Month: April 2008

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Review: Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

So, I was a big fan of Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. It wasn’t reviewed terribly well, but it was arguably the funniest comedy I’d seen in years. As in, I’ll usually go to a comedy and chuckle a bit, or maybe laugh out loud some…but White Castle was to the point where I couldn’t breathe for half the movie. (No Mom, you wouldn’t find it funny…not your kind of humor… :-P)

Therefore, we went and saw the second iteration, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay this weekend, which picks up right as the previous film lets off. The basic premise is that, at the end of “White Castle,” Harold finally kisses the girl of his dreams, but promptly finds out that she’s off to Amsterdam. So…Harold and Kumar, being the stoners that they are, are all about getting on a plane and heading off…

Well, the crazy old white lady on the plane sees our Indian (read: Al Qaeda) and Korean (read: North Korean) protagonists, gets freaked out, comedy ensues, and the Air Marshalls send the two off to Guantanamo. After a brief stay (as in, like, 2 minutes), they escape and make it to Florida with a boat of Cubans. Anyway, the pair go through all kinds of shenanigans as they make their way to Texas to clear their names…

In all honesty, I’m glad I saw the movie, but it wasn’t as good as the first one. It still had breathless funny moments, but it wasn’t quite half the movie…maybe a quarter, this time. The cameos alone are hilarious, as Ed Helms, Rob Corddry, David Krumholtz, Beverly D’Angelo, Christopher Meloni, Jon Reep (of “Last Comic Standing” fame), George W. Bush (yeah…that George W. Bush…) and, of course Neil Patrick Harris.

This isn’t the kind of movie you see for the acting (which was good, of course), or the special effects (there weren’t any), but it was quite funny and worth the money…especially if you liked the first one.

And yeah…watching a George W. look-a-like smoke weed and speak ill of his parents isn’t funny…I don’t know what is…

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Stupid Blue Shells…

(Courtesy of Friday’s Penny Arcade cartoon, of course…)

So, I’m very much looking forward to Mario Kart Wii, which should be arriving on Tuesday. There aren’t all that many video games that Brooke will consistently play with me, but this is one series that she’s always enjoyed…or at least seemed to… 😛

We also grabbed a Nintendo DS this past week, just to complete my collection of modern Nintendo products… More seriously, we got Mario Kart DS and Brain Age 2 to help entertain us for the likely long car rides that are coming up this summer, whether it be spent down to southern Florida with Brooke’s family, or whether we make a trip down to Houston (Brooke seems to want to visit Liz…I figure I could tag along and visit Brett/Andy/Nierling, as well). Either way, 19+ hour car rides warrant a video game system, especially when I get headaches when I try and read in a car. That, and I saw how useful a DS is when you’re waiting at the airport to catch a flight…or while actually flying, for that matter. Anyway, if you’ve got Mario Kart DS, lemme know…I suck at it…but I’m trying 😛

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Mmmm…new toys…

So, we went ahead and switched from DISH Network to AT&T’s U-Verse service, which means that we still have AT&T DSL and phone service, but now our TV comes through the phone line, also… U-Verse is amongst the first (along with Verizon’s FiOS service) that uses fiber optic cabling to increase bandwidth along phone lines, thus allowing robust television signals to travel on there as well as digital data and analog phone signals. The benefits are as follows, from our perspective:

  • Two receivers (i.e. two TVs) rather than just one that can access cable programing
  • HD programming cheaper than DISH (w00t!)
  • More channels (including ones we’ll actually watch)
  • Four tuners for television viewing (i.e. we can watch programs on two separate TVs and record two other channels simultaneously, whereas we could only do two channels total under DISH)
  • We can set up recordings remotely…which is awesome… So yeah, through the internet, we can tell our DVR to record something even if we aren’t at home to do it through the DVR directly…w00t, indeed!

    • These three primary things for ~$10-$15 more a month than we were originally spending… So yeah, we’re spending a bit more…but we’re also getting more, and personally, getting more value per monetary increase in cost.

    Anyway, I do have a concern or two with this new service, primarily in that everything now goes through a cute little box sitting next to my computer. Meaning, our DSL modem and router are now combined…but not only that…the TV signal now goes through that same box. If that box decides it doesn’t want to work anymore, we will not have TV or internet until AT&T can come out and fix and/or replace it. I guess it’s my same argument against the iPhone, in that if my phone dies, then my iPod and organizer go with it… There are certain things I like to be separate, and this may be one of them. Then again, perhaps it’s the wave of the future, so I should just get used to it.

    So yeah, this will be an interesting experiment. Everything seems to work well so far, though!

    …now, they just need SciFi in HD and I’ll be happy… 🙂

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    Long Live the Wesley House

    So, Wesley House was pretty important to Brooke and me, and took up a great deal of time for the five years I was at Truman. Mike sent me a few YouTube videos of the band playing in Troy, IL (Troy United Methodist Church) and I must say, it brought back memories. The crazy thing is that Mike, himself, was the only person I recognized in the video. I know it’s been 3 years since we left, but still…it’s great to see all those new people as part of the band! And also good to see that the band is thriving, and so is the Wesley House as a whole (despite the state-wide organization deciding it isn’t a “vital ministry” anymore and not funding it anymore…grrrrrrr…).

    Anyway, good times, yo… Good job, Wesley House Praise Band. Great to see you all in action again!

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    $30,000 from the National Parkinson Foundation…to play the Wii…

    So, I saw this blurb on Wii Nintendo Fanboy, referring to a press release discussing how the Medical College of Georgia has been awarded a $30,000 grant from the National Parkinson Foundation to test 30 individuals for improvements in their Parkinson’s symptoms by playing the Wii.

    More specifically:

    “‘Occupational therapy looks at how the illness affects the patient’s whole life, from the psychological, cognitive and sensory motor standpoints,’ says Dr. Ben Herz, assistant professor of occupational therapy in the School of Allied Health Sciences and a study principal investigator along with Dr. John Morgan, neurologist. ‘Our therapists are responsible for helping someone maintain or gain their independence with functional activities.’

    “While occupational therapy is frequently used in the comprehensive care of Parkinson’s patients, evidence is needed to support its short- or long-term effectiveness, says Dr. Herz.

    “’We’re hoping to show a slowing of the progression of the disease and a decrease in medication while increasing function. If we can teach patients to exercise and do functional activities, maybe we can have them take less medications,’ he says.”

    Anyway, this is an idea I had…but…didn’t write a grant for it. I’m wondering if I could have gotten such a thing past my Prelim committee, and have Dr. Westfall playing Wii Sports during my exam…would have been more fun… 🙂