I can't wait to move out of this house.

That is all.

So a few days ago, a 15 year old at Western kills himself. I don't know many details, but here's a couple things I can't stand:

1) When people say "he was a close friend of mine". Most of the time this just isn't true. Sure they "knew" the guy, but more than likely, they said hi to him once or twice and maybe they were in the same geometry class together. Seems to me that all of a sudden they become "close" friends after the fact.

2) When people say "I know he's in heaven, he was such a nice guy." The reality of that is, it's not always true. I'm not speaking just in the case of suicide, but after any death, whether it be from a car crash or whatever. This happened back when I was a sophomore in high school or so, a guy committed suicide. Well, I remember people saying "I know he's in heaven". From my point of view, he wasn't. Seems to me that people who say that are merely trying to console themselves by thinking someone is in a better place. Suicide victims...victims, why do we call them victims? They did it to themselves. Anyway, people who commit suicide generally aren't gonna be in heaven. If I have time, I'll come back to this later.

Now, I'm not trying to generalize, and I'm definitely not trying to offend anyone. Those are just my thoughts.

The music during The Incredibles was awesome as well. It is absolutely excellent, and can be found in the iTunes Music Store by clicking here.

So, I saw The Incredibles last night. I'd rather avoid this cliche, but it was...incredible. Awesome. Amazing. Everything about it was amazing. The look, the sound, the utter-geek it elicits from inside me, everything was just....I can't say enough good things about it. Pixar never ceases to amaze me with quality. The textures...the grass, the water, the plants, the buildings, the skin, the hair, and just the designs of everything. I've heard and read that people liked it, but it was absolutely phenomenal, above and beyond anything I could have expected (not that I wasn't expecting much).

One thing that consistently amazes me about Pixar movies (other movies as well, but Pixar in particular) is the amount of creativity. This movie showed off some incredible designs, and the combination of the different powers (you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it) seems endless. I can just imagine a group of people sitting in a room at Pixar just coming up with ideas like this...I would love to be a part of that.

If there is anything that can make just about anything better, it's the little things. It was the little bits of dialogue in the West Wing that made the first few seasons so great, the minor characters in Toy Story and Shrek, and here, in The Incredibles, it was the small touches. The stuff on Mr. Incredible's wall is just one example of this kind of thing.

This movie, as with other Pixar movies, is for everyone. Kids...teens...adults...supers. It's got drama, action, suspense, humor, mystery, and that touch of genre that will make you want to jump out of your seat and start screaming. I can't begin to count the number of times I thought "that was awesome", as it seemed to occur every few seconds.

I could try and go on all day, but you'll have to see it for yourself.



This won't mean anything anyone else, but I would sing the praises of both Shrek 2 and The Incredibles.

I just can't see Will running Russell's campaign.

Right now, I am seriously trying to keep from turning this off right now. This is so NOT the West Wing I used to like so much.

Now, I love the children's ministry at my church. I think it's a great place with a ton of great and creative people, and they are doing incredible things. The thing that really irks me though is the recent name change. We are surrounded by these incredibly creative people, and we take the name from another ministry. Come on! In my opinion, when someone says the name "UpStreet", I, for one, would be very proud to know that it was an original name. One that's unique, one that we can look at and say "that's ours, we created that."

Honestly, MOST people who hear this name will hear it for the first time and have no idea that it was taken from another church. But, if I were one of these people, and I heard the name used by someone else, finding out that this name was taken, I would be embarrassed, and all of a sudden the "coolness" of the name would be gone.

I'm not trying to criticize anyone, or look down on anyone, but I just have to get this out of my system.

I think this is part of my "let's never do our own thing, lets ALWAYS do what other people are doing." This just drives me nuts to no end. I mean seriously, we're better than this...we're more original than this. There ARE "better" ideas out there. Not every idea works for everyone.

Another example would be the entertainment industry which can't seem to come up with an original idea to save it's life. "Let's do another sequel! Why? Well...the first one made money."


On a completely unrelated note: This is so cheap. This teaser for the West Wing is so so SO cheap. Plain pathetic. Anyway...

This makes me want to list what drives me nuts about the West Wing now:
1) Will working for the Vice President. That is totally not Will. Will, who continued the campaign of a dead Senator because he was passionate about the issues, passionate about his candidate. Now he's left working for dull, boring Bingo Bob. I mean...COME ON!
2) CJ as Chief of Staff. Press Secretary becomes Chief of Staff (CoS), I really don't think so. I mean, in my opinion, Josh or Will should be doing it. Will IS the Deputy Chief of Staff (DCoS), which in my mind, kind of equates to Vice President = DCoS if President = CoS. I mean, if the President resigns or dies, you don't jump to the Secretary of Education, you go to the VP. Not to mention the fact that one of the big deals is the need for the press to have a relationship/raport with the Press Secretary. I would think she'd be the one person they wouldn't choose, but they took it as she was the only person that made sense to choose.
3) I highly doubt the Press can make it to the Cheif of Staff's office.

