Sunday, December 2, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
No Movie to Watch but....
No Country for Old Men
We (Mike, Melissa and Myself) went to see this movie the other day. It's not often that I choose to describe a movie going experience with one word, such as "Wow", and it's been some time since I've really had a good movie experience, so to be able to say both things about this movie makes me very happy.
Wow. I loved this movie. I didn't love the theater experience, but the movie was great...
We went to Saturday matinée with reasonable expectations. The Coen brothers are brilliant, there's no other way to put it, and with every film they produce, you remember how good their previous films were and feel compelled to go back and watch them.
Well, maybe that's just me.
In any case, this is one of those must see movies that you can't allow to pass you by. Unless you're stupid (as in "I really liked Spider-man 3" stupid). If you're stupid, your best bet is to skip this movie. You'll probably find yourself very confused when the credits roll, possibly even shouting something like, "What?" or "That's it?"
That's not to say that the ending is particularly difficult to understand for most people. The reason why the ending is so difficult for people to understand, I think, is because it doesn't end with a wild shootout and the hero riding off into the sunset. It ends, and I can say this without ruining the film, I think, with the main character reaching a conclusion about himself and his life.
Now, don't let the above paragraph dis-color your opinion either. This movie has an amazing amount of gun play, wicked battles, and blood / guts. The primary villian, for example, spends most of movie using a bolt stunner and a shotgun with a silencer (the size of a coffee can).
The greatest thing, however, about the Coen brother's writing is that the movie is allowed to move at it's own pace. This is great because you feel a building tension throughout the entire film, it's spectacular. It doesn't move too slow, and it doesn't move too fast. It's nearly flawless.
They also have a knack for symbolism and imagery that makes it just a treat to watch.
The only problem I had with the movie wasn't the film, but the theater experience. While I was prepared for the idiocracy of some of the patrons, something that seems to be impossible to avoid in this world, there was a couple behind me that spent the better part of the first hour of the movie basically restating all the action of the screen. It wasn't just one of the two, it was both, in a near alternating manner. The progression throughout the film left them making more and more idiotic statements per minute, resulting in my turning around and having to ask them to stop talking. When that didn't work after another ten minutes, I finally had to turn around and say, "the movie's happening on the fucking screen, I'd prefer to wait for the DVD for commentary, shut the fuck up." This resulted in the woman, who apparently hadn't been graced with common sense in the first 50 years of her life, saying, "What?" with such confusion that I was forced to laugh out loud while her husband (I assume) actually explained it to her.
This experience, however, did not ruin the film for me, but I certainly could have done without it.
The one this this movie did, which no movie has done for a while, was compel me to want to watch it again immediately following the final fade to black. That is to say, I would have gladly sat for another two hours and watch it again, if I'd had the money (or if it was playing immediately following).
All I can do is make the recommendation. This was one movie that I was looking forward to for a long time, the next movie on my list of 'must sees' is "I am Legend," which has all the makings of something great. Post apocalyptic horror starring Will Smith? Yes, please. I don't have the same standards for that as I do a Joel and Ethan Coen's work, but I am still putting it on an unfortunately high pedestal. I hope it doesn't disappoint.
We'll see, won't we.
We (Mike, Melissa and Myself) went to see this movie the other day. It's not often that I choose to describe a movie going experience with one word, such as "Wow", and it's been some time since I've really had a good movie experience, so to be able to say both things about this movie makes me very happy.
Wow. I loved this movie. I didn't love the theater experience, but the movie was great...
We went to Saturday matinée with reasonable expectations. The Coen brothers are brilliant, there's no other way to put it, and with every film they produce, you remember how good their previous films were and feel compelled to go back and watch them.
Well, maybe that's just me.
In any case, this is one of those must see movies that you can't allow to pass you by. Unless you're stupid (as in "I really liked Spider-man 3" stupid). If you're stupid, your best bet is to skip this movie. You'll probably find yourself very confused when the credits roll, possibly even shouting something like, "What?" or "That's it?"
That's not to say that the ending is particularly difficult to understand for most people. The reason why the ending is so difficult for people to understand, I think, is because it doesn't end with a wild shootout and the hero riding off into the sunset. It ends, and I can say this without ruining the film, I think, with the main character reaching a conclusion about himself and his life.
Now, don't let the above paragraph dis-color your opinion either. This movie has an amazing amount of gun play, wicked battles, and blood / guts. The primary villian, for example, spends most of movie using a bolt stunner and a shotgun with a silencer (the size of a coffee can).
The greatest thing, however, about the Coen brother's writing is that the movie is allowed to move at it's own pace. This is great because you feel a building tension throughout the entire film, it's spectacular. It doesn't move too slow, and it doesn't move too fast. It's nearly flawless.
They also have a knack for symbolism and imagery that makes it just a treat to watch.
The only problem I had with the movie wasn't the film, but the theater experience. While I was prepared for the idiocracy of some of the patrons, something that seems to be impossible to avoid in this world, there was a couple behind me that spent the better part of the first hour of the movie basically restating all the action of the screen. It wasn't just one of the two, it was both, in a near alternating manner. The progression throughout the film left them making more and more idiotic statements per minute, resulting in my turning around and having to ask them to stop talking. When that didn't work after another ten minutes, I finally had to turn around and say, "the movie's happening on the fucking screen, I'd prefer to wait for the DVD for commentary, shut the fuck up." This resulted in the woman, who apparently hadn't been graced with common sense in the first 50 years of her life, saying, "What?" with such confusion that I was forced to laugh out loud while her husband (I assume) actually explained it to her.
This experience, however, did not ruin the film for me, but I certainly could have done without it.
The one this this movie did, which no movie has done for a while, was compel me to want to watch it again immediately following the final fade to black. That is to say, I would have gladly sat for another two hours and watch it again, if I'd had the money (or if it was playing immediately following).
All I can do is make the recommendation. This was one movie that I was looking forward to for a long time, the next movie on my list of 'must sees' is "I am Legend," which has all the makings of something great. Post apocalyptic horror starring Will Smith? Yes, please. I don't have the same standards for that as I do a Joel and Ethan Coen's work, but I am still putting it on an unfortunately high pedestal. I hope it doesn't disappoint.
We'll see, won't we.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
About the new logo....
Wallpapers that remind me of yore...
Alright, I'm not sure what Yore is, but if you were wondering about the new logo, it's part of one of my new wallpapers. I took to making wallpapers out of old video games years ago, and I get asked about them frequently. If you're curious about what I do, read on...
First of all, this post is only for you if you actually care about making wallpapers like these. If you're the type of person that just right clicks some hot chick in Internet Explorer and picks 'set as wallpaper', this probably isn't for you. The same goes if you only use pictures from your cellphone.
With that said, these wallpapers are simply sprites with a little design thrown in.
For the Mario papers, I like GSA and VGMaps, but there are quite a few sites out there. And don't think for a second that you're limited to Mario, you can hit up everything from Bad Dudes to Q-Bert to Double Dragon to Zombies At My Neighbors.
There's actually a great source for pre-made retro game wallpapers, Desktop Gaming, which I've been meaning to upload to. (Note: As of this writing, the site was down due to bandwidth issues, so I hope they will come back up soon).
For my needs, I usually just find a level I like, and layer it together, clean up the bottom to fit my task bar, and add a few design elements to make it look good and SHAZAM! I've got a brand new wallpaper. If you've got any experience with photoshop, you'll find it pretty easy to work with.
There are a few things that you need to keep in mind: Technically, any sprite you use is copyrighted material, which means that you shouldn't repost it on the interwebs, even if you modified it for your own wishes. You can try and get around that by posting something like "copyright 1985-2007 © Nintendo" but they can certainly tell you to knock it off. So far, it doesn't seem like many companies are really pounding down the doors to issue cease & desist letters, but you should be aware of. Also, you might find that while perusing sprite, many of them features copyright notices from whoever ripped them. This does not qualify as a legitimate copyright, since you can't copyright copywritten materials without permission (it's like me re-shooting Fight Club with a new cast and claiming it mine. Yes, I hold the copyright on the new material, but not on the original...)
Anyway, that's it for now... but maybe I'll post some more later. Pieces.
Alright, I'm not sure what Yore is, but if you were wondering about the new logo, it's part of one of my new wallpapers. I took to making wallpapers out of old video games years ago, and I get asked about them frequently. If you're curious about what I do, read on...
First of all, this post is only for you if you actually care about making wallpapers like these. If you're the type of person that just right clicks some hot chick in Internet Explorer and picks 'set as wallpaper', this probably isn't for you. The same goes if you only use pictures from your cellphone.
With that said, these wallpapers are simply sprites with a little design thrown in.
For the Mario papers, I like GSA and VGMaps, but there are quite a few sites out there. And don't think for a second that you're limited to Mario, you can hit up everything from Bad Dudes to Q-Bert to Double Dragon to Zombies At My Neighbors.
There's actually a great source for pre-made retro game wallpapers, Desktop Gaming, which I've been meaning to upload to. (Note: As of this writing, the site was down due to bandwidth issues, so I hope they will come back up soon).
For my needs, I usually just find a level I like, and layer it together, clean up the bottom to fit my task bar, and add a few design elements to make it look good and SHAZAM! I've got a brand new wallpaper. If you've got any experience with photoshop, you'll find it pretty easy to work with.
There are a few things that you need to keep in mind: Technically, any sprite you use is copyrighted material, which means that you shouldn't repost it on the interwebs, even if you modified it for your own wishes. You can try and get around that by posting something like "copyright 1985-2007 © Nintendo" but they can certainly tell you to knock it off. So far, it doesn't seem like many companies are really pounding down the doors to issue cease & desist letters, but you should be aware of. Also, you might find that while perusing sprite, many of them features copyright notices from whoever ripped them. This does not qualify as a legitimate copyright, since you can't copyright copywritten materials without permission (it's like me re-shooting Fight Club with a new cast and claiming it mine. Yes, I hold the copyright on the new material, but not on the original...)
Anyway, that's it for now... but maybe I'll post some more later. Pieces.
It's The Smashing Pumpkins...
Looking at the almost silly number of people who are landing on my blog right now by searching "I don't want to fight" in Google, I just thought I would post some help.
The song you are looking for is called Tarantula, by The Smashing Pumpkins, off their new album, Zeitgeist.
It's a great album, and definitely gets back more to their roots, even without the original band members.
I'm not kidding, there are tons of hits to this page for this. Hope it helps...
While you're here, feel free to look around for a while, or come on back after you order the album off amazon, I'll still be here.
The song you are looking for is called Tarantula, by The Smashing Pumpkins, off their new album, Zeitgeist.
It's a great album, and definitely gets back more to their roots, even without the original band members.
I'm not kidding, there are tons of hits to this page for this. Hope it helps...
While you're here, feel free to look around for a while, or come on back after you order the album off amazon, I'll still be here.
Time for my semi-monthly...
post frenzy...
It isn't that I don't care. It isn't even that I don't have time. It's that I don't choose to use what time I have for posting. I'm not sure why, because I am plenty of stuff to talk about. Today, we'll be covering the new Zune launch, a couple of movies I've seen, including a I'm Not There by Todd Haynes, and I'll mostly expound upon how awesome I really am (such as that new header I made up there... look at it, it's spectacular).
If you're ready, feel free to click the "read more" thing...
The Zune Social(ly inept music listeners hiding in their headphones all the damn time)!!!
