24: 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

Again, Jack does not kill anyone, which means eventually a mass amount of people will die by Jack's hands.

Anyways, this episode let us see Jack torture more of Graem, who then told Jack about their connection to the nukes. It turns out that Jack's dad is trying to get them back too. When Jack and Graem go to the MacArthur guys office, they run into their dad, but it turns out that Graem really is an evil dude. He has Jack and his own father taken and put into a van where they will be executed.

It turns out that Walleed is a good pick pocket, but that the FBI is bad at profiling. They guys they thought were terrorists, turned out to just be normal guys who were curious about what was going on.

Karen was forced to resign by Tom, she gets sent to CTU in LA, which guarantees that we will see Bill vs. Karen fight about who runs CTU, spouses should not work together.

The preview for next week shows Jack killing the guys about to execute him and his dad, and even better going back and really torturing Graem. I hope he does some nasty things to Graem.

My guess for next week: 4 dead.

Pan's Labyrinth

Last night I saw Pan's Labyrinth with my brother. For those of you who have not, I recommend checking it out.

I enjoyed it, but was definitely surprised by it. I really had no idea what it was about, except that it was in Spanish and was a dark fairy tale. I really do not have much I feel like saying about it, but would like to know what everyone else thought about it, so let me know, and I will get back to you in the comments. I think it was one of those movies that I need to let my brain think about a little bit more, haha.

Heroes Part Twelve

Thank you JEEBUS!!!

The show starts out with Peter in a coma, and Nathan and his mother by his bedside. Nathan talks with Simone and wants to meet Isaac to find out who this guy is that caused his brother to head out to Texas to save a cheerleader, and what did Peter mean when he told Nathan that he was actually the bomb.

Hiro and Ando decide to steal the sword from a museum in NYC. Unfortunately Hiro's powers are not working so well, but he believes if he steals the sword it will amplify his powers because the sword's original owner was wild and out of control until he came across the sword. Ando points out that the characters on the handle mean godsend and unique gift, which as he puts it, describes Hiro's power. I love Hiro's explanation as to why he should steal the sword, since he needs it to save NYC, and if he doesn't steal it the museum will be destroyed.

When Hiro uses his power, he only slows time down, so he grabs the sword and heads outside. When he unsheathes the sword, it turns out to be a fake, and guess who owns the real one? Linderman.

This is the point where Hiro and Ando go back to Isaac's place to tell him about the sword, where the run into Nathan, or as Hiro calls him, "The Flying Man." Nathan and Simone are both shocked to hear that the sword is owned by Linderman and Simone says she can get Hiro in to see it.

On the other side of the country, Claire is coming to grips with faking her lack of memory. She has a conversation with her dad, and as she walks away you can see the disdain she now feels for him. Later she tries to talk to Zak, but he does not remember anything.

Claire then meets with the Haitian, and he tells her that her powers are god's and she should not take them lightly. He also tells her that she cannot see Peter because that would raise her dad's suspicions. What is the Haitian playing at? Why is he helping Claire, is he going to start helping the rest of the Heroes?

We see a scene of Ted Sprague out in the Nevada desert testing his powers, and he is becoming quite good with them. One of the funny things about comic books is that whenever someone gets superpowers, there is not much time where they absolutely suck with their powers. I know some of you would argue about books like X-Men or any others, but really, even those books, it's not a long period where the hero cannot control his/her powers. I love that in this show, we are in 12 episodes and yet most of them still cannot control them, or at least it seems that way...

Well it is time to mention the continuing saga of DL/Micah/Jessica/Nikki. J/N is in jail. Obviously J has started beating on guards, which causes N to have problems. The end scene of Jessica breaking the guards nightstick was kind of cool, I wonder how powerful she is? And I wonder what the hell is up with her. Did Nikki absorb Jessica, her sister? Who knows, I really want this story to pick up, or that will be the point when I get a drink or piss during the show.

