And in case you have forgotten where they are located, you can catch my flickr work here

And as a side note on the zip codes, they would be Greece, Greece, Ithaca, Dryden, and Laramie for anyone interested in the inner workings of our postal system codes.

And for those of you who have been really out of the loop, I am in Laramie attending the University of Wyoming (Go Cowboys!*) working on getting my phd in mathematics. So I should be stationed out here for the next 3-4 years if anyone is making a cross country trip and wants to stop in.

So far the area is beautiful. I've already had the chance to visit a nearby mountain range as well as the Rocky Mountain National Park outside of Denver, and both were gorgeous and breath taking (although partially due to the thin air in the high elevations). I've also had the chance to visit my family in Colorado that I have had very few chances to see so far (and who I will probably be seeing a lot of now), and got to see the inner workings of my cousin Troy's farm out in Holyoke, CO. Pictures of me (poorly) driving the tractor will be coming soon once I sort through the hundreds of photos I've taken already.

All in all it has been a successful move so far. The apartment is wonderful, the town is small but full of great eateries (within walking distance), and I already have an office space on campus.

And as a side note to all of you out there, while Denver may be the mile high city, Laramie stands at almost 1.5 miles high with an elevation just under 7200 feet. Oh, and from now on I will be operating on Mountain time.

*The Univ. of Wyoming Cowboys, not those annoying Dallas ones.

Wanted: Fantastic action film. Think Matrix meets Fight Club, but without as much story as Fight Club, and with better acting than Matrix. Not overly deep, but one of the most entertaining movies I've seen lately, and isn't that what really counts?

WALL·E: Yes he's cute, yes it's another well done Pixar film. And thankfully this one falls mostly into the good Pixar films that are a little different (see also Incredibles, Monsters Inc, and to some extent Finding Nemo). Is it without it's problems? No. First off, on a minor note, the "predicted" human future. It was a little funny seeing everyone over the top fat and lazy, but it almost seemed a little preachy at times. "Repent and change your ways or the human race will become fat, lazy and trash the entire planet!" But I can overlook that because they didn't come right out and preach that. The biggest issue was the inclusion of live action. I love pixar movies and the way most can reel you in, but you completely break up the flow and the feeling of emersion if you cut away to real people (and as much as I love Fred Willard, he does not belong at all).

Hancock: I loved the idea, a super hero who doesn't care, and I hoped they could pull it off. And I guess in some ways they did. What really threw me through was the fact that Charlize Theron was in the film (as one of the three major characters) yet this was never told to us in any previews. *Semi-Spoiler Alert* Now I know that she is part of the "twist" and that they wanted to keep that a secret, but if you have one of the biggest female names in Hollywood in your film as a major character, yet you don't hype that at all then it pretty obvious the first time you see her that there is going to be a twist involving her. So it doesn't really work well at hiding her. However I did enjoy seeing MR. F married to Jason Bateman, and she did do quite a good job. However in the end the film was watchable and entertaining, but not fantastic.

RATINGS: Worth Rewatching In the Theatres (as I have already done); Worth Seeing For Full Price (especially if you have kids); Worth Seeing Once (but maybe wait for a matinee or something cheaper).

PS - I cannot wait to see how Death Race turns out (can it be as awesomely bad as the original?), and props to anyone who caught the Arrested Development reference.

As most of you may know, I love Dr. Mario. Oblivion may be an enormous time-sink with it's hours and hours of content for me to explore, but it still hasn't put a dent in the countless numbers of hours that I have spent with the good Doc. I love it so much I was greatly disappointed when the doc didn't make a return in the new Smash game (travesty!). So how does the new version stack up?

Of course the standard play modes have returned (with claim of up to 4 players, although I'm not sure I could find 4 people to play with me), and there is even the new "Virus Buster" mode. I was skeptical of this mode at first (dragging the pills into place?) but it was actually really fun. There is also an online mode, complete with leader board, so I can finally see how I stack up with the competition worldwide. Not surprisingly the current Top10 all seem to be Japanese, go figure!

But now onto the bad. There are still the annoying "friend code" issues with online play (I seriously wish Nintendo would just bite the bullet and do away with it, but it ain't gonna happen) and as far as I can tell online play is restricted to standard mode on level 4. I can't imagine that this is a system limitation (and if it is then Nintendo has some serious problems with their online setup), so I can only assume that this means online was just an afterthought that was given no real effort, and that's a shame. Dr. Mario has always been a multiplayer game.