As I'm sure you'll recall the words I wrote regarding the Zune. I became an owner, a proud one, as a matter of fact, around Christmas time last year. Since then, I've spent all sorts of time using it. I found it to be a wonderful replacement for the terrible iPods that I've had, and overall, I thought that Microsoft was definitely on the right track with it.
Not too long ago, I was talking about the rumors surrounding the new Zune 2, and more over, I was talking about the fact that Microsoft was going to do something new and different, they were going to support their original user base, like myself. If you didn't know, Apple went through 2 terrible initial generations of iPods, and never supported their original users after each release. As a matter of fact, they rarely support their users from one generation to the next. Much like now with the price drops on their iDoodad so soon after launch, what do they do? They offer a 'store credit' for half of what they dropped the price for. Seems weak to me, but I guess it's the usual Apple attitude. And most Apple Fanboys will just keep taking it because they think they're elite.
So, anyway, on Tuesday, Microsoft released the new Zune Firmware and Zune Software. Now, I wish I could say that it was fantastic and wonderful, because that would really make this whole thing complete. But, the sad fact is that they borked the software pretty bad.
It's not a complete failure, the new firmware for the Zune is fantastic. The interface is cleaner, the fonts look better, the main menu is bigger and everything seems more polished. The main new feature, the WiFi Sync is pretty slick and works well. I'm very happy with the player, and I'm just going to hold out for the new 80gb model, which apparently got pushed back until December some time.
However, the new Zune software did some terrible things to people. Basically, if you were upgrading, which obviously a lot of people are, the new software seemed to take your metadata information, run it through a blender, drink it like a frou frou drink with a little paper umbrella and then urinate it out into a trough. Then, once it finished that, it decided to go through and misplace all of the album art, for no logical reason. Users and devteam alike were able to post a fix to the forums right away.
The other glaring issue is missing features. The problem with the original Zune software is that it's slow, and the reason it was slow is because they build the whole damn thing from Windows Media Player, a mistake they rue to this very day. It was such a mess that they decided to build the new Zune Software from scratch. The problem with that is they spent most of the time trying to build the interface and make it look pretty (there's even an option for video hardware enhanced visual effects), but once they got close to launch, they abandoned a slew of features that were big talking points in the original software. Notably, the ability to drag and drop songs to match metadata, the ability to directly edit metadata, the ability to find album information on the web manually, bitrate conversion before syncing with the device, the auto-playlist feature, and a host of other things that were really bloody handy to have.
People keep posting as if the developers just forgot these features, but they didn't forget anything, they just didn't time to build these things before their launch date. They had to hit the launch date or they risk losing any chance on the Zune making money this season. It's just economics.
The problem isn't that they got it fixed right away, nor is it that some people had to run through the fix a few times just to get it right. The problem isn't that there are some big features missing. The problem is that they had a year to build this thing, and it seems so strange that they could have not gotten any further than they did.
Seriously, Microsoft has, what can only be described as, an army of developers, and something like 935 kabajillion dollars at their disposal. I'm not sure how many people they put on the Zune project, but considering that it's a niche they really want to be successful in, and that they really want to take some market share from Apple, I imagine that they have to have stuck quite a few people on the task. As far as I can tell, they really did a great job with the firmware, but didn't get started on the software until about 2 weeks ago, got as far as an interface and then, en masse, they went for a 1 week and 5 day smoke break, never to be heard from again.
Oh well. I'm still happy with the player, and now that my music is labeled right (some suckers actually need to move their music around still), and has the right album art, I'm ok with the software. I'm waiting for some patches, but for the moment, everything is working well enough, and the bottom line is that I can listen to music on my Zune. Mission accomplished.
Anyway, if you're interested, you can see my Zune Card at my profile, or just right here. Note, they are still having some issues, it seems, in getting the plays right. I assure you, I've played a lot more music than I'm getting credit for.
In closing, I still support Zune, and Microsoft for what they're doing, I just hope they get things fixed before the holiday hits in force.
I'm Not There
Melissa had to go to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for school. She asked that I come with, and had mentioned that it was a Todd Haynes film. I've heard his work is good, so I thought, ok. Had I know what I was getting into, I probably would have decline.
Walker's Premier of I'm Not There
“Producer Christine Vachon will be on hand to introduce the film and take questions from the audience following the screening.
“[Bob Dylan] created a new identity every step of the way in order to create identity.”—Anthony Scaduto, author of Bob Dylan (the line inspired the film)
A film inspired by the life of Bob Dylan, Todd Haynes’ stunning directorial achievement I’m Not There brings together six actors playing characters who craft a unique response to the elusive artist in different phases of his life, career, and persona. Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale (the literal Dylan), Richard Gere (Dylan and Billy the Kid), Heath Ledger (an actor haunted by the legacy of Dylan), Marcus Carl Franklin (Dylan in Woody Guthrie mode), and Ben Whishaw (Rimbaud as Dylan) are set in the political and cultural reality of the era, and filmed in the cinematic styles of the 1960s. Seven years in the making, I’m Not There is a true labor of love. Multiple award-winner at the 2007 Venice Film Festival. 2007, 35mm, 135 minutes.”
I'm not going to say it sucked... but it sucked. The thing is, I don't really like Bob Dylan much, so even a biopic that follows characters based on Bob Dylan in different parts of his career will hold nearly no interest for me, although it would have been more tolerable had it not been over 2 hours and 15 minutes long. However, I will say that there was plenty good things about the film. The directing was good, the acting (it had a stellar cast), much of the filming was phenomenal (while some was just really annoying). There were a few things that I hated, most notably the first minute and a half that felt like a stereotypical art student type piece. Seriously, if you’ve seen / recall the student film that Diane, the reporter on Family Guy, did when she was in college, the first few minutes of this movie made that seem coherent. (I tried to find something in the internet to show you what I was talking about but had no luck).
So, the bottom line is that I didn’t really enjoy it, but there were certainly some redeeming elements. Not enough that I would recommend to anybody seeing it. It was, in my opinion, too ambitious, and focused too much on details of Dylan that it wasn't enjoyable to me without know more about his life.
Other movies...
Alright, the plain and simple fact is that I've fallen way behind on my movie reviews. I watched Balls of Fury last night (good, not great), P2 not too long ago (bad, not terrible), and about 25 other films since I last really reviewed anything. At this point, I don't even know how I would compile all my thoughts on them, so, I probably wont. Maybe if I discover some extra time, I will give it a shot.
Radiohead: In Rainbows
Damn, I love Radiohead. Thom Yorke's voice is great, and while they've diverged a lot from their intermediate rock / technical sound on The Bends and OK Computer, and even more from their rock only sound on Pablo Honey, I've still enjoyed everything they've done since. Even Thom's solo work is absolutely exceptional as well. This new album, In Rainbows, is being released under a different concept. The first CD of the set is being offered for download at a pick your own price rate. It's only a 160 Kbps release, which is good, but far from optimal in my opinion. I ponied up a few bucks to download it, and while I wish I could afford to pay a bit more than I did, because they certainly deserve it, I appreciate the concept of the pick your own price, a concept that's been gaining slow momentum over the last few years. (It's common on the coasts to find cafe's, restaurants, and coffee shops with this structure. $0.37 cup of coffee is offset by $20 cup of coffee, depending on opinion and means.) As to the music, it's Radiohead, and there's not a lot else that can be said about it. It's tight, it's spectacular, its aurally stimulating.
Anyway, all I can say is that you should head over to their website and dish out a few pounds for the tracks. Perhaps, when December rolls around, you'll pick up the disc box, which will apparently include a second disc and some other features. That, however, as I understand it, will not be at a pick your own price.
Other news...
As I might have mentioned before, Melissa was filming 3 movies for school. Of those, I wrote one of the scripts and did some major editing (and finishing) on another. The movies are shot, the sound is almost done, and I'm working on editing 2 of the 3 (her brother is doing the 3rd). It's been fun, and a lot of hard work. I'd love an opportunity to work on a feature length film, but one with a budget and equipment.
Depending on Melissa's thoughts, I may show them here when they are complete, via the great YouTube. Perhaps.
In the meantime, Jim has come up with a fairly brilliant business concept and is working on getting funding for that, and he's asked that I be a part of things. If that takes off in any way, I'll talk about it more here for sure.
Finally, I've been itching for more writing time because I've got some ideas I really need to get out. Of course, there's about a million other things I should be doing besides posting here in the first place, but with any luck....
It isn't that I don't care. It isn't even that I don't have time. It's that I don't choose to use what time I have for posting. I'm not sure why, because I am plenty of stuff to talk about. Today, we'll be covering the new Zune launch, a couple of movies I've seen, including a I'm Not There by Todd Haynes, and I'll mostly expound upon how awesome I really am (such as that new header I made up there... look at it, it's spectacular).
If you're ready, feel free to click the "read more" thing...
The Zune Social(ly inept music listeners hiding in their headphones all the damn time)!!!
As I'm sure you'll recall the words I wrote regarding the Zune. I became an owner, a proud one, as a matter of fact, around Christmas time last year. Since then, I've spent all sorts of time using it. I found it to be a wonderful replacement for the terrible iPods that I've had, and overall, I thought that Microsoft was definitely on the right track with it.
Not too long ago, I was talking about the rumors surrounding the new Zune 2, and more over, I was talking about the fact that Microsoft was going to do something new and different, they were going to support their original user base, like myself. If you didn't know, Apple went through 2 terrible initial generations of iPods, and never supported their original users after each release. As a matter of fact, they rarely support their users from one generation to the next. Much like now with the price drops on their iDoodad so soon after launch, what do they do? They offer a 'store credit' for half of what they dropped the price for. Seems weak to me, but I guess it's the usual Apple attitude. And most Apple Fanboys will just keep taking it because they think they're elite.
So, anyway, on Tuesday, Microsoft released the new Zune Firmware and Zune Software. Now, I wish I could say that it was fantastic and wonderful, because that would really make this whole thing complete. But, the sad fact is that they borked the software pretty bad.
It's not a complete failure, the new firmware for the Zune is fantastic. The interface is cleaner, the fonts look better, the main menu is bigger and everything seems more polished. The main new feature, the WiFi Sync is pretty slick and works well. I'm very happy with the player, and I'm just going to hold out for the new 80gb model, which apparently got pushed back until December some time.
However, the new Zune software did some terrible things to people. Basically, if you were upgrading, which obviously a lot of people are, the new software seemed to take your metadata information, run it through a blender, drink it like a frou frou drink with a little paper umbrella and then urinate it out into a trough. Then, once it finished that, it decided to go through and misplace all of the album art, for no logical reason. Users and devteam alike were able to post a fix to the forums right away.
The other glaring issue is missing features. The problem with the original Zune software is that it's slow, and the reason it was slow is because they build the whole damn thing from Windows Media Player, a mistake they rue to this very day. It was such a mess that they decided to build the new Zune Software from scratch. The problem with that is they spent most of the time trying to build the interface and make it look pretty (there's even an option for video hardware enhanced visual effects), but once they got close to launch, they abandoned a slew of features that were big talking points in the original software. Notably, the ability to drag and drop songs to match metadata, the ability to directly edit metadata, the ability to find album information on the web manually, bitrate conversion before syncing with the device, the auto-playlist feature, and a host of other things that were really bloody handy to have.
People keep posting as if the developers just forgot these features, but they didn't forget anything, they just didn't time to build these things before their launch date. They had to hit the launch date or they risk losing any chance on the Zune making money this season. It's just economics.
