I've been trying to stay off my feet for the last few days. An ankle sprain can be a bitch. Luckily, those fitness foci from middle school came in handy. Remember RICE, people?

So there's a new pope. If I was Catholic, I'd be excited. Instead, it's just noteworthy. You may have heard there's black smoke if there isn't a decision on who the new pope is and white if there is. Guess what color it was today? Grayish. Good thing Pope John Paul II wrote that he wanted the bells to ring when the new pope was chosen. Well, they were 5 minutes late, but hey, nice thought. The new pope, Benedict XVI, is 78, the oldest pope elected in 300 years. I guess some weren't kidding when they commented they wanted a "temporary" pope before the next great revolutionary came along.

At my former employer (I told you I changed jobs, right?), my co-workers and I would always ridicule the marketing department. You never see any newspaper ads, but they've got plenty of posters that make no sense. In the world of hard drives, perpendicular recording will change it drastically, increasing capacity by 10 times what it is now. To explain this technique, marketing has created another in a long line of embarrassing flash animations and video clips. Is this infromative? Sure. Is it cringe-inducing? You bet. See for yourself.

Melinda and Melinda
Two people get into an argument over whether comedies and dramas are preferable. So guy #3 gets involved and presents them with a situation: a woman crashes a dinner party. The two people then create a comedy and drama on that basis in this latest Woody Allen work. The common thread in the two is Melinda (Radha Mitchell). In the drama, Melinda crashes a dinner party of her college friend, who had offered her a place to stay a few months earlier but never showed up. Melinda's husband had just left her after she had an affair and her friends try to hook her up. Instead, she falls for the piano player at another party, which leads into another disaster. In the comedy, Melinda crashes a dinner party held by her neighbors Susan and Hobie (Amanda Peet and Will Ferrell). Susan and Hobie's marriage has been falling apart with their careers going in opposite directions. Hobie begins to get attracted to Melinda but doesn't know how to break it to Susan. However, as one door opens, another closes.

I'd have to go with the comedy on this one. The drama is utterly depressing filled with emotionless characters who couldn't care less about their friends even if they say something different. The comedy though has little more going for it except for the chemistry between Hobie and Melinda, which was limited to a few short minutes. Ferrell is always funny but was surrounded by an unfunny cast and, ultimately, story. But it was entertaining nonetheless. Too bad it was only half the movie. 2 stars

Sin City
From Frank Miller's graphic novels and the direction of Robert Rodriguez comes a slickly created look at Basin City, a place where the people are the true holders of the law. The film is essentially three short stories put together to form one fantastic film. The first introduces us to Marv (Mickey Rourke), a large ugly brute who is caught in bed with a dead prostitute (Jamie King). As his one true love, he vows to find her murderer. The second story involves Dwight (Clive Owen), new love of waitress Shellie (Brittany Murphy), defending her honor against her former boyfriend, Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro). Jackie Boy is eventually lured into the Old Town, controlled by a group led by Rosario Dawson. But the situation gets complicated as it is discovered Jackie Boy is a cop and the mob, led by Michael Clarke Duncan, gets involved. Finally, Bruce Willis is Hartigan, a man who saved a young girl from being raped and killed, getting injured in the process. Fully healed and released from a jail cell after 9 years, he goes in search of the little girl he saved, who had stopped sending him letters. By discovering the little girl all grown up (Jessica Alba), he puts her in danger once again and must save her.

In any other film environment, this movie may have never been shown. There would be too much violence and gore to be seen without a NC-17 rating, something that would scare studios away. Yet the film's visual style tones it down while leaving behind the same effect producing a mind-blowing experience. But while many will focus on the style, there's a lot to be said for the substance. Female prostitutes empowering themselves to take back the streets, an old man risking his life twice for the same person and the perserverence of one man to find the killer of the one he loves make for interesting storylines and things we can admire. Well, not the killing parts. And that violent version of Michael Jackson.

3.5 stars

Game 11: Orioles 7, Yankees 6

Who would have thought games against the Yankees would cure what ails the O's? They've won 4 out of 5 against them this year, the latest being a come-from-behind victory after trailing 6-2 in the 7th after a poor throw in the field by Miggy. Brian Roberts continues his torrid pace by hitting his 5th HR, which is better than the 4 he had last year.

