I’ve been sent this one a few times today, so for the few of you who haven’t read today’s Dilbert, it hits home for us cube rats:
(Although, in my case, you should replace “Xbox” with “Nintendo DS”)
Mashing buttons since 1984
by Tony 3 Comments
I saw Jet Li’s Fearless this weekend. It was a very enjoyable movie, even if it stuck to “the script” pretty closely. The script being that of a warrior’s arrogance, over compensation, failure, and finally, redemption. Based on a true story, the movie was good drama with moments of the mellow dramatic. There were scenes where Li wasn’t able to completely convey the character’s emotions, but he still held his own. The supporting cast was good, even great in some parts. (The Japanese actor who played Jet Li’s final challenger, Shido Nakamura, was most excellent) The martial arts were amazing and the cinematography was gorgeous. Although it moved slow in places, I really enjoyed Fearless.
It’s a shame that it’s Jet Li’s “last” martial arts movie. He is art in motion.
May the most excellent piece of electronic gadgetry I have ever owned Rest In Peace:
It’s dead. I killed it. It’s a shame, too. I had recently purchased a replacement battery (from here) and tried to replace it myself. The battery itself is excellent. I was getting less than three hours on the original battery and decided it was time to replace it. I bought the battery, which came with a great instructional video on how to replace the battery. Everything went swimmingly and I was getting 6+ hours on the new battery. But then the click will started going flakey. So I disassembled the unit and made sure all the connections were good and I think that’s where things went bad. I crimped the little ribbon cable that connects the click wheel to the main board. Only I didn’t realize I had crimped it. So I patched it back up and it worked like a champ for another week or so. Then it went flakey again. It worked intermittently until it finally stopped working all together. I took it apart for the final time and noticed the ribbon cable had a tiny tear and some of the wires were frayed. It was my own dumb fault, crap!
As I said, it’s a shame, because I was really getting into podcasts. I have a whole post of podcast reviews half-done because I never finished listening to the ones sitting on the iPod. I don’t really like to listen to them while I’m at my desk, it was easier to turn them on in the car, while mowing the grass, that sort of thing. So I’m over a month behind on my episodes.
Luckily, I have a replacement on its way. I bartered with my brother-in-law and we’re making a trade — my old Xbox and some games for a new iPod Nano he got for signing up for an account somewhere. His wife is getting one as well, so they decided it was a fair trade. Hopefully it will show up before the end of the week and I’ll be jamming again on another piece of most excellent gadgetry. I can’t wait!
Now I have to figure out what to do with the Mini. It still “works” in that the hard drive is perfectly functional and has a new battery. A replacement click-wheel is $50+ which didn’t make sense to me (I’d rather put those 50 bucks towards a new iPod w/video), so now I have to decide what to do with it. Surely someone on eBay is looking for a iPod to cannibalize!
by Tony 5 Comments
Did you catch last night’s episode of “The Office“? If so, what did you think about using Call of Duty as a prop?
I thought they did a good job. It looked like they actually used the real game (though I’m not sure, since I don’t play CoD) and they recreated the noob (Jim Halpert) perfectly. The shot of Jim’s guy running hopelessy into a corner while another player watched was perfect. Then when he turned around he was lined up perfectly for a head shot. Classic.
They even tweaked the geek psyche even more when they used a cute girl as one of the players. One of the better players.
Well done, NBC.
by Tony 4 Comments
(NB: This post is about a couple man-crushes of mine, Will Ferrell and Wentworth Miller. Proceed with caution.)
I had a chance to catch Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby over the weekend. Wow, talk about bringing the funny! Let me start by saying I am a huge Will Ferrell fan. While his portrayals of Alex Trebek and George W. Bush are awesome, his Harry Caray skits always leave me in tears. So I may a bit biased when I say that Talladega Nights is one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. I have never laughed as hard as I did during the “Grace at dinner” scene. You’ve seen parts of it in the trailers and previews, but those short glimpses do no justice for the scene as a whole. Holy-crap-on-a-crutch did that scene make me laugh.
I am not what you would call a NASCAR “fan.” I’m a casual observer of the “sport”, but Mrs. Buttonmasher’s parents live down the street from a NASCAR driver and is friendly with his family, so by extension I have some connection to NASCAR, if only peripherally. But I get the NASCAR (redneck) culture and the movie skewers it pretty well. I’m sure there were some inside jokes that I missed, but most were hard miss. The product placements were a bit obvious, but I see that as just another jab at NASCAR’s rampant love with its sponsorships. On a whole, though, the movie was enjoyable, with more than one more side-splitting scene. But the prayer scene alone was worth the price of admission. If you like Will Ferrel and his shenanigans, TN:tBoRB is for you.
I can resume another man-crush of mine tonight, as Prison Break‘s second season premier is tonight. I loved the first season of PB and I’m hoping the show continues its awesomeness. I can’t help if the lead character exudes 138% more manliness than anyone else on TV (except maybe this guy). I was a little disappointed with the ending of the first season but I see no reason why the show can’t pick up the action that it did so well in the first season.
Finally, college football season is right around the corner. Don’t even get me started on my college football man-crush!
by Tony 3 Comments
(**24 Spoilers Below. But honestly, you missed the season finale? Shame on you!**)
Wow, what a finale!
