I started brewing up a batch of my Pumpkin Ale this evening, the details of which I wrote up on The Brew Site.

What? You aren’t reading The Brew Site? Why not?

Simply put, "The Incredibles" is a great movie. Fantastic. Probably the best movie I’ve seen this year—really! So here’s my review, there may be spoilers, you’ve been warned.

First off, I am in awe of Pixar. The technical prowess behind this movie is leaps and bounds beyond anything they’ve done previously, and quite frankly, it’ll be hard to top. What really blew me away were the facial expressions—they were so dead-on perfect that every nuance, every subtlety, was captured and was just right. What makes this even more impressive is how it complemented the voice acting perfectly.

The review I read on Slashdot mentions the lighting as the big breakthrough, and yes, that’s a big deal, but not, I think, as big as getting the faces right. I mean, even though they are (intentionally) stylized, comic-book caricature type characters, it’s so believable that you forget they’re not real faces. It’s that good.

Next, the whole movie was just fun. And incredibly (no pun intended) well written—so well done, in fact, that I think it’s better than most other superhero movies out there, and better than a lot of comics I’ve read, too. I think anyone who’s into comics, or works in comics, or wants to write comics, has to see this movie. It’s consistent, logical, plays perfectly within the rules they set up, and has a satisfying conclusion that I admit I didn’t see coming but made perfect sense (and was darkly hilarious to me too). And, most importantly, though I didn’t realize this until later, they don’t bog down the movie with any origin stories (except, to a certain extent, for Syndrome’s)—they just hold up these characters and say, "They have super powers, but it doesn’t matter how they got them, we’re doing this other story."

Contrast that to just about every other superhero movie out there (or at least, the first movie in the franchise/series) that spends the first half of the movie tediously getting to how the character(s) get their powers and become heroes (or villains). It was so refreshing not to have to deal with this that I think it’s part of what makes "The Incredibles" so good.

It’s also one of the better action movies I’ve seen in years, which is surprising coming from an animated movie. And, it’s an homage movie, it draws inspiration from and makes references to other movies and popular culture, and pays back in subtle ways, which is a lot of fun. Look at the jungle chase scene, where Dash is running from the spinning blade things, and tell me that’s not the Endor chase from "Return of the Jedi". Or as my friend Justin pointed out, the whole ’60s spy movie feel—much like the James Bond movies, especially "Thunderball." And of course the endlessly amusing references and jabs at comic books.

I have nothing bad to say about this movie, it’s Just Right. And it’s going to be huge; it already pulled down 70 million dollars in the opening weekend, and I haven’t seen a single negative review. Not one. It really is that good.

My kids loved it, too. So I know we’ll be buying the DVD when it comes out.

I’m pleased to report that Portland is still where it’s supposed to be. Or at least, it was when we left on Sunday, I can’t really speak for any time after that.

We stayed at the downtown Residence Inn over the weekend, which despite being located right next to I-5 is a rather nice hotel. Our room had been upgraded to a two-bedroom suite at no charge after my wife told them the sob story about our miserable night in Stockton next to the freeway, so we ended up with two full bathrooms, three TVs and a full kitchen. They have a very good breakfast for guests, beyond the typical continental breakfasts of juice and muffins you usually see. The only drawback (aside from the freeway) was that they have road work and construction of some kind going on literally all around the hotel, so getting in and out is a hassle and confusing at first.

No WiFi in the rooms, though. They do have high speed internet access, but it’s ethernet-based and sadly, I don’t have a card for that in the laptop. So be warned.

Oh, the other thing was that I forgot to take my own pillow with me; I can’t stand hotel pillows and just have the hardest time getting a good night’s sleep with them. I figure I must be getting old.

Took the kids to see "The Incredibles" and then to Chuck E. Cheese’s on Saturday. "The Incredibles" was fantastic; my next entry will be about that. Chuck E. Cheese’s, well, it’s been awhile since I’d been there, so I’d forgotten just how crazy that place is. Like Vegas for kids, as my friend Justin said. I’ll probably let another year or two or three pass before I take the kids again .

Off to Portland this weekend. I may be online—we’re taking the laptop with the wireless card—but may not be, either; sometimes it’s nice to unplug.

Some people just have too much anger:

A woman has been arrested for digging up her dead boyfriend’s ashes from a cemetery more than 10 years ago and drinking the beer that was buried with him, possibly out of spite for his family, authorities say….

