Aww, look at Kelli expressing her approval in front of her grandparents.

In other news, I've completed my jury service for the year. Luckily, I didn't have to be on the jury...I don't think I would've been too comfortable with the subject matter.

And the Smashing Pumpkins are coming together again to make another album. Can't wait.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117941815?categoryid=10&cs=1&s=h&p=0

and

http://www.trektoday.com/news/210406_01.shtml

J.J. Abrams is becoming the next Gene Roddenberry.

Paramount is breathing life into its "Star Trek" franchise by setting "Mission: Impossible III" helmer J.J. Abrams to produce and direct the 11th "Trek" feature, aiming for a 2008 release.

Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk, Abrams' producing team from "Lost," also will produce the yet-to-be-titled feature.

Project, to be penned by Abrams and "MI3" scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto OrciRoberto Orci, will center on the early days of seminal "Trek" characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer space mission.

Deal reflects Par's bullishness on "MI3," which launches worldwide next weekend, and underlines the goal of Paramount chief Brad Grey and prexy Gail Berman to re-energize the pipeline via high-profile tentpoles while revitalizing the Par brand with top-tier talent such as Abrams.

"MI3" is the first pic to be released that's been greenlit by Grey.

"Star Trek" has been Hollywood's most durable performer other than James Bond, spawning 10 features that have grossed more than $1 billion and 726 TV episodes from six series.

Decision to relaunch "Star Trek" comes less than a year after UPN pulled the plug on "Star Trek: Enterprise""Star Trek: Enterprise" amid dismal ratings following a four-season run and four years after "Star Trek: Nemesis""Star Trek: Nemesis" turned in the worst performance of the 10 films with $43 million domestic.

Original series created by Roddenberry launched in 1966 on NBC and ended in 1969.

During the following decade, the original 78 episodes of "Trek" became staples in syndication and helped mobilize the fan base along with conventions, books and merchandise. Paramount released "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" in 1979 and saw domestic grosses hit $82 million. The next three films grossed a combined $263 million domestically, so Paramount started the second TV series, "The Next Generation," in 1987, with Rick Berman and Roddenberry co-exec producing.

Under Sherry Lansing's tenure, Rick Berman had been teamed several years ago with Jordan Kerner and Kerry McCluggage to develop an 11th feature set in the early days of Starfleet Academy.

The Sentinel is a solid action film woven from a familiar cloth. There's a lot of little things to quibble about throughout the entire film, from scenes seemingly edited in without any dialogue as to why they're in there to the plot holes and the uncharacteristic actions of all the people involved. But all in all, we're kept at attention with Douglas' craftiness and ability to keep getting the job done, Jack Bauer being Jack Bauer, and Eva Longoria just being on-screen. You know the most outrageous thing? Sledge Hammer is President! Who woulda thunk it?

As for other movies seen, Inside Man is also pretty good but it doesn't leave you with a good taste in your mouth. There's more to be told but it doesn't deliver, leaving us hanging.

Walk the Line is as good as everybody says, but it's not good as the other recent award-winner involving a music legend, Ray. Derailed gets derailed due to its characters being so dumb. Fun with Dick and Jane can get fun at times, but most of the time it falls flat and its jokes on real-life events go nowhere. I don't understand the appeal of Brokeback Mountain. It's a fine story but nothing earth-shattering except for the fact that they were two gay cowboys. The Constant Gardener appeals the further Ralph Fiennes delves into the world of pharmaceuticals to find out what his murdered wife was following. I didn't know what to expect out of A History of Violence, but I was pleasantly surprised. Finally, Capote was a very interesting film and character study and Philip Seymour Hoffman really did deserve his Oscar.

Does it look like I need another job? Yeah, I don't think so. I'm happy where I am. Yet, random people come up to me with thoughts otherwise. I got an email from a company I interviewed at last year saying they had a couple of new openings they think I would be "very interested" in. It was a nice company and all but I don't think I could stand the drive to Foster City. And when one of your competitors is Google, there may be no hope.

Then I was at Fry's and this Indian guy comes up next to me looking at the same stuff. We make small talk and once I say I work in finance, he's busting out business cards and saying he owns a small business in need of some finance guys. It seemed like a struggling small business (something about health and wellness) so I quickly gave him my old cell number and was off.

You know where I should work...computer repair. Those people are making money hand over fist. You see, my laptop's broken. I can still use it and all, but the hinges holding up the LCD aren't doing their job anymore. So it's not really a laptop, it's more of a desktop you have to push against a wall. So I'm calling around and the prevailing estimate would seem to be $200. Geez, might as well break out the crazy glue.

Hey, why isn't all milk ultra-pasteurized? I just drank some that was the case and I looked at the date and it said it would expire in June. June! That's like 3 months away! Unless that's 2005...in that case, excuse me while I throw up.

Spring up for daylight savings time. The clocks go forward by one hour. While pretty much everyone else will wake up an hour later, I will wake up at the same time since my body is just messed up like that.

Mitch Hedberg died a year ago this week and even to this day, I'm still quoting his jokes. What a guy he was.

It's opening night for baseball and the O's will battle the Devil Rays in the first series of the year on Monday. The O's have a mixed-up team this year with the front office fulfilling probably half of what they wanted to do while trying to deal with the Tejada blow-up. The potential is there but it needs to be perfect because the rest of the AL East is more talented than this team. The starting rotation is decent with Cabrera aiming to be the ace soon and Leo Mazzone, the heralded Braves pitching coach, at the helm. The one move I couldn't understand is the arrival of Ramon Hernandez. It left Javy Lopez with nothing to do. I didn't believe he could make the move to first and this spring proved it. The question of what to do with Javy and the glut of outfielders this team has will make it difficult for the O's to develop a rhythm. And don't get me started about the lack of relief pitching. A 4th place would sound right, but of course, as a fan, I'm hoping for a lot better than that.

Lemme just conclude by saying X at Magic Mountain is one great ride. Go ride it as long as you're not paying the obscene $60 to get in.