Halo can you go?

Just in time for the holidays, some sneak peaks behind the graphics system of Halo 3, which won't coming for another 10-12 months or so. If you were second guessing the decision to purchase an Xbox 360 over the short supplied PS3, Bungie/Microsoft are hoping to sway your uneasiness to what's coming. This will be one of many strategically released behind the scenes video of the game that'll rolling out in the coming months.

ho ho ho!

Live Free or Die Hard...Seeing This Franchise Jump the Shark

Just when you thought the last decent action movie trilogy would go untouched, here comes round 4 in the Die Hard Series- Live Free or Die Hard.

The trailer has a very different tone to it than it predecessors, it almost looks too serious. Bruce looks too much of a tough guy as well, all clean and bald 'n shit. I liked him better as a degenerate everyman in a dirty wifebeater, receding hairline and all.

With McTiernan not tied to direct this, which is understandable considering he's facing jail time, I'm concerned that this episode may soil what is one of the best movie franchises around. Also, where's the European villain? Though Die Harder was a great flick, the first and third films featuring the Grubers played by Alan Rickman and Jeremy Irons were by far two of the best antagonists in movie history. Stretching the Gruber blood line to a third would have been difficult, but I just think Europeans make the best bad guys. There's also apparently plotlines that involve McClane's son and daughter-this is very concerning- didn't they see Rocky V?! Part of my hatred for that film was the horrendously annoying child acting. Unless they whip out another breakout kid like Haley Joel Osment (now on DWI charges) or 'lil D (Dakota Fanning), this could be very bad. From the looks of it, it appears that the kid from the Mac commercials is McClane's son, also from the critically acclaimed Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.

Yippie-ki-yay.

Blade: "I Don't Do...Taxes"

What the hell happened Wesley? What's with the thumbs up? Don't you know you're facing 16 years in the Big House?!

I remember when I first saw you in Major League as Willy Mays Hayes ("hit like Mays, run like Hayes," or was it the other way around?)- your future looked so promising. I forgot that you were also in the football classic Wildcats before that. Between taking over The Carter in New Jack City, and getting into Annabella Sciorra's italian pants in Jungle Fever, there was no stopping you. Then you teamed up with Mr. Hemp himself in White Men... and became a household name.

Then Mr. New Jack City became Sell Out City, with a running diarrhea of crap like Passenger 57 ('always bet on black'), Rising Sun with Sir Connery, Demolition Man with Rocky Balboa, and of course To Wong Foo, among others.

I recall my up close and personal moment with you while attending the NY premiere of your shitty baseball thriller movie, The Fan, with Bobby DeNiro. It was the summer of my freshman year in college, while interning at Sony Pictures' Mandalay Entertainment in Manhattan. You are much shorter in real life, kinda like I predict I would react when seeing Tom Cruise in person. Though the movie was horrendous, I did enjoy the glamour and glitz of the premiere, and meeting Mark Messier and Brian Leetch, both drunk of their rockers at Planet Hollywood's afterparty, was a moment I won't forget. I also recall that you were with an asian chick, even before if was en vogue for black men to 'git wit' asian women (see Tiki Barber). A true pioneer you were Mr. Snipes.

A few year's later, you became Blade, with 2 sequels, you became cool again. But now this tax evasion stuff...c'mon man! You ain't Nino Brown! You're Wesley Freakin' Trent Snipes!

Beat this man! Don't let them take you down. To quote a favorite crappy movie title of your's: Play it to the Bone!

Cold hard ass kicking

Now that the weather is starting to get uncomfortably cold, I've begun my yearly hibernation of not doing any outdoor physical activity for the next four months. Finding the right activity has always been a challenge. I've pondered taking a martial arts class, but after viewing the clip below, the fear that I may look something like this makes me question this path.

Dumb Executives Among Us

I work for a media company. Recently, the head of programming, facing stiff competition, and knowing nothing about the Internet, just hired a VP whose job it is surf the web to find out what people are talking about. Not an intern or a college grad, but a friggin VP! The kicker is, she doesn't have any online experience and self admittedly 'isn't a web savvy person'! Is it just the companies I work for or does everyone have executive level dolts steering the ship?

When I first heard about the position, I joked to one of my colleagues that at our next meeting, she's going to update everyone with something like "Do you want to know what's really hot on the web right now? pets, especially sleepy kittens...so hot."

