Everyone, please take a moment to wish my kid brother a happy birthday! He's a whopping 22 years old today. Okay, so he's not much of a "kid" anymore. Well, if you'd like to further harass him, e-mail him!

I have to say that I really love internet films. What's that, you say? Internet films are, simply put, the best way to view independent (very independent) films, using the World Wide Web. You can find some of the funniest short films in the world at places like IFilm among many others. Here are a few short films that I really think you should check out if you have a chance and a speedy internet connection...

405 - talk about a wake-up call
American Jedi - even Jedis need some action
Mr. Bill Goes to Space - the original sock puppet is back!
George Lucas in Love - writer's block is a bitch

The first three films are viewable in Quicktime (pref.) or RealVideo. However, the fourth one is only available in RealVideo. Although Real really sucks, it's worth suffering through for this film... the funniest of the bunch if you're a Star Wars fan like myself.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish my parents Happy Anniversary! They've been together for 30 years now and, in modern America, we all know how difficult that is (first and only marriage for both!). Congratulations you two. Katie and I love you both. If anyone reading this would like to wish them a happy anniversary, as well, then mail them your good wishes.

If you're an aficionado of really artsy, clever websites, have I got a few for you. But first, my soapbox approach... as would be expected. I happened across some movie tie-in sites, but they really don't have anything to do with the movie at all except maybe in the name. Have you noticed this trend as well? So many movie tie-ins are more information than promotion anymore. They are really a lot more interesting this way. You can go to the site and instead of just seeing promotional stills and actor bios, you get information about the story behind the movie, additional information that is not made known in the movie, chances to interact, etc. When I say "information about the story behind the movie," I don't mean behind-the-scenes information; I'm referring to the history of black divers in the Navy (Men of Honor), stories of "unbreakable" humans (Unbreakable) or the religious roots of exorcisms (Exorcist). Some of them are pretty darn flashy as well... literally and figuratively ("interesting looking" and they incorporate Macromedia Flash). This is readily evident in theRequiem website which is all imagery. Some of it is really twisted and the flow is non-existent. But, if you have a helluva lot of patience and creativity, you'll love it. I will admit that it can be frustrating for people running dial-up connections, but hang in there, they're a lot of fun. Here are my favorite not-entirely-for-promotional-purposes movie sites as of late... (please make sure you have Macromedia Flash loaded on your computer before you try to access these sites)

Requiem for a Dream
Unbreakable
Men of Honor
The Exorcist

I would like to give a shout out to Paul Adams (my future father in law) and Steve (future brother in law) who took me to my first pro-football game today. We watched the Chicago Bears do the impossible and beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 13 to 10. Very cool game, even for a non-football fan like myself. I was standing and cheering, yelling, just all around getting into it. Yes, I had fun. I guess I should also take this opportunity to thank Shirley (don't know her last name) because she is the one who has the Bears season tickets that we used. Thanks Shirley!

Almost everybody knows that I love movies. However, despite my avowed love of those wonderful celluloid strips, there is one thing that really annoys me about films and those that make them. I hate when movie trailers show you scenes that don't end up in the movie. Take, for example, Bounce starring Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow. The trailer for this movie, which can be viewed at the beginning of the Cider House Rules video, shows scenes with Paltrow and her real-life mom Blythe Danner cleaning out a rain gutter and talking. Not in the movie! They also show a scene with Affleck's assistant (played by Johnny Galecki) telling Affleck that if he doesn't tell Paltrow the truth, then everything he says is a lie. Not in the movie! There were others as well. I just can't quite recall them right now. Very annoying! If a scene ends up on the cutting room floor of the final movie, it should not be in the trailer. If it's in the trailer, it had better be in the flick!

This is so cool! I found some HTML coding that you can embed on your webpage that allows a person to click on it and Instant Message you through AOL Instant Messenger. I even managed to code it so that a message window will automatically pop up with my screen name and an initial message in it. Check it out on the top of the "Life in HTML" page (this feature has since been removed. -ed.). Of course, for me to receive the message, I've got to have AIM opened up on my computer. But it's still pretty damned cool.

Congratulations to Jason Giambi of the Oakland Athletics for winning the coveted American League MVP award. However, even bigger congrats go to Chicago White Sox Frank Thomas who came in second place in the voting with 10 first place votes (vs. Giambi's 14 first place votes) while only serving his team as a DH. Pretty good when a guy can make that kind of impression only as a DH. Especially after having the worst season of his career in 1999. Get him on both sides of the plate and I'm sure he can really make a dent now. Go Big Hurt!

