This is a subject that I have been meaning to write about for some time, yet just have not had enough time on hand to do it properly.  The topic says it all…Who is the Greatest Villain?

I will say that right off the top I am probably not the most qualified person in the world to write this post.  I simply do not watch enough movies to be able to intelligently debate the topic.  However, I’ve seen a few movies and I’ll provide the world with my top five all time bad people.

The parameters are simple as defined.  The bad guys have to be human, with no known superpowers.  Part Two of this post will deal with the supervillains, and then we’ll create a bracket and put them head to head.  While that may not seem fair, keep in mind that some of the physically strongest supervillains almost always have an exploitable weakness (be it intelligence or whatever).

So, without further ado…and not in any particular order as of yet either…

1. Lex Luthor.  Lex is the embodiment of the classic super villain that does not possess any superpower other than his extreme intelligence.  Unfortunately, the evil is generally only displayed in the comic books.  In the movies, he is always portrayed as a scheming real-estate monger.  It’s a tough job to always have to fight the Man of Steel.

2. Clarence Boddiker.  Robocop’s other bad guy, Dick Jones’ lackey.  One could make the argument that Dick Jones had more power, but it was my man Clarence that did all the dirty work.

3. Chong Li.  Who can forget the chants of “Chong Li!  Chong Li!  Chong Li!” that reverberated out of the Bloodsport area as he efficiently disposed of challenger after challenger…until he got to Frank Dux.

4. The Undertaker – Yes…pro wrestling’s Undertaker.  I’m not thinking of the incarnation of the character now, or even the previous biker-type character…but rather the character when he first started his run in the WWE (back then in 1990, the WWF).  He was unbeatable, unhurtable, and undefeated.  One could say that he has a “superpower” with respect to drawing power from the urn carried by Paul Bearer (his manager), but he never was seen employing said powers during his near two-year rise to the World Title (tombstoning Hulk Hogan in the process, albeit with a little help from Ric Flair).

5. Hans Gruber.  Alan Rickman played this role to perfection as the ultimate Die Hard bad guy.  Despite three sequels, no bad guy has come close to duplicating the cold-bloodedness that Hans did.  “I’m going to count to three.  There will not be a four.”  And needless to say, unfortunately for the Chairman of the Nakatomi Corporation (U.S. division), there wasn’t.

6. Dr. Hannibal Lecter.  Easily the most intelligent of the villans on this list, Dr. Lecter possessed both charisma and cunning.  His cat-and-mouse game with Clarisse is pure mad genius.

7. Adolf Hitler – Well, for no other reason that he was real, I would think that he would top the list.  The man tried to exterminate an entire race – for real – nothing made up about that – during World War II.  While I find Hitler to be a most interesting character study, one cannot ignore the fact that he is a monster.  Keeping the train of thought a bit lighter, however, Hitler was just evil.  There wasn’t really anything villainous about him.  When I compile a list of monsters and serial killers, he’ll be right up there though.

There are a great many things on my mind, and a great many things going on in the world.  Thusly, this post, as the title suggests, is a collection of said thoughts.

Firstly, the weather.  Wow, it’s been hot!  And the rain…the rain…and the rain…not only serves to make things even more humid, but uncomfortable.  To illustrate, we were driving and due to the massive rainstorm that was occuring at the same time, I was sweating profusely.  This – in my humble opinion – is the worst feeling.  It is extremely uncomfortable and when it occurs, I cannot wait to get home to take a shower.

Last month, I also attended a wedding.  This was the first wedding that I had been to in three years, so I had to buy a new suit.  I’m a comfort creature, so that made buying nice clothes a task unto itself.  “Never again,” I say…until the next time.

The wedding was not too bad.  Not being a fan of weddings in general – primarily because I have to wear the monkey suit, which stresses my comfort level – I had a pretty good time.  The food was good, the music wasn’t bad, the hall was nice and cool, and the ceremony (despite us being late) was enjoyable.  It was held at Carmen’s Banquet Hall in Hamilton, and that was the first time for me in that venue.  Good luck in your journey together, Tanya and Mike!  I wish you much success and happiness.

This is my first post in over a month, which shouldn’t be unnoticed.  Alas, with the many things I have on the go this blog has been somewhat neglected of late.  Unfortunately, there is only so much time during the day though.  I think what kills me is the fact that because I have been spending a lot of time at my girlfriends house in the city, I have had to alter my schedule and routine somewhat.  Toronto, much like Oakville, has a bunch of parking nazis running around enforcing all sorts of bizarre traffic rules.  Ergo – you can park on one street until 7:00 in the morning, and then on another street from 7:00 in the morning until midnight.  As a result, I have to get up early and move the car on my days off of work (it’s not a problem when I’m working because I like to get an early start on things.  We always have a decent amount of work to keep us busy so it helps to be optimized).

Speaking of work, we have had a summer project that kept us busy, installing various amounts of software throughout the High Schools.  It was fun, as we decided to create a new image for some of the machines that did not have them.  This not only sped up the process greatly, but I think will provide a more satifactory user experience for the students – we only need the legacy machines for another year as they will all be replaced.  That will likely be the summer project next year and it will be a much larger endeavour than this past one.  I am looking forward to the challenge.

