Frankly the state of national American politics makes me sick.
Once again the political establishment insists we choose between bad and worse. As usual this "two party system" gives us two canadites that are all but the same and then bitterly divides the party loyalists of each side over trivial issues.
I do admit that it is slightly better than the once odds on race of McCain and Hillary with Obama's upset in the primary.
But only slightly.
McCain is quite found of comparing himself to Roservelt and can not wait to walk around the world (aka George W) with his big stick. In this time of Russian reemergance we should not forget that McCain was once the senator that argued we should go to war with Russia over their actions in another of their provinces fighting Muslim extremists. Of course he seems to have his eyes on Iran more than Russia. Still I don't care what former president he fancies himself after he is more a Republican Wendell Wilkie than a Teddy Roservelt.

Obama is almost as bad. Despite his claims of "pulling us out of Iraq" it is pretty clear that once as president this will all become rethoritc.
One good example of this type of politicing from him was on the issue of nafta and gatt.

He made a point while touring in the former industrial heartlands to call out the establishment politicians on this issue and promised to pull out of these crazy treaty deals.
These statements not only helped him with the labor unions in his own party but also with many everyday americans on main street. Still I wasn't too surprised when one of his aides while speaking in Canada let it slip that this was all just primary talk.

And all this talk about him secretly being a muslim and that crazy pastor Rev. Right is just nonsense.
Obama is clearly an atheist/socialist like his mother. And for me that makes all of his strange attempts at religious rethoric all the more disturbing.

Once again I will be forced to vote third party. Its a shame we will not have a choice that is well spoken and charismatic running as a third party. While I agree with much of what Barr and the Libertarian party believe, I cannot find Barr himself all that interesting and cannot get to excited over his running. Still there is a good chance he will be who I ended voting for.
Like I said it is a shame because there are a lot of people who strongly dislike both McCain and Obama and someone like Ron Paul running again as a Libertarian could have had some impact.

Just thought I would test out some stuff here.

My xbox live Gamer Tag is GENERAL GRUDGE and lets see if I can post my gamer card:

And sadly that doesn't appear to be working so I will try and just link to my Gamer Tag and see how well that works: GENERAL GRUDGE

Games I am currently into are Madden 09, Battle Field Bad co, Geometry Wars 2 and Bionic Commando: reloaded. If any of you are playing on live send me a friends request but tell me who you are so I know to accept it.


I also use the same name for my ZUNE PROFILE so check that out because its pretty cool how they do their profiles.

It is gonna take me a while to get back into my web/html mode so bare with me. I haven't been messing with this stuff for years but I miss it and intend to get back into the habit.
I hope to post some game and movie reviews/thoughts and such and have decided to use LJ as my blog.

When I get the time (probably this weekend) I will post some pictures and such of me and my girlfriend and games and such. And I also hope to use my blackberry curve (which I am addicted to and love to death) to keep up with replies and friends journals at work and such.

Oh and one more thing, while I am sure I am way late to the party on this one, recently I watched the web series the Guild and loved it. Great stuff and just noticed that they were on the zune marketplace and just added them a moment ago and cant wait to watch them again at work. Cool stuff. Check out the beautiful Felicia Day's web site feliciaday.com to see them if you haven't.

---

Later dudes,
Dwayne

Ok I did intend to start posting on here more often but life has been extremly hectic latly.
I have also wondered if I should continue on this site or try another.
Everytime I log onto my blackberry it asks me if I want to log into some "face book" app. While I don't entirly know what facebook is I assume its something like LJ.
Anyway moving on...
I finally got around to joining the digital music age a few months ago and bought my first real mp3 player.
I got the 80 gig zune and now I am so attached to it I cannot imagine not having it. They are very cool and they have a very nice large screen that is good for watching movies on the go.
I have way over 2000 songs (all legal downloads for me) and tons of pod casts and movies. Heck I have 300, payback, passion of the christ, indiana jones and 3 seasons of red dwarf just to name a few. The cool thing is I am nowhere near filing it up yet.
Its amazing how much tech. Can change over time.
I still remember thinking how impressive the first computer I had bought with a hard drive was because it was 18 or so gigs.
Anyway I am gonna try and remember to post on this LJ again and look at what some of you others are talking about. I suspose I should look and see if there are any LJ/blackberry apps I can use.
I think my next post should be 360 related.
Any of you guys playing any games on live?
Later,
Dwayne Ferguson

