dje2004

Avatar

2009-12-21T21:02:50Z

First, I'd put in a spoiler warning, except that it's virtually impossible to spoil this film. If you've seen the trailer, you know what happens in the film. If you haven't, you'll figure it out in the first 15 minutes. 30 tops.

So you may have heard about the revolutionary visual effects in this film. This time around, the hype is true: this is the most incredible-looking film I've ever seen. The realism and attention to detail are astounding. The world of Pandora is probably the most stunning and most fully realized sci-fi/fantasy world I've ever seen on film. The human actors interact seamlessly with the cgi surroundings and aliens, and the aliens themselves look incredibly realistic, without any of the uncanny valley effect. And the 3-D actually enhances the movie, rather than just coming off as a gimmick. At times, this movie felt more like a National Georgraphic documentary than a sci-fi film, with the cameras showing you one breathtaking sight after another: lush rainforests with gargantuan trees and phosphorescent moss that lights up when stepped on, floating mountains with waterfalls trailing off the sides, tiny luminescent creatures that hover like helicopters, and the alien Na'vi soaring through the skies on the backs of dragon-like mounts. You can really see how much love and attention was given to every detail.

Now, as for the movie itself, it runs a little too long for my tastes, the story is completely predictable, and the characters don't have a lot of depth. Also, the super-rare element that the humans are after is called unobtainium. No, really. That said, the movie does at least have a story and does have characters who behave more or less like you'd expect people to behave, which is what sets this movie apart from crap like G.I. Joe or The Transformers. It's not enough to be big and loud and noisy and full of special effects. There has to be some substance beneath it, and Avatar has that, even if it's not a lot.

Also, this movie is more left-wing than a Michael Moore film. It's anti-war, anti-corporate, anti-military, anti-war on terror, pro-enviornment. The ~~white men~~ humans - who all speak with American accents - are mostly greedy, thoughtless, and violent, while the ~~Indians~~ Na'vi are noble savages who are perfectly in tune with, and respectful of, their enviornment, and everyone and everything on the planet is united with the earth mother in a giant hippie tree-hugging, circle of life-fest. It actually reminded me a bit of 300 in that both films contain simplistic, heavy-handed poltical allegories and both take themselves way to seriously. Or, as mamcdowell put it, "Avatar is to politics what The Matrix is to philosophy." It didn't really bother me though, partly because my own politics tend to lean that way, but mainly because I came to see the pretty pictures. And on that score, Avatar does not disappoint.

Oh, there was one thing that happened that did pleasantly suprise me a little bit. Since this is a spoiler, I'll hide it behind a cut.

It's the climax of the movie, and the villain, in a sort of robotic vehicle (or, for you geeks, a small battlemech) is facing off against main female character, Neytiri, who is riding a big alien creature. The villain kills the creature, and in the process Neytiri gets her leg stuck beneath it, and is trapped. Then Jake, the protagonist, shows up to battle the villain. At this point I thought that, like in so many other movies, Neytiri would remain helpless throughout the fight, leaving the hero to save her. Instead, the villain wins, and is about to kill Jake, when Neytiri gets free and kills the villain, and then manages to save Jake - that is, the human Jake, not the avatar Jake - from suffocating in the unbreathable Pandora atmosphere. While I can't say I didn't see this coming at all, it was still a nice subversion of a shopworn trope.

Geekery

2009-12-02T17:09:53Z

Went to a game day last Friday and got to try out three games:
Chaos in the Old World – In this Fantasy Flight Game, set in Games Workshop’s Warhammer Fantasy setting, the players each take on the role of one of the four chaos gods and attempt to dominate, corrupt, and ultimately ruin the old world. The game offers two ways to win – either by earning the most victory points or advancing a spinner that ends in victory – and each power has their own strengths and victories. I liked the game, although I suspect that it might not have a lot of replay value, since each power sort of has to follow the same strategy each game to win.

Dominion – In this card game, players pick or buy cards from various piles to build their deck as the game progresses, trying to create a mix of useful cards and victory cards before the game ends. It was quick to learn, and turns moved quickly, and when it was done I was ready to immediately play it again. I’ve never played a game that involves building a deck during play, and I found it intriguing.

