this exclusive 88 minute DVD premiere, featuring brand new, never before seen content, Stewie, the maniacal baby genius, is distracted from his plans for world domination when he sees a man who looks just like him on television. Convinced that this man must be his real father (after all, how could he possibly share genetic material with the dimwitted Peter?), Stewie sets off on a cross-country road trip to find him. But his incredible journey leads him to discoveries far more vile and shocking that anything found in his diaper.

Hawaiian Dictionary!

Check this out:

Now you can actually understand the meaning of all those unpronouncable road names!

The Manchurian Candidate

I have watched this movie three times with various people here at Tripler... and I have to say it's one of the most engrossing movies I have seen in a while. I watched the 2004 edition with Denzel, but apparently the 1962 edition with Frank Sinatra is supposed to be excellent as well. Of course, what made the movie more interesting to us was all the army involvement as well as the information about the Medal of Honor. Fascinating stuff, watch it if you get a chance. Hell.. netflix is only like $7.99 right now. And I am hearing stuff about peerflix.com - trading DVDs for .99 cent online. I am not sure how much it would be to mail them though. It seems like the company may give you free mailers, but I don't see how it could be making any money if it does that. On the same account though, I don't even see how netflix can be making any money with their rates. Also, movieflix.com seems interesting for downloading movies legally. This website has some info on the legal movie download sites: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kimkomando/2004-09-27-komando_x.htm

USS Crommelin

So two days ago I got to take a tour of one of the Navy frigates, top down. It was really neat... we went all over the ship including the engine rooms, med holds, operations, command center, xo and the captain's quarters, bridge, and on deck to look at the attack and defensive systems. It's good to be an officer in the Navy.. but I can see how much it would suck to be an enlisted. The person showing us around was an E6, the ship Doc/corpsman. He's pretty much the top ranking personnel after the captain and XO. He takes care of everyone on the ship by himself.. minor surgeries to dental work. Since this trip was organized through the department of Psychiatry at Tripler, the doc was trying to show us exactly what psych capabilities he had. Which was pretty much nothing. They had pain medication but very little even in terms of antipsychotics and SSRIs. Somewhat confusing - considering that they would have no way to get more while on a mission in the middle of the ocean.. but I guess they manage somehow. The ships latest missions have been busting drug runners... they destroyed the last ship they captured in front of the apprehended crew members... took them two hours of pummeling it with their cannon. I took pictures including their R2D2 type phalanx defense system. I will try to post them when I get a chance.

Sarkar (2005)

I had a talk with one of my friends about taking Step II (for me) and what to expect on an ADT/things to do before getting there (for him). Helped me docus on how to direct my studying... in the meanwhile, I still managed to make time to watch the new Hindi movie Sarkar... a Ram Gopal Verma film about (surprise) the Mumbai underworld. It's actually inspired by the Godfather, and, surprisingly, is actually an original movie unlike most "inspirations" done by Bollywood which tend to be word-for-word remakes. Though, as my sister pointed out, RGV's films are pretty original historically.

Anyway, the movie was excellent, featuring both Bacchans are father and son. I have to admit, it is kinda cool to have a father and son duo acting together in a movie as father and son. Especially when the father is the greatest movie star ever in Indian cinema history.

Sin City

So I saw the movie last night as it came out on DVD, and it was very different than I expected it to be. It felt like I was watching something out of Max Payne (the video game). VERY cool, very interesting. My sister and I were watching it late last night, staving off our drowsiness. Too bad I didn’t get to see it on the big screen–would have been something. Today’s obligatory movie will be Stealth. I heard it sucked ... but we will see. Movies with Jessica Biel do make me wary though... For example, what exactly was she doing in Blade Trinity??? It was very annoying to find a seventh heaven cast member in a vampire movie of all things.

