Vote for your favorite Star Wars stamp

The USPS just announced a voting campaign for their new Star Wars stamp. You can vote here. This is all part of the 30th Anniversary celebration of the release of the original Star Wars. Have you seen any of the R2-D2 mailboxes yet?

Justin TV

Some of you may remember the JenniCam. The website that documented the life of Jennifer Ringley who kept a continuous live feed of her apartment bedroom. Well Justin.TV takes it one step further by leaving the room. Justin wears a web cam on his head and broadcasts his life 24/7. It's strangely compelling watching every second of this guy's life unfold.

TheQueen, The Captain, and Twitter

The Queen of England(not Elton John, but the other royal one) will be visiting us former colonials for the 400th Anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown Settlement. Hope she's not planning on taking us back. Although, I think this country could use a monarch.



















Oh wait, we already have one.

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Today is the future date of James T. Kirk's birthday. Yes sir. People are celebrating the the birthdate of someone who hasn't been born yet and who isn't even a real person. Beam me up Scotty!!

The last thing I want to mention today is Twitter. Some of you may have noticed the Twitter on the left side of the blog. Twitter is a web service that allows your friends to be notified of your whereabouts or activities. You can receive and send updates via IM, the web or SMS text on your cellphone. It seems a little stalky and voyeuristic but strangely addicting as well. There are some interesting characters that you can "follow around" during their day. I'm keeping tabs on Darth Vader and John Edwards right now. There's a Twitter for George W. Bush that's quite amusing (it could really be him-who knows?). If you want to see what I'm up to during the day click here or visit http://twitter.com/troynoles.

That's it for today. Always remember-random is not regular.

Hostel 2 sneak peek

If any of you saw Eli Roth's Hostel, you pretty much saw 90 minutes of nude women and bloody violence. So, of course, this movie made a ton of money and a sequel was automatic. I think the sequel delves into the ancient debate of Existentialism versus Rationalism and the questions posed by Descartes and Kierkegaard...through graphic displays of violence and images of the nude female body. Here is a clip from Hostel 2.

You decide.

At World's End

The trailer for the third and final installment for Pirate's of the Carribean is available and in HD. Click here to see it.

For those of you who thought Keith Richard's was going to show up in Dead's Man Chest as Captain Jack's father will finally see him in this movie.

Spider-Man 3

If any of you are jonesing for the next Spider-Man movie, here is a seven and a half minute fix for you.

Humpback Whale Mother-2, Stupid Snorkelers-0

Check out this video of tourists with too much time and not enough brains to respect Nature. I think the snorkelers got off easy with just some broken bones.Why couldn't they have tried to touch some sleeping Great White sharks?

The Return of the Letter

Tell me this isn't awesome. The USPS will be putting these mailboxes on high traffic street corners to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Star Wars . I hope we get a couple around here. There is also going to be a stamp released. May the Postage be with you!

Happy Birthday Buffy!!

Today marks the 10th Anniversary of the first airing of Buffy the Vampire Slayer!! If you don't already know, this is my favorite tv series of all time. Don't any of you dare dismiss it if you have never seen the series (if any of you have never seen it, I own the entire series on DVD and will gladly loan it to you). Why do I like Buffy? Simple. Great writing and acting, but mostly great writing. Creator Joss Whedon and his writing staff created tv magic each week and touched every emotional palette on this show.

For those of you who are fans of Buffy here is the unaired tv presentation that Joss Whedon filmed to show the networks.
You'll notice a different Willow(played by Riff Regan)but the plot is very similar to the pilot "Welcome to the Hellmouth" that aired on the WB 10 years ago today.

The WB promoted their new series with a series of clips explaining the "History of the Slayer." Here is one of those clips.



So Happy Birthday Buffy, I miss you!!

300 and The Battle of Thermopylae

Last night I saw 300. The movie is an adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel 300 about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.

In college, I minored in Classics and have always been interested in ancient Greece. Love the culture. Love the mythology. Love it all! So I'm a bit of a nutter about this particular story. I was excited when I heard that Frank Miller was doing a comic book adaptation of the Battle of Thermopylae. I eagerly read the comics and enjoyed his visual take on the events. For a more in depth telling of the Spartan way of life which leads up to the battle, I recommend Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae.

Anyway, back to the film. Director Zach Snyder has adapted many of the visuals of the graphic novel into the film which means lots of CGI landscapes and sets much like Robert Rodriguez did with Frank Miller's other graphic novel adaptation Sin City. As Sin City stylized the hard boiled film noir genre, 300 does the same for the historical battle epic. Intricate sword and spear fighting choreography done in real and bullet(a la the Matrix) time. Men and women in various stages of undress(a.k.a nudity). And, of course, copious amounts of blood letting and amputations. So, what did I think of the movie? Loved it!! But don't take the kiddies (even though it is also playing in IMAX theaters so you can see Persians impaled through the neck on a 3 story high screen)! I give it 4 decapitations out of 4.

The Return of the Blog

Yes...the rumors are true. Random Troy is back with more of my unique views and commentaries. I thought it appropriate to mark the return of my blog with the following pic.





Who is that hiding in the clouds?

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Ok, let's see what's in the news.

Here is a cool time-lapse video of a portrait done of Scarlett Johansson.

Some people think digital painting is cheating, but I can barely fix redeye in Photoshop so I think this is amazing.

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Here's a story that is funny but troubling as well. There is a Jedi temple? In real life? Besides being pariahs from normal society, what are these "Jedi" worried about? They must be low level padawans if they can't just do a simple Jedi mind trick on these UK legislators.

"These aren't the light sabres you're looking for. We can move along."

Damn Brits.

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Speaking of Brits...here's an interesting article on the benefits of having an evil clone.

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What season is it?

It's starting to get a little warmer outside. I saw a hint of green foliage this morning. Must be time for presidential campaigns to get a slinging! (You thought it was Spring?)

John Edwards has posted Ann Coulter's remarks to the American Conservative Union on Friday. Oh and looky there. Right below it is a button to donate to his campaign. Way to use someone else's inflammatory remarks for your own cause. Still not sure that it was completely hateful. Are there degrees of bigotry? That may be worthy of an editorial post later.

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