The problem isn't that they got it fixed right away, nor is it that some people had to run through the fix a few times just to get it right. The problem isn't that there are some big features missing. The problem is that they had a year to build this thing, and it seems so strange that they could have not gotten any further than they did.
Seriously, Microsoft has, what can only be described as, an army of developers, and something like 935 kabajillion dollars at their disposal. I'm not sure how many people they put on the Zune project, but considering that it's a niche they really want to be successful in, and that they really want to take some market share from Apple, I imagine that they have to have stuck quite a few people on the task. As far as I can tell, they really did a great job with the firmware, but didn't get started on the software until about 2 weeks ago, got as far as an interface and then, en masse, they went for a 1 week and 5 day smoke break, never to be heard from again.
Oh well. I'm still happy with the player, and now that my music is labeled right (some suckers actually need to move their music around still), and has the right album art, I'm ok with the software. I'm waiting for some patches, but for the moment, everything is working well enough, and the bottom line is that I can listen to music on my Zune. Mission accomplished.
Anyway, if you're interested, you can see my Zune Card at my profile, or just right here. Note, they are still having some issues, it seems, in getting the plays right. I assure you, I've played a lot more music than I'm getting credit for.
In closing, I still support Zune, and Microsoft for what they're doing, I just hope they get things fixed before the holiday hits in force.
I'm Not There
Melissa had to go to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for school. She asked that I come with, and had mentioned that it was a Todd Haynes film. I've heard his work is good, so I thought, ok. Had I know what I was getting into, I probably would have decline.
Walker's Premier of I'm Not There
“Producer Christine Vachon will be on hand to introduce the film and take questions from the audience following the screening.
“[Bob Dylan] created a new identity every step of the way in order to create identity.”—Anthony Scaduto, author of Bob Dylan (the line inspired the film)
A film inspired by the life of Bob Dylan, Todd Haynes’ stunning directorial achievement I’m Not There brings together six actors playing characters who craft a unique response to the elusive artist in different phases of his life, career, and persona. Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale (the literal Dylan), Richard Gere (Dylan and Billy the Kid), Heath Ledger (an actor haunted by the legacy of Dylan), Marcus Carl Franklin (Dylan in Woody Guthrie mode), and Ben Whishaw (Rimbaud as Dylan) are set in the political and cultural reality of the era, and filmed in the cinematic styles of the 1960s. Seven years in the making, I’m Not There is a true labor of love. Multiple award-winner at the 2007 Venice Film Festival. 2007, 35mm, 135 minutes.”
I'm not going to say it sucked... but it sucked. The thing is, I don't really like Bob Dylan much, so even a biopic that follows characters based on Bob Dylan in different parts of his career will hold nearly no interest for me, although it would have been more tolerable had it not been over 2 hours and 15 minutes long. However, I will say that there was plenty good things about the film. The directing was good, the acting (it had a stellar cast), much of the filming was phenomenal (while some was just really annoying). There were a few things that I hated, most notably the first minute and a half that felt like a stereotypical art student type piece. Seriously, if you’ve seen / recall the student film that Diane, the reporter on Family Guy, did when she was in college, the first few minutes of this movie made that seem coherent. (I tried to find something in the internet to show you what I was talking about but had no luck).
So, the bottom line is that I didn’t really enjoy it, but there were certainly some redeeming elements. Not enough that I would recommend to anybody seeing it. It was, in my opinion, too ambitious, and focused too much on details of Dylan that it wasn't enjoyable to me without know more about his life.
Other movies...
Alright, the plain and simple fact is that I've fallen way behind on my movie reviews. I watched Balls of Fury last night (good, not great), P2 not too long ago (bad, not terrible), and about 25 other films since I last really reviewed anything. At this point, I don't even know how I would compile all my thoughts on them, so, I probably wont. Maybe if I discover some extra time, I will give it a shot.
Radiohead: In Rainbows
Damn, I love Radiohead. Thom Yorke's voice is great, and while they've diverged a lot from their intermediate rock / technical sound on The Bends and OK Computer, and even more from their rock only sound on Pablo Honey, I've still enjoyed everything they've done since. Even Thom's solo work is absolutely exceptional as well. This new album, In Rainbows, is being released under a different concept. The first CD of the set is being offered for download at a pick your own price rate. It's only a 160 Kbps release, which is good, but far from optimal in my opinion. I ponied up a few bucks to download it, and while I wish I could afford to pay a bit more than I did, because they certainly deserve it, I appreciate the concept of the pick your own price, a concept that's been gaining slow momentum over the last few years. (It's common on the coasts to find cafe's, restaurants, and coffee shops with this structure. $0.37 cup of coffee is offset by $20 cup of coffee, depending on opinion and means.) As to the music, it's Radiohead, and there's not a lot else that can be said about it. It's tight, it's spectacular, its aurally stimulating.
Anyway, all I can say is that you should head over to their website and dish out a few pounds for the tracks. Perhaps, when December rolls around, you'll pick up the disc box, which will apparently include a second disc and some other features. That, however, as I understand it, will not be at a pick your own price.
Other news...
As I might have mentioned before, Melissa was filming 3 movies for school. Of those, I wrote one of the scripts and did some major editing (and finishing) on another. The movies are shot, the sound is almost done, and I'm working on editing 2 of the 3 (her brother is doing the 3rd). It's been fun, and a lot of hard work. I'd love an opportunity to work on a feature length film, but one with a budget and equipment.
Depending on Melissa's thoughts, I may show them here when they are complete, via the great YouTube. Perhaps.
In the meantime, Jim has come up with a fairly brilliant business concept and is working on getting funding for that, and he's asked that I be a part of things. If that takes off in any way, I'll talk about it more here for sure.
Finally, I've been itching for more writing time because I've got some ideas I really need to get out. Of course, there's about a million other things I should be doing besides posting here in the first place, but with any luck....
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Open Mon. thru Closed Tues. Sun. 1:00 - 4:30
You'll understand soon...
Yesterday was the first time in several years I've gotten to make the drive to see the fall colors. I went with Melissa, and we more or less just drove north, it was wonderful day, and one I've been needing for a while. It was as close to an adventure as one might have these days.
Warning, there are a lot of photos in this post...
We started driving up 35W north to where it becomes just 35 and before long I saw the sign indicating Taylors Falls. It's been years since I've been there, and historically it's been a great place to see the beautiful fall colors.
Along the way, we drove past the Fraconia Sculpture Park and decided to stop and take a look around. There's some pretty spectacular pieces there, which you can see more of on their site, or even in person. Melissa and I were carrying 3 cameras, so we were able to get quite a few shots.
A lot of the work didn't really appeal to me as much as others, but that's how it is with art. One that I thought was really interesting was this strange maze made from giant wooden posts and pallet cellophane wrap. What was interesting was that you could almost see an intent that was there that was never quite realized. I wonder if the artist planned to make a full maze and realized that it was be impossible to do with the medium they chose. There was, amongst everything, a series of 'rooms', the doors to which got smaller and smaller, the last of which I couldn't get into, but contained merely 1 giant pillar in the center.
I found that the most interesting thing there was a shack that had been hung from large metal frame with some packing straps and rope. There was just something compelling about it.
There were several other pieces scattered about, but as I said, you'd do well to check out their website, or just take the drive to get a feel for it.
Finally, however, we got back on the road, and we were only a few minutes from Taylors Falls. We started rolling down into the river valley and Melissa was amazed at the view. Apparently she'd never been to Taylors Falls before, and never done the St. Croix for fall colors. So, she started taking shots out of the car window as we rolled down toward the Interstate State Park on the border of Wisconsin. This is one of the greatest places to go for fall colors for a few reasons. First, the scenery is gorgeous year round. On the Minnesota side of the St. Croix is mostly State Park and on the Wisconsin side is mostly Federal Forest land which basically means that there are a lot of trees and it's all protected.
We parked the car up the hill near the Taylors Falls Community Center and walked down to go under the interstate bridge into the State Park. Under the bridge was this interesting graf stencil. It's things like this that always have me curious. What is the meaning behind this? Who left it there?
We walked into the park and along the river and up the cliffs that line it. It was a big more of a climb that either of us were really dressed for, but it was still very much worth it.
One of those rare treats that are so-called because of their rareness occurred when I stumbled upon a pair random yellow snapdragons growing along the cliff side as we made our way up. I was hoping to get a better shot of it, but we were not in the best position to set up a good shot. I snapped what I could and continued up after my lady fair who was setting a pretty good pace in her platform style shoes.
We made our way back down the easy way (along the road) and then back under the bridge and up another hill where we parked. That's we found this sign, and the source of today's blog title. I don't know why I find these so funny, but I just can't read it logically without staring at it for a while.
We got back into the car and started driving north again. This time we just took random roads. I was trying to follow the St. Croix a bit, but whatever county road I ended up heading more west. We didn't really care though. At this point we just drove. We ended up on a dirt road and after a while we stumbled across a barn that had crumbled. From the road you could see the barn next to the silo, but it wasn't until we stopped and went back to take the photos of it that we saw the house set back in the trees.
This is one of those subjects I love shooting, and this was a pretty beautiful specimen. There's something about a place that someone lived in, that people may have grown old in, that families may have gone through live in. Then, for whatever reason they are gone, perhaps even forgotten, perhaps not. I always just wonder at the memories that must be contained in the walls.
After stopping, we drove again. Mostly north, but the roads would end and we'd be forced to take a right or left, so back and forth we went, crossing 35 again and again always following the signs to the next town. The trees lining the road gradually got more and more colorful.
Eventually we found ourselves in Hinckly where I spent some time in my youth. My Great-Great-Aunt Bernice (Maternal Grandmother's Maternal Aunt) lived in a tiny little house just down from Main St. and I felt compelled to drive by, just to see if it was still there. It was, and I was reminded of spending time there so many years ago. Going to the small creek just across the street where there is now a new playground, going to the city fair that was held just down the street. It's strange how little that part of the city has changed given the complete makeover the area just off the highway has received.
After this, neither of us felt all that interested in going home, so we headed up the highway a little further and got off on the next county road and continued to just drive. It was fantastic. The trees got more gorgeous until we couldn't see them in the darkness. It was colder that far north, less humid. And still we drove.
It was now very dark and very foggy. It wasn't the kind of fog that just made everything a little misty, this was a hanging, clinging fog you feel certain you could cut through. It made the few lights we saw cast incredible halos. Eventually we saw a light from overhead that we just had to find. A quick left turn presented us with a very interesting image. It was this military chopper, still adorned with mini-gun and rocket launchers mounted up on a stand. The warning lights spun green and then white over and over and with a long shutter speed, I was able to capture a reasonable idea of the effect. This was, by the way, the Moose Lake Carlton County Airport, though I'm not sure why there was a U.S. Military chopper mounted here, since I always see these as the place where local folk keep their toys. Perhaps, I mis-understand their place in the world.
After taking this shot, which I think made the whole trip worth it on it's own, we continued north. But we didn't go far, it was late and we were both pretty hungry. We'd decided earlier in the day that we wanted to try and find a small hole-in-wall type place to eat at, something other than your regular McDonald's or Perkins joint. Where we ended up at was a small joint called Art's Cafe in Moose Lake, which turned out to be very quaint. The food was alright, although nothing to write home about, the service was reasonable, a bit slow but pleasant at least, but mostly it was the ambiance. A large mural was painted on the wall featuring moose, a lake, a mountain, and one of the most poorly implemented waterfalls I've ever seen.
