Not Watching.

I don't want to watch Watchmen. I'm tired of morose comic book adaptations. I didn't like The Dark Knight, not better than Batman Begins anyway. I'm more looking forward to the slate of Marvel films coming out. But you can keep Watchmen. The graphic novel was enough for me, and the fact that the ending is different in the film is a deal breaker. Ask me why, and I have good reasons. Logical reasons. But no, I'm not watching.

Here's a flick worth watching though: Taken. Liam Neeson kicking ass and getting his white girl (daughter) back. Say word.

I think my reading list just got a lot bigger.

I might start playing Sim City again.

I wasn't very good at Sim City when I played on the Super Nintendo. After a couple of hurricanes and fires, I quit. But after reading this, I just might try it out again. Hopefully I'd make a better mayor at this point.

Via Ryan North at Dinosaur Comics:

"February 19th, 2009: Karen Ellis suffered a house fire and lost pretty much everything. I'm mentioning this because her comic is good and you'll probably enjoy it (a journal comic that's interesting for the person who didn't write it! Nice) but also because if you've ever wanted to donate to her, now would be a good time!"

"Colombia has just surpassed Sudan as having the worst internal displacement crisis in the world."-witnessforpeace.org

You can take action easily and quickly on this issue over here.

Three more words on Coraline

No young children.

It's a creepy (entertaining) flick, bound to give out nightmares. So I just wanted to add that to my earlier review.

Maybe Shaq Read This Blog

I caught a large part of the All-Star game on Sunday, and a lot of that involved Shaquille O'Neal's playing time. What I saw was some great play from the big (and now older) man. Granted, he played just 11 minutes, but he won MVP for the game. Who knows, maybe I pissed him off. Anyhow, if he can give that much effort the rest of the year, Phoenix might just resurrect from their dismal first half, especially now that their head coach has been replaced.

They've gone back to an uptempo offense, and in two games so far, they've blown out the Los Angeles Clippers. Not too bad, but it's an untested sample size.

As for Shaq, he might not be able to keep up with all the running, but hey, if he gives the type of 11 minutes he gave for the All-Star Game consistently, then that's probably adequate.

Three Word Movie Reviews

Okay, I've watched a grip of movies since I last blogged, and that makes for too much to write. So I'm going to do each one in three words or less. By the way, I actually saw Notorious before The Reader, like I said I might. Same goes for He's Just Not That Into You. Everything else was after. Here goes (each title links to their respective Internet Movie Database page):

Notorious: Puffy didn't distract.

He's Just Not That Into You: What a waste.

Chocolate: Autism violently fun.

Ghost Town: Pleasurable enough.

Coraline: Don't miss 3-D!

RocknRolla: Dude, I'm lost.

Be Kind Rewind: Really very amusing.

I think that covers it.

Ranking Best Picture, Minus One

Whoops. I forgot to mention Milk.

Well, I don't think I'll be able to catch it before the awards ceremony is broadcast since it's not in any theaters close by. I did see The Reader though. It was pretty good. I still like Frost/Nixon best.

Here's how I'd rank them, excluding Milk of course:

1- Frost/Nixon
2- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
3 (tie)- The Reader
3 (tie)- Slumdog Millionaire

Doubt should have been in there. Good thing it gets a bunch of nominations in other categories.

My new favorite author

I finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success yesterday in a bookstore (I read the first half last Wednesday), and it was great.

I first learned about Gladwell after my favorite hip-hop band, The Roots, named an album after his book The Tipping Point. The first book of his that I looked at, Blink, was really interesting and enjoyable, so much so that I bought a copy for my girlfriend when we first started dating.

I didn't actually read all of Blink but always intended to do so. My girlfriend hasn't finished it yet, but hopefully I'll get my hands on it soon. Especially now that I've finished Outliers. I want to read The Tipping Point now too. Gladwell just writes so clearly and convincingly.

Outliers makes you look at how we usually view stories of success and why we're probably wrong. There are chapters about plane crashes, The Beatles, Bill Gates, and what rice paddies have to do with why Asians are so good at math, among other things. It's a fascinating book, and I highly recommend it.

For a taste of what the book is about check out the nice videos below:

Gladwell @ AIGA Business and Design Conference

Discussing Outliers on Charlie Rose

The third video below is a talk from around the time Blink first came out but cool nonetheless.
What We Can Learn From Spaghetti Sauce

Choosing Life for Troy Davis