Formula D – Alex had been extolling the virtues of Formula De, the precursor to this game, for some time now, so I decided to give this a try, as it’s basically the same thing, but with more bells and whistles. Turns out it might have been better without them. The game is a car-racing simulation where you pretty much have to accurately guess what gear you should be in, while also hoping for good rolls. My tepid reaction to the game basically came down to three things: 1) Too much randomness for my tastes, 2) Too much fiddly counting of spaces when you’re deciding how to move, 3) One player pulled ahead early on and just kept increasing his lead, until it became kind of pointless to keep playing, since, short of a fluke, there was no way he wasn’t going to win.

I also saw two movies in the theater recently:

New Moon – Yeah, this wasn’t my idea. Whereas Twilight was bad, but you could kind of enjoy laughing at it, this one was just bad and dull. The story spins off in a bunch of different directions, yet nothing much seems to happen. One plotline is just pretty much dropped mid-story, and the last part of the movie feels like it came from another story entirely. The dialogue is bad, the special effects mediocre, and the main characters are pretty much unlikeable. Oh, and also, why is it that in every vampire movie the head vampires always have to act like effete aristocratic sissies?

Ninja Assassin – The title of this film seems redundant until you realize that the movie is about a ninja who kills other ninjas. Ninja Assassin is cheesy and silly and the story doesn’t really hold up when you start thinking about it, but it was still fun. It was also ridiculously bloody, but the violence is so unrealistic that I found myself laughing at how ridiculous and over the top it was. Anyway, I learned the following things about ninjas from this movie: 1) They glower a lot, 2) They stand in the rain a lot, and 3) Deep down inside, they just want to be loved.

Also, based on a recommendation, I tried out the demo of a game called Torchlight, made by a small company called Runic Games. It’s basically a prettier version of Diablo II, but hey, Diablo II was a lot of fun, and the game only costs 20 bucks. I decided not to buy the game, but I may change my mind. It’s good if you’re just looking for some mindless hack-n-slash fun.

And finally, the other night I re-watched Willow for the first time in years. I can see why it didn’t stand the test of time: the special effects look dated, the comic relief is Jar-Jar Binks awful, the story is mediocre, and there’s just too much in it that just doesn’t make sense. Overall, it just felt like a re-hash of Star Wars with some Tolkien mixed in. But it was still mildly entertaining, and besides, it was an interesting look back on an age when they had to hire actual little people to play little people on screen.

Wedding & Honeymoon

2009-11-11T00:12:46Z

As some of you may have heard, as of October 31st, I am now officially de-singlized. Things began when revsaintmichael showed up at my place in the early afternoon, dressed in his "Dark Oberon" costume, thus making him ready both for Halloween and to conduct the wedding ceremony. He and I and my groomsmen - Damon, Clint, and Will - met up and went to Jessica's parent's house, where we met with my family to take pictures. Then, because it was a Halloween wedding, we went to a cemetery to take more pictures, the overcast sky adding just the right ambiance (the muddy ground not so much). Now, when we had planned all this, we expected that we'd get done with just enough time to get to the restaurant for the ceremony. Instead, it took a lot less longer than we expected. So with nothing to do, we decided to go to Grotto's Pizza, in Newark, on Main Street. Since it was homecoming weekend, the place was packed, and the crowd let out a huge cheer when we got out of the limo (though I spotted a few people making "wtf?" faces in the crowd). However, since few of us were actually carrying any ID's, they wouldn't let us in, so we actually ended up going to Iron Hill - less than a minute away from where we were getting married - to kill time until we were ready to go.

Finally, 6:30 rolled around, and we got things started. We had the Kill Bill theme play as we walked in. We held it at Timothy's, a restaurant on the Wilmington waterfront where Jessica and I had our first date. Jessica and I and her parents and sister had decorated the banquet room the day before; the tables were covered with candy corn and spider rings and skull-shaped candle holders, the centerpieces were baskets filled with gourds (and a few rubber rats), and each plate had a feather mask or a glitter-covered hat or a hook-hand or some other Halloween costume item. There were orange lights and cobwebs in the plants, a tombstone at the head table and a wreath with a skeletal bride and groom behind it, another skeletal bride and groom hanging on the wall (that sang "I Got You Babe"), pumpkins scattered about, and a cemetery archway and gate on the dance floor, where we conducted the ceremony. Despite the fact that we did things a bit loosely - there was no rehearsal dinner, for instance - everything went smoothly, with only minor glitches. Everyone complimented Mike on the ceremony, I didn't mess up my vows, the food was great, my 70+ year old uncle hit on Clint's date all evening, and everyone seemed to have a great time. The cake came out really well too - four layers, tilted at odd angles, in red and orange with black trim, orange and red butterflies and dragonflies flitting about it, and a Nightmare Before Christmas Jack & Sally topper. Oh, and also, Jessica and her sister switched dresses halfway through the night, to see if they could fool their grandmother (I don't know if it worked), and instead of having a garter and bouquet toss, Jessica and I smashed pinatas that looked like a bride and a groom while "Smack My Bitch Up" played in the background.

