Where does the fat go?

My life of occasionally not getting enough sleep and erratic eating habits (sometimes one meal a day, sometimes too many meals a day) are starting to catch up -- I have fat. Rolls of it. The tricky part is that I can't really see it until I have my shirt off. My legs and arms seem to be the same size, as all of the fat seems to be confined to my torso area. How does that happen? I'd rather have it evenly distributed throughout my body, but since it can't really be seen I'm not motived to do more cardio to offset it. What I really need to do is get back to my roots, and have specifically portioned out meal plans prepared for the week. I never thought my lanky self would say this, but I need to go on a diet!

*Be thankful pictures are not included.

Tools of the Trade

Baseball season is upon us, and games for the league I play for begin in just a few short weeks. I thought I would take you through a tour of my tools, and a little of their background.

I'll start with two of the most important possessions I own: my Rawlings 1B mitt and my OF glove. I purchased my 1st baseman mitt when I was a senior in high school. It cost me $70 and I love it. While I only played for fun with friends back then, I decided that 1st base was the position I would field -- even back then I knew I couldn't throw. There are five tools that a baseball player is evaluated by: throwing, fielding, running, hitting for contact, and hitting for power. Fielding is by far the strongest part of my game, and I can't think of anything more enjoyable than getting out there and fielding ground balls. Before this season I purchased a 13" outfielder glove, apparently of the same style worn by Ken Griffey Jr. Apparently with my speed, I am more suited to playing the outfield than sitting on my ass around 1st base awaiting throws. This glove is of the premium, "Heart of Hide" series from Rawlings, and cost me a pretty penny. There are few things worth investing in these days, but I think a quality baseball glove is one of them. I anticipate this glove lasting me throughout my "career". My cheaper 1st base mitt already broke once, which I found out when my teammate threw a ball and it went through my glove on the catch -- one of the web's laces had broken. Luckily laces are easily replaceable, but judging from the current quality of the leather, it will soon be time for me to retire this glove.

Under my glove, I wear a PalmGard hand protector. It has padding over the index finger as well as part of the hand under it. It serves two purposes: 1. It protects my hand from the sting of hard throws that I don't catch in the web; 2. It absorbs the sweat from my hand so the glove doesn't have to. This protects the leather of the glove, so the palm part won't start deteriorating. You don't see too many pros wearing these: I guess I'm not as core as they are. But I also don't want to invest in a new glove every two or three years.

Players are very picky about the equipment they use. This is not more true than for their bat. My normal game bat is a Easton Reflex that was given to me as a present during my sophomore year at college from my friends. It is a 33"/30 oz. bat (all metal bats must have a -3 length-to-weight differential in high school, college, and our league). I have fattened the taper of the end of the handle to resemble the C271 wood bat (seen below), and it has served me well -- despite me only getting seven hits all of last year. Definitely one of the coolest presents I've ever received.

Louisville Slugger has traditionally been the most popular brand of bats used at the Major League level. We have four wood bat games throughout the season, and when I saw one of these on Craigslist I jumped on it. I drove out to Southcenter Mall where I met a guy that was skinnier than me, and came home with a quality bat. The C271 model is touted as one of the better balanced ones from the Louisville Slugger, and is the same model used by Ken Griffey Jr. Hrm... I guess I like Griffey's stuff! I found two more of these on Craigslist about a year later at a price that I could not pass up. The guy selling them turned out to be a player in an independent league, who was seen striking out on ESPN MLB draft videos against the Mariner's #1 pick last year -- 6'7" 18 year old Phillippe Aumont, a right handed pitcher from Canada. The seller was living the dream, playing in an independent league, hoping to break into the big league within the next few years. I was promised that if he ever made it, he would supply me with all the wood bats I could ever want. These two that I picked up from him are of the same quality wood only available to major and minor leaguers (or eBayers willing to shell out big bucks), and I'm lucky to be able to have picked up two for $75. All three of them are maple.


