... and yet I don't know where to start....
Isn't that always the way? It's like that with regular writing, too. I shouldn't say "regular" because I don't write regularly. [In that vein, I'm also an artist, a politician, an architect, a conductor (any flavor), a lion tamer, etc. Truly, I am a Renaissance Man.] There are so many ideas running through my head that I consider it a major feat if I even write down one of twenty of them down to pursue at some future time. It's amost like I have ADD or ADHD or some such. I don't really have trouble concentrating, though; it's being motivated to start that's the problem.
Superman Returns starts in four days!!! I'm so stoked. I have my movie cash so I can see it for free Wednesday night (gotta make sure it's not treated as a "pass"). I keep hearing that it's getting very positive reviews, and yet, I don't want to believe it. I so much want to like this movie, and if I go in with too high expectations, I'm bound to be disappointed. I guess hearing the positive reviews whets my appetite even more.
I watched the first disc of season one of The Flying Nun this week. It was every bit as much fun as I remember from watching it when I was a kid.
MI-5 continues the thrills and suspense on disc one of season two. When last we left our intrepid band of pseudo-heroes, Tom's girlfriend and her daughter were locked in his house with a bomb seconds away from detonating, a present from the IRA. As my friend Stephen told me of the series, don't get attached to anybody.
I got a big raise at work. I was shocked.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Odd Little Video
Came across this tonight (I love broadband, btw). Requires QuickTime. FYI: it's a Diet Coke and Mentos experiment, or one in a series of experiments (actually, two in a series)... pretty wild stuff
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Movies
Going to see Cars today at 11 (2 hours from when I started writing this). I really hope I don't have too high expectations for it. But when you hear "the best Pixar movie yet", what are you supposed to do? Well, more importantly, what am I supposed to do? I wasn't sold on even wanting to see the movie until about 2 months ago when I read a post someone made about having seen it. His feelings at first were full of ambivalence about the flick until he saw it. Then he highly recommended it. So, I really want to see it.
Superman Returns starts in 18 days. I'm so excited. If you haven't been turned on to wanting to see this movie by the third theatrical trailer, you're just looking for reasons not to like it. If I can find a countdown timer to skin and plug into the page this weekend, I'll work on that.
Watched Prime this week. Apart from the sex (which wasn't horribly explicit or prolonged but present nonetheless), I really really liked this movie. It wreaked of honesty and reality, not in the your-life-is-on-display-for-all-the-world-to-see kind of way prevalent on TV, but in the "hey-I-might-do-or-say-that-or-at-least-wish-I-had-or-would" kind of way. That honesty, brought to my attention after watching some of the extras on The 400 Blows, really underscores movies I like. They don't have to be "real" movies but honest ones. It can be a futuristic sci-fi flick, a romantic comedy, a drama, a regular comedy, or what have you, but having characters that are true to themselves is what really appeals to a wide variety of people.
That, and lots of things exploding.
I can see it now: our protagonist, walking down the street with 1) a street-wise kid who's really smarter than our protagonist but secretly wants a mommy or daddy to care about them, or 2) a snarky little monkey who's really smarter than our protragonist but not-so-secretly just wants to be fed bananas and breakfast cereals, or 3) a street-wise adult companion who thinks s/he's smarter than our protagonist but secretly snarks to be considered hip and cool to cover the pain of mommy and daddy not showing they cared for him or her by not providing a monkey as a gift, or 4) the companion in distress that must be rescued by our protagonist but in reality is a doofus, or 5) some combination of these or other characteristics, stops to have an honest and realistic conversation with the newsstand vendor. The building down the street suddenly blows up, but our concerned trio or more are nonplussed (which happens to be double plus ungood) by said events due to the honesty and reality of the dialog (what do you call it if there are more than two people talking? a Woody Allen movie?) in progress. Meanwhile, as the camera zooms out to provide a wider shot, enter a car encountering a craftily-hidden ramp to initiate air launch and subsequent rollover, again ignored by our earnest group of conversationalists, who are, remember, quite honest and grounded in reality. Our (should be) committed sidekick, honest to character, emits a witty remark upon which hilarity ensues. The spinning car now crashes into several other cars, all of which explode.