Here's marketing diversity at its finest... while driving through Aurora, IL on Galena Blvd., I ran across a rather interesting place. It is called Phillip's Hair Studio and Gospel Music. How's that for a combination of services? Sorry, I laugh when I think about it. Cracks me up.

Damn if this one isn't harsh. From time to time, I like to just take a word at random and place it into a Web address to see what happens. Today, I decided to check out loser.comto see what I could see. Turns out that the owner of that domain name has decided, I hope as a joke, to mirror the Al Gore/Joseph Lieberman homepage on his site. So, when you check out loser.com, you'll find the domain owners presidential prediction. Hey! It still ain't over.

I promise you, Katie, this coming weekend we will see a movie that does not have Robert DeNiro in it. For those of you new to the situation... for the last two weekends, Katie and I have seen movies starring Robert DeNiro. Last weekend we saw Meet the Parents and today we saw Men of Honor. Not that they're bad movies. In fact, both were really good flicks earning four out of a possible five stars using my grading system. DeNiro was great in both movies, as well. Katie and I will probably see Bounce this weekend. Unfortunately, in the meantime, I will be subjected to the hell of seeing Red Planet with my Dad's cheap, special-effects-laden, plot-defunct, sci-fi-worshipping self. Help me.

Well, Katie and I saw a really great play this weekend out at Northern Illinois University. It was called Bang, Bang, You're Dead! and it deals with the rising number of school shootings around the U.S. It's a very dark, very existential look at a fictional kid who shoots and kills his parents and five students. It delves into his head and searches for a reason and shows how haunted he has become as a result of his actions. Great acting and great directing (by my brother's girlfriend Becca - great job, girl!). I'm sorry that it's already over and no one else can see this particular performance group doing it. But, if it shows up anywhere near you, go see it!

Did you vote? If yes, great job! If no, why the hell not?! If you even try to say that you are only one vote and that you don't matter, then you obviously have not been paying attention to the election returns so far this year. You talk about one vote making all the difference in the world. It truly does mean the world this year. My God. They still haven't determined who's gonna win. Gore is currently in the lead in electoral votes with two states left to go. It could still take several days to know for sure because whoever wins Florida will win the election regardless of who has the lead right now. It's strangely exciting to watch the returns come in. I was flipping between ABC and CBS getting the latest coverage last night. I felt like how those Survivorphiles must have felt this summer waiting for the latest dose of Island backstabbing. Pretty cool stuff here.

Well, I discovered the ultimate example of irony today. I was driving behind a vehicle that had a bumper sticker on it reading "Bad Boys Drive Bad Toys." Yet another cliched bumper sticker, but to each their own. The irony of it all is that it was on a dark green Plymouth Voyager. A Minivan!!! How in the name of Hell is a minivan a "Bad Toy"?!?!?! Observing the driver and how he acted, he really believed that it was a "bad toy." What's up with that?

I am so completely and utterly disgusted and ashamed of myself. Last night (Thursday), I actually caught myself changing the TV station to FOX between 7 and 9 p.m. to watch theSurprise Weddings special. Yep, along the vein of Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?, FOX aired a show in which 5 women, who are sick of waiting, pop the question to their significant others. If they say "yes", they will be married right there on the air. Yes, I admit it, I watched some of it. But, only because I wanted to see one of the guys say "no." None of them did. They all said "yes." Noooooo!!!!!

I always find this sort of thing to be, at the same time, sad and pathetic. Apparently, the furor over owning the new PlayStation 2 has really come to a head. One guy (I'm guessing over 18 years old) put in two reservations for the PS2 for it's release last Thursday. He used his name once and the name of a friend. Fine. Good for him for having some ingenuity. Well, his plan was to keep one and sell the second for enough money to cover the cost of both machines. Again, not a bad idea. Well, he found a guy waiting in line to buy a PS2 that agreed to pay that amount and they arranged to meet a couple nights ago. At the arranged meeting place, the potential buyer pulled out a semi-automatic pistol and stole the game unit from the seller. C'mon America!!! Is the PlayStation 2 really worth holding up someone? I sincerely hope (and sincerely doubt) that the assailant is reading this, but if he is, I hope he goes to Hell in a handbasket and simmers for a while before he burns. What is this world coming to?

Hey hey! Good news for all Napster/Macster users like myself. Yesterday, an agreement was reached between Napster and Bertelsmann Music Group (owners of BMG) in which the latter will open their entire music catalog to Napster. In exchange, though, Napster will have to start charging a monthly fee for usage of their system. I wouldn't anticipate the monthly fee being anymore than about $10 or $15 (for a guy like me downloading as much as I do, it's a bargain). As a result, Bertelsmann artists will be compensated for downloading of their music. Not a bad deal because it ensures that Napster will never die. Heh... Metallica... what a bunch of losers!