There are also a couple of other minor things that I would have liked to have seen cleared up since the N64 version, but these are mostly minor nitpicks that most people probably don't run into, but I think they deserve mention anyway. First off, there is no save feature. I know this sounds silly, but on the N64 I have been known to play games that last over 2 hours. My record on high speed was level 59, and it takes quite a while to get that far (even at 3 mins a level, times 39 levels, you get about 2 hours). And my record on medium speed was... undetermined (due to the fact that the old game stopped counting after level 99; I have yet to test if RX fixes this issue), but it did take me at least 3 hours to get up to the 3,000,000 points before I decided to just quit. Yes I know this isn't a problem that most casual gamers would run into, but it doesn't take a whole lot to fix either. Just let me "pause" the game between levels and come back to it later without having the leave the system on. Is that too much to ask?

But in the end I am glad to see Dr. Mario make a return, and finally have online play (even if it is rather sparse). And the price isn't too bad either at only $10 (it could have been a bit cheaper for what it includes, but I still find it more than worth it).

RATING: If you have a Wii and like puzzle games get it, hell I'd suggest it to any Wii owner.

1 - Stop throwing the hot young flavor of the week into action films like this. I have nothing against Shia LaBeouf, and I loved him in Transformers, but he does not belong here. Indy with his female side-kick is ok, and I'm even willing to grant you Shortee and Bond, but stop throwing in these young hot stars (I'm talking to you Die Hard).

2 - If you are looking for a magnetized case in a gigantic warehouse (one that is probably a half mile across), throwing gunpowder into the air is not going to work. That was the biggest stretch of the whole film. And if somehow the gunpowder trick works, then the object has to be so magnetized that you would not be able to go near it with any sort of metal. My physics may be a bit rusty, but I'm pretty sure most electromagnetic forces aren't that strong from that far away.

3 - Surviving a nuclear explosion at ground zero in a fridge? Sure... That one will work. On top of that having the fridge blown two miles clear of the site, with Indy inside (and unharmed), without it popping open, and then having Indy just hop right out when it lands? Come on.

Now, I'm willing to suspend disbelief for a great many things in action films, but there is a limit (on the number of these events and the magnitude of each of them. And Crystal Skull exceeds both those limits. Oh and could anyone have taken the film seriously at all after hearing the title? That's worse than when I heard Episode II was going to be called "Attack of the Clones!" Which gets me to what is probably the main issue with this movie. Spielberg directed it (and Lucas wrote it). I remember the good old days when the Lucas Films logo made me tingle with anticipation. Now it just makes me shiver with disgust. Oh how the times have changed. And don't think you're fooling me Mr. Spielberg with those stupid monkeys and prairie dogs. You can't try to squeeze Ewoks into this movie!

And finally...

4 - Why does Indy even try? The bad guys always end up getting whatever they are all after, and it inevitably kills them all and takes itself with them, leaving Indy and his pals alive with nothing to show except for piles of dead Nazis (or Russians in this case). I say just let them have it, seriously.

RATING: No matter what I say people will see it, but don't say I didn't warn you. Stick to the old ones and forget this one was ever made.

21 - Entertaining story (although most likely highly exaggerated), but I do enjoy gambling stories. But why is a pre-med taking combinatorics and non-linear equations?

Baby Mama - Not Tina Fey's best work I've seen, but still good chemistry between Fey and Poehler. And it had Maura Tierney actually looking good again.

Bank Job - Strong, classic heist movie that goes well beyond the heist. However, I do have some issues with Saffron Burrows as a model (not my type at all).

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - One of the best romantic comedies I've seen (but still probably one of the weaker movies from this team). And be prepared for the most male nudity you've seen outside of porn (or possibly Jackass).

Iron Man - I may rip on Robert Downey Jr. and his roles at times, but I always enjoy his work, and once again he doesn't disappoint. Fantastic blend of comic book and action in one (probably the best one I've seen).

The Forbidden Kingdom - Think Karate Kid meets some bad martial arts film (I know that may be redundant) and that's what you get with some kid roaming ancient China. Throw in the fact that Chan and Li are two very different martial arts actors and you have a very unbalanced weak attempt.
Side note: Jackie Chan and Jet Li are now a combined 99 years old (and it's showing).