Cabrera is on the mound today against injured old man Kevin Brown. If young Daniel doesn't translate his spring success into quality starts, I'd want to see him outta there.

Game 7: Orioles 7, Devil Rays 6

So...Tropicana Field. Do they vacuum the field to make it look ugly like that?

I'm beginning to lose my patience with Cabrera. Sure, he's a big guy with a strong arm, but two poor outings to start the season doesn't bode well for the rest of it. Luckily, this team is built to overcome lackluster pitching with an explosive offense.

You could almost see the O's braintrust pat themselves on the back with its decision to switch Ryan and Julio in their relief roles. Julio almost gave the game away, giving up a run before leaving for Ryan, who also had a close call but managed to close the game with 3 straight outs after giving up a triple and a walk. Kudos. Even more kudos to Brian Roberts, who already is having an outstanding year.

Sammy Sosa got his first home run of the season. Here's a weird fact I heard: This was Sosa's first home run at Tropicana Field. There are only a few places where he hasn't hit one. One of them is the O's own Camden Yards.

Garbage at the Warfield was a blast last night. Shirley's voice sounded great, even though she was still recovering from a flu that canceled the band's first concert on the tour in Seattle. She was more fun to watch this time than the last time around since she was able to strut around the stage as if she owned the place, something she wasn't able to do when she was playing second fiddle to No Doubt in SJ. 90 minutes of pure enjoyment.

A few things to note:

Michelle from OG was standing right next to me, which was kinda random.

Garbage's new CD, Bleed Like Me, drops Tuesday. They performed 4 songs off it at the concert: Bleed Like Me, Right Between the Eyes, Sex is Not the Enemy, and the first single, Why Do You Love Me. Sounds good but will it reach the heights of Version 2.0? Probably not.

The opening act, The Dead 60s was more like dead on arrival. A rock band with high hopes, big dreams, lots of energy, but are they talented? Let's just say this English band is not my cup of tea. Pretty much the same beat for every song and that cowbell in the middle was a little excessive. It's not the prescription for what ails them. What's with the name anyway? They aren't 60 and it didn't look like they were channeling anything from the '60s. Just happy the '60s are dead?

I was on the floor so when you're about 4 rows away from Shirley, people behind you are bound to try to get closer. But this girl behind me was trying to push me for a good 15 minutes before giving up and heading left. So there's an immovable object for ya. Downside? Her boyfriend, trying to move with the music, got to move up and kept elbowing me in the ribs every few seconds for about a half hour. So not only do my feet hurt this morning, my ribs are feeling it too.

We turn away from the Orioles and movies for a moment so that we can on another favorite of mine, the Masters. I wouldn't usually write about golf, but the notable things happening there this weekend are hard to ignore.

First, there was the rain. Only 4 tournaments this year have not been affected by rain. So, the Masters, of course, was affected. Luckily, no rain this weekend has meant non-stop golf.

Then there was the heartfelt good-bye to Jack Nicklaus, the greatest golfer to ever grace Augusta National. He won there 6 times, including one in 1986 when he was 46. His heart wants him to play every year but his body is forcing him to say no. While breaking 80 is a feat for a 65-year-old, it's something Jack isn't accustomed to and as a result, he says he has played his last tournament there. His son, Jackie, says he'll be back and quite possibly the allure of Augusta will be too strong, but Jack may be good as gone. At least until he visits St. Andrew's for the British Open in July.

Finally, the important news concerning the tourney. Greg Norman was a very dominant player in the late '90s but had never won a major in the United States. In 1996, he led after the first 3 rounds by a dominant 6 shots. But over the course of the final day, he basically choked, giving way to Nick Faldo's 5-shot win. A swing of 11 shots is very hard to do. This morning, Chris DiMarco held a 4-shot lead over Tiger Woods in the middle of the third round.

The only thing worse than trailing a leading Tiger Woods is having Tiger in second while you're in the lead. When the horn sounded to begin play, DiMarco did his best Norman imitation while Woods played like Faldo. DiMarco shot a double bogey on 10 while Woods birdied. On 11, Woods birdied again, leaving them tied in less than a half hour. DiMarco would shoot 3 more bogeys while Woods would shoot 7 consecutive birdies, tying the record, before shooting 2 bogeys to hold a 3-shot lead heading into the final round.