If you want to see pictures (albeit with watermarks), you can check them out here

We departed for Maui very early the next morning, and got there in the evening of that same day (after being slightly delayed b/c the airline screwed up our tickets for the third leg). This was my first trip there, and I wish I didn't have to leave. Everywhere you look, you're treated to the most gorgeous, breathtaking example of natural splendor you've ever seen, and then you turn around, and you're looking at something even more gorgeous and breathtaking. It even smelled wonderful. It was sunny and in the 80s every day, with a bit of rain only on one evening and two mornings. The hotel was right on the beach, and it was fantastic, and since it was the off-season, everything had a pleasant, relaxed feel to it. Although we didn't have an ocean view, we did get to see the sunrise from our room. And in fact, we did see the sunrise almost every day - we crashed early when we arrived, and spent the rest of the week going to bed around 8:30 & 9:30pm and waking up anywhere from 5:30am to 7:30am (the latter if we really slept late). Apparently, this is par for the course in Maui; all the fun is had in the daytime, and there isn't much night life to speak of.
We made it a point to have something to do every day, and so Monday we went jet-skiing, then went to what we thought was going to be a special cooking demonstration for newlyweds, but turned out to be more of a food tasting. Tuesday we went horseback riding (I personally ended up on what may have been the slowest horse on the island), and then went to a luau for dinner. Wednesday we went on a hike through the forest that took us to a number of natural pools and waterfalls where we went swimming, and featured was was maybe some of the most beautiful scenery on the whole trip (though pretty much everything was beautiful), and then we had dinner at a fancy restaurant (one of my few bad meals, as I somehow managed to order a dish containing mushrooms, zucchini, and eggplant, three of the four foods I hate the most - however, Jessica shared her veal with me). Thursday we took a cruise on a catamaran named "The Hula Girl" to go snorkeling. We had hoped to see turtles or dolphins, but the water was so choppy that we couldn't stay long in the first spot, and while the second spot was more calm, there wasn't as much interesting to see - although seeing the ocean floor through the clear water was enough for me (btw, the Pacific Ocean is a brilliant blue color, and looks nothing like the Jersey shore - it's also warm too). Friday we went ziplining, which was just like the Amazing Race, only, you know, not stressful, and had dinner on the waterfront in the nearby town of Lahaina.
Saturday we took the ferry over to Lanai, which is a small island with only one town and about 4,000 residents. Unlike Maui, it had a much more empty, almost desolate feel to it. We rented a jeep, drove to the other side of the island, and took an off-road trail out to shipwreck beach, where we somehow managed to avoid actually seeing the massive shipwreck for which the beach is named. How we managed that, I'm still not sure. We then crossed the island again and went snorkeling off of Hulopoe Beach. I won't even bother mentioning how gorgeous it was because, you know, it was. I also tried a local snack called Li Ming Hui, which translates to "cracked seed." It has a salty/sweet/tangy flavor, and is one of the most vile things I've ever tasted, but fortunately Jessica took a liking to it, so the bag I bought wasn't wasted. Finally, on the last day, we drove out to the Maui Ocean Center, an aquarium that features a clear tunnel where you can watch fish and sharks and stingrays swim above, below, and around you. Oh, and in addition to all that, we lounged around the pool, went swimming, rode the hotel's water slide, got a massage in a beachside cabana, enjoyed the hotel spa, drank mai tais (mostly Jessica) and smoothies (mostly me) and other tropical drinks, and had some amazing meals, including the sweetest, freshest pineapple I've ever tasted. I wish we didn't have to leave, and if I could live there... well, I just might. Time to start saving so we can go back again someday.

Failed Her SAN Check, Part III

2009-10-14T15:24:37Z

Birther nutjob Orly Tatiz sanctioned for $20,000.