While I'm not so picky when it comes to batting gloves, they are a necessity to help grip the bat, prevent blisters, as well as take some of the sting away from poorly hit balls. I decided not to go the Moises Alou way and pee on my hands in lieu of batting gloves, and I think everyone is happier for it. and let's be reasonable -- functionality is only half of the equation, with style being as important. I settled on these Mizuno ones after my original ones broke. They were discontinued, but since I liked them so much I stuck with Mizuno and got these. The helmet is a simple Rawlings one that I slapped stickers with my number on (as well as the Seattle Mariners logo). I wish I was cool and got the one ear flap version, but I needed it desperately and got it at Sports Authority the night before tryouts. My cleats are Reebook (brand loyalty!). I used to clean them every time I used them, toothbrush and everything (OCD?), but I was told by one of my baseball friends that some umpires actually looked for clean cleats (signifying newbies) and wouldn't give them calls.

And last but not least... the Nutty Buddy. Its purpose is probably self explanatory. I got it last week, as it was touted as the next best thing in testicular protection. Notice that it is not in the traditional triangular shape of cups, and is made of a sleeker and sexier material.

I once heard that baseball was a purely American game because of all the crap you had to buy to play it. Judging from the above, they might be right. While there is a definite financial investment, it allows me to able to play the best game ever invented, so I'm certainly willing to make that sacrifice. Play ball!

Pet Peeve: "Ruining" Movies/Books

One thing that bothers me is when people are discussing something, and somehow an ending or big plot twist of a movie or book is revealed, prompting someone to say, "why'd you tell me that? I haven't seen/read that yet!" The problem isn't that the surprise was ruined, but rather the fact that the movie/book came out five-plus years ago. I mean if you haven't read the book or rented the movie by now, you only have yourself to blame.

The only exception to the rule is that if it was already established earlier in the conversation that someone in the discussion had not yet seen/read the material at hand. After that point, the person that busts out the spoilers is nothing more than a common asshole.

So go to your local library or Hollywood Video, and make sure you've read all the books or seen all the movies that you really wanted to that may or may not contain a plot twist, and the next time someone says that Bruce Willis was actually dead the whole time you won't be bitching about something that happened ten years ago.

Hey, Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father! Bet you didn't see that coming -- neither did the people thirty years ago.

Real Whiteboarding

I thought that you all should get a glimpse of what the whiteboard is really for, as the rest of the posts about it here will contain nothing but utter shenanigans.

Alas, there will be no more equations, as Thomas has just passed his exam. Huzzah!

Hott hatt!

I wish it got here in time for the movie premiere (a week and a half later is cool, thanks New Era!), but UPS dropped off a gem a last week... straight hotness. I'll add it into my rotation of two Seattle Mariners caps. Should I be ghetto and keep the sticker on for no reason?

Reflections on the Weekend

Firstly, congratulations to Sister, who has graduated from her fancy Notre Dame, beating me by a good month... despite starting one year later. As earlier posts have indicated, I went down with my family for graduation celebrations and activities. I figured I'd outline things I took away from this past weekend:

• I was not going to do the big graduation walk in Husky Stadium because I didn't think I could sit through the whole damn thing. This was reinforced by my sister's commencement, which was just a tad over two hours. I felt like throwing myself over the bleachers -- speechs from a Cardinal and Martin Sheen were not enough to prevent that. The UW one will be along the lines of 4.5 to 5 hours. I will, however, do my small geography one -- the whole thing is two hours, including the dessert buffet.
• Spending time with your family can be... fun.
• The whole area of and around Notre Dame is really flat. This might sound wierd, but it's not something you see around here much. Their campus is very very fancy and nice, probably two to three times larger than UW -- despite catering to one fifth amount of students. Well manicured lawns, extremely clean campus, and old buildings that looked like they were built yesterday.
• $40 steak at Ruth Chris... that's it? Two small balls of meat, and six pieces of shrimp thrown in?
• Perhaps because of it being a smaller school, I felt there was a lot more chemistry amongst the student body there -- my sister seemed to know a lot of the people, and you could tell during the ceremonies that all the people didn't just go to Notre Dame, they lived it; parents were equally as enthusiastic.
  
• My sister has roomates with very... exuberant parents.
  
• Airplanes are a double edged sword -- I hate just sitting there in your seat for hours at a time (I made sure not to drink much beforehand so I wouldn't have to pee on the plane), but I love looking out the window. I stared at the ground for the first hour when we took off from Seattle, and the ground and wing of the plane when we took off from Chicago. Maybe I should take a series of one hour flights to all my destinations?
• Chicago traffic is out of control.
  
