IMG_1860

IMG_1860, originally uploaded by MondoUNC.

From my photoshoot with Aminal on the 23rd.

Why I can't have nice things...Like a Girlfriend

or Mondo tries online dating, hilarity ensues.

I think this is my first comedic post, and by comedy I mean we're going to look at some aspect of my life and laugh. I've never been a "people person" and it's tough for me to meet people now that I'm out of school so my friends urged me to join OkCupid with them. My profile is somewhat entertaining because I wrote it to be amusing not to actually meet people. To a certain extent I would like to meet someone but this has really just become a way for me to entertain myself with pathetic attempts at talking to people. Here are a few of my faves:


First Girl:

Someone just winked at you!

If you'd like to strike up a conversation with her, simply reply with something short and encouraging, like "Thanks for the wink! What's new?"

A wink is a special gesture on OkCupid, limited to 1.5 per person, per day, per eye.

Enjoy!

Me:

Thanks for the wink, I'm still not quite sure what that means nor how to respond.

"What's up?"

Does that seem adequate?

Her:

Hello and what's up is what I meant by the wink. I hope that you are doing well this evening. I am tired from a long week and a long day today.

Me:

Lucky me, I had the day off from work so I got some cleaning done around the house, played a little RockBand with a friend and then capped of the night catching up on some TV online. So, yes, all is well with me.

Long weeks suck. Plans for the weekend? I'm hoping to go out with some friends tomorrow night and then catch some football on Sunday.

I'm sorry if this isn't at all interesting. I've unfortunately never had much contact with anyone on this site. the one girl i had an actual dialog with randomly stopped talking to me. My point is I'm never quite sure what to talk about.

Sorry if that was an off putting tangent, but I have a problem with honesty.

Needless to say she did not respond. I guess it was an off putting tangent. So there was another girl who had viewed my profile, so I decided to "wink" at her in the hopes of starting a conversation like the previous girl had tried with me.

Here's the message I sent her:

Subject: I tried winking but im not sure if it did anything
Message:So, I thought I'd strike up a conversation. I like stand up too, who are your top 5 comedians?

I'm sorry if this seems like a juvenile way to go about talking to someone but initiating small talk is not my forte.

This last one is probably the worst for obvious (stalkerish) reasons. I had exchanged a few emails with this girl and though she had a good sense of humor, so I took a shot at her feminist beliefs. It was nothing huge, I said "Ladies first (as a feminist I'm sure you'll love that)" and she apparently didn't. After weeks of not hearing back from her I send this:

Apparently I have a problem letting things go. Actually I'm just curios and would like to learn from my mistakes. Did I say something to offend you? Is that why you stopped talking to me?

Apologies if this seems stalker-ish, I'm a bit OCD.

Maybe my sense of humor just doesn't translate well to type, more likely I'm and idiot when it comes to actually trying to have real conversations with people (especially women).

I may leave the site but it is kind of fun. Besides I'll never get better without practice.

Bliss UNC Cupcakes

Bliss UNC Cupcakes, originally uploaded by MondoUNC.

New product shots. This is one of my favorite ideas in a while.

PROTOTYPE and why sometimes you just have to let go

The other weekend I finally had the opportunity to rent Prototype and was extremely disappointed with the game. I wound up taking it back to blockbuster after coming to terms with the reality that I couldn't get into the story and did not enjoy the gameplay. I was perfectly content to let that be the end of it, until I read this great article by ArsTechnica entitled "Why we quit," but now instead of returning it and never mentioning it again I'd like to point out the parts that I found frustrating. Maybe doing so will be therapeutic and I can rent Prototype again and give it a second chance, or maybe Infamous will finally be in and I can just play the superior version of the same game.

And maybe that's a good place to start, after playing just the demo of Infamous, no matter how often I tried to put Infamous out of my mind it was hard not to notice the similarities between the two. Infamous' lead character, Cole, is electric powered and the controls reflect this fluidity that you'd expect from a parkour delivery boy versus the barreling rhinoceros that is Prototype's lead, Alex. Everything about Alex is dumbed down and forced: the way he moves, his morality, even his dialogue. The only thing that has any finesse is the amazing cinematics that play when you kill someone in some of the most grotesque way imaginable.

