This evening we took in yet another summer blockbuster, The Day After Tomorrow. I can be honest here and say that I was NOT expecting this movie to be any good. I had heard several times that the disaster part of the movie (the second ice age) was only a short part of the movie and most of it was Dennis Quaid coming for that really funny looking kid from Bubbleboy. Boy was I surprised.

This movie was very very good. It’s a little unbelievable but they did NOT ruin the movie during the preview. There was some good special effects that you did not see in the preview or commercials.

It was a long movie but the story kept you from noticing. I did keep wondering what the heck Dennis Quaid was going to do once he found the “Bubbleboy” but low and behold they even answered that.

I recommend this movie…4 out of 5 stars.

On the way home from work today we stopped off and saw Shrek 2. I had low expectations for this movie even though word of mouth was good. During the first 15 minutes I was not impressed, but once the new story was set up, the movie picked up and was excellent. To be truthful, there are a lot more pop culture current events references, but they worked well. Mike Meyers was okay, Cameron Diaz nothing spectacular and to be honest tho Eddie Murphy was good as “Donkey” he was as annoying as Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars Episode I. This is more evident in Shrek 2 because a new character, Puss In Boots played by Antonio Banderas stole the movie. He was amazingly funny.

As most of you know of my love for Absolutely Fabulous would expect, I adored Jennifer Saunders (Eddie) as the Fairy Godmother. She was a riot and who knew she could sing?

I recommend this move for sure. It gets 4 stars out of 5 only because of the slow beginning.

Wow…It’s been a minute!

Sorry for the long delay in updating the blog. I won’t say what is going on but there is some good stuff going on outside of the macboyX world and I am a very happy man.

Things have been mostly good. I wanted to post last week because once again the great and powerful VU has come thru in a big way. While in Disney, I discovered Vu’s love of all things Stitch. Who is Stitch you might ask? Well I sorta asked the same question but I gotta say…Stitch is good. Stitch is a character from the Disney movie “Lilo & Stitch”. When I got back to the MBX Compound I borrowed the movie from Ed (a memeber of my Mac Family)
Music playing during post:. I loved the movie. I think it’s one of the better recent Disney flicks.

While out in Disney Vu showed me his “Aloha Stitch” a stuffed animal that when you speak to it, speaks back. Well this was just the coolest thing I had ever seen and I wanted one badly. I figured when I got back home I’d go pick one up. Much to my chagrin, when I got home I was informed that you can only buy “Aloha Stitch” at Disneyland or Walt Disney World! I was bummed.

Vu of course found out and offered to send me an “Aloha Stitch”. I was greatful and very excited. I got the package on Wednesday and as always Mr. Metal Tiger went WAY above and beyond the call of duty :). I opened this box (a bit too big for a stuffed animal and found a virtual bevy of Stitch paraphanlia. The box contained…
1. My Aloha Stitch
2. A small plush Stitch
3. A box of figurines from the movie
4. A Stitch hat (which looks like Stitch is chewing on your head!)
5. A Stitch Picture frame (I love this I put our pic with Mickey in it)
6. A Hula Stitch who is dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses. He is like a bobble head but wiggles at his waist.
7. A Picture book on Disneyland (on both the Disneyland Resort and California Adventures)

Here is a pic of all the Stitch Stuff.

I am so in love with my Aloha Stitch. It’s too freaking cool. I put my picture of me and Vu with Mickey in my stitch frame and spread my figurines out at work.

I love it all and I can not stress to him how greatful I am. I especially love my Aloha Stitch.

Thanks Vu….

With the summer movie season under way, we saw Troy today. It was very good. Much better than I expected it to be. Brad Pitt was great but truthfully it was Eric Bana (HULK) who stole the movie. He was so good. This movie had a great story that kept a good pace. It still amazes me how interesting a movie adaptation of a story you know so well can be so good. It’s a definite see. I give this move 4 out of 5 stars!

Well I’m on my flight back from LA, the flight is crowded and the ass in front of me has his seat totally reclined using a 17″ PowerBook, I can’t even fit my 12″ PowerBook on my lap in front of me! Ordinarily I’d be ecstatic to see another Mac user but WTF? Who needs a 17″ laptop on a plane in COACH! Ugh.

Anyway, my trip to LA was fantastic. Thanks to Vu for making it so special. You’re the best and you better know it.

My trip started with a so so flight out to the coast on Friday, the flight was turbulent and they wouldn’t let us get up much and the in-flight movie, Along Came Polly was such drivel. All the good parts had been revealed in the previews and though it was par for the course for Jennifer Anniston, Ben Stiller should be embarrassed to have been in such a catastrophe. When I landed at LAX I of course rang the hubby to let him know I was safe and then called Vu to tell him where I was, apparently he had parked and was at the next terminal over! He came walking (fast too!) up to the terminal I was in and he looked so happy to see me! He gave me one hell of a big hug and we were off. Vu has a beautiful ‘03 Acura TL Type-S, very sweet ride! He took me back to the hotel, a very nice place abt 1 mile from Disneyland. It was nice with 2 double beds and High Speed access whoo hoo! We decided we’d go down to the OUTBACK which was right outside the hotel, but it was 11 and they were not seating! So we made off to Downtown Disney. We found a cool place called the ESPN Zone and got some grub and spoke as if we the oldest of friends. He’s an awesome guy. After that we ran back to the hotel and I crashed bad.