And now, to what I think was the coolest of all. Peter waking up. He dreams about the explosion again, this time gets a few more details, especially of a new guy stealing wallets. He wakes up and leaves the hospital, I love how his mother is such a selfish bitch that all she can think about is how she spent all that time in the hospital worrying, and he just leaves.

He is trying to get a flight to Nevada, to wherever they used to set off nukes (maybe Jack Bauer will have to stop to Peter from becoming a nuclear bomb in LA...) and he notices the guy from his dream stealing wallets. Peter goes up to him, and the guy freaks out that Peter can see him. He slams Peter into a wall and starts choking him. Then the camera pans back and we can see that both of them are invisible.

From what I have read in interviews with Christopher Eccleston he will be playing Peter's mentor, sort of his Yoda. He declined the role as a villain because he hates the cliche European bad guy. Anyways, some of you may know him from 28 Days Later, he was the Major, or from the show Dr. Who.

Does anyone think Mohinder will eventually join Mr. Bennett, or will Mohinder try to get into contact with someone like Peter. How soon before Claire escapes from her Dad and goes to NYC???

Anyways, let me know what you think.

24: 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.

The show began with Jack telling Bill that he wanted back in after seeing the nuke go off in Valencia. Damn though, everything that happened in this episode made my head spin, I can't imagine what it is doing to Jack.

First we get the shock that Jack's father has a connection to the Russian General who sold Fayyad the nukes. Then, before that could sink in, the shady guy from last season, who was behind President Logan's antics, is actually Jack's brother, Graham.



Jack goes over to Graham's house and they talk for a bit, Graham is trying to play everything off, but Jack is not buying it. Jack knocks him out then ties him to a chair and proceeds to suffocate him.

Did anyone else think that President Palmer's speech at the end started off a bit weird? "There is no easy way to say..."

It is funny how this show is becoming like a soap opera. What will happen next season? Will Kim come back and turn out to be a terrorist who has taken over the country of Sweden and declared war on LA? Don't get me wrong, I love all these little twists and turns, but it is funny how all these terrorists have some connection to Jack.

Also, I have given the idea of whether or not the producers should have went with another nuke story and have decided that nuclear weapons are really scary. Especially ones like these suitcase nukes. It may seem like there should be some kind of new weapon we need to worry about, but come on, sometimes the old ones work the best.

Look at our current state of the world, every country seems to be getting into another nuclear arms race. I recently read that Jordan and Egypt want to develop their own, in order to keep up with/protect themselves from Iran. I used to joke with my uncle that the UN should take all the nukes, and give each country one....

Anyways, I am getting way off track here.
Jack killed no one, but tortured his own brother. Next week we see him almost getting killed by one of his Dad's henchmen. I have no clue what my kill count guess is yet, I will let everyone know soon.

Conundrum

Here is the problem. I did not realize that 24 and Heroes were on at the same time. Anyways, I will watch 24 tonight and probably post about it. Tomorrow afternoon I will watch Heroes and then post about it. Does that sound acceptable to everyone? I know, your lives are greatly affected and I apologize for being too poor to buy the TiVoPlus service, blah blah blah...

The Greatest Day Ever

Tomorrow could be the best day ever. Heroes comes back on, as does 24...I do not know if my brain will be able to take it.

Anyone have any thoughts on what Heroes will be like? Any predictions? I have nothing really. I think my brain is fried from last night, and from watching the Bears/Saints game right now. This game absolutely sucks.

Also, come on people, give me your Jack Bauer Kill count predictions for tomorrow.

Which Superhero Are You?

I usually do not do these type of things, but this one was too good to pass up.

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern 70% Supergirl 67% Superman 65% Robin 62% Spider-Man 60% Iron Man 60% Wonder Woman 57% Hulk 55% The Flash 45% Batman 45% Catwoman 35%

Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test


It is weird that I am Green Lantern, see Allison, it is a good thing you bought me the ring...

Smallville Rocked My World

Tonight's episode, named "Justice" was freakin' awesome. It starts out with Chloe calling Clark, in South America, and then having a crazy doctor pull a gun on her. We see a red blur knock the guy down and then Clark comes in and Chloe jokes about being in the nick of time. Clark says it was not him and then sees Bart Allen (Impulse) and they play a game of chase for a bit.

