Lost Not Found

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Did anything of importance happen in Lost tonight? Which questions were answered? Last week’s Desmond-centric episode was much better.

I really need to start writing about 24 again. Its been good.

Stupid Cats

Friday, February 16, 2007

I park The Dinomax in the garage, and leave the windows open while the garage is closed. It’s safe.

The other day, I opened the garage to take The Dinomax out for a spin, and I discovered cat fur plastered all over the driver side front door. I opened the door only to discover more fur all over the dashboard and steering wheel. Looking around, I saw that it was all over the two front seats. Of course, the cat wouldn’t limit itself to just the front seats, so I looked at the back and saw that there was a generous helping there as well.

Apparently, one of the neighborhood stray cats has decided to make The Dinomax it’s home.

Stupid cat.

Today, I was taking a closer look at The Dinomax and saw long scratches on the left, front panel and door. Three sets of scratches, with three fine lines in each set, which could only have been caused by this cat’s paws as it tried to climb its way inside my car.

Stupid, stupid cat.

Now, I know exactly which cat this is. I’ve attempted to take photographs of it, cause its light-brown and kinda cute. It roams around The Dinoestate and the neighbor’s property with its BFF, another stray cat. I’m not sure if they’re boyfriend-girlfriend, or boyfriend-boyfriend, or girlfriend-girlfriend, or just good buddies, but they sure do hang out a lot together.

Whatever the case, I know i’ll be spending a good amount of time cleaning the interior of my car. And did I mention the smell? Thank god it didn’t poop or pee in there. But it left a distinct, dirty cat odor. It may be gone by now though. And it also left paw prints on my pristine leather seats. Oh, add another 3-4 hours waxing the exterior to try and get the scratches out.

If this cat goes in my car again, I will kick its ass. Or call animal control and get its ass hauled off to the cat prison.

Stupid, f-ing cat.

Bay’s Touch

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

This pretty much just rocks:

Forget the haters who do nothing but knock
Like your movie with Sean, The Transformers will Rock!

Ghost Ride It

Saturday, February 03, 2007

I still prefer the original theme song by Ray Parker, Jr.

24 Day 6: 11am-12pm

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

A bit late I am in this week’s review up for the latest installment of 24.

There were several setups in this hour that I am sure will lead to major fireworks in the hours to come. Karen Hayes was forced to resign by Thomas Lennox, who brought back some demons from her past. Thomas is annoyed by her objecting to all his recommendations to the President, and rightly so, since he wants to implement Muslim concentration (internment) camps in major US cities to alleviate the terrorist threat. Karen will now, presumably, be heading back to Los Angeles.

Thoughts: I don’t like Lennox. The President will (hopefully) throw his ass out in the next few hours.

Jack goes after his father, Philip Bauer, with the forced assistance of his brother Graem. Philip’s company had partial responsibility in the detonation of the nuclear bomb, through the hiring of an engineer who supplied the nukes, who then stole them from Philip. Jack learns that Philip is now looking for this person, without telling the authorities, in fear that this information will lead to the arrest of Philip and Graem. While notifying CTU of this, Jack is thwarted by Graem, who takes control of the situation and orders his henchmen to kill Jack and Philip.

Thoughts: Graem, which is a funky way to spell “Graham,” appears to be behind the nukes. Bastard! Jack will will take care of him next hour.

At CTU, security measures by Homeland Security are affecting the efficiency of the agents. Nadia Yassir, a Muslim, has been blacklisted and has to work through additional security. Milo helps her bypass these measures by letting her access CTU systems through his login/password.

Thoughts: This could turn out bad, especially if Nadia is a mole. There has to be at least one mole every season. Hopefully she isn’t, cause that would suck.

At the internment camp, Walid Al-Rezani continues to help the FBI and gets beat up when he is found out by the group of people he is spying on.

Thoughts: I don’t like this story arc, so i’m going to skip it.

I’m going to start referring to these types of episodes as filler episodes. Nothing really happens, but as I said earlier, things are setup for future developments. Overall, not bad, but not great.

3.5 out of 5 Dinostars.

Bonus: Last week I mentioned the Bauer Bag. Well, why limit yourself to just a Bauer Bag when you can get fully Bauer-ed out. Uncrate has put together a full list of Jack Bauer Gear. I personally dig the aviators and Special Ops Watch.

Sweep The Leg, Johnny!

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

OMG, its a Cobra Kai reunion. This is pure awesomeness of the greatest magnitude!

It took me a while to truly grasp what was happening in this video, and that I was actually looking at the actors all growed up!

No More Kings rule for making this happen. See a higher-res version here.

Hammond Returns

Monday, January 29, 2007

I’ve posted many a clip or two from one of the best automobile shows in the world, Top Gear. Back in September 2006, one of the hosts, Richard Hammond, was doing a taping in which he was driving a jet-powered car capable of doing over 370mph. After several successful attempts (one in which he clocked in at 314 mph, breaking the world land-speed record), he went for a final run in the car, when a tire blew, causing the car to lose control.