First thing Saturday morning I got to chat with Shawn on iChat with our iSights (ain’t technology grand?). We had an awesome visit and then Vu and I headed out to lunch, we went to a cool place called the Lazy Dog Cafe, we at these tasty chili cheese fries that made us both sick so after we went back to the hotel and rested. I got to chat with Shawn again and this time Lori was there. We had a ball laughing our asses off chatting. Vu woke up from his nap and we were off to Disneyland.

Disneyland was one of the best times of the trip, not only is it way cooler than I expected, Vu is apparently one hell of a Mouse head and knew so much cool stuff about the park. He told me abt the woman who died on the Matterhorn and how where her head struck the lights, they won’t work again no matter how many times they have tried to fix it and that Walt had an apartment (more like a condo) built inside Disneyland where he planed to live. He also showed me where he did live during construction. We were mostly there to see a show called Fantasmic, and we were going to sit on the balcony in Walt’s apartment, just about the best seats in the park to see the show.

We went to Fantasyland, Adventureland, Tomorrowland and Toon Town! We rode the Indiana Jones ride, and go to use this thing called Fast Pass, you put your ticket in to a card reader and it holds ur place in line while you go back to the park! Once we got into the ride it was neat. You sit in a large jeep with about 12 people, and you go off on this wild track thru an ancient temple. What also was cool was how the queue was set up, all kinds of things to make you feel that it was a temple. And around one corner Vu ran and yanked on this big vine and there was a huge noise which scared the CRAP out of me, he was laughing so hard he could barely stand up :). The ride was very fast and bumpy and very cool. We also went on the Star Tours ride which was cool but also kinda sad since you can get the same experience in a Game Cube game these days!

Next we went over to Toon Town and saw Mickey’s house, it was a riot, we took alot of pics of that. Vu has a great camera (I am insanely jealous and I want one!) called the Sony DSC-F717. This thing took amazing pics (check out the my photos section). Then we got our picture taken with Mickey. There was a very nice photographer who I believe was family and was EXTRA nice to me and Vu (hey I was bear of the day LOL! hahaha). Then we had to run to get to Fantasmic.

I was all out of breath when we got back to New Orleans Square (where Walt’s Apartment is) and I said to Vu shouldn’t we get something to drink before we go up and that’s when he informed me that there were desserts and drinks to be served on the balcony! COOL. Walt’s Apartment is now an Art Gallery and they were featuring art from Haunted Mansion ride and movie. It was neat. They checked us in at the apartment and seated us on the balcony. For dessert they had, Cheesecake, Fresh Fruit, Apple Fritters, Napoleons, Black Forrest Cake, Strawberry and Lemon Tarts. The food was great, then the show started.

I had asked Vu many times what the show was like and he said he could not explain it. So when it started I was amazed. It is part live action and part movie. It started off with Mickey and he was conducting a series of Fountains, and suddenly the fountains when off and they began misting until they actually made a SCREEN, and they showed a movie on this WALL of WATER, un-freaking-believable. Next these floats came out with Belle and the Beast, Aladdin and Jasmine and Ariel and her beau(I don’t remember his name!). More video on the water wall, and then the freaking Boat from Peter Pan came out, no crap a huge pirate ship (Vu informed me is called the Columbia) and there were people fighting on it! There was a huge crocodile following it too! Lots more video and some other stuff and the finale was a huge Steamboat called the Mark Twain which had all the characters on it. Then there were also fireworks and a grand stage show with the evil queen from Snow White and Mickey dressed as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. It was amazing and all done to music of course! The show was so good, almost as good was how excited Vu was that we were watching it. He must have seen this thing a hundred times but he was so excited! It was so neat.

We then wandered around the park for about an hour and road The Toad’s Wild Ride, took some pics at Snow White Castle and then finished the evening off on It’s A Small World. We took tons of pics of the topiaries and the ride (it takes 15 minutes!). I had the best time. So much fun, all thanks to Vu. On the way out we stopped to get our pictures with Mickey, all digital, set up right in front of your face on monitors with frames around them :). We went back to the hotel and talked until we both passed out.

Sunday morning we woke up wayyyy late and I tried to call Shawn and my mom but there was no one home at either place so we headed over to Vu’s house so I could hook up his network. We put in a wireless network so that everyone in his house could surf at the same time. I met his sisters and his parents all of who were so nice. His sisters were so excited about the wireless network. Vu has a great house, so nice, so Cali style and one hell of a Anime collection (he says it’s nothing compared to others). We watched some of it on a huge projection screen TV and had a great time.

By this time it was late on the East Coast and Shawn was home. We got to chat on iChat for a couple of hours before Vu and I went to dinner at the Outback finally. (I am still pissed about not paying!) After that we went back and I helped Vu with his iBook a bit and we went to bed (we had to get up at 4am!)

