Cate Blanchett Cate Blanchett Keeps Delivering - Cate Blanchett is my pick for the best actress working today. (Kate Winslet would be my second pick. They bring their A-game to every project they work on. In case you didn't know, Cate is from Australia and Kate is from England.)

Double-O Money The latest Bond movie has become the most successful of the franchise, earning more than $454 million worldwide.

Vista Negativity Every day there is a new negative article on the web about Vista. Enough already. It's way too early to pass judgement. Further, Windows is here to stay. Please take your negative energy and channel it into solutions/applications for Vista, because Vista is not going away any time soon.

Bad Apple? Apple 'Falsified' Files on Jobs' Options - "Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computer, was handed 7.5m stock options in 2001 without the required authorisation from the company's board of directors, according to people familiar with the matter." To quote Jennifer Aniston in the 1999 movie, Office Space, "So how's that not stealing?".

DirecTV Ad Here is the skinny on the annoying DirecTV ad featuring Jessica Simpson. It wasn't all smoke and mirrors and dubbing. "Jessica re-shot that scene on a soundstage at Universal Studios Hollywood back in October. The marketing folks at DirectTV and Deutsch Advertising painstakingly recreated the scene exactly as it was done in the film, filmed the new footage for the ad with the DirectTV messages and then edited it and matched it with scenes from the original Dukes of Hazzard movie."

Great Photo Meow! (via Cute Overload)

BB Gun Old Daisy BB Gun Ad: "You'll shoot your eye out!"

Get Out of Jail Free President Bush has given some more pardons. I always find pardons to be interesting. One day you're sitting in a jail cell (or you're on probation, etc) and then the next day your record is wiped clean and you're a free man. The power to pardon criminals is remarkable. Speaking of pardons, I predict that the President will pardon Scooter Libby before he leaves office.

Poor Jess Since Jessica Simpson's acting career is not quite taking off, she can always fall back on singing. Wait, maybe not. After two tries, she couldn't sing a tribute to Dolly Parton, and so her entire performance is being cut from the future broadcast of the show.

Cute Overload Cute Overload - The name says it all.

New Design Yes, I'm toying with a new (minimalist) design for my blog. Wondering where all of the links are? Try the 'Surf' menu item above.

Have a Drink Moderation - up to 4 drinks per day for men - is the key. Of course, your budget may also curtail your thirst.

Ocean's 13 Teaser Trailer Watch it here.

'Transformers' Trailer Go here for the trailer for the new Transformers movie. I really enjoyed Michael Bay's previous film, The Island, so I'll probably enjoy this one.

Santa Claus This headline caused me to reflect on my own Santa Claus memories.

I was five years old when I found out that there was no such thing as Santa Claus. As my older brother broke the news to me, I wasn't shocked or disappointed. Rather, I was excited to learn this secret. This was huge! I was being entrusted with a grown-up secret. This information was powerful stuff.

More memorable, however, is what took place in the third grade: I revealed the secret to an unsuspecting classmate who was wholly unprepared for the cold hard truth. He was almost brought to tears as he began his fervent rebuttals: "Nuh uh. No. You're lying. That's not true. You don't know what you're talking about. Santa Claus is real. Stop saying that." Indeed, this was powerful information.

2006 Weblog Awards The winners have been announced.

"Best of" Lists I like "Best of" list at the end of the year. What I like even more is determining just how long it takes me to stop reading the list, because I think it's complete BS. For instance, Rolling Stone magazine had a Top 100 Songs of 2006 list not long ago. I made it to Number 21, which was a Justin Timberlake song. Showstopper! I couldn't go any further. How could I trust the opinion of an author that gave this piece of crap song any praise? Not possible. So, here are two new lists from Pitchfork Media: Top 100 Tracks and Top 50 Albums of 2006. How far can you go on this list before you declare BS? OK, let's see, Pitchfork has Justin Timberlake as their #1 pick, so I don't even have to read their Best Track list. Next. What about Albums? This was a little more difficult. I had to go to #25 before I saw Timberlake's name. Proceed no further.

Is Your PC Ready for Vista? Is your PC ready for Windows Vista? Probably not. Pay close attention to the the requirements for 'Vista Premium' on this page. 1 GB of RAM is a starting point.

"Toying with Genocide" American Digest: "A second series of attacks on America at the level of 9/11 or greater will not bring out more B-52s. They are already out. A second series will bring out the one arm of America's war machine that has rarely been asked about, written about, or even mentioned in passing since September, 2001; the ballistic missile submarines."

Mint If you run a website and you'd like to know if Mint (web traffic statistics app) is a good product, take note of this review, comparing Mint to free services.

Chainsaw I realize that all of you have seen this funny video before, but it's still a good one.