Have I mentioned that I love movies?
Superman Returns starts in 18 days. I'm so excited. If you haven't been turned on to wanting to see this movie by the third theatrical trailer, you're just looking for reasons not to like it. If I can find a countdown timer to skin and plug into the page this weekend, I'll work on that.
Watched Prime this week. Apart from the sex (which wasn't horribly explicit or prolonged but present nonetheless), I really really liked this movie. It wreaked of honesty and reality, not in the your-life-is-on-display-for-all-the-world-to-see kind of way prevalent on TV, but in the "hey-I-might-do-or-say-that-or-at-least-wish-I-had-or-would" kind of way. That honesty, brought to my attention after watching some of the extras on The 400 Blows, really underscores movies I like. They don't have to be "real" movies but honest ones. It can be a futuristic sci-fi flick, a romantic comedy, a drama, a regular comedy, or what have you, but having characters that are true to themselves is what really appeals to a wide variety of people.
That, and lots of things exploding.
I can see it now: our protagonist, walking down the street with 1) a street-wise kid who's really smarter than our protagonist but secretly wants a mommy or daddy to care about them, or 2) a snarky little monkey who's really smarter than our protragonist but not-so-secretly just wants to be fed bananas and breakfast cereals, or 3) a street-wise adult companion who thinks s/he's smarter than our protagonist but secretly snarks to be considered hip and cool to cover the pain of mommy and daddy not showing they cared for him or her by not providing a monkey as a gift, or 4) the companion in distress that must be rescued by our protagonist but in reality is a doofus, or 5) some combination of these or other characteristics, stops to have an honest and realistic conversation with the newsstand vendor. The building down the street suddenly blows up, but our concerned trio or more are nonplussed (which happens to be double plus ungood) by said events due to the honesty and reality of the dialog (what do you call it if there are more than two people talking? a Woody Allen movie?) in progress. Meanwhile, as the camera zooms out to provide a wider shot, enter a car encountering a craftily-hidden ramp to initiate air launch and subsequent rollover, again ignored by our earnest group of conversationalists, who are, remember, quite honest and grounded in reality. Our (should be) committed sidekick, honest to character, emits a witty remark upon which hilarity ensues. The spinning car now crashes into several other cars, all of which explode.
Have I mentioned that I love movies?
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Events
So, my boss gave me my old computer from work to bring home and use. Cool beans. Which lead to me getting DSL, and that became active last Tuesday. I love it.
Alas, my DVD tracking software is on my old computer; all my pictures are on my old computer. And all my software is on my old computer. Fortunately as regards the pictures and DVD database, that's on a secondary disc I can take out of the old computer and put in the new one.
Upgrades I really need for the new computer:
This would have just been a dream, but I got a tremendous raise effective 6/1. Most of that money will go towards debt, but I can at least consider these things now and make small purchases along the way.
Alas, my DVD tracking software is on my old computer; all my pictures are on my old computer. And all my software is on my old computer. Fortunately as regards the pictures and DVD database, that's on a secondary disc I can take out of the old computer and put in the new one.
Upgrades I really need for the new computer:
- another 256Mb RAM (to double it)
- My other hard drive
- A DVD burner, or at least a reader with CD burner (but I might as well go for it all, right?)
- better video card, maybe dual-head (currently, my 19" CRT monitor is going to waste at 1280x1024 rather than 1600x1200, at least for full color)
- Get my printer working
- find my WordPerfect CD to install it
- get my Paint Shop Pro 9.0 software installed
This would have just been a dream, but I got a tremendous raise effective 6/1. Most of that money will go towards debt, but I can at least consider these things now and make small purchases along the way.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Mega-Plex Movie Theatres
Living in the big city of Houston has one big advantage for those who like to go to movies: a plethora of massively multiple-screen theatres. At the time it was built, the AMC Studio 30 on Dunvale was the largest movie theatre in the world, or so I've read. [Someone slightly-less-than-politely informed me I was completely wrong as there was an AMC with 36 theatres. God forbid that a record be broken.]