Switching gears a bit, I finally finished the Brad Thor novel that I had been reading, Foreign Influence.  I have always meant to do a write up of Brad Thor’s novels, as they are excellent reading for those people who enjoy the Tom Clancy genre of novels.  Like Clancy’s novels, they should be read in the order that they were written.  It is beyond me why Hollywood has not yet made a movie out of one of Brad Thor’s novels.  The movie would be a box office hit for sure.

What else have I been up to?  Well…the three of us (Myself, my girlfriend and her daughter) made the trip to Black Creek Pioneer Village recently.  I had never been there, and did not have any expectations, however I must say that I was very impressed with the village.  It took us over six hours to go through the place, and we took a ton of photographs.  It was a great day – a tad humid – to browse through the buildings.  Anybody interested in a bit of history from the Greater Toronto Area (as many of the buildings have been moved to the Village from their original locations) will be thrilled to tour the site.  Kids especially I think will get a kick out of it.

I had really wanted to go to the Toronto Zoo this year, as it has been high on my list of things to do for a long time.  Alas, we did not make it, but I hold out hope for next year.  The zoo is a big place, and I don’t think we can do it all in a day, but that is just fine with me.  As long as the sun is shining, it will be a fun time to be had by all.

Oddly, we have yet to visit High Park at all this year.  We’ll have to make a concerted effort to change that before long.  We usually take the dog, and I’m sure he’s missed the bathings of whipped cream and chips that we usually provide.  In fact – speaking of the dog – he’s been behaving much better recently, which is rather odd for him.  We haven’t walked him as much as we should though, and in general not paid as much attention to him as in the past, however this is just another sign that we have all been quite busy.  It’s no excuse, though.  While the dog is not human, it is still a living, breathing creature.  To that end, he needs to be taken care of and we have not been doing that.

On that somewhat sad note, I’ll wrap up this post and continue some more in the (hopefully) near future.

It has been suggested to me that if I want to improve traffic to the site, I should create a section that has a bunch of sexy photos of women (or near-naked women).

Personally, I don’t care too much about the amount of hits the site gets.  As it stands now, it doesn’t do too badly given the content published.  Perhaps, in the future, if I were to develop the site into some sort of money making venture, I would consider it.  However, in that type of discourse, would that not alienate a potential customer base if they visited the site only to be greeted by naked women who are there only to excite men (and maybe a lesbian or two)?

Probably.  Which is why I am not considering the suggestion.  It is really unnecessary.  If people want to read my posts, then great!  If they want to comment, even better!  I see no reason to toss the 316.com domain into the realm of all the other sites on the Internet (and there are millions) that have pornographic content.

I will just continue to blog away…and maybe in the future add a forum if the demand warrants it.  I tested a couple out and they work pretty good, but there is not enough demand at the moment to activate one.  Even if there was, given that I have so many projects on the go right now, it does not fit into my timeframe unless I hire somebody to maintain this website (which would be rather stupid, considering it is not setup for any sort of profit at this time).

As well…it’s 2:00 in the morning and I’m rambling a little bit.  That’s o.k. though, it’s my website and I’ll do what I want.  Fun times.

I have a few posts on the go…some more movie reviews, book reviews, and a forthcoming post on some of the greatest villains of our time (in the movies, books, comics…no real villains, as I’ll create a separate post for them).

UFC 116 was one of the best night of fights that I have seen in all my years of watching mixed martial arts.

Starting from the top, UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar impressed me a lot by taking a mountain of punishment from challenger Shane Carwin in the first round, and coming back reinvigorated in the second round to submit him by arm-triangle choke.

Anyone else – and I do mean anyone else – who took those shots would likely still be in the hospital.  Lesnar was being pounded by those jackhammer fists like crazy – so much so that most people scored the first round 10-8, yet he survived the onslaught.  It doesn’t get any easier for Lesnar, as he is now scheduled to face Cain Velasquez.

The co-main event was to have been Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Wanderlei Silva.  However, Silva injured himself during training and Chris Leben, less than two weeks removed from his previous fight, stepped in.

Surprisingly, Leben got the win in the third round.  He was a huge underdog not only because he just got through a fight, but Akiyama is no pushover.  He is a highly skilled fighter who is difficult to finish, yet Leben managed to turn the trick.  Good job, Chris Leben!

Other bouts included:

Heavyweight bout:  Jon Madsen vs.  Karlos Vemola
Madsen defeated Vemola via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

Welterweight bout:  Daniel Roberts vs.  Forrest Petz
Roberts defeated Petz via split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29).

Middleweight bout:  Gerald Harris vs.  Dave Branch
Harris defeated Branch via KO (slam) at 2:35 of round 3.

Middleweight bout:  Kendall Grove vs.  Goran Reljic
Grove defeated Reljic via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28).