Even the fun parts of this game aren't all that enjoyable. Killing people as horrifically as possible? Press one button and watch Alex have all the fun, or just do the same 3 button combo over and over. Quickly the funnest thing to do will be to grab random people off the street run up the side of the tallest building nearby and see how far you can throw them, but even this can be ruined when Alex has some problem with curved walls or even running straight. OK, maybe I was just being OCD, but I wanted to stand at the very top of the Empire State Building and every time i got up to the spire near the top Alex would do a backflip off the building and crush my dreams.

Well maybe I'll enjoy completing some of those missions that will unlock more of that story I don't care about...think again. The game opens with you playing as a god basically, you have all your powers and get to wreak havoc toward some checkpoints, until they send you to where the story began(you know, that boring part where you don't have all your awesome powers). The missions might be fun for a minute but let me explain what I recall of the few that made me quit.

1.Somehow I unleashed these "Hunters" and while they we're killed in 3 hits when you were all powerful they can now obliterate you, easily. Then you realize that the game would like for you to kill 20 of these hunters before it lets you move on.

2.There are some infected water towers that I need to get DNA from but if i get to close to them they explode and unleash hunters. I somehow missed that they'd explode if I got to close (one of the perils of having and SD tv, is that many games have text to small for anything other than HD) so I get bored and spend an hour or so karate kicking helicopters tell I get bored of that and try to figure out the water towers again.

3.I have to destroy some military patrols before they find my hideout. Alright, destroyed 7 patrol groups and then I die and get sent all the way back to the beginning?! Is this not the year 2009? Do modern games not have check points? I get that some people might enjoy this part or you might have needed to include it to extend gameplay but not providing a few more checkpoints turns something that might be enjoyable into an unnecessary grind.

There are things to enjoy about Prototype although it mainly seems to be mindless fun which isn't enough when Infamous is on the shelf right next to it. Alas, maybe I'm asking to much of Prototype. Penny Arcade seemed to enjoy it (I've embedded the comic below but here is a link too).

REVIEW: G.I. Joe - The Rise of Cobra

I did manage to catch GI JOE on opening weekend and I personally enjoined it although it has gotten negative reviews from a few of my favorite critics(TV without Pity, Topless Robot, and Roger Ebert). It seems the general consensus is that GI JOE is better than Transformers 2 and after seeing both that is an easy argument to make. The movie is paced well and doesn't have any significantly distracting plot holes, except at the end when ice apparently no longer floats, which may be because it is so packed with action you're never really given a moment to try and process anything you've seen. The biggest flaw I found was that the movie peaks a bit early with the coolest action sequence taking place early in the film and afterward all the other scenes seem far less epic even though the stakes are supposedly greater.

I could try and nit-pick all of the minor things that were wrong, but I honestly didn't notice them while watching the movie so it seems unfair for me to do so, luckily Topless Robot already has and it makes for a great and hilarious read. GI JOE is one of the better blockbuster action movies of the summer, although that may be mostly because of how horrible Transformers and Wolverine were, I'd definitely recommend it for a family or just a fun popcorn flick. There is also a lot of potential for the sequel to be great, there might be a new director and maybe now that they've gotten the backstory out of the way GI JOE2 can feature the full JOE Vs. COBRA battle we all wanted to see.

All that and you're still not sure If you want to see GI JOE? We'll watch this video from Funny or Die, it's just as star-studded and way more awesome.

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Olivia Wilde

REVIEW: "Funny People"

It would be unfair to say "Funny People" is a misnomer, it certainly does star plenty of great comedians but the movie is a drama and a long one at that. My first two thoughts after catching the flick on Sunday was "How long was that?" to which the answer is around 3 hours, and "Wow that second half was depressing." That being said, I did enjoy the movie and although I probably wouldn't sit through it at a theater again I would definitely by the DVD (especially if the include some of the stand-up footage they shot with all the actors).

I'd like to watch the movie again on DVD if only to see how long the different parts are. The first 3rd of the movie is spent establishing the main characters in their home lives and their professional careers, which while great flies by. Next thing I know I'm in love with Seth Rogen again and oddly enough finding Adam Sandler funny again (TV without Pity had a great review that mentions the same). Its sad that the first phase goes by so quickly but it does effectively set up the rest of the film, I've learned to love these two characters and am ready to journey into the realms of death and awkward middle aged love with them.

