It's Pixar's latest animated movie, it's by the same director of Monster's, Inc., it's in 3-D, it's about an old guy and a fat little kid flying (or is it falling with style?) in a house by balloon power, and it's getting great reviews: how could it go wrong, right?

Well that's what I thought at 6:44 last night, but about 20 minutes into the movie I started to think... this is kind of dumb.

Yes. Up was kind of dumb. I said it.

I'm usually not one of those guys who hates on movies for no reason at all (though, I'm sure some may disagree). I love every movie for one reason or another (unless the title of the movie starts or ends with the word "Juno") and it's very hard for me to hate a movie. I didn't hate Up (not as much as Jo, apparently), but it definitely was a bit of a disappointment.

First of all, I was upset with the whole 3-D aspect of the movie. This wasn't my first 3-D movie (I saw My Bloody Valentine and Coraline both in 3-D), so I'm not exactly inexperienced with 3-D movies in a theatre, but I am not convinced that 3-D will ever be more than just a gimmick. Don't get me wrong, 3-D is extremely fun, but it dramatically deteriorates the quality of the movie. The point of watching a movie in a theatre is to get the crisp picture on a huge screen and the booming sound – it's why IMAX was invented. But to me, 3-D has taken that and done a complete 180. 3-D does of course still have the booming sound, but the quality is just crap. Sure things may come flying out at you, but rest of the movie is not clear! And I don't think it'll ever be. Growing up and going to those Michael Jackson 3-D movies at Disneyland or that Terminator 3-D movie at Universal Studios, the look hasn't changed at all! It's still unclear and headache inducing (though, I won't be that negative, they have made it a bit better, I'll admit). But I will never watch a movie that I'm serious about in 3-D, which I won't even need to worry about though because it seems animated fun movies will only be in 3-D (except for Harry Potter 6... so I have to decide what I'll do about that one soon).

click here to continue reading about Up and my plans for Tuesday night....

See, now that's what I'm talking about.

Last night's game was was the first game in these Playoffs where we destroyed a team (destruction not just by points, I mean) and it's the first time we'll be heading back to the NBA Finals since... well since last year.

And there's one other thing this Laker team has in common with last year's team that also made it to the Finals: our play. We were on it last night. During the regular season last year, we were constantly destroying numerous teams on a weekly basis; this year however, out mantra has been instead, to give up leads. But last night (and I'll also include Game 5 in this) was the first game of the year where we were able to not just handily win, but also to send a message to all other teams out there (only two others now) that, watch out, the Lakers are gonna kill you.

I respect ESPN's Michael Wilbon, but he said after Game 6 that asking the Lakers to continue this type of cut-throat play isn't fair. I almost had a seizure when I heard him say that. Too much to ask the Lakers to win every game? Too much to ask them to their damn jobs?! Michael, are you an idiot? You don't go into any game thinking, "Hey, we could easily win this game if we tried, but you know, let's not try our best tonight." Wilbon, you surely must not have meant that when you said it, and if you did, you must have given the Lakers the pre-game speeches last year during the Finals. Damn fool.

The Lakers have to play like this in all four (okay, let's be fair, or seven) games remaining. Kobe's gotta dominate like he did last night: 35 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists. And he also has to have a few back up guys to support him, Pau with 20 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assists (that's why we got him! To back Kobe up!); Lamar with 20 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Ariza's gotta show up to every game like he did last night as well. He probably won't leave every game as he did Game 6, with 17 points, but he definitely has to shoot those shots when the opposing teams leave him wide open (he could've sneezed out there and no Nugget would have even known about it! There's no "D" in enver). And Luke, Luke! 10 points! And even a block! Sasha had 7 points himself (4-4 from the free throw line).

click here to continue reading about the Lakers and Conan....

Before I riff about last night's incredible Game 5 between the Lakers and Nuggets (that I actually should've wrote about last night but didn't because I took a five hour nap, starting at 11 p.m.), I want to talk about the Spelling Bee.

I usually try to get a word in every year about the Spelling Bee, it's just that great. This year though, it had to have been one of the greatest in a while: the pronunciation guy had funny sentences, the kids pulled words out of their keisters (that was a Championship Word back from '96), there was an emo white girl (Serena Laine-Lobsinger), an Indian girl with the best voice I've ever heard on a kid (Anamika Veeramani), a sassy black, hilarious kid (Kennyi Aouad), and one of the girls (who ended up winning, Kavya Shivashankar) was my favorite from last year and has eerily resembled Subha for forever (I told her this last year, but forgot and she told me I had already told her, so that means I'm consistent!). Oh, and not to mention seven of the final 11 kids were Indian. And is it weird to think that Kavya is going to grow up to be a really attractive girl because her Mom had a stunning Indian quality to her? Okay... maybe that is a bit weird of me to say... Kavya's 13... but I did enjoy it when they pulled the camera back to show her parents... haha.

