Brutusweb
    Brutus. On the Web.

75%

61%The Movie Quiz

Taking the day off work to see a movie. Priceless.

Who among us has not been waiting on pins and needles for this movie to arrive. It hails back to a much simpler time when friends and I would get together, each with a transformer or two and have epic mega battles in someone’s basement.

When we saw the original trailer for Transformers, we both knew right away that we were coming to see it. Absolutely no way we would miss this.

So how was it?

Overall I would have to give it a “Most Excellent”. A good plot keeps you in to the movie, and the only “slower” moment in the movie was filled with a good amount of comedy so you hardly noticed. Two and a half hours flew by fairly quickly. A good assortment of the classic transformers were present with enough names I remembered to keep me happy.

Every movie has good parts and bad parts. The only beefs I personally had were the following:

- Bumble bee is a Camaro. Now look; If you are going to update a classic Transformer, please don’t show the car he is supposed to be when you first introduce him into the movie. All of us were sitting there thinking ‘But that other car should have been…’

- Optimus Prime has lips. My god what an atrocity. He is supposed to have the metal plate that moves up and down. He didn’t need lips people. That was too far.

- “More than meets the eye” was used twice. Now either one were great, but to have the tag line twice in the movie.. I thought that was a little overdone.

- Product placement. Yes people there are placements in this movie and they are getting bold with it. We get to watch a Pontiac Solstice rotating on display for a few seconds and later in the movie its featured in an action shot, sans scars. We already paid you money to see the movie, and you pumped 15 minutes of ads at the start of it. Why do I get more in the movie.

Those few beefs are all minor, and don’t detract from the movie overall. Loved it. Rush out and see it folks, it was worth the money and then some.

Thank the Japanese for this latest one that actually found a way to market the idea of popping bubble wrap.

Even better is they even came up with a way to add electronics.

Bless the Japanese for being so smart.

Read it here:

http://www.kilian-nakamura.com/blog-english/index.php/portable-bubble-wrap-toy-from-bandai-asovision-puchipuchi/

Tuesday night and Wednesday night, this is what we had to deal with at work.

Nothing but fun times

I can’t even begin to describe how true this rang to me.

Shaun Boyd shares 10 reasons “It doesn’t pay to be ‘The computer Guy’ ”

Read the full article at http://www.lifereboot.com, here is a summary:

Reason #10 – Most Of Your Accomplishments Are Invisible
Reason #9 – Every Conversation You Have Is Roughly The Same
Reason #8 – You’re An Expert Of Bleeding-Edge Technology Products, Aren’t You?
Reason #7 – Your Talents Are Forcibly Undervalued
Reason #6 – You’re Never Allowed A Moment’s Peace
Reason #5 – People Ask You To Perform Miracles
Reason #4 – Your Assumed “All-Knowing” Status Sets You Up To Let People Down
Reason #3 – You Possess Unlimited Responsibility
Reason #2 – A Life Of Alienation
Reason #1 – You Have No Identity

**Updated

Updated Sep2007, seems http://www.com16.info/V8.htm is a spam site in which they have stolen my content verbatim.  Direct links to images, the whole nine.

**

We received a pair of tickets to the Car show this weekend, so we made a day of it and went down to check it out. A lot of people were there, it was most certainly hard to focus on any one vehicle. A few dream cars but to be honest, nothing notably rare or esoteric.

Anyways, here are a few highlights of the show:

Shelby GR-1

Most excellent car, by far the best presence for when you first walk through the door. Huge rubbers, and impressive lines.

Ford Mustang GT500 Cobra

There were actually a few mustangs from the California Specials to the Shelby GT500. Outwards all are very similar with most differences under the hood. V6 engine appears to be complete different technology than the V8′s so IMO, pay the difference and go for the power.

Jaguar XK

Jaguar always makes a nice car, this one certainly no exception. They speak for themselves, and I’ve found you either love them or hate them.

Infiniti M45

After losing the Q45, it was nice to sit and dream for a few minutes. This M45 certainly lives up to and exceeds expectations. MP3 cd in dash and DVD in center console, backup camera, and engine panels create a great look in this luxury car.

Dodge Charger

Hated the color.. there is a Nova in the city this same car and its just as ugly. I feel it would have been nicer to make the car black with this color as the accents rather than the other way around. Its so bright that the lines of the car are less pronounced and the whole shape looses a little appeal.

Dodge Viper

The Viper is always nice to look at. Its an excellent car if you want some serious G-Force shoving you into the seats. I’d like to find out if they’ve improved the noise issue at all. The one Viper I was in was so loud, that it was hard to hold a conversation about anything other than the sound of the engine. Same sexy car though, and as always a treat to witness.

Chevy Corvette

The front end of this car belongs in a Pixar animation. Seriously. The front end is rounded and accented in such a way that I would imagine an older female actress would readily lend her voice with credibility to the role. Its ironic that such an iconic vehicle that has featured a 454 engine and names such as “Stingray” has undertaken a slightly less aggressive look. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, and the rest of the car is full of shiny goodness. We just need to get the designers to bring back a harder line on the front end.

Chevy Camaro

Nice car, but lots of influence from the past molded with modern designs. The rearview mirrors remind me simultaneously of old 50′s hot rodders and also the Viper. The ultra small side windows are the same feeling. You can tell they wanted to bring some muscle with some attitude to the table, but it all feels like its been done before. It will be interesting to keep an eye on the Camaro in the next couple of model years and see what polishing they perform.

Suzuki Grand Vitara

This was an excellent display that had slot car versions of the Grand Vitara traveling in a pseudo 4x4ish terrain. The only issue was that like everyone else, the slot car toys really stole the show and I can recall more about them than the new Vitara. Oh well, at least it was cool. Video below:

Saturn Sky

I’m not all that intimate with the Sky, but It looks like a nice car, I did like the color matched interior details. Reverse light below the rear bumper in the center was a nice touch. I will have to test drive one of these and see how they perform.