I recalled a quote from High School "In the end if the main character dies its a tragedy, and if he lives its a comedy;" this film stays somewhere between the two occasionally shifting from side to side. Listening to Judd Apatow in interview on the late night talkshow circuit and on The Daily Show, its clear that his movies are meant to tackle serious life problems with comedy so that it might be easier to understand and accept. The movie is peppered with enough cock jokes and awkward moments to keep the serious parts from being too much, and is grounded in realism enough to make it easy to relate to what the characters are going through.

As long as you go in knowing you won't be laughing the whole time, and are prepared for some serious talks about mortality then you'll have a good time. If you're a big comedy fan, you can watch and try and name all the cameos that pop up.

I also have this movie to thank for introducing me to Aubrey Plaza (because she was basically mute in Parks & Rec, and awesome in this) and also loved seeing the RZA acting again although I wish he was in it more.

Auto Tune the News 7

Another hit from the Gregory Brothers. I could listen to autotuned Katie Couric all day, and I love the end chorus they made with her sample. Although, I am forced to ask "How many pairs of glasses can one woman wear?"

AutoTune the News (how are you not watching this yet?)

Metal Gear Solid Fairy Tale

This is a great web sketch I saw on Topless Robot. For just a minute ignore the awesome metal gear solid fairy tale, I love the Infamous joke at the very beginning. I found out that girl is Ashly Burch who did the art for the fairy tale. There is something about women with really shrill awkward voices (like the one Maria Bamford uses) that I just find hilarious, not to mention this girl knows how to eat a cupcake...or two.

Summer Movie List

So Mike and I have split a movie pass at Blockbuster and now can check out 2 games/movies at a time. I've got a short list of games I want to rent (Uncharted, Resistance 1 & 2, inFamous, Prototype, Bourne Conspiracy, Fallout3); tonight I went out and rented Quantum of Solace and while there took a walk around and wrote down the names of some of the movies I plan to rent. Here is that list:

Burn After Reading - I heard it wasn't that good, but I'd still like to see it
Benjamin Button - whoo sadness
Death Race - supposedly good for dumb fun action
Doubt
Foot Fist Way - Danny McBride? Yes, please.
Fanboys - been looking forward to this one for awhile, even if only to see Kristen Bell as Leia
Frost/Nixon
Gran Torino
Let the Right One In - saw the trailer for this and it looks good, and kiddie vampires
Milk - "An american classic!" the box says
Special -Michael Rappaport as a drug tester who starts to believe he has super powers (been there)
Slumdog Millionaire - No, I still haven't seen it. Yes, I might be the only person who hasn't.
Synecdoche New York
The Wackness - Might save this one for last, supposed to be pretty interesting and set in the mid 90's of my childhood.

Let me know if I missed anything.

Last episode of Latenight

IMG_0993, originally uploaded by MondoUNC.

I know its a few weeks late but here is a picture of my very last episode. I had a great time at STV and am really going to miss being involved.

REVIEW: "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"

I was incredibly excited to see this movie because Wolverine has always been one of my favorite X-men (along with Gambit) and I enjoyed Hugh Jackman's depiction of the character in the first three movies. The inclusion of Gambit and Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson had me sold, I find Reynolds hilarious and have been a fan of him since he was on "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place." I wound up catching a midnight showing at the Lumina in Southern Village and came out feeling pleased about the whole thing; sure it wasn't the greatest plot ever, the graphics were weak, but I had fun watching it and that all i really want from a summer action flick. I never thought Wolverine would be the next Dark Knight, maybe Iron Man, and yet I was somehow surpised by the negative reviews the movie received which has led me to question my original take of the movie.

There is no doubt in my mind that the action was great, I loved most of the fight scenes even though one of the biggest action sequences is plastered all over the trailers to the point where its really not as enjoyable when it comes up in the movie.

As much as I enjoyed the action the Special Effects seemed awful at times. Woverine's claws were apparently fake, especialy in the bathroom scene where Logan first tries them out. When Logan escapes the Weapon X base, the leap into the waterfall is clearly fake and looks greenscreened. Most of the effects around Gambit were poor to the point of ruining it for me, the bit where Logan is slicing through a fire escape that Gambit is standing seemed to sped up to a comedic effect giving the fight a campy feel which didn't fit the movie at all. Gambit's big scene where he leaps into the air and destroys a piece of the falling powerplant is so clearly CG its not even near believable. That being said most of the slow-mo effects were cool; like with Wade's acrobatic swordplay, Zero's gunplay, or the bits when Gambit plays with the deck of cards. I also enjoyed the effects in the fight between Wraith and Sabertooth and the final fight between Deadpool, Wolverine, and Sabertooth.

