Bayesque

Well, I did one movie review before, but haven't since. Mainly because a) I think I suck at them, and b) who reads this...

But, I just finished watching the Michael Bay Product Advertisement, the Island.
Now, I'm not a movie snob in the sense that I only want to watch indie flicks that delve into character relationships between a tortured painter and his sign language capable monkey. I'll take most movies from straight up popcorn to a sign language monkey's internal struggle between monkeydom and humanity.

But, I have a bias, and that bias is against a man named Michael Bay. He likes to blow shit up in movies and... who can't enjoy that, but for some reason his movies never seem to have a soul. They consist of many slow-mo, or 360 pans around a character, lots of helicopter shots, and usually characters talking with the sun as a backdrop, making the character's dark.

And sometimes this works out, I enjoyed The Rock, and Armageddon was pretty good, but then we get two Bad Boys films, and the awesome... Pearl Harbor.

The Island falls somewhere in between. He has great actors working for him, Sean Bean, Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, and Djimon Hounsou. And they keep the movie somewhat watchable. The problem remains that you never really care why anything is happening. It's like Bay and the screenwriters just assumed that we would automatically care for these clones (if it spoiled it for you... then you never saw a trailer), because they were living false, meaningless lives - just replacement parts. But it doesn't happen, whatever moral quandry that we were supposed to just feel(and we know the concept, but movies should make us FEEL it) never occurs.

The movie just never draws you in, and then the multiple product placements for some reason ...use MSN search and drink Aquafina water... are more noticable than ever.

Near the end we see a spark of feeling shot into the movie through Djimon Hounsou, but it's too little too late.

Thus, the Island is yet another movie where a good film is just beneath the scenes shimmering, if only someone had saw it while on the set. If you're bored, and you want to see good actors in just-ok roles, and you want some slow-mo action, then you could do worse than the Island.

Profoundededednessness

Well, I still have crap to do, but I feel a sense of peace. I also think I rediscovered my love for movies, and have been watching trailers and feeling really excited. I had sort of let my dream of somehow working on movies slowly dwindle, but I have confidence I should at least try to do it. If not a director, than maybe the assistant director or the line producer, since I feel I could at least help with the day to day smoothening of a movie set.

The funny thing is that I was the only one who really stopped thinking about it, most friends and family mentioned me working in the movies often, and I'm glad they at least think I could have a shot.

Other than that, I'd like to see syriana, king kong, superman returns, inside man, many others and x3 could actually turn out pretty good, the trailer shows off the look of the film which I can only say is more "mature" its got a grainier subdued look, instead of the first two's more average movie look. Though, trailers are often... misleading


Editing rocks. <--- tis a link.

I hope to post here more, especially when I start the internship, and maybe someone besides tony at work, and josh posting a family guy comment, will read it.

Bomb Diggity.

Yup

Yup, keep on keeping on.


Yup.


Fritolaysia Cuts Off Chiplomatic Relations With Snakistan.



Click to enlarge.

A bit off...

I'm sure anyone in college, or technical school, or whatever, knows what I refer to when I complain about dealing with what I call "administrative crap" (ie. fin aid forms, grad papers, any paperwork that could easily screw you over...).

It has come to the point where everytime I'm running around campus dealing with these type of things, I pretty much expect no help and/or the possibility of being screwed. Because I missed some form, or a deadline that no one mentioned anything about. And also plan to have to sit around for an hour for a single signature. Luckily, so far I've managed to avoid major problems, but I know others haven't.

Thats why today freaked me out, I went and talked to these people that help with enrolling for internship credit. They actually were helpful, and were going to take care of many things I thought I was going to have to go through on my own. Was the weirdest, and nicest feeling I've had since playing guitar hero yesterday (go check out the game). They just actually seemed to care and wanted to make it as painless an experience as possible.

The old line I hear from everyone is something like "that's the way it is, deal with it". Well thank you for that little piece of wisdom..... that really helps the situation.

Overall, I think NAU does an average job with these type of issues, and a good job if you can find the right people to help you. But it doesn't make sense that students or people in similar real world situations, should become so numb to help that when it appears, its like a ray of light.

That is all, continue you're regularly scheduled watching of "monkey peeing on itself" videos.

Well then

I got the internship, and accepted it. amazing.

So this spring, I'll be in Phoenix, if you happen to know of housing options for me, specifically ones as close to the capitol building as possible, please let me know as soon as you can.

Other than that, not much going on. Classes are ramping up with random crap due, as is probably the case for everyone.

