Favorite Super Bowl Commercial?

So, my Greek god poll is finished, just in time for the start of the dreaded Odyssey project. New poll should be up soon. The results were:

1. Poseidon-3 votes

2. Hades/Apollo-2 votes

3. Zeus/Ares-0 votes

Anyway, the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in an upset, stopping the Patriots from getting an undefeated 19-0 season. But everyone knows that one of the best parts of the Super Bowl is the commercials. So what were everyone's favorite commercials? Personally, I liked the trailers for "Iron Man", "Wanted", and "Jumper", as well as the car commercial with the head shrinking witch doctor.

The Last Socially Acceptable Role-Playing Game

Okay, so I just got back from a four-day trip to the Palmerhouse Hilton in downtown Chicago for a gigantic Model United Nations conference. It was pretty fun, but also pretty exhausting. For those of you who do not know what Model United Nations (henceforth referred to as MUN) is, it's like debate team, except that you are assigned a country, such as El Salvador, and a topic, such as transnational organized crime, and must debate the assigned topic from the assigned country's viewpoint. Kids from other schools and whatnot make up all the other countries in the makeshift UN. After long hours of debate, you join up with other countries to write a resolution to solve the problem. Like I said, it was pretty fun but quite tiring.
The best part was that on Saturday night, there was a 'delegate dance.' It was fun because it was time to relax and chill and forget about the duel between Panama and Saudi Arabia. Here's a quick description of the dance: take the nerdiest, smartest kids in America, as well as some crazy partygoers, shove them in a ballroom and turn on techno remixes of pop music. Then you might come close to envisioning this spectacle.
The only downside to this trip was that although I missed school on Friday, I also missed the first three meetings of Menagerie as a result. Hopefully I'll still be able to participate. A sophomore who was in it last year (and who was my partner in MUN) said I should be fine, but we'll see...

He's Baack!!

So, the results of my Democratic candidate poll were:

1.Barack Obama-7 votes

2. A hobo-2 votes

3. Hillary Clinton/John Edwards-0 votes

Make of that what you will.

New poll should be up soon.

Also, just wanted to let everyone know that I'm going to be gone this weekend for a Model United Nations conference, and this week is probably going to be spent packing for it, so don't expect too many blog posts in the following week.

On to the description of the picture:

Nine months ago, Captain America was shot dead outside of a US courthouse in Captain America #25 (check The Nerd Word for a little more info regarding his death and aftermath). But now, he has returned in Captain America #34! No, no, Steve Rogers, the original Cap, is still dead. But his ex-sidekick, Bucky Barnes, a.k.a the Winter Soldier, has taken on the mantle of Captain America! The pic in this post is the Alex Ross cover of Captain America #34, depicting Bucky as Cap. The arc is currently ongoing, so I don't have that much info regarding it, but I do know that he's going after the Red Skull to avenge the original Cap's dead. He's back!!

Of Menagerie and Mythology

So, yesterday I went to the informational meeting for the LTHS literary magazine called Menagerie. It was pretty cool, although unfortunately I missed the deadline this year for submitting a story. I just had too much stuff going on to even think about that. However, art submissions are due March 7, so all you wannabe artists out there can still submit art if you feel so inclined.

I am liking this Greek mythology unit in English so far. Like I said on Maffey's blog, I have finally found a practical use for the abundance of Greek mythology knowledge I have acumulated over the years. The only problem is that so many Greek myths contradict each other that some of my previous knowledge is different than what we're learning in class.

For all of you English students out there who are enjoying the mythology unit, or just like mythology in general, you should definitely check out the comic book series Sandman by Neil Gaiman. I know most of you are probably immediatley turned off by the words 'comic book,' but trust me when I say that Sandman is like no comic you will ever read. It focuses on Morpheus, the King of Stories and Dreams, after he is woken from a long period of suspended animation. Morpheus is a member of the family of supernatural beings called the Endless, who all represent a concept (Destiny, Death, Desire, etc.) made anthropmorphic. Since the protagonist, the eponymous 'Sandman', is the lord of stories and dreams, the story features a huge amount of characters taken directly from Greek, Roman, Arabian, Norse, and even Biblical mythology, such as Orpheus and the Furies. Also, there are a bunch of interesting characters who are literally 'dreams' and inhabit the realm of the Dreaming, including the Biblical Cain and Abel, who are storytellers forced to replay the tale of the First Murder for all eternity (Abel regenerates everytime Cain kills him). The story is extremely good, and you can probably find all ten volumes at your local library. I highly recommend checking them out, especially if you are interested in mythology.