Sure enough, in the following week's meeting, when it was her turn to provide an update, she said, and I'm only slightly paraphrasing: "What I'm seeing is that people really love their pets and love videos of kittens." I almost fell out of my chair and pissed myself! Luckily I was dialed into the conference call or I would have lost it had I attended in person. So in light of that little anecdote, I thought it would be nice to share one of my favorite pet videos on You Tube:



Cats...so hot.

Put A Fork In Me

After four months of on again, off again training, the big day finally arrived. This past weekend was the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC. In short, it was 26.2 miles of pure fun and agony. I'm not sure what I'm more happy about, to have finished the race in semi decent time, or to be finished with training and running. My finish time: 3 hrs 53 min, which comes to an 8:54/ mile- way off my 8:00/ mile pace and 3:30 finish back in the 2002 NY Marathon, but considering that up to the night before, I wasn't even sure what time I was going to try to run for, I'm pretty content with finishing under 4 hours.

The race weekend started with driving down to my in-laws home in South Jersey Friday night, followed by a mid Saturday morning trip with my wife and mother-in-law down to DC, checking into the Hilton Crystal City after grabbing a quick lunch while waiting for our room to be ready. The last 24 hours before a big race is always a little nerve-racking, especially in a different city. Food choice during those final hours before the race also becomes a concern. The pros recommend to keep it simple, no Mexican, Indian, anything that my cause an explosive oil slick on the race course. My lunch choice: Philly Cheese steak. A little risky? Yes, but I'm a sucker for a good philly steak sandwich. Go big or go home, I like to say, even when the phase doesn't make sense. Luckily, it didn't cause hell to my digestive system.

Saturday afternoon, after settling in the hotel, we took a trip to the race expo to pick up my bib number, and in the process hit the motherload of free race food- almost five pounds worth of power gels, shot bloks, sports jelly beans, and clif bars. I think I have enough race snacks for the next six races. We wrapped up the evening with a classic pasta dinner at a nearby neighborhood Italian restaurant.

The race day weather couldn't have been better- clear, blue skies, with temperatures hovering in the upper 40s / low 50s. After an impassioned military opening ceremonies, capped off with a flyby of two Osprey combat aircraft, the race was under way. During the first several miles, I actually thought I had a chance of beating my PR...then came mile 20. Even holding back my pace this time around, preparing for the last few miles couldn't avoid the physical wall I suddenly hit. It was as if every muscle in both my legs cramped all at the same time. When I took a moment to stretch one leg, the other leg seized up. I must have looked like a basket case. At that point, I realized that not only beating my personal best was beyond reach, but also just finishing under four hours was at risk. Fortunately, I was able to hobble my way to the finish, only walking briefly before some guy behind me gave me the only encouragement I needed to hear to finish strong: "Be a man." Not "you can do it," or "you're almost there." After all, this is the Marine Corp Marathon. Hooo Rahh!

My final stats are available for mile by mile analysis here.

The Finaaaal Countdown

It's seven days til go time to my second 26.2 mile race, the Marine Corps Marathon. Am I ready? That's the question I've been pondering these last few weeks. My new job, now in it's eight week, so one can argue if it's still considered 'new', has totally been cramping my style, my marathon training, as well as other fun deviations like writing this blog, day dreaming, and playing video games. Bitch, bitch, bitch...

At this point, the train has left the station. I'm running this friggin thing if it kills me. Not the best attitude or mindset going into my final week, but quite frankly, I'm all out of excuses. The race deferment deadline has passed. Physically, though I'm not in the prime fighting shape that I was in 2001 when I ran my first marathon in 3:30, but I'm pretty confident I can run the course without dying. However, the fact that I've almost gone through all of the Milky Way and mini Reese's Cups Halloween candy in my apartment isn't helping me shed some extra poundage to give my feet the extra bounce I'll need come race day. Mentally, I don't think I'm prepared to realistically beat my personal best, my only best, is disheartening, but is something I'll have to simply accept and move on.

The good news is that the course is relatively flat, and I've heard it's a good, fun course, filled with inspiring monuments and ooo-raah marines motivating you along the way. Hopefully that will help clear the mental bats in my head.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is Halloween!