The only majors Tiger has won have been when he has either led or was tied heading into the final round, so things aren't looking good for Chris DiMarco if he wants to save face from this collapse.

(Update: DiMarco managed to make it close thanks to Woods' two bogeys to finish the final round, but Tiger prevails.)

Game 2: Athletics 9, Orioles 0

So Newton (I remember now...3rd law, I got it) talked about how every action produces an equal and opposite reaction. Well, after the O's shutout win over the A's, the A's got to produce a shutout win of their own.

In many ways, this is the O's team everyone expected to see with the exception of the absent offense. You would think with emergency starter Kirk Saarloos going for the A's, the O's would have a field day. Instead, they only got a hit off him in addition to a hit off that time bomb waiting to explode Ricardo Rincon and another off newbie Huston Street. Hey, I was just on Huston Street the other day, but that's another story.

You could tell that it would be a frustrating night for pitcher Daniel Cabrera. Just like Rodrigo Lopez before him, his first batter, Mark Kotsay, fouled off pitch after pitch. After a little talking to from Tejada, Lopez recovered and pitched a masterful game. Tejada also talked to Cabrera and he recovered but pitched an awful second inning. It was pretty surprising Mazzilli left him in til the 4th.

Before Cabrera gave way to the bullpen, commentator Rick Sutcliffe (that was him right?) was saying if the starters can give some good innings, the bullpen will take care of business. Okay, so the starter only gave 3 1/3. Would the bullpen hold up? Absolutely not. The only bright spot was Todd Williams, who was pretty much perfect in the spring and tonite pitched a perfect 8th inning. Parrish was okay but did allow some walks.

And whoa, what was with the attendance? 22,000 it says in the box score. You can bet Angelos will try to squeeze a little more money out of the Nationals now.

I won't be commenting on the O's every game, but this is a special case since they're facing the A's, the favorite team of a few of my friends. So to them, pile it on tonight and we'll see what happens in the rubber game tomorrow.

First in an occasional series

Game 1: Orioles 4, Athletics 0

During the entire winter, Orioles fans chanted for one thing: pitchers. There were plenty of good options out there, highlighted by Tim Hudson. Yet the GM duo chose to upgrade the relieving corps and bring in Sammy Sosa to an already powerful hitting lineup.

You can't judge a season by its first game, but if you could, the Orioles may end up doing okay, possibly ending its consecutive losing season streak at 6. Rodrigo Lopez pitched a strong 6 innings and Manager Lee Mazzilli brought in his closing lineup of Steve Kline, Jorge Julio and B.J. Ryan to close the deal, shutting out the A's on Opening Day. Under pitching coach Ray Miller, the O's did show improvement in the last half of 2004 and we may just be seeing a continuation of that work.

Even without a home run from its power hitters, the O's offense was strong, led by Sosa's 2 hits and a home run by Luis Matos. Something to keep an eye on is Javy Lopez's exit in the 7th inning, giving way to Geronimo Gil. Either Kline prefers Gil, Kline doesn't prefer Javy, or something is amiss. It couldn't be exhaustion...it's opening day! (Update: It was something amiss. The official line is "lower back stiffness". I just hope this doesn't plague him for the rest of the season.)

All in all, a strong start.

Well, let's move on.

Daylight Savings Time begins tonite. Spring up by moving those clocks forward one hour.

Anyone notice the place they're filming in those TIAA-CREF commercials? None other than Pimentel Hall on the Cal campus. One thing wrong about the look though. That auditorium looks mighty full of alert students. Everyone knows a typical lecture will be half full, with half of those people asleep. Oh yeah, it looks a little cleaner on TV too.

I was passing by Hillsdale Park the other day and it was packed on a very nice day. Lots of people were eating and playing basketball. But what was weird was the tennis courts, which were empty. Then I think I saw why. Two Department of Corrections buses were in the parking lot. Guess those tennis players were just a little scared.

AMC = American Movie Classics. Supposedly. You've heard me remark about the kinds of movies AMC shows on their cable network that are obviously not classics. Speed. Crocodile Dundee 2. Not even the original...the sequel. Tonite, it's a Van Damme marathon. Oh my. But recently, I saw a film that you know would be a classic.

