I already knew that he was going to be in the states to screen Ponyo at Berkley, but it wasn't known if he was going to do something else. People have speculated that he could go to Comic-Con in San Diego, and apparently he will be anchoring the animation panel with John Lassiter.

ANIMATION PANEL — Animation legends Hayao Miyazaki and John Lasseter join veteran animation directors Lee Unkrich, Kirk Wise, Ron Clements and John Musker on Fri., July 24 at 12:45 p.m. for an animation panel which will highlight upcoming animated films, including Disney•Pixar’s TOY STORY/TOY STORY 2 double feature, Disney•Pixar’s TOY STORY 3, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ half-hour holiday TV special PREP & LANDING, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG and Miyazaki’s PONYO. John Lasseter will host the panel and Patton Oswalt will moderate a group Q&A following the presentation, which will include filmmaker insights, trailers and select film sequences.

Very cool.

Tags: animation, con

So, I posted how my wife has found a phone? Well, the problem is that there really isn't a phone I want that's out yet, so I want to drop back and punt while getting my wife her phone.

Talking to the T-Mobile sales drone, it sounds like I need to take a phone anyways. I told him about my prepaid Renew that I picked up and wanted to keep and he said, "Well, I'll just send you a free phone and you can switch the SIM cards". Well, that kinda defeated the purpose of me buying the Renew.

I can do FlexPay, but that means buying phones at full price. That kinda makes it tough to justify buying the MotoZine, since it lists at $350. I don't think it is worth THAT much. So, that means buying cheapo phones until the phone I want is out. Not exactly ideal.

Edit: Another option is to go ahead and have her on an individual contract while I continue on with "Pay As You Go" for the time being. Considering that I can't use my phone at work anyways, it is only going to be on when I'm not at home.

Tags: phone, rant
Current Music: Alter Bridge - Coming Home

The MotoZine ZN5 is apparently available for free from T-Mobile with a 2 year contract. It looks like a nifty camera phone that has the bonus of having WiFi (No UMA tho).

Tags: phone
Current Music: Alter Bridge - Blackbird

Anthony (Luke Wilson) has just been released from a mental facility after a mental breakdown. Picking him up is his friend Dignan (Owen Wilson) who has a wild idea of doing a robbery to get the attention of his former boss, Mr Henry (James Caan) for bigger things. With the help of their sad sack friend Bob (Robert Musgrave) they rob a bookstore and use their earnings to go on a road trip.

This is the movie that introduced Wes Anderson and the Wilson brothers to the world. Here we have the story of a trio of misfits trying to make something of themselves. Anthony is an innocent of sorts, a guy who earnestness buys a lot of goodwill from the people around him, and gets him love in the end from the non-english speaking Inez. Dignan is the one who is potentially dangerous, coming up with wild schemes and having the will to rope his friends into them. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a clue how to make a good plan. Bob lives in the shadow of his older brother and trying to get something for himself.

Together, they all find a piece of what they are looking for, tho they aren't always successful in getting it.

This is a low-key comedy which gets its laughs in how clueless these guys are and in how they relate to each other. The dialog is very quotable and the characters are ones you can kinda get behind even with their faults.

Tags: movie, review

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/Story?id=8007180&page=1

I hadn't realized he was still doing it. Course, I stopped caring about pop music years ago, but he was a staple of my radio listening in the 80s. I actually still have some of his shows recorded on tape somewhere. Course, a lot of his "Top 40" shows get replayed on SiriusXM on the 70s and 80s channels.

Tags: music, xm
Current Music: Helloween

I figure some people who read my blog might be interested...

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/09/make_a_mellotron_out_of_w.html

Tags: geek, music

Smith (Clive Owen) is waiting at a bus stop minding his own business when a he sees a pregnant woman getting chased by a man with a gun. He ends up getting involved and ends up with a dead mother and a newborn that he doesn't know what to do with. Meanwhile, Hertz (Paul Giamatti) is busy trying to track him down to get the baby himself. Gaining the assistance of a lactating prostitute (Monica Bellucci), Smith does everything he can to protect the baby.

The name of the movie is fair warning. It is a Shoot'Em Up that is rather bloody and has a high body count. Kinda strangely, female nudity is kept to the bare minimum even with all the opportunities presented in the movie.

Plot? What plot? A movie like this doesn't really need a plot. This is pretty much action porn. Think of all the ridiculous, over-the-top action scenes that you can think of, and this movie could possibly top those, often comically so. It works well because Owen and Giamatti really sell us on this movie. I've always been a fan of Owen, and he doesn't disappoint in this film. Giamatti is great as a somewhat geeky guy who's managed to make himself top dog.

Overall, it is a good time if this is your type of movie. At under 90 minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome.

Tags: movie, review
Current Music: Beardfish - Sleeping In Traffic

We have a few issues that need to be dealt with in the near term:

1. Both my wife and I have lost our cell phones.


2. My father-in-law's employee discount with Sprint ends at the end of August.


3. The wife wants cell phones before we go to Pennsic.

Now, I'm very much interested in getting an Android phone, but I'm more interested in some of the phones which are going to be released later this year (Motorola Morrison, Samsung Galaxy) than the G1 or the MyTouch (That is if the MyTouch actually gets delivered before Pennsic.) Course, that means switching to T-Mobile, which I wouldn't mind.

So, what are our options?

1. Buy new phones through the employee plan and stick with Sprint for a bit. I'm not sure that's possible in the first place, since my FIL is kinda retired already. Cost of the phones were $50 when we last did it, and I'm not sure if we are going to get a choice. Sprint is also pretty pricey last I checked.



2. Switch to T-Mobile early and maybe pick up a phone outside of contract so that I can upgrade when the phone I want comes out. I could probably find a G1 used, but I don't know if I really want to do that. I certainly could wait for what I want.



3. Get prepaid phones and deal with that until it is time to switch. Course, it would mean buying phones we plan on abandoning in a few months once we decided on a plan.

Tags: phone

In particular, bullets and numbering. You'd think by now that they would figure out a simple way to keep things the way you want it, particularly when you want different numbered bullets inside the section. It keeps wanting to continue using that numbering system rather than the parent one when you are done with the section.

Tags: rant, work
Current Music: The Duhks

Someone decided to retheme "Dominion" as a Discworld game.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/419554

Also, a rather interesting article on phrases originating from Comic Strips.

http://www.neatorama.com/2009/06/26/comic-origins-of-phrases/

Tags: comic, games, geek
Current Music: Anathema