The Court finds that counsel’s conduct was willful and not merely negligent. It demonstrates bad faith on her part. As an attorney, she is deemed to have known better. She owed a duty to follow the rules and to respect the Court. Counsel’s pattern of conduct conclusively establishes that she did not mistakenly violate a provision of law. She knowingly violated Rule 11. Her response to the Court’s show cause order is breathtaking in its arrogance and borders on delusional. She expresses no contrition or regret regarding her misconduct. To the contrary, she continues her baseless attacks on the Court.

Orly Taitz: The Jack Thompson of anti-Obama conspiracy theorists.

Shilling for NPR

2009-10-12T16:56:22Z

This week's episode of This American Life is all about why health care costs are so high in this country and why they keep rising. Like their earlier episodes on the economy, they present everything in a way that's interesting and easy-to-understand without being simplistic. And balanced too: it's not just the evil, greedy health insurance companies who are to blame. The episode even ends on a hopeful note, albeit a somewhat ironic one.

Weekend

2009-10-07T00:53:44Z

Friday night I saw Zombieland and enjoyed it. It wasn't side-splittingly funny, but definitely amusing, although Jesse Eisenberg's performance made me think that the director really wanted Michael Cera, but couldn't afford both him and Woody Harrelson. The movie is something of a deconstruction of zombie films, though not to the extent that, say, Scream is of horror films. Also, whereas most zombie apocalypse films are grim tales about the struggle to survive, Zombieland actually looks at the potential for fun in a world with no other people.

Saturday night I went out to Frightland (warning: noisy website), which is basically a combination of walk-through haunted house (several of them, actually), horror hayride, and low-rent mini-carnival of the sort that gets set up in mall parking lots. It's located in Middleton, Delaware, which I don't know much about, but is probably best exemplified by the sign at the Frightland entrance which said "leave your weapons in the car." I actually haven't been to a haunted house since my early 20s, and as a kid, I was simultaneously attracted to and terrified. While I like the concept, I don't really like being scared and I don't enjoy having people jump out at me from the dark. Also, I couldn't help but notice that Jessica and I appeared to be the only people there over the age of 17 who weren't there with kids.

As it turned out, the haunted house(s) were scary, though not as much as I expected. By that I mean that my last impression of them was from childhood, when they used to scare the crap out of me. The one's at Frightland would indeed scare the crap out of a kid, but I found that while they did get me a few times, for the most part I didn't react too strongly. I think that's because once inside, I became alert to the places where I expected someone to jump out. I also became very alert to misdirection, i.e., there were things that were obviously set up to get my attention, so that I'd be looking away from where there scares would be coming from. Still, waiting for someone to jump out at you from the dark makes for a very tense experience, and while it was kind of fun, it's not something I'm in a rush to do again.

The horror hayride was a new experience for me, and it was a lot more impressive than I expected, as it wasn't just a bunch of guys in masks jumping out from the dark, but a very elaborate multimedia experience that included pyrotechnics, giant animatronics, and at one point, the entire hay cart being lifted off the ground. At the end of it we had to walk back to the main area. This included a trek through the woods, with various people in costumes jumping out at you, and a trip through two more small-ish haunted house attractions - an abandoned asylum and a western ghost town. At that point, we were both a bit fatigued by people jumping out at us from the dark, but overall we had a good time.

Sunday morning we walked into town for the food festival, which was basically a street fair where various restaurants set up booths. I had a small, cheap, very tasty pasta dish and a delicious BBQ pulled-chicken sandwich, a lemonade smoothie, and baklava, and went home with some excellent fudge. All-in-all, a very satisfying weekend.

Assholes of the Week

2009-09-29T23:28:46Z

Polanski's Arrest: Shame On The Swiss

This was written by a woman named Joan Z. Shore who is billed as the co-founder of a group called "Women Overseas for Equality." Here's a charming little selection from the piece:

But there is more to this story. The 13-year old model "seduced" by Polanski had been thrust onto him by her mother, who wanted her in the movies. The girl was just a few weeks short of her 14th birthday, which was the age of consent in California. (It's probably 13 by now!)

Well, there you have it. She was almost the age of consent (well, actually, it was 16 at the time, but who's counting), so that totally makes it ok for Polanski to have ~~seduced~~ raped her, the little minx. Apparently, "age of consent" means the age at which it's ok to start raping women.

Then there's also this essay by Anne Applebaum (what is it with these women defending a pedophile rapist?) who concludes her defense of Polanski with "If he weren't famous, I bet no one would bother with him at all." Well, that's true in that if he weren't famous, he probably would have just been thrown in jail and we never would have heard about him, but aside from that, I have to ask, if he weren't famous, do you think anyone would be defending him?

