evanroberts.com

I’m not usually one for movie trailers… but WOW:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrek/large_trailer2.html

I don’t want to wait another SIX MONTHS to watch this movie. Then again, if this movie ends up sucking ass, I’ll be VERY pissed off.

Thankfully, Jonathan Frakes isn’t directing this one. Sorry Riker, but I prefer you as an actor, not a director. 

Eight years of Republican rule is coming to an end. Eight years of planet-damaging policies will soon be a thing of the past. Eight years of the world shaking it’s head wondering how the Americans could have elected that idiot as their Commander In Chief is finally over.

Barack Obama. Joe Biden. Finally, the Democrats are in control again.

Gentlemen: Don’t. Fuck. This. Up.

This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in the last little bit. They super-imposed the moving faces of Obama, McCain, and Palin (a surprise guest) over the dancers as they do their thing, and for the most part, it’s really quite impressive. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSJIORWj4tw

Someone had a lot of time on their hands.   

Thanks to McLeod for bringing this to my attention!

…but only for a few hours on Sunday in Toronto.

(thanks Seth for this awesome shot!!!)

For the last few years, I’ve wanted to take part in the Toronto Zombie Walk, but something always came up that prevented me from getting involved. This year, however, I made SURE I was going to participate, and I dragged Seth along with me. It turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun!

Picture this: A couple hundred people all dressed up like zombies, lurching down the streets of Toronto, chanting “BRAAAAAAINS!!!” and other things in groaning voices, and “attacking” pedestrians and non-moving vehicles with occupants. That pretty much sums up the event. Most of the people passing by had good humour about all that was going on, with the occasional scream, or someone shouting out “WHAT DO YOU ALL WANT!?” to which we all responded “BRAAAAAINS!!!”, but once in a while someone took upon themselves to say that we all looked like idiots. Well, can’t argue with ya there, buddy, but it’s all in good fun!  

I think my favourite moment was when a pickup truck passed by with a kid, who was smiling and looking out at us, and I started to lurch towards him and growled… his smile vanished, and he kept looking at me with wide eyes until they drove away.

There were some themed zombies, like the Ronald McDonald zombie, who was holding a brain-sized bloody burger, and at one point growled “Maple Leaf products!”, which was hilarious. One zombie passing by then growled “Lawsuit!”, which made me laugh out loud. Some other great zombies were the Luigi, Princess, and Toad zombies. I was also hoping that someone would dress up as Ash from “Evil Dead” and “Army Of Darkness” fame, and I was not disappointed! There were even people dressed up as soldiers from the Umbrella Corporation, which was quite cool. Later, a staged SWAT team versus zombies attack took place near the end of the walk which was awesome. It was great seeing so many people getting into their roles and just goofing around.

Next year, Seth and I plan to really go all out with our zombie costumes. A trip down to Kensington Market should do the trick. Can’t frikkin’ wait!  

I recorded a few movies of the pandemonium at it unfolded, which you can see here (you’ll need Quicktime):

zombies_1.mov (14MB)

zombies_2.mov (13MB)

…and more images can be found in the Gallery.

This is golden: a reversal on the classic plea for parents to talk to their children about drugs. Kids, talk to your parents about the dangers of voting for McCain!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxvHkFLmqRk

I love how the kids are asking their parents to realise how voting Republican will affect them, as it is their future on the line.

We’ll find out soon enough if those kids are doomed… along with the rest of the world…

…well, I do, seeing as how I am somewhat monitoring my eating habits, but do any of you really care what I eat? I’d have to guess not.

“Ooooh… today Evan had a steak! Perhaps I should have a steak!”

…I doubt that happens. To be perfectly honest, it’s become somewhat of a pain in the ass to constantly list my meals and activity. In the beginning, it was useful, as it held me accountable for what I ate as it was out in the open, but these days, while I tend to eat well most of the time, and eat like crap once in a while, it’s a chore to remember what I ate the day before should I forget to update.

The most useful information to me is the graph of my weight, and that is something I’ll continue to update every day, but I think I’ll retire the “Meals & Activity” section.

Now I can eat McDonald’s every day, and NO ONE WILL KNOW!!! AHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Kidding.

This morning, I realised that the last few days of eating garbage had finally caught up with me.

180.1lbs. *sigh*

I think it was the fact that this weekend was a weekend of all-you-can-eat dinners. Saturday night, all-you-can-eat sushi. Yum! Then, last night, all-you-can-eat buffet at Mandarin. Double yum! Both nights, I did eat all I could, which I’m sure didn’t help matters as most of the dishes were rice-based. It’s been forever since I’ve been out and enjoyed a full buffet such as what Mandarin offers, so I guess I kind of over did it.  

Time to get back into the habit of eating better foods, and cutting out the ones that I shouldn’t be eating as frequently. I’ve slipped, and have the numbers to prove it… and I don’t like it!!