Lola Renna (1998) Courtesy of amazon.com 

Hooked on Run Lola Run

I any of you have still not seen this movie (Lola Rennt), you SO need to see it. It's short (80 min) German film from 1998. The DVD version does come in English audio, and it's pretty decent, but trust me, you will like the German version a lot better. It was my favorite movie of '98 - mine and Dana's actually (we were both taking German at the time we first saw it). I am sure she'll appreciate it that I showed it last week to a friend of mine and his sister, and they seemed to love it. In fact, my friend was only going to watch for 10 minutes after my insistance, and he ending up watching all of it. And yeah, Dana, it was still great to watch it even now.

Best News Article EVER

How sad... but how sinfully satisfying....

Russia's Spam-King Brutally Murdered

Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every Russian citizen with e-mail, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Sunday. He died after suffering repeated blows to the head.

Kushnir, 35, headed the English learning centers the Center for American English, the New York English Centre and the Centre for Spoken English, all known to have aggressive Internet advertising policies in which millions of e-mails were sent every day.

In the past angry Internet users have targeted the American English centre by publishing the Center’s telephone numbers anywhere on the Web to provoke telephone calls. The Center’s telephone was advertised as a contact number for cheap sex services, or bargain real estate sales.

Another attack involved hundreds of people making phone calls to the American English Center and sending it numerous e-mails back, but Vardan Kushnir remained sure of his right to spam, saying it was what e-mails were for.

Under Russian law, spamming is not considered illegal, although lawmakers are working on legal projects that could protect Russian Internet users like they do in Europe and the U.S.

MosNews

Who Says you Need Eyes . . .

Close you Eyes and ... FIGHT! Who needs to see to do a Fatality!

Read this unbelievable article....

Brice Mellen is a whiz at video games such as "Mortal Kombat."

In that regard, the 17-year-old isn't much different from so many others his age.

Except for one thing: He's blind.

And as he easily dispatched foes who took him on recently at a Lincoln gaming center, the affable and smiling Mellen remained humble.

"I can't say that I'm a superpro," he said, working the controller like an extension of his body. "I can be beat."

Those bold enough to challenge him weren't so lucky. One by one, while playing "Soul Caliber 2," their video characters were decapitated, eviscerated and gutted without mercy by Mellen's on-screen alter ego.

"I'm getting bored," Mellen said in jest as he won game after game.

Blind since birth when his optic nerve didn't connect because of Leber's disease, Mellen honed his video game skills over the years through patient and not-so-patient playing, memorizing key joystick operations and moves in certain games, asking lots of questions and paying particular attention to audio cues. He worked his way up from games such as "Space Invaders" and "Asteroid," onto the modern combat games.

"I guess I don't know how I do it, really," Mellen said, as he continued playing while facing away from the screen. "It's beyond me."

Mellen knows this much: He started playing at home when he was about 7.

"He enjoyed trying to play, but he wasn't very good at first," said his father, Larry Mellen. "But he just kept on trying. ... He's broken a lot of controllers."

When the question of broken controllers comes up, Mellen flashes a smile and just shrugs.

"I used to have quite a temper," he said. "Me and controllers didn't get along very well."

Now they get along just fine.

While playing "Soul Caliber 2," Mellen worked his way through the introductory screens with ease, knowing exactly what to click to start the game he wanted.

He rarely asked for help. Once the game started he didn't need any help.

"How do I move?" an exasperated opponent, Ryan O'Banion, asked during a battle in which his character is frozen in place.

"You can't," Mellen answered before finishing him off.

"That's what happens. It's why I don't play him," O'Banion said after his blood-spattered character's corpse vanishes from the screen.

How Mellen became so good is a mystery to his father.

"He just sat there and he tried and tried until he got it right," Larry Mellen said. "He didn't ever complain to me or anyone about how hard it was."

Mellen hangs out any chance he gets at the DogTags Gaming Center in Lincoln, which opened last month. Every now and then someone will come in and think he can easily beat the blind kid.

That attitude doesn't faze Mellen.

"I'll challenge them, maybe. If I feel like a challenge," he said, displaying an infectious confidence. "I freak people out by playing facing backwards."

There's nothing he likes better than playing video games, Mellen said.

He will be a senior in high school next year. After graduation, he plans to take a year off because he wants a break from school.

When he does go to college, Mellen wants to study -- what else? -- video-game design.

Source: Buisness Week