• Finally -- never trust any food or drink offered from a Comfort Inn hotel.
  

And I feel like I have to share this story: we flew in Friday at noonish, and got to my sister's house later that night. She said they had just ran out of toilet paper, and there was no more in the house. Well, that's all fine and good... until we returned to her house the next night. Still no toilet paper! Sunday? Nope. Monday morning? Nah. How does a house with four girls get through four days without toilet paper? One would be ridiculous, but four? It boggles the mind.

Bent Winged Plane

I'm now on a fancy bent wing plane, ready to take off from Chicago. Looks like we're probably leaving a bit later than anticipated, but that shouldn't deter a long awaited trip to OCB tonight. Goodbye mid-United States!

A Sheen Sighting!

Martin Sheen is on stage, giving us a speech right now. He just received Notre Dame's highest honor. Oh, and yeah, we have awesome seats.

Celebrity Sighting!

Err not the best picture, but that's Joe Montana's back, as he's talking on the cellphone.

And here we go!

I love getting up at 3:45...

10:05 AM: And here I Am!

Look at that hott eagle decorated airplane!

10:31 AM: Familiar Faces!

And my sister, I guess. Ok, and we almost just got hit by a truck carrying flammable chemicals.

10:42 AM: Not So Familiar

Fancy.... ehehe we're on Wacker Drive.

2:49 PM: Wow... that's how they get you.

They have a basic cherry border, a cherry border with a gold embossed strip, and the "prestige": black bordered with real gold trim (pictured). If you can't see the price, its $175.

Outward, and Onward!

I will be taking my leave tomorrow morning to Indiana for sister's graduation, the first time I will have been east of the Mississippi (is it east of the Mississippi? You would think that as a geography major I would know). Well, definitely the first time east of Vegas. I am told that it is a six hour flight, into sub-Seattle temperatures (so... anything between 30-80 degrees), where I will stay for a duration of three and a half days. I look forward to hearing all the funny accents the eastern part of the US has to offer, but not much besides that (err except sister's graduation & related events, of course). I'll see if I can muster some random photo updates of everything interesting South Bend & Notre Dame has to offer, especially if I catch a glimpse of Rudy.

Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!
Was he a real person?

Either way, thanks all for the birthday wishes!

Minimates in Action

Minimates are little block action figure type toys of your favorite characters from comics, TV and movies, as well as other pop culture sources. I have a few of them and put them out in places for my friends and myself to manipulate them into funny poses or action dioramas. I should have known that this would quickly be abused. A few months ago I came home to a bunch of them in a circular shape engaging in illicit activities. Today, I came back to find this:


Yep, that's Bone's McCoy boning Captain Kirk, and Spock receiving oral from She-Hulk.


... And Quicksilver on top of Scotty, while he himself is receiving toy attention from Vina.


And hell, even baseball racial barrier demolisher Jackie Robinson is not safe from Captain Pike.

Wow... just wow...

Go Richie, Go!

Another picture for today! I mentioned it a few days ago, but just because I came across this...

Finish him, Richie! Punish him for throwing a shutout against your team despite his mediocrity!

Don't worry Gabbard, I too would immediately go into the fetal position if Richie Sexson (6'8" 240 lbs) charged me.

Too little too late, only 100% Beef

Whist driving back to my apartment the other day after a practice baseball game, I happened upon a large billboard advertisement for a McDonald's sandwich, claiming 100% beef burgers. Apparently, someone had gotten up to this billboard, spray painted a cross over the beef, and crudely wrote out in large block letters, "SHIT". Unfortunately by the time I was able to walk out there with my camera (a few days later), it had already been blacked out. I'm going to have to ask you to use your imagination though, because I found it quite humorous when I saw it.
Whether a result of the billboard or not (probably not), I went to the "Mickey D's" the next day.