One of my biggest problems with the movie was the inclusion of many of the characters. Most of them are introduced quickly, see a small scene playout, and then are needless tacked on throughout the rest of the movie.Team X was awesome and thoroughly entertaining but are only in the film for about 20 minutes, I'd much rather have that time doubled than see the characters as they appear later in the movie. Logan's romance with Silverfox is supposed to be the driving factor behind his decision to become wolverine, and yet we only see a few minutes of this romance and get a cheesy story that supposed to be symbolic of a love that we never really see between the two. Gambit was my biggest dissapointment as he plays the role of gatekeeper and has no other reason for being in the movie, while Kitsch's depiction of Gambit was fine there was very little point to his inclusion other than to say, "hey wolverine, Stryker is over there." Liev Schreiber as Sabertooth made this a great movie for me, yeah the dialogue between Victor and Logan was cheesy but I totally bought it.

On top of all that the plot was awful; most of the major arcs were boring, many minor details left me wondering "Really?" and for a prequel to the X-Men series many parts of the film make it hard to see how this could fall into continuity with those films. I can make ammends with the fact that this is hollywood and they're only going to follow the comic books to a certain point, which allows me to accept the liberties they took with Deadpool. When you consider how the first X-men movie introduces Wolverine its hard to see how this film adds to that, the only case where I saw this movie succesfully set up something from the triology was the Ma & Pa scene where Logan gets his leather coat and motorcycle. As for the numerous head scratching thoughts about this movie, here are a few of my favorites:

Why is Will.I.Am dressed as a cowboy?

For such a violent movie, why wasn't there any blood?

Logan was a lumberjack? (thats not so much confusing, as it is awesomely badass)

Why was the Weapon X base somewhere completely different than where it was in the triology? (Logan jumps into a waterfall, as opposed to running out into the snow)

Why wouldn't you brainwash your ultimate killing machine beforehand?

Why did Gambit break up the fight between Logan and Victor, was he in a rush to be beaten up?

Why does Deadpool, the merc with the mouth, have no mouth? (Its understandable in the movie but makes no sense when compared to the comics)

The whole remote controlling of Deadpool seem absurd. Lets not even get into the stupidity of its execution but how could you not have taken some time to configure some preset commands?

Since when did Deadpool become Baraka from Mortal Kombat?

Stryker's big plan to eliminate Wolverine? Erase his memories with a special bullet, how does that make sense?
Besides adamantium can't cut through itself so how could an adamantium bullet pierce and adamantium skull?

All that being said, it could be worse. Ok, I don't really know how it could be worse but I did enjoy the film...until I started to think about it, so don't do that and you should have a good time.

Bliss Product shot

IMG_1093, originally uploaded by MondoUNC.

Mini cupcakes from Bliss available for catering and special order. 24 in a box at a dollar a cupcake.

I like to think of them as a shot of cupcake. More product shots at Flickr, might upload more later, still getting used to Lightroom and didn't want to waste time messing around with it.

Mayor stopped by Bliss

IMG_0809, originally uploaded by MondoUNC.

2009 National Champions

IMG_0441, originally uploaded by MondoUNC.

Monday night was crazy, I took over 600 pics with the new 40D. I guess the burst shutter is a bit faster than my old 30D, although I know have some cool action sequences that I might turn into animated gifs or something. Anyway view more of my photos at my flickr page.

TV this week

Monday:
House was amazing, the episode "Locked In" featured Mos Def as the patient of the week. The idea of using a POV camera with Mos Def voicing over was especially interesting because Mos Def's sold the idea that you were actually inside the character's mind, you also get to see House from the patient's eyes which is different. A few minutes in, I'm worried that the POV might be a gimmick but we're taken to a scene where Mos Def gets and MRI and while being scanned has a dialogue with House in his mind. These scenes that take place in the characters mind are interesting because we see the characters standing together conversing, but the world can change around them since they are in the patient's mind. Maybe this explanation doesn't do the idea justice, definitely watch this episode online if you missed it. This was my favorite episode so far this season; a great mystery, some character drama (but not too much), and none of Cuddy's baby mama drama.