Death Wish 3. Man, what a movie. Basically, a gang has taken over a neighborhood in New York City and Charles Bronson comes in with a partner and a few guns and singlehandedly takes the entire gang out. Gratutitous violence at its finest.

The Ring 2
After ridding themselves of the curse of the Ring, Rachel (Naomi Watts) and son Aidan (David Dorfman) move from Washington to Oregon for a fresh start. While at work as a newspaper editor, Rachel gets word of a mysterious death that sounded eerily familiar. Sure enough, the tape has reappeared. While she destroys it, Aidan begins to exhibit odd behavior, becoming hypothermic in the process. It becomes clear to Rachel that Samara has come back to haunt her and it's up to her to investigate how to get rid of her again.

While The Ring was a mildly scary adventure, it certainly didn't need a sequel and yet here we are: an unnecessary sequel that isn't as scary as the first and tough to comprehend. Directed by the original Japanese director, scenery and atmosphere are the main focus of his scare tactics whether it's the dark basement or the deep well and it sure looks nice, but overall it falls short. Besides, it's hard to fathom the tape reaching the exact town where Rachel and Aidan are when Samara apparently didn't need the tape to get to them. So while you sit there quietly taking it all in, you get to an ending that's just as exciting as Ringu's emptying the well ending except this time, it pretty much makes no sense. 1.5 stars

A death of note this morning...and it's not Terri Schiavo's.

According to HowardStern.com, Mitch Hedberg has passed on. One of my favorite comedians of the last 5 years, Mitch had the uncanny ability of finding the right humor in all the high places. Through his two CD's, multiple TV appearances, and club dates, it was easy to find someone laughing hysterically at his jokes. It was probably me.

The cause of death is unknown, but rumors point to a heroin overdose (Update: According to this St. Paul obituary, his family was told it was a heart attack). He used to do drugs. He still did use them, but he used to, too. He was 37.

Have I ever told you the story about some water at a pho place? Well, it was at one of those pho restaurants on Capitol and Silver Creek (don't worry, not in business anymore) and we asked for water and tea. Disgustingly, one of the cups of water had keys in it, so when we showed it to the server, he just laughed and replaced it with a new water (or he could've just fished them out, I don't know...I stuck with the tea).

Now comes word of a different sort of object in food, this time a bowl of chili at Wendy's on Monterey near downtown where a couple seems to have found a human finger. When it was brought to the attention of the workers, they thought it was just a vegetable, but it has been confirmed otherwise. The last sentence in the Mercury News article really had me laughing though.

Asked whether they were still selling chili, Irving said they had run out of it that evening but planned to continue selling it today.

Hostage
After a failed hostage negotiation, Jeff Talley (Bruce Willis) chose to leave the job of negotiator and take the position of police chief in a small Los Angeles suburb. But everything he left would soon come back to him in the form of three teenagers with an eye toward an Escalade who hold a rich family hostage at their hilltop house. While he passes the case onto other authorities, he's forced upon the situation by an unknown hooded mob, which needs a disc inside the house, who holding his own family hostage. So Talley needs to use his wits to solve two separate hostage situations before everyone potentially loses their lives.

The situation is very interesting and it would have made for a great movie if not for the stupidity of all involved. The teenagers, who apparently have a history of carjacking (if so, why are they driving such a beat-up truck?), instead break into the guy's house and force him to give up the keys? They do realize they could be tracked with GPS right? (I'm sure the car has it, this rich guy seemed to have everything.) Plus, they're up on a hill. Probably one access road that could easily be blocked. Then they give up Kevin Pollak as good faith? Man, they need to watch some of those hostage movies that are part of the rich guy's collection. Then Talley comes up with a plan that involves all three teenagers to come out to the front. Gee, they're dumb, but they're not that dumb. Then this mob comes up to invade the house parading as the FBI. Why didn't they do this in the first place? Haven't they seen Die Hard? They could have just taken over and not needed Talley's help whatsoever. It's also a letdown that we never see who holds Talley's family hostage, seeing as how they knew so much about him. I must admit the whole ordeal is kinda thrilling, but if you're looking for a smart thriller, look elsewhere. 2 stars

Sources inform me of a new place serving pho and it's somewhere where you'd least expect.

