pres.umptuo.us

• Ben & Jerry’s Pint Lock keeps your ice cream safe. Get away from my mint chip.

  Tuesday May 31, 2005

• But, She’s a Girl!! Cry baby Robby Gordon refuses to race against female NASCAR driver Danica Patrick. On a related note, I now refuse to try in the world because everyone is not equal to me.

  Tuesday May 31, 2005

Because I’m too lazy to think up my own material, here’s a couple of passages from the book I’m reading, Bird by Bird - Some Instructions on Writing and Life:

E.L. Doctorow once said that “writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t even have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard.

This is where the book gets its title:

Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

• Full Charlie and the Chocolate Factory trailer. I’m now looking forward to Batman Begins, this movie, and Serenity.

  Friday May 27, 2005

• Arnold fixes a pothole that was dug up hours before. What fools we are.

  Friday May 27, 2005

Doughy637: do you remember how big my chest was?
Doughy637: 38-39″?
valloq: that’s gotta be the gayest question ever asked from one guy to another that you wish a girl asked you

• Morse coders beating SMSers. I love how the guy receiving the text message sits there like he’s actually doing something.

  Wednesday May 25, 2005

• Murdered blogger’s post leads to killer. On a similar note, my sister’s roommate’s boyfriend’s cousin is taking my car out to run errands. I really wish he wasn’t here and I hope he doesn’t end up speeding down the freeway and leading the police on a high-speed chase. Ok back to my paper!

  Wednesday May 25, 2005

Now that I’m signed up for a free trial of Blockbuster’s online rental service, I’m finally able to watch those movies that I’m too lazy to go rent myself and too lazy to download.

I’m also too lazy to write reviews for each of these movies, so I’ll write quick combined ones instead. Harold & Kumar was funny, Election was good, and I enjoyed I Heart Huckabees, although it probably isn’t for everyone.

Election has had a lot of critical praise in the past, so I feel that there’s a lot more to the movie than from what I got, but still it’s an intriguiing movie. Huckabees has been called “pretentious” by a friend of mine, but I found it to be a fun movie. I’m not gonna say anything more about Harold & Kumar in some attempt to defend its absurdity; watch it cause it’s stupid.

• Little Clock Shop.

  Tuesday May 24, 2005

• Moore Slams V For Vendetta Movie, Pulls LoEG From DC Comics. Sad the way they disrespect the original source.

  Tuesday May 24, 2005

• Straight Line Designs. The cabinets look like something out of Beauty & The Beast.

  Tuesday May 24, 2005

Graduation Cap Hack.

powerdraw. He did it all in mspaint!

Moment of absurd Star Wars ad zen.

This is going to be filled with spoilers, so don’t click below if you haven’t seen the movie yet.

Where to begin? I’m just gonna launch into it and hope my thoughts make sense.

Grievous. He is taken out far too easily. Trained in the ways of the Jedi? Not too well trained, apparently. This is even more true for people who have seen the Clone Wars cartoons, but I won’t cite them cause that’s being a bit unfair. But really, without the context Grievous is never seen as a real threat. I’d go more into how he served almost no purpose at all in the movie, but let’s move on.

Padme’s death during labor. As I recall from Return of the Jedi, Luke asks Leia if she remembers anything about her mother, her real mother, and Leia says she does and gives him some vague memories. But nope, according to Lucas, who decided to ignore this, her memories were false.

Vader’s yell. No explanation needed on this one.

The totally random comment about Qui-Gon. This one is just pathetic. On another note, I don’t even know why Qui-Gon was in the prequels. In The Empire Strikes Back, Obi-Wan tells Luke to seek out Yoda on Dagobah, the Jedi Master that taught him. Yoda should have been Obi-Wan’s master in the prequels. Another example of Lucas forgetting what was in his original movies.

Luke being sent to live with his family on Tatooine. Someone explain to me how this is a good idea.

“Hide the children from Vader we must.”
“Let’s send Luke to be with his family.”
“Smart idea this is. Jedi master you should be.”

Anakin’s turn to the Dark Side. Or to put it more accurately, his decision to join the Dark Side. You don’t just decide to join the bad guys. A Jedi needs to taste the power, be seduced, and fall. One moment it’s “Don’t kill Palpatine!”, the next he chops off Mace Windu’s hand, then he says with lament, “What have I done?” and finally it’s, “Yes, my master?”