Chuck is one of those shows that is extremely under appreciated, no I don't watch it the night of because its on the same time as House. That being said if you're not, you should be watching it on Hulu; its got a well rounded cast and a great story. This weeks episode was interesting because of Sarah's absence, Agent Forrester seems to be a CIA agent of Casey's dreams and Chuck's nightmares. Forrester easily illustrates why Sarah is good as Chuck's handler and we see that their relationship helps her do her job well, although it seems Chuck is coming along as a spy and has managed to get himself out of some dangerous situations and does so again.

Last week's episode of Heroes saw the return of Bryan Fuller and there was a noticeable difference in the quality of dialogue. This week's episode lacked the witty banter of last weeks but did provide some excellent character development with all the Petrellis. The union between Sylar and Danko has me most excited, I'm curious to see how this will end. Danko knows Sylar can take powers and let him take shapeshifting, so how does Danko think he is going to take down Sylar after helping him become even more powerful?

Wednesday:
ABC is back in my viewing schedule, I've always liked scrubs but at this point don't care enough to tune in regularly, the new show Better of Ted is pretty good. ABC reaired the first two episodes on Tuesday and I enjoyed it, it reminds me a lot of Eureka which seems to be on hiatus.

Thursday:
If Sidereel is correct its all reruns on NBC.

Friday:
I'm debating if I should watch Dollhouse, I've heard some good things and it stars Eliza Dushku with Whedon producing.....we'll see.

LateNightSTV Season 4 Episode 10

Also, finally started editing our old shows. So, here's the very first episode of LateNight but there is no live footage just the pretaped segments.

LateNightSTV Season 4 Episode 9

Sorry it took so long to get this one online. Hopefully I'll get episode 410 posted in a day or so.

Heroes Season 3 Episode 14

So I've finally gotten around to watching this Heroes episode again. I've been meaning to write some of my thoughts on this show for a while so here we go:

On the series in general, its always had great camera work and an interesting style with many subtle details that add to the production quality.

That being said the writing is so inconsistent, I loved the first season despite a few annoyances. Season 2 was all build up and no climax, it ended poorly although there was a clear path the show was supposed to take until the writers strike led to the new ending. And so Season 3, the first half was alright but still lacking, and so far the series still fails to live to its potential.

Maybe its just me, but I really dislike Ali Larter in the series and I wish she would just go away for good, shes one of the most annoying characters in the series along with Mohinder, Claire, and Parkman.
I could understand Mohinder's role as a narrator and when he went through his whole search in the first season, the bug plot was idiotic and aggravating although it did finally get rid of Maya, I just don't see how he is still relevant to the series. Now Mohinder has super strength and I fear he may actually have an actual reason to be included in this season.
Claire just has to go looking for trouble, doesn't she? I loved her last major plot when she finally stopped being a victim and went hunting. I just don't care for all the daddy issues, it was interesting at first but now its just boring. Let HRG be the badass he can be, and let Claire finally move on.
Parkman just bothers me becuase it seems like he is the best at developing his power but is so reluctant to embrace it. I guess its understandable, I just hate the boring "lets be normal" story becuase Parkman could be an awesome hero.
I love hiro and ando but honestly could those two be any worse as heroes? Hiro loses the formula and his powers; Ando takes Hiro's gift, Leaves and ignores him, and then loses him. Okay, Ando's not so bad but these two are like a bad couple, Ando comes back to the computer and finds out that he "is someone close to [Hiro]"...aww how sweet.
Nathan and Peter make for the best drama, I do get tired of Peter's emo angst and the whole "sylar is your brother" thing was annoying, but these are two of my favorite characters on the show.
Sylar is, as always, great; not much more I can say about that.

One last thing, why is peter struggling not to be sucked out of a hole in a plane? A. he can fly B. he has super strength so it shouldn't be a problem for him to hold on to someone or something. C. since when can we see him absorb someones power? D. Can't he heal himself? he has been around Claire twice already in the episode and he knows her power.

Hopefully the series can survive until episode 19 when we finally get some of the episodes Bryan Fuller worked on.

LateNightSTV Season 4 Episode 8

Our first call in episode (LateNight Call), I also put together a special intro using some of the footage I shot from the evansville game.

We're hoping to shoot weekly so expect another video in a week.