Priceless - Very odd French romantic comedy about sugar-daddies and sugar-mommas, but funny through and through (with a few tugs on the heart strings). And while Audrey Tautou is still hot, she looks waifishly thin.

Prince Caspian - I liked this one better than the first, which I also enjoyed a lot, but perhaps it was because of a story that isn't quite as familiar as Lion, Witch, Wardrobe. However if they plan on doing the books in the order they were written, while keeping the same actors they may run into some issues down the line.

Sydney White - Teen comedies are my guilty pleasure (and so are Amanda Bynes movies), so this was a very guiltily pleasurable evening. Sure the plot is about as predictable as can be, but I do enjoy clever takes on old works (and nice to see Snow White as opposed to another Shakespearian remake).

Vantage Point - Interesting concept, not so great execution with some timing issues. And nice to see Matthew Fox break out his highschool spanish for no reason at all!
Note To Hollywood: Hispanic does not equal Spanish. If the movie is set in Spain, don't try to pass of Mexicans as extras.

What Happens in Vegas - As much as I try, I can't help but like Ashton Kutcher. I know most of his roles are as pretty-boy idiots, but he plays it so well.

RATINGS: Netflix, Dollar Theatre, Matinee, Full Price, Full Price, Skip It, Student Discount, Full Price, High Netflix, Student Price on top of a Matinee Ticket at the Dollar Theatre, Dollar Theatre.

So after much deliberation I have narrowed it down to my Top 10 in no particular order (other than alphabetically) I was going to go with 11, but that would have just been forcing the issue just to make it prime.

1 - Bran Van 300 - Discosis
Their first album was such a fantastically eclectic collection of music (they even managed to merge rap and country in the same song, with positive results) that I quite often forget about their second album. And after a couple more listens, I feel ashamed about that. Discosis has the same eclectic sound, but with a more polished feel to it. All the tracks flow smoothly from one to the next, weaving between genres. They even managed to loop it around as the last track leads back into the first. This might not be the best CD I own, but it has something for every mood, and has even more for when I don't know what mood I am in.

2 - DJ Spooky - Under the Influence
I don't know where you label this disc. Some say hip-hop, turn-table-ism, some say it's a mix CD... Personally I just label it trip-hop (so I know where to find it). But no matter how you label it, I skipped it for too long. Maybe it was because many of the tracks just don't feel like they stand up on their own, so when they appeared on shuffle mode I quickly skipped them. But then I hit a couple of the main tracks that I kept listening to over and over again. And finally I decided to give the whole album another listen, and I was surprised. All those "throw-away" tracks I had found before were perfect set-up to the main set pieces I had found. And now DJ Spooky has managed to find his way into my regular car trip rotation.

3 - Fatboy Slim - Better Living Through Chemistry
Lost for ages behind You've Come A Long Way Baby, Chemistry never got the play it deserved in my rotation. But after I realized how many great tracks there are on here... now it gets more play than You've Come.

4 - Lincoln - Lincoln
Not too many people are familiar with Lincoln, but they still remain one of the best opening acts I have ever seen (they opened for a while for They Might Be Giants). Unfortunately they only managed one CD before splitting up, but damn is it a catchy one. With all this praise it may seem that Lincoln doesn't quite fit here, but what I didn't appreciate was the lyrical stylings. I had always noted some of the quirky lines I loved ("You think you're so funny, but looks aren't everything"), but when I popped it into the CD player the other day for a listen I really noticed how deep some of the songs actually turn out to be. True they aren't all like that, but the lead does have a way of making even depressing songs sounds happy (much the way Guster's songs are all depressing as hell if you ever actually listen to them, yet the band puts on one of the happiest liveliest shows).

5 - Nightmares on Wax - Mind Elevation
Like Zero7 (see number 10), this was a long time background album for me. However, it almost doesn't belong on this list since I rediscovered it almost a year ago, and have worked it into regular rotation ever since, but I get to choose, so I'm putting it up here (mainly so that everyone who hasn't heard of it can get a chance to listen to it). It is one of the best chill-out albums that I own. Even when it gets more up-tempo it still has that relaxed (yet not sleep-inducing) vibe.

