Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - the trailer

Warner Bros. leaked the trailer online so the rest of us wouldn't have to sneak into The Twilight Saga: Eclipse to watch it. I love the Internet.



Part I comes out November 19, and Part II will be released July 15, 2011.

On Fandom and Twilight

A woman's marriage nearly ends in divorce because she became obsessed with Twilight.

"I found poems my husband had written in his journal about how I had fallen for a 'golden-eyed vampire,' " says Johnson, a 31-year-old accountant from Mesa, Ariz., who became so enthralled by the blockbuster series of young adult novels and movies that she found herself staying up all night, re-reading juicy chapters and chatting about casting news and the are-they-or-aren't-they romance between the stars of the films, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

" 'Twilight' was always on my mind, to the point where I couldn't function," Johnson says.

At what point in your life does an obsession to a movie series, or a book saga, begin to completely grab hold of your entire life? Especially to a shitty, piss-poor excuse for a vampire-werewolf romantic drama like Twilight? I know we're facing rough times as a country, but is your life really that boring if you're going on a binge for everything that's related to R-Patz, K-Stew and T-Lat? Was the hubby not giving you the attention or love you needed in that marriage that you had to dive into a awful book about a shallow, clingy woman, her jerk of vampire boyfriend, and her friendship with a pussy-whipped werewolf that slowly reaches stalker status thought the course of the novels? Star Wars dorks think that losing yourself in the Twilight-craze is weak.

Look, I can proudly say that i'm a nerd for the Harry Potter saga. I love the books, and when I have kids, some of the first books i'm going to steer them toward is the epic tale of The Boy Who Lived. I've been to midnight showings for Goblet of Fire and Half-Blood Prince and will for The Deathly Hallows Parts I & II. I'm not obsessed with the franchise to the point where I spend hours a day, hitting up the online message boards, discussing the books, and talking about the movies. I'm not going to stand in line for 5+ hours to watch a Harry Potter movie, unless the theater management strongly suggests that I arrive an hour and a half in advance because there will be a long line of people waiting to see it. The bottom line: I'm a dork for the movies and books, but I keep my dork in check -- I don't let the series, as brilliant as it is, get the better of me.

Greed Over Principles or: the G.O.P.'s attitude toward Americans

Remember John McCain's slogan he used back in 2008, Country First? Remember how all of the GOP talking heads repeated how that, under a McCain-Palin administration, he was going to put "Country First"? When all Senate Republicans and one conservative Democrat stood together to block a jobs bill that would have reinstated many financial aid programs, including unemployment benefits to those currently out of work and/or looking for a job, is this what they had in mind when it comes to "Country First"?

Reid and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), in an effort to mollify a handful of conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans, have spent the past several weeks trimming the bill to reduce its deficit impact. But after jettisoning several provisions to help the old, the poor and the jobless, reducing the bill's ten-year deficit impact down from $134 billion to just $33 billion, the bill is still sinking. Not a single Republican is willing to lend support and Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson is still holding out, leaving Democrats two votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster.

Extended unemployment benefits lapsed at the beginning of June. By Friday, more than 1.2 million people out of work for longer than six months will have found themselves ineligible for the next tier of extended benefits, which were originally provided by the stimulus bill to fight the recession. Other programs that lapsed include elevated federal aid for state Medicaid programs and a "Doc Fix" that prevents doctors from a 21-percent drop in reimbursement for seeing Medicare patients.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a statement put out today said the reason the Republicans in the Senate blocked this important piece of legislation for millions of Americans is because they're worried about what this will do to the deficit.

That's complete bullshit!

If these so-called "fiscal conservatives" were so concerned about the deficit, then why did the GOP rubber stamp Bush Jr.'s tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% of Americans and to big business? If the Republicans were that concerned about bringing some fiscal discipline, then they wouldn't have allowed Reagan to balloon defense spending from $134 billion to $290 billion within the 8-year tenure of his presidency, or hold firm on Bush and the neoconservatives' push to drag America into an unnecessary war with Iraq. Now these self-righteous pricks have the stones to tell us that now they're worried about the national deficit they helped create over the last eight years, only after they were bounced out of power!?