We woke up on time, I got to LAX wayyyyyy early :). But It was good. I didn’t want to miss my 5 hr flight home :). Like I said earlier I am now on the plane SQUISHED! You know dude in front of me is an ass cause not only does he have a 17″ PowerBook, he also has those BOSE Noise Canceling Head Phones. It OK though, as Steve has said…”Karma baby, karma!”. I stil have about 3 hrs left, so I think me and Depeche Mode are gonna try to take a nap! Wish me luck

To Vu…thank you so much for:
1. being you, your cool baby!
2. giving me such a great time. I had so much fun
3. being my friend. I am a lucky man!

Zya!

Music playing during post:Walking in my Shoes by Depeche Mode

Well It’s actually after I landed, but here is what I thought in flight…

Okay…I am 4 hrs into my flight to LA and I am sooo ready for it to be over! My ass is killing me from sitting in this way uncomfortable seat!!! At least I will get to see Vu in a just under 2 hrs! Shawn and I had an AWFUL drive to the airport…makes me wonder what the hell I was thinking taking a job with travel…at least then I can catch a shuttle from work and not worry abt the driving! I don’t know what I have about driving myself to the airport but I just can’t stand it.

I’ll be back on MONDAY with details of the trip…Shawn…I miss you already

Zya

Music playing during post: Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice (Audio Book)

OMG… I haven’t been this angry in a long, long, long time. I just had the most exhausting day. It started out nice… but wow. I called AT&T this morning to have my Digital phone upgraded to a Nationwide plan since I was gong to be traveling and because of my trip to L.A. this weekend.

A little background, I have been an AT&T customer for about 6 years now and last summer/fall I made the switch to to AT&T GSM so I could get a way cool Sony Ericsson T68i phone. The phone rocked, BlueTooth connectivity, I could control my Mac with it, use a wireless headset, sync my phone with my Address Book on my Mac even. I loved it but… the GSM network SUCKED. I mean that was an understatement. I couldn’t get a signal at all on either of my routes home from work, and I’d lose calls constantly. So I went thru a HUGE thing back in December to go from GSM to TDMA. And I was happy, service was great, I could even get a signal at work, Although I missed my cool T68i phone I really liked my Motorola V60 phone.

Okay sooo when I called AT&T a very friendly guy explained to me that AT&T is no longer offering nationwide TDMA plans. They could of course offer me a plan with 1/2 the minutes for the same price I was paging now and NONE of the features (or as they called them PROMOTIONS). They also offered to move me to GSM, I asked why would I do that? It didn’t work last time at all. I was pissed, I hung up and called back. Someone else said that they could offer me a MultiBand phone if I wanted, that would work on both the TDMA and GSM network and let me have a GSM Plan but…if I couldn’t get a good signal with either phone, how would that help? The guy who helped me was useless and hung up on me when I wanted to be transferred back to the TDMA department.

I called back a third time and spoke to someone who politely informed me again that I was screwed. I asked to speak to a supervisor, and was put on hold for a good 10 minutes. When dude came back, he said…”All the supervisors I spoke to said you are just out of luck…” . Well I lost it! I told him that I didn’t ask him to ask someone, I wanted to speak to someone else!!!! I got my wish when a CONFLICT RESOLUTION REPRESENTATIVE. This guy told me that AT&T met their requirements by offering me a plan and it was not their FAULT I could not afford to pay it. I told him that it was none of his business if i could or could not pay for it…I simply WOULD not pay more for less. I told him this would be a good place to end the call cause I could not hold my tongue.

So I went and decided to try Cingular (yes I know they ate up AT&T but as all my friends at AT&T told me it’d be a long time before the merger was all wrapped up!). I got a good plan and a nice phone..the Siemens S56. It’s nice but I can’t get my Bluetooth headset to work with it, well one thing at at time.

Zya

Music playing during post: Ringfinger by Nine Inch Nails

Well it’s official… I was offered the job today to be an instructor at work. I am very excited, it should be a great opportunity. I will be traveling a bit and will get to teach some Technology classes. When do I start? Who knows. I have to wait for them to find my replacement.

Wish me luck

Zya

Music playing during post: It Doesn’t Have To Be That Bad by Erasure

What a weekend. What a full weekend! Friday night we went to our first game at the new Citizens Bank Park, new home of the Philadelphia Phillies. We sat in left field and had a good time. The park is nice but it was CROWDED. I took a bunch of pictures, you can check them out in the my photos section. We went with my dad and my brother and my brother got soooo drunk as usual.

Saturday morning my dad, Shawn and I took a drive down to Ocean City New Jersey to find a house for our vacation at the end of the summer. We found a nice place and had lunch at a great place called Yesterday’s. The drive as always was fun even though I fell asleep a few times! That evening we ran around and got my Mom her mother’s day gift… a TiVo! We spent the night at my parent’s again and we had a good time showing my Mom how to use theTiVo.

Sunday was a good evening, we bought a new way cool rug for the great room, pictures are coming… We watched TONS of TiVo and a great Alias.

Well time for bed.

Zya!

Music playing during post: Groove is in the Heart by DEE-Lite