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Haha, wish I could contribute on the movie, but that'll probably be awhile. I'm not even sure if it's playing anywhere near me, but I'm so busy with dissertation stuff and what not I probably wouldn't have the time to see it anyhow. Awesome about the card though, and that it was at least hilariously gay if not the most epic movie of all time. Hopefully LK appears back online somewhere eventually, I'd love to see his take. razz

Yea I have no idea, but as I don't drive here I could only go to theaters near me, and I'm fairly certain none have it. *googles for a few moments* well it says UK release date Spring 2011, that's it. Japan and the USA were the only ones with actual release dates and running times. I assume that means if it will release here it hasn't yet. If it releases anywhere near me and I'm aware of this (that bit's definitely not likely) I might consider going to see it. We shall see.

In general back home the closest theater to me (in either direction) was about 10 minutes away if there was no traffic, 15 - 20 if there is. Which there usually is. So that wouldn't be the worst thing for me. Initially I thought 10am seems insane, but than remembered that it's technically a kids series. xd

So you got two Red Eyes? Because you said you went specifically to get a card, but this kid giving you a card seems unplanned. Anyhow that's awesome, free stuff is always cool. Free stuff you actually want is even more amazing. razz

Well it's not just UK, it's "entire world that isn't USA." I mean Japan only has it first because they made it. The only time a country gets a movie before the US is if they make it, and then nobody else gets it until long after the US. I mean every other country is on that "Spring 2011" release list also. Well, at earliest, some countries won't even have it that soon. Basically as far as the movie industry goes the "not USA" always gets the end of the short stick. xd

It's not a small city, it's just the suburbs. Although I don't think 10-15 minutes is what most people would consider a "long" drive to get to most places. I mean it's CA, the entire state is giant. Some people commute 100 miles to get to work/school. Where it's ideal to live isn't always where businesses and schools are. Suburbs while large and generally packed with groceries and restaurants (I can walk to both of those), aren't necessarily close to large areas of commerce/employment. Things are kinda grouped into "housing" and "entertainment." So while grocery stores are everywhere, bars, theaters, shopping centers, etc are in there own cluster. And depending on where you are living in the housing community, the further you are from these things, and also the more valuable your property probably is. Houses cost more in areas where they aren't surrounded by businesses - because in general they are considered safer, quieter areas. Most people want to be far away from areas of commerce, they have higher crime rates and more noise pollution.

Nice!

Yea, I think for the most part though, most things (particularly big things) release in the US first. I mean I think it goes "country of origin" (if not USA), then USA, then English speaking countries, then rest of the world (of the world that will ever have that release) in order easiest to sub/dub the movie. Even if it has to be dubbed/subbed into English, because the US is such a big market, that's still what is done first. I think the only time the US isn't first, there are probably licensing/rating disputes.

You sound like you don't have a lot of urban areas (either that or you live in urbanity and didn't realize it), which is probably why the suburbs cross into commercial territory like that. I mean property is structured around zoning laws and codes, residential and commercial. And areas that are zoned residential only have so much space that's zoned commercial. And there are just various permits on what is allowed to be where. The swim club I live near is in walking distance, there are two elementary schools (I live smack between two school districts) in walking distance (one I can see from my house, although it's relatively far down the street and I can't hear it or it's bells happily) in walking distance, there was a middle school in semi-walking distance (but they shut that down). Then there are some food places (Taco Bell, Sonics, etc), a gym, a store, a gast station and a couple of small businesses in walking distance. It's just something like a movie theater that needs a large amount of space, and a large parking lot would not be in my neighborhood. I mean the parking lot at the theater closest to me covers something like a twenty block radius. So even if you live near it, even if you can see it from your house, it's still about a 5-10 minute walk across that parking lot. There are laws on the amount of parking (at least in CA) that a commercial business is expected to provide. Anyhow Union City only has one theater, so considering how big the city is/the population, most people are not near it. It's a giant theater, something like 40 screens I think? Maybe more, I think there is also the Imax theater in there though I never want to pay more for those movies. So it services all of UC, part of Fremont and part of Hayward (being myself, I mean technically I'm not even in the city that theater is in), but we all tend to spread out from it. The next closest theater to me is in Downtown Hayward, I live nowhere near downtown. I live closer to Union City than Downtown (which is why I am technically in the New Haven - UC - school district, and why even though I'm from Hayward, I think of myself as from UC in a way).

I think in general though the population in CA is just massive, and we have a much greater demand for housing than anything else. So large commercial businesses (like movie theaters, Iflys, sports centers - not like gyms but like the place I go rock climbing, museums, science academies, zoos, etc) are grouped in a central location (Downtown, City Center). I think the only crimes (besides domestic violence) not in commercial settings are gang related (territory crimes) and those are in poorer neighborhoods. And generally those are on the outskirts of more commercial settings as well. Most other crimes are aimed at businesses not individuals, so you are more likely to get caught in the crossfire when out.

