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2005

Episode III

I got home from Seattle Sunday around 3, played with the kids for a few hours, and headed out after dinner to watch Episode III.

It was easily the best of the prequels (which wasn’t hard to do), and I need to watch it a few more times, but my gut says it will come in at #3 out of the six in my list of favorites.

(Empire, New Hope (nothing beats the rush of the first one, though it’s a bit rough at times), Sith, Clones, Jedi, Phantom).

The lightsaber battles were fantasic, the pacing was well done, Anakin’s conversion and fall were well handled, and even Obi-Wan defeating Anakin was nicely done. I was disappointed with the de-emphasis of Padme, especially as she was such a strong character in the first two, the love scenes and dialogue was rough as usual, and it seemed to break continuity with two minor points. Other than that, it was excellent all around.

I highly recommend it, Lucas brought it to a fantastic finish.

And in other news, Lucas doesn’t like hands.

  • in General
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Back from Seattle

Back from Seattle, though we’re heading home this weekend.

Lots to write about, including the trip, Episode III, 24, and other misc. stuff. More posts incoming.

Playstation3 Unveiled

Trumping Microsoft in the aesthetics department, the Playstation3 was unveiled tonight.

Gorgeous, sleek design (with the exception of the controller, blech), in 3 colors, with more connectivity than you’d ever think you need: 6 USB, 3 Ethernet, 6 Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (for PSP!) and best of all…2 HD outputs.

Check it:

Speaking of video, Sony Computer Entertainment’s Chief Technical Officer Masa Chatani was on hand to show off the PS3’s panoramic video functions. Since the console has two HD outputs, it is can be hooked up to two side-by-side HDTVs to projecting video in a 32:9 extra-widescreen format (think Cinemascope in your living room). Like a gigantic version of the Nitnendo DS, the dual digital outputs also allow for an extended game display, with the action on one screen and either game information or video chat on the second.

With just a little less system memory than X-Box 360, and launching 4-6 months later, it will be interesting to see the big bad mega-corporations duke it out.

The story of the horsey



100_0318, originally uploaded by silwenae.

10 years ago (doesn’t seem that long ago), I was working in Maryland, the first time I was in management.

Our Video Supervisor, Dave, made me this horse as a present, it was a hobby of his, when Alex was born.

Alex wasn’t a big rider, but Dave was one of the cooler guys I’ve worked with in all my time at retail. A bit older (especially older than me), he was one of the few that really made me feel welcome after we had moved cross country.

Zoe really likes to rock on the horse, as evident in the grin on her face. Every time she rides, it takes me back to those days, and I think of Dave, one of the best experiences I had for as long as I’ve been with the Company.

More theme stuff

I came across a new theme yesterday, Relaxation, that adds a 3rd row as a Flickr badge of your latest photo’s.

I’ve decided to give up IE compatibility, and focus on Firefox. This theme, as well as a number of others I’ve played with, works fine in Firefox (go go standards) but not in IE.

I’m traveling later in the week, and getting a new laptop as well. Memorial Day I’ll be home in Wisconsin, and plan on coding the new theme’s CSS then.

Liz Phair Discography

Trying to track down a track list for the copy of Liz Phair’s bootleg album, Girlysounds, I came across a local guy’s Liz Phair discography site. Probably the most complete site I’ve seen yet, if you’re a Liz Phair fan.

Unfortunately, my copy of Girlysounds doesn’t sync up with any of the ones he has listed, but he has all the lyrics linked in the songs, so should be able to figure it out, just have to take the time to listen to the album. Which I won’t mind doing at all. 🙂

Best X-Box 360 Preview Yet

HardOCP has the best X-Box 360 preview I’ve seen yet.

While I’m not a fan of the color or the aesthetics, I am very intrigued by the new X-Box Live features, and the rumors of Media Center integration. HardOCP’s article also touches on the ability to plug in a portable MP3 player or digital camera and stream content right to your TV through your X-Box – pretty cool stuff.

The Future of Gnome

There is a brouhaha stirring on Planet Gnome, the aggregator web site for the blogs of Gnome developers.

First of all, I’d like to say, I am not a programmer, I am only a user, and I choose to use Gnome as my desktop.