Anyway, the Bee was pretty fun. I just couldn't help rooting against everyone besides Kavya and Kennyi. I felt bad though after the first person I rooted against in the finals (Tussah Heera) was extremely nervous and got her first word wrong. I then aimed my hatred towards this Asian kid (Kyle Mou), who just kept getting French words! The Bee ended rather quickly, much quicker than I remember last year, but it had a lot of great characters. And afterwards, ESPN had highlights! That's hilarious. The LA SportsCenter had a fun little routine they did, it was pretty funny. Can't wait for the 83rd, Scripps! In the mean time, I'll watch Akeelah take a couple stabs at it again. I'm going to look forward to seeing Neetu Chandak next year, she definitely had some great character.

click here to continue reading about the Lakers....

See that graphic on the left? That's what we gotta do, penetrate.

I am an idiot for being up this late (or is it early?) because I have been on hardly any sleep for the past couple days and have work in a few hours (yes, Asim works an actual non-freelance job. More on that later at some point probably). You see, the reason I went out of town this past weekend was to help my cousins move up north, and I'm pooped.

I drove up there Saturday morning at 6:30 and got back Tuesday morning at 2. It was a huge move (I rented a 26-foot U-Haul truck, that I drove on my own nearly 450 miles until I returned it) and because we didn't have a TV up there, I didn't watch Games 3 and 4 live. But even if we did have a TV I could have used, I like to watch the games in HD and with my full attention; watching games randomly with a lot of unrelated noise in the background is not a Laker environment for me.

So what did I do? Well, when I got back to LA at 2 o'clock Tuesday morning, I watched the games, 100 percent. It took me until 8 a.m., mostly because I kept falling asleep during Game 4 (was it because of the oh so many fouls near the end?) and took a longer-than-expected nap during halftime of Game 4. And that, everyone, explains why the splash took a bit longer to update.

But then, how about them games?

Well to start, Game 3 had to have been one of the most fun Laker games of these Playoffs, if not the year. And while it very well could have just been the suspense stored up inside me waiting to watch the game, I was on the edge of my seat for most of it: It was the first game in Denver – the first conference game in the city for nearly 15 years – and everyone said the Pepsi Center atmosphere would help push the Nuggets to not only a Game 3 victory, but to a Game 4 one as well. But those people forgot to mention that the Nuggets would be hosting the Lakers, not the Clippers, and that Kobe would not take a home loss sitting down. And he didn't. He delivered, and did so with a 41-point game, 20 more points than anyone else who stepped foot into the stadium. It's the first time Kobe's every had two 40-point games in a single series.

click here to continue reading about the Lakers....

The graphic on the left doesn't do much to summarize the first two games of this year's Western Conference Finals, I just like how funny Kobe and Melo look, haha.

Last night's Laker loss cannot be blamed on the refs, for missing that jump ball violation and for numerous no-calls. The loss cannot be blamed on the Lakers' inability to score a free throw either, nor the Nuggets' ability to make their free throws (which is a complete flip-flop of Game 1). Last night's loss cannot be blamed on great surges by both Melo and Billups, and even Kleiza. And don't even try to say the loss can be blamed on Fisher taking the final three... it was a good plan by Phil. No, last night's game was lost well before all of that, the loss can only be blamed for the lead the Lakers dumfoundedly lost in the closing minutes of the second quarter. They should have pushed that lead, not lost it like they have in virtually every game this year (it all goes back to the Finals last year... it's cursed us!). You're wrong Kobe if you really think that it was just a bounce of the ball that led your Lakers to a loss last night. This should be a 2-0 lead for the Lakers, and not by coincidence.

When the analysts say Games 1 and 2 of these Western Conference Finals were the exact same game, the only difference being Game 1's Lakers were Game 2's Nuggets, and vice versa; they would be correct. I don't want to sit here and relay the numbers, but the two teams completely switched roles in the two games.

But when the analysts say Games 3 and 4 in Denver will yield without-a-doubt victories for the Nuggets... what are they smoking? I can understand if they based their confidences solely on the Pepsi Center's altitude and crowd, but they're not; most of them are supporting their Nugget loving by saying the Nuggets are a better team than the Lakers. How are they justifying this?

click here to continue reading about the Lakers, and a little about Anton....

Don't be alarmed by the graphic. That's just hair... some extra hair.

When Imadul first asked me to take part in his Laker beard growing challenge, I immediately replied "Yes." But when he told me I would have to shave my entire beard to start it from scratch... I quickly retracted my yes and replaced it with an "I'll think about it."

After a few moments, I realized that I would only be beardless for a few days and quickly retracted my retraction and gave him a "Yes," again. But the next day I realized that if I grew my entire beard out, I would also have to grow my mustache out... something I've never done in my life. Yet I decided my love for the Lakers outweighs my indifference for mustaches and I continued on with the challenge.

A couple days ago though, I realized another thing: my unibrow. Yes, I have a small unibrow that I trim every so often when I shave my beard, and now that I can't shave my face, and do not have a razor anymore, I cannot shave my unibrow! Imadul said I could, but he was just being nice. I cannot shave it. Until the Lakers win 12 more games, I cannot shave my unibrow, my beard, my mustache... not even my nose hairs (I have a graphic of that too if you'd like.)

click here to continue reading about my beard and Flickr....