Free-Floating Enthusiasm!

So I was reading over the last few posts because I seemingly had nothing better to do, and I couldn't help be be disappointed at myself - after all, it's mostly negative and cynical!

Ah well, it just means that I have to balance with positivity - so here's some things that I'm smiling about! So, here goes:

1) In just over a week, my woman and I will have a house! Yes, that does mean that I have to move soon, but it's a new adventure especially when....

2) We're going to OWN a house! Wait, didn't I just say that? Ah, but my point is this - because we OWN the house, we can do pretty much whatever we want to it! I've already started daydreaming about nerdy stuff like wiring up a network, running network to the shed out back, setting up entertainment systems - but I daydream about non-nerdy stuff too! I can't wait to measure out the shed out back and set up a work bench, and powertools, flouro lights, organizing tools, building a central workspace... [insert manly grunting *here*]
Exciting times, no?

3) I get to see a smile on my woman's face - and nothing makes me happier than seeing my woman happy! (Especially when it's so effortless!) Big secret tip for the guys out there: You want to hang on to the woman you love? Then put her happiness well before yours - trust me, you'll still be happy too!

4) I've got some new hobbies that I can't wait to start exploring! Granted, I'll need to wait till I can afford it, but they'll be awesome: such as building a motorized fun-vehicle (go-kart, pocket bike, mini-quad... who knows?) or getting into remote control helicopters! Right now, I can't wait to try pulling apart some cheapo R/C car and putting a DRILL motor into it... could be interesting!

5) Heck, I'm still excited about #2! In fact, yes, #5 is - I'm still really stoked about #2.

And that's about all for now - I've only got about a 1/2 hour left at work... before I go and fix someone else's personal computer on the side. [sigh] It's tough being a nerd in demand...

Movie Review: "Star Wars: The Clone Wars"

Yup, last night I went to see the latest from George Lucas in the Star Wars saga. Conclusion? A piece of my heart died. That's how saddened I am by Lucasfilm's antics at this point.

Let's review: George Lucas's original masterpiece movie trilogies: Star Wars, and Indiana Jones.
For both, the original trilogies were just downright awesome. Don't get me wrong, they're all far from perfect movies - many of the films are riddled with bloopers. Heck, it isn't till you watch Star Wars with a seasoned perspective that you realize just how crap the acting is. BUT for all 6 of these films, the story-lines, stunts, and special effects are friggin' brilliant. Star Wars set the benchmark for state-of-the-art special effects back in its day, which is amusing when you find that some of the Death Star scenes are just cherry bombs exploding on a mock-up surface as the camera drives by in a pick-up truck. However, I'm starting to ramble.

My point is, these 6 timeless movies are awesome. I haven't met anybody that doesn't like at least one of these films. So why, oh why, has Lucasfilms Ltd. systematically produced garbage to be tacked on to the legacy of these original classics? Indy 4? Sucked. Had standard Indy acting, action and stunts, but the story left a bad taste in my mouth. Star Wars: Episodes 1, 2, & 3? Depressing. Apart from snazzier effects and fight scenes (I must admit, Yoda rocks. Period.), the story was sadly lacking.

And then we come to Star Wars: The Clone Wars. To be perfectly honest, most Star Wars fans I talked to just looked at me like I was a traitor when I mentioned that I was going to see it. The reactions I got amounted to sad shaking of heads. I could see why, considering the trend of George Lucas franchises. But, see it, I did. And it didn't... disappoint. But oh, how it did.

The movie's good points don't add up to much: a few funny one-liners and amusing situations are about it. I'll admit that some of the visuals were nice, at least. As for the rest of it?

Story-line = Crap. Predictable. Childish (It's painfully obvious that this one is geared more for kids.)

Dialogue = Who are you kidding? One-liners are literally being delivered by ROBOTS.

Acting/Characters = Even though it's voice-acting, which in some aspects, must be easier, it's still garbage. Only 3 of the original voices are obtained - Anthony Daniels (C3PO - who has about 3 lines); Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu - who has... 5 lines); and Christopher Lee (Count Dooku - who actually has dialogue at least...). The rest? Probably the developers for all I know - each "unheard of" name on the list did at least 2 characters, from what I glimpsed in the end credits. Oh yeah, and the "acting" side of the voices? Still crap. As for the characters? There's a baby Hutt (remember Jabba from Return of the Jedi?) and a Hutt that speaks English and sounds like a woman. (And it's supposed to be Jabba's UNCLE). Need I say more?