“You?!” That’s the question (or was it resignation?) Preisdent Logan asked Jack as he took his helmet off and took control of the Marine 1 helicopter. It’s also the question Jack was probably asking as the final minutes of his day came to a close and Cheng Zhi came into focus. So where does this go next year? Will Jack be a double agent? Will he simply work for the Chinese government? Or will we simply follow Jack as he tries to escape? I had no idea what the direction the next “day” would take, but it’s already looking intriguing.
I thoroughly enjoyed the 24 finale. I was surprised to see that Jack shot Henderson, but let’s be honest, he had it coming. I was also surprised to see that Rooney (I don’t remember his first name, he was the guy on the submarine) didn’t bite it, considering the fate of others that have crossed Jack’s path. Good for him. I also liked the contrast of President Palmer’s body being ceremoniously loaded into Air Force One, en route to Arlington Cemetary, while President Logan was unceremoniously loaded into a limo, mostly likely on his way to jail. Palmer was a man of honor and integrity, Logan a whiny little weasel.
So yeah, no complaints here. The show ended with a cliff-hanger which means you know I’ll be tuning in next January!
by Tony 5 Comments
So last night was the season finale of Prison Break. All things considered, I enjoyed it. What did you guys think? Was that how you thought things would go down? Me either.
SPOILERS BELOW, so if you haven’t seen the episode yet, don’t read any further. But you’ll have to reevaluate your TV viewing priorities. I mean, come on!
So first off, I wasn’t exactly happy to see the plane take off without its cargo. I know if they safely made it on that plane then the series certainly would lose excitement in season two, but I’ve long thought this series could only be good for two or three seasons, top, so I thought them getting to Mexico would have been interesting.
I will say that watching Abruzzi (or as I like to call him, Zydrunas Ilgauskas) hacking off T-Bag’s hand with an axe was one of the most gruesomely satisfying moments this season. I don’t think anyone could have watched that scene and not wince. What makes it better is that the wincing wouldn’t be for T-Bag. It was simply for the pure brutality. There is no sympathy for Theodore Bagwell. They did such a good job developing Bagwell’s character that you couldn’t help but hate him. He was such a conniving weasel! He got what he deserved. It was equally satisfying that Abruzzi did it, as Peter Stormare has been one of my favorite actors since he was Lev Andropov, Russian Cosmonaut, in Armageddon. “I’m a very important person in Russia!”
I was disappointed how quickly Dr. Tancredi was discarded. I honestly thought she and Scofield had a future together, helping out the orphaned children in Mexico or something, but she was definitely much more unstable than I thought. Her demise wasn’t pretty and Scofield will shed a tear when he finds out.
Overall, I enjoyed the finale and I really liked Prison Break as a whole. A good show, interesting premise, decent character development and enough action to keep everything going. I am definitely looking forward to next season!
by Tony 8 Comments
As I was watching today’s episode of 24, I got to thinking about why some characters have to get whacked. Why can’t at least some of the good people make it? Like the bank manager from last week’s episode. He didn’t have to die, did he? Evidently there’s some Grim Reaper-pheromone that surrounds Jack that, when you absorb it, the sickle is coming down on you. Maybe not this hour, but it’s going to happen. So I thought of a few survival tips for finding yourself in Jack’s path. It will at least help you determine whether or not you’re going to become a Jack Bauer meat shield:
That’s just a friendly survival guide from a guy who knows. Just don’t ask me how I know. I just do.
by Tony 6 Comments
I know I’m not alone in my enjoyment of the TV show “Monk“. It’s usually a funny show with enough quirkiness to make anyone laugh. I think they cut some corners today in the set department.
In the episode, Monk is trying to find a stolen diamond and claim a big reward. He’s being followed by a group of wanna-be detectives also after the money. One of them, played by DJ Qualls, is a nerdy detective with all sorts of spy gadgetry. Things were going good until he pulls out a PSP and calls it his “stress detector” (or some such thing). Huh? Is that all the prop people can come up with? Did someone say, “we need something high tech looking. Oh, and black!” and a stage hand pulled his PSP out of his backpack and said, “how about this?” Come on, USA! You can do better than that!
And what does this say about the PSP? It’s already been relegated to bad props on a TV show? That can’t be good.
by Tony 5 Comments
I’ve had my iPod mini for almost two years and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. It’s been a fantastic piece of gadgetry. I’ve followed, from a distance, the evolution of the other iPods. When the Nano and Shuffle were announced, I was still happy with my mini. I felt no hint of jealousy. Even the shiny, colorful iPod photo couldn’t do it for me. But today I had a chance to mess around (that sounds so adulterous) with my buddy’s video iPod. Wow! It might have been a childish infatuation, but now I can’t get it out of my head. Now I want one.
I’ve heard mini’s have held their value pretty well. Maybe it’s time to start a video iPod fund. Any buttonMashers out there have the latest iteration of the wonderful iPod? Was my initial impression so positive because of its beauty and not its abilities? My friend had an episode of Alias on and it looked fantastic. Is it all that? I love the mini interface and I love the simple design. Have they carried over the great design all the way through to this generation? I am certainly tempted right now.
I just need to make sure that money wouldn’t cut into the Revolution fund…