Mary and Maddie in Early 2004

This one's really cute, of both my daughters in early 2004. (I think this was in May.)

Mary Margaret with pigtails

I'm in the mood to post some pictures of the kids today. I'm not sure how old this one is of Mary, from Christmastime 2004. This could be considered "Christmas past" I guess.

Karaoke with my Buddies

Here are a couple pictures of me and the usual suspects at karaoke. I'm the big guy, and the other two guys are John Berry and Brian Bennett. (John's the guy in the ballcap, and Brian's the one who resembles Stephen King.)

Richard Donner's Superman II - DVD Review

I wasn't sure what to expect from Richard Donner's version of Superman II on DVD. I'd seen a lot of buzz about how great it was, but I'd also seen some reviews that were less than favorable. But I picked it up last night and watched it with my daughters today, and I felt like a kid again. And honestly, if a movie can make me feel like a kid anymore, I think it's doing allright.

One criticism I'd read was that the scene where Jor El explained again about what the deal was with the Phantom Zone criminals was long and repetitive and boring, and I just didn't get that. It might have been unnecessary, but it just didn't seem like a big enough deal to warrant the criticism.

Another complaint some people had was about the use of the screen test footage. I noticed the difference in weight and hair that you could see with Christopher Reeve, but I'm not sure I would have noticed if I hadn't read about it beforehand.

But the music was great, and the changes to the film to make it less comedic and more dramatic were good changes, I think. The fight scenes between Superman and the Phantom Zone criminals were much improved by the deletion of all those funky powers that we'd never seen Superman use before or since.

Was it better than the version I saw in the theaters? It's hard to say, because I loved both Superman the Movie and Superman II so much at the theater. It's one of those golden childhood memories for me. So I think I'll say I'm undecided, but I am really glad I got to see this version.

Myspace Stuff

So I know I'm late to the whole Myspace party, but a buddy of mine just launched a site with a bunch of cool Myspace layouts. Wicked cool website, with lots of neat Myspace graphics and Myspace codes. I really liked the animations of all the good-looking women.

I've got another buddy who spends a LOT of time over at Myspace. It's not really my cup of tea, and I don't even have a Myspace site yet, but I get why it's so popular. The power of social networking made easy and all that. Anyway, I just wanted to give a quick shout out to my buddy and mention his new site right quick. Happy holidays!