Yea CA is kinda concentrated into large areas in the North and South, and then the middle and very tips of the state are kinda desert/deserted. So they don't really have much of anything in those empty areas, urbanity or otherwise. In parts that have a large centralized population it's pretty divided into suburb and urban, however the city lines are confused here as well. Like there is a part of Fremont in the middle of Union City. There is no way to get to that part of Fremont without going through Union City, so like wtc? And the school district lines aren't always to city as well. Like part of Hayward being in the New Haven school district. Which I'm fine with because I'm glad I didn't go to Tennyson, or Hayward High or any of the high schools in Hayward. They aren't very good, and fail in terms of extracurricular activities.

There are a ton of things in walking distance from myself, but a movie theater isn't one of them. I mean I can walk there, but it takes about an hour? I just remember I walked to Walmart once, granted the movie theater is probably a good 10 minute walk from Walmart (which is closer to me), even if they are in the same complex. None of the places around here charge for parking either (if you go to SF or an urban setting sure, but that usually doesn't happen in the suburbs), and in spite of having these giant lots parking is not always adequate, it gets packed. I dunno, maybe the need another movie theater, etc...although even if people wanted more they would not want it in their neighborhood.

Gang crime here is probably drug related, but that's mostly not what you see, it's all race wars (Hispanics versus Blacks versus Filipinos primarily). Which is almost worse, because that's a horrible reason for children to go around killing each other.

Yea I think when LK posted a video in relation to it there was a small discussion about it, and because I have only seen maybe 2-3 GX episodes and 0 5D episodes I'm not sure exactly how enjoyable I'd find the film. I will probably see it whenever I get a chance though, and it can't be worse than that other, which barring a weird kinda gay exchange between Seto and Pegasus was ridiculous. And I am intrigued by 5D I just never have the time. If I did I'd probably even give GX more of a shot, just to better enjoy crossover TAS. However I have a long lists of things I want to do, and can't really touch on any of it. So definitely going to touch on the series I'm not all that interested in, even if it is related to one of my favorite series. I'm always iffy about new generations though, and usually start out biased against them from the start. Which is why I still can't bring myself to start season 3 of Skins even though my friends won't stop talking about season 5. I've had 3 and 4 spoiled so much already I'm not sure I want to anymore though, regardless of not having cared about it in the first place.

Now to figure out this English census thing...in the states the census is anonymous and thus not mandatory in any sense. xd

People want things close, but they don't want to see or hear them here. More commercial areas tend to be surrounded by apartment complexes. People tend to pay more for location than anything else here, and an ideal location is near good schools, amenities, and entertainment, but not near enough to be disturbed by them. Fast food chains especially, though we all patronize them, kind of have a low class stigma. So you really don't want to have to see those. We had a Sonics built a few blocks away, and people were iffy about it for awhile. I mean yes people wanted a Sonics, but save for kids who wanted to walk there, most property owning folks weren't all that keen on the idea. However after the initial few weeks of chaos and agitation it calmed down. The novelty wore off and because it's still decently patronized it adds the right amount of commerce without the disturbance to the neighborhood.

Ideally you want to not have to be too aware that these things exist from the comfort of your own home. Things people do pay more to be by are natural elements. Lakes, rivers, oceans, forests, nice parks. Apparently CA is all about getting away from it all (even though you really can't, there are too many people and not enough of these things). And then again everybody drives here. I mean after New York I think we are the state with the worst traffic. People might hate a commute of 40-100 miles, but several people make it (I mean I never really thought of it as long to drive between Davis and the bay, 90 miles, once or twice a month, and that's the commute some people will make for school/work daily). So if you said something like "far away" and "fifteen minute" drive in the same sentence to someone here they'd look at you like you were insane, probably back away from you, haha. Although yea I realize how weird that mentality is being in England, whereas if it takes more than 30 minutes to get there most people are totally not going to drive that. Even people who have cars are still more likely to hop on the train/bus or walk to their destinations.

Yea, see the weird thing about gang wars in our areas is that races are pretty well integrated here. However some of these are old gangs, like generational old. My dad whose in his late sixties had heard about some of these gangs before moving here (he's not from CA). So kinda like the mafia, they have older traditional values beyond mere business. However that doesn't go for all of CA. I'd say for the most part is probably confined to parts of the Bay Area and then the LA area.

Aww man, I didn't expect it to be good (or even have other characters from the main series, so that's no huge disappointment), but worse? Man, haha. 3D as in 3 dimensional? I can't really watch 3D it makes me ill. It's why I hate so many movies coming out in 3D these days and why I go see far fewer movies, because sometimes it's a bit of a trek to find a theater not playing a movie in 3D. Like Alice I saw in 3D because we were going to have to drive to Vacaville to see it otherwise, and it's "only" (hehe) about 30-40 minutes away, but we had other plans that wouldn't let us work that into our time table. I think that's the last movie I saw in 3D, and I think I decided after that I just won't see anything else if my only option is 3D. No wait, I saw Resident Evil, I made that sacrifice because I really wanted to see the friend who was taking me. In general though I will probably pass on any 3D movie and just wait to watch it on TV/online. It's just not worth the massive headache afterward to me.