Light Heavyweight bout:  Seth Petruzelli vs.  Ricardo Romero
Romero defeated Petruzelli via submission (armbar) at 3:05 of round 2.

Heavyweight bout:  Brendan Schaub vs.  Chris Tuchscherer
Schaub defeated Tuchscherer via TKO (strikes) at 1:07 of round 1.

Lightweight bout:  George Sotiropoulos vs.  Kurt Pellegrino
Sotiropoulos defeated Pellegrino via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28).

Light Heavyweight bout:  Krzysztof Soszynski vs.  Stephan Bonnar
Bonnar defeated Soszynski via TKO (strikes) at 3:08 of round 2.

Welterweight bout:  Chris Lytle vs.  Matt Brown
Lytle defeated Brown via submission (mounted triangle/straight armbar) at 2:02 of round 2.

Synopsis (from IMDB):  An Army veteran assembles a team of bodyguards to protect a former boxer. Complications arise when the boxer suspects his sister may be romantically involved with the bodyguard.

My buddy – who is a huge Van Damme fan – passed along a bunch of his movies for me to watch, ergo the amount of reviews that I have been doing recently on his films.  I don’t like Van Damme as much, but I must admit to still liking his movies.  I think that he has gotten better as an actor (as opposed to Steven Seagal, who has gotten worse).  Further to the comparison between Seagal and Van Damme, you have to give JCVD credit for keeping himself in shape.

The Hard Corps is more passable fare from the actor, and I must admit to enjoying it.  Lots of gunfire, but this time a decent plot outline.  This movie ran long for a Van Damme flick, clocking in at just under a couple of hours.  Usually his movies have difficulty making the ninety minute mark.

Van Damme and Vivica A. Fox were both good in their roles, as was Razaaq Adoti.  The rest of the cast could have used an upgrade, as they were not very believable (though not for lack of trying).  Because the movie starred Van Damme most people would pan it right away, but it was worth a good two and a half stars (out of five) on my scale.

Many people are getting very antsy over the security measures that have been implemented  for the upcoming G-20 Summit in Toronto this coming weekend.  What the government has done could easily be considered as overbearing, but given who is visiting the city this weekend, is pretty much necessary.

Canada has always been one of the least restrictive countries when it comes to civil rights.  The people are not oppressed (like in China, or worse yet Indonesia or North Korea), so any enhanced security measures are a new thing to us.  We, as citizens, do not want any sort of restraints on our freedom.  I for one am most vocal about such things, as I don’t care for anyone telling me what to do or when I can do it.

In so saying that, these measures are absolutely necessary to ensure the safety of these world leaders.  If a terrorist were to assassinate one or some or all of these people, the world economy could falter.  It sounds like a broad and scary thought – but what happened after 9/11?  It took the global economy a year to recover from that fiasco.

Synopsis (from IMDB):  A Texas cop battles ex-Navy SEALS who are trying to traffic drugs from Mexico into the USA.

The shortest synopsis in IMDB history…but accurate.  The movie itself, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and a bunch of other unknown actors, was not too bad at all.  It is passable fare – and typical of what you would expect a Van Damme movie to be.  If you start watching it with that mentality, then you will not be disappointed.

Truth be told, I’ve always liked these kinds of films.  They are not big on the storyline, but there is lots of action.  In short, they keep it simple.  Since I’m always doing something, sometimes it is nice to watch a movie that does not require much thought.

Even though quality wise I would rate the movie only two stars out of five, I would still recommend it for the reasons above.  Don’t watch it with the woman if you’re expecting some action of your own later on, because you’ll be sorely disappointed.

The Los Angeles Lakers, for the 16th time, are the NBA Champions.  They outlasted the Boston Celtics in a gruelling seven game series.  The Lakers and Celtics have played in the NBA Final ten times, and this victory for Los Angeles may be the sweetest of them all.

This is the first time that Los Angeles has won a Game 7 against the Celtics.  They had been defeated four times previously, and it looked like they were going to lose again until the heroics of Ron Artest and Pau Gasol.  Kobe Bryant was the Finals MVP, but Boston effectively shut him down in the final game of this historic series.

I did not watch the series, although in hindsight I should have.  I just never seem to have enough time in the day (or the evening), and to make room for basketball right now is just impossible to do.

I would love to see the hometown team, the Toronto Raptors, play for the NBA Title one day.  They are pretty far off, however, especially with the pending departure of their superstar, Chris Bosh.

As I sit at the kitchen table, alone on a quiet Saturday morning, I wonder why things are the way they are.  Why are we here on Earth and what are we supposed to do with ourselves?  I look at the events going on, specifically the World Cup, and think to myself.  I look at the global whole, the happy people, the sad people, the poor people, the rich people.  People who live in luxurious mansions, and children living in abstract poverty.

Is the world supposed to be yin and yang?  A counterbalance for everything?  I guess these are questions that could be debated endlessly.  Who knows?  Does God know (if you believe in Him)?  And to that end, if you do believe in him, why does He allow terrible things to happen?

Deep thoughts indeed, and far more questions than answers.

I think I’ll go back to reading the Sports page.