Survivor One of the more interesting seasons of Survivor ended last night. Finally, a person who played an excellent mind game won: Yul. He skillfully used his interpersonal relationships, as well as the 'hidden' immunity idol to maintain his dominance, despite losing challenges to Ozzy. The finale episode featured one of ALL-TIME lows in Survivor history: The fire challenge that ended after 2 hours! Oh. My. Goodness. Sundra and Becky could not even start a fire with MATCHES!

Mountain Climbing This is a public service announcement to my friends and family: If you decide to climb Mt. Hood in December, purely for recreational reasons, I will probably not come looking for you. That is all. Carry on.

Chickens Coming Home to Roost I'm not saying that all Beatles fans are crazy, but this is what happens when you screw with the Beatles. This lady's attorney must not be the sharpest pencil in the pack. Otherwise, she would take Paul's settlement offer and quietly leave the public scene.

Moron Update Ken Jennings to Moron: Bring It On. No matter how strongly you disagree with a person's opinions (religion, art, food, health, etc.), never make the mistake of thinking their opinion is a direct measure of their intelligence. Some of most misguided people on this planet (and throughout history) are highly intelligent. Intelligence does not put you on the right side of every issue. In my opinion, honesty and common sense will serve most men better than intellect. (via kottke)

Clooney Is it just me or is Clooney showing his age?

Microsoft Fights Piracy BetaNews: "Microsoft is fighting back against those attempting to distribute a cracked version of Windows Vista. It has issued an update that detects whether a copy is attempting to bypass the activation system by mixing files from the test and final versions, it said Thursday. Such a version is currently available on DVD, Microsoft says. When the copy is detected, Microsoft will alert the user, and then give them 30 days to activate the software, or it will be placed in reduced functionality mode."

Don't Melt Money CNN: "The U.S. Mint has implemented a rule against melting down pennies and nickels which, at current metal prices, could be worth more as metal than as currency." Why would someone want to melt pennies and nickels? Simply put, the metal in the coins is worth more than the face value. The Houston Chronicle says, "The metal in one coin costs 6.99 cents for each 5-cent coin. When the Mint's cost of producing the coins is added, the total cost for each nickel is 8.34 cents. The current copper and zinc in a penny are worth 1.12 cents. The cost of production drives the cost of each penny up to 1.73 cents. Pennies made before 1982, which are still in circulation, would be even more lucrative to melt down because they contain 95 percent copper and only 5 percent zinc. The metal value in those coins is 2.13 cents per coin, Mint officials said."

Golden Globe Nominations The 2007 Golden Globe nominations have been announced. My predictions? The Departed will win Best Picture (Drama), Scorsese will win Best Director, Marky Mark will win Supporting Actor and Helen Mirren will win Best Actress. The Actor race is way too close to call. It's between Forest Whitaker (frontrunner) and DiCaprio, for his performance in The Departed. (I have purposely not commented on the Comedy/Musical categories, as they do not interest me. I agree with the Academy (Oscars) that no such categories are needed. If your comedic film/performance is good enough, it can compete with drama/dramatic roles for awards.)

Preventing the Spread of HIV WashPo: Circumcisions Found to Slow Spread of HIV. I don't even know where to start. Here's a question for you: If you cannot convince a grown man to wear a condom while he is engaging in sexual activity with partners that are potentially infected with HIV, then how will you convince him to voluntarily submit to having part of his penis removed?

More Baggies, Please "I can't even make this stuff up."

Vista Ultimate Upgrade The retail version of Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition UPGRADE will sell for $259 at Amazon. That's a lot of money for an upgrade. This is the version that I'll need, but I'm going to purchase an OEM disc, once NewEgg offers it.

'Heroes' I've now seen all 11 episodes of NBC's Heroes. I can recommend it, but you probably have to like X-Men/Comic Book stories to really enjoy it. I agree with ciritcs that there is too much gore/blood. Will the producers try to 'milk' the series, in the same way as ABC has done with 'Lost'? I hope not.

Gwen Stefani Gwen, you've jumped the shark. Your work with No Doubt is really great. Your solo stuff, not so much. Your performance on SNL last night was pretty much the last straw for me. Please get back with the guys of No Doubt and record some real music.

Warm Beer Hazardous to your health? Perhaps.

Scared of Santa Photos It's time for the annual Scared of Santa photos. They never get old.

Do You Smell Something? Never underestimate the power of stupid.

NYC Bans Trans Fat New Yorkers, say adios to decent pastries and pizza. What about cigarettes? Can you still buy those in NYC?

PS2 Does anyone have a Sony PlayStation 2 in good working order that they'd like to sell? With two controllers and at least one memory card, preferrably. I don't need any games, per se. If so, please contact me with a selling price. (Note: I can buy the console brand new from Overstock.com for less than $130. Adjust your offers accordingly, please. Yes, I realize this is old technology. I'm a PC gamer, but I have one PS2 game that I'm dying to play: Gran Turismo 3.)

HDTV on PC How to Play HDTV Content on Your PC

PS3 for Sale Gotta love eBay.

Worst Artists in Music History This is actually a decent list. I really don't have any significant objections.