Hammond suffered major brain injury, but made an amazing recovery within four months. However, as a consequence of this accident, the survival of Top Gear was brought to question. Many deemed the show too dangerous to continue, and it was feared that the show would be canceled. Fortunately, common sense prevailed, and the show was allowed to go on.

Season 9 finally premiered this Sunday on BBC, along with the return of Hammond. As expected, the crash footage was shown. Here it is:

24 Day 6: 10am-11am

Monday, January 22, 2007

So dudes, it turns out the man with no name, or Bluetooth Guy (BTG) as he is more commonly referred to, from last season who was behind everything and ordered the hit on Jack Bauer, is: Jack’s brother!!! Graham Bauer!!!

Holy crap!!!

Jack is trying to find his dad, who appears to have had some dealings with a Russian general who sold Abu Fayed the nuclear bombs. Father Bauer has apparently just left town, and the only way Jack can get to him is through Graham. Graham doesn’t know where dad is, but Jack isn’t buying it:

Jack: One more word comes out of your mouth that I don’t want to hearme where Dad is.

Jack: Tell me where Dad is.

Graham: I swear to you, I don’t know where he is. I swear to you on my family’s life.

Jack: (after a dramatic pause, and after realizing he is going soft after Chinese torture...) Not good enough.

Excellent Jack Bauer moment.

Jack then proceeds to knock Graham out and tie him up, and begins to inflict the Bauer Hurt™. On his brother! This leads me to believe Jack and Graham have some past history (aside from Jack having an affair with Graham’s wife). I can’t wait to find out. And I look forward to Jack finding out the truth about what his brother did in Day 5. I’m also looking forward to Jack meeting, and inflicting the Bauer Hurt™, on his dad, played by the talented James Cromwell.

Other notes and observations:

• I really don’t like D.B. Woodside as President Wayne Palmer. He just doesn’t have that presence of authority.
• I don’t like his sister, played by Regina King. She is rather weak.
• Graham’s son Joshua will turn out to be Jack’s illegitimate son.
• Who will Abu Fayed get to build the remaining nukes? My bet is on Graham.
• We have yet to see Jack with his trademark Bauer Bag.

I came across the Bauer Bag website while attempting to see if www.powerofbauer.com was registered. Much to my surprise, it was, and as as added bonus, I saw that someone actually sells the bag Jack uses on the show. I think i’ll get one, possibly for use as a second camera bag.

4.5 out of 5 Dinostars

There Goes The Neighborhood

Friday, January 19, 2007

A Malibu neighborhood that is. I found the title rather appropriate for a story currently running in LA Weekly (found via Boing Boing).

LA Weekly writes about the purchase of a $35 million-dollar, 16-acre Malibu estate in April 2006, by Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s President/Dictator Teodoro Obiang. Forbes lists this sale as the sixth most expensive home sale in the US, in 2006. Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue is also next in line to take over after his father.

Some bits from the story:

Perhaps his politically active Malibu neighbors don’t know that Equatorial Guinea, on the west coast of Africa, with only 540,000 inhabitants, has neither a free press nor free speech. Its people are among the world’s poorest, surviving on less than $1 a day, yet because of plentiful oil and natural gas, the country is the second richest in gross domestic product per capita, just behind wealthy Luxembourg.

...

A rare mention of his arrival in Malibu appeared in a disapproving editorial in the Los Angeles Times late last year — strangely without any news report in the rest of the paper. Of the Malibu newspapers, only the Graphic at Pepperdine University has mentioned that the record-high home sale involves an exceedingly controversial buyer with a globally newsworthy dark side.

Robert E. Williams, associate professor of political science at Pepperdine, tried to alert Malibu papers, but never heard back from reporters. “My guess is that the small local papers don’t want to explore this story, as a big part of their revenue comes from real estate advertising,” Williams says.

...

Watchdog groups and experts estimate the loot siphoned off by the Obiang family ranges from $300 million to $800 million — per year.

On human rights:

Amnesty International found that political opponents are routinely imprisoned and ordinary people thrown out of their homes without warning, to make room for “urban development” by the Obiangs. Transparency International rates Equatorial Guinea 152nd out of 159 countries on its human-rights index, listing it one of the worst for family-controlled government corruption. Sex trafficking and child labor reported by the CIA in 2006 are so extensive that Equatorial Guinea ranks at the bottom of the U.N.’s Human Development Index, below Kazakhstan, Syria and Algeria.

...

“Our promotion of human rights and democracy is in keeping with America’s most cherished principles and it helps to lay the foundation for lasting peace in the world,” said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a speech on human rights in 2006.

Shortly after that, she welcomed her “good friend” President Teodoro Obiang to Washington on an official state visit.

Far be it for me to moral pass judgment on this without knowing all the facts, but W. O. W.

The full article is lengthy, but I recommend reading through it. It presents a lot of interesting information, including Exxon-Mobile’s involvements and interests in Equatorial Guinea. Fascinating stuff, indeed.

Klingons in the White House?

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Holy shit, no wonder the country is screwed up! WTF was this dude smoking when he came up with this crazy analogy? Good thing we have Nimoy and Takei to clear things up.