Mike calls this “winter weight”. Well, I’m not planning on hibernating any time soon, so I don’t need this extra poundage!

Update (09-23-2008): Seems this extra weight was all useless carbs! Ate proper yesterday, and with a bit of a longer bike ride than usual, I’m back down to 172.9lbs! Sweet!

Even though I live in a great building, and have few complaints, there are times when I have to wonder about the people who maintain the community of apartment buildings in which I reside. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great place to live, and the people are nice and all, but once in a while I question their actions. Frequent water shut offs, the recent change making our visitor parking a paid visitor parking, etc.

For the last few weeks, work has been done on the north side of my apartment building. They’re replacing old bricks, and then “shining” them. It’s inconvenient for me as that means I have to shut the window that the cat climber is next to, and keep the curtains drawn as I don’t want people looking into the apartment, which means the kitties are denied their awesome view. Yesterday, we got the following letter through the door, and it has been posted next to the elevators as well:

We are responding to the a report of excessively loud hammering, sanding, and drilling noises. The latest incident of said noise occurred on Wednesday, August 20, 2008, from 11:00am to 2:00pm. At the time of the report, we were unsuccessful in identifying the exact source of the noise. We are now contacting all of the residents in suites that are in close proximity to where the noise is being heard and asking for your help in reporting similar noises. If you hear noise similar to those described above, please call your Resident Manager at (phone number). At that time, please let them know which suite you are calling from, and request for a staff member to be sent to the area where you believe the noise is coming from.

With your help, we hope to hold those responsible for this inconsiderate behaviour accountable with substantiated proof. As you are aware the Residential Tenancies Act provides for the quiet enjoyment of the premises and is enforceable under said Act. We would like to remind everyone that these noises are infringing on every residents’ right to quiet enjoyment of their suite. It is important to realise that noise travels very easily throughout the building. We ask that everyone make an effort to minimize the noise emanating from their suite.

I couldn’t resist, and wrote on the notice next to the elevators on my floor:

I also happened to run into one of the dudes working on the brick replacement and told him about the notice. He found it as amusing as I did.

Ah well.   

I recently watched “Batman Begins” again, as I’ve been on a Batman kick for the last little bit (uh… I wonder why?), and I was not surprised to find that by comparison, “The Dark Knight” kicks the craps out of “Batman Begins”. Still, “Batman Begins” kicks the crap out of ANY Batman movie before it, so that’s expected. I fear for any subsequent Batman movie, however… “The Dark Knight” just set the bar too damn high.

Anyway, Cillian Murphy plays the Scarecrow in “Batman Begins”, and while verifying that he has a cameo appearance in “The Dark Knight” (I’ll save you the time; he does), I noticed he was in a recent sci-fi flick called “Sunshine“. So, I went about getting it, and watched it tonight with Molly.

If it was possible to UN-watch a movie, I would do so with this one.

The fact that the movie opened with the “Fox Searchlight Pictures” intro should have been an indication of the garbage that I was about to be subjected to, but I ignored the early warning sign, and sat back to watch the flick.

Unfortunately, I have this issue where I like my sci-fi to be SOMEWHAT believable. I had a hard time believing that the technology in the movie would be around in 50 years. Some other things:

• We’re going to restart our sun? Uh… okay. I’ll try to believe that we will have the technology in 50 years to put all the components into space to build a bomb the size of Manhattan Island (as they claim).
• As expected, there is an accident on board, and breathable air becomes a concern. Apparently, they will only have so many hours left… yet the entire ship consists of hallways longer than a subway platform, and rooms bigger than my apartment. You’d think they would have enough air for days for six or seven people… but what do I know?
• Oh, and here’s the kicker: gravity on a spaceship. It is a common joke with sci-fi movies, shows, comics, etc, that a spaceship can be completely disabled, with no life support or a main computer, yet the gravity system will work flawlessly. This is apparent in this movie. They board a ship that has been “lost” for seven years, and the gravity still works.
• Even better, the computer systems on both ships require the cores to be submerged in this super-cold liquid. How is this done? The cores are hung from the ceiling, and dunked into these cylindrical pools of the super-cold liquid. What would happen if the gravity system failed? All the super-cold liquid would float everywhere, the main computer would go offline, and then everyone would REALLY be fucked. BUT, don’t worry! The gravity system will NEVER fail! Those engineers who built the gravity system certainly knew what the hell they were doing… too bad they didn’t design the rest of the ship!

Yes yes, I know it’s just a movie, but all the while I was watching it, I couldn’t help but think how bad it was. A typical movie coming from Fox. The biggest disappointment, though, was the rating on Rotten Tomatoes. They gave it a 75%. WTF!? The general consensus among reviewers was very positive. For some reason, I kept equating this movie with “Sphere” (which I hated), and thankfully Rotten Tomatoes rightly gave it a 17%.

Okay. Enough of this rant. See the movie if you wish, but don’t be surprised if you agree with me.