Shout out

I would like to personally thank Stizz over at Elusive Twilight for adding the Superiority Report to his blogroll list. His site is pretty cool. You can check it out by clicking the link on this page.

He...is...IRON MAN!!

I don't know about anyone else but the more I see of the upcoming Iron Man movie the more excited I am. If this movie turns out to be as cool as the trailers make it look this may very well be the best "comics" movie ever made. No, I'm not being biased because Iron Man is far from my favorite comics character. I'm more of a Spider-Man or Silver Surfer guy. But this movie, thus far, looks really good. When I first heard about it I was worried that the Iron Man suit would look really lame or that the flying sequences would suck. From what I've seen so far though that doesn't seem to be the case. In a few short months (May, I believe) we will see if this movie lives up to the hype.

Terminate

Last night was my first opportunity to see the new Terminator television series. I'm happy to say it will be the last time as well. Who the hell greenlighted this crap? James Cameron really should be ready to put hits out on some people. I mean T3 was bad enough but now this? The first two Terminator movies were awesome and people have gone and ruined it. There are also plans to make a 4th movie set in the future where we meet the adult John Conner (finally). I don't care, even if it is Christian Bale. T3 and this dreck they have on t.v. now have made me not care about a once great franchise.

History Denied

Anyone who knows me should have realized as soon as I endorsed the Patriots in Super Bowl 42 that they were royally screwed. Sure enough though, the Giants just pulled off what is likely the largest upset in NFL history by beating New England 17-14. It was also probably one of the dullest. Yes, the 4th quarter was very exciting but if it wasn't for the fact that the Patriots were undefeated coming in that in years to come most people would ignore this game. But, they were undefeated and the Giants were huge underdogs. Congratulations to New York and my apologies to the Patriots for endorsing you.

Recently Read

I thought it might be a good idea to list some books I've read recently and give them a completely arbitrary ranking based on my own scale (which you can find to the left of my posts if you look for it). This hopefully will work better than just recommending books randomly from time to time. So, in no particular order, here we go.
1. Ilium by Dan Simmons. If you like sci-fi and have never read anything by Simmons you are doing yourself a grave disservice. I'm not a big fan of reading sci-fi yet Dan Simmons is one of my favorite authors. He never disappoints. This book is also highly recommended if you are a fan of the Trojan War (specifically, The Iliad). Oh, and throw in the fact that this all happens on Mars far in the future and you have a very intriguing book. How does it all tie together? I can't tell you without ruining the story. You really have to check it out. I give it a 5 on the haonmot scale.
2. Daggerspell by Katharine Kerr. This is an older fantasy novel sorted under the heading of "Celtic fantasy". It involves reincarnation and karma and a disturbing underlying theme of incest. It shows great potential at times yet at others it seems a bit disjointed. If you don't have a burning desire to read anything else at the moment, give this a shot. Haonmot scale ranking:3
3. Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling. If you liked The Stand or are a fan of alternate history you will likely enjoy this book. The premise is intriguing and the post-apocalyptic storyline plays out in a relatively convincing manner. Imagine if all technology of the past thousand years was suddenly rendered inoperable. Nothing mechanical of any kind works. Even gunpowder is ineffective. People suddenly find themselves back in agricultural society. What happens next is fascinating and thought provoking. I give it a 4.

A Not So Super Prediction

Unless you live under a rock, you must realize tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday. In case you don't know, the two teams playing are the New England Patriots and the New York Giants( I've talked to people this week that had no idea). The Patriots, of course, are looking to complete a 19-0 season. The Giants are looking to pull off likely the greatest upset in Super Bowl history. So even if you're not a fan of either of these teams (which for the record, I'm not) it should still be one of the highest rated Super Bowls ever. So, since there probably aren't enough people out there making predictions I figured I'd put mine out there. A lot of people think it' s a good sign for the Giants that they played the Patriots so closely the last week of the regular season. I happen to think that will actually work against them. The worst thing you can do is give Patriots coach Bill Belichick time to prepare (he's had two weeks since the AFC Championship game). The second worst thing is to let him have a lot of recent game film on you. It's even worse if that film happens to be from a game against his team. So, I think the Giants are running into a buzz-saw. It will be close for 3 quarters but in the end the Patriots will make history. Let's call it 38-21.

