Say Good-Bye and Good Night to Raptor

RIP. Raptor

Yesterday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has announced his recommendations for the Fiscal Year 2010 defense budget, which, along with several changes, has a decision to end the production of the famed F-22 Raptor.

As a employee working at the company that produces the said product, I am rightfully disappointed, and even startled, by the announcement. The most cutting-edge, the high-point of today's technological achievement of mankind is already coming to an end. And that's without a single real combat engagement!!

Although I am relieved that I personally am not involved in F-22 program, I do fear for a possibility that the inevitable, huge influx of migrating engineers from the closing program may have an impact in my job security.

The fact that I am, or may shortly be, affected by a decision made by a top-level politician brings me a pleasant but also inconvenient insight: I am in the real world, where real things happen. My happy-go-lucky life of adolescence has really ended.

Sadness.

YouTube Just Got Better

Ah, yes. The good folks at work-productivity-killer YouTube have come up with yet another new improvement to their site's layout. I noticed the small change when I went back there to turn on a video to play in the background while I work (I swear). Take a look:

They also posted some suggestions on how to view the new layout:

Cool? I like the third suggestion myself. How about you?

Among the Pile of ...

We've seen a burst of film adoptations of comic books lately, with many of them ending up as nothing but human intellectual wastes. But I guess among a pile of shit, one shall see the rise of a masterpiece; we've seen Dark Knight, and now, we have Watchmen.

I haven't watched the film yet, but I have just finished reading the comic book. And now I do wonder the same thing so many fanatics of the book were asking themselves: How would anyone turn this into a meaningful film that really does justice to this famous, the-only-Hugo-Award-winning comic book, ever?

Now, I have to tell you, I don't worry about the mastery of the movie, because even one of the harshiest--at least to me, he is--film critic, Roger Ebert watched it twice, and was so intrigued by it that he gave it four stars(!!) and wrote a long blog post about it.

Having said all this, would you join me at the movies and watch this flick at an IMAX theater near you?

PS. One interesting trivia: the talent that penned this movie is David Hayter, who voiced the popular Snake of Metal Gear Solid videogame series.

Giant BOMB Review of 50 Cent Game.

This was just too funny to pass. Enjoy this review of 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand by my recent favorite game-related site, Giant Bomb:

And yes, the guy reviewing here is none other than Gerstmann of the infamous "Gerstmann Gate" scandal.

We're All From Twitteronia

"Finally, A Use for Twitter," A foot and a half

I was listening to CNET's Buzz Out Loud podcast, and came across a funny and cute story of Twitter connecting people. In this case, a two "panzies" and the Shaq, himself.

It's a funny story, so check it out here.

PS. Shaq leaves huge tips. Damn!