That is all. You'll now be returned to your regular porn websurfing.

With regards

Thanks to fernandez's stickman animation program, we can all view my fantastic first animation. It could take a bit to load.



If it doesn't animate, you'll have to cry yourselves to sleep.

Interview

Well for those of you who didn't know, forgot, or don't care, I had an interview yesterday (wed 11/2) in Phoenix. It's for an internship to work at the capitol basically producing live broadcasts of the legislative process, as well as a weekly halfhour program on a variety of topics.

If we include my lack of experience, lack of charisma, and all around B.O., I thought the interview went fairly well, especially when I was able to anticipate a non-standard question.

Who knows though, If i do get it, it means I have to find a place to live in phoenix and a way to get to the capitol daily (bus, taxi, catapult), as its a full time internship.

Thats about it, it would be for this spring, and I'll be graduating in may 06 as well.

Heyyyyy



I should say I had to resist typing capital instead of capitol.... dam' in'ta nets

The Masses

In order to fufill tony's request

"I came here for porn, booze, and women." -Tony

Here's all the hawt babes you can handle:



Dare I say greatest drawing produced by the mind of man...

I DO!

meh

the more i read what i wrote,
the more i roll my eyes at attempts to sound smart,
the more the observations seem trite.

meh

the explanation being, I think i'd rather have humorous posts than something "serious".

Theories on history

It's really easy as a student of history to look back on previous time periods and muse at how great the time was compared to our own.

As an example, to many the 1950's seem like a perfect place to live, but further scrutiny reveals fractured family lives and unfulfilled dreams, living under the shadow of a nuclear cloud.

The same goes for people's reverence of Abraham Lincoln. It's hard to separate the fact from the myth. But in his case, and his time period, I would say that while he was flawed more than historical portraits generally portray (and recent similar treatments of Lincoln point out the same thing), he was still a model president. Or THE model for a president.

Great men tend to be contradictory; Lincoln fought bouts of depression, but had a great sense of humor, a sensitive persona, but would become very steeled in his arguments and decisions when the time came. Another frequent fact pointed out is that he appointed his presidential nominees and rivals to his cabinet.

This fact is rather poignant, considering modern politics focuses on appointing the best man...with similar ideologies to your own. Debate when controlled by an intelligent, charismatic person fosters growth of ideas, and avoids the pitfalls of groupthink. Exactly what is needed to run a country with so many different viewpoints fighting for the lead.

I'm not saying passive compromise does anyone any good, but stupid bitching back and forth over small issues, and refusing to do something for the good of people without insisting that money for constituents is attached, or telling people there all important issues are an "either or" situation does nothing.

The point im trying to make is that regardless of how fantastic we think Lincoln's time period was in dealing with partisanship and perhaps debate of issues, we should strive to actually engage in meaningful informed debates about issues (on the right, the left, and the middle), instead of rabid shouting and posturing for a cause. Don't take the passion out of politics, but focus it for something better. Don't compare it to the past and reminiscence about what the "good ol days" were like, because they probably weren’t so hot.

Finally, my point about America is that when the shit has hit the fan, when we really really needed the right man or men (pc: women) for the job, we've found him, and gotten through.
The revolution. The civil war. The depression.

This is my first rant on something, and I don’t claim for it to be any end all position. Especially as it was written in about 10 minutes. It is easy to say all this, as chances are I won't be asked to follow through, and I do see some irony (hypocrisy?) in the fact that I really take no sides in a meandering (read random ass thought pattern) rant, about how we should engage in debate. But perhaps my first entrance into true blogger'ery isn't a complete waste. Just in case, heres a picture of the blues brothers:




"While shooting elephants in Africa, I found the tusks very difficult to remove. But in Alabama, the Tuscaloosa..."
-Groucho Marx

Updates?

Does anyone read this? I could go on random rants about things, but I think it'll just turn into self-absorbed crap no one cares for.

Leave a message in the comments, if I'm actually typing to someone, and tell me something you want to hear about.

And such.

A History of Violence

I enjoyed it, but the movie certainly won't appeal to everyone. If you're looking for action or some fast paced thriller, slowly back away.
Viggo Mortensen is a actor that I will always watch, in just about anything.

I give it 4 contemplating monks.



Image of the monk is copyright of its respective Internet owner.

Status

Jt, or more specifically his shoulder, is now a celebrity on the internet.
On http://www.clunet.edu , if refreshed enough times, we can all see it. But, since you're all lazy, just like me, here is the picture

Beginning

ERIC SMASH!...... I MEAN BLOG!




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