Wow I haven't even looked at this site in forever and so of course I haven't posted in forever. Quite frankly I was sitting here at work playing with my BlackBerry and happened on this page. So I thought "what the heck" why not start back and post a little from time to time. I don't even remember why I stopped and I am sure noone is following this "blog" anymore but who knows, we will see.
A lot has changed in my life, at least latly so I might have a few interesting things to say.
I have been to a lot of movies (with the amazing Kung Fu Panda actually being the best of the bunch) so I will talk a lot about them, what video games I try and play when I get a little time, and of couse a few ideas about politics, music and whatever gadgets I am currently wasting my money on.
So all the noones who are still seeing this can know all that worthless knowledge ;)
Dwayne

The latest Star Wars trailer is finally online so all can see it: HERE
And what is there to say except WOW?!
This is probably the single most exciting movie trailer I have ever seen.
It looks like one scene I have long anticipated will make its appearance- the Anakin/Duko fight to the finish much like the Luke/Vader one in front of the Emperor's throne.
And it looks like the Sith lord will declare a "seperation of Jedi and state" I just wonder if he would use such a term?
I am very excited about this movie.
;)

Ah it is good it be alive when you are easily excited!
Today was a good dvd day and a few things came out that I had been waiting a while for-
I bought The Incredibles today and Red Dwarf seasons 5 and 6!

I drove all the way to Asheville's Best Buy today assuming that the local walmart wouldn't have the red drawf dvds and was dissapointed when I couldn't find them there!
I looked all over the dvd section for probably 30 mins or so and finally turned away sad and started to leave.
I had thought about ordering them off of Amazon but knew they would ship till today and I would have to wait a couple of days and didn't want to do that since I worked off work this morning.
just as I was going to pay for the Incredibles dvd (which was just 15 bucks) and leave some guy who worked at the best buy asked me if I found everything I was looking for- I said no and told him what I wanted knowing from past experience that he probably wouldn't be any help at all- but low and behold he walked me up to the front of the store and a display in the Music section of all places where they had Red Dwarf seasons 5 and 6!
YEA!
I love red Dwarf and even tho' my favorite episode is in season 4 I feel the show got better and better as the series went along so I find it hard waiting a whole year between them releasing 2 seasons!
Still in just a year from now they will release seasons 7 and 8 and then it will all be over :(
But I suspose the movie should be out by then-

Still not sure why they give trading cards witht he dvds- probably just to charge 30 bucks insead of 20 methinks.

And of course I am excited to get the Incredibles and get to watch it again- I feel it is the best super hero movie ever- and with movies like Spider-man 2 and Hellboy that is saying a lot!
Hollywood needs to make more movies this entertaining.

So Monday I bought a new game called Brothers in Arms for the Xbox- click pic for review:

This game came out the same week as Republic Commando and I chose to get Commando since Gamespot had reviewed it and didn't review Brothers until the day after(that always seems to be the way it gos) I finally decided to buy the game.
In the end I was dissapointed with republic commando but Brothers in Arms (a WW2 game) turns out to be the exact kind of game I had hoped RC would be.
Brothers in Arms is a very cool game.
The one thing that shocked me was the harsh language in the game. I mean right from the begining there are four letter words galore, but dispite all this, this was a great game to get. I have very happy with it (and happy with me buying it) and I am probably not even half way though it yet.
I feel it is very realistic, well at least as far as video games go.
The best aspect of the game is the sound. When you're hiding behind a log or something you can hear the sound effects of the bullets hitting and the sounds are so realistic you could almost sware bullets were hitting around your head.
The gunfights are intense and you have to be very careful and there is a lot of stratagy in getting your squad mates to help you by the commands you give.
It is very hard to hit enemies and you feel the gunfights are a lot like what they might be in real life.
There are no "gun sights" on the screen and that is one of the best parts.
I love it when I have snuck up behind a nazi position and pulled out a machine gun and just fill the area with bullets in a wild spray.
great game and I haven't even tried the multiplayer yet!

The bad news is today is the last day of my "vacation" and I have to go back to work tomorrow :(:(:(

So I have finally played Republic Commando for a couple of days and feel that I can finally post my thoughts.
I wanted to wait until I was a bit into it before I formed my final opinion.
And now I must say that I am finding the single player mildly addictive now that I have played it for a while.
I didn't like it AT ALL when I first got it.
But I still would not put this game in the "great" or "must buy" catagory.
Still, who knows, I may even start liking this game a lot more in the future.
One thing is for sure, the game is not an easy walk through like I had originally feared.
It is quite challanging, and I tend to die very often.
The enemies are susprisingly tough and come in great numbers.
One of the things I can for sure say that is "great" with this game, and that is the AI.
It is a rare thing when a video game hase smart Ai.
And it is not only the other squad members- the bad guys are pretty decent as well.
But the IQ of your fellow squad members is where the game shines. They do what I tell them to but I don't have to tell them every little thing.
In fact I think the other 3 members of my squad are actually better than I am!
The one thing that I hate is that they often move on when I am not ready for them to, but I think there is susposed to be some command I can give according to the inbetween hints but I have not figured out how to give it yet.
But overall I still think this is a cool game and it seems to me to get better with each day so it is quite possiable that I will upgrade my opinion in the near future.