Assholes.

Who'll Stop The Rain?

2009-09-28T15:33:50Z

Went to the Maryland Ren Faire this Saturday for pirate weekend. Was supposed to meet up with a few people, but due to a variety of reasons, everyone ended up bailing out, although we did end up meeting one of Jessica's friends there. Mid-afternoon, it started to rain. We were supposed to go to DC that night b/c a bunch of Jessica's old peace corps friends were getting together, so we were in a situation where we didn't want to stay at the fair, but it was much too early to go to DC. Jessica's friend, who was also going to the gathering in DC, and who lives in northern VA, invited us to go to her place. We accepted, but misinterpreted her directions, ended up taking a wrong turn, and got stuck in traffic for a long, long time before finally getting off 95, checking the map, and realizing we were way off course. By that time it was late, and we were tired, so we decided to just go home. That meant going all the way back around DC again. By the time we got home, we had been driving for five hours.

Oh well, at least I found some info on a forum that just might resolve the problems I'm having with getting Neverwinter Nights to work on my computer.

For My Joss Whedon-Loving Friends

2009-09-25T17:45:01Z

Ira Glass interviews Joss Whedon. Look for the Sept. 23 entry.

Apartment-Warming Party

2009-08-26T14:11:29Z

We're having an apartment-warming party this Saturday at 7pm. Yeah, it's a little last minute-y, so come by if you're around. Contact me if you need directions.

Weekend at the Beach

2009-08-25T04:08:45Z

Friday morning Jessica and I went down to Broadkill Beach on the Delaware shore for the weekend. We stayed at a fantastic beach house that my stepfather's family rents for a few weeks every summer. Broadkill Beach is on a small island in the Bay that isn't commercialized at all, so only the people staying there use the beach. As such, every morning we could walk out the door right onto a largely secluded beach. What's more, despite a forecast that called for scattered storms and cloudy skies all weekend, we ended up having fantastic weather most of the weekend.

The view from our balcony. In the distance, you can everyone staying at the house down on the beach - and no one else nearby.

We got in fairly late Friday afternoon, and after getting settled in, went out to eat at a place called Lazy Susan's we had been to the year before, where they literally bring you a box full of steamed crabs rather generously seasoned with old bay.

As you can see, you eat them straight out of the box, and dump the shells right on the table. There were a dozen crabs in the box, and whereas I might normally eat half a dozen, I managed to finish off ten of them that night.

Jessica, who is not fond of food that requires effort to eat, found other ways to amuse herself.

We finished off the evening watching lightning flash in the distant horizon. Saturday, we got up fairly early and went down to the beach for a little swimming and kayaking. While we were down there it rained twice. Naturally, after we went back in and showered and changed, the day turned sunny, so we went to the boardwalk at Rehobeth Beach for a while, then went back home for a siesta. That evening, we went to a place at Dewey Beach called the Rusty Rudder with my parents and one of my cousins and his wife. Incidentally, that was one of the few times we got caught in a really heavy downpour. After dinner, Jessica and I stayed and went over to the bar/club part of the restaurant, where a live band was doing a mix of 80's & early 90's rock hits. Less than halfway through their set, a brawl broke out in the middle of the dance floor. Good times.

Sunday morning the weather was nicer, so we went down to the beach for more kayaking and swimming.

Kayaking, for me, meant mostly going around in circles. Oh, and also smacking myself in the jaw with the kayak one time while trying to get in.

The beach itself was littered with, among other things, a lot of dead horseshoe crabs, for which Jessica developed an unhealthy fascination. Seriously, this picture doesn't even begin to cover it.

Afterwards, we went to lunch at Grotto's Pizza, which I only mention because when she went to put hot pepper on her slice, the top of the shaker came off and dumped all of it on her pizza. Had this happened to me, I would have been pissed, but since it didn't, I laughed. We then stopped at a candy store, where I paid tribute to Arrested Development.

Afterwards, we went home for another afternoon nap, then dinner at the house with everyone, and then later we went to see District 9, a movie that took a fresh approach to an old idea. While you won't come out of the theater feeling uplifting, it was a fantastic film.

Jessica poses with one of the aliens from District 9. No wait, actually, that's just more of her freakish fascination with dead horseshoe crabs.