???????

The area I live in seems to get an inordinate amount of power outages. I'm not really sure why. It kinda pisses me off though.

They let you drive?

One of the biggest rites of passage for all teenagers is obtaining a driver's license. Yet there is no law in effect anywhere in our country that makes it a right for you to have a driver's license. In fact, it is my belief that far too many people have a license in part due to the fact that it is far too easy to obtain said license. Most people who read this post will not agree and some while get downright angry. I'm warning you now. Are you interested in cutting down on traffic, pollution and potentially fatal accidents? Let me share with you a few ideas that just might help. First, raise the minimum age for a license. You have to be 18 to vote, you should have to be 18 to drive. Second, set a maximum age for a driver's license. I think more people would have a problem with a maximum age limit than a minimum one. It's hard to say what that max age should be but unfortunately it is an inexorable fact of life that as we grow older our faculties and reaction times diminish. If you have trouble walking unassisted or tremble or just plain do things slowly, I'm sorry but you should not be behind the wheel of a car.
Perhaps the best step to take though is to have everyone--EVERYONE--re-test for their driver's license at most every 10 years. I just lost 99% of you, didn't I? I admit even I would be a little nervous about having to retest for my license. But that mostly stems from the fact that it has been 20 years since I had to. I likely don't even remember 3/4th of the information I had to remember for my test. And I'm sure many laws have changed without my knowledge. Add to that the fact that I moved to a new state and didn't have to test either. Now, I think I pretty well represent the status quo here in the good old U.S. of A. If so, that means we have a whole lot of potentially unknowledgeable drivers out there. On top of that we have many drivers with diminishing reaction times. Then finally, we have the teenagers. We've all been there. How much attention did you pay to the road as opposed to your friends or the radio when you were 16? I know there is no chance in hell that this would ever happen. Hell, the automobile and oil lobbies in Washington would never allow it, much less the average U.S. citizen. But that doesn't mean it's not a good idea anyways.

Election Year Blues

Is anyone else sick of our presidential candidates yet? I'm sure most of you are. The problem is that most of their campaigns seem to have started shortly after the last one ended. Can't we pass a law that says no one can start campaigning until January of the year in which the election is held? That's plenty of time for these blowhards to spout their political views and wage personal attacks. If I want to hear people being insulted, I'll watch American Idol, thank you very much. While on this subject let me encourage anyone out there who is uninformed about the issues or individuals in this race not to vote. Yes, you read that right, if you don't know anything about the candidate or their platforms, please do NOT vote. Of course I realize it is your right as a (legal) U.S. citizen. But honestly, to vote just because you can is irresponsible. I mean, you have the right to bear arms as well but it doesn't mean you should. Does being informed necessarily mean you will vote for the "right" person? No. And not just because there is no "right" person (that being a subjective idea). But being uniformed sure will make you more likely to vote for the wrong person. There IS such thing as a wrong person (anyone remember Ross Perot?). So please, if you don't know what the hell is going on or don't know Obama from Huckabee find something else to do on election day. Maybe you could watch American Idol...(not that I condone that either).

Still Kicking

Not that it's likely anyone has been paying attention, but...I'm back. Where have I been you may ask? If you even are checking this blog anymore. There are a number of factors I could cite. Just suffice it to say it all boils down to laziness and short attention span. So, now I am back and ready to devote myself all out to making this the best blog I can, right? Not exactly. But if you are like me and only occasionally check your e-mail or favorite websites, then this blog is officially for you. I promise to update my blogs once in awhile and try to freshen things up if you promise to check in once in awhile. So, here we go. A new year, a new start. God help us all.