At the Movies: Dragonlance

Yikes, it's even worse than the trailer!

Remember Panday, the animated series? Remember how bad it was? Well, the animation here is about on par with it. They cheaped out on every possible way--the character drawings were horrible, the movements were jerky (as if they cut the number of animation frames in half) and the CGI was atrocious.

It's as if they spent all their money on the talented voice cast (Keifer, who nails Raistlin, Lucy Lawless, Michael Rosenbaum) and cheaped out on their animators (animated in...India?!? What the hell?); it would've been better to cast no-names and spent the money on some talented animation studio; heck, what I wouldn't give to have Studio Ghibli do this.

What a wasted opportunity.

Super Tuesday

Voted for the first time here in the US today. It was...interesting, different from when I voted last back in Manila. I was a bit disappointed in the fact that the voting booths were not touch screen, instead relying on dials and buttons; what was also weird was that my ballot was then printed out. What? No going to some database? I suppose it's all for security's sake, but that does seem a bit antiquated.

Also disappointing was the fact that they didn't even bother asking me for an ID, relying on my knowing my home address for verification. I could've been faking! Then again, it was evening already, so the volunteers might've just been wanting to go home.

Superbowl XLII: Of Sore Losers and Lousy Ads

*sigh* All is well again. Gee, that Belichick is sure a good loser, isn't he?

The game was classic. The commercials...not so much. I think I only liked three:

Coca Cola: "It's Mine!" (Stewie! And an aww shucks moment at the end).



Budweiser: "Rocky" (Budweiser never disappoints)



E*Trade: "Banking Baby" (If only for the last line...about clowns!)

MacBook Air: A Mini Review

I found myself at the mall today and decided to take a hands-on look at the MacBook Air. There was a crowd of people around the three that were on display; one was being hogged by two teenagers who were goofing off on YouTube; another was being demoed by a "Genius" to a couple (I wanted to tell them to get a MacBook Pro if they were inclined to go Mac), and the third was running GarageBand.

The third one freed up pretty quickly, and so I got a chance to take a quick look at it. My impressions:
1. It's thin, but it feels pretty sturdy. Actually, it feels just about as solid as our Lenovo T61.
2. With that said, it still feels a bit bulky. How do I explain it? Um, some people are touting this as an "ultraportable". It doesn't feel like it. It feels just like a regular notebook (see #1).
3. I think the Titanium PowerBook is still sexier than this one.
4. Keyboard/Trackpad: Trackpad was nice and wide...but I kept catching myself trying to avoid resting my palms on it to type on the keyboard. Also, the "multitouch" thing they tout seems like a useless gimmick to me. It was cool on the iPhone, but not on this one. Gimme the T61 "nipple" any day.
5. Performance seemed snappy. Then again, I didn't try to load anything on it--just started up iPhoto, went to a couple of websites, and played a bit with GarageBand.

Overall, the impression I get is that it's a nice-looking piece of hardware, but it doesn't really do anything that the far cheaper MacBook doesn't do. I guess I'm not the "target audience".