Grades, Schmades

At the end of last quarter I had finished all of the requirements I needed to graduate from the UW as well as fulfilled all of my Geography major requirements -- my Public Health minor was a lost cause though. However, I decided to stay one more quarter to partake in the capstone GIS (Geographic Information Systems) class, as well as maintain my internship. To be eligible for my internship, I needed to be taking 12 credits. I figured that since it was my last quarter here and I couldn't finish my Public Health minor, I'd take some random classes that I might actually be interested in. So I signed up for CLAS 430: Greek & Roman Mythology, PSE 309: Creativity & Innovation, ARCH 352: History of Modern Architecture, and GEOG 463: the aforementioned GIS capstone class. With no need to get good grades (heck, any grades) in these classes, I thought I would engage in a method I'm calling the "free-balling" method, a term probably used incorrectly. I was to embark on my easiest quarter of college yet to end it off in style.

Somehow, easy got intermixed with lazy. Within two week, I had dropped the ARCH class when my TA e-mailed the class on a Friday with notes for the quiz we would have on Monday -- I had yet to attend a class. I missed the first day of the geography class (the only one I really cared about), but I did make my first creativity class -- probably because it was on Wednesday at 2:30, following my geography class. However, I missed the first day of the mythology class, and continued to miss this 9:30 behemoth. I didn't seriously considering going until the TA e-mailed me on Monday that the midterm would be in one week's time. Even then, I was like, "nyeh," as I figured I could get away with just doing the reading. I procured half of the reading materials on Friday.

By the time of the midterm on Monday, I had attended no class and not done any reading -- just forty minutes of glancing over the lecture slides online the previous night. My apartment-mates had a monetary bet of whether I would get over 20% on the test or not. And of course, I walked into the test fifteen minutes late -- people were already walking out when I showed up. I sat down with SCANTRON in hand, and began the forty question multiple choice test. I left knowing that I got at least four questions correct.

Fast forward three days, and the TA e-mails us saying that the answers were online. I checked them out (more due to the fact that my apartment-mates had money on the results than me actually caring), and was pleasantly surprised when I got eight out of the first thirteen correct. Suddenly hope stirred in my heart -- had I magically pulled off a miracles of miracles and owned a midterm of a 400 level class I had done practically nothing for? I proceeded to get nine of the next ten questions incorrect. By the end, I knew that I answered at least sixteen questions correct (I don't remember what I put down for all my answers). I thought, "crap, I needed 25 questions right to get at least a 0.7." Yeah, I was aiming for a 0.7.

Two days later, and my TA sends out another e-mail: "Sorry, I can't get your grades online, but I have the grade conversions scale up." I opened the website up, and immediately scrolled to the bottom: I needed 16 questions to get a 0.7. Huzzah, I'm off the bubble. I'm a man who sticks with what works for him, and as I'm satisfied with the results I got with the amount of work I put in, I'll hold the strategy for the rest of the quarter. Some may ask if my GPA is going to decrease and I counter, will it matter if my already low GPA gets any lower?

How much?

In my apartment, conversations often get steered towards two things: the weird, or a wager. Once in a while, elements of the two get combined, and someone busts out, "So how much money would it take you to do *so and so*?" One of the most ridiculous of these happened a few short weeks ago. The topic of discussion somehow migrated towards manginas. If you don't know what a mangina is, watch Silence of the Lambs or Clerks 2, or run a google search (if you can't tell from the name, it is not safe for work). Now, don't ask me how the topic of manginas even came up, because I certainly couldn't tell you, but I'd imagine it had something to do with the aforementioned movies and the antics of the actors involved.

Someone soon asked, "So how much would it take for you to bust out a mangina on camera?" This was further clarified that the act would be emblazoned on a wide release feature film, or a Super Bowl half time show -- something a lot of people would see. Now you have to think about this before you answer: everyone's gonna know! Your friends, your family, any potential future girlfriends, employers, coworkers, and even strangers on the street; "That's the guy that busted out the mangina on YouTube!" It'll follow you for the rest of your life.

One of my apartment-mates said $50,000. One refused to give a price. I stated $3.5 million dollars, which my apartment-mates thought was proposterous. My reasoning is if I'm going to be walking down the street and people are going to point me out saying, "That's the guy that busted out the mangina!", their friend would quickly add, "but he did get $3.5 million dollars out of it,", prompting the original person to say, "true dat, true dat." I mean, no one does a mangina unless it leads to great prosperity. Ted Levine did one as Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs, and that mangina propelled him to his current role as Capt. Stottlemeyer in 93 (and counting) episodes of the hit show Monk seventeen years later, as well as many other smaller roles in major motion pictures in between. Jay of 'Jay & Silent Bob' fame did one in Clerks 2, and... well let's be reasonable, he was probably high when he did it.

