I really wanted to check out "The Omen" this weekend but could not make it on time for the show so the next best thing was the new Pixar movie "The Cars".. Though from the previews I was not too excited about it.. Anyways.. As I was already at the theater, I had to watch something. Could not let the gas I used to drive to the theater go to waste (with the prices as they are right now.:)..)

So yeah.. the movie.. I did not expect much from a a bunch of talking cars in the first place.. I mean.. "C'mon, how funny can they be??" The movie is pretty slow and predictable throughout.. I thought the only character who was somewhat funny throughout the movie was "Mater" played by Larry the Cable Guy.. other than that, personally I didn't think much of the Owen Wilson's performance as the main lead "Lightning McQueen".. Paul Newman playing the older hero "Doc Hudson" was just about okay.. rest of the performances were nothing to write home about..

All in all, this is probably the weakest movie yet out of the Pixar studios stables.. I'm sure it will still be a box-office hit.. but its no Monster's Inc.. Also the other downside of the movie is that its 2 hours long.. the story does tend to drag in the middle.. I would rate it a 2.5/5.. nothing more than a DVD-rental.
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While I am an eBay employee, these opinions are my own

Some of the people I work with are the biggest geeks I know.. the latest gadget, gizmo you can think of, they have an opinion about it.. So it was just like opening a can of worms when I decided to consult them on which phone should I upgrade to. 

I currently own one of those cheap (free is cheap, right!!) nokia phones from sprint.. I have had this since my college days and it has gone through some really tough times, including me dropping and stepping on it during some of my druken stupors.. but hey, it still works.. it makes calls while some of the other phones I've seen can do everything but that.. but as my last boss would say, "You can make calls from that phone for sure.. but its so huge the radiation will probably kill you in a year." So after being the butt of around 100 phone jokes a month and requiring the ability to check my email and sometimes surf the web for directions, I finally decided to give up my old companion (sshhh.. don't say it too loud. you might hurt his feelings.)..

So now the obvious question was.. what do I get? My criteria was simple::
1. Good call quality.
2. Good call quality.
3. Good call quality.
4. Ability to check email and synchonize calendar with Outlook.
5. Surf the web (which I might do occasionally).

Everything else would be icing on the cake. I liked the Audiovox (Cingular 2125) phone a lot considering its compactness and it can still do what I mentioned above. But according to my colleagues, it had certain drawbacks.. viz.
1. It has a Mini-SD card which does not come in high capacity as compared to SD Cards (due to its form factor obviously..:)..)
2. the Mini-SD slot was behind the battery.. so to change the memory card (which of course, I would be doing every 30 minutes), would require me to take out the battery before I could replace it.
3. it did not have Wi-Fi.. (As if I need another excuse to log onto my office machine from starbucks)..
4. it does not have a QWERTY keyboard.. (the only REAL disadvantage I think, since its a pain to type an email using a keypad).

To make things more interesting, another colleague just bought the new Motorola Q. Now things became really heated. The Q is now compared to the Palm 700w which someone else on my group has.. so here we go.. The Q has a much brighter and wider screen and is thinner.. But it is a Smartphone as compared the Palm 700w which is a Pocket PC. Which led me to ask? What the hell is the difference? and the answer.. Smartphone is a stripped down version of Windows Mobile 2005, basically designed around 1 handed operation while the Pocket PC is an enhanced version of the same OS but has features like touch screen capability and availability of more compatible applications. So whats wrong with the Palm 700w. Well nothing, except its just heavy and big. So there I was asking the pros and cons of the Cingular 2125 and getting the low down on the Q and the 700w. :).. but strangely enough I must admit that I was actually enjoying the whole discussion.. The inner geek in me was nodding to the fact that it did not make sense why the Q had a Smartphone OS when it would have been much better off with a PocketPC OS consdering that its definitely not small like the other less-capable phones. So now that you have made it big, might as well put the better OS on it.

Anyways, I did go ahead and order what I had wanted in the first place. It comes in by the end of the week. Now its upto me to test run it and come up with my own list of likes and dislikes. But I must add, its these discussions that make working for this group a treat!! :).

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IWhile I am an eBay employee, these opinions are my own

With everyone falling over their feet to watch "The Da Vinci Code", I decided to stay away from the mayhem and join the tiny tots line and go in for "Over the Hedge".. I was a little wary of watching this one in the theater considering how some of the last few animated movies I've seen have not really tickled my funny bone.. I was very pleasantly surprised. The movie starts a little slow with very few funny moments in the beginning but when the pack meets and they start their mission, things start to fly and people in the theater start cracking up..

I especially liked Hammy the squirrel (played by Steve Carell) and Gary Shandling does well playing Verne.. Others are good too... all in all, an entertaining movie though I would definitely suggest going in for a late night show..:).

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While I am an eBay employee, these opinions are my own