theMediaman.com

A couple of short notes today.

Got bored at work. Became inspired. Have no active projects besides cleaning up my hard drive and archiving my work. Spent part of the afternoon wondering what Queen Amidala and Darth Maul would look like as kittens. Borrowed photo’s of Briare’s new kitties, Ty and Anny. Played around in PhotoShop for a little while. Results included Queen Am-Ty-dala and Darth Anny.

Paul and I went to the new Rainbow Cinema at the Promenade Centre. The theatre used to be a Cineplex Odeon before they started closing locations left, right and Centre (get it? “center”? Promenade Centre?). We were joined by Simone and Cecillia before the movie started. “Bandits” starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett.

If you saw and enjoyed “The Ref” with Denis Leary, you’ll like this movie… a comedic set of circumstances revolving around a burglar(s) as the main character. Although “Bandits” definitely has cleaner language. Even though there is some violence near the end of the film, the language is likely clean enough for even my Mom to watch. The emotional maturity of the characters sometimes lends itself to a lack of sympathy by the viewer - since it doesn’t become an “endearing quality” like it did in “Bubble Boy” (another funny, funny movie with relatively innocent fun). Don’t get me wrong - the characters aren’t shallow nor are they unappealing. This film had the ability to be very clever, but was marred by only a half dozen poorly scripted scenes. The movie’s shortcomings are more than made up for with the erratic set of circumstances they find themselves in as well as the odd characters they have to interact with throughout the movie.

This is definitely a good movie for mid-week, evening entertainment. It fell out of multiplexes quickly and landed in the cheap cinemas. There are not solid laughs throughout, but definitely some classic moments from quick one liners to simple but effective slapstick. If you don’t see it for $4 in your local discount theatre, save it to rent on your way home from a bad day at work. Just enough escapism to get a good night’s sleep before another day at the grindstone.

When Cattou Ninden Teyandee was released in Japan in 1991, I was listening to my first CD - Vanilla Ice’s “To The Extreme”. Since then I campaigned to have the North American version, “Samurai Pizza Cats”, returned to YTV. I created a fan club with over 300 members on the Internet in 1997. I was also responsible for bringing the multiple language versions of the show to the masses through my 50+ hits a day website. That may not sound like much until you realize that this was in the “early days” of surfing the Information Superhighway.

Periodically I still buy Cattou Ninden toys on eBay. The most expensive being a full playset of the pizza parlour - I won’t disclose how much I shamefully spent… except to say that I was in direct bidding competition with the only other major Cattou Ninden toy fan on the Internet. My most recent purchase was the official game for the Famicom system. Famicom is the Japanese name for the 8-bit Classic Nintendo Entertainment System. Unfortunately their games are not directly compatible with North American consoles. Fortunately the difference is only physical and it took another small purchase on eBay to buy a Famicom/NES adaptor. It arrived today, and I’ve been playing Samurai Pizza Cats on my Nintendo for the first time.

I’m very happy… all the text is in Japanese and I can’t understand a bit of it… but I’m very happy.

Next in the mail is Macross - a Famicom cartridge based on the series that spawned the Robotech series. A freelance job with Reg is taking me to K-W this weekend. Hopefully Syl and I will set up my NES system (circa. 1985) to his 36″ GAOO television with 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound. Of course the NES only takes advantage of mono sound, but playing Pizza Cats and Macross on a wicked TV screen with enhanced bass is something I could only have dreamed of fifteen long years ago.

I AM 63% GEEK.

Nerd, Freak, Geek, Dweeb. Sound familiar?

That’s okay, cause I will be the richest

person at my 15th year high-school reunion.

If a “con” isn’t happening that weekend.

Take the GEEK Test at Fuali.com!

>>>>>>>>>>>>

The Geek Test - I didn’t even see this one when going through the lineup of tests. Syl got 56% - which is good since I have a reputation to maintain as the Geek of the group.

Funniest thing about this test was questions 28 and 29. The first asked “Could Spider-man take Wolverine?” My choice was “yes”, but a co-worker believed that Wolverine would win. We briefly stated our support and rebuttals, then returned to the quiz. Question 29 was “Have you discussed this with friends? ”

Just having come off that exact topic, I was forced to choose “yes”. Am I that predictable?

Fun li’l unrelated site I found while looking for “All Your Base” graphics. FUALI.com is some programming geek with the same addiction to spewing his opinion all over the Net that I have. So far I like him. He’s also programmed some simple personality tests… below is how I rated on a few of them.

I am 60% ADDICTED TO THE INTERNET.

I am pretty addicted, but there

is hope. I think I’m just

well connected to the internet

and technology, but it’s really a

start of a drug-like addiction.

I must act now! Unplug

this computer!

Take the INTERNET-ADDICT Test at Fuali.com!