And just in case anyone was interested, I finally got my DVD player to work with sound.
I had to call the TV manufacturer- after trying various things it turned out what I had to do was to turn off both the tv and the dvd player for 15 seconds, then turn the dvd player first and then turn the tv after 15 seconds.
That finally made everything work but I have absoultly no idea how one was susposed to figure that out on their own.

But seeing this pic of this 125 year old woman I might just change my mind....

Interesting... I am gonna save it for a drawing reference-
in fact (with no disrespect intended) she looks a bit like Master Kreel!

So Gamespot has reviewed Star Wars Republic commando!
link
They gave it an 8.7 out of ten and for Gamespot that is pretty darn good since they tend to rate games a bit lower than most other places.
I have been looking forward tot his one for a while yet wasn't sure if it would be good so I decided I would wait for the review. This good review pretty much means I will go pick this game up Tuesday.
It ships Monday so I am sure the stores will have it by Wends.

There are only two things that give me second thoughts about it-
One: According to the review you never really "die" in the game. If a character is down you or a bot can come and revive them- while this is a cool addition it sounds like it may take some of the challange out of the game if this can ALWAYS be done and without restrictions.
One of the things I was looking for in this game would be that it would be really challanging and you would have to take your time and work slow to make sure you and the rest of your team surrived.
Still I wont know exactly what it will be like until I get the game myself.

Two: The game sounds short! They sounded like they loved the game but overall it seems it took them "8-10" hours or so to finish it. Now while with me that probably means 15-20 hours that still seems a bit short. If you throw in the probability that the game (like all most all current games) will have little to no story in it, I find it a bit dissapointing. I love a game with a great story that keeps you guessing and coming back.
Still the game will have online MP yet I am sure I will be buying this game for the single player since it cannot beat Halo 2 online I am sure.

I also just realized that Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 comes out this week as well!
I was once pretty excited about this game and originally decided to get it for the PC.
Not sure if I will get it or not and may wait for the reviews- and then see if it is good and if I can get it for the Xbox and it be as good as the PC version.

That's a lot of FPS and traditionally I have never been that excited over such games- but there seem to be a lot of them out at the moment. Like This One called Project Snowblind. It actually looks pretty cool as well. And in the "video review" you see the character driving about in a Mech and hacking stuff which looks fun.

Still I wouldn't mind picking up two games this week, maybe Republic commando and some other game that has a cool story to it- Greif I wish Jade Empire came out this week!!


Oh and I bought a couple of DVDs yesterday because I finally found a Dvi/hdmi cable for my DVD player and finally hooked it up to my HDtv. They were Hero and a western called Monte Walsh. I have seen the western but not Hero and thought it would be the perfect one to watch on my NEW higher rez dvd settings- but haven't watched them yet because I am not gettign any SOUND!!
I hope I just haven't got soemthing fixed up right and that I don't have to go buy something else because that darn cord cost like 130 bucks by its-self!
Maybe today I will have time to fiddle with it but I am not sure if I will figure it out.
Later-
Dwayne

Well I bought a new page of art for my collection, basicly on a whim since I "no longer activly collect"..... kinda......

I got it from Byrnes dealer JIM WARDEN (a great fellow) after finding it on HIS WEBSITE which I happen to have made for him....
I actually like this one a lot and it just looks cool in person. Byrne draws robots better than anybody (But Lew is honestly a close second) and of course it comes from my all time favorite series of comics "Generations 1 and 2".
Dwayne

As some have probably noted I have not gotten a new page of comic art in quite some time.
I had pretty much stopped collecting for the time being but saw this cover to John Byrne's Next Men 20 and thought I had to have it since the price was right.
The page was drawn by John Byrne's (then) step-son KIERON DWYER and was the cover to the second part of the "Faith" story line in Byrne's NEXT MEN comic book.
It was a very good story line that I personally have fond memories of.

