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Apple: the only cult it’s cool to join. 🙂

So yeah, Snookums and I saw “The Mummy Returns” last Friday. It sucked. I thought that the fighting was good, but the effects were crap and it wasn’t funny at all. I wanted to see more stuff like when Brendan Fraser scared off the Mummy with a cat. And where John Hannah joined the zombies and started chanting “Imhotep…” This movie didn’t have any of that. Don’t even get me started on “The Rock”, either. His part was about five minutes long and I certainly wasn’t very impressed. And the whole bit with him as the Scorpion King at the end featured the worst CGI work I’ve seen since “Tron”. It looked like a video game! And lastly, I couldn’t decide if Brendan Fraser’s ass was supposed to be that big (as a kind of a joke, since his character had been married for nine years or whatever), or whether he’s just chunked up. I vote for “chunked up.”

Chris Cornell, the former singer from Soundgarden, has officially joined Rage Against the Machine. Very cool. I remember when Cornell finally cut off his long head-banger hair back in the 90’s. It was like, “Wow! He’s pretty hot. When did that happen?”

UK Survivor: You know, for the past year I’ve been following Survivor through the sites of rabid American fans without ever experiencing it for myself. Last night all that changed, and all I can say is WOW. I’m hooked!

Some thoughts from the first episode:

• Much like Big Brother, the UK version seems to be aiming for a slightly more high-brow approach than the US show. They’re making it out like more of an anthropological experiment than a reality show cheese fest. Nearly all of the contestants were over 30, and there was only one cutesy twenty-something hoochie-mama (“Charlotte”, who took a game of friggin’ TWISTER as her luxury item). There were several over 40, and nobody had that “token-old-person” look about them. In fact, the older people looked like the toughest.
• They’re shooting it on Pulau Tiga, which I believe is the island they used on the first US series. The Tribal Council hut certainly looks like it’s been there a while. I have a feeling that they’re probably going to recycle a lot of the challenges as well. (They’re already advertising the bug-eating one for next week.) In a way it’s good though, because at least the producers know what to expect.
• I also think that the UK competitors have studied up the American show. One guy on Ular, Nick, was like the spiritual son of Richard Hatch. He took command right away, designing the shelter and teaching people how to make fire. He even admitted that he was basing his strategy on the book “How to Make Friends and Influence People.” He broached an alliance on the second day, teaming up with Mick (this crusty old guy), Richard (a young guy), and Zoe (a tough chick). As Zoe put it, “I wasn’t going to be the one to instigate an alliance but I sure as hell was going to join it if I felt it was strong enough and I do.” As their tribe, Ular (which means “snake”), lost the first Immunity Challenge, they decided to vote off Jackie, who was pulling a Ramona and being sick all the time.
• BUT WAIT! In a stunning upset, Zoe double-crossed Nick and voted for him along with the remaining four people. With 5 votes to 3, Nick was out! The favorite is gone. I couldn’t believe it. As Snookums pointed out though, “He built the shelter… Now he’s outlived his usefulness. He was too dangerous.” They showed Zoe’s vote at the end of the show, and her only comment was: “Sorry mate, you took a little too much too early. You were weaving quite a tangled web. Don’t trust anybody.”
• Funniest moment: Uzma running around in the dark yelling for people to help her find the “Kerolene” for the fire. What an idiot.

P.S. I completely ripped off Max’s idea of posting the crossed-out picture of this week’s departing contestant. Visit his site for all your US Survivor needs. 🙂

U.K. Survivor. It starts tonight. Hooray! Now I’ll finally be able to see what all the fuss is about.

Snookums and I were just discussing John’s new metric for measuring geekdom (which he found at tajmahal): the number of electrical outlets you’d need if you were living in one room (such as student housing). We decided that a few more rules were needed to get an accurate measurement:

• You can count one outlet for each appliance that you currently own that is plugged in all the time.
• You can count one outlet for every 2-3 appliances you own that are occasionally plugged in.
• Lighting doesn’t count at all.
• You’re allowed to add outlets for a television and a fridge if yours are currently shared, because you’d need your own in your own flat.

Taking those into consideration, I’d need nine: Boudicca (the iMac), scanner, speakers, VCR, microwave, (non-existent) TV and fridge, and a couple extra (for mobile, GameBoy, Nintendo, and stereo). Snookums needs eleven: two computers, monitor, modem, speakers, subwoofer, espresso machine, toaster, (non-existent) TV and fridge, and an extra (for mobile and electric razor). We are serious geeks.

Steve has written an excellent post/essay/whatever entitled “Killing Killers”. I suddenly found myself arguing against the death penalty with an American friend who was visiting the week before McVeigh’s scheduled execution. Unfortunately my arguments tend to be more emotional than rational, so I’m glad I’ll have Steve’s words to back me up in the future. If you are in any way interested in this issue (for or against), check out his site for relevant links and information.

“Some Straights Can Go Gay, Study Says.” A fantastic parody of those news stories reporting “research” about homosexual conversion therapy.

More British election fun: Am I Electable Or Not? I’d vote for Ant & Dec before William Hague any day.

It’s a videogame kinda day. Slashdot is running a story on the upcoming Star Wars Galaxies multiplayer online game. My favorite comment from the discussion:

“I’m actually looking forward to be a Jawa. Killing rednecks in Tatoonie with my ion-gun, stealing their droids and bringing them to my massive Sandcrawler for trade. Utinni!”

Personally, I’d be a lot more excited about this if I could play it on my iMac. 🙁