"The Devil's Advocate" review, and Early Morning Postings

One bad thing about knowing that people will get text messages whenever I update my blog, or send a tweet, is that I hold back posting early in the morning (it's about 2:20a right now, so I plan to save this as a draft, then post it later today).

I also tend not to tweet too often, since I want my facebook, etc. status to be static for a day or so at least (to give people a chance to read it).

On a different subject, I just finished watching "The Devil's Advocate". Keanu is COMPLETELY wooden, and the plot is kinda formulaic. Combine that with more graphic nudity than I'm comfortable with, and I give it a couple stars out of four.

The Watchmen

This just in (from my Cousine)

Hi Friends and family!

Scott and his friends have submitted a short TV spot for a contest. If they win, their entry could end up in the upcoming film “The Watchman” due out in March.

For those of you who don’t know – “The Watchman” is a very popular graphic novel. It’s set in 1985 in an alternate United States. Adrian Veidt is one of the main characters and he’s built a commercial empire. It also has to do with superheroes and the end of the world (and a bunch of other stuff that Scott could explain!)

For the contest, they could create a fake mid-1980 TV commercial for one of Veidt’s companies: Veidt Airlines, Nostalgia perfume, or a sport shoe.

Scott and his buddies chose to make a commercial for Veidt Airlines. Since this is a contest –one of the ways they could win is from positive viewer feedback. So if you would like to watch their entry on youtube (its’ only 60 seconds long) you can find it by clicking on this link. Please add feedback and help them get noticed! Also look for little Ruby’s first cameo.

Here's the linky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut1dKrwZbP8&fmt=18

Please share this with people who might like to see it.

Thanks! Kristina

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jake Strickbine
Date: Jun 2, 2008 1:03 PM
Subject: Watchmen Advertising Contest
Hello All:

For those of you who don't know what the heck is going on- we've just entered a TV spot into a contest where it could possibly end up being placed in The Watchmen film coming out next March. Basically- you're supposed to make a fake, mid-eighties style TV spot for one of Veidt Enterprises product lines. If you're still confused, you can check out the main page for the contest here, which explains everything better: http://www.youtube.com/watchmenmovie

Anyways- we made a spot for Veidt Air, and it is now live and viewable on YouTube. There will be two components to the contest- one that is based on a panel of judges, and the other, which will be based on community voting at YouTube. This is where you could come in: if you'd be willing to watch the video on YouTube, leave feedback, (positive, preferably) and help us get our 'view' count up, it could go a long way toward helping us get our spot noticed. If you have a myspace or facebook page, and you'd be willing to link the video to your page to help raise our 'view' count- that'd be killer- but I know that's not an option for everybody.

If nothing else, just watch the darn thing and, hopefully, have a chuckle or two!

Here's the linky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut1dKrwZbP8&fmt=18

I just wanted to take a moment to thank Scottie, Shawn, Molly, Madina, Ryan and, of course, little Ruby for their patience and hard work in helping us create this thing. You guys all did an awesome job!

Jake

Labor Day Weekend

Went to a party last night (w/o the girls). It was a surpirse 40th B-day party for two of Court's friends. Mostly it was a surprise since their b-days are at least 6 weeks away! Clever, eh?

The girls stayed at Court's parents - they saw a couple movies: 1) "Bad Seed", from 1958. B&W horror., 2) "Alien" - Maddie was really impressed by the alien popping out of the guys stomach. Nice.

Turns out the little girl in the Bad Seed was nominated for an Oscar, and most people alive back then (you know, the old folks) remember the movie. I'd never heard of it, but I caught the ending. It was the worst ending I've ever seen in a movie.

Today (Sunday) Courtney is pal-ing around with an out-of-town guest (Vivian). They are going to a movie. I'll play Dungeon Twister (DT) later on this afternoon with John (Court's dad).

[Edit Added 9/5] John won DT quite handily - I'll have to stop handicapping myself! We are hosting a cookout today at 4pm for the whole fan-damily (including Court's cousin's family).

Last night I finally got it worked out to play "Slay" online with four other people. It took a lot longer than I expected it would, but it was fun.

I'm a Bachelor

Not really, but that's what people say when your family leaves you and goes on vacation without you. The crew is at Eddie's Cottages in Michigan. I've been there twice before (this will be like their fourth time).

I'm not really jealous - I enjoy my "free time". I've been spending a lot of it with a pal of mine, Dave Kingsworthy. His family is gone for the moment as well. We've been spending our time playing games, poker, and watching movies.

The three movies:

• "Hero"
• the first ten minutes of some movie about a white guy - Ashton Kushner - who is marrying into a black family
• "Mind Hunters"

The only one I could recommend is "Hero", and then only if you like Kung Fu movies. It was amazing - beautiful, in many respects. But subtitled, which is always a bit of a drag, but probably better than the silly dubbing they used to do.

This morning I'm going to church (and taking, for the first time, my uncle-in-law, David - he has some physical problems so we'll see how that goes).

Tonight I teach a VBS for work (Vacation Bible School). 100 kids over a two hour period. Pray for me. ;-)

Thursday, June 9th

Last night I played games with some friends, while Courtney saw a movie with a couple friends (it was an "art film" - meaning it isn't in all theatres). She liked the movie, and I had fun as well.

The girls had their first day with a new babysitter yesterday. They seem to like her - it bodes well for the rest of the summer.

I'm playing poker tonight, and in the morning (6am!) we are leaving to drive to Kansas to attend Sarah's (my cousin) wedding. The girls are going to be flower girls. We'll spend Friday and Saturday nights there (in Lawrence), and then come back on Sunday - a lot of driving, but I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure I'll have a picture or two to share...

Memorial Day Weekend - 2005

The girls are back from Memphis - they had a blast. Most of them said their favorite part of the vaction was swimming - they're all sunburned except Molly.

My weekend went well - I cleaned, trimmed the lawn, saw "Revenge of the Sith" (as did they, down in Memphis), made sack lunches for the homeless - at Robert's Park Methodist Church, and visited a liberian refugee family we help out a bit (Evelyn has a three-week old named (somewhat strangely) Evelyn).

The refugee family seems to be doing alright. All but one of the children who should be, are in school, both parents are working, there is food on the table and they are safe. Much better than being in Liberia, I imagine.

Yoda is my favorite Star Wars character...I think he's Buddist (ok, I know he's a Jedi, but in real life, I think he's Buddist).