Posts are going to be even more sporadic than usual because for fear of being transferred to an editor who doesn’t get my comic book references, I promised my editor to submit something within two months.

(Of course, she said she wouldn’t transfer me because she would miss my “inimitable gift for the sardonic.”  It’s so nice to have an editor who gets you me.)

Sarah Palin resigned from her post as Governor of Alaska. So, is she leaving because of a yet-to-be-revealed scandal or is she prepping for the 2012 US presidential election?

After almost eight months of legal battles, Norm Coleman has finally conceded the Minnesota Senate race to Al Franken. Sure, the Democrats now have that magic 60 Senate seats, but the important question is will Stuart Smalley be no more.

(I just noticed the fonts on the web site and blog are just the tiniest bit blurry on the OS X, so I’ll be fiddling with the CSS soon.)

Isn’t it pretty?

I’m typing on my new 13″ MBP and it is definitely a nice piece of hardware. First off, though, I noticed the keyboard keys are spaced out, so my little hands, which are used to the 92% keyboard on my old 12″ Inspiron 700m, will need some time to adjust. I keep hitting the “/” key instead of the SHIFT key, which is annoying.

I used a Mac a handful of times in the past and even then only for very short periods, so I expect the next couple of days will be spent familiarizing myself with OS X, installing apps (the first apps will be Firefox, Thunderbird, and Office 2008 for Mac), and transferring my files from my old notebook to this one. Also, the internet connection seems sluggish, so that’ll be my first troubleshooting issue.

Then I have an MS to edit and polish.

Me: Hey, Pete.  You called and left me a message.

Pete (who’s in Ontario and two time zones away): Ann?  What time is it for you?

Me: Sixish.

Pete: Why?

Me: I’m leaving early today to watch Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  I want to catch the matinee when the theatre’s not packed.

He laughs.  Uncontrollably.

Me: Yeah.  I won’t get up this early for work unless I’m on-call, but I’ll do it for Transformers.

Pete: The critics trashed it.

Me: That’s because the critics can’t accept that Michael Bay isn’t Ang Lee.  Bay is about good-looking people spouting one-liners, slick CGI, fast action sequences, and big explosions.  And it burns those same critics that while his movies will never win the Oscar for Best Picture, they make stupid amounts of money.  The first Transformers brought in $700 million and this one’s brought in $120 million on opening day.  Yeah, I’m definitely seeing it.

Pete: You know Bumblebee’s a Volkswagen Beetle, not a Camaro.

Me: Dude, I watched the original animated series religiously.  I know.  I also know Optimus’s girlfriend.

Pete: Optimus has a girlfriend?

Me (shaking my head): You can no longer call yourself a Transformers fan.

I saw the movie; I loved the movie; I will be adding the movie to my home collection. The script doesn’t stick to the origins in the original animated series, but that’s understandable because too many things in the series would not make sense to an audience over the age of ten and a lot has happened in the world since 1986. (Do they even make cassette players anymore?)

Anyway, I’m not going to recap the movie because the plot is just an excuse for a lot of fighting and shooting and blowing things up. A few of my favorite characters made it into the sequel. I like the animated Jetfire, but I LOVE the new Jetfire. He’s ancient and cranky and funny as hell. Wheelie’s as cute as ever…but I don’t remember him as quite as horny in the animated series. I’m still waiting for the Dinobots (who doesn’t love Grimlock?), but I don’t see how they can be worked into a modern day story.

A noticeable difference in the sequel is Bay slowed down the transformations so you can actually see changes and fully appreciate just how intricate and cool they are. The hand-to-hand combat scenes are long and loud and violent enough that had it been people instead of CGI robots, the movie would’ve gotten an R rating.

With the first movie, I was a little disappointed Frank Welker didn’t voice Megatron like he did in the animated series, but he’s in the sequel as Soundwave, who’s one of my a favorite Decepticons, and Devastator. Unfortunately, Soundwave was more of a cameo and Devastator, who’s a super Transformer made up of the merged Constructicons, wasn’t as devastating as he could’ve been.

Nonetheless, the movie totally met my expectations and, like before, Linkin Park came through with a very catchy song:

Just picked up my brand, spankin’ new iPod Touch from the concierge.  It’s so shiny.

Tomorrow, I should have the 13″ MBP in my hot, little hands. 

Now, I’m off to touch my new iPod.

People released their annual Hottest Bachelors list–and the only guy on the list I want to jump is Dwayne Johnson.  As for the boys on the list, I just want to give them home-baked cookies and milk.  Is it old age?  Is this what happens when you’re five months from thirty?

In Stephen Colbert’s words, he now feels like “an exfoliating loofah.”

…to the day I place my order for my new toy: the 13″ MacBook Pro.  I spent my morning slavishly Googling Apple’s WWDC for news, hoping and praying not buying a MB last year was a good idea.  My patience paid off in spades.  Apple’s rebranding the 13″ MacBook and moving it to the Pro line, adding back the firewire port, gave the processor a boost, and dropped the price–and I’ll be getting a Snow Leopard upgrade for the cost of shipping when it releases in September so there’s no need to delay my order for three months.

I’d place the order now, but June 20 is my MasterCard cut off date…meaning if I buy it on that day, I won’t actually fork over cash for it until mid-August.  (It sometimes scares people how thoroughly I know all aspects of my finances.)  In the meantime, I have to decide whether or not the SSD upgrade is worth the price tag.

Not even the Honda service bill for my wheel realignment can deflate my bubble of happy anticipation.  Baby, for me, this is better than Neuhaus chocolates.

JJ Abrams’ Star Trek wasn’t on my list of movies to see in theaters this year because I was never an Alias fan since I thought the heroine was TSTL and MI: 3 made me roll my eyes way too many times.  However, a buddy told me Terminator Salvation would make me want my money back, so I bumped it to my library list and got back in touch with the inner Trekkie that had crawled into a dark corner after the last few Star Trek movies.

In short, I enjoyed it.  Thoroughly.  Can’t recommend it enough.  Fast, fun, and slick (sorry, couldn’t continue the alliteration) with big-budget action and CGI–and it’s a true reboot (sequels won’t run into the sticky issue of continuity with the older movies).  Kirk is still arrogant and goes after anything that breathes…and not necessarily oxygen, but this movie shows he’s entitled to his cockiness.  Spock gets to explore his Vulcan/human duality–and he finally gets some!  It’s about damn time, too.  McCoy, played by a Karl Urban who isn’t as sexy here as he was in Doom, is appealingly cranky and the accent is pitch perfect.  And Eric Bana looked like he was having a blast as Nero.  (Bana finally atones for the abomination that is The Hulk.)

And did I mention this movie is fun?  I felt like a kid again (well, that’s not very hard to do).  Kurtzman and Orci included a fair number of inside jokes and well-known one-liners to please this Trekkie.  Guy in red jumpsuit?  Priceless.

If you’re a science geek, just remember this movie is science fiction, with major emphasis on the FICTION.  Hell, let’s just drop the science altogether.  Red matter, black holes…I think the writers flunked high school science.

Thirteenth…fourteenth rewrite…?  And an editor hasn’t even seen the bloody manuscript!

Is that a record, yet?

If I wasn’t so stubborn, I’d ditch this one and work on something else.