Fresh Choice is introducing an Asian flavor to its dishes with the introduction of pho as a soup to serve in its soup and salad buffet. The picture on the web site doesn't make it look too appetizing. There are carrots on top and the noodles look way too big. (or do those look like bean sprouts?)

The important question is how does it taste? I don't know, but I'm game if you are.

Gee, and I thought Berkeley's administration was messed up. It seems SJSU is 10 times worse. Ever since my sister began there, from a records standpoint, it has been awful. Lost transcripts, lost financial info., re-send transcripts, scheduling difficulties, etc. But this one takes the cake.

My dad was worried that he hasn't received the 1098 tax form yet from SJSU. It gives tax credit for tuition. So my dad called up the cashier's office and gave them my sister's info. First question they ask?

Is she a U.S. citizen?

It was at this point my dad went off. "Of course she is! How else could she be in school?" could be heard from the semi-yelling. He goes on to recite SSNs and birth location and date. But to no avail. All they said is to use a printout of what you paid to use for the tax form.

As for the U.S. citizen question, they apparently didn't have her SSN on file. How can this be fixed?

Leave a message and we'll get back to you...

On the heels of Hai's B-day yesterday is Steves' birthday today. Happy 23rd.

Happy birthday wishes go out to Hai on his 23rd birthday today.

Oscar predictions. It's a funny thing.

2002: 14/24
2003: 15/24
2004: 16/24

So you would think I'd get 17 this year, right? Nope, I did one better.

My Oscar Predictions (Winners in Bold):

Picture: Million Dollar Baby

Director: Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby

Actor: Jamie Foxx, Ray

Actress: Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby

Supporting Actor: Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby

Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, The Aviator

Adapted Screenplay: Sideways

Original Screenplay: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Foreign Film: The Sea Inside

Live Action Short Film: Little Terrorist Wasp

Animated Feature: The Incredibles

Animated Short Film: Ryan

Documentary: Born Into Brothels

Documentary Short Subject: Autism is a World Mighty Times: The Children's March

Editing: The Aviator

Art Direction: The Aviator

Cinematography: A Very Long Engagement The Aviator

Visual Effects: Spider-Man 2

Make-up: The Passion of the Christ Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Costume Design: The Aviator

Original Song: "Accidentally in Love" from Shrek 2 "Al Otro Lado Del Rio" from The Motorcycle Diaries

Original Score: Finding Neverland

Sound Mixing: Ray

Sound Editing: Spider-Man 2 The Incredibles

While there's still 2004 movies to watch through Netflix, it's time to move on. So here's the big list of movies seen in 2004.

Top Ten Movies of the Year
1. The Incredibles
2. Hero
3. Kill Bill: Volume 2
4. Sideways
5. Million Dollar Baby
6. Hotel Rwanda
7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
8. Collateral
9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
10. Maria Full of Grace

Bottom Ten Movies of the Year
1. White Chicks
2. Surviving Christmas
3. Thunderbirds
4. Resident Evil: Apocalypse
5. Tremors 4: The Legend Begins
6. Walking Tall
7. King Arthur
8. Alfie
9. The Village
10. Alexander

The Rest
3½ stars

The Bourne Supremacy
The Manchurian Candidate
Miracle

3 stars

13 Going on 30
The Aviator
Before Sunset
Closer
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
The Girl Next Door
Goodbye, Lenin!
Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
In Good Company
Mean Girls
Meet the Fockers
Ray
Shrek 2
Spider-Man 2
Starsky & Hutch
Super Size Me

2½ stars

50 First Dates
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera
Dawn of the Dead
Fahrenheit 9/11
Friday Night Lights
House of Flying Daggers
I, Robot
Jersey Girl
Ladykillers
Man on Fire
Ocean’s Twelve
The Passion of the Christ
Shaun of the Dead
Spartan
The Stepford Wives
Troy

2 stars

The Alamo
Blade: Trinity
The Day After Tomorrow
The Dreamers
Eurotrip
The Grudge
Hellboy
Laws of Attraction
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Napoleon Dynamite
National Treasure
The Notebook
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Team America: World Police
The Terminal
Welcome to Mooseport

1½ stars

A Cinderella Story
Raise Your Voice
Raising Helen
Wimbledon