Wanted: Sith Lord

• animation powers: strong like ox

Have you seen the TV spots for the Episode 3? Yes this is the one when Anakin becomes Vader. We knew it would happen. Vader is being featured quite a lot in the marketing of the film because well.....everybody freaking loves Darth Vader. Then it hit me. One of the many reasons the prequels have been "bleah" is that there is no one bad guy that everyone loves to hate.

In the original trilogy, Vader was the man and by the end of the 3rd film big, bad Vader was defeated. Who is the villain to be defeated in this trilogy? The boring ass Trade Federation? Darth "oo you can't see my eyes..I'm so scary" Sidious?

The promotion for Episode 1 made us all think that Darth Maul would be the Vader of the prequels, but no, he got split in two. In Episode 2 we had Count Doodoo, but he was only almost threatening for about 5 minutes and once Yoda started jumping around everyone was laughing too hard care. Now in Episode 3 we have General Grievous, leader of the droid army who was apparently on holiday during the first 2 films.

Now someone had the theory that Vader embodies the evil hentchmen of the 3 prequels. Vader is ruthless and dangerous like Darth Maul, has the elegant grace of Count Dooku, and the mechanized evil of General Grievous. Its an interesting idea.

Guess we'll see how it all pans out in a couple weeks.

Milkshakes....you complete me

• animation powers: shakey

It has been established amongst many coworkers that tomorrow we will be dining at Red Robin for lunch. RR is like a TGI Friday's or a Chili's, except not called either of those names. The mere mention of "hey do you want to go to Red Robin for lunch?" makes the mouth water and the eyes glaze over. They have, in my opinion, the best damn sandwich...EVER..the Whiskey River BBQ Chicken Burger (also available as a hamburger). The reason said sandwich is hailed as perfection, is that it has fried onion straws on it. Yes you would not think this one item could propel a sandwich to god like statue, but trust me, it does. You get that sandwich and a chocolate shake, and together, you have achieved total bliss.

Every time I go, I get people sucked in to getting the sandwich and the shake. The first time I went with Monkeyman and he asked "what's good here?"...I gave him the pitch. Within moments of the first bites, tears streamed down his face from the total joy. He admitted later that the only other thing that has brought him as much joy, was the birth of his son.

It has come to the point that no matter what size group we have that goes to RR, we all get a Whiskey River Burger and a shake. If someone opts out of a shake we have an immediate intervention....for without the shake its only 60% bliss. And who doesn't want a full 100%?

Tomorrow will be our first time back since the water explosion of two weeks ago.

As the waitress was bring our waters, I was describing a deleted scene from Toy Story in which Woody whooshes Buzz' helment back and kisses him. As I was saying "whoosh" and making a big whoosh gesture with my arm, the waitress was in mid delivery of my water. My arm smacked the glass right out of her hand...it flew up slightly and over, hitting MonkeyMan's hand which was in the air, then bounced off the side of his forehead..rotating forward, spilling water all over the table as it hit the table and came to rest. Surprisingly no one got wet....really.

For the next fifteen minutes lunch turned into the JFK assassination committee as we recounted and pieced together those three seconds. We determined where everyone was at the time of impact. If there was a risk of more spillage. And of course tracing the path of the glass through the entire event; which became known as the magic glass theory. We made charts and graphs. We even reenacted the event using really bad actors that looked nothing like us.

Hopefully tomorrows lunch won't be as eventful.....as I will try to better control my arms....

Tired, tired....oh so tired...

• animation powers: sleepy

After a few days of screwing around with my secret identity site, I have finally got the thing all up and looking spiffy. I did some reorganizing of things and added a few things. Hopefully it is better than it was before.....better...stronger...faster....I had the power to rebuild it.

I also included some pictures of my pirate desk in the Jimmy Neutron Animation Section. Once we are done with Ant Bully I will probably create a general DNA area. However, since Jimmy is the only DNA thing I can show at the moment, little big head has an area located within a general animation area. Asleep yet? Man I'm about to fall face first on the ol keyboard.

Here's one of the many shots of me pirate theme

No fear of evil curses says you...

• animation powers: powered by Aztec gold
  

Avast there me hardies. Are ya like me? Did you really dig the Pirates of the Caribbean movie? I always enjoyed the ride at the Disney parks, but I was a bit skeptical as to how that would translate to the big screen. But then I saw the first real trailer and thought "arrrrr....this is gonna rock" And a swashbuckling good time it was at that. I've watched the DVD numerous times. I even have pirate fortress theming around me desk here at the studio...complete with cannon and treasure; be needing to post some pictures.

There are some kick ass POTC action figures out by NECA..check em out: http://www.necaonline.com

So, with two sequels in the works, I am both excited and nervous. Excited because....hell yeah..more pirates!!....nervous because they are shooting them back to back ala the Matrix sequels and I wish them not to suck like the Matrix sequels. I've heard rumors that there could be a kid in one of them. Jack's kid/ Will and Elizabeth's kid.......arrr shiver me timbers..no kids..."You call him Doctor Jones!!"...remember Temple of Doom??..no no no. Of course rumors are rumors...

If ye be wanting to keep up on the sequels and all manner of news regarding POTC, check out the fan site http://www.keeptothecode.com Thinking of a visit says you, a proper idea says I........

Fool's named April

• animation powers: fooling everyone

At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, after John Adams had put fake dog poo on Washington's chair for the umptnth time, our forefathers made the bold decision to devote one day a year to such foolishness....... and thusly April Fool's Day was born. Here we are and unlike most every other day of the year I can think of nothing foolish to say.... or.....can I.....

This one day in grade school I thought it would be hilarious to stick this little eraser thing up my nose....go up to a bunch of girls...fake sneeze and holy moly...an eraser. The plan was perfect except for one small problem. After my "Hey everybody watch this!!" I faked sneezed...and..the eraser would not come out. The damn thing was stuck in my nose. A series of tries to blow it out were unsuccessful. I tried again and again and again. Each time becoming a little more violent. At this point my audience...was staring at me as if a third eye had just opened on my forehead...and winked at them. I continued with the unsuccessful blowing of the nose....my body moving in a jerky manner like I was having a fit.....or trying to dance.

At the point of giving up I decide to do the "ol close one nostril and blow real hard" trick. Yes it was risky but I had run out of options. As we all know this technique usually means that if anything exits the nose it will continue to travel until it hits something, as its hard to cover your nose while doing a single nostril mega blow. In this case what exited, hit the floor in the form of the eraser, along with a 6 inch long strain of green snottage. It was indeed...... my finest hour.