Because Scumm games rocked, and a dedicated emulator like this kicks ass.

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Because I have all these old games I want to play again.

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Sun had free movie passes to the UA so we used them on this mildy entertaining movie too caught up with its set pieces of CGI gimmickry to tell a coherent story. And Robin Williams’ schtick? Still stale. Aladdin. That was the good one. That was over ten years ago. Give it up, already.

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Remakes, resurrections, reheated-overs. This is the trend, and it gets to be glaringly obvious this year at the movies.

Some are eagerly awaited, some are shrugs, some are sequels welcome and sequels why, and some defy comprehension.

3/25 – Ms. Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous
I suppose this should have been expected. The movie made a profit, after all.

3/25 – Guess Who
So let’s take a classic drama like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, flip the races and shorten the title to two words, then for some pizazz make it a crappy comedy with Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher. Step 2: Profit.

4/1 – Sin City
The comic-book-adaptation train continues to rampage through the lesser known titles. This one actually does look good, especially since the movie makes an effort to reflect the art of the graphic novels.

4/15 – The Amityville Horror
You know, I guess considering the glut of bad horror pics in the last few months, maybe this will be a shining remake. Of course, a remake of a bad movie tends to end up… a bad movie.

4/1 – Beauty Shop
Barbershop, good. The sequel, tired and god-awful in those five minutes it spent advertising this movie. This spin-off? Probably even worse.

4/8 – Fever Pitch
Nick Hornby, famed author whose books High Fidelity, About a Boy, AND Fever Pitch were made into movies, may be wondering just what this American version is all about. Considering About a Boy was adapted by someone else and turned out fine, and considering High Fidelity was an adaptation that transplanted the story to Chicago and still ended up fine, Hornby may have no problems with this adaptation. Of course, seeing as Hornby wrote the screenplay for the first movie adaptation (which was excellent) starring Colin Firth, this new one with Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon, with the sport switched from soccer to baseball (which is understandable for an American adaptation), and most radical of all, with the perspective of the story shifted over to the girl, Hornby may not be all too happy with it. I’ve seen the trailer, and I’ll tell ya, I’m not all too happy either.

4/29 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Awesome.

4/29 – xXx: State of the Union
Big strapping Vin Diesel bows out and short, pudgy Ice Cube take his place in what has got to be the worst way to take over a franchise in years.

5/20 – Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Finally. Let’s get this over with already.

5/27 – The Longest Yard
Well, hey, Burt Reynolds plays the coach instead of the lead in this remake, so at least they’re giving props. I’ll probably watch it.

6/3 – Lords of Dogtown
So what happened here was Stacy Peralta documents the rise of modern skateboarding in his documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, makes money, then decides maybe he oughtta rehash it as an actual movie…. Stacy’s never written a feature screenplay before, but he was one of the Z-Boys, so he’s got that going for him. Okay. I’ll bite.

6/10 – The Bad News Bears
I have to say, Billy Bob is an excellent casting choice for Coach Buttermaker, originally played by Walter Matthau back in 1976. So long as they keep to the acerbic, daring wit, it should be fine. Play ball.

6/17 – Batman Begins
The Frank Miller Batman returns to the screen after disappearing from view when Tim Burton called it quits after two features. I’m pleased, mostly because Ken Watanabe will play Ra’s al Ghul! Awesome.

6/24 – Bewitched
Nicole Kidman steps into Elizabeth Montgomery’s shoes. The teaser makes me smile.

6/24 – Herbie: Fully Loaded
Uh. Well, our favorite trashy jailbait chick Lindsay Lohan’s in it. And hey, Herbie does NASCAR. Yeah. Meep-meep.

7/1 – War of the Worlds
Spielberg. Cruise. ALIENS INVADE EARTH. No-brainer. Of course, the questions are: still Martians? still bacteria? I’m guessing no — should be fun.

Summer – The Honeymooners
Cedric the Entertainer and Omar Epps. Man.

7/8 – Fantastic Four
With Spider-man and X-Men, Marvel was on a roll. Then Daredevil and The Punisher kinda gave people pause, yet those films made a decent profit. But now comes the obvious dud of the comic book adaptation year. Let’s hope Raimi cranks out a third Spider-man quick and whoever replaces Singer on the X-Men franchise won’t fuck up next year.

7/15 – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Burton. Depp. WILLY WONKA. no-brainer.

7/15 – Into the Blue
Remake of The Deep, and will be much of the same, showing off Jessica Alba the way the original made Jaqueline Bisset a sex idol.

8/5 – Doom
Well hey, Resident Evil did good, right?

8/12 – Aeon Flux
I never liked the cartoon. Maybe this will change my mind.

8/12 – Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
I can’t help liking the fool. He keeps putting Filipino references in his movies as a salute to that part of his heritage (and apparently a strong part, I mean, jesus, who mentions bibingka in a movie!?).

8/12 – Dark Water
The Ring, The Curse, any number of other The’s… at least this one starts with Dark.

8/12 – Everything Is Illuminated
It’s from a book. That’s all I know.

8/19 – Zu Warriors
Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain sucked. Why make another one? Why this fascination for Zu!?

9/2 – The Woods
Sounds like a really loose adaptation of the part in Evil Dead. Sounds that way because Bruce Campbell’s in it. It’ll probably suck, though. But hey, Bruce Campbell’s in it!

9/23 – The Pink Panther
Steve Martin as Inspector Jacques Clouseau. It could work.

