I can’t help but watch the Oscars right now and think to myself what should really be winning these awards. This being the case, here’s my picks for best of 2007. I have multiples in there where I think there are notable others.

• Best Picture:
  Into The Wild
  Michael Clayton
  The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
  Gone Baby Gone
• Best Director:
  Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton)
  Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
• Best Actor:
  Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
  George Clooney (Michael Clayton)
  Hal Holbrook (Into The Wild)
• Best Actress:
  Ellen Page (Juno)
  Cate Blanchett (I’m Not There)
• Best Original Screenplay:
  Michael Clayton
  Ratatouille
• Best Adapted Screenplay:
  Into The Wild
  No Country For Old Men
• Best Animated Feature:
  Ratatouille
• Best Cinematography:
  The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
• Best Visual Effects:
  Transformers
  Sunshine
• Best Sound:
  Sunshine
  Transformers

At the end of 2006, I chose my side in the HD video format war. Knowing there was no clear winner, I commited to Blu-ray as my next-gen HD video format of choice. I don’t think that was early enough to consider me an “early adopter.” I just didn’t expect the PS3 I bought in November 2006 to be such a completely waste as a gaming machine. As much of the gaming nut that I am, I’ve seriously purchased a single game for that hunk of crap that was quickly beaten and re-sold. This being the case, I gave my $699 “investment” some worth and started buying Blu-ray titles. Since then, I racked up a cautious Blu-ray library having purchased my 50th title (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) a little more than a week ago. I nearly shit a brick when Paramount and Dreamworks announced they would be supporting HD DVD exclusively back in August 2007 and almost brought balance back to the format war. At this point, it was said Warner Bros., having not chose an alliance yet, would be the defining production company to call a winner. They did so a month ago when they chose Blu-ray and then started the death watch for HD DVD. Numerous major retailers and rental companies soon dropped HD DVD support in the last couple of week. Smaller production companies followed. This morning, about an hour ago, Toshiba released a press release throwing in the towel and officially ending the format war. The end of this format war today is a good day for all consumers, including HD DVD supporters. Now all there is to do is pick up my copy of Michael Clayton later today and wait for Universal, Paramount, and Dreamwork to announce their pledge to Blu-ray as well.

11:10pm – I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here lately, but I mean what else am I gonna do at 11pm on a cold Monday night, standing in a line with hundreds of (other?) dorks, anxiously waiting for Halo 3 to be released at midnight. I’m freezing and completely at the mercy of minimum wage Game Stop clerks. As much as life seems to sucks right this second, I’ll be playing Halo 3 within the next couple of hours, bring life back to level “all good” in no time. So I ask you this: Who’s the sucka now? Damn skippy!

12:04am – The natives are getting restless and Dan is looking at me like I’m a giant Snikers bar. Help!

12:11am – People are yelling and I’m getting scared, yet excited. I need to get out of the line of dorks before I’m unwillingly adopted as one of their own and raped mercilessly. I’m not one of them. Really. Really!

12:19am – I’m starting to come to the sad realization that I may just be one of these people.

12:25am – Maybe being eaten by my friend isn’t the worst idea in the world right now. It’d be cooler if I could shrink like Innerspace and navigate his great body.

It’ll be a crime if the visual effects don’t bring this movie an Oscar nod. Yes, it looks that good and ILM deserve to be recognized for the achievement. This is one of those flicks where when the “it” is happening, all of the bad (and there is a lot) is forgiven and forgotten. Transformers was an absolute blast!

I can tell this is going to be a shitty week already. I’ll be relying on groovy girl to cheer me up a lot. This things absolutely cracks me up for some reason.

I like how everyone and their mom (my mom included) have been asking if I got my iPhone yet. Yes, I am a huge consumer whore. Yes, I’m a huge Apple supporter. Even so, no, I have no gotten my iPhone yet. No, I don’t plan to get it anytime soon. No, I don’t plan to get it at all. I’m sure it’s going to be a huge consumer hit, but for me, it’s simply not very appealing in its current form. For every one thing that gets me excited, there are five things that detract me from it. I’m sure I’ll buy a future version of the device. One that has removable or a poop load of storage to truly replace an iPod, shell access, real SDKs for developers, 3G support, and realistic price. Until then, I can’t see this current iPhone swaying any Windows Mobile or Blackberry users.

Now what I am excited about is a future version of my Blackberry 8800 with 3G support. I’m far too happy with that phone to trade it up for anything right now.

After having some strange integration problems with Drupal, I finally got the gallery up and running again. First photo album to go up is Grant’s B-day back on June 20th. You can check it out in the gallery. I’ll throw up all of the albums I had up previously on my older site, but that’s going to probably take a little time. Also need to figure out why this whole site is running so damn slow. That’s also going to take some time. Until then, enjoy the holiday coming up!

Felicity Episode Guide

Due to some policy changes at work, we’re no longer able to bring in any device with a camera on it. Included on this list is pretty much every cell phone I own. Not being able to carry my phone feels like… well, like a little part of me has died. Started my search for my next phone a couple of weeks ago and I finally decided to pick up a BlackBerry 8800. I’m actually writing this post with it. I never liked these things and was always quick to bad mouth them, but I couldn’t be happier these last couple of days with it.

I got an automated e=mail today from Userland reminding me that it’s time for my annual Radio renewal. That wont be the case this year or any foreseeable year following, but it did remind me of something else. 5 years ago on this day would be the first time I submitted a post here. I guess that means today is a sort of birthday. Keep on rockin’ in the virtually free net.