It turns out that Bart is working for Ollie and he has been helping gather info about project 33.1. This project is about creating a super-powered army for Lex, which Ollie wants to stop. Bart gets captured and Clark goes to confront Ollie about what he is doing. He then learns that not only is Bart helping Ollie, so is Arthur Curry (Aquaman) and Vic Stone (Cyborg).

The four of them rescue Bart and destroy Lex's lab, but it turns out that Lex has facilities all over the world and he is creating a very large army. Ollie has to break up with Lois, which was kind of sad, but inevitable, and he takes his little JLA with him to wherever they go next. Clark turns down an offer to join them because he has to take care of the Phantom Zone escapees.

Some of my favorite lines from the episode:
"They always make fish jokes."-Aquaman

Clark: We need to come up with a name for ourselves.
Ollie: It needs to be something with the word Justice.

Chloe discovers that the company that Ollie was using as a shell company to contact Bart has the initials JLI (Justice League International)

Clark's codename is Boyscout

Chloe plays the role of Oracle, and even responds with the codename Watchtower, which was the name of the JLA's moon base...



Picture courtesy of Kryptonsite

NewCanada

I just found this linked at WarrenEllis.com and found it amusing.



The article brings up some interesting ideas about the split between north and south, I would discuss it more, but I really think you should read the article, and laugh at my awesome work of art up above.

Color Change

What do you guys think of the changes I made? I like the right side, especially the picture of me, haha. However, I want your opinion on the colors.

Also, I would like to know who all reads this. I know many of you do not post comments, but I would appreciate a comment, just saying your first name, or IM name or whatever...

Thanks.

Sportscafe

I have given lots of thought to the problems of the Sportscafe and have decided to help. What problems you ask? Well there is never anyone there and I am afraid it will eventually close down.

Most of you in the State College area probably do not remember when the Sportscafe was actually a busy and fun place. When I was between 21-24ish, I can remember going into the Sports and it always being crowded. Why? Because that was where everyone went after midnight. Once the Saloon or Gaff or any of the other places stopped having specials, most people just went to Sports. They had 23 oz. Amber Boch for $2.25, not a great beer, but not entirely horrible either. If you were at Saloon and talking to some chick, and she was like "oh well my friends are leaving." You could almost guarantee seeing her at Sports.

Also when the weather is nice, people love to sit outside and enjoy a nice tasty beverage during the day. I am sure when it gets nice, people will do this once Cafe210 or Lion's Den get too full...

Another bonus was the downstairs area. It had three pool tables, two dartboards, and a jukebox (which played mostly rock, not much rap unlike upstairs). It also featured a small bar which served a few draft beers and some shots I think.

This is also pretty much the only sports bar in downtown State College. If you want to watch sports, you have to go out to Champs or the Arena. Why would you do that? The Sportscafe is right downtown.

So why is this place never busy? Well for starters, the reason I stopped going was because when new ownership took over, they decided to make the downstairs close at 1:45, and to not have a bar down there. They also put the kibosh on 21st birthday shots. That used to be the great thing, Sports was the only bar that did not care if you did shots on your 21st birthday. Also the ownership started giving last call the same time as every other bar. If you do not know what this means, well let me explain. Bars set their clocks way ahead, so it appears much later than it is. They give last call at 2:00 a.m., then it is probably only 1:45. However, the Sports used to give last call at actual 2:00, so if you were somewhere and just heard last call, if you left and hustled over to Sports, you could probably get in 2 more drinks.

Here is my plan to change some things. First, I think they need to renovate the place. It is dark and dingy, no one wants that. Look at how popular Pickles is, it is always clean. The basement bars get away with being dirty because they have always been that way for like the last 700 years or something absurd. Fix the bathrooms, I should not feel disgusted when I go to take a piss.