But I wind up going to the Cinemark Tinseltown on Richmond with a mere 24 theatres. They are slightly cheaper than the AMC, and all my friends want to go to this one because they think the seats are better/more comfortable. I disagree with that sentiment, but I'll let the money factor drive me. Oh, and going to movies with my friends. That's gotta be up there somewhere.
Big blockbuster movies tend to be on more than one screen, which is quite all right with me. It allows the masses to consume large quantities of whatever Hollyweird is praying (who says they're all godless people?) the public will adore and attend over and over and over. [which is the theme for Hollyweird, isn't it: doing the same movie over and over and over... I contend that Hollyweird's thought process (big assumption there, that they think) is: if one movie is wildly successful, then the only response is to make hundreds of copies.]
All this came about because I was looking at Cinemark's movie showtimes for the weekend. Remember, 24 screens. There are a total of10 8 movies showing. TEN EIGHT. I guess there aren't that many great movies out...
But I wind up going to the Cinemark Tinseltown on Richmond with a mere 24 theatres. They are slightly cheaper than the AMC, and all my friends want to go to this one because they think the seats are better/more comfortable. I disagree with that sentiment, but I'll let the money factor drive me. Oh, and going to movies with my friends. That's gotta be up there somewhere.
Big blockbuster movies tend to be on more than one screen, which is quite all right with me. It allows the masses to consume large quantities of whatever Hollyweird is praying (who says they're all godless people?) the public will adore and attend over and over and over. [which is the theme for Hollyweird, isn't it: doing the same movie over and over and over... I contend that Hollyweird's thought process (big assumption there, that they think) is: if one movie is wildly successful, then the only response is to make hundreds of copies.]
All this came about because I was looking at Cinemark's movie showtimes for the weekend. Remember, 24 screens. There are a total of
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Another Evil Empire
No, I'm not talking about Bush.
What do you think about a software company (rhymes with "Stymantec") that has "successfully" transitioned to a subscription model, charges FULL price for a year's renewal, and then has the audacity to charge nearly 20% as a fee to provide some kind of Express Download capability, said capability being that you purchase the right to download the program you've already paid for at any time during the next year.
So if your computer crashes (ironic if it's due to a virus they didn't catch), not only do you have the joy of reinstalling all your software, but you have to PAY for the anti-virus stuff again. Unless of course, you have paid theextortion insurance Express Download fee. To use this service, you have to provide proof of purchase. Which wouldn't be any different if you didn't pay the fee. They don't lose any material wealth by providing this to you. So, really, it's a win-lose situation.
Hint: if you download the software, burn it to CD and store in a safe place. Much cheaper than theextortion insurance Express Download fee. This is about as bad as Micro$oft's business practices.
Certainly if no physical media is being transferred, then the company's cost is minimized. I realize they should be paid for their services, but with no significant upgrade to software, they're really gouging their customers, and then to charge a premium fee for something that should be provided as part of their exorbitant price anyway, well, my hackles are just raised massively.
This is pure extortion.
What do you think about a software company (rhymes with "Stymantec") that has "successfully" transitioned to a subscription model, charges FULL price for a year's renewal, and then has the audacity to charge nearly 20% as a fee to provide some kind of Express Download capability, said capability being that you purchase the right to download the program you've already paid for at any time during the next year.
So if your computer crashes (ironic if it's due to a virus they didn't catch), not only do you have the joy of reinstalling all your software, but you have to PAY for the anti-virus stuff again. Unless of course, you have paid the
Hint: if you download the software, burn it to CD and store in a safe place. Much cheaper than the
Certainly if no physical media is being transferred, then the company's cost is minimized. I realize they should be paid for their services, but with no significant upgrade to software, they're really gouging their customers, and then to charge a premium fee for something that should be provided as part of their exorbitant price anyway, well, my hackles are just raised massively.
This is pure extortion.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)