Pretty cool and a good deal IMHO as well.
Now if I would just get off my lazy butt and update my website....

So I am ashamed to admit that most of my free time since Nov. Has been spent playing Halo 2 online.
And needless to say I love it- it is probably my all time favorite multiplayer game ever.
The matchmaking system now works seemless and makes nearly every game competitive.
Of course there are a few problems but these almost all arise from some of the PEOPLE who play the game and not the game itsself.
most of these tend to be the monority of younger people who play the game online and the vast majority of people online are fun to play with......
Still I am having the hardest time keeping a level 13, and cannot seem to be lucky enough to get above it....

I also got Mechassult 2 about a week ago. I enjoyed the first one back when it came out and in its day it was about the only good game in the first batch of Xbox live games to play online... but I must admit that I was very dissapointed with 2 over all.
In fact I hated it at first but some of the later levels tend to be fun-
I have only tried to play it online twice and probably wont play it much there because what little tiem I have to play games online will be spent with halo 2 methinks.

Yesterday I got a new game called Mercenaries- and it blows me away- this is imho the best singleplayer video game of all time!! From a technical standpoint it is nothing less than amazing- check this game out if you haven't- I intend to write more details about it very soon- but right now I am going to go and play it some more! ;)

Well I have finally quit collecting comics!
Well canceled my reserve list and will only get the next two months which have already been ordered.
This has been something I have been meaning to do for many reasons for a while now.
In fact about a year or so ago I canceled all but a couple of titles but slowly found my way to picking up another title here and there until I hadn't really stopped.
To be honest I just don't enjoy comics like I used to. Don't get me wrong I still like comic books, I just don't enjoy reading the new ones anymore.
Even the books that I still like, like Doom Patrol and JSA just don't do it for me like comics used to.
It is strange I still enjoy the older books as much as ever but no current comic seems worth buying to me now.
Of course I have already had second thoughts. I had been looking forward to the Green lantern Rebirth, but I suspose I will get to read a couple of issues of it before I go for good.
I will also probably pick up the occasional trade now and then, but only once in a while.
And while it is true I just don't get the kick out of the medium that I used to, I also just don't have the room for any more comics!!!
I know some people say that they are just books and you should toss 'em away after you read them but I could never bring myself to do that.
I am a pack rat by nature and esp. with comics I could not bring myself to toss one away unless it was damaged beyond repair.
Tho' I also tend to keep all my magazines and such too- so go figure.
Well it was a hard decision but one I think I am better off in the long run making, and heck, at least I will probably save between 50 and 100 bucks a month.

Since nobody demanded it...
I am gonna start my "comic book reviews" again.

These are actually a couple of weeks old since the comic book store guy keeps such weird hours and isn't there half the time anyway I have a harder time getting my books each week.
In fact I have gotton out of the habit of trying to do so anyway. I don't even have last weeks yet because for some reason they were late (partly due to the holiday) and I wont get them until I get this weeks tomorrow.
Anyway here it goes......

FLASH 211: I usually enjoy Johns work- and many of the flash books have been excellent. What holds this series back is always the artists.
The art in this issue was passiable but the artist isn't a good story teller so it hurts the promise.
That said I like the current artist (Howard Porter) better than most of the last few on this book so I will give him a chance.
The story had some neat twists and I enjoyed this issue- but I hate the way DC uses Gorilla Grodd these days- not as interesting as he used to be IMHO.

JLA 100: This book basicly is the off shot for the first issue of JLA elite- a book if my guess is right will show comic characters in every way that I dislike.
I did not like this issue for many reasons but Doug Mahke's art was not one of those reasons. I think his faces need some work, esp the ones of the established DC characters like Superman and he needs to work more at human expressions but overall I thought his art mixed with the coloring looked quite nice.
The story was just ignorant all the way up the the highlight of crap "sweet mother gia" showing up....
sigh.