This, I think, was a great end to an amazing day. From Art's Cafe we found our way back on 35. Had we gone a little further north, only 45 miles, we would have been in Duluth, instead, we went south to make the approximately 115 mile trip home. Melissa fell asleep and we drove home in near silence.
A fantastic day.
Yesterday was the first time in several years I've gotten to make the drive to see the fall colors. I went with Melissa, and we more or less just drove north, it was wonderful day, and one I've been needing for a while. It was as close to an adventure as one might have these days.
Warning, there are a lot of photos in this post...
We started driving up 35W north to where it becomes just 35 and before long I saw the sign indicating Taylors Falls. It's been years since I've been there, and historically it's been a great place to see the beautiful fall colors.
Along the way, we drove past the Fraconia Sculpture Park and decided to stop and take a look around. There's some pretty spectacular pieces there, which you can see more of on their site, or even in person. Melissa and I were carrying 3 cameras, so we were able to get quite a few shots.
A lot of the work didn't really appeal to me as much as others, but that's how it is with art. One that I thought was really interesting was this strange maze made from giant wooden posts and pallet cellophane wrap. What was interesting was that you could almost see an intent that was there that was never quite realized. I wonder if the artist planned to make a full maze and realized that it was be impossible to do with the medium they chose. There was, amongst everything, a series of 'rooms', the doors to which got smaller and smaller, the last of which I couldn't get into, but contained merely 1 giant pillar in the center.
I found that the most interesting thing there was a shack that had been hung from large metal frame with some packing straps and rope. There was just something compelling about it.
There were several other pieces scattered about, but as I said, you'd do well to check out their website, or just take the drive to get a feel for it.
Finally, however, we got back on the road, and we were only a few minutes from Taylors Falls. We started rolling down into the river valley and Melissa was amazed at the view. Apparently she'd never been to Taylors Falls before, and never done the St. Croix for fall colors. So, she started taking shots out of the car window as we rolled down toward the Interstate State Park on the border of Wisconsin. This is one of the greatest places to go for fall colors for a few reasons. First, the scenery is gorgeous year round. On the Minnesota side of the St. Croix is mostly State Park and on the Wisconsin side is mostly Federal Forest land which basically means that there are a lot of trees and it's all protected.
We parked the car up the hill near the Taylors Falls Community Center and walked down to go under the interstate bridge into the State Park. Under the bridge was this interesting graf stencil. It's things like this that always have me curious. What is the meaning behind this? Who left it there?
We walked into the park and along the river and up the cliffs that line it. It was a big more of a climb that either of us were really dressed for, but it was still very much worth it.
One of those rare treats that are so-called because of their rareness occurred when I stumbled upon a pair random yellow snapdragons growing along the cliff side as we made our way up. I was hoping to get a better shot of it, but we were not in the best position to set up a good shot. I snapped what I could and continued up after my lady fair who was setting a pretty good pace in her platform style shoes.
We made our way back down the easy way (along the road) and then back under the bridge and up another hill where we parked. That's we found this sign, and the source of today's blog title. I don't know why I find these so funny, but I just can't read it logically without staring at it for a while.
We got back into the car and started driving north again. This time we just took random roads. I was trying to follow the St. Croix a bit, but whatever county road I ended up heading more west. We didn't really care though. At this point we just drove. We ended up on a dirt road and after a while we stumbled across a barn that had crumbled. From the road you could see the barn next to the silo, but it wasn't until we stopped and went back to take the photos of it that we saw the house set back in the trees.
This is one of those subjects I love shooting, and this was a pretty beautiful specimen. There's something about a place that someone lived in, that people may have grown old in, that families may have gone through live in. Then, for whatever reason they are gone, perhaps even forgotten, perhaps not. I always just wonder at the memories that must be contained in the walls.
After stopping, we drove again. Mostly north, but the roads would end and we'd be forced to take a right or left, so back and forth we went, crossing 35 again and again always following the signs to the next town. The trees lining the road gradually got more and more colorful.
Eventually we found ourselves in Hinckly where I spent some time in my youth. My Great-Great-Aunt Bernice (Maternal Grandmother's Maternal Aunt) lived in a tiny little house just down from Main St. and I felt compelled to drive by, just to see if it was still there. It was, and I was reminded of spending time there so many years ago. Going to the small creek just across the street where there is now a new playground, going to the city fair that was held just down the street. It's strange how little that part of the city has changed given the complete makeover the area just off the highway has received.
After this, neither of us felt all that interested in going home, so we headed up the highway a little further and got off on the next county road and continued to just drive. It was fantastic. The trees got more gorgeous until we couldn't see them in the darkness. It was colder that far north, less humid. And still we drove.
It was now very dark and very foggy. It wasn't the kind of fog that just made everything a little misty, this was a hanging, clinging fog you feel certain you could cut through. It made the few lights we saw cast incredible halos. Eventually we saw a light from overhead that we just had to find. A quick left turn presented us with a very interesting image. It was this military chopper, still adorned with mini-gun and rocket launchers mounted up on a stand. The warning lights spun green and then white over and over and with a long shutter speed, I was able to capture a reasonable idea of the effect. This was, by the way, the Moose Lake Carlton County Airport, though I'm not sure why there was a U.S. Military chopper mounted here, since I always see these as the place where local folk keep their toys. Perhaps, I mis-understand their place in the world.
After taking this shot, which I think made the whole trip worth it on it's own, we continued north. But we didn't go far, it was late and we were both pretty hungry. We'd decided earlier in the day that we wanted to try and find a small hole-in-wall type place to eat at, something other than your regular McDonald's or Perkins joint. Where we ended up at was a small joint called Art's Cafe in Moose Lake, which turned out to be very quaint. The food was alright, although nothing to write home about, the service was reasonable, a bit slow but pleasant at least, but mostly it was the ambiance. A large mural was painted on the wall featuring moose, a lake, a mountain, and one of the most poorly implemented waterfalls I've ever seen.
This, I think, was a great end to an amazing day. From Art's Cafe we found our way back on 35. Had we gone a little further north, only 45 miles, we would have been in Duluth, instead, we went south to make the approximately 115 mile trip home. Melissa fell asleep and we drove home in near silence.
A fantastic day.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Consecutive posts?
Not quite...
But close. I'm doing better than I have anyway. There's only a few things I really wanted to talk about today, and then you can be on your way...
Zune 2!
Alright, the more I look at it, the more excited I am about the new Zunes and Zune software. Microsoft confirmed the rumors, there are new Zunes and us long time Zune owners are getting upgraded software so that the only drawback to owning the original Zune would be the fact that they are big.
If you're interested, there's a great write-up on Wired's site that gets pretty in depth about not only the hardware, but the whole Microsoft plan for the Zune. There's some interesting things happening with the Zune brand, and I'm really glad to see that Microsoft is being very bullheaded about it. I did worry that the pitiful initial sales and slumping sales in the industry coupled with the killer selection that Apple has would keep them from trying to compete, perhaps just sweeping the massive Zune bricks under the rug like a toddler cleans their room.
If I've now convinced you to join the social, you can pre-order the new Zunes on Amazon's site.
Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane
I said I was going to watch this. I said I was excited and that I thought it would be terrible.
I wasn't disappointed!
To say that this movie was terrible would be putting it mildly. I was actually amazed by the quality of some of the effects. I love to see these movies that are this bad intentionally. The acting was terrible, which seemed very intentional in some cases (such as Erick Avari, who's been in at least one episode of every television show that has ever aired, ever).
All I can say is that this is a brilliantly done splatter festival with Zombies galore. It's silly, fun, and everything one hopes for in a Zombie flick.
Cheap 40GB PS3?
Alright, I can't help but laugh when articles like this show up. Apparently a 40GB PlayStation 3 has shown up in the UPC Database.
What does this mean? Well, it means that there will be a cheaper PS3 hitting the market. Maybe, just maybe what it means is that Sony has finally accepted that they need to at least pretend to be competitive. Is is possible that Sony has realized that not every gamer can just pony-up near infinite sums of money to play the 'best system', even if it has their name on it.
Of course, the best part of this is that it turns out that there's....
A free Public UPC Database?
It's pretty neat. Here are a few things on my desk that I could check....
Vitamins
Coke
Sprite
Door Chain (It didn't know what it was, but it knew who made it, which is still interesting...)
Altoids Cinnamon
Altoids Wintergreen
A book
Anyway... let's move on...
Parallel Universes Exist?
If you know me, you know that this shit just fascinates me!
Gogol Bordello
You would do well to check these guys out! Gypsy Punk?!?! YES! Mike made me do it, blame him! Insanity!
And with that...
I shall bid you all, adieu!
But close. I'm doing better than I have anyway. There's only a few things I really wanted to talk about today, and then you can be on your way...
Zune 2!
Alright, the more I look at it, the more excited I am about the new Zunes and Zune software. Microsoft confirmed the rumors, there are new Zunes and us long time Zune owners are getting upgraded software so that the only drawback to owning the original Zune would be the fact that they are big.
If you're interested, there's a great write-up on Wired's site that gets pretty in depth about not only the hardware, but the whole Microsoft plan for the Zune. There's some interesting things happening with the Zune brand, and I'm really glad to see that Microsoft is being very bullheaded about it. I did worry that the pitiful initial sales and slumping sales in the industry coupled with the killer selection that Apple has would keep them from trying to compete, perhaps just sweeping the massive Zune bricks under the rug like a toddler cleans their room.
If I've now convinced you to join the social, you can pre-order the new Zunes on Amazon's site.
Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane
I said I was going to watch this. I said I was excited and that I thought it would be terrible.
I wasn't disappointed!
To say that this movie was terrible would be putting it mildly. I was actually amazed by the quality of some of the effects. I love to see these movies that are this bad intentionally. The acting was terrible, which seemed very intentional in some cases (such as Erick Avari, who's been in at least one episode of every television show that has ever aired, ever).
All I can say is that this is a brilliantly done splatter festival with Zombies galore. It's silly, fun, and everything one hopes for in a Zombie flick.
Cheap 40GB PS3?
Alright, I can't help but laugh when articles like this show up. Apparently a 40GB PlayStation 3 has shown up in the UPC Database.
What does this mean? Well, it means that there will be a cheaper PS3 hitting the market. Maybe, just maybe what it means is that Sony has finally accepted that they need to at least pretend to be competitive. Is is possible that Sony has realized that not every gamer can just pony-up near infinite sums of money to play the 'best system', even if it has their name on it.
Of course, the best part of this is that it turns out that there's....
A free Public UPC Database?
It's pretty neat. Here are a few things on my desk that I could check....
Vitamins
Coke
Sprite
Door Chain (It didn't know what it was, but it knew who made it, which is still interesting...)
Altoids Cinnamon
Altoids Wintergreen
A book
Anyway... let's move on...
Parallel Universes Exist?
If you know me, you know that this shit just fascinates me!
Gogol Bordello
You would do well to check these guys out! Gypsy Punk?!?! YES! Mike made me do it, blame him! Insanity!
And with that...
I shall bid you all, adieu!
Monday, October 1, 2007
And I still haven't mentioned....
It's the best season! Fall has come to visit again, and while it's short lived, it remains the best season of the year. There's nothing like the crisp cool mornings, warm days with cool breezes that carry colorful leaves. HAPPY OCTOBER!!!
I meant what I said.
Time...
Is still not on my side, but I am making a real effort to blog. Of course, I don't want it to go to your head that I'm doing this just for you. I do this for me, because after a while, I've had so much information built up I feel like I might explode. Trust me, this is better than running around telling people about the new game, or the big movie blockbuster. So, read on.... I'm going to type it anyway.