All of the above was trumped when my third apartment-mate (who will remain nameless) said, "Are you kidding me? I'd do it for two grand." Two grand? Two thousand dollars? Are you kidding me? You can barely buy a decent beater car for Two G's, and you're willing to be ribbed by your friends and accosted by random strangers for the rest of your life? You're not only bringing shame to yourself, but also your family. If you have kids, any accomplishment of theirs whether it be becoming a doctor or winning a Nobel Peace Prize, Pulitzer Prize, or Screen Actors Guild Award will be completly overshadowed by their subname given to them at birth: "Son/Daughter of the Guy that busted out the Mangina".

Pet Peeve: Bicycles & Helmets

You know something that really gets me angry? People who are riding their bikes, but not wearing their helmets -- despite the fact that they have it with them. It's either attached to their backpack or handlebars or something, somewhere, other than their head. You have the damn helmet, why isn't it on your head? If you think you're gonna look stupid with it on, guess how you look having it on you in plain sight, but not wearing it! Either leave it at home, or put it on your head and snap it into place -- simple as that.

I'm all about safety for my fellow human beings. Ride safe!

On a side note, did anyone see Richie Sexson charging the mound in yesterday's Rangers-Mariners game? Outta control! He might have thrown his batting helmet at the pitcher, but too bad he couldn't help beat a run onto the scoreboard.

Whiteboarding

My apartment-mate Thomas recently got a large 4'x6' white board to use as a studying tool for his upcoming PhD test and mounted it in our living room. The idea was that he would be able to spread his many equations out on a large area so he could get a big picture of the problem at hand. Let's be reasonable: he knew what he was getting into when he bought the board, and within minutes of installation, a large green block-lettered word of "COCK" was written on it. I'll update this blog with anything of interest that crops up on it, as it is surely the most exciting thing happening in our apartment. Needless to say, it is chock-full of inside jokes, but might be interesting to see nonetheless.

This one started with me drawing a KKK member and Hitler, and took off from there...

Click it to get the full details.

Fantasy Baseball Fun

I've been involved in Fantasy Baseball for close to six years now. Every year, I drafted players that I liked but probably had little to no fantasy value -- with names like Mark McLemore, Ryan Franklin, Mark Loretta, and Caesar Izturis. "Who?" you're asking. Exactly. This year, I had the help of a new found friend: J.J., who I have class with and is also a fellow intern. Apparently, he plays for big dollars with his group of friends, and thus keeps on top of the fantasy baseball game. Partly because most of the players I liked found themselves retired or outright released from MLB teams, and partly because I was tired of coming in last, I took up J. J.'s offer when he asked me if I wanted some of his fantasy baseball pointers.

They weren't so much pointers as they were his actual draft list; the one he would be using for his high-stakes fantasy game. As he put it, the list was made up with average draft positions from dozens of mock drafts (done by fantasy news sites, sports sites, and himself), further refined with his personal touch of "insider" information (read: gut feeling). He gave me the list... and I promptly forgot to take it home with me from work. However, I did have an earlier version of his draft list (yeah, there was more than one version) so I drafted off of that.

I am currently sitting, after five weeks, firmly at first place -- four games ahead of the fantasy baseball wizard known as Trevor. Pictoral proof? For sure!



Why make this post now? Because I might not be first place for the rest of the season, of course!

And for those wondering of my team (as of today):
C: Joe Mauer
1B: Mark Texiera
1B: Carlos Guillén
2B: Chase Utley
3B: Adrian Béltre
SS: Miguel Tejada (my gem in the draft, taken 14th round)
OF: Ichiro
OF: Alfonso Soriano
OF: Josh Hamilton
OF: Xavier Nady
OF: Raúl Ibañez

SP: Roy Halladay
SP: Fausto Carmona
SP: Carlos Zambrano
SP: C.C. Sabathia
SP: Tim Hudson
SP: Johnny Cueto (wanted him since spring training, traded good stuff for him)
SP: Edison Vólquez
RP: Francisco Rodríguez
RP: Joe Nathan
RP: Brandon Lyon
RP: Aquilino López (finally replaced Manny Delcarmen)

Will these people take me to the promised land of fantasy bragging rights? I hope so! I have absolutely nothing on the line.

