Hero Inc.

Every morning lately I have found myself sitting down to breakfast with the entire gang from Saved By The Bell. My roommate and myself are huge fans and can answer most if not all of the truly difficult trivia questions with ease. Therefore, this post is an ode to SBTB by providing my top five favorite episodes of all time. The list will probably surprise most, or at least the order will.

5. “Save That Tiger” – It’s that time again isn’t it. Not the prank war. Yes, the prank war. Valley vs. Bayside. Bad vs. Good. No Intelligence Vs. Semi Intelligence. Fun jokes and gags such as joy buzzers or kidnapping a high school student. These are the great days of high school. It’s also great when you pour ants down a human’s back and the ant bites magically make the human a super gymnast full of many great flips at the perfect time. Now I just need to steal Bayside t-shirts. Hmmm…..I wonder if the 100 meter dash is still going on after all these years.
4. “The Teacher’s Strike” – A Mr. Tuttle episode is a good episode. The man teaches driver’s education, the Glee Club and the Academic Bowl team (Jessie, Lisa, and Screech). With that much pressure, of course the teachers were going to strike. Zack’s added push probably didn’t help much either so he could go skiing. The classic ending of Valley vs. Bayside is great with the category switch from football to basketball. Ah yes, Kareem Abdul Montana. He made the Lakers who they are today.
3. “The Gift” – Zack and Slater are having a betting contest, which is always safe to do at school during the late 80’s. Zack has to give up his radio, but Screech gets struck by lightening in the process. Lightening kill a tv personality? Never. It just gives him the cool power of seeing into the future. Zack would never use this to rule the world, but only to win back free stuff from Slater. Oh no, here comes a deadly test coming up from Mr. Testaverde (The Micro Machines guy). Will the gift get the gang through the test or should they have just stayed up and studied everything? I mean, even I knew that they should study the 3 steps taken by the Continental Congress, the battle of Seratoga as the turning point of the war, and the intolerable acts.
2. “Jessie’s Song” – It’s time the gang talked about drugs. No not dope. That’s a different episode. I’m talking about the deadly drug known as caffeine pills. In order to help her stay up late for a midterm, Jessie begins taking caffeine pills and becomes addicted. Slater tries to help, but she doesn’t listen and Zack is too busy putting Hot Sundae together thanks to the undercover work of Sinead O’Conner. I could repeat those simple words all day every day and life would be that much better. “I’m so excited. I’m so excited. I’m so…scared.”
1. “Rockumentary” – This episode has it all. The rise and fall of Zack Attack, Casey Kasem, Brian Fate, Zack’s incredible ability to merge Vanilla Ice and M.C. Hammer into one human, the music (“Didn’t We Ever Have a Chance”, “Let’s Stay Together”, and “Friends Forever”). This is a full episode in that every part of it as good. From the moment the line is heard, “Little did they know Fate was running by their door…..Hello, I’m Brian Fate” you knew the episode would be a classic. Come on everyone, let’s say it. Friends….Come on….Friends. You have to admit. Screech does look peaceful.

What list would be complete without Honorable Mentions? I have a few here.

• “Running Zack” – Zack is apparently half Native American. That was news to me and it was also news to me that Native Americans love surfing. At least this one on one session helps Zack pass his heritage class (I never had one of those) with an easy A. Beat Valley!
• “From Nurse To Worse” – Zack finally asks Kelly to go steady. However the super uber hot new nurse makes Zack change his tune and pitch of his voice. Of course, we all instantly hit puberty when the nurse stated “Do you want a girl or a woman.” A.C. being afraid of shots was an added bonus.
• “Mystery Weekend” – When Lisa wins a free weekend trip to Mystery Theatre that entire gang is invited. Now on to the whodoneit. The butler? No. The maid in the skimpy outfit? No. Oh well. At least we learn of a new drink (Mango Tonic with a Kiwi Twist).

SBTB wiki and Good Morning Miss Bliss wiki both have short summaries of all of the shows. Did I miss label the greatness of SBTB?

