Tag: fun

My gorgeous bride pointed me to this story about a series of two- to three-minute cartoon shorts that the Cartoon Network will be doing in the Star Wars universe. Star Wars: Clone Wars is set to debut on 9 November. For those of you who may be a mite confused, think Animatrix for the Star Wars set.

In the ongoing smackdown of animated feature films, Pixar’s Finding Nemo has moved past distributor Disney’s The Lion King as the top-grossing animated film of all time.

The spunky G-rated underwater adventure reeled in $4.39 million over the weekend, bringing its total North American take to $313.1 million, surpassing The Lion King’s $312.9 million in domestic ticket sales generated when that film was released in 1994.

[…]

Swimming into theaters May 30, the computer-animated fish flick netted $70 million its opening weekend, the best ever debut for a ‘toon. Nemo’s been packing ’em in like sardines and drowning rivals ever since.
I was shocked, and delighted, to see how packed the theater was when we finally got around to seeing Nemo just two weeks ago.
Now the fun will begin: this was supposed to be the last picture by Pixar Disney was going to distribute, at least as far as Pixar is concerned. The contract called for five films, and Pixar has delivered: Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo. Disney, however, contends that sequels don’t count in the deal, and the two companies could find their way in to court to resolve the matter.
Disney must be quaking in their boots; since The Lion King, they haven’t released any animated film worth squat that they produced themselves. If Pixar jumps ship to, say, oh, Dreamworks, Disney’s biggest competitor in animated films, they’re sunk.
Eh, forget all that. I just realized that Pixar’s next flick, The Incredibles, is going to be released by Disney. So they must have resolved that whole contract thing after all, in Disney’s favor. Or the two companies signed a new one…

I love you, Kel.

Today marks the 8th anniversary of Lee’s 25th birthday. He’s being a bit of a curmudgeon about it, so be sure to stop by his blog and comment your birthday wishes to him. 🙂
Happy birthday, bro.

FranX points me to Jayson Stark’s latest Useless Baseball Information, a baseball statistician’s treasure trove of interesting tidbits. I’m not really a huge baseball fan, nor a statistician, but according to my wife I’m the King of Useless Information, so it helps that I can add some things to my repertoire.

Programmers like to be efficient, which is a good thing. If programmers are efficient with their code, there is less work for them and less overhead on the systems running the code. Unfortunately, there is a case of being too efficient with your coding, as the Australian armed forces learned.
(Thanks, Jason.)

1. The Titanic is big, but it doesn’t have hyperdrive.
2. Yoda could’ve used the Force to lift Titanic out of the water.
3. Leia is a princess, a senator, a freedom fighter, and Jedi material. Rose is just marriage bait.
4. Ewoks throw better parties than either first class or steerage.
5. When flying towards the Titanic, Wedge couldn’t say, “Look at the size of that thing!” and really mean it.
6. It would be much scarier to get chased around the boat by a raving madman with a lightsaber as opposed to a handgun.
7. Titanic is egalitarian by portraying poor people as sympathetic characters. Star Wars is egalitarian by promoting bug-eyed amphibians to Admiral.
8. Said bug-eyed amphibious Admiral does not lose his ship.
9. We know Cal is the bad guy because he sneers at the poor and treats his fiancee like property. We know Darth Vader is the bad guy ’cause he strangles people & blows up planets for fun.
10. Yeah, Leo can dance, but can he fly an X-wing?
11. Rose braves icy water to rescue her man. Leia braves Jabba the Hutt.
12. There are always enough escape pods in Star Wars.
13. Do you know what the Empire does to self-proclaimed “kings of the world?”
14. If Luke were handcuffed to a pipe below decks in a sinking ship, he would use the Force to get the key.
15. Nothing has the same sting as “I’d rather kiss a Wookie.”
16. Han is frozen in carbonite and turned into a wall ornament. Leo simply freezes.
17. Han Solo would’ve steered clear of that stinkin’ iceberg!
18. We knew the boat was gonna sink. But who could’ve anticipated, “Luke…I am your father”?
19. Stormtroopers blast big holes in stupid minor characters; everyone in Titanic was a minor character.
20. When Star Wars was proclaimed coolest movie of all time by half of planet earth, George Lucas did not make a fool of himself at the Oscars.
21. Titanic morals:

• gamble
• cheat on your fiancé
• pose nude for pictures
• premarital sex is OK if you’re infatuated
• let undesirables drown

1. Star Wars morals:

• fight evil
• do good
• respect all life even if it’s ugly and slithers
• rescue the princess
• save the planet

Yes, an oldie, but a goodie, back from when James Cameron’s history lesson run amok displaced Star Wars as the highest-grossing movie of all time…

So how far would you go to promote your own personal brand? Some people nab custom license plates to slap on their vehicles in their respective states. Thanks to the Acme License Maker, now you too can experiment with self-branding for your personal transport. (Please bear in mind that I do not know the rules for number of characters allowed in the states shown.)
For instance, I could get:

Michael might prefer:

Or maybe he’d like:

Jason could go with:

Brad and Mena could promote their new venture with:

I know Lee has a custom Macintosh Florida plate, but would he slap on DTPBYLEE, provided Florida allowed all of those characters?
Just some fun food for thought…