Let's cut the fucking bullshit and get to the real reason the Senate Republicans are giving the proverbial middle finger to Americans who are desperately trying to find work: they've made the cynical bet that the only way they'll get back into power is to block, de-rail, and oppose every scrap of legislation the Democrats and President Obama try to push through in order to help middle-class Americans. They don't care if America has to face another near-economic crass, or if kids on the streets of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles have been reduced to begging for food because the parents can't afford a damn meal, let 'em starve; hungry kids are not they're problem. To the GOP, the ends will always justify their means.

So, I revert to my original question: back in 2008, when McCain's slogan was "Country First", and all the right-wing talking heads said that under a McCain-Palin administration the pair would put "Country First"...did they mean this one? Because they've got a funny way of showing it.

Hermit Crab

A typical weekend for me goes something like this:

Friday: Catching up on the news of the day or day before that on MSNBC, CNN and online with the Huffington Post.
Doing some cleaning around the house - maybe some laundry, often washing dirty dishes, constantly cleaning off the counter in the kitchen, folding up the blankets in the living room, and replacing the piddle pads on the walkway to the door.
Occasionally some reading - either the local newspaper or a book i'm re-reading.
Studying for the next class or completing a homework assignment.
Catch a movie with mom if she feels like it.

Saturday: Watch television.
Go online.
Continue studying for classes and/or completing homework assignment.
Do late brunch with mom and dad at the Broken Yolk Cafe.
Listen to my music on iTunes or on You Tube.
Watch one of the dozens of movies I have on DVD.

Sunday: Sleep in until 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning.
stock up on groceries at the commissary either in Imperial Beach, or all the way out to North Island in Coronado.
Make dinner for the family.
Maybe we see another movie. Maybe.
Listen to my music, again.
And if the laundry hasn't been done, then I'll do the first load.

That is my weekend in a nutshell. And the next weekend. And the next. You get the picture. Its practically what I do. There is the occasional time where i'm carried off to a barbecue thing with Mrs. Laura, a friend of mom's, but mostly every visit is an awkward affair where I don't really feel all that comfortable in. Even when I'm with mom at the salon, I really don't say much to my own stylist (yes, I have a stylist who cuts my hair, bite me!) who likes the both mom and I friends. Everytime i'm in a social setting, I feel totally awkward: I'm stiff, I don't really talk much, I try to find some place to be alone and wonder why the fuck I can't converse...It's like i'm not myself whenever this happens.

Factor in my struggles with self confidence and shyness, and you have a rarity in a young person: someone who prefers the quiet, familiar confides of being at home, than going out and being social with friends. Adding insult to injury, sometimes being at home is the loneliest, worst place to be. I'm stuck in my own private purgatory, and it's one I often think I won't be able to handle or get over anytime soon.

I'm changing my scene

I thought it was time for a new layout; something that suits to my liking...which just happens to be reading. This is what I wish my bookshelf could look like. Enjoy the new layout, and tell me what you think of it.

My generation sucks

That there
That's not me

I go
Where I please
Radiohead, "How To Disappear Completely"

People keep telling me that every generation had its share of pop culture bullshit. But how can they explain the nonsense that's been going on the last few years: Taylor Swift winning Album of the Year at the 2010 Grammys after Kanye West couldn't keep his big-ass ego in check for one night. A mediocre series of novels is hailed by millions of their fans as the heirs to the brilliance of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter saga, then become blockbuster movies that appeal to fickle-headed teenage girls who want their dream boyfriends to be sparkly (quite literary), Prince Harry-like handsome, and share sentiments that their life sucks (even though their higher middle-class and come to school decked out in Abercrombie & Fitch gear). Musical heroes aren't what they used to be: we had pioneers like Kurt Corbain, Tupac, Michael Jackson, to name a few, who we idolized, almost religiously, but now heroes consist of manufactured pop schlock like Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Bros., and Justin Bieber. And every generation had its share of fame-seeking, attention whores looking for their 15 minutes, but if they could see what Perez Hilton, Heidi Montag and Paris Hilton will do to keep their names in the tabloids, even they would agree that those freaks are going too far. In my generation, apparently, good taste is hard to come by.

Why I'm an Agnostic

"I think Jesus is the product," says televangelist T.D. Jakes. In that short sentence alone, this fraud has told me what he honestly thinks about Christianity, more than what any sermon he pulls out of his fat, black ass.