Thanks to the super success of Spider-Man, X-Men, and Batman, super hero movies are continuing to gain the green light on filming. Here’s a little update on a few of the films headed to the screen this year and in the future.

1. The Dark Knight (July 18, 2008) – This is probably the most anticipated movie of the year. Besides being the return of cast and crew from Batman Begins, it also marks one of the last films Heath Ledger made before he died. Everything I have read has stated that his turn as the Joker is simply amazing. Ledger even stated that to prepare he locked himself in a hotel room with a “Joker” journal and made not of anything the Joker would find funny (AIDS apparently was on that list). The teaser trailer gave many fans much to wonder. The real trailer gave us all hope of a great film.
2. Iron Man (May 2, 2008) – Many people are looking down on this movie and I don’t know why. I’m really looking forward to this one. I mean, you can’t get a better Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr. is the playboy drunk in real life and the screen). I don’t know much about Iron Man villians, but I like what I’ve seen visually. I just hope they don’t hide his life outside of the suit. The fight scene between Iron Man and two F-22 Raptors looks great too.
3. Wanted (July 27, 2008)- I don’t know much about the comic other than what wikipedia can tell me. However, the trailer looks good in a sort of Hitman sort of way but better. I’m not a fan of Angelina (gasp….), but the concept looks cool (group of assassins looking to kill each other and some have cool abilities like curving their shots) and sometimes I just like pointless violence. I guess that makes me a bad person or just an American. To me, the best part of the trailer is the scene where the guy comes flying out of the window as the glass breaks around him. Super cool.
4. The Incredible Hulk (June 13, 2008)- Before you start yawning or rolling your eyes, realize that this is NOT The Hulk movie with Eric Bana. This is Marvel taking their property in their own direction. Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt. Sounds good to me. Norton even helped write some of the script himself (that could be good or bad). This movie’s villain will be the Abomination, who is just like the Hulk, but keeps his intelligence when he smashes things. The trailer had me hooked, but most usually do.
5. The Spirit (January 16, 2009) – If you liked 300 or Sin City, then this should be enjoyable as well because it is another Frank Miller created property. The Spirit is a cop who was killed and returns from the dead to “fight crime from the shadows of Central City.” Might sound corny, but what comic book character or story doesn’t? This one is a long way off so let’s wait to see what develops and what visuals we get from it. Oh yeah, Samuel L. Jackson is in this one. He might also make a few cameos in other movies on this list, but that’s something else entirely.
6. The Watchmen (March 6, 2009) – Alan Moore, creator of V For Vendetta, wrote a 12 issue limited series during the 80’s. The Watchmen is heralded as one of the reasons comics became darker (bloody, deaths, adult themes). Don’t write this book off as just blood and violence. There is a really good story here (think Incredibles but not as family friendly). Time magazine even listed The Watchmen on “the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.” It was the only graphic novel to make this list. The cast looks great in their costumes. Of course, they left out Dr. Manhattan. I wonder why…
7. Hellboy II: The Golden Army (July 11, 2008) – I did not know much about Hellboy before the first movie was released. A good friend encouraged me to go with him to see it and the original trailer looked good so I went. I was shocked. Hellboy was a really good movie with a great mix of comedy and action. Now I’m really looking forward to HellBoy II. The entire cast is back, unless someone died in the first movie. There will also be a few new faces as well. Can’t go wrong with the Beast from Beauty and the Beast. So far, only a teaser has been released, but more show surface as the release date continues to move closer. Speaking of more. I wrote most of this post a few weeks ago. It’s a good thing I chose to post it today because the real trailer for Hellboy II was released today. Hellboy II will probably be another sleeper hit of the summer.

Here’s hoping for a great summer with many more great comic book movies. The better these do, the more will be made. Here’s hoping for no more Nick Fury:Agent of Shield with David Hasselhoff or The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren.

On March 25, 2008, the Counting Crows released their 5th studio album (they also have multiple live CDs and a greatest hits) entitled Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings.