6 - Nirvana - Incesticide
Now I know Nirvana seems like a weird choice to have on here, but there is a major case for this album. And not just under-appreciated by me, under-appreciated by the public at large. Incesticide is like the forgotten middle child of the Nirvana family. Wedged right between Nevermind and In Utero, it is so often forgotten. Hell, when I searched for Nirvana on Amazon Incesticide came up #9, after the Smells Like Teen Spirit single even. Talk about unloved. True it wasn't a standard studio album, but who cares. It is strong and powerful and Nirvana at their best. I'm almost glad that I forgot about it, because now it gives me a chance to re-experience the Nirvana sound, but not with the songs I've heard a thousand times already.

7 - Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun
You think Iceland and you think Bjork (well if you're thinking wacked out music at least). What you should really think is Sigur Ros. This was one of the iffy inclusions here, because it is such a great album and I always knew that. But somehow I keep losing touch with it only to come back and rediscover how much I love it.

8 - Weezer - Weezer
I know that this one really shouldn't go up here. I mean who honestly argues that this isn't one of the best CDs? The thing is for the longest time I placed it behind Pinkerton. I don't really know why. I guess it was because Pinkerton had some of those tracks that I just couldn't get out of my head, and because I very quickly lost interest in Buddy Holly. But then I thought long and hard about it all and realized that every single track on this disc is fantastic. When they biggest complaint I can come up with is that I got a little tired of Buddy Holly (which is still a great song with an awesome video), then I really have to reconsider my Weezer rankings.

9 - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
This is another case of an album I did not give the proper amount of credit to. I know that everyone else did, but I got into the Yeah Yeahs all at once, and the three song trio of Honeybear, Cheated Hearts, and Dudley towards the end of Show Your Bones kept me on that album and away from
Fever for too long. But overall I do have to give Fever it's props. It fills a niche I've been lacking for so long in my music with such force and power that I can't help but include it in any list of my CDs now.

10 - Zero 7 - Simple Things
This was my background music for so long that I forgot how good it can be as the focal point as well. It is so mellow and soothing that I can do in depth thinking without getting too distracted, yet its not so dull that I would never think of just listening to it on it's own. I always make sure that I keep it handy for any occasion.

We still have the multi-man brawls, the homerun contest, and events to work through, as well as the classic mode and unlockable All-Star mode and Boss Battle modes (almost all of which are playable with a friend, a nice touch). All of those are rather nice, and fun to play through (I especially enjoy the event matches). And then there is the story mode which has been expanded from Melee...greatly, and without all that much success. The old story mode was a nice little change of pace, but that "little" was the key point. If I am going to spend that many hours playing through a story mode style game, then I want to play a good one, not a half-ass platform experience. The only reason that I completed it was that it was the quickest way to unlock most of the characters.

So let's get onto the characters! First off pretty much the entire Melee crew has returned (with a few adjustments). Some people will try to tell you that there are 15 new characters, but that's a bit off. First of all, Toon Link is not new (he's just a new skin on Young Link), Ike is basically Roy (and by that I mean exactly Roy), Lucario is simply Mewtwo in a new skin, and Lucas is just a minor adjustment on Ness (who still remains as well). So with my count there are 11 new characters (11.5 if you include Lucas). And as for the new characters...

The Good: Pit, Metaknight, King Dedede, Wolf
The Interesting: R.O.B., Pokemon Trainer, Olimar
The Undecided: Diddy Kong
The Completely Out of Place: Snake (not even close), Sonic (why force in outside characters?)
The Annoyingly Immature: Wario (when will Nintendo finally kill off what amounts to a running fart gag?)

In the end the character select screen looks like a gigantic cluster fuck, but I guess with more usage it will become manageable, and should I really complain about a wider selection of playable characters? I guess not. But having 31 "new" stages, 10 Melee stages, and Create-a-Stage (not nearly as nice as it sounds, since you are given a very very limited number of locales and pieces to use) gets a little unwieldy. And I'm sick and tired of so many overly busy stages. At least they kept some of the good ones from Melee.

In the end though, this game comes down to the multiplayer game. And while I haven't had the chance to have any real Smash parties, I have played some, and I'm not impressed. It's not bad, but it's not the leap that Melee was from the first game. In fact in a lot of ways it's a step back. The controls don't feel as tight, throws are now all but pointless since they do pretty much no damage at all, and slipping...Who the hell thought it would be a good idea have the players randomly slip and fall over?!? That is the stupidest idea ever in a fighter. Those people should all be fired and black-balled from ever getting a game design job ever again.

