Mike hipped me to a Swedish film Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One in) releasing in theaters here in the U.S. Unfortunately, it's not releasing widely, so I will be forced to head to the Lagoon Cinema in Uptown (Mpls.) to view this:
This looks amazing. It's not hitting Minneapolis until November 14th, which means I'm stuck waiting, and trust me, I've tried finding it through 'other means' which thus far has not panned out so well.
Like so many other foreign films that are amazing, or even mediocre but at least unique, this one is being Americanized by Matt Reeves, of Cloverfield fame. Perhaps he won't ruin it...
So it was, on Monday, that I loaded up the kids and we headed to the local Pumpkin Patch (in this case, it's a farm in Dayton, MN, a neighboring city that has somehow managed to avoid losing it's vast fields of farm land even as every city around it has grown significantly over the years), and on this outing I took some pictures. This is a handful of those. They should tell the story well enough.
Today is, officially, the first snow I've seen this season. I'm simply just not ready for it. It isn't that I don't like snow, I just don't like the seemingly enending season of it in this state. The sooner it starts, the longer it seems to stick around.
I've been putting off putting tires on my car, but it seems I'll really need to get on that.
The worst thing about the snow though, is that Minnesota drivers seem to completely forget about driving in the snow. And even this light dusting that's falling, which has the same basic effect of being a light rain, seems to throw people into a panic.
This is another great idea I wish I would have had...
It's simply brilliant. Not satisfied with the argument of DRM vs. No-DRM music, and the almost silly number of websites devoted to letting you download music and movies for a nominal fee, these guys decided it would be a good idea to create a website that offers DRM-FREE VIDEO GAMES!
It's brilliant. And their prices seem more than reasonable. They have a solid selection of classic titles.
In my opinion, this is what GameTap should have been.
Good Old Games is in Public Beta now, so you can go buy games now! Be warned, Beta means that they're not confident enough to call it all done, so you may have problems, and then you can tell them what's wrong so they can fix it. They have been in Closed Beta for a while, and that seems to have gone well enough that they're opening everything up, so I wouldn't worry about it too much, but it's worth mentioning to those that might not have the constitution for it.)
Now, I'll agree with him on principle, but I can't imagine playing this game for very long. See, when I look at something that is different than has been done before, I often find that there's a reason it hasn't been done. Usually because it's just not good or interesting or worth the time it takes to make and play.
A good exception to that, of course, is Portal. (The new version of which I recently got on Xbox Live Arcade and have been enjoying immensely.) In this case, I'm not sure what to make of it. Apart from the annoying sounds the gun makes, and the fact that there seems to be nothing more to do than to wander around, trying to find your way from point a to point b, presumably without dying, the draw seems limited to me.
Now, being a Tech Demo, and being that I've done absolutely no research on the game beyond this video, maybe there's going to be more to it.
If that's the case, then it might be worth another look... and in that case, I would suppose it would show up in one of my many RSS feeds I waste my time on. Should that happen, I'll tell you what I think about it.
Ahh, brilliance has reared its ugly head again, presenting us with the greatest add-on for the serial drunk-dialer in all of us.
Mail Goggles.
This nifty Google Labs entry kicks in late at night, right around the time you're done drinking, and begin thinking about that girlfriend that left you three years ago, or perhaps the one you kicked out for shooting heroin with your kids. After writing up, in as many words as you can muster, all the ways that you love her and want her back, and you hit send, a nifty screen pops-up to verify that you really should be sending that email.
If you fail, you're told to go to bed, and your message is saved for something to laugh at when you sober up.
Other uses: preventing you from emailing the boss about his 'micro-management skills', telling your buddy about your night (by way of your mother's email address), and submitting pictures of your genitals, by email, to anyone, anywhere, for any reason.
Of course it only works with GMail, but it's certainly another good reason to get you some GMail.
Sure, it's dress casual, but it stops a 9mm round from punching through you. Does that make it worth $12,000? Probably not, since a standard Kevlar (and other) vest runs for a fraction of that, and would make me feel a bit safer, and with that, you can wear whatever your want over it. However, you want to pick this up, hit up Miguel Caballero's (terrible) website. He's got plenty of 'security fashion' to choose from.