We ended the night by getting into a long discussion with my stepfather's sister about teaching, cognitive dissonance, national healthcare, and a bunch of other stuff.

And finally, today, more swimming, more lying in the sun, more daytime napping, and then finally, home once more.

Peace out.

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Crustaceans of the world, unite! We will have our revenge!"

Pirate Weekend

2009-08-18T14:55:03Z

Just wondering who, if anyone, is planning to go. 9/26 - 9/27 at the Maryland Renn Faire.

I'm really glad today

2009-08-14T14:46:21Z

That I don't give a shit about the Eagles, because if I did, the cognitive dissonance might be a little too much to take.

In totally unrelated news, WTF?

New Apartment

2009-08-05T14:57:19Z

Moved to a new apartment this weekend. Specifically, I moved to the place across the hall, which has two bedrooms instead of one. Spent the last few days unpacking, cleaning, and organizing. Jessica will be moving in in about a week and a half.

During the deluge Sunday morning I noticed water seeping into one of the rooms, right where I placed my computer (fortunately, it wasn't damaged). Management says this has never happened before and was probably just because of the intensity of the storm. I need to talk to maintenence about this.

Working on getting the place set up and decorated and such. Pictures may be forthcoming on Facebook in the near future.

Adventures in Stupidity

2009-07-27T14:21:22Z

Over the weekend, while cleaning the bathroom, I noticed that the water in the tub wasn't draining, so I called maintenence. They sent someone by this morning. It turns out that the problem was that while cleaning I must have accidentally hit the handle that controls the drain, setting it to stop the drain.

The maintenence guy must have thought that I was the biggest moron on the planet. At that moment, I really couldn't argue with him.

Ode To Joy

2009-07-16T14:54:23Z

I finally have my computer back and working again. I'm now going to go on every review site I can find and tell people not to buy from IBuyPower (as a final insult, they left a dust cloth inside my computer).

Mind you, I'm completely paranoid that it's going to break down again if I just look at it funny.

Winning the Lottery

2009-07-09T17:18:14Z

The other day, I won $7 in the Powerball by matching three of the numbers.

The thing is, it was the first three numbers that matched, so when I was checking the numbers, I had an "oh shit!" moment for about half a second before I got to the fourth number.

When Worlds Collide

2009-07-02T15:19:14Z

Scientists Visit a Creation Museum

Stuff like this makes me want to bang my head against the wall:

The museum’s presentation appeals to visitors like Steven Leinberger and his wife, Deborah, who came with a group from the Church of the Lutheran Confession in Eau Claire, Wis. “This is what should be taught even in science,” Mr. Leinberger said.

However, this made me chuckle:

Dr. Sato likened the museum to an amusement park. “I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed Disneyland,” she said.

Did she enjoy Disneyland?

“Not very much,” she said.

It Just Never Ends II

2009-06-29T15:32:07Z

Got the replacement video card Friday. Plugged it in and... yeah, the video card wasn't the problem. I was almost 100% sure that the video card wasn't the problem. In fact, I tried plugging the monitor directly into the motherboard, and I didn't get any picture, so... if I had thought of that a week ago, I would have known for sure it wasn't the video card. So I called IBuyPower again, and after mucking around a bit with the tech support guy, he told me that I had a bad motherboard, so I had to send it back again.

What I want to know is HOW THE HELL they could tell me that they tested my computer to make sure it was working when, obviously, they didn't? I mean, this isn't some minor glitch - IT DOESN'T WORK AT ALL! While I suppose it's technically possible that the motherboard was damaged in transit, I'd say it's more likely that they simply stuck a new power supply in the computer and, other than making sure that the power supply worked, never bothered to test the computer at all.

I've now been without a working computer for five weeks. I figure it'll be, at a minimum, another two and a half before I get mine back again.

It Just Never Ends

2009-06-23T18:30:28Z

Got my computer back yesterday. Plugged everything in, turned it on, and the power was working... but nothing came up on the monitor.

I'm pretty sure the monitor is working. A green light appeared when I turned it on, and when I turned off the computer, I got the "off mode in 5 seconds" message. I also know I plugged it into the right port, because when I tried the other port, the green light turned orange.

Now I'm waiting for a replacement video card. They told me that they tested the computer before shipping it out, so their explanation is that the card may have been damaged in transit.

Somehow, I'm not optimistic. In fact, I'm coming to believe I will never have a working computer again.