Special Effects = Well, seeing as the entire movie is CGI, you'd expect some kind of pizazz. Apart from some nice backdrops and the like, the "special effects" just weren't jaw-dropping in the way you come to expect from these movies (anyone who remembers watching Return of the Jedi can probably agree).

Fight Scenes = One image springs to mind when I try to summarize the lightsaber battles in this movie - strobe light. In fact, pretty much all of the character movements seem to be jerky and unnatural. The shoot-outs featuring clone-troopers are nice, but not enough to earn much more than this footnote. Oh and by the way, see that picture up there of Yoda with a lightsaber? The picture lies. Yoda doesn't draw his weapon at ANY point of this movie.

On the whole, this movie doesn't do anything for the Star Wars series, except drag the name into the mud. I weep for the Lucasfilm legacy. Right now, their record stands at 6:5 for Classic:Flop ratio. It doesn't bode well for future releases.

Movie Review: "Sleuth"

Was at Civic Video tonight, dropping off 9 Bond films and renting another 5, and Jayne, my housemate extraordinaire, picked out a movie at my request. The film she picked? Sleuth, starring Michael Caine and Jude Law.

We watched it while eating our respective dinners, and as the film progressed a few things became clear:

1) This film makes absolutely no sense. - when you spend more than half of a movie scratching your head, it's a bad sign.

2) (Potential Spoiler) There's only 2 people in the whole movie. - according to the credits, there's 3 actors [I'm not kidding.], but one of them only appears as a TV character, so he doesn't count.

3) There's no way I could ever bring myself to pirate this DVD. - If you truly need a final nail in the coffin, the fact that I have NO DESIRE whatsoever to rip this DVD to add to my collection, that should pretty much cover it.

Actually, it's pretty impressive in and of itself that some movie studio somewhere in an English speaking country can produce a movie that I never want to see again - especially when you consider the fact that I did rip Hebrew Hammer. Rent it. Watch it. Understand.

As Jayne and I spent most of the movie looking at each other, just to confirm that the other was equally in the dark, the only thing we took away from it was, "This movie must have been written by one sick cookie."

Does your subconscious find sleep boring...?

I like sleep. I really do. Every now and then, I like to have a day where I just sleep till... I wake up. And then go back to sleep. If I could, I would nominate a day every week where I could just stay in bed all day, do nothing apart from some occasional reading, or a movie, and generally veg out. I hereby declare the 8th day of every week to be a day of rest.

And now that I've pointed out how much I enjoy sleep, I have to ask myself: "WHY AM I STILL UP AT 2:15 AM???". Well, technically it's because I finally took the last step and hooked the server up to the TV and stereo. It still needs a bit of tweaking, but I successfully tested it by skimming through the western epic Once Upon A Time In The West - that was made by an Italian. Go figure. ->

But after finishing the movie in half the time, I still didn't jump under the covers, douse the lights, and fire up the REM cycles - no, I decided to read Klara's and Kat's respective blogs. True, they are my 2 favorite ladies, but honestly, at this hour, it's pathetic.

Did it stop there? Nope. Because here I am now, feeling all inspired after reading the blogs of the fiance and the best-woman-friend: so much so that I've made a new post all about it. I think I'll just go now, and gag myself to sleep.

On that note, I'll leave you with this quote from the aforementioned legendary movie (No Kat, not in the Barney sense!):

"Hey, Harmonica. When they do you in... Pray that it's somebody who knows WHERE to shoot..."

NEW SERIES: Life In Terms Of...

So I thought I'd start up a new series - we've already got the lists of things to do in the face of boredom (and I plan on adding to that still... :D ), and in the interest of relieving boredom with a laugh, I thought I'd try something new.

So here it is - "Life In Terms Of...": Finding ways of explaining life through ordinary things that probably don't have anything to do with it anyway.

And up first? Life in Terms of...WEBSITES.