Doom Patrol 1: A comic by John Byrne and one I have been waiting for a long time in high expectations.
I had seen many early pencils of this comic and they looked great.
I usually enjoy Byrne when he inks himself better than when someone else inks him (like his last JLA run that was totally ruined by the usually great Ordway) so I was dissapointed when I heard someone else would ink him on this book-
but soon I saw inking examples and pages from the book by inker Doug Hazelwood and thought they looked great!
But when I finally got to read the comic I was shocked how bad the art looked.
Now compared to most comics and most current artists the art is ok, but I personally expect much more from a Byrne book.
Since I had seen a lot of this issue already and thought it looked steller I was susprised that something was turning me off so I took another, closer look and realized there is something odd and way off in the coloring.
I can't quite explain what about the coloring I don't like, I mean I don't have enough knowledge of the process to use the correct jargon to explain it, but I think one thing is that the colors are very cartoon looking.
Now I like cartoons, and I think such a system can sometimes work well in a comic- esp with JB's more mordern art stlye- but the colorist of this issue somehow ruined the whole book for me.
The colors are flat and brite in the wrong places and tends to flaten out JBs art work and does not compliment the panels where Byrne has not used a lot of shadows/shading and also makes the figures seem pasted on top of the backgrounds and each other.
The story was just "OK" imho but I feel Byrne books usually start off a bit "less" for me and always pick up the "wow" factor by the second issue.
But over all, except for the dissapointment over the art (coloring) I enjoyed the story because it had a lot of cool "comic book" action and the fact that I like Rita and LOVE robotman! I am still letting his new look grow on me though.
The cliffhanger at the end was a bit of a yawner because I know exactly what's happened and why what apperars happened didn't happen.
maybe this means I have been reading funny books for too long?
Still I eagerly await the next issue- love that Doom Patrol.

Teen Titans 12: Another book By Geoff Johns, and as I say all the time, I usually like him a lot. I also like the characters in this comic as well. Sadly this is yet another Great comic by Johns that really could use a TOP NOTCH artist.
Still latly in this book I don't think it is the penciler that I don't like but (once again) the colorist.
Either way that is a nit pick about a great comic with a cool story!
Raven finally returns to the Teen Titans and gets her very own room- Brother Blood finds love in hell and a shock ending that's a real eye..uh.. closer! ;)

Conan #5: I hated the first issue of this title and was going to cancel it but forgot. I am glad I did because from the second issue it has been pretty swell.
The art is on and off at times but the times when Cary Nord hits it, he really hits it. Busiek keeps Conan "true to his roots" but still keeps him interesting.
I can't wait for the next issue.

Superman #206: I started getting the Superman titales because I love the character and wanted to get some more titles.
Sadly, for the most part, the superman books are pretty forgetable.
Of course Jim Lee does a fine job on the art (though he still needs to learn how to draw faces) but the story is slow and still confusing. And this issue just slogged over the same old tired "plot/moral" that some other half brain tried with Superman and the JLA not too many months ago. How many times will DC editors let these writers tell the same silly stories over and over and always from the same political bent. Still (except for the faces) the art made the book worth looking at. And some nice coloring for a change by Alex Sinclair- which is no shock because is work is almost always great! He even gave me some coloring advice online once- which was a waste of time because in reality I am hopless, but I thought it was very nice of him to take the time to offer advice and to do so in sucha nice manner.

JSA 62: By Johns and a lot of confusing artists doing only certain pages- though there were a few pages by the fablous Tom Mandrake. I am also a bit of a fan of the inker Champange. GREAT story and it is nice to see the Spectre kick some vengence butt again. I look forward to seeing the true Hal Jordan (I pray) appear soon.

Green Lantern 178: I liked this book- and I am so shocked I did. It has been a long, long time since Green Lantern has been any good at all, in fact the only reason I picked this book back up is because of Hal Jordan coming back and I wanted to be there when it happened (I love you DC, really).
This was a fun book with a good story and a good villain and some susprisingly good art by Luke Ross- he does a great GL.
It is rare we get some fun and creative use of the GL's power ring these days. Everybody usualy just seems to like those green bolts- but you get a lot more than that in this issue. It is nice to be able to enjoy this title again.
My fingers are indeed crossed.

Lots of stuff I need to write about, like what movies I have seen (but no spoilers) and such because I am too lazy to keep this thing updated.

I am going to start with what everyone has been waiting for (like myself)....

SPIDER-MAN 2!!!

And don't worry anybody who hasen't seen it because I will not spoil it for you.
I have actually seen it twice now and must admit that this movie is near perfect.
And like most of the reviewers I will also agree that it is indeed the best Superhero movie ever made- even if you take the horrid "time travel" ending out of the Superman movie and consder it next to Spider-man 2, Spider-man is still on top.
I even enjoyed it better than HELLBOY which was very faithful to the comic and was a lot of fun. (Hellboy comes out on DVD the 27!!!)
Spider-man 1 was a pretty good movie and I enjoyed it a lot at the time but Spider-man 2 is one of the rare movie sequals that makes improvments in every aspect.
The story, special effects and character devlopment are all first rate.
Like I said I have seen it twice already and will probably go see it again so I cannot reccomend it enough.
And the movie hasen't even been out 2 weeks and with the overseas amount of 43 million has already made over 300 million dollars!!!
That's a lot of money.