Iron Man 2: Iron Harder (& Others)

Continuing on my apparent recent trend of summer movie posts, Marvel announced yesterday that Iron Man 2 has been greenlit and assigned a release date of April 30th, 2010 -- effectively making it's release almost exactly two years away. Other Marvel properties given release dates include Thor (June 4, 2010) and Captain America (May 11, 2011), thus setting up the Avengers movie (July, 2011). An Ant-Man movie is also in the works without a release date, as well as Spider-Man 4.

source: Ain't It Cool News

Apparently, Iron Man 2 will help set up the Thor film -- whether it be with an actual part of the movie, or with an after credits scene (like the first movie) remains to be seen.

source: Superhero Hype!

My biggest question is what the lineup of the Avengers is going to be. The original Avengers team was made up of Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Ant-Man, and the Wasp, with them discovering Captain America four issues in. Current issues have characters such as Spider-Man and Wolverine on the roster. In terms of marketing and gathering a larger audience, it would not be a bad idea to include non-classic characters such as Spider-Man and Wolverine into an Avengers movie, but I personally hope they don't go that route and stick with the originals.

The Incredible Hulk debuts later this summer on June 27th, and the Punisher (sans Thomas Jane) sequel, Punisher: War Zone is set for a December 5th release. The X-Men series spin-off, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is set for May 1, 2009. And of course on the DC side of things, The Dark Knight comes to theaters July 2nd. Those comic book characters are so hot right now!

Bathroom Humor

When I get my own place, one thing I'm going to do is leave a napkin on top of the toilet with a fork and knife on it, as if it were set up at a dinner table. This would be for purely comedic purposes, and I'd like to see the reactions I would get from such ridiculousness.

While I'm on the subject, it's something done everyday and by everyone, yet it is rarely talked about. I'm of course referring to pooping. Having a bowel movement. Defecating. Dumping, crapping, squatting, excreting, shitting, number two, dropping a deuce, leaving (or making) a deposit, sitting on the throne, dropping the children off at the pool. For something not really talked about, it sure has a lot of names.

I for one, enjoy my dumps. I take my time and enjoy myself -- even if it does sometimes get me into trouble (I've been Larry Craig-ed before, at school no less). I'm in there for usually about twenty minutes -- sometimes longer. It's not that I have trouble going, it's just that being on the toilet is the best time to think, and the best time to read. I've made some important life decisions while on the john in addition to enjoying many fine books, and I can't understand the people who are in and out in like a minute. They come out and I say, "I thought you had to crap," and they respond, "I just did." That's it? Just go in there, drop the pants, use all your might to exert enough energy to squeeze it all out in one blow, wipe, and get out? Sickens me. I couldn't take a one minute dump if you paid me $100, although that's a physical restraint. I'd try and pretend I could, but would be found out when it started sliding down my leg. I'm thinking five minutes might even be a little tight... ten is the minimum I'll allow myself. If I have somewhere to be in seven minutes, I won't chance it.

Maybe it's just that my dumps are epic. Have you ever done your business, and the toilet wouldn't flush all the way based on volume alone? Like it hasn't even gotten to the toilet paper yet. I wish they had an award for the most epic dumps. I would entitle mine to share the name of a recent Academy Award Nominee for Best Picture: There Will Be Blood. These epics only come once in a while mind you, but I still wonder how so much could accumulate. I go everyday (always at work on a workday -- nothing better than being paid to crap), sometimes even twice a day.

I can easily recall the most epic dump I've ever been involved with.
*If you don't want to get totally grossed out, then disregard the rest of this post!
I had eaten at a thai restaurant the night before (AppeThai on the Ave to be specific), and hadn't felt good since. When I woke up in the morning, my stomach was absolutely churning. Based on the ten minute rule I had set above, I didn't have time to dump, shower, and get to work on time. I was grateful when I started releasing some gas, as I thought it would relieve some of my stomach pains. Then suddenly, I felt a bubbly dampness -- My God, did I just shart (def. (v): accidentally discharge poop with the intention of only farting)? I ran to the bathroom and looked in my boxer briefs -- nothing, I was clean. But it was at that moment that I knew I would not be making work that day. I sat down on the toilet, and let's just say when I was done twenty five minutes later, I had to wipe my ass, my leg, and the inner toilet bowl (the part where the water doesn't reach). A tip of my cap to AppeThai for sponsoring that event -- hopefully they can cover the cost of me not being able to work for the next three days.