Next, you are a sports bar! Let it be known. If you do not have NFL Direct Ticket or whatever it is called, GET IT. Sundays should be packed with people wearing all different team jerseys. Every freakin' game should be on. I love going to a sports bar to watch football because my brain always feels like it is going to explode because I am being inundated with so much sports information. When baseball season comes, make sure you get a bunch of the Fox Sports channels, that way if someone wants to watch the Pirates game they can, as well as the Astros, Phillies, Mariners, and even Mets. You should have sports on every damn TV, which you have plenty of. You do not need to go buy all new plasmas or anything crazy like that, you are fine with what you got. Although, TV's in the bathroom is always a nice touch.

Third, bring back the pool tables and bar downstairs. Let people know that you are the only other place besides Sharkeys to play pool at. Where are people going to go? Saloon? Rumors? Nope, but on this side of town you could dominate the pool player scene. Maybe have tournaments or something.

Once you have remodeled, and added lighting, which is key to this part, have a night where you have free Hold 'Em tournaments. They seem to do well at the Arena, the Lube, Bar Blue, and even Hooters.

If you do these things, Sportscafe, you will see changes. You will see the people who now go to Pickles start coming into this "new" Sportscafe. I know I would, since I hate paying a $1-$2 cover at Pickles because they have music, not a band, not a DJ, but music...

NuFamily

Sounds like a really bad name for a soft drink. NuFamily, brought to you by the makers of such great energy drinks like FuxSaLot and InstaShit. Also with absolutely 0 grams of fat!!!

Sorry, I went a little crazy for a second. I do not know how many of you have been following the comments under my Crazy Cults post, but let me just say it has gotten out of control. It got me to thinking about who and what family really is. I have come to think of certain people as my family, hence the term NuFamily.

Obviously I consider my mom, my dad, Adam, and most of my family as part of it, but what about the other people. The ones who are really there for me? You know who you are.

So without further adieu, I would like to thank and let them know how much I care for them, and how much they have helped me and whatnot.

Kacie, Allison, Gideon, James, Imler, Offord, Stef, Darby, Ryan, KFD, Tami, T-Bone, Kenny...the list could go on forever, but anyways, if I forgot anyone, it's either because you are the blacksheep of this NuFamily or I am retarded.

One last thing, if anyone wants a copy of this picture, give me your address and I will send it to you, all you have to pay is shipping and handling of $11.25. Euros are not accepted. Sorry.

24: 8:00-10:00 a.m.

A suitcase nuke goes off in LA. Jack shoots Curtis, was he dead? If so then Kacie was again right with her guess of 1.

Jack says he is quitting, but after seeing the nuke go off, I believe his resolve to stop the terrorists will be stronger than ever. It was sad to see that Kal Penn's character died and was not really in the show all that much.

We also learned that there may be 4 more suitcase bombs, which Fayyad will be able to set off anywhere he wants. Unfortunately his nuclear scientist buddy died in the explosion.

I love Wayne Palmer as President. His staff is great, especially Tom, who we all want to believe is somehow involved in the terrorist plot, but I will guarantee that he is not. In fact, I bet no one on his staff will have a connection. It seems like they did that story line to death last year, and will need to go a new direction. But, then again, I could be wrong.

Next week kill count: 2, god let me be right...
Kacie: 0. she has been right every time so far...

24: Premiere

This season is going to absolutely rock. I love seeing Jack troubled about torturing someone, or not as able to kill people as quickly as before.

I definitely like Morris, he is a fun addition to Chloe. And it was great to see them bring Milo back...Anyways, I would write more about this, but unfortunately the new episode starts in 9 minutes.

Kacie won the kill count, with a guess of 1. If anyone disputes his kill number, let me know. He only killed the guy, who's throat he tore out. He did not kill the guy he beat with a stick, just knocked him out and the suicide bomber, well he killed himself...

My guess for tonight is: 3
Kacie: 1

24: Day 6 Preview

Well everyone, the new season of 24 is about to start and I am pretty pumped, as I am sure most of you are.

First, I have to ask, did everyone see the prequel which was included with Season Five? It basically focuses on Jack's torture in China and how they played mind games with him.