And this game proves just how far Nintendo still has their head up their asses when it comes to online gaming. I know that they have a younger audience, and that Nintendo wants to keep them "safe" from online people, but needing a friend code to communicate with anyone on your Wii, and then needing another code completely to play with friends online in Smash is just lunacy. Why would you need this? And half the point of playing online is to meet new friends to play with, which you can't do. And the other half is to have a good time with your friends who aren't in the same city as you (and to taunt them as you do), but there is no voice chat available, and from what I've heard most internet games lag like crazy. Good going Nintendo!

And as a side note to the online problem, when will Nintendo ever hop onboard? I mean what would have made a better MMORPG with a chance of hooking and reeling in hordes of gamers than Pokemon? A world where you can run around capturing pokemon, battling your friends, testing your luck against strangers, or having world-wide tournaments? That would have been a smash hit with all the poke-fanatics out there and would have helped reestablish Nintendo in the world-wide gaming market. Now all they have is a system, that while popular, is far inferior to both the PS3 and Xbox360 and is based purely on a gimmick (that will more than likely eventually fade into the background). And please Nintendo, we know you have this nice gimmick with the wii-mote, but you don't have to base every game around this. That definitely is one of the bonuses of Brawl, they didn't try to force the wii-mote into it.

But back to the matter at hand...

Brawl is by no means a bad game. There is plenty to enjoy here and it entertain most fans of the series, but it's no where near as impressive as Melee was when that was released. And that is a major disappointment after all the waiting as well. There are no real improvements in this installment. Like most every Nintendo game it just feels like a retred of a game I've already played. Even with all the new characters to choose from I'd much rather play the old friend that is Melee. In the end I'd have to give the game a 6 (7 on a good day).

All in all not too bad yet. I'm figuring I'll end up above .500 when all is said and done, but in any case I at least have one of my top schools offering me money.

Also side note to all you Wii owners out there. I now am a proud owner of my very own Wii (and a copy of Smash Brawl), so if you wish to friend me my code is 8822 2809 6137 1689. And since Nintendo is stupid, my Smash friend code is 2277-6326-8229

Two things that I noticed on campus today:

1 - You can tell you are getting towards the middle of the semester when all the prissy girls who looked like they get up at 5 am just to spend 3 hours primping in the morning to catch the eye for all the cute boys in class are too stressed out to care anymore and stop wearing makeup and "cute" outfits and start showing up for 1 o'clock class hair a mess in pajama pants and baggy sweatshirts. It really comes at you all of a sudden too. Sort of like the looks of an Asian woman. She always looks beautiful and young (quite often well into their 50's even), and then one morning she wakes up and suddenly look like they aged 40 years over night and now look 80.

2 - I was glancing around the room during geometry today and noticed that someone had taken twist off caps from pop bottles and put them on the feet of every chair. While this is a brilliant idea (cheap and effective way to stop that horrid metal feet scraping on tile floor sound), I had to wonder, who actually took the time to do this? There are easily 35-40 chairs in the room, meaning they'd need to have around 150 bottle tops, not to mention the time it would take to accomplish it all. It does almost sound like something I would do while bored, so I salute the individual. However, at the same time it did bother me, seeing as how there was a mixture of blue and white caps, placed in no discernible pattern throughout the room. And the obsessive compulsive in me was having none of that.

Definitely, Maybe -
Yes, this is a chick flick. And no, that didn't stop me from going alone (the girl was out of the country at the time). All that being said, I was rather sure that I'd enjoy the film (I figured Ryan Reynolds and Abigail Breslin would make up for any predictability that came with the romantic comedy tag), and I really did. Much like Teen Comedies, I occasionally have a soft spot for well done Romantic Comedies, and this was one of those.

The quick plot line is that a father tells his daughter the story of how he met her mother (his soon to be ex-wife), but includes two other women in the story, so the daughter has to guess which is her mother. That was a nice little twist on the tired boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back route that seem to litter the RomCom field. Top that off with a lovable performance by the always funny Reynolds (I like his acting skills, but he has to be put into some form of comedic role, see Blade III) and a great supporting role by Breslin (as much as I loved her work in Little Miss Sunshine, thank god they didn't try to force her into more of the film when it was a story of flashbacks to before she was conceived). The script, while still rather predictable, was clever and well done enough to make it believable and engaging, while still being funny and entertaining.