The CD is split into two halves, hence the title. The first half, Saturday Nights, is a total of 6 songs and follows more of a Recovering the Satellites feel. The second half, Sunday Mornings, is the last 8 songs and it follows more of an August and Everything After feel. I was lucky enough a few months back to be on a Delta plane that was playing a Counting Crows station in order to prepare people for the new album. The station played many of their old great songs as well as five songs off the new CD (Hanging Tree, Insignificant, Cowboys, Washington Square, and When I Dream of Michelangelo). What I heard on those plane rides was a great glimpse into the new album that made me super excited to pick up a new CD by one of my favorite artists. However, it also made me mad because the pilots and flight attendants would continuously interrupt When I Dream of Michelangelo, which has moved into my top five favorite songs by Counting Crows.

I do find myself listening to more of the Sunday Mornings section of the CD which is odd because Recovering The Satellites holds a special place for me (it was the first CD I ever bought). So far, those songs I heard on the plane rides are my continuous playlist, but there are a few dark horse tracks that are quickly growing on me with every listen (Los Angeles, Le Ballet D’or, and Come Around).

Amazon has a set of 3 or 4 videos that let you listen to a few of the new tracks. My next goal will be to check out the bonus tracks that iTunes released. Now I need someone who uses iTunes so I don’t have to lower myself to the iTunes level.

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Here’s Obama’s “race” speech in its entirety. Please watch it instead of just hearing someone else’s interpretation.

For many of us avid Windows users, a change from Windows to Linux is no easy task. As if we are junkies seeking our next fix, we have feelings that we “need” to return to Windows for some particular program. Linux offers WINE to run many Windows programs, but to me that is just another short term fix that will not help us slowly move away. That’s where virtualization comes into play. Virtualization allows you to create virtual machines running any OS.

There are many different virtualization programs available (VMware, Parallels, Qemu) for free or purchase, but I settled on an open source application called Virtualbox. VirtualBox is easy to install and even easier to use. Since running VirtualBox for a few months now, I’ve only run into two problems.

The first problem was the way it would read my CD burner, which means it actually would not read the burner. VirtualBox understands that I have a CD drive, but the burner capabilities do not exist. According to the documentation, this is the way VirtualBox currently runs. For a work around here, I found a program that would allow me to create virtual CDs that I could burn and rip. I needed this functionality because I run Napster in my Windows box.

The second problem was an error I received asking me to recompile a certain driver. After a few google searches, I discovered this happens when there is a kernel update and VirtualBox is still set to run off the old kernel. I did a simple uninstall of the kernel and VirtualBox returned to working normally. A configuration file in VirtualBox could probably be changed and download the latest driver for VirtualBox, but I have not had the time yet to track this problem down further. I’m happy not running the latest kernel at the moment. I’ll need to fix this problem later, but that’s later and this is now.

For more information concerning VirtualBox and a few more vm applications, Techthrob.com has a good article comparing four different virtualization applications.

I have my computer set to kick start a playlist to help me wake up in the morning. I change the order of the songs, but the same first song plays every time. It just fits.

“Your Most Valuable Possession” by Ben Folds Five

“Good morning, Mr. Ben.
It’s about 6:30 —
Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Um…just laying here in the bed,
half awake, half asleep,
thinking about you.

I was
wondering if you were looking after your
most valuable
possession:
your mind.

I was thinking about
John Glenn,
his space journey and all.

They said that
when you’re in space you lose
muscle mass
and the body
mass
and I wondered if there was any
end to it.

Or whether,
if you didn’t exercise in space,
how long it would be before you were just
a head, or a mind —
and have no body or arms.
You’d have them but you couldn’t use them.

I was wondering if
if your body mass would drop to a certain level,
and then it would stop right there.
And keep whatever you needed to
use your mind
because it would still be working.”

(30 seconds remaining)

“Anyway, I was just pondering that.
What do you think about…that?

I hope everything is going alright.
I may well wake up here in a little while
and forget what I was thinking about.”