I am Iron Man review!

No spoilers here!

People sometimes ask me of my fascination with comic books and superheroes. I believe that today's superheroes are modern day mythology, and they are as compelling as those that came before them. We all know the stories of Hercules or Odysseus because they struggled against great odds to triumph at the end. Comic books provide stories based on those established themes, complete with compelling characters and fantastic art. Or you could be immature and say I like seeing men in tights.

Ever since I was a little kid, I was enamored with superheroes. Introduced through classic cartoons such as Captain Planet, Spider-Man, X-Men, and the greatest of all: Batman: The Animated Series, they provided worlds where anyone could have fantastic abilities and good always triumphed over evil.

A few years later, the Marvel Action Hour debuted featuring half hour episodes of the Fantastic Four and Iron Man back to back. Iron Man soon became my favorite hero. I eventually found my way into the comic books behind these cartoons, and have not looked back. Despite the myriad of characters and stories available, Iron Man still remained my favorite. Back then, it was because he had a bad ass suit of armor. Today, it's because he is the most interesting character of them all.

Never an A-list character like Spider-Man or the Hulk, Iron Man is different than the other heroes in that he wasn't given his power -- he forged it. Tony Stark is Iron Man because he wants to be, not because he has to be. He's the one comic character where his civilian identity is more important than his alter ego -- the Iron Man armor is just a tool for Stark to make the world a better place. This drive to improve the world makes for good story telling, because he always doesn't make the right choices to get there. He's a fundamentally flawed character; an alcoholic, womanizing, former weapons designer who has a lot of blood on his hands, but he works hard to not let all that be his legacy.

Enough of me! To say that I've been anticipating this movie being made is a severe understatement. Since this movie was officially announced a few years ago, what turned from slight doubt has turned into extremely high expectations with every new interview, image, and trailer. So now that it's out and I've seen it, what do I think? Just about cinematic perfection. This movie has action, stunning visuals, humor, and a well crafted story documenting the change from a worry free weapons designer to a conflicted avenger.

Robert Downey Jr. is the movie. I can't imagine anyone else playing the title role, and all you need is the first ten minutes to see why. He's surrounded by a strong supporting cast of Gweneth Paltrow, Terrance Howard, and Jeff Bridges, but make no mistake -- this is Downey's movie. To top it off, Industrial Light & Magic did most of the special effects (in my opinion, you could see where the Orphanage, the other 3D animation house, did theirs (read: slightly lesser quality)) and the fact that often you can't tell between CG and practical elements just go to show why they are the best.

My only con of the movie is that I felt the end fight scene wasn't as big or epic as it could have been. To me the cave escape (and the parts leading up to this) were the strongest of the whole thing, and that happened in the beginning -- the payoff at the end just didn't compare.

There are a few nods to elements of Iron Man comics and stuff strewn in for future Iron Man movies, as well as future Marvel movies if you look closely enough (note: stay for the credits). Box office predictions have Iron Man making $104 million domestically in the first weekend, good for tenth best at the box office all time. At 94% (currently) on RottenTomatoes.com, Iron Man is the best reviewed movie of the year thus far, and tops all superhero movies. Sequels sound like a safe bet, and here's me once again eagerly waiting.

Am I biased? Probably. However, everyone I went with and others I've talked to have only positive things to say, which makes me comfortable in awarding:

My Score: 9.5/10, Must Watch, and Buy!
I gotta give a chance for the sequel to get a perfect 10, right?

As of this writing,
Rotten Tomatoes: 94% (Spider-Man 2: 93%; Batman Begins: 84%)
MetaCritic: 78 (Spider-Man 2: 80; Batman Begins: 70)

It's time!

Hot hot cinerama action.

Where are immigration marchers?

It's an hour and ten minutes since they were supposed to start, and nothing. Of all the days to leave work early... Not too often you get the chance to see a 3000 person rally from 50 floors up.