All in all it was one of the best RomComs I've seen. And as for the three love interests, I'll leave you with the mystery of guessing which one I find attractive and would have gone for.

RATING: Worth a Full Price Admission (even if they are up to $9.50 in Rochester, I can only imagine what they are in other cities), Worth a High Netflix Rental

Charlie Bartlett -
Like I have said time and again, I have a soft spot for teen comedies. Take some young actors, some old plot line (sometimes with a minor twist), an unbelievable high school locale (who really goes to school in a gothic castle and finds a date to the prom with the hottest girl in school a week before the dance?), toss in a collection of pop-punk/pop-ska songs (approximately half of which are covers) and out pops something that I will tend to watch at least once, most likely will enjoy, and almost most definitely should be embarrassed to like. Well Charlie Bartlett isn't quite there. It treads a strange middle ground. It has most of the elements of a typical TeenCom, but then it seems to also draw inspiration from other films such as Art School Confidential, Rushmore, and Igby Goes Down. Two of those three I find to be fantastic films (you can probably guess which two). However, Charlie Bartlett is closer to the third of those three. It is still entertaining, but it never quite feels at ease with itself. I guess in a way that could be a clever ploy of Jon Poll. An unsure story of teens who are unsure of themselves, but I think that would being giving the same man who made Cabin Boy, Scary Movie 3, The Beautician and the Beast, and Dunston Checks In too much credit.

Kat Dennings give a solid performance (realistic, if not a little bland) and Anton Yelchin was fabulous as Charlie (one of the better performances in a TeenCom that I've seen). And Robert Downey Jr. did a great job as well, but playing a partially washed up alcoholic seems about as much a stretch for him as playing a paranoid druggie in A Scanner Darkly was. Still you have to respect the man for being able to keep getting work and plug along (and not be dead from an OD or something by now). But apart from that everyone else seemed rather bland.

RATING: Worth a Cheap Ticket or Matinee, Worth a Middle of the Road Netflix Rental (but put the other two films I mentioned ahead of it if you're in the mood for a deeper comedy featuring teens, or get 100 Girls or 10 Things I Hate About You if you're in the mood for a TeenCom)

In Bruges -
Here is another movie that fell prey to a lack of focus. The trailers all present the film as a fun (partially) dark comedy, and while those elements are there, there is also a lot more to the film. Unfortunately, the "lot more" doesn't feel like it meshes with the dark comedy elements.

I really did appreciate the range shown by both Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, and it was nice that they were allowed to show that off (I always knew Gleeson had it, wasn't so sure of Farrell), but throwing in the more serious stuff knocked the whole film off balance. To be fair though, the serious stuff felt a little more natural. While sitting there I felt like I was watching a bastardized version of a drama somebody had written. I couldn't help but think that originally all the zany bits were missing (save a few humorous moments here and there), but when it got to the producer/director/etc. they thought, "Hmm, these funny bits play really well. We should go back and put more in!" but didn't think of the consequences of what it would do to the flow of the film as a whole.

Maybe I was expecting too much, but what I'm trying to say is that I would have loved to see a British Comedy with some dark themes (so basically a British Comedy), or a serious piece with a few jokes thrown in for good measure (and I think that this cast was talented enough to handle either beautifully), but the combination of two just did not work in the end and I was left watching a bi-polar flick in need of some serious lithium.

RATING: Worth a Dollar Viewing, Worth a Low Netflix (but don't think you're really missing anything if you don't catch either)

1 - Why does the government blow up the bridges to Manhattan and impose a deadline for evacuation if they are just checking everyone and taking them out by helicopter anyway? Also, while it is nice and showy and dramatic, isn't there a better way to take out the bridges other than fly by missiles?

2 - If they destroyed all the ways to get to Manhattan, how do the pair of survivors who are making their way to Vermont get to and from the island so easily?

3 - Do you seriously expect me to believe that this virus that has killed and/or mutated about 99.9% of the population is stopped by the "cold air in the mountains of Vermont"? I've been to Vermont and gone skiing. And yes it does get cold there (especially in the high altitudes of the mountains in the winter), but I've seen colder. And also the "camp" that they arrive at in the end isn't exactly in the mountains. If the weather there is all that it takes to stop the virus, then all of Upstate NY and Canada would have been fine.

4 - Why do they introduce a clearly interesting plot avenue that they can go down (Zombie-Vampires might have social structure, order and so "human" emotion still), and then dismiss it all in one fell swoop.

