Happy Thanksgiving Day, everyone!!! I'm too lazy to come up with something more clever than the usual "Happy Falsify-A-Peace-Treaty-Then-Slaughter-Your-Dinner-Guests-And-Steal-Their-Land-And-Eat-Until-Your-Sick Day" remark, so I'll just let you enjoy this pic of a not-so-modest-after-it's-dead turkey. What tan lines... Makes me drool even more over this sexy and juicy, um, being. Haha. Carry on.



UPDATE (3:28 PM): So exactly what were Fox and the NFL thinking when they had the Jonas brothers sing during the halftime show of today's Cowboys-Seahawks game? Expect Miley Cyrus to show up for Super Bowl XLIII next February. Ugh.

PRISON BREAK... Shannon— Noooooooooo! Those of you who’ve been watching this fourth season of the FOX TV drama (which, in my opinion, has been a pretty awesome season so far. Maybe even a tad better than Season 1) will have obviously watched Michael Rapaport’s character, Don Self, reveal his true self (pun unintended) at the end of today's episode and kill fellow FBI agent Trishanne—not her real name...just an alias as she kept tabs on Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell at the Gates corporation—after Self retrieved Scylla from Michael Scofield and the gang. Her acting after she got shot in the chest may not exactly be Emmy-worthy, but man, did Shannon Lucio play one hot Fed when she was alive. Farewell, Trishanne. May your totally sexy soul find peace and prosperity in heaven. I know. That sounded lame.



About the non-titular parts of Prison Break... Is it just me but the last 10 minutes of today’s episode was one of the most suspenseful moments of the entire season—let alone the entire series? Not because Michael Scofield and the gang were in any danger...but the fact nothing was happening and it actually looked like things were finally gonna end on a fine and dandy note for them? C’mon, that’s not the Prison Break way (especially since there's still, what, 12 more episodes left for this season?). There’s always something interesting and suspenseful, even if it’s sometimes a bit farfetched as well, happening on the show. Don Self showing what a rat bastard he is... Now THAT’S the Prison Break way. Looking forward to next week. Even if Trishanne will no longer be around for us to stare at her ti— Nevermind.

24: REDEMPTION... Tonight, the 2-hour prequel to Season, err, Day 7 of the hit show airs tonight on FOX. At 8:00 PM. It’s been 18 months since Jack Bauer was last seen kicking (and torturing) ass... Can’t wait to see what he does as he takes on those bad guys in Africa in tonight’s movie. Jack is back! Bauer Power! Haha. Season 7 starts on January 11 of next year.

KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT, KUTCHER... NASAWatch.com posted this article yesterday about That 70’s Show’s Ashton Kutcher showing up on Bill Maher’s Real Time Program a week ago...and Kutcher didn’t sound so enthused about NASA’s exploration of Mars in this transcript:

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KUTCHER: Can we just stop sending stuff to Mars? We're not going to do anything.

MAHER: We just had another shuttle launch today.

KUTCHER: I just don't understand. If we really wanted to start cutting back - other than military - let's just stop sending stuff to Mars.

MAHER: the only ones who care about it are the scientists who send it. They see that little baby stroller that gets up there - and it touches a rock - and they all high five.

ROS-LEHTINEN: On this launch the big experiment was turning urine into water. Just a couple billion turning urine into water.

KUTCHER: Can't we turn urine into water here though? Why do we have to go to Mars to do it? Really, are we going to open a plant on Mars that's gonna do this?

OTHER GUEST: Its the "spirit of adventure".

KUTCHER: STOP THAT.

MAHER: Mars looks suspiciously like the drive from LA to Vegas.

KUTCHER: We send things to Mars. But there are thousands of children that are sold into the sex slave trade every single day. But we send stuff to Mars instead of solving that problem. There's Africa where people are dying of Malaria. There's a quantifiable solution to the problem - and yet we send stuff to Mars - instead of getting bed nets for these people.

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Kutcher’s so-called argument was rendered moot the second he used that whole clichéd "Will someone PLEEAAASE think of the children??" diatribe to criticize the space program.

Newsflash, Ashton: The sex slave trade is taking place in other countries... Just what should America do to take care of this? Meddle in these nations’ affairs? Send our law enforcement to Southeast Asia or Europe or something? Or heck— Have our troops perform some police action like what we did in Somalia from 1992 to '94, and currently in Iraq? Yea— As Yanks, we might wanna tone it down a bit.