So, can you sum up life in the terms of a website? I happen to think so - and my examples are obvious: the 2 "super-ultimate-might-as-well-be-god-because everything-is-possible -on-them-websites" known as MySpace and Facebook.

I have to admit - I have been sucked in by both. I was fully taken in by the MySpace craze, starting as far back as when I was in high school over in SoCal. Of course, eventually the hype died off and logging into MySpace became a chore. And I'm a lazy individual so [chore = something I don't do.]

And now the same has happened with Facebook, only instead of hype pulling me in, it was my fiance. And again, the same thing happened - hype dies, using becomes a chore. Only much much quicker this time...

But enough about my experiences - on to the topic: can one relate a website to life? I happen to think so. MySpace for starters - on the MySpace site, you have at least one of the fundamentals of life: Interaction. You have the ability to interact with your "environment" by designing your page which also helps to define your individuality. You can interact with others - whole conversations of a deep and personal nature can be carried out with comments where only you and the rest of the world get to see them. You can upload photos, advertise a party and even write a suicide note. All this and more is possible in the world of MySpace. I still remember people asking my why I wasn't at some event or other. When I said "Where was my invite?" I'd get "I put it on MySpace, didn't you check?". On top of that you've got advertising, product placement, cliques, dating, instant messaging, email, music, art, acting, movies, stupidity, stalkers, and identity theft - all wrapped up in an HTML/CSS package. Hell, with a list like that, all you're missing is food, water, and air (and only because someone hasn't figure out the programming code for them, I'm sure).

And then comes Facebook. Remove the indiviualized pages, and a bit of the identity theft, spam and stalkers and you've got the same experience, but "BETTER". ** By "better" they must mean something that I'm not capable of comprehending, but that's just me. I must give credit where it's due though and point out that Facebook might as well be Life 2.0 with its slicker coding and better security. But I digress.

So, in simple terms (i.e. without whinging about trendy websites), how does life relate to websites? Well, when you break up the PURPOSE of a website, maybe the answer gets a little clearer... For instance, a website, in most cases, is an effort to gain recogition, but that's not all a site's purpose is limited to - some are a voice trying to be heard, some are there to pose questions, some find answers, and some just ARE the answers. Heck, there's websites to find your true love too. And, of course, Google rules them all.

Life? Well, I'd say a fair few people out there are searching for recognition, identity, individuality and answers. Some want to be heard, some want to hear, and in the middle of all this "life" you've got God running behind the scenes. Just like Google.

And that sounds like a nice conclusion to take out of context : "God is a lot like Google."

Or is it the other way around?

**Note how I didn't mention viruses in things removed. Mainly because if you focus on the negative impact on a company's productivity level due to Facebook, it pretty much becomes a virus on its own :p .**

THE FIRST POST...

So welcome to the most pointless blog on the InterWebz - the blog of a Procrastinator Extraordinaire! Seriously, I moved my old MySpace blog here months ago, and am NOW FINALLY getting to the first post (and not just because I copped some nagging from the fiance... ;) )

I suppose now would be a good time to start rambling about how my life is going - my trials, my joys, my successes, my failures... But I can't be bothered because either:

A) Don't wanna think about it.

OR

B) Can't be bothered typing that much

Take your pick - they seem to be universally applicable (especially since it took this long to get around typing this entry).

ANYWAY - might as well give some basic highlights, seeing as it's what's on my mind, or what I'm using to distract myself with; hell, I'm not sure which.


First of all - THE MEDIA SERVER LIVES. That's right, be afraid you non-nerd mortals! Jukebox 2.0 is up, running, and packing some serious storage (do YOU have over 850GB of storage on YOUR piddly little computer?). Best part? When I'm done setting up the file-system and dumping all of my various bits of junk on there, it'll hook up to my TV and sound system. And some of you chose to do SPORTS in high school? Freaking. Awesome.




Next up - THE HOUSE IS ALMOST OURS. You heard me right, the woman and I are a hop, skip and jump away from owning our first house. Crazy, huh?






Third serving? I figured out how to get the embedded Next G modem on a Toshiba Portege R500 to connect to a network OTHER than BigPond's! Alright, so that's not even all that exciting to me, but it's been bugging me for a couple days, so fixing it feels good :) .