Found Another One

2009-06-19T20:23:16Z

Came up with another name I can add to my list of celebrities that I hate: Oprah Winfrey, for her enthusiastic, uncritical promotion of psuedoscience and medical quackery.

Bad Computer III

2009-06-18T19:14:26Z

My computer was finally shipped yesterday. According to FedEx, it should arrive this Monday. I have off Monday (although I'll be out for much of the day), so the timing on this is good - I've never worried about packages being stolen, but I'd just as soon not leave my computer sitting out in front of my door for hours. The person I spoke to on the phone (from IBuyPower, not FedEx) said Monday is the latest it's supposed to arrive, but it could come earlier. That'd be great, but I'm not holding my breath.

As of Monday, it'll be exactly four weeks since my computer stopped working (and over 3 and a half since I sent it out).

Follow-Up

2009-06-16T14:47:30Z

Finished watching Ong-Bak 2 last night.

As a martial arts film, it's pretty amazing. The last 15 minutes of the film feature an extended fight scene between Tony Jaa and multiple opponents, during which Jaa switches between multiple martial arts styles and utilizes a variety of weapons. It's a stunning display of talent by a master martial artist.

As a film overall though, it isn't very good. The thin storyline is dragged out, the big twist at the end isn't foreshadowed well, and thus feels tacked on, and doesn't pack the emotional punch it should, and the film ends on a non-ending.

It is a beautiful movie to look at though.

Various and Sundry

2009-06-15T23:56:59Z

Watched three - well, two and a half - movies in the last few days, all of which were very different.

Regarding the first: there are a lot of movies and tv shows that I watched as a kid that I find I can now only just vaguely remember, or sometimes just barely remember. Over the years, when I've had the opportunity, I've tried to track down information on these movies and shows, and watch them if possible, fully expecting that they're probably going to be terrible, just so I can put those miscellaneous bits of memory into context. One of these shows was a made for TV movie from 1981 which I remembered having the title of "The Archer" but which is actually known as both "The Archer and the Sorceress" and "The Archer: Fugitive From the Empire." The only thing I remembered about it was that the hero had a magic bow, and when he fired it, the tv screen would turn all red and the arrow would explode. Well, thanks to the magic of the Internet, I got to watch it last week, and it was indeed terrible. In fact, it was so bad it went all the way around back to good again. It did indeed have a magic bow that turned the screen red. It also had the following: a totally bland, generic early-80s hero with a big coif, George Kennedy wearing a blonde viking wig with braids, fight scenes that would be considered amateurish at your local Ren Faire, and props and sets that would have looked artificial on the original Star Trek series. I also found the story somewhat incomprehensible, but that may be because Damon and I were goofing on the show too much to really listen to the dialogue. At any rate, that's one more vauge memory put into place. Next up: the movie Arabian Adventure, a 1979 that I remember seeing in the theater, which I found on ebay for about $15.

Along the same lines, I also, on impulse, picked up a copy of Ong Bak 2 on DVD while in NYC. While this movie does have the greatest trailer ever, the movie itself hasn't been quite as good. Actually, it's not a bad movie at all; it's shot beautifully, it isn't hokey or cheesy, and the fight scenes are all well staged. The problem is that it just isn't much fun either. The fights are brutal, and the whole movie is grim. It doesn't have any of the sense of Jackie Chan-inspired fun that Ong Bak had (and it doesn't seem to have any relation to that film either, other than having the same star). Still, I haven't finished watching it yet, so I'll have to reserve final judgement for now.

The third film, which I saw in a theater, was Up!. This is the first Pixar movie I've ever seen. It's also the first time any movie has ever made me shed tears. For a movie that was promoted as a wacky, uplifting kids' adventure, it's way, way sad at times, and a lot more adult than I expected. It was never maudlin though, or saccharine or blatantly manipulative, just genuniely sentimental and bittersweet and really well done.

It's been three weeks now that I haven't had a computer at home. The only good thing about this is that I've caught up reading some of the many, many games sitting on my shelf, and might even run some of them.

I finished reading Zorcerer of Zo, an indie rpg inspired by fairy tales, fables, The Wizard of Oz, Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, and so on. It uses a rules light system - the "PDQ" system - that works well with the setting, since fairy tales probably won't translate very well with a more "realistic," crunchy rules set. I'm thinking of running this game, so to brush up on the source material, I got a copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales and the collected stories of Hans Christian Andersen. These are the original stories, not the Disney-fied, kid-safe versions, and they are seriously warped. Violence and child-abuse abound, and while the good and innocent usually do live happily ever after, half the time evil isn't punished. Then again, some of them have very weird morals, or no morals at all. Hell, some of them barely make any sense at all.