9/30 – Oliver Twist
A Roman Polanski film. Great expectations.

10/7 – The Wallace & Gromit Movie: Curse of the Wererabbit
Awesome!

10/21 – George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead
Romero banks on the popularity a recent remake of Part II (Dawn of the Dead, remake had the same title) to make Part IV of his zombie saga. Interesting.

10/21 – Shopgirl
Steve Martin remakes his book into a movie. Heard the book was good. Never read it. Might see this one, though. Maybe.

10/28 – Legend of Zorro
Hmm. This sequel took it’s time. The first one wasn’t all that great, but you never know.

10/28 – Saw 2
WHAT!?

11/4 – Chicken Little
The sky is falling! But this movie does look good.

11/4 – V For Vendetta
Alan Moore’s graphic novel taken in hand by the Wachowski brothers.. er… brother and sister? From Hell was also an Alan Moore graphic novel-turned-movie adaptation starring Johnny Depp, and it turned out okay. This one might turn out really, really good… or really, really bad.

11/11 – Rent
La Boheme adaptation Rent goes to the silver screen. Still not excited. I have Moulin Rouge, and I dig it enough.

11/18 – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
And here we go again.

12/9 – The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
I never got into this particular saga, so my excitement level isn’t that high. Still, could be fun.

12/9 – Underworld: Evolution
I regret to say that I contributed to the spawning of this sequel by buying a movie ticket for the first one.

12/14 – King Kong
Peter Jackson’s first flicker after The Lord of the Rings trilogy… will he make it?

12/23 – The Producers
So you take a movie, and you make it into a Broadway play, then you take that, and you make it into a movie again. Brilliant!

?/? – Carlito’s Way: The Beginning
No Al Pacino, no Brian dePalma, and even then it wasn’t all that hot a movie. A prequel? Uh. No.

?/? – Final Destination 3
Please.. stop.

?/? – Mad Max: Fury Road
Time to torture the shit out of Max again.

?/? – The Passion of the Clerks
I never liked Clerks much. This one just sounds silly. Of course, I better hush up, I might get beat up next time I hear the doorbell ring.

?/? – The Six Million Dollar Man
Dude, isn’t that just some guy with an artificial heart? What the hell does six million dollars buy these days!? Oh, wait, it’s a Jim Carrey comedy. Spooferific.

I’m sure there are more out there, but you get more than the general idea from this almost comprehensive list.

I’d say this is just a bit much, but considering how many times The Front Page was remade (at least four times on film, His Girl Friday being the most famous), or even the Wizard of Oz (one was even produced by Baum, but we all know the Judy Garland one… and the Michael Jackson one), you really can’t say Hollywood is out of ideas this time around.

Hollywood has always been out of ideas at the same time as it is fresh with new ones. My problem, I suppose, is that the quality of the rehashes this year is for the most part looking like ass.

I suppose we shall see.

After all, what else is there to do?

Searching GIS for images of “”Linus”" reveals an interesting thing:

1. Linus Torvalds shares the hit count prize with Linus van Pelt.
2. Linus Pauling rarely shows up.
3. There are any number of cats names Linus, but only a few dogs.
4. There are a ton of Asians named Linus, most are from Singapore.
5. Not a single one is of me.

Los Angeles County Ballot – March 8, 2005
Another Chapter in the Voting Life of Linus Enriquez

Mayor; City of Los Angeles
Bernard C. Parks is my preferred candidate given the field of contenders. He probably won’t make it to the runoff, but for now, he’s on the ballot, and he has my vote.

City Attorney; City of Los Angeles
Rocky Delgadillo is uncontested. Why bother.

Controller; City of Los Angeles
Laura N. Chick finishes her first term with a bunch of audits that lead to accusations of corruption at City Hall; I like her spunk. Plus, her challenger is that dude that keeps running for everything.

Member of the Board of Trustees; Los Angeles Community College District; Office 2
Michael D. Waxman wins his uncontested position.

Member of the Board of Trustees; Los Angeles Community College District; Office 4
Kelly Candaele.

Member of the Board of Trustees; Los Angeles Community College District; Office 6
Maria Christine Grunwald-Agazaryan.

Measure Los Angeles Charter Amendment 1 – Inclusion of Port Police in Fire & Police Pension Plan — City of Los Angeles
Yes.

Measure Los Angeles Charter Amendment 2 – Modifications to the Fire and Police Pension Plan — City of Los Angeles
Yes.

The SATs are now 2400 instead of 1600.

Suddenly, my okay score of 1230 looks just that much worse.

Photo galleries are no longer paginated. The filmstrip on the left is now draggable. Handy auto-scrollers are also provided for the lazy.

So Sun ordered this blood type home tester kit for me, since I admitted I hadn’t a clue what my blood type was, but that it probably was A-something, since mom admitted she was A (but no idea about the Rhesus factor).

This thing is a bloody masochist’s dream if you’re afraid of needles. Dear god, a spring-loaded lancet that you press against your skin before hitting the release button? SPANG! and the spring lets loose, the damned needle jamming into you.

Argh!

Anyhow, I’m AB+, the universal receiver. Hehe. That’s just awesome.

It also, after years of saying it without proof, justifies my excuse for not donating blood: “”They wouldn’t want it.”"

Heh.

Apparently, they DO want my blood… for it’s plasma. I’m a universal blood receiver and a universal plasma donor.