Information Overload

The X Files: I Want to Believe

The second X-Files film is more believable (relatively speaking) than the killer bees from the first one. X-Philes will enjoy the final adventure of Mulder, and Scully before they sail row into the sunset. The X Files: I Want to Believe plays out like a made-for-TV movie fitting for the home theater, but would have been underwhelming in the cinema. Fox must have decided that there were enough fans for a low-budget release on the big screen. BSG fans can only hope that Universal will give the green light for a major motion picture, but it looks like they'll have to settle for another telefilm of their own.

Burn After Reading

The Cohen brothers poke fun at the CIA in Burn After Reading, a film largely carried by its actors' performances. It was fun to watch a movie that takes place in DC having just been there, but the story itself is somewhat pedestrian. Bumbling idiots happen into the possession of the memoirs of a former CIA agent whose wife is having an affair with a Treasury agent. Chaos ensues.

U.S. Capitol Visitor Center

Got lucky after Inauguration Day, and toured the U.S. Capitol by way of the new Capitol Visitor Center that opened last month. Had to ditch a bottle of water and some unopened Fig Newtons to get through security. The CVC opens up to a large underground hall that lives up to the splendor of the Capitol itself. It was cool to stand under the Capitol dome, a nexus of the nation's lawmakers throughout the country's history.

Virgin America

Virgin America raises the bar for commercial domestic airlines. Their fares are inexpensive, and they employ friendly people. Their new A320's are spacious, and feature cool amenities like standard three-prong power outlets in coach. Each seat features a touch screen system with satellite television, on-demand movies and TV shows, on-demand music, radio, games, and on-demand food. The only negative Virgin virgin experience was their $9 roast beef sandwich, which invoked feelings of food poisoning. They're totally worth flying out of SFO (sadly, they're not at SJC) for long cross-country flights. It's no wonder the incumbent U.S. airlines pulled out all the stops to delay Virgin America's entry into the marketplace.

24: Day 7

CIP firewall? Really?

[Warning: Spoilers ahead for those who haven't watched the last six hours...]

It's ironic that Cisco is sponsoring 24 in a big way given that the seventh day's primary problem is made possible by a gaping vulnerability in the nation's CIP (Crappy Intranet Protection?) firewall. It's as if the government thought it was a good idea to tie all of the country's vital infrastructure systems together after the "Dobson Override" debacle from Day 4! President Taylor needs to take a page from the Transformers, and cut the hard lines ASAP. Better yet, watch Die Hard 2 about warning flights to disregard bogus instructions from terrorists posing as ATC. Like Live Free or Die Hard, the premise of Day 7 is ludicrous, but it's fun to cheer on Jack Bauer as he solves a crisis only he, and the John McClanes of the world can handle. The new season should do well, just so long as Jack doesn't jump on a jet. It might be funny like "The Jet" jumping a car, but doing so would take the show in the wrong direction. At least they finally escaped from L.A.

Happy Moo Year

Ironically, The Year of The Ox might bode better for Windows 7. Microsoft is hedging their bets by giving its next OS a version number that's generally lucky in both Eastern and Western cultures. Of course, Biblical numerology claims X denotes ordinal perfection... It's all superstitious bullshit (pun intended). Happy Lunar New Year!

Battlestar Galactica: The Final Episodes

What the frak?

[Warning: Spoilers ahead for those who haven't watched the last two episodes...]

Is Starbuck a cylon or isn't she? Regardless, where the frak did the viper she flew back come from given that the one that blew up apparently made it to Earth? It seems that the answer will have to wait until the fleet gets over the fact that Earth is apparently uninhabitable. A lot of people in the fleet, including the President, aren't taking the news very well. The VP is rightly (technically) maneuvering to fill the power vacuum. Unfortunately, his modus operandi uses human hatred of cylons to advance his agenda even though the prudent course of action would be to extend the human/cylon alliance given that the other cylons are still trying to exterminate them both. It should be fun to watch the Admiral smack down (hopefully) Zarek and his collaborators again. Too bad there are only eight episodes remaining.

Happy Birthday Macintosh

Here's to 25 insanely great years! 

The Wrestler

Warning: The Wrestler is not a happy film. Mickey Rourke's character clings to his glory days, unable to move on with his life. He finds some solace with Marisa Tomei's character who plays a stripper with a similar problem. Throw in the wrestler's estranged daughter and drugs, and much pain and suffering ensues. Director Darren Aronofsky loosely bases The Wrestler universe on characters from the Golden Age of sports entertainment wrestling. However, Hulk Hogan, and even The Iron Sheik knew when to throw in the towel. The movie ends with familiar Aronofsky abruptness.

WhiteHouse.gov

Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov. President Obama understands the utility of the Internet. The new WhiteHouse.gov is being built to enhance communication, executive transparency, and foster participation by all Americans.