I will save for another post why I choose to use Gnome on Linux, but suffice to say, I’ve been using Linux and Gnome on and off for almost 8 years, and this last year or two, almost exclusively on my personal desktop, and longer than that on the my productivity box for email, IRC, IM and storage.

A little background: Edd Dumbill kicked off the conversation a few weeks ago when he said his Gnome hacking had slowed because of lack of fun, and lack of direction of what language to code in within Gnome.

Everyone, including the big names like Havoc and Miguel have weighed in, and there have been some really good points made about the different development languages (mostly Java vs Python vs Mono/C#).

Alex summed up what the major vendors will do:

  • Novell will continue to ship Mono because it has a vested interest in its perpetuation.
  • RedHat will continue to not ship it for the foreseeable future, because they have a vested interest in not being sued.
  • Ubuntu and everyone else will eventually include Mono because users want the apps. And no matter what, the handful of apps I’ve half-started writing are all in C#.

And Paul Drain summed it up the best:

but in the end:

  • the end-user will eventually demand quality applications written in both of these languages on the desktop. And that’s the key for me. I’m just as freaked out about the Microsoft patent issue in Mono / C# that could raise it’s ugly head some day. With that said, most of the coolest and innovative applications that are being written right now for the Gnome Desktop are in Mono / C#. From Tomboy for notes taking (and let me tell you: keeping track via Tomboy as I rip my CD collection with one note on missing discs, another note on scratched discs has been a lifesaver) to Muine for listening to music (It blows Rhythmbox away in my opinion) to F-Spot for managing and tagging photos. All of these applications are applications I use daily, and just work. (Thank you Ubuntu Universe repository). I look forward to using Beagle in the future for desktop searching. In fact it was Beagle & Dashboard a few years ago when Nat was first brainstorming around Beagle that really grabbed me and sucked me back in to Linux.

I want innovation in the desktop, and applications that just work. Those, combined with Gnome’s remote desktop features, (and my passion for free software development) keep me using Gnome every day.

The horror that is Blade III

I watched the travesty that is Blade III last night. Oh, how the mighty has fallen.

Blade I & II we’re good comic book adaptions of an interesting character. Not great movies per se, but good action, decent one lines, and interesting plots. All three were written by David Goyer, but with Guillermo del Toro, who directed the second one, moving on to Hellboy (and it’s sequel) they gave the director’s chair to Mr. Goyer. We’ll blame him for this horrible piece of work.

What did Blade III want to be? A horror film? Because the last half tried to do that. A hard-boiled mystery of what the vampires were up to? An action flick?

The only saving grace was Ryan Reynolds – his humor and lines were the one spark that kept the movie interesting. The only other things I appreciated were the nods to Blade II through the anatomy of “Dracula” and the vampire dogs, and some nods to past movies.

Other than that, the cinematography was horrible – the scene where Blade is on the roof chasing the baddie, and the camera pans (and later, they did a similar pan around Blade) was bad, the pacing of the movie, especially after the attack on the compound, and the dialogue was terrible. Early in the movie when Blade & Whistler are talking before the FBI storms in, it’s as if Wesley Snipes and Kris Kristofferson aren’t even trying – their acting is wooden and all the chemistry is gone.

And what happened to Parker Posey that she would sign up to do this? The indie flick queen of the 90’s is in this? What a waste of her talent.

If you appreciated Blade I & II for what they were – mindless action movies with an interesting take on vampires, stay away from Blade III. Worse than the Matrix Trilogy, it will leave you with such a bad taste in your mouth you won’t want to watch the first two ever again either.

This week in music

This week’s purchases:

  • DVD:
  • The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (I dig Wes Anderson of Rushmore / Royal Tennenbaums directing fame)

  • In Good Company

  • Music:

  • New Order: NO (Was out of stock last week, but they had it this week)
  • Weezer: Make Believe (Great album, listened to it 3 times already – much more similar to their first disc, than their last disc, Maladroit)
  • Depeche Mode: The Singles (25-30 & 31-36). Released a year or two ago, the follow-up to the box sets released 10 years ago. They have multiple (sometimes up to 7) versions of the same songs from their 7″ and 12″ singles releases, with unreleased remixes and live tracks. A must for the collector, though they break the bank. Unfortunately, I got home and realized I don’t have 19-24. Grrr.