Yesterday, Nintendo released Super Smash Brothers Brawl. This is the follow up to the ever-so-popular Smash Brothers Melee. I’ve only had this game for a few hours and I’ve already played 3 other friends in online play, fought through some of the “events,” and sampled many of the super smash attacks.

Now to just narrow down my character of choice: Lucas, Wario, or PIT.

The Atlanta Falcons continued their claim to make big moves in free agency by signing Michael “The Burner” Turner to a six year deal. Turner, regarded as one of the top free agents this year, is a powerful running back who has been backing up LT with the San Diego Chargers. This signing probably translates to the end of Warrick Dunn’s career in Atlanta as well as the fact that the Falcons will not be going after McFadden in the April NFL Draft.

I love this pickup. Atlanta now has a bruiser to add to their offensive attack. With Mughelli pushing men out of the way and Turner providing that second set of power, the running game should be ready to go even with a weaker line. This also helps Norwood in some ways by wearing down opponents throughout the game before he comes in to make his name during the second half. Some have claimed Turner may not be ready for every down, but Turner and Norwood will be ready for every down together.

Here’s a great video to showcase the incoming talent known as Michael “The Burner” Turner.

Just to help tally the score, the Falcons have now picked up the following players in free agency, courteous of the Falcons website:

• Erik Coleman – S => “Coleman spent the first four seasons of his career with the New York Jets after being drafted in the fifth round (143rd overall) of the 2005 NFL Draft. He has 373 tackles, two sacks and seven interceptions in his career.”
• Von Hutchins – CB => “Hutchins was originally selected in the sixth round of the 2004 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts. He spent two seasons in a Colts uniform before joining the Houston Texans in 2006. Hutchins career totals include 142 tackles (112 solo), two interceptions and one interception return for a touchdown.”
• Ben Hartsock – TE => “Hartsock, 6-4, 265 pounds, is a four-year veteran who was originally selected in the third round of the 2004 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts. In 45 career games played, he has totaled 24 receptions for 247 yards (10.3 avg.) and a long catch of 27 yards twice.”
• Michael Turner – RB => “Turner, 5-10, 237 pounds, was a fifth round selection by the San Diego Chargers in the 2004 NFL Draft. In four seasons with the Chargers, he totaled 228 carries for 1,257 yards and six touchdowns while adding 71 receiving yards as he played behind perennial Pro Bowler and 2005 NFL MVP running back LaDainian Tomlinson. Turner has also accounted for three of San Diego’s longest 11 rushes in team history (83, 74 and 73 yards) while boasting a 5.5 yards per carry career average.”

Now to just trade away D. Hall for more players.

Lately I’ve been hearing many rumors concerning an Arrested Development. These rumors range from it is almost here to Will Farrell will finance the whole movie (I highly doubt this last one).

For those that don’t know, Arrested Development is one of the greatest comedy TV shows of all time. It only lasted 3 seasons on Fox. It gained unbelievable reviews, but no one watched. I even remember seeing a few minutes of a show and stating this show rocks, but then not watching it. All of that changed a year ago for me when a co-worker told me I should check the show out because I might like it. Well, I liked it too much. I can’t even begin to explain all of the looks I received on flights while watching the show. I don’t know of any other show that made me laugh out loud like that. And when I came to the final show of the series, it was picture perfect. Everything was rolled together nicely and it ended. The only thing I was left wanting were more episodes.

However, a movie is not what I want. I just don’t think this show can survive a movie format. One blog listed 8 things that were necessary to relive the greatness of the show. I agreed on all of the items, but I would much rather have more episodes and seasons than a movie. The movie would probably gain mediocre reviews that mention how it can’t relive the TV show and no one will see the movie. Then the TV show will never return because the movie failed.

Just give me more of the Bluths. They just make my family look perfect and help me get through this cruel mixed up world. Man I miss that show. I might start watching the seasons again soon.  Where’s “Final Countdown” when I need it?

Great little image I wanted to share after seeing it on digg.

computer at risk