I've also been reading a new game entitled "Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies" that uses a variant of the PDQ rules that fits better with the swashbuckling genre. The game is set in a snow-globe like world where there is no ground, per se. Rather, islands and continents float in the skies, and travel, commerce and - of course - piracy, is done with the use of flying ships. The premise got me interested, but so far, I've been a bit underwhelmed. There are only a few lands, and you only get a little bit of information about each one. I don't expect an encyclopedia, but the write-ups felt underwritten and sketchy, and considering how wide the page borders are, there could have been more setting material included without inflating the page count (as a counter-example, Talistlanta features dozens of different lands, yet the short descriptions in the main rules are much more informative and useful). As for the rules, I haven't delved too deeply into them yet, but there seems to be too much of the author attempting to weld rules onto situations where they aren't needed, and don't always make sense - which is odd considering that it's a rules-light system. I'll probably try running the game at some point, but at the moment, it's left me a bit disappointed.

Drag Me To Hell

2009-06-08T17:32:03Z

Drag Me to Hell is one of the most fun horror movies I’ve ever seen. It’s scary, but in a rollercoaster thrill-ride sort of way, rather than by creating any real sense of dread or terror. It’s too cartoonish and over-the-top to take seriously, and in that sense, it’s basically a big-budget remake of Evil Dead 2, featuring Sam Raimi’s trademark directorial tricks: fast camera zooms, weird angles, and general zaniness (though it’s played a bit more straightly than ED2). There isn’t much in the way of blood, guts, and gore. Instead, Raimi goes for the maximum gross-out factor – over and over again - in a way that’s both hysterical and completely revolting. What’s more, once you accept the premises, the story more or less adheres to its own rules, the characters aren’t irredeemably stupid, and you get the sense that Raimi really enjoyed making this movie. Between all the J-Horror rip-offs, uninspired re-makes, and bleak, torture-porn that’s dominated the horror scene for the last decade, this movie is a welcome relief that’s a lot of fun to watch.

That said, I have one major gripe about the film, but to explain it, I have to spoil the film.

Basically, the story is about a loan officer named Christine who’s up for a promotion at her bank. In order to curry favor with her boss, she refuses to grant a loan extension to an old gypsy woman, who retaliates by putting a curse on her: an evil spirit will torment her for three days before literally dragging her down to hell. After a number of unsuccessful attempts to break the curse, Christine learns that she can save herself by giving the cursed object – in this case, a button from her coat – as a gift to someone else.

Now, I actually have two gripes about the same thing: the ending. Christine puts the button in an envelope. She’s riding with her boyfriend in his car, when he stops suddenly, causing the envelope to get mixed in with a bunch of other papers and such. After a frantic search, Christine finds it, and at this point, the end of the film becomes so obvious that only the most brain-dead viewer won’t see it coming. In fact, it’s so obvious that I assumed that it was a red herring, so I was expecting the “real” twist to come right afterwards. But no: right at the end, when Christine thinks she’s safe, she realizes that the envelopes got mixed up and that she never got rid of the button, and the movie ends with her screaming and crying for help as she’s dragged down to Hell.

And that brings me to my second problem with the ending. Most, if not all, horror movies are essentially morality plays, or fairy tales. This one definitely is. Christine is basically a decent person who gives in temptation and commits an evil act, and is punished for it. She’s given a way out – giving away the cursed button – but taking it means committing an even more evil act, since whoever receives the button will be sent to Hell. She wrestles with this choice and almost gives in, but she doesn’t. Instead, she finds another way out (she basically re-gifts the cursed button to the witch that cursed her), and owns up to her wrongdoing. As such, she should have been redeemed. Instead, she’s still sent to Hell, and this kind of ruined the movie a little for me. It’s a downer to see the hero or heroine fail after they’ve suffered and struggled so hard to succeed, especially in a horror film, in which we expect to see the virtuous prevail, and the wicked get the punishment they deserve. Now, granted, some of my favorite horror movies – Ringu, The Descent, The Blair Witch Project – subvert this convention. But for whatever reason, in those films, it works, whereas in this one, it just feels like a cheat (and a badly telegraphed one to boot). That put a sour note at the end of what was otherwise a very fun film.