Anyway, since I sound like an incredible geek right now, I'll just finish by saying that as much as I love this show, I HATE this show.

...like nothing else.

Starting in January, 5 of my 6 main shows will be on Friday night. Four of which are on Sci-Fi:
7 - Andromeda (not sure, most likely)
8 - Stargate SG-1
9 - Stargate Atlantis
10 - Battlestar Galactica

Also at 8 is Star Trek: Enterprise on UPN. At least Smallville will stay on Wednesdays. I'm just hoping Sci-Fi will continue what they do now, repeating the Friday episodes so it looks like so:
7 - Andromeda (not sure, most likely)
8 - SG-1
9 - Atlantis
10 - Galactica
11 - SG-1
12 - Atlantis
1 - Galactica
2 - Andromeda (not sure, most likely)

That's 5 hours of recording every Friday...sheesh.

So yea, I need a Tivo. So, come on Apple, team up with Tivo. Come on...Tivo series 3, with the ability to play movies from my computer (including flash files). Tivo will already play/show music and photos from iTunes and iPhoto, respectively. Oh..and build in AAC support while you're at it.



Oh yea, MacWorld San Francisco (MWSF) Keynote, January 11. Woo!

If you haven't seen it, head over to homestarrunner.com and check out the latest Strong Bad e-mail. It is hilarious, even after multiple viewings. And for you lazy types, you can just click here.

Got The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker today for my trusty Gamecube, as well as the Clay Aiken CD. The CD is bloody awesome, and the game will, of course, rule everything.

So...some good news.

1) I beat Enter the Matrix today. Piloting that hovercraft was freakin' insane.

2) Going to get a new CD and a new game today. The CD is "Merry Christmas with Love" by Clay Aiken. I don't care what anyone says, he is freakin' awesome, and I really want to read his book. The game will be either Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (MP2) or Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. I'm not really sure which I want more. Originally I planned on MP2, but I really feel like playing Zelda. I suppose I could get both, but I'd rather concentrate on one for awhile, which SHOULD hold me over til Christmas.

3) Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis have BOTH been renewed for another season. How sweet is that? Pretty darn sweet! That will make 9 for SG-1 and 2 for Atlantis, making SG-1 tied with the X-Files for longest running sci-fi show. I know it has to end sometime, but please...no...

4) I wish January would get here already, well, as far as TV goes. I mean, I really love the Christmas season, but January brings the new Battlestar Galactica series AND new episodes of SG-1 and Atlantis. The only shows I have right now are Star Trek: Enterprise, Smallville, and Andromeda. Yes...I keep holding on to Andromeda, although I wish they'd find a power source for the Andromeda and get off this freaking world. I mean, what the...*NERD ALERT*...

5) I'm still watching the West Wing. It's no where near as good as the Sorkin days, but I liked Jimmy Smits character in his first episode last week, and I really want to see how he gets to where I know he will. I do know what happens, but I won't say.

6) XBox Live. I've given in, I want an XBox. I mean, XBox Live is reason enough...multiplayer without having to go anywhere, especially when you don't see your multiplayer buddies that often.

7) This is the last week of the 40 Days of Purpose campaign. The group meetings are fun and everything, but I have zero clue what is happening on Smallville currently. I'll be kinda glad to be done with this book, as I have other books I want to read. I know I could read more than one at a time, but then I'd just end of confused. I'd rather focus on one.

8) So hopefully I get to see the Incredibles this week. There are quite a few movies I want to see this month and next: The Incredibles, The Polar Express, Finding Neverland*, Blade Trinity , Oceans Twelve, Phantom of the Opera*, and Meet the Fockers.

* I could wait for these to come to DVD before I see them, or I'd see them after I'd seen the others.

9) It's almost here: Christmas. I just love this time of year. I could care less about gifts, I just like this time of year. The feeling of Christmas, Christmas lights, decorations and displays throughout the stores and malls, the niceness of being around friends and family, the smell of a mistletoe candle, the taste of cookies...a lot of cookies...i want cookies...and the music. The freaking awesome music. There's just something about Christmas music that makes this time of year so cool. And isn't it odd how we never seem to tire of the same old Christmas songs. I guess it's because there are so many versions of the same songs. That's what's really cool to me. That being said, I really need more Christmas songs.

WHO'S YOUR PRESIDENT!!!!!