The other day I had the major urge to play my Xbox. I hadn't touched it in like a year or more at the least. The bad news it that it no longer seemed to work right.
For some reason (even though I knew better) I thought it might of been the discs I had and not the actual box and since I hadn't bought a game for it in forever went to the store and pick up one called Rallisport challenge 2 to see if it worked in the box. It was a new game and had got great reviews and was only like 30 bucks so I thought I would break my "no new video games rule" and try it out.
I could get the thing to play it for short periods of time as long as it didn't have to load new tracks but it was clear the X-box was dead. So I of course decided that I had to get a new one.
I bought the game at best buy and they had plenty of X-Boxes and I thought to myself I should buy one then. But being cheap decided I would wait and get one at Walmart (which is nearer where I live) if it turned out my machine was indeed broke. After I confirmed it was indeed dead I got up and drove right to walmart.
The Xbox machines are no only 150 bucks (compared to the 300 or so back when I bought mine) and since it is such a good deal of course Walmart (in clyde) was sold out.
So I decide to try K-Mart in Waynesville and of course they are sold out as well.
Since I live in the boonies these are the only two places in the area which will have such an item so I decide to go home and head to Ashevill in the morning.
The next day the first place I go to is the EB store in the Biltmore mall- I decide to go ahead and get the Xbox and the new Ninja Gaiden game since I had heard so many good things about it.
So of course the store says they have the game but not a new Xbox- but they try to sell me a "refurbished one" instead.
I ask how much and they say 130. I don't see any reason to pay 130 for an old used Xbox when I new one is just 30 bucks more so I leave empty handed.
So I finally find myself ALL THE WAY back at the best buy in Asheville and am happy to see that they at least have an Xbox. And then to my dismay I notice that they don't have the Ninja Gaiden game... sigh.
So now I have to drive to the Asheville mall and get one there-
I suspose my point is that it takes a lot of damn work to just be a consumer these days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some days I think (and know) I would be better off just to go and live by Walden pond. Of course even if I did that the government would come and kick me off if I can't pay my property tax (aka RENT to the damn fascist government) every year.

And to any one who enjoyed the Ninja Gaiden games when they were kids- you should try out the new one!!
Review and A movie here.
VERY cool- but also very hard. Reminds me of the one I had way back for the Nintindo!
I remember being very impressed with the graphics/cartoon cut sceans and dragging my mother to my room and making her watch them.
I could never unnderstand when I was a kid why she was never impressed by such things like I was ;)

I also went and watched "KING AURTHUR" last night- sigh it could have been so good- but wasn't.
They called it the "true story" but it wasn't and had what were probably many glaring flaws.
Beautiful views in the movie though.

And last let us talk about some politics.
The current crop of political picks this year really makes me sick.
Since so many people seem to have a problem understanding where I am coming from when I say I don't like Kerry and don't understand why that doesn't automatically mean that I like Bush (which I do not) should read This article that I read today by some guy named VOX DAY because it does a pretty good job explaining where I am coming from.

And if you sat and read through all this, kudos for you! ;)

Well I went and watched the Chronicles of Riddick yesterday.
The special effects at times were pretty good.
I enjoyed Pitch Black back when it came out.
I didn't expect to tho' since it was a low budget "space horror" movie but was susprised at the good acting and great writing of the movie- the characters moved it along and I learned to like Riddick and in turn Van D. as an actor...
But latest Riddick movie is SOOOOOO bad.
There were NO redeming features in this film.
There was no character devlopment- the plot, what little there was of it, was horrid.
Your level of disblief had to be totally checked at places and the movie made you dumber the longer you watched it-
which is sad since it seemed so long.
I don't know the actual minites of the movie but it seemed to go on forever.
At one point I leaned over to a friend and said man this movie sure is long to have no story in it!
If you want some good advice- stay away from Riddick-
very far away.
I might go watch Garfield today though I suspect a less than excellent movie there as well...
but I had high hopes for Riddick.

So in honor of my new TV and me having to try and stay up all night since I start the graveyard shift tomorrow I bought Smallville season one on dvd.

I had never watched the show before but many friends whose opinions I trust often reccomended me.
I have watched the first 5 or so episodes and I am already hooked.
When this show was first announced I assumed it would be some crappy "Dawsons Creek" rip off and total super hero lite...
but man I was wrong.
Good stuff.
Better than the current superman comics...