5 - Stop having the Uber-Zombie-Vampire! Am I really supposed to believe that a highly trained Marine would miss a 6'4" Zombie-Vampire from less than three feet away with an entire clip of an assault riffle? Seriously? That is even harder to swallow than 6 billion people dying from a virus in the course of like 2 years.

6 - Why do almost all of the Zombie-Vampires look exactly like John Malkovich? Even the female ones look eerily similar. Creepy. (Note: This is one of the few positive things I can say about the film).

So there were lots of problems. And very few good things. I haven't seen the first two incarnations of this book, but I can almost guarantee that they were better.

RATING: See the originals and skip this one, and then let me know how the original ones were.

So with lack of complaints there is not a whole lot to go into, but I did check out the writer Diablo Cody's biography on imdb. She is quite interesting to say the least. Definitely someone that I'd love to hang out with and get to know better.\

RATING: Worth waiting in the cold to pay extra to see; Skip the Netflix, just buy it on DVD.

Decree #1: When talking about a group that you are in "we" is acceptable. When talking about your favorite sports team(s) it is not. This has to be my biggest pet peeve as of recent (which seems to just smack me in the face daily at work). Unless you were at one point on the Cowboys payroll you are not allowed to refer to them as "we". This is especially true if it is an out of town team whose games you don't even attend. I constantly hear "we played a great game this weekend" at work. No, the Cowboys did. You sat at home and watched them on TV. There is no "we" here. And don't try to tell me that you support them, so therefore you are like a part of the team. Bull. I used to watch Gilmore Girls almost religiously, yet anyone (sane) would have smacked me upside that head if I ever uttered the phrase "we really had a hard time this week deciding between Jess or Dean". Sports is no different.

Decree #2: It's nice to be thanked, but stop doing it so freakin' much. This one also stems from work, where I am constantly thanked when I leave everyday. Maybe once in a while if I go above and beyond this would be ok, but most days I haven't done anything other than my job. Do you really feel the need to thank me for doing what I am already paid to do? I mean I really don't do any of it out of the goodness of my heart. I even once had our employee representative thank me for coming in one day. I was scheduled that day. Normally when you are scheduled to work you show up. Have we really gotten to the point of incompetence where showing up is greatly appreciated? Cause it's either that or they've all decided to over use the words "thank you" until they have absolutely no meaning left. At this point I seriously no longer believe that they know what it is to be thankful, and hence I'm just insulted when they thank me for doing what I'm paid to do. If you really think I'm doing something special and want to thank me then give me a raise. Otherwise save the thanks for when they are truly deserved.

Decree #3: Please, please, stop telling me I'm a scrooge or that I've lost the holiday spirit when I can no longer stand the over hyped Christmas season that drives everyone into over stressed assholes. And also please stop telling me that it is the "holiday season" or that Christmas is a "religious holiday".

The first was never true (yes it's nice to try to include Chanukah or Kwanza in there, but no one besides the small minority that celebrate those two do anymore than pay them lip service). This is the Christmas season. That's why we see Christmas trees and Christmas music and Christmas cards and Santa (and occasionally Baby Jesus) everywhere.

The second part (Christmas is a religious holiday) passed ages ago. It is a consumerist holiday. Maybe part of the spirit remains (familys getting together and all), but it's been a while since the religious aspect was anywhere near equal to the consumer aspect. Trees and Santa and flying deer have nothing to do with Christianity. Trying to claim that "Jesus is the reason for the season" is just insulting to the actual religious aspects of the holiday. This is why I made the earlier plea to distinguish between Christmas and Xmas. Let the religious people have Christmas, and let everyone else (and mean everyone else) celebrate Xmas.

So stop telling me I'm a scrooge for disliking a holiday that promotes excessive shopping, which in turn leads everyone to be in such a rush and frenzy that they learn how to function as normal compassionate human beings (trust me, I work in a service style industry and see this on a daily basis this time of year).

So these are a few things that I'd like everyone else to work on for the next year. Oh, and Happy New Year!

P.S. - I apologize if this has all come off a little harsh, but as I have said, I work in a service industry and have had to deal with these annoying problems on a rather constant basis for the past two months (let us not forget that Christmas starts about the same time as Halloween, and I think that they might even move the startup date back to Labor Day next year).