Heroes
Amazing! Well, not quite as great as I'd been hoping, but I'm pretty happy so far. I'm glad that we haven't caught up with Nikki yet. I'm mildly entertained by Hiro's story, but I'm upset that his father died without us seeing what his power was. Of course, we know it's not flight or regeneration, which is good since they felt the need to reuse those powers already...
Alright, so maybe I'm a bit salty from the fact that they've already run out of powers. That seems so asinine. I understand that they might need Claire's new boyfriend to fly so he can spy on her, but it seems like they could have done something a bit more interesting, and Hiro's hero can regenerate, really? That's just sad. The writers can't possibly have plumbed the depths of their creativity, can they? I can only assume they are trying to show that each power is not entirely unique, that there is likely to be multiple people all around the world that can do new things. I hope that's their plan.
Either way, Peter's amnesia seems like a bit of a cop-out, but I'll take it, thought only because of the adorable Irish accents. I'm confused by Parkman's new found ability to not remember everything that's happened over the last season, although I could be wrong about that.
The Suresh / HRG taking down 'The Company' scheme is a bit odd. Why do I say that? Because 'The Compay' seems to be stupid now, how could that be? The last season we were led to believe that 'The Company' was nearly omnipotent, and suddenly they don't remember the Haitian that was so near and dear to HRG? They send Suresh to help the guy who supposedly kidnapped Claire in the last season and shot HRG. So, it's no hard feelings? If the company can know the Haitian was sick, then they should be a bit more on top of things.
Oh well. I was very happy with the last season, and so far I'm pleased with this season, I'm holding out hope that they get things rolling a bit more in the next couple weeks.
Look what my Girlfriend found!
Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane! I'm so excited about this movie, I can't even express it in a healthy way. Zombies on a Plane! ZoaP! The only thing that could be better than Snakes on a Plane!
New Zune
Yep, it seems that there's actually going to be new Zunes released as the article seems to confirm the rumors. This one seems to have been kept pretty quiet, unlike the original Zune. Of course, I think it's because Apple just dropped their new Nano and iPod Touch. I got a chance to hold the new Nano the other day, and it is pretty fucking impressive, and now that I've discovered the iPod Touch has all the features of the iPhone without the actual phone (that is WiFi + Music + Video = Neat), I'm actually interested in getting one, if only it wasn't solid state memory, or at least solid state flash memory that supported my entire library.
Either way, there are new Zunes coming, and by the looks of things, they're still not that impressive. (Note, I'm still a very happy Zune owner, and I've had zero problems with mine). It appears that there will be new HDD units as well as flash based models with this release.
Maybe a few more people will 'join the social' as it were.
(Note: There's more 'confirmation' that there will be a big firmware update to give the old zunes a bit more life.
30 Year Laptop Battery
Holy hell! That's really all I can say. A laptop battery that will last 30 years. I've been a little picky about my 2.5-3.5 hours I get on this machine, but I never imagined that kind of leap. Best of all, it's all green, that is, environmentally friendly. They're called 'betavoltaic cells', but really, you should just check out the article.
Of course, I for one will take the whole thing with a grain of salt. As a whole, I find that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But, if we can all be running around with affordable radioactive laptops, so be it.
And with that...
I'm off to finish watching Jay Leno reading the headlines... good times.
Good night internet!
Is still not on my side, but I am making a real effort to blog. Of course, I don't want it to go to your head that I'm doing this just for you. I do this for me, because after a while, I've had so much information built up I feel like I might explode. Trust me, this is better than running around telling people about the new game, or the big movie blockbuster. So, read on.... I'm going to type it anyway.
Heroes
Amazing! Well, not quite as great as I'd been hoping, but I'm pretty happy so far. I'm glad that we haven't caught up with Nikki yet. I'm mildly entertained by Hiro's story, but I'm upset that his father died without us seeing what his power was. Of course, we know it's not flight or regeneration, which is good since they felt the need to reuse those powers already...
Alright, so maybe I'm a bit salty from the fact that they've already run out of powers. That seems so asinine. I understand that they might need Claire's new boyfriend to fly so he can spy on her, but it seems like they could have done something a bit more interesting, and Hiro's hero can regenerate, really? That's just sad. The writers can't possibly have plumbed the depths of their creativity, can they? I can only assume they are trying to show that each power is not entirely unique, that there is likely to be multiple people all around the world that can do new things. I hope that's their plan.
Either way, Peter's amnesia seems like a bit of a cop-out, but I'll take it, thought only because of the adorable Irish accents. I'm confused by Parkman's new found ability to not remember everything that's happened over the last season, although I could be wrong about that.
The Suresh / HRG taking down 'The Company' scheme is a bit odd. Why do I say that? Because 'The Compay' seems to be stupid now, how could that be? The last season we were led to believe that 'The Company' was nearly omnipotent, and suddenly they don't remember the Haitian that was so near and dear to HRG? They send Suresh to help the guy who supposedly kidnapped Claire in the last season and shot HRG. So, it's no hard feelings? If the company can know the Haitian was sick, then they should be a bit more on top of things.
Oh well. I was very happy with the last season, and so far I'm pleased with this season, I'm holding out hope that they get things rolling a bit more in the next couple weeks.
Look what my Girlfriend found!
Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane! I'm so excited about this movie, I can't even express it in a healthy way. Zombies on a Plane! ZoaP! The only thing that could be better than Snakes on a Plane!
New Zune
Yep, it seems that there's actually going to be new Zunes released as the article seems to confirm the rumors. This one seems to have been kept pretty quiet, unlike the original Zune. Of course, I think it's because Apple just dropped their new Nano and iPod Touch. I got a chance to hold the new Nano the other day, and it is pretty fucking impressive, and now that I've discovered the iPod Touch has all the features of the iPhone without the actual phone (that is WiFi + Music + Video = Neat), I'm actually interested in getting one, if only it wasn't solid state memory, or at least solid state flash memory that supported my entire library.
Either way, there are new Zunes coming, and by the looks of things, they're still not that impressive. (Note, I'm still a very happy Zune owner, and I've had zero problems with mine). It appears that there will be new HDD units as well as flash based models with this release.
Maybe a few more people will 'join the social' as it were.
(Note: There's more 'confirmation' that there will be a big firmware update to give the old zunes a bit more life.
30 Year Laptop Battery
Holy hell! That's really all I can say. A laptop battery that will last 30 years. I've been a little picky about my 2.5-3.5 hours I get on this machine, but I never imagined that kind of leap. Best of all, it's all green, that is, environmentally friendly. They're called 'betavoltaic cells', but really, you should just check out the article.
Of course, I for one will take the whole thing with a grain of salt. As a whole, I find that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But, if we can all be running around with affordable radioactive laptops, so be it.
And with that...
I'm off to finish watching Jay Leno reading the headlines... good times.
Good night internet!
Sunday, September 30, 2007
I wish I could say...
I wish I could say...
that I was back. I wish this was my triumphant grand return, a massive blog post cataloging my more than a month and a half absence. I wish that I could say that I was sorry and then catch you up on all the things that have been happening.
Unfortunately, want of a thing doesn't make it so. However, I can tell you...that I haven't forgotten about you. I want to blog constantly, I just haven't had the time.
Firstly, I've been dead broke, and without having any other choice, and trust me, I've exhausted every means available, I've needed to get a second job. I started delivering pizzas, a great second job because you can make good tip money and the hours are good as an opposite of a day job. I wouldn't say I enjoy it, but it accomplishes what it needs to.
That has left my with very little free time. Even though I only picked up 3-4 shifts a week, it's still hard to find any extra time. What little extra time I've had, I've devoted to my kids and Melissa. I hope it goes without saying that I've had to cut back on some of the things I do in my spare time, and unfortunately, one of those things is blogging.
I've still found time to watch movies, play games, read, write, and such like, but I have less time to do them, and even less time to talk about it. I've still been keeping up on as much current news and information as I can, but I can't tell you what I think about it.
Now, a week and a half ago, I injured myself at my day job. It was a lower back injury, which left me on pain meds and muscle relaxers. Being laid up and drugged up meant that I wasn't in a good position to drive around and deliver pizzas to people. When I called to explain this, I was told that I needed to cover my shifts or I would have to come in. I haven't spoken to them since.
I know I could have easily fought it, I know that I they were in the wrong, but I just wasn't up to dealing with it at the time. At this point, I'm ready to find another pizza joint to drive for, and I imagine that will only take me another week.
Since I had this breather, it seemed like it would be a good idea to post. I have to take the opportunities as they come.
In other news, things with the girlfriend and I have been going great, really great, which is good since she practically lives with me now. I've honestly not been this happy is a very long time.
I've started playing the great Bioshock, which is a pretty amazing game, although I'm already starting to find some components repetitive. The graphics are spectacular, but I do think the lack of variety in the enemies is a little annoying. The concept, however, is excellent, I love the feel of a retro sci-fi environment. I'm going to finish it at least once because I'm that interested in finding out how the story ends.
As to movies, I've seen a lot of movies in the last couple months. I doubt that I will ever have time to review them all, but I wish that I could. I want to talk about two more recent jaunts, though.
First, Resident Evil 3: Extinction. The third installment of this movie surprised me quite a bit. I won't say it's the best of the series, but it's on par for sure. It's the first threequel that I've seen in a long while that I've enjoyed. And, the plain and simple truth is that they've come a long way with the Resident Evil storyline from the original game, and the original dialog.
I wish I could find this with the original gameplay video as well, because it's the funniest thing that I've ever enjoyed. Now, I've been playing and enjoying Resident Evil since the original PSOne version, so I would say I'm a pretty die hard fan, but I've been really impressed with the quality of the movies compared to the games. At least, they are much less convoluted, for sure.
Anyway, the other movie I wanted to mention was Stardust. I really enjoyed it, a lot more than I expected too. It's a great story that's well done. Of course, I was a little reluctant to go at first, but that's because I didn't realize it was Neil Gaiman's work. I would really recommend catching it in the cheap theater before it's gone, like I did, or else, I would guess it will be out on video soon.
There's a lot more I'd love to cover, but right now I'm exhausted, and I feel the need to cuddle up with the girlfriend. I'm hoping to update a bit more frequently now, though not with the gusto I used to. We'll just play it by ear.
P.S. Melissa and I have added to our 'family'.
Meet Nelly and Ginger, a pair of young cavies, or more commonly known as guinea pigs. They are wonderful little critters and have been added to the family as my home becomes more and more like a zoo.
See you soon, I hope.
that I was back. I wish this was my triumphant grand return, a massive blog post cataloging my more than a month and a half absence. I wish that I could say that I was sorry and then catch you up on all the things that have been happening.
Unfortunately, want of a thing doesn't make it so. However, I can tell you...that I haven't forgotten about you. I want to blog constantly, I just haven't had the time.
Firstly, I've been dead broke, and without having any other choice, and trust me, I've exhausted every means available, I've needed to get a second job. I started delivering pizzas, a great second job because you can make good tip money and the hours are good as an opposite of a day job. I wouldn't say I enjoy it, but it accomplishes what it needs to.
That has left my with very little free time. Even though I only picked up 3-4 shifts a week, it's still hard to find any extra time. What little extra time I've had, I've devoted to my kids and Melissa. I hope it goes without saying that I've had to cut back on some of the things I do in my spare time, and unfortunately, one of those things is blogging.