The real question is how does Jack escape from the Chinese? And once he finally does, my god who will he kill first? I bet he kills at least 4.2 million Chinese army people. And then treks across the Middle East, killing Osama, the dude from Iran, hell maybe even whatever crazy terrorists live in Europe. Once in Europe, he will track down Jason Bourne. It will be an awesome fight, but obviously Jack will win, and torture him to the point that Jason remembers everything.


Okay, so that probably will not happen, but it will be close. Anyways, I have heard that when he returns to the US, terrorist attacks have happened all over America, I do not know how true that is, but I wonder if we will be in a near-police state?

Anyways, I want to hear your thoughts, and like Heroes and Lost, I will be writing about the show afterwards. I think I will also include a kill prediction/kill count. I want everyone to predict how many people Jack will kill, and then we will see who wins. We will see who wins at the end of the year.

For the Two-Hour Premiere on Sunday, my kill count prediction for Jack is: 4

Superman Returns

Last night I decided to watch Superman Returns. I saw it in the theater and absolutely loved it. After watching it last night, I found even more things to like about it, and a few things which kind of bothered me, not just about that movie, but the original movies as well.

First the thing that bothered me: Clark the "reporter." We never see Clark, in this film, or the first two, really doing any journalism. In the comics, if I am not mistaken, when Superman gives Lois his interview and she turns it in to Perry, she finds out she was scooped by some hick reporter named Clark Kent. Anytime, she would try to get a Superman story, Clark would have it first. This helped to establish a relationship between the two characters.

As of now, Clark just pines after Lois and she basically looks past him at Superman. I always loved the idea of Superman using his powers to help himself get better stories than Lois, which in turn helped Lois want to interact with Clark. What a nice little circle we have there.

The second thing that bothered me was how they portrayed Lex Luthor. This was not Bryan Singer's fault, but instead Richard Donner's. But, in reality, it was not his fault either. The comics at the time pretty much showed Lex as some criminal mastermind who spent his time devising schemes to take over Metropolis.

I much rather have the Lex who is super rich, and seen as somewhat of a shady business man, but not evil. He also always believes he is doing what is right for mankind. I thought when he was saying about how Prometheus stealing fire, that his motivation was to help advance human technology, and also make money off it. Instead he was all about creating more land.

Two great stories that show how complex of a character Lex is, were Superman: Birthright and Lex Luthor: Man of Steel.

The first story, which I wish they would have made into a movie, focuses on Clark's transformation into Superman. How after college he decided to do something amazing for mankind, and he wanted some kind of symbol, so he and his family create the Superman persona. It's fun watching his mother teach him how to dress as Clark, to wear suits that are a little big, to slouch, to wear thick glasses, and wear his hair nerdy. Anyways, Lex is the richest man in Metropolis when Superman shows up, and he realizes that he is an alien from Krypton. Lex uses Superman's coming to create a fake Kryptonian army that attacks Metropolis...anyways, I am not doing this story justice, so just read it yourself.

The second story, is about Lex and how he perceives himself. He sees himself as mankind's savior and he is completely worried that if Superman is allowed to live and keep saving mankind, then man will never rise up and save themselves. During the story, we see Lex doing many things for the common man, giving scholarships to his janitor's son, or insisting his employees call him Lex. You get to see a real human side to Lex. As I have said in my Heroes posts, what makes a great villain is that he does not believe he is a villain.

On to what I really enjoyed (aside from all the things I have told people about). The Jason angle. I know many people did not like the idea of Superman having a son, but I thought it was excellent. And I also started to think about why Jason may be so sickly.

If we ignore the fact that Kryponian DNA and Human DNA may not be too compatible, then we can have some fun. Jason's partial human side probably cannot handle his Kryptonian side. The reason he has breathing problems, could be due to his arctic breath, which his weaker human lungs cannot handle. His skin probably does not absorb sunlight the same way as Superman's, which could make him not as powerful/reliable...