His decision to join was based almost purely on the desire to learn the “trick” to save his wife. He isn’t even evil yet at the point where he joins Palpatine. Palpatine then commands him to slaughter the Jedi to become stronger, and he does it. Once again, not cause he’s evil, but because he wants to learn a trick. This is not compelling storytelling.

Obi-Wan beats Anakin because he holds the higher ground. What kind of bull is this? It’s such a lame reason for Obi-Wan to beat Anakin that Lucas has Obi-Wan actually explain to the audience. “It’s over, Anakin. I hold the higher ground.” Well, gosh, if that’s all it takes to defeat another Jedi, why didn’t he just stand on the table in the room where they were fighting earlier? Hey, there’s a ramp, go stand on top.

“Hey Obi-Wan, tell us again how you defeated that Sith Lord.”
“I was standing two feet higher than him.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m just gonna walk around on stilts from now on.”

The final confrontation between Obi-Wan and Anakin should be the epitome of Dark Side vs. Light Side. Light should triumph over Dark because of some flaw in the Dark Side, not because the Light Side holds some lame tactical advantage.

Yes, I’m being extra picky on some points. But anyone who defends this stuff is either a misguided fan or not a fan at all. This stuff does matter when you’re writing a story that must accomodate predefined material.

All of this is focused mostly on ROTS itself. I won’t go into stuff that I don’t like about the prequels, like inconsistencies with the clones, Yoda and the Emperor moving super fast and using lightsabers (Think about any kung fu master, like Pai-Mei from Kill Bill, Chow Yun-Fat from Crouching Tiger, and even Neo at the very end of the first Matrix), the prophecy about Anakin and making him super powerful, recurring characters throughout all six movies and spanning 20 years (The droids, Chewbacca, Boba Fett…), and the random twirling and spinning during lightsaber duels.

I’m done ranting. I hope I got it all out.

I caught my second viewing of ROTS already.

Saw it in a digital theater this time, and the colors are way more vibrant and everything is just sharper. I could actually make out quite a few of the duels this time, and so I’d highly recommend everyone try to catch this movie in digital.

On a related note, after the fiasco at Big Newport where tickets were oversold, extra chairs had to be brought out, and no formal apology was given but instead an “offer” to catch the 3:30 showing, I’m going to have to rethink my loyalty to catching all the big movies there. Add to the fact that the sound system was anything but great and I’m just not happy with that theater anymore. Been going there for five years and they just haven’t held up well at all. Oh well.

To the movie. As soon as it started I thought to myself, hmm, maybe I’ll enjoy it more this time. I could see more details and actually hear a lot more of the dialogue this time (Not sure if that’s exactly a good thing). But nope, sure enough I still had the same problems.

The first 20 minutes go by way too fast. The camera is in way too close for some of the fighting. Anakin’s turn to the dark side is very compelling, but this time I found it much less plausible. I won’t go into specifics and I could really go on and on about it, but ask and I shall tell. I’m also not happy with the way Obi-Wan beats Anakin. Felt weak.

In the mind of someone who’s a big fan, yet not a “fanboy” but pays attention to story and character and dialogue, the movie was mediocre. A few scenes I liked, a lot of things I didn’t like so much. The story is complete, but I wish things had unfurled differently.

Caught a messed up midnight screening where the theater was overbooked (Sorry Greg) and I’m on three hours of sleep right now. Been discussing the movie with some friends just sharing views and seeing what everyone thought, but overall the consensus seems to be that it’s actually fairly good and definitely the best of the Prequel Trilogy.

Lucas did an admirable job with the character arc of Anakin as he spirals into the dark side. His sudden “decision” to join the Sith didn’t sit well with me, although I did like the fact that love is what turns him to the dark side. The scene leading up to Anakin and Obi-Wan’s duel was excellently done as well. And watch Yoda dispatch royal guards with ease.

Aside from that, there’s a lot I didn’t like. The fight scenes were all boring and uninteresting. The actors are moving so fast that all you see are lightsabers flying around, but not that it matters since the duels are all so short. Dooku? No problem. Grievous the Jedi hunter? He doesn’t kill a single one in the movie. Lucas needs to stop throwing away his villains, especially Grievous. For anyone who saw the Clone Wars cartoons, they’ll be very disappointed.

The first 20 minutes of the movie move so quickly that I never had the time to soak it in and figure out what was even going on. Everything is just so busy, and at one point our heroes Obi-Wan and Anakin are literally just walking into a room, killing droids, walk into next room, kill droids, and repeat like they’re in a video game. Patience, Lucas, patience.