I've still found time to watch movies, play games, read, write, and such like, but I have less time to do them, and even less time to talk about it. I've still been keeping up on as much current news and information as I can, but I can't tell you what I think about it.
Now, a week and a half ago, I injured myself at my day job. It was a lower back injury, which left me on pain meds and muscle relaxers. Being laid up and drugged up meant that I wasn't in a good position to drive around and deliver pizzas to people. When I called to explain this, I was told that I needed to cover my shifts or I would have to come in. I haven't spoken to them since.
I know I could have easily fought it, I know that I they were in the wrong, but I just wasn't up to dealing with it at the time. At this point, I'm ready to find another pizza joint to drive for, and I imagine that will only take me another week.
Since I had this breather, it seemed like it would be a good idea to post. I have to take the opportunities as they come.
In other news, things with the girlfriend and I have been going great, really great, which is good since she practically lives with me now. I've honestly not been this happy is a very long time.
I've started playing the great Bioshock, which is a pretty amazing game, although I'm already starting to find some components repetitive. The graphics are spectacular, but I do think the lack of variety in the enemies is a little annoying. The concept, however, is excellent, I love the feel of a retro sci-fi environment. I'm going to finish it at least once because I'm that interested in finding out how the story ends.
As to movies, I've seen a lot of movies in the last couple months. I doubt that I will ever have time to review them all, but I wish that I could. I want to talk about two more recent jaunts, though.
First, Resident Evil 3: Extinction. The third installment of this movie surprised me quite a bit. I won't say it's the best of the series, but it's on par for sure. It's the first threequel that I've seen in a long while that I've enjoyed. And, the plain and simple truth is that they've come a long way with the Resident Evil storyline from the original game, and the original dialog.
I wish I could find this with the original gameplay video as well, because it's the funniest thing that I've ever enjoyed. Now, I've been playing and enjoying Resident Evil since the original PSOne version, so I would say I'm a pretty die hard fan, but I've been really impressed with the quality of the movies compared to the games. At least, they are much less convoluted, for sure.
Anyway, the other movie I wanted to mention was Stardust. I really enjoyed it, a lot more than I expected too. It's a great story that's well done. Of course, I was a little reluctant to go at first, but that's because I didn't realize it was Neil Gaiman's work. I would really recommend catching it in the cheap theater before it's gone, like I did, or else, I would guess it will be out on video soon.
There's a lot more I'd love to cover, but right now I'm exhausted, and I feel the need to cuddle up with the girlfriend. I'm hoping to update a bit more frequently now, though not with the gusto I used to. We'll just play it by ear.
P.S. Melissa and I have added to our 'family'.
Meet Nelly and Ginger, a pair of young cavies, or more commonly known as guinea pigs. They are wonderful little critters and have been added to the family as my home becomes more and more like a zoo.
See you soon, I hope.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Enemy of the State
Enemy of the State, which I just got done watching again, is still one of the best movies of all time in terms of 'spy v. spy' type stuff.
Food for thought?
I've never understood that...
Food for thought? It's just never made sense to me. I mean, I get the basic concept, but where does it come from. Who actually thought to say, "food for thought" thinking that it was a logical statement.
There's a lot to be said of things that I've been doing of late. I haven't had a lot of time for the web. But, there's a few things I've done that I feel I should mention, which is why I'm blogging.
Wow. I started writing this post a couple weeks ago, and I've just found a few minutes to try and type.
I'm in some dire straights at the moment, in terms of money anyway. I'm in the process of trying to find a second job, which is something I've not wanted to do. However, I don't have a lot of choice at the moment. It's not that big of a deal, because I've worked 60 to 80 hrs a week in the past, so it isn't that I can't do it. It's more the principle, at this point in my life, I'd like to be past needing to work two jobs to make ends meet.
Of course, I will do what I need to do. And it's not that I've never known people in even better positions than myself who've done it as well. It's just frustrating. Hopefully, though, it will only be a year or so, and I'll finally be where I want to be. Out of debt.
The way that I figure it, there's 168 hours in the week. If I'm working 80 and sleeping for 40, that leaves me 38 hours a week for everything else. It's not as nice as having nearly 80 hours a week of free time. Of course, no matter what you do, it never feels like you have as much free time as you do time at work.
In News of Movies
My God! I can't even remember the last time that I updated you on the movies I'd seen. I think I might have mentioned how bad the Transformers was, but I don't think I've talked about The Simpsons, or Harry Potter.
I've actually been watching a lot of movies, mostly due to the fact that I haven't had the money to do much of anything else lately. I watched the first two Bourne movies yesterday, and realized, again, how great they are. I absolutely love them, even if I generally hate Matt Damon. I'm hoping to get out and see the new one very soon.
The new Harry Potter is pretty good, but I was pretty upset at the sheer volume of cop-out montages. Considering the fact that The Order of the Phoenix is longest of all the books, it's ridiculous that they would make the movie the shortest of the series to date. Apart from that, however, it was a pretty great movie. I was really hoping that they would done more with the Weasly Twin's spectacular departure from Hogwarts, but I could even over look that and accept the movie.
The Simpsons, however, just pissed me off. It wasn't near what I was hoping for. Considering how long the damn thing had been in productions, it's ridiculous to me that they could have done such a pathetic job with it. It was basically just a really long episode that had nearly nothing they couldn't and hadn't done on the network, save Homer flicking off the entire town and Bart's exposed penis. And, I can say that neither of those were really so risque that I was wowed. I was very disappointed.
I've also gotten to see a few more of the After Dark Horrorfest series films. Specifically Wicked Little Things, Reincarnation (RINNE) (From the director of The Grudge and the Grudge 2), and The Gravedancers. That means that I have seen all of them except The Abandoned, and Dark Ride.
As to what the quality, I really enjoyed Reincarnation, however, The Gravedancers was terrible and Wicked Little Things was only mediocre. But, overall, I enjoyed them, as a whole, I still stand by my thought that I would have loved to go to the actual Festivle, maybe I'll make it out this year, the new Horrorfest is supposed to be November 9-18 with 8 More Films to Die For.
That's it... for now.
There's a lot more for me to talk about but I haven't got the time right now, but I'm sure that you could have guessed that I don't have a lot of time these days.... what time I do have I don't want to spend typing here.
Later.
Food for thought? It's just never made sense to me. I mean, I get the basic concept, but where does it come from. Who actually thought to say, "food for thought" thinking that it was a logical statement.
There's a lot to be said of things that I've been doing of late. I haven't had a lot of time for the web. But, there's a few things I've done that I feel I should mention, which is why I'm blogging.
Wow. I started writing this post a couple weeks ago, and I've just found a few minutes to try and type.
I'm in some dire straights at the moment, in terms of money anyway. I'm in the process of trying to find a second job, which is something I've not wanted to do. However, I don't have a lot of choice at the moment. It's not that big of a deal, because I've worked 60 to 80 hrs a week in the past, so it isn't that I can't do it. It's more the principle, at this point in my life, I'd like to be past needing to work two jobs to make ends meet.
Of course, I will do what I need to do. And it's not that I've never known people in even better positions than myself who've done it as well. It's just frustrating. Hopefully, though, it will only be a year or so, and I'll finally be where I want to be. Out of debt.
The way that I figure it, there's 168 hours in the week. If I'm working 80 and sleeping for 40, that leaves me 38 hours a week for everything else. It's not as nice as having nearly 80 hours a week of free time. Of course, no matter what you do, it never feels like you have as much free time as you do time at work.
In News of Movies
My God! I can't even remember the last time that I updated you on the movies I'd seen. I think I might have mentioned how bad the Transformers was, but I don't think I've talked about The Simpsons, or Harry Potter.
I've actually been watching a lot of movies, mostly due to the fact that I haven't had the money to do much of anything else lately. I watched the first two Bourne movies yesterday, and realized, again, how great they are. I absolutely love them, even if I generally hate Matt Damon. I'm hoping to get out and see the new one very soon.
The new Harry Potter is pretty good, but I was pretty upset at the sheer volume of cop-out montages. Considering the fact that The Order of the Phoenix is longest of all the books, it's ridiculous that they would make the movie the shortest of the series to date. Apart from that, however, it was a pretty great movie. I was really hoping that they would done more with the Weasly Twin's spectacular departure from Hogwarts, but I could even over look that and accept the movie.
The Simpsons, however, just pissed me off. It wasn't near what I was hoping for. Considering how long the damn thing had been in productions, it's ridiculous to me that they could have done such a pathetic job with it. It was basically just a really long episode that had nearly nothing they couldn't and hadn't done on the network, save Homer flicking off the entire town and Bart's exposed penis. And, I can say that neither of those were really so risque that I was wowed. I was very disappointed.
I've also gotten to see a few more of the After Dark Horrorfest series films. Specifically Wicked Little Things, Reincarnation (RINNE) (From the director of The Grudge and the Grudge 2), and The Gravedancers. That means that I have seen all of them except The Abandoned, and Dark Ride.
As to what the quality, I really enjoyed Reincarnation, however, The Gravedancers was terrible and Wicked Little Things was only mediocre. But, overall, I enjoyed them, as a whole, I still stand by my thought that I would have loved to go to the actual Festivle, maybe I'll make it out this year, the new Horrorfest is supposed to be November 9-18 with 8 More Films to Die For.
That's it... for now.
There's a lot more for me to talk about but I haven't got the time right now, but I'm sure that you could have guessed that I don't have a lot of time these days.... what time I do have I don't want to spend typing here.
Later.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Checking...
... in.
So it's been a couple days since I got back. I was sunburned all to shit, which left me feeling sick as hell. I'm feeling a bit better, though getting up at extremely early the last few days has me tired.
It's also worth noting that I've decided... to quit smoking again. This time, however, I'm going at it hard. I've gone from smoking between 3/4 to 1 1/2 pack a day to 4 per day the last two days and I've only smoked 2 today. I'm cranky, that's for damn sure, but I can tell that the cravings are already getting less than they were. I'm just hoping that I can stay quit this time...
Anyway, I've got around to to uploading some images.
Check them out if you'd like.
You can see some of the great beauty that is Northern Minnesota. You can see the Soudan Mine as well.
I had a great time, and really wish I could have stayed longer.
In other news, I'm almost done with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Not bad so far, but definitely far different than I expected.
So it's been a couple days since I got back. I was sunburned all to shit, which left me feeling sick as hell. I'm feeling a bit better, though getting up at extremely early the last few days has me tired.
It's also worth noting that I've decided... to quit smoking again. This time, however, I'm going at it hard. I've gone from smoking between 3/4 to 1 1/2 pack a day to 4 per day the last two days and I've only smoked 2 today. I'm cranky, that's for damn sure, but I can tell that the cravings are already getting less than they were. I'm just hoping that I can stay quit this time...
Anyway, I've got around to to uploading some images.
 |
| Vacation |
Check them out if you'd like.
You can see some of the great beauty that is Northern Minnesota. You can see the Soudan Mine as well.
I had a great time, and really wish I could have stayed longer.
In other news, I'm almost done with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Not bad so far, but definitely far different than I expected.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Hello Interwebs
It's been a little while... actually, it's been almost two weeks, which is more than a little while really. I've been pretty busy... took some vacation time and actually went somewhere, and I've been overall just not interested in blogging.
Now, the problem is that I've got a ton of things to blog about, and still nearly no time what-so-ever to do so. I've also been wanting to get some writing done, having recently been somewhat inspired to do so, and I'm really not seeing it happening.
I will do a quick run-down on what it is that I've been up to.