Perhaps it makes more sense if your the iron fisted dictator of some war-torn nation with your citizen's knickers in a bunch... but maybe it's time to live a little, and buy some fashions that will keep you safe on the rough and tumble streets of Suburban Colorado.
It seems that I have to do this on a regular basis, but, I have to apologize for my lack of updates of late. I've been very busy, and while I have plenty to blog about, I just haven't had time to put fingers to keyboard. (I wonder of that turn of phrase will actually be a replacement for the old "put pen to paper" or if something more apt will come about...)
I've actually been planning to make a few changes here in the near future... Such as the header image and some layout things. Of course, it's all dependant on the amount of time one has.
Meanwhile, I think it worth noting that this year's Autumn has been rather disappointing so far. At least to me. I know we've still got time for leaves and things... But it is running out.
So, it seems, the whole Penguin Game, Let's Tap, or whatever the hell it is, now has a trailer, which is supposed to show how it can be played by a penguin... I guess.
I'm all for making aquariums in to useful and interesting things. I've seen it done plenty, and while I can't imagine ever buying most of them, I still see them every now and then and think, "Well, that's neat."
This, though, I don't know about. It certainly looks neat, but honestly, the bathroom sink is not a place for displaying anything. My sink, for example, is covered with dried toothpaste and little hairs from shaving. I imagine that, as watertight as they make this, with two little openings on the top, I'd manage to get a small amount of something in there to kill my fish.
In addition, how the hell can you clean this? I mean, as much as it seems like every aquarium on the planet is actually self cleaning, never suffers from a bit of filth, algae or scale, the truth is, I imagine that this $4700 aquarium would last you a maximum of 5 years before you'd tear it out, rather than suffer the disgusting look in there any longer.
Alright, I have to admit that this technology has me a bit excited. It's the "Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display".
In plain Engrish, we're talking about a force field.
This is, to be honest, a pretty amazing first step toward building interactive holographic displays. It uses sound to create a touchable field, which, if combined with a holographic display, means you could, theoretically, be able to touch whatever was displayed.
Imagine a 3 dimensional apple you could hold, and, with the right combination of senors, could manipulate in 3d space, in real time.
It is similar, as most Star Trek geeks can attest, to the concept of how a 'holodeck' works on all modern iterations of the show. Just not quite on such a scale.
I can say, honestly, I never expected to see this sort of thing implemented in my lifetime. I've come to accept certain futuristic concepts as being possible, just beyond our limits, and this, to me, seemed like one of them. Of course, I still may never see this put into practice during my life, but with this breakthrough, maybe it won't be long before we're not going to movies anymore, but actually interacting with them, life sized, or, perhaps instead of mashing buttons on a pad, future gamers will actually need to learn to fight to be able to play a fighting game, and it will be done in a large room, with a holographic opponent.
Well, maybe that won't happen, the Wii has probably gotten gamers as far off the couch as their going to get for a long time.
The other end of this spectrum could be the military potential, if they can make a field strong enough to affect a piece of paper, could they make one strong enough to slow, or stop projectiles?
Alright, recently I told you about a cryptic looking site for a game that claimed that even a penguin could play it...
Now, it seems that game, is called, Let's Tap, it will come out in December, has some really annoying music, and from the screenshots, looks well beyond what a penguin could handle.
I was hoping, with such a bold claim of penguin friendly gameplay, that we'd see something new, and different. It appears, though, that this game will simply be another run-of-the-mill Wii mini-game fest.
Oh well. Mystery solved, I guess. Who says the Japanese are innovative?
I'm 29 years old and live in Elk River, MN. I'm a divorced father of 2 beautiful little girls and the pseudo step-father to my lovely lady's little monster.
I (semi-willingly) work in retail management to bring home the bacon and operate a small web / graphic design business. In addition to those things, I both create and consume media.
I've got a great many opinions about a great many things, and this blog is where I share them, whether you like it or not.
If you'd like to learn more, you can view my profile, or just ask.
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