Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Like any good geek

So, tonight I saw Star Wars Episode III. I want to say that I was going in with low expectations. I tried awfully damn hard to lower my expectations fo the film, but I failed. But not completely. I went in just totally confused. And then in a matter of seconds, I had made up my mind and destroyed the entire popcorn staff.

Ok. I kid. About the killing that is. I entered unsure of what would be. Would I hate it or love it and in the end, I say neither. In the end, I enjoyed many scenes. I enjoyed the story. I felt what I think George Lucas wanted me to feel. Deep down Anakin still lived and that he was and still is a confused teenager trapped in so many lies.

What I hated. Dialog. Still. I also disliked that many scenes felt stilted and not fully fleshed out. Like he wanted one more movie to tie it together and just strung together the parts and pieces to attempt something greater, and missed. The acting felt better, but still vast room for improvement and I honestly don't blame the actors but the directing. Sometimes you should let the actors portray what they think the character would. The director is best when they explain the reasons and the actor believes, and vice versa as well. Hard line direction often leads to lack of full characterization.

Will you love this film? How the heck do I know? I will watch this again (on DVD, and pray that they have some extended scenes). I will hate Lucas, if he releases a special edition. Then my view that he has turned to the dark side will be complete. The evil money empire and it's Lord of the Sith.

So what do we have the 4, 5, and 6? We have 3 different versions that all minted fortunes and I fear the same for these as Lucas matures and his vision changes. I may believe that executives corrupted his vision for the films for original release, but I sure don't believe the special rerelease is his original vision. It is just a product of the time in between and the time long ago to create something not quite right.

So. Go spend the money and see. You may be disappointed, but you will at least be entertained if not enjoy it.

Friday, May 20, 2005

The Plague

Well strike me down and turn me into goo. Ok, it isn't that bad. Seems I went from sore throat to chest congestion in 2 days. Just makes it tough to talk. Not like I need to talk. I blame it on my friends, because . . . I . . . uh, don't hang out with enemies. Yeah, that was lame. Oh well. One of the sucky parts is a work pal is throwing a pirate party. I may have to miss the Pirate Party. Arrrrgggghhhh!

Anywho. Haven't written much. Always so many plans to write, most I just don't want to sit in front of a monitor lately when I get home from work.

Movies seen: Hitchiker's Guide. Good. Captures the spirit but misses the depth. Can't expect that in a short film though. And damn it talk about the towel!!!! Also saw Kingdom of Heaven, which has the surprising theme of tolerance in the guise of a crusade movie. I recommend it. I enjoyed it. Although something was missing, just can't put my finger on it. Cannibal the Musical. Very funny. Except my wife HATED it. I thought it was hot. Like a baked potato.

Home coding done? I am working through a C# irritation, well Windows forms irritation concerning dynamically updating a combo box. You can't do it. You have to use a data view. Not thrilled with that. I tried to code it up without my tutorial ridden web and got 90% there. Will continue it later. Also working on top secret project LUNCH. Will tell more as I get it closer to open source depositing.

Well, that is it. I want to say thanks to my friends that I invited. Sorry I could not invite you all, but well, I am bad at larger shindigs and organization.

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Party all done

First off, sorry that I did not invite a bunch a folks from Tech. Kept it small, intimate and limited to the number of sleeping spaces I had available. Although sleeping was not really the in thing to do. What can I say? It was fun. It was about 1 block of fun!

In Aaron measurements.

Well the story goes that we chitchatted waiting for the Blogonoke bunch until Cory needed to solve a much needed FREE frosty fix. So we walked over there, and then separated where some went back to the house and the rest headed to Hollywood Video to pick up Cannibal the musical. Darn funny show. I mean hot like a baked potato. So after that I railroaded a couple of the party goers to watch some firefly. I know I haven't written about it before, but I do consider it a better show than Farscape, in that the characters seem a little more intelligent and as Ish put it best, "The main character has the scoundrel architype. Yeah," although that probably wasn't an exact quote. Folks gradually trickled off leaving my wife and I lonely and missing all the visitors again. You guys are the greatest.

On the stupid note. I forgot to call Amanda. I suck. When Andy and Cory left (which was much too early) I had been drinking and therefore I sucked.

I am going to attempt to write more frequently. And hopefully stuff that will be more useful to internet masses instead of mindless rants and more. Also, I will post pictures up to my main site from the party and if the Princess would like to send me her pics, I can get those up as well.