First of all. I went with my girlfriend on what she calls her 'family vacation'. It's basically a reunion of about 70 family members at one location that they generally invade. It involves tons of aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. All of these are combined with various types of watercraft at a multi-cabin resort and copious amounts of alcohol. It's spread out over the course of a week.
Oh, and her family is just a little bit crazy. Although, I have to admit, everyone's family is a little bit crazy. You just get used to each individual family's crazy after a while.
Really, they're not bad at all.
So, this vacation runs from Friday through Friday, and due to a lack of usable vacation time, and not wanting to miss out on seeing my kids for a week, I wasn't able to go for the entire time. But, I went from Friday through today and had a pretty good time. I drove back down today.
The "resort" we stayed at was Arcadia Lodge. I used quotation marks because of the fact that Arcadia Lodge is only slightly a resort. It's the first year that they've been there, and I truly hope they don't do it again. First of all, their beach, which isn't much of a beach, actually has posted hours. None of the amenities are very impressive in person, and the cabins main feature is paper thin walls and tin roofs. It's not a terrible place, but given the price list on their website, I wouldn't really recommend it.
It's about a 4 hour drive, and after driving back, I'm pretty exhausted, so I will be stopping there. I have a lot of things to catch up, even though I've only been out of touch since Thursday morning, but, thems are the breaks.
I have some photos that I will try and post up, but I didn't have a lot of camera time, being that I didn't want to take it with me everywhere where I might lose or break it. I will try and get up some pictures from our trip over to Tower, MN, and the Soudan Underground Mine. I got some decent shots there before my batteries died, so I will try to get those posted up. I'm proud of myself because I overcame my rediculous claustrophobia and took the tour which involves packing into a tiny 60 year old elevator on a cable and plummeting at some 15+ mph over half a mile into the earth. It would be interesting to go back and check out the tour of the U of M's Physics Experiments, however it would involve going down in that elevator again.
On another note, there's one thing I can't just let go by yet. I can't beleive they're making a Thundercats movie. Actually, I can believe it, I would just prefer not to.
Now, the problem is that I've got a ton of things to blog about, and still nearly no time what-so-ever to do so. I've also been wanting to get some writing done, having recently been somewhat inspired to do so, and I'm really not seeing it happening.
I will do a quick run-down on what it is that I've been up to.
First of all. I went with my girlfriend on what she calls her 'family vacation'. It's basically a reunion of about 70 family members at one location that they generally invade. It involves tons of aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. All of these are combined with various types of watercraft at a multi-cabin resort and copious amounts of alcohol. It's spread out over the course of a week.
Oh, and her family is just a little bit crazy. Although, I have to admit, everyone's family is a little bit crazy. You just get used to each individual family's crazy after a while.
Really, they're not bad at all.
So, this vacation runs from Friday through Friday, and due to a lack of usable vacation time, and not wanting to miss out on seeing my kids for a week, I wasn't able to go for the entire time. But, I went from Friday through today and had a pretty good time. I drove back down today.
The "resort" we stayed at was Arcadia Lodge. I used quotation marks because of the fact that Arcadia Lodge is only slightly a resort. It's the first year that they've been there, and I truly hope they don't do it again. First of all, their beach, which isn't much of a beach, actually has posted hours. None of the amenities are very impressive in person, and the cabins main feature is paper thin walls and tin roofs. It's not a terrible place, but given the price list on their website, I wouldn't really recommend it.
It's about a 4 hour drive, and after driving back, I'm pretty exhausted, so I will be stopping there. I have a lot of things to catch up, even though I've only been out of touch since Thursday morning, but, thems are the breaks.
I have some photos that I will try and post up, but I didn't have a lot of camera time, being that I didn't want to take it with me everywhere where I might lose or break it. I will try and get up some pictures from our trip over to Tower, MN, and the Soudan Underground Mine. I got some decent shots there before my batteries died, so I will try to get those posted up. I'm proud of myself because I overcame my rediculous claustrophobia and took the tour which involves packing into a tiny 60 year old elevator on a cable and plummeting at some 15+ mph over half a mile into the earth. It would be interesting to go back and check out the tour of the U of M's Physics Experiments, however it would involve going down in that elevator again.
On another note, there's one thing I can't just let go by yet. I can't beleive they're making a Thundercats movie. Actually, I can believe it, I would just prefer not to.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
I do things oddly....
And you know this!
Quoted for truth. Copyright © 2007 Melissa Kay Gagner. All rights reserved.
... Anyway, I thought what I had just written was pretty funny, but I had to delete it.
READ ON FOR MORE!!! (Of something else...)
Openmoko: The Open Source Phone
Forget the iPhone. Well, you can't really forget it, the internet is determined that it needs to be crammed down your throat. But, even if you don't forget the iPhone, take a look at it's competition, Openmoko Neo 1973.
Openmoko is an open source, Linux based, button-less cellphone. Don't let the open source title make you think it's free, it's not free, this bad boy will set you back $300. However, you might want to bear a few things in mind.
What things? First, this is Linux based, so there are plenty of free apps you can use on the phone, and there will be plenty developed. It uses both a touch (fingers) and stylus input. It uses MicroSD, so you can get up to 2GB of storage (though it comes with 512MB, as a matter of fact, you'd do well to see what else it comes with). It's also unlocked for any service, so you can call your company upon receipt and have yourself a working phone right away, the $300 price tag for this thing doesn't require a contract discount. It has a gorgeous looking 2.8" screen that has an amazing 640x480 resolution.
What this thing can do is nearly unlimited. Honestly, it's a pretty amazing looking piece of hardware, and I am strongly considering picking one up. The only thing that I don't like is that while it has open Bluetooth and USB connectivity, it does not have WiFi, which I would really like to have on my next phone. The next iteration, expected in a few months at a price of $450, will have an 802.11 adapter, 3-D Motion Sensors, and added graphics accelerators. Maybe I'll save my pennies and see what the next version brings.
Maybe it won't turn heads quite like the iPhone, at least not without explanation, but I would prefer personal satisfaction to a status symbol.
WoW on the iPhone?
Wow, WoW is lame, and playing on your iPhone is lamer. See it happen.
Wish I'd thought about this before....
The US Postal Service will actually give you free shipping materials.
'93 Lincoln Mark VIII w/ Rolling Door Concept.
I really wish this had gone to production. It's a great concept, and would love to do something like that with my car.
Pr0n and it's Relation to Your Social Life
This graph is pretty funny, and eerily accurate I think.
Light Graffiti
This is actually really impressive. I'd love to give it a try some time. All you need is some lights and do some time lapse. I think. I don't think it matters much how you do it, j
Little People
These are some interesting photos. I've seen some like them before, but it's still an interesting concept.
That's it for today.
I know that it's been a little weak this time around, but you know I'll keep coming back. As long as there is people on the interwebs looking, I'll be here.
Quoted for truth. Copyright © 2007 Melissa Kay Gagner. All rights reserved.
... Anyway, I thought what I had just written was pretty funny, but I had to delete it.
READ ON FOR MORE!!! (Of something else...)
Openmoko: The Open Source Phone
Forget the iPhone. Well, you can't really forget it, the internet is determined that it needs to be crammed down your throat. But, even if you don't forget the iPhone, take a look at it's competition, Openmoko Neo 1973.
Openmoko is an open source, Linux based, button-less cellphone. Don't let the open source title make you think it's free, it's not free, this bad boy will set you back $300. However, you might want to bear a few things in mind.
What things? First, this is Linux based, so there are plenty of free apps you can use on the phone, and there will be plenty developed. It uses both a touch (fingers) and stylus input. It uses MicroSD, so you can get up to 2GB of storage (though it comes with 512MB, as a matter of fact, you'd do well to see what else it comes with). It's also unlocked for any service, so you can call your company upon receipt and have yourself a working phone right away, the $300 price tag for this thing doesn't require a contract discount. It has a gorgeous looking 2.8" screen that has an amazing 640x480 resolution.
What this thing can do is nearly unlimited. Honestly, it's a pretty amazing looking piece of hardware, and I am strongly considering picking one up. The only thing that I don't like is that while it has open Bluetooth and USB connectivity, it does not have WiFi, which I would really like to have on my next phone. The next iteration, expected in a few months at a price of $450, will have an 802.11 adapter, 3-D Motion Sensors, and added graphics accelerators. Maybe I'll save my pennies and see what the next version brings.
Maybe it won't turn heads quite like the iPhone, at least not without explanation, but I would prefer personal satisfaction to a status symbol.
WoW on the iPhone?
Wow, WoW is lame, and playing on your iPhone is lamer. See it happen.
Wish I'd thought about this before....
The US Postal Service will actually give you free shipping materials.
'93 Lincoln Mark VIII w/ Rolling Door Concept.
I really wish this had gone to production. It's a great concept, and would love to do something like that with my car.
Pr0n and it's Relation to Your Social Life
This graph is pretty funny, and eerily accurate I think.
Light Graffiti
This is actually really impressive. I'd love to give it a try some time. All you need is some lights and do some time lapse. I think. I don't think it matters much how you do it, j
Little People
These are some interesting photos. I've seen some like them before, but it's still an interesting concept.
That's it for today.
I know that it's been a little weak this time around, but you know I'll keep coming back. As long as there is people on the interwebs looking, I'll be here.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Fallout 3
It occurs to me that I haven't mentioned this enough.
So, I'm here to remedy that!
It has come to light that Bethesda finally got around to letting the world see what's coming for the Fallout series.
If you haven't read before, I loved the original series. It's not that I don't love Orcs and Wizards, but I'm very very tired of them. Seriously, Goblins are great, as are Dragons and the like, but, for me, I fell in love with the idea of a post-apocalyptic future with a decidedly different flavor than anything that had come before it.
There are 2 RPG's that I've really gotten into before, Fallout and Vampire the Masquerade. I think that it should be obvious why, given the previous paragraph, but I will still spell it out: They are different worlds than what we're normally treated to. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I don't appreciate the D&D license, because honestly, that's where it all started, but there's something about playing the same basic settings over and over again that really starts to lose it for me. It's the same reason I'm tired of Lost, because they're still on that damn island, and we're no closer to the truth than we were when the plane crashed.
Fallout 3 has been called the gamer's holy grail, and for good reason. The original Fallout came about in the mid-90's, and Fallout 2 followed close behind. Fallout 2 was follow by a couple of crappy titles that held no interest for me, but there was feverish work on a Fallout 3... until Interplay realized that money didn't grow on trees and was forced to fold up shop.
Enter Bethesda. After years and years of stagnating on a shelf, Bethesda stepped in and said, "let's do this thing!"
And, it seems they have. There is a list on their blag of many articles relating to the new Fallout, and all of it seems favorable (duh!). I really enjoyed this article from Voodoo Extreme over at IGN.
Now, even though the game is already looking pretty polished, it's important to bear in mind that there's still over a year before we can even EXPECT the game, and on top of that, you have to add several push backs. Right now they are quoting a Fall 2008 release time frame, so I would expect it around quarter 2 of 2009.
I'm trying not to get my hopes up, especially because it's being released for the Xbox 360 as well, and it's going to be first person, rather than top down. But, if they can pull off a game like Oblivion, than there's gotta be something to hope for with Fallout 3.
So, I'm here to remedy that!
It has come to light that Bethesda finally got around to letting the world see what's coming for the Fallout series.