Detective Jay Yerges said Stolzmann and Hendrickson were living together in the early 1990s, while they were both married to other people. The relationship was stormy, with a pattern of alcohol and domestic abuse, he said.

Stolzmann was present when Hendrickson shot himself in January 1992. Yerges said Hendrickson’s family blamed her for his death and she was not invited to his services.

"I feel that her motive was spite," Yerges said.

No kidding.

Although, I have to wonder: why was he buried with beer in the first place, and what kind was it?

Via A Good Beer Blog.

I was disappointed to see both the Bend measures (establish a mass transportation district, more money for schools) fail, though not particulary surprised: you can pretty much guarantee that when a measure appears in Central Oregon that requires raising taxes, it will get shot down.

But hell, do kids have to be cannibalizing themselves in the schools before this town raises some money to help relieve the overcrowding and budget issues? And since the money was going to be raised by increasing property taxes, should only property owners be allowed to vote on these issues?

Personally, I think less than $100 per year is a small price to pay if it helps alleviate the Lord of the Flies problems my own kids will be facing within the next couple of years.

As to the mass transit issue, I’d love to see it here, and I supported it, but… Keep in mind this is the city that made national news when it proposed banning stinky people from riding the bus, so you’ll understand if I express skepticism about the whole affair.

And this is the best election day story I heard: Tuesday morning my friend Kerry asked if I had a number two pencil to fill out his ballot—he didn’t have any at home and that was what had hung him up on getting it mailed earlier (Oregon is entirely vote-by-mail, remember, but on the last day you can drop off your ballot at the designated locations since it’s too late to mail it). Later, when he went to drop the ballot off, a Z21 news team interviewed him on why he waited until the last minute to turn his ballot in. He gave the honest response: he couldn’t find a number two pencil! He said the guy running the camera was the new crazy weatherman (if you live in Central Oregon, you probably know who I mean) and the guy gave Kerry a big thumbs-up and shit-eating grin—my words, I’m paraphrasing . I never did see if it made it on TV but we sure had a good laugh about that.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Just a braindump of some ideas I have that wouldn’t really be considered very politically correct…

Like a series of books like the "For Dummies" books, only these would be "For Tards." They would be much more simplistic; with titles like "Keyboards for Tards" and "Books for Tards" I think they could really be successful…

Then there was this idea for a sitcom that I had—a homophobic ex-Marine, a flamboyantly gay man and the ex-Marine’s mentally retarded brother are roommates sharing an apartment in a big city somewhere (maybe San Francisco). Man, that would write itself.

Did you vote yet? You can bet I did, mailed it in last week. (You gotta like the Oregon vote-by-mail system.) I’ve been spending the last hour and a half or so sitting here compulsively hitting refresh on the CNN and MSNBC sites to review the latest numbers, while catching up on Bloglines. It’s close but right now looks like Bush is going to win. What I find interesting is that while NBC has projected Ohio going to Bush, as of this moment CNN is considering it too close to call and hasn’t tallied those votes for him yet.

CNN has the better site for this, I think; not only can you drill-down from the national map to each state, but you can further drill-down into each state to see how each county is doing. And they’re on top of the numbers. Very interesting.

As usual, it was as cold as a witch’s tit last night for Halloween, but at least it wasn’t snowing or anything; last year I wrote that it was in the teens. Fortunately this year it was "only" around 30 degrees.

Ah, but this year we live in a new neighborhood! One that’s filled with houses, unlike our old one that we could hit maybe four or five when trick-or-treating. We took the kids up and down several blocks, amassing a small fortune in candy and revelling in the wonderment of people, before the cold finally drove us home. What’s interesting is that our house sits at the end of a cul-de-sac in the new development, which only has four other houses with people in them… so our doorbell only rang perhaps three times because nobody wanted to wander off the beaten path down the dark street for only one house. So in that respect, it was very much like our old neighborhood.

Whatever, it was still a good Halloween; the best part is watching the kids enjoy it more as they get older and have a better grip of what’s going on. Although my youngest needs to work on his timing: they’d ring the doorbell and he would immediately say "Trick or treat!" before anyone actually opened the door.

And Jake has the best Halloween story. I think I’m most glad I don’t live in his neighborhood .