R2-D2 in Star Trek movie?

Yep, it's true. An employee at ILM(yep, they worked on the Star Trek movie. Funny huh?) confirmed that the droid was carefully hidden in the background. Click here for an article about the sighting and for a high resolution image to see for yourself. I've heard that the lovable droid was hidden somewhere in the second transformer movie as well.

Geek-a-palozza '09

This year's geek-a-palooza, or what's more commonly known as the San Diego Comic-Con 2009, has now come and gone. What once was a mass pilgrimage of only comic book geeks, to downtown San Diego has become the "geek-chic" it-place-to-be. It was a tough four days of battling the ravenous horde of over 120,000 attendees. But somehow I made it thru, mostly intact. My wallet took the brunt of the damage. I scoured the floor as best as I could for great art, books, toys and cool swag. And while I had fun hanging out with friends, there was one thing missing this year. My brother usually attends the show with me, but this year he was too sick to make it. I tried my best to bring a piece of the show back to him, but if you've ever been to the con you would know that there's nothing like being there. To top it off, I made the mistake of inviting some other relatives to go to the show with me. They proceeded to do what they wanted, when they wanted. There's a saying that comes to mind when I think of what happened. "Don't forget who brought you to the dance." Part of what makes going to this show is so great is not just experiencing the convention. It's sharing the experience with others that makes it memorable. What I remember of them is very little. I guess I shouldn't have expected as much as I did. I'll remember next time.

Despite this one regret, I had fun. Comic con week went by fast and for the first time in a long time, I actually felt like I didn't see everything. But you wouldn't know it by all the photos I took. It's going to take me a few days to go thru everything. I'll post them to Flickr once I'm done processing them, but here's a few photos in the meantime:

Some Indiana Jones fans.

Watchmen.

Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis & Denzel Washington promoting their new movie Book of Eli.

Cameron Diaz showed up to promote her new movie, the Box. What a great smile. =)

Josh Brolin and Megan Fox talked about Jonah Hex.

John Lassetter and the legendary Hayao Miyazaki. Among all the celebrities that showed up, I was only in awe of this man.

Kevin Sorbo of Hercules and Andromeda.

A large, but not life sized version of Mazinger Z.

Indy looking for some "vulcan" lovin'.

One of the restaurants at the Hard Rock Hotel was transformed into Cafe Diem from Syfy's Eureka.

One of several new dolls of the adorable Coraline. This one is the cutest IMHO.

See-Threepio/C-3PO

Iron Man, mark 1 from the movie.

Axel comforting the somewhat sloshed Jay.

Durian,... the dreaded stinky fruit.

Durian,... hmmm, someone must have been really, really hungry to eat this foul smelling fruit. On my most recent trip to the philippines I was surprised to find the odoriferous fruit in a market in a small town. I've always been curious to try it and my cousin said she would try it as well if we managed to find it. All that being said, we found some and bought one. I'm guessing that the one we bought was a little over-ripe since it was not milky, like I've heard it was supposed to be. The meat of the fruit was dry and yes, while stinky, I was still curious if it tasted like it smelled. I know a few people who've tried it and they all seemed to have liked it. I should like it too, right?

So my family gathered around the spiny object. Some were holding their noses or their breath in order to forego the tepid smell. We all took a bite and,... no one like it. Most of us still swallowed the bites we took and that was a big mistake that we would continue to pay for the rest of the evening. It wasn't the most horrible ting I've ever tasted. It was mostly just unpleasant. If you asked me what it tasted like, I would tell you that it tasted like stinky, creamy onions. Mostly anyways. It's not the most appetizing of ideas already, but I'd recommend you at least try it so that you can form an opinion too.