(UPDATE: Kutcher must have watched the movie Role Models recently...seeing as how Paul Rudd's character makes a comment about sex slaves during a camping trip he and Sean William Scott's character went on in the film. If that's the case, you just proved the assertion that Hollywood actors really don't think for themselves—let alone think, PERIOD—Mr. Kutcher. Otherwise, the folks at TMZ would have to find new jobs.)

AND HERE’S SOMETHING FOR YOU, KUTCHER: Since the U.S. government is 'more interested' in sending spacecraft to the Red Planet instead, why don’t YOU do something about Africa and use some of your millions of dollars that you no doubt received from such "noteworthy" films as The Butterfly Effect and What Happens in Vegas to buy those bed nets for these folks? C’mon Mr. Demi Moore... Be like Angelina Jolie and give the impression that you actually have a use...

To Ros-Lehtinen, do some research on this latest space shuttle mission before you try to give an opinion on it again... Or go back to Florida and pretend you’re doing your job as a congresswoman.

Maher has been a douche for the past decade or so...even BEFORE his Politically Incorrect show got cancelled because of his moronic comments over September 11...

UPDATE #2 (11:42 AM, PST): NASAWatch.com posted another article about the Dude Who Lost His Car...this time mentioning how NASA is using its resources such as satellites and other space technology to help the people in Africa. Care to make another stupid comment for Strike 3, Ashton?

Rest In Peace, Bro... Just thought I'd pay tribute to my former college classmate, Bryan Paz, who passed away due to very unfortunate circumstances last Saturday. He was 31. The photo above is from the film shoot for my senior thesis project, Envious, back in December of 2003. Bryan was the director of photography on my production. We were both film students at Cal State Long Beach from 2002 to '03. The drawing above is by the brother of his girlfriend, Katherine. Awesome artwork. You'll be missed, bro.

NASA / Kim Shiflett

ENDEAVOUR LAUNCHES... Just thought I’d share these two cool photos of the full moon shining high above the space shuttle as it launched on flight STS-126 yesterday evening. Endeavour’s mission involves the installation of several important furnishings (including new sleeping quarters and a high-tech recycling system that converts astronauts’ sweat and urine—you heard right—into clean drinking water) onto the International Space Station to enhance its capability to hold a 6-person crew starting next May or June. Only 3 astronauts/cosmonauts have lived onboard the orbiting outpost since it permanently became habitable 8 years ago this month.

Endeavour is scheduled to return to Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 29.


NASA / Troy Cryder

RANDOM BABE BLOG #11... I know, I know— My Blog has been all over the place recently. One minute I’m talking about newly-elected U.S. Presidents, the next minute about outer space, the minute after that about movies, and now I’m typing about hot chicks in movies. Today’s entry goes to Cloverfield’s Odette Yustman. What prompted me to mention her was that I saw a trailer for her next film, The Unborn, when I watched Kevin Smith’s Zack & Miri Make a Porno at the theater today (Zack & Miri was predictable, but good. Stay for the end credits). For some odd reason, Ms. Yustman didn’t catch my eye in J.J. Abrams' monster flick, but she looked pretty darn sexy in the preview for The Unborn...which actually appears interesting. Of course, I most likely won’t watch it—‘cause horror flicks really freak me out. When they’re good, that is. Most horror movies, at least recently, sucked ass. (At my job, most of the films we conduct preview test screenings for have been horror movies, and they REALLY blow. That’s why I say they suck ass.)

Anyways, back to Ms. Yustman...



Remember this journal entry where I mentioned that Minka Kelly should play Talia al Ghul in Batman Begins 3 (if it ever gets made)? Odette Yustman would also be awesome for the role.



FYI, it was a year ago today that I started these series of random babe blogs. Haha...



Here's the trailer for The Unborn. It's produced by Michael Bay, written by David S. Goyer (who also co-wrote Batman Begins and The Dark Knight...definitely a major plus) and also stars Gary Oldman and Meagan Good. Why yes— I'm also wondering why I haven't written a babe blog on Ms. Good yet. I'll do one on her, eventually.

BACK IN THE DAY... Around 7 years ago this month, I started posting journal entries talking about Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones. Little did I know, Attack of the Clones was gonna be the least watchable of the Star Wars prequels...let alone the whole Star Wars film saga itself. Of course, I’m just posting this particular Blog to give me an excuse to show this hot screenshot of Natalie Portman as Padmé Amidala, and that cool wallpaper of the clones fighting on the planet Geonosis. Wow. That was the only highlight of the movie.

That, and Yoda doing a Sonic the Hedgehog (with a lightsaber) impersonation against Count Dooku. That is all.

FAREWELL PHOENIX, WE HARDLY KNEW YE... Earlier today, NASA declared the Phoenix Mars mission a success, after ground controllers lost radio contact with the lander 8 days ago:

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(Official Press Release)

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than five months. As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander's instruments.