Why So Serious?

Okay, with the emergence of "The Nerd Word" and other such blogs, I think it's time I demonstrated my nerdiness for the first time. So, is anyone else really excited about the next Batman movie? Coming out this summer, and simply titled "The Dark Knight," this movie will be a direct sequel to 2005's "Batman Begins." For anyone who really loved "Batman Begins", this movie will probably be the movie to see this summer. Here's what we know about the movie so far:

-Most of the main cast from "Batman Begins" will be returning, including Christian Bale as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Gary Oldman as Comissioner Gordon, and Michael Caine as Alfred. The only person who won't be returning will be Katie Holmes; the Rachel Dawes character will instead be portrayed by Maggie Gyllenhaal.

-The villains of the film will be Harvey Dent/Two-Face, played by Aaron Eckhart (Dent is confirmed to become Two-Face in this movie), and (insert drum roll here)...... the Joker! YES! The Joker will be played by Heath Ledger.

-As far as plot points go:

*Bruce Wayne is moving into a downtown penthouse, since his manor burned down.

*Harvey Dent will become District Attorney, and a love triangle will develop between him, Batman, and Assistant DA Rachel Dawes.

*It is rumored that the Scarecrow will return, but I haven't seen any confirmation. Since he got away at the end of the first movie, it would make sense if he returned, but since having three villains is what weighed down "Spider-Man 3", it's pretty unlikely.

*Batman, Gordon, and Dent will work together to stop crime, similar to how they did in "Batman: The Long Halloween" (read it). This alliance will fall apart with Dent's transformation into Two-Face, which is rumored to be caused by the Joker.

*The Joker will not be like Jack Nicholson's goofy Joker in the original 80s film. Instead, he will be, as Ledger says, "a psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy". Producers have confirmed that he will be more about anarchy and destruction than joy-buzzers and Joker-Fish.

*After Batman took down mafia boss Falcone in "Batman Begins", a power vaccum is left. The Joker is rumored to take advantage of this, and possibly gain a mass following in Gotham's criminal element.

*The Joker is most likely going to attack Rachel to get at Batman. There is footage of this in the trailers, as well as Gyllenhaal describing her character as a "damsel in distress."

Looks to be a great movie. BEAT THAT, BOOTS!

Just in: found out Heath Ledger was found dead today. That really sucks. Movie's already finished, but still, that sucks.

No More Advertising!

Alright, I've put up links to the blogs of people who have advertised on this blog, and some blogs I just like. So no more advertising!! If your blog is in the links list at the bottom of this page, then please don't advertise anymore, because it gets really annoying. If you're not on that list, you can advertise a few more times and maybe if I'm in a nice mood I might add you to the list.

Also, there's a new list of sites that I like at the bottom as well.

As for the other sites:

-Leaf Ninja is everything you need to know about Naruto.

-If you're bored, and are interested in an anime, comic book, TV show, movie, etc., you can check out FanFiction.net for some fiction about said book/movie/thing written by the fans. Some of them are pretty crappy, but some of 'em are pretty good as well.

Whatever it is...

Okay, I just saw "Cloverfield" last night, and it was SWEET!!! The movie was technically a monster movie, and the monster was awesome, but not a monster movie in the way that "Godzilla" is. What was great about this movie was that the focus of the movie was not on the monster or the monster's origins or an oxygen destroyer, etc., but rather on a group of real, believable people who are thrust into an extraordinary situation. The movie focuses on real human reactions to the fact that a monster has suddenly appeared in downtown New York. Adding to this sense of realism is the fact that the entire movie is shot on a handheld camera by one of the characters, and thus the movie feels very different from most other movies. The movie has a very improvisational approach to it; many events in the movie are caught accidentally, or because the character happened to be looking in that direction with the camera at the time. This sense of realism is scary, and when you walk out of the theater, you feel like you're about to see debris or the Statue of Liberty's head raining from the sky when you turn around. If you have not seen this movie yet, which is likely because it has only been out a day, I highly recommend seeing in the theater. My feeling is that seeing this movie on a DVD would not have the same effect as seeing it on a huge screen in the theater does.

PS- If you respond to this and want to discuss the movie, I will be happy to, but for the benefit of readers who have not seen the movie yet, I would like you to add a spoiler warning to your post if you're going to discuss plot points. Thanks.