If you haven't read before, I loved the original series. It's not that I don't love Orcs and Wizards, but I'm very very tired of them. Seriously, Goblins are great, as are Dragons and the like, but, for me, I fell in love with the idea of a post-apocalyptic future with a decidedly different flavor than anything that had come before it.
There are 2 RPG's that I've really gotten into before, Fallout and Vampire the Masquerade. I think that it should be obvious why, given the previous paragraph, but I will still spell it out: They are different worlds than what we're normally treated to. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I don't appreciate the D&D license, because honestly, that's where it all started, but there's something about playing the same basic settings over and over again that really starts to lose it for me. It's the same reason I'm tired of Lost, because they're still on that damn island, and we're no closer to the truth than we were when the plane crashed.
Fallout 3 has been called the gamer's holy grail, and for good reason. The original Fallout came about in the mid-90's, and Fallout 2 followed close behind. Fallout 2 was follow by a couple of crappy titles that held no interest for me, but there was feverish work on a Fallout 3... until Interplay realized that money didn't grow on trees and was forced to fold up shop.
Enter Bethesda. After years and years of stagnating on a shelf, Bethesda stepped in and said, "let's do this thing!"
And, it seems they have. There is a list on their blag of many articles relating to the new Fallout, and all of it seems favorable (duh!). I really enjoyed this article from Voodoo Extreme over at IGN.
Now, even though the game is already looking pretty polished, it's important to bear in mind that there's still over a year before we can even EXPECT the game, and on top of that, you have to add several push backs. Right now they are quoting a Fall 2008 release time frame, so I would expect it around quarter 2 of 2009.
I'm trying not to get my hopes up, especially because it's being released for the Xbox 360 as well, and it's going to be first person, rather than top down. But, if they can pull off a game like Oblivion, than there's gotta be something to hope for with Fallout 3.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Did you know I was on vacation?
I am, sort of.
It's been a lot of work, being on vacation, but for the next couple days I will be, I hope, relaxing a bit. It's still been nice not being at work.
I've been off since the 4th and won't be back to work until Monday, although, from Monday through Friday I'll be doing training at another location.
For the 4th we went to Coon Rapids, which is only a few minutes from my home and watched the fireworks display there. It was good, and the kids had fun. It did remind me why I hate crowds, though.
But, none of that is why you're here, so, click the link to make the rest appear.
The Zombie Food Pyramid
I'm not sure why it is I find this so amusing, but I do. YMMV.
33 Names for Things You Might Not Have Known Had Names.
It's sad how many of these I actually knew already. Very very very sad.
xtimeline
This just appeared in my Google Reader. It's a free, albeit beta, time line creator. There's actually a couple of time lines that seem pretty interesting. The features are pretty good, even if the system is limited to making time lines.
Do it like Hitchcock!
Alfred Hitchcock, a genius, a pioneer, an absolutely amazing man. If you've never seen his work, you should stop reading right now, run to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video and pick up at least 3 of his flicks. (I would recommend Psycho, The Birds, and then something like Rear Window would make a great finale. (Jimmy Stewart anyone? Him and Hitchcock? OMGWTFBBQSAUCE!) North by Northwest would also make a great final piece.)
Now, however, if you're already familiar with his greatness, then you might want to check out this site. It would be especially useful to you if you're a budding filmmaker looking for ways to improve your style. He really was a master of suspense.
The site it comes from, Borgus.com, has a couple other interesting things to look at, if you're interested.
More Business Cards
Yes, I love design, and I really love business card design. Do I even need to preface these links anymore?
A Social Experiment, or Proof the Internet is Full of Stupids?
What happens if you could add one word to a story, a never ending, constantly evolving story that involves everyone on the interwebs?
Idiocracy.
The fact that someone actually thought this was a good idea is proof positive that someone was either smacked too much, or not near enough as a child.
Even their new version, which only allows words in the dictionary to be added is full of stupids. It's funny, for sure, but really isn't in the vein of what was being attempted.
What a terrible, terrible idea.
More Bad Ideas from the DoD.
Laughing Gas Bullets. *le sigh* Not near as funny as the GayBomb, but still pretty funny.
With that, I'm out.
Peace.
It's been a lot of work, being on vacation, but for the next couple days I will be, I hope, relaxing a bit. It's still been nice not being at work.
I've been off since the 4th and won't be back to work until Monday, although, from Monday through Friday I'll be doing training at another location.
For the 4th we went to Coon Rapids, which is only a few minutes from my home and watched the fireworks display there. It was good, and the kids had fun. It did remind me why I hate crowds, though.
But, none of that is why you're here, so, click the link to make the rest appear.
The Zombie Food Pyramid
I'm not sure why it is I find this so amusing, but I do. YMMV.
33 Names for Things You Might Not Have Known Had Names.
It's sad how many of these I actually knew already. Very very very sad.
xtimeline
This just appeared in my Google Reader. It's a free, albeit beta, time line creator. There's actually a couple of time lines that seem pretty interesting. The features are pretty good, even if the system is limited to making time lines.
Do it like Hitchcock!
Alfred Hitchcock, a genius, a pioneer, an absolutely amazing man. If you've never seen his work, you should stop reading right now, run to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video and pick up at least 3 of his flicks. (I would recommend Psycho, The Birds, and then something like Rear Window would make a great finale. (Jimmy Stewart anyone? Him and Hitchcock? OMGWTFBBQSAUCE!) North by Northwest would also make a great final piece.)
Now, however, if you're already familiar with his greatness, then you might want to check out this site. It would be especially useful to you if you're a budding filmmaker looking for ways to improve your style. He really was a master of suspense.
The site it comes from, Borgus.com, has a couple other interesting things to look at, if you're interested.
More Business Cards
Yes, I love design, and I really love business card design. Do I even need to preface these links anymore?
A Social Experiment, or Proof the Internet is Full of Stupids?
What happens if you could add one word to a story, a never ending, constantly evolving story that involves everyone on the interwebs?
Idiocracy.
The fact that someone actually thought this was a good idea is proof positive that someone was either smacked too much, or not near enough as a child.
Even their new version, which only allows words in the dictionary to be added is full of stupids. It's funny, for sure, but really isn't in the vein of what was being attempted.
What a terrible, terrible idea.
More Bad Ideas from the DoD.
Laughing Gas Bullets. *le sigh* Not near as funny as the GayBomb, but still pretty funny.
With that, I'm out.
Peace.
That's what she said!
What a stupid post title!
Seriously, what the hell is that all about.
Anyway, it's been a little while since I posted, although there's a good reason why my posts have been slow. For some reason, Google thought that it was possible my blog was spam, and it took them forever to review it and decide it wasn't...
Re: [#168524536] Blogger Beta non-spam review and verification request: http://fyrephlie.blogspot.com/
So, with that, I'm not a SpamBot! You'd think that if the blog was flagged as potential spam, a few posts where I fill in the annoying CAPTCHA would have cleared me, but no, it's been about a month and a half of that.
It's not that it was that big of a deal, but it's still pretty damn annoying.
Transformers
No, I haven't seen it... yet. I'm hoping to go this weekend and check it out, but it's not sounding like reviews are that bad, which is good, because I'm really hoping it doesn't suck.
Stratego
So, I haven't played Stratego since I was much younger, and even then, I think I played it wrong and only a few times (I'm pretty sure we played it like checkers). Anyway, my lady friend got me a copy of the 'classic' bookshelf edition and we played. Sadly, I lost, but it was a lot of fun. It's funny to me how a game from so long ago could still hold such entertainment, but it's proof positive that the classics never really go out of style.
The problem is that this sets a precedent that I must own the entire collection. It's a lofty goal, but I think it's definitely one worth attempting. I am taking donations, if you're interested.
Unusual Keyboards
The title of this article really says it all, but, I have to admit that some of the keyboards they show are really interesting. I'd love a chance to try a few of them out.
Roswell, The Truth is Still out there.
I won't say I'm not a nut when it comes to conspiracy theories and paranormal phenomenon, it's all just so damn interesting (read that as 'entertaining'). So when I read stories about Roswell, NM, it always gets me thinking.
It seems the newest evidence is about Lt. Walter Haut, whose original story was fairly thin and down played. However, after he passed away last year, he left a signed affidavit, which has a somewhat different story.
It seems that he has posthumously claimed that there was, in fact a saucer crash, they did recover wreckage, and that there were bodies of small humanoids that were most likely aliens.
It's an interesting read. Of course, it leaves us with no more or less evidence than we'd had before, but, it's still something worth noting.
What do I think? I think that there must have been something that happened, and it's just as likely that there was a flying saucer that crashed landed as there was some grandiose weather balloon project.
A Good Wife Knows Her Place
Damn straight! Ah, the 50's were a glorious time, weren't they?
That's it for now.
Thus ends the another journey through nostalgic board games and sexism, strange keyboards and conspiracy theories. Join me again next time, same bat channel, same bat time!
Seriously, what the hell is that all about.
Anyway, it's been a little while since I posted, although there's a good reason why my posts have been slow. For some reason, Google thought that it was possible my blog was spam, and it took them forever to review it and decide it wasn't...
Re: [#168524536] Blogger Beta non-spam review and verification request: http://fyrephlie.blogspot.com/
| Blogger Help |
|
Hello, Your blog has been reviewed, verified, and cleared for regular use so that it will no longer appear as potential spam. If you sign out of Blogger and sign back in again, you should be able to post as normal. Thanks for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. Sincerely, The Blogger Team |
So, with that, I'm not a SpamBot! You'd think that if the blog was flagged as potential spam, a few posts where I fill in the annoying CAPTCHA would have cleared me, but no, it's been about a month and a half of that.
It's not that it was that big of a deal, but it's still pretty damn annoying.
Transformers
No, I haven't seen it... yet. I'm hoping to go this weekend and check it out, but it's not sounding like reviews are that bad, which is good, because I'm really hoping it doesn't suck.
Stratego
So, I haven't played Stratego since I was much younger, and even then, I think I played it wrong and only a few times (I'm pretty sure we played it like checkers). Anyway, my lady friend got me a copy of the 'classic' bookshelf edition and we played. Sadly, I lost, but it was a lot of fun. It's funny to me how a game from so long ago could still hold such entertainment, but it's proof positive that the classics never really go out of style.
The problem is that this sets a precedent that I must own the entire collection. It's a lofty goal, but I think it's definitely one worth attempting. I am taking donations, if you're interested.
Unusual Keyboards
The title of this article really says it all, but, I have to admit that some of the keyboards they show are really interesting. I'd love a chance to try a few of them out.
Roswell, The Truth is Still out there.
I won't say I'm not a nut when it comes to conspiracy theories and paranormal phenomenon, it's all just so damn interesting (read that as 'entertaining'). So when I read stories about Roswell, NM, it always gets me thinking.
It seems the newest evidence is about Lt. Walter Haut, whose original story was fairly thin and down played. However, after he passed away last year, he left a signed affidavit, which has a somewhat different story.
It seems that he has posthumously claimed that there was, in fact a saucer crash, they did recover wreckage, and that there were bodies of small humanoids that were most likely aliens.
It's an interesting read. Of course, it leaves us with no more or less evidence than we'd had before, but, it's still something worth noting.
What do I think? I think that there must have been something that happened, and it's just as likely that there was a flying saucer that crashed landed as there was some grandiose weather balloon project.
A Good Wife Knows Her Place
Damn straight! Ah, the 50's were a glorious time, weren't they?
That's it for now.
Thus ends the another journey through nostalgic board games and sexism, strange keyboards and conspiracy theories. Join me again next time, same bat channel, same bat time!
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