Mission engineers last received a signal from the lander on Nov. 2. Phoenix, in addition to shorter daylight, has encountered a dustier sky, more clouds and colder temperatures as the northern Mars summer approaches autumn. The mission exceeded its planned operational life of three months to conduct and return science data.

The project team will be listening carefully during the next few weeks to hear if Phoenix revives and phones home. However, engineers now believe that is unlikely because of the worsening weather conditions on Mars. While the spacecraft's work has ended, the analysis of data from the instruments is in its earliest stages.

"Phoenix has given us some surprises, and I'm confident we will be pulling more gems from this trove of data for years to come," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Launched Aug. 4, 2007, Phoenix landed May 25, 2008, farther north than any previous spacecraft to land on the Martian surface. The lander dug, scooped, baked, sniffed and tasted the Red Planet's soil. Among early results, it verified the presence of water-ice in the Martian subsurface, which NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter first detected remotely in 2002. Phoenix's cameras also returned more than 25,000 pictures from sweeping vistas to near the atomic level using the first atomic force microscope ever used outside Earth.

"Phoenix not only met the tremendous challenge of landing safely, it accomplished scientific investigations on 149 of its 152 Martian days as a result of dedicated work by a talented team," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Phoenix's preliminary science accomplishments advance the goal of studying whether the Martian arctic environment has ever been favorable for microbes. Additional findings include documenting a mildly alkaline soil environment unlike any found by earlier Mars missions; finding small concentrations of salts that could be nutrients for life; discovering perchlorate salt, which has implications for ice and soil properties; and finding calcium carbonate, a marker of effects of liquid water.

Phoenix findings also support the goal of learning the history of water on Mars. These findings include excavating soil above the ice table, revealing at least two distinct types of ice deposits; observing snow descending from clouds; providing a mission-long weather record, with data on temperature, pressure, humidity and wind; observations of haze, clouds, frost and whirlwinds; and coordinating with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to perform simultaneous ground and orbital observations of Martian weather.

"Phoenix provided an important step to spur the hope that we can show Mars was once habitable and possibly supported life," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Phoenix was supported by orbiting NASA spacecraft providing communications relay while producing their own fascinating science. With the upcoming launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, the Mars Program never sleeps."

The University of Arizona leads the Phoenix mission with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin Corporation in Denver. International contributions came from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark; the Max Planck Institute in Germany; the Finnish Meteorological Institute; and Imperial College of London.


(Phoenix Landing Video...which I made last May.)

Well— At least the robotic arm will no longer be pouring dirt onto the Phoenix DVD. Accidentally, that is.




All images courtesy of NASA / JPL - Caltech / University of Arizona / Texas A&M University / Lockheed Martin

PHOENIX Blog Entries Archive:

May 8, 2007
July 28, 2007
August 3, 2007
August 4, 2007
August 8, 2007
October 25, 2007
April 11, 2008
April 25, 2008
May 1, 2008
May 11, 2008
May 18, 2008
May 24, 2008
May 25, 2008
May 27, 2008
June 18, 2008
August 4, 2008

OBAMA WINS THE PRESIDENCY... I voted for McCain this morning. Even though all signs for the past few weeks pointed to the Senator from Chicago winning the election by a landslide (364 to McCain's 163 with the electoral votes), I voted for the ‘maverick’ from Arizona for the sole fact I was rooting for him since the presidential primaries last January. Oh well.

I have a message for Obama: Good luck the next 4 years, don’t do anything foreign-wise to make the gas prices go back up (I would actually tell that to McCain if he won. Whatever) and keep to your word... Don’t F*CK UP NASA’s human spaceflight program. That is all.



UPDATE (November 4, 8:22 PM PST): Props to McCain for giving a great concession speech to his supporters in Arizona.

UPDATE #2 (November 4, 9:17 PM PST): Obama's acceptance speech was pretty darn good, too.

AND THAT'S A WRAP! I just read on Michael Bay's official website that he completed filming on Transformers 2 last week. Awesome! Here's hoping that we do see a teaser trailer for it sometime this month (in front of the next James Bond flick, Quantum of Solace, anyone?)...and that Industrial Light & Magic has been working on the visual effects for quite some time now, so that we'll see some really awesome robot shots in the trailer. *Crosses fingers.*

By the way, the Screen Actors Guild can now have its stupid strike. Unless, of course, Michael Bay has to do a re-shoot, or has several scenes that require ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement). If those are the cases, then keep that federal mediator on payroll, SAG.