I did not realize the first time I saw it, but after Superman is stabbed with kryptonite, and he flies up above the clouds and re-energizes and pretty much becomes "sun-drunk." This happens in the comics at times, and is usually pretty funny because he is so powerful he cannot control himself. He usually has to try to come into contact with either Parasite, or kryptonite, in order to even himself out. This definitely helps explain how he was able to lift the landmass full of K-nite into space.

I hope most of you will enjoy this movie or will join in a discussion about the movie.

Crazy Cults

I forgot to talk about this over Christmas, but now I have some free time and wanted to let you all know about my two experiences at church last month. Most of you who know me, know that I am an atheist. I have studied most religions, and my major let me focus on Judaism/Early Christianity. The things I noticed at church made me laugh, but also bothered me in a way.

The first trip was for my grandmother's funeral. My mother's family is Russian Orthodox. If you have not experienced it, well you are not missing much. The entire service is basically chanted, I believe in a mixture of Russian/Greek/Latin. They shake an assload of nasty incense.

One of the things that really bothered me is that if it is not in English, then most of the people probably cannot understand what is going on. I would bet that 90% at the church have no clue why any of the little rituals they are doing are actually done.

The second painful experience was on Christmas Eve at Kacie's church, which I think was Lutheran. Wow, talk about a cult-like group. The pastor had a good little sermon about the whole "War on Christmas" problem (Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays). He basically was pointing out that it does not matter what people say, but actually following Jesus' message. And that is something I agree with. Even though I do not believe in God, does not mean that I cannot look at the message of Jesus and go, "huh, that's a pretty good moral code to live by." Not that I live by it, but you get my drift.

Unfortunately, as soon as he was down telling everyone about how to follow Jesus' message more, they then start doing crazy prayers and ritualistic chanting. I seriously expected someone to bring a goat out and cut it's throat. This is what bothers me, everyone reads the Bible, and misses some of the bigger points of what Jesus did. He was most likely very against the idea of a church. Especially since most of the crap about how to worship in a church comes from the letters of Paul, a guy who never even knew Jesus.

Okay, I will stop here. I know that I could end up pissing everyone off.

Civil War Predictions

Since TV is really worthless at the moment, I figured now would be a good time to write about what I think will happen in Marvel's Civil War. I doubt that any of you who read this actually read comics, but what the hell, I am bored.

I believe the ProReg side will win out over Cap's AntiReg group. Even if Captain America could somehow defeat Iron Man's team, that does not mean the US government would just reverse the law.

Where will that leave our characters? I believe that Captain America will take up the guise of Ronan. Last time we saw Echo she was wearing the Ronan outfit, and Brian Michael Bendis has hinted in Wizard that Cap may feel like a masterless samurai and that Ronan will make a return.

This also fits into why Spider-Man will again be wearing a black costume. This makes sense since everyone knows he is Peter Parker, he will need to be more covert.

Iron Man is a tough character to predict. Has Tony Stark been manipulating events to lead up to Registration to benefit his company? Maybe he will die at the end of Civil War, but somehow I doubt it. I could see him realizing the error of his way of thinking, and end up sacrificing himself, or even faking his death...

The real Thor will return, and lend his support to Cap. Or he will just use his power to destroy Tony, since he is probably a little pissed that Tony and Reed tried to clone a god.

After Civil War, Hulk will return to Earth, and I am pretty sure he is going to be pissed off. It seems that Tony will have more than one megapowered enemy to worry about.

Plus, will Black Panther and Namor lead their nations to war against the US? The Inhumans will probably attack the US, so yeah, our country could be in for some tough times.

I wonder how the Fifty-State Initiative will work out for Tony. Does he really want to have a superteam in every state? If so, that is dumb. How many threats does Idaho really get? Also, if you are going to build a giant prison in the Negative Zone, why would you use to incarcerate super-heroes who will not register? Wouldn't it make more sense to throw all the really dangerous villains in there?

I also believe that Cap's plan to try and bust out many of the superheroes will work, but that is where the main battle will fall.

Well that is all I have for now.