Wednesday, 25 February 2004: I'm gonna let you all in on a little secret... I'm not necessarily as big a geek as you may think. I will admit to having collected comic books in the past and still being interested in comic art despite not wanting to spend the exorbitant amount of money on them that they cost. I have an unabashed love for the original Star Wars flicks. I loved all three of the Lord of the Rings films. I still buy the occasional toy or two to use as decoration in my office.

Okay, so I am somewhat of a geek.

However, I can't say that I've been completely on board with all the motion picture adaptations of comic books that have been released lately the way most geeky fanboys would be. I didn't care for last year's Daredevil or The Hulk. Spider-Man was an enjoyable flick, yes, but I haven't seen it in its entirety since it was in theaters. I'm not a big fan of any of the Superman films beyond the first. And the same goes for the Batman films. I did, however, like both of the X-Men movies.

What I'm getting at is that, despite all this, I am completely and utterly stoked about the next Batman movie. The film is slated to be released on July 1, 2005 and is supposed to be calledBatman: Intimidation Game and will be directed by Christopher Nolan of Memento fame (a movie I liked a lot despite my wife and everyone else I know hating it). This is a bit of a prequel movie and may show some of the Bat's origins.

The cast is what really gets me, though. They have put together a cast list that reads like a Who's Who of Hollywood Royalty. Check this out...

• Batman/Bruce Wayne - Christian Bale (Reign of Fire, American Psycho)
• Alfred Pennyworth (the butler) - Sir Michael Caine (Cider House Rules, Quills)
• Ra's Al Ghul (the villain) - Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai)
• Ducard (couldn't tell you who this is) - Liam Neeson (Schindler's List, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace)
• Lucius Fox (head of Wayne Enterprises) - Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption)
• Officer Jim Gordon (now known as Commissioner Gordon) - Dennis Quaid (Frequency, The Rookie)
• Rachel Dodson (the love interest) - Katie Holmes (Phone Booth, "Dawson's Creek")
• Dr. Jonathan Crane (I think he's some sort of villain as well) - Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later)

This cast just keeps getting better every day.

If you'd like to keep track of what's happening as well, check out Yahoo! Upcoming Movies' Batman 5 page.

Tuesday, 24 February 2004: Katie was listening to the news this morning and heard that on Thursday, a special ceremony is going to be held at Harry Caray's restaurant in downtown Chicago. Now, this may not be the sort of ceremony that you'd expect. No, it's not Harry's birthday or anything. What's happening is that some people obtained the foul ball that was caught at the Cubs playoff game last season by a fan instead of by Moises Alou and they're going to have a special breakfast before completely destroying the ball. Of course, this is meant to be a way to avoid any sort of additional curse.

Now if only they had gutted that damn goat.

Monday, 23 February 2004: I found a fun little website today. It's called Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX for short) and it's a site where you start out with a certain amount of credit and you buy stocks in movies and celebrities. These stocks go up or down based on their performances, how they're perceived in the Hollywood eye, new acting gigs they sign up for, etc. Each week, their stock value is reevaluated and your investment goes up or down accordingly. You can pick whatever stocks you want and you can, of course, buy, sell, and trade just like the real stock market. Even movies that are just ideas are included here. So you kinda gamble on whether or not the idea will become a reality. Of course, casting decisions and the choosing of a director will affect their cost, so you must be careful.

Yes, this is absolutely free so what more could you ask? Check it out.

God, I sound like a paid advertisement. Sorry.

Sunday, 22 February 2004: I couldn't have asked for a better ending for Sex and the City. Yes, it can be argued that it was a bit more cliche than the show has ever really been. But, this was the finale. You needed happy endings. You needed some cliches. You even needed a bit of cheese. We got it all. And most of us loved it. Katie and I did, that's for sure.

Now, if only the season six DVD set would contain this documentary that HBO aired before the finale as well as all three of the endings that they taped, I'd be a happy camper.