But given what happens in this movie, you can understand why he rushes. Nothing that was established in episodes 1 and 2 have been carried over. You could watch Revenge Of The Sith without having seen the first two and you’d be fine.

There’s a lot more I could go in to including all the inconsistencies, the random scenes added so this movie ties directly into episode 4, Darth Vader’s out of character yell, and especially the horrible dialogue. However, avoiding my nitpickiness at the Star Wars continuum, this was a good ending to the prequels. Recommended for fans, but non-fans should be a bit wary as there isn’t anything spectacular about this film to like.

Despite all this, knowing me I’ll see it a few more times, if anything just to go with friends to get their reactions.

The natives get restless when I don’t post worthless links.

Worldwide response to ‘Piano Man’. From Basil.

When staff at the Medway Maritime Hospital gave him a pen and paper in the hope he would write his name, he drew a grand piano.

A preview of the…preview of Batman Begins that is going to be shown on Smallville tonight. This movie is going to rule.

Tips for improving your handwriting. This is going to help a lot with my scribbles.

I’ve always been a Star Wars fan. Since as far back as I can remember.

I remember my father coming home late from work, only to open the door carrying two boxes from Toys ‘R’ Us - one with an AT-AT, and another with a B-Wing. I remember getting long pieces of paper and wrapping them around a flashlight to make my very own lightsaber. I remember not understanding a lot of the movie when I was younger, and asking my dad why Han Solo didn’t go with Luke into the trench to attack the Death Star, and his English not being any better telling me it was cause the Millennium Falcon was too large to fit.

Even in Jr. High, friends would bring up how Darth Vader was Luke’s father and that Leia was the “other” Yoda speaks of, and in my head I just thought, “What? I didn’t even know that. Did I even see this movie? What has all this self-professed love come from?”

As a young boy it was easy to see what captured the imagination. Laser swords, wizards, evil black knights, spaceships and doomsday weapons. The basic storyline was enough that I didn’t need all of the details to enjoy it, and it was definitely enough to lure me into being a fan.

Then things start changing. Lucas makes the special editions of the OT. Greedo shoots first. Luke screams when he jumps off the platform on Bespin. Wonderful changes that nobody asked for.

I didn’t like the prequels. Sure I saw Episode I in theaters four times, but that’s more due to the excitement of just having a new Star Wars movie to watch. Over time I can to see it for the crapfest it was. Episode 2 was not much better than I, and in fact I like to say that they both suck, they’re just on different levels of suck.

In my mind the prequels are already a mess and could have been done much better, and the last movie isn’t going to fix that mess.

Tomorrow I go to see the final chapter of the prequels. Naturally the trailers and tv spots look promising, and the reviews are fairly positive this time around, but I’m not holding my breath.

Just upgraded Movabletype to version 3.16. Let’s hope it went well.

It’s funny how easily sidetracked I can get. I opened up my browser to do this write-up and I remember I should look around on eBay for a Batman Begins poster, and then I decide it best to watch the international trailer a couple of more times. Talk about short attention span.

This is going to be about the latest international trailer, as well as everything else we can discern from the production and other trailers / tv spots of Batman Begins. With this latest trailer, we can see the focus is clearly on the Bruce Wayne / Batman development and character arc, which is vital to Batman as a character. All the previous movies either skimmed this topic or skipped it entirely.

Now we get an excellent scene of Bruce throwing a gun away into the ocean, most likely after attempting to use it and not finding it to be the just solution. One of the keys of the Batman character is the fact that he does not kill; Instead he cripples so that the criminals will live with the memory of what they have done.

Then there’s the scene of Bruce in what will become the Batcave with a swarm of bats flocking around him. He appears scared at first, but he summons his courage and closes his eyes as the bats begin to swarm around him with the great Liam Neeson voiceover.

From what we’ve seen, this is the Batman we’ve been waiting for. Hiding in the shadows, moving with lightning speed, and feeling more at home with the mask on than off. No more bat nipples, no more throwaway villians with no backstory (Rumor has it that the Joker will be in the sequel only to be captured and held on trial in the third film where he scars Harvey Dent, creating Two-Face), and no more stiff suit that restricts movement of the neck.

I’ll be sorely disappointed if this turns out to suck. Episode 3, we’re all already expecting that.