I didn't like turning 23, and, so far 24 hasn't been much better.

ashram

Hoorah for RSS! Xanga just added rss if you hadn't noticed.  Mine can be reached at : http://www.xanga.com/ashram/rss .  Hopefully.

Watched some interesting movies this weekend(well, my weekend off from work):

This was definitely different.  And suprising.  While I predicted a lot of the movie, towards the end I was very suprised.  Probably the only Woody Allen movie I have seen that I have liked, though I haven't seen many of them.  Scarlett Johansson was very good in it.  Everyone else I pretty much hated their characters, but the acting was well done.

I actually bought this one.  Yep, ashram, bored at 2 am and shopping at Wal-mart.  It said "black comedy" on the front, so I was in.  It was actually very good.  The fact that two of the parents lose their child for 3 days without even knowing it turned out to be pretty believeable.  It was also interesting how no one would believe the protagonist when he tried explaining the kid had been kidknapped.  The suicide stuff really creeped me out, to the point that I couldn't walk around the house in the dark after it was over, and I wanted some ice cream.  It really brought up unexpected thoughts of stuff I have dealt with at work, and it almost made me cry.  Almost.  I even ended up writing a little poem about it.

This is a Korean film Lindsey and I watched tonight.  We rented it from Hollywood Video.  Wow!  I think I will buy it off of Amazon.  This is a really strange movie, but it was very good.   It is about a guy who has a College diploma, but is basically a drifter.  He breaks into peoples houses while they are on vacation and lives in them.  In return for staying, he fixes things around the house and cleans up the place and does the laundry.  In one house he finds a battered wife.  He rescues her when her husband returns home from a business trip. Together, they continue to live in other people's houses, until the protagonist gets wrongfully accused of murder. 

It was very, very good.  It was the one I recommend you see the most out of all three of them!

ashram

Damn.  I had Taco Time before I went to sleep.  Bad, bad, bad idea.  I woke up with a horrible stomach ache and horrible case of Montezuma's Revenge.  The day was not looking up.  It's not so bad now.  I brought Pepto-Bismol to work.  I ate some pizza and actually feel better.  That sucked, though.

I am starting a podcast with another admin at xgvideogames.com.  We are going to talk about video games in general and whatever else comes to mind.  We start recording this Monday.  I am pretty hyped about it. I know I have talked about doing one before, but I just don't think I am interesting enough to do one on my own.  I am really, really boring.  But, with someone else on with me, things will be really neat!  Things are coming together, I guess.

I am so ready for the weekend, though.  I am on call for Mother's day(today).  I feel bad that I will be sleeping most the day instead of hanging out with my mom.  That's work for you though.

ashram

That's right, folks, the Electronic Entertainment Expo has been going on since Monday!  So, you can imagine how much work I've got done this week on all my personal projects.  Zippo.  I have spent every waking hour while I wasn't working downloading trailers, demos, etc...  The Xbox 360 was a marvel this year, allowing me to download hi-def trailers and game demos for free straight to the 360.  It rocked.  It's all wrapping up now, though.  The last day was yesterday. A lot of interesting news was announced.  Let's look at some highlights.

Sony disappointed everyone but their sickly little fanboys by announcing the PS3.  Every single one of its features is copied from other consoles, namely the 360 and the Wii.  There really isn't one thing about it that's innovative or new when compared to the other consoles. Big risk.

Wii.  The Wii is promising.  Besides the odd name, it really has a chance at being fun.  The controller is motion sensitive, which makes for some interesting opportunities when throwing it into games like Legend of Zelda: Twighlight Princess!  The other cool thing for the Old School folks, is that you will be able to play Sega Genesis, SNES, NES, Turbo graphix 16, and N64 games on the Wii.  Yippee!

360.  Pretty much just game announcements, but some doozys at that!  Let's take a look...

Viva Pinata

The premise behind this game is simple.  Build a garden that attracts the local pinata "animals" and gets them to live in your garden.  Help your pinatas grow, avoid getting disturbed by rotten pinatas, and multiply through a dancing mini-game.  You can trade pinatas online with your friends, build them houses and places to stay, and provide for their general well being.

First thoughts: Wow.  While it sounds odd, just watching the trailer had my hands itching to play!

Trailer:

Gears of War

Really tight graphics, ne?  I love how gritty everything is.  This is a 3rd person shooter, focused on duck & cover tactical gameplay.  Basically, creatures living under the world have sprung forth and attacked humanity.

First thoughts: Best game to look forward to this year.

There's about 10 more really cool titles, but I won't get into them.

ashram

Anyway, that's what I've been doing.

http://www.cuddleparty.com/

Wow....wow....and...wow.  I would never do that.  Ever.  I have cuddled with two people in my life, my mom when I was younger, and Lindsey now.  I am not about to start adding more to that list.

It's like an acting class gone bad.  I always hated how free the theater and dance people were with other people.  Most of the people I was in the play with at college and who were in my acting class "shared" themselves a little too much for my taste.  I mean, it's good and all for them, but honestly, there was way too much touching and sharing with me.  I am an introvert.  I mean, I respect my space bubble; I respect your space bubble; you respect my space bubble.  Everything's good to go. 

I just don't feel like being around a bunch of people fawning all over each other.  I don't care if that's what everyone else is doing.

ashram

I love the Godzilla movies.  The classic ones I mean.  I did actually like the American one.  But I like Matthew Broderick, and I thought the action was cool.  Plus, I'm weird.  That has been significantly established I think.  There so much drama in the Japanese movies, so much expression.  If you watch it with the sound turned off, it really looks amazing and powerful.  You can't even tell if the acting is bad!

Some cheesy American movies, though, suck as far as stuff like that goes.   For instance, I am watching the Fist of the North Star live action movie.  Sure, this movie was made a while ago, and they didn't have the greatest of technologies, but honestly, they totally screwed up with that movie.  I mean, I like it, but the acting, especially by the guy who plays the main character Kenshiro is just plain awful.  Plus, the cinemtography is plain crap.  They do all these shots to make it look "dramatic" and "cool", but honestly they could have made a lot more badass movie just by changing a lot of those shots.  I am not in the movie industry or anything, but I have made shitty little videos, and edited, and I have watched enough freakin movies to recognize generally what works and what doesn't.

Here's Kenshiro from the Anime & Manga series Fist of the North Star.  He's ready to kick some ass and make some heads explode.

Gary Daniels, ready to get uncharacteristically beat up by everyone for his poor acting.  The director, Tony Randel, will be joining him.

I could honestly say that given the budget and today's tech, a wicked Fist of the North Star movie could be made.  Apparently, in 1995 however, it was impossible.  I will admit that I did pay for this movie, though, knowing full well what is was like.

This was a strange post today.  I don't know where it came from.

ashram

What's up with slow-mows in action movies?  They are no longer used creatively and don't "build tension" or establish coolness as everyone seems to think.  STOP USING THEM HOLLYWOOD!

Well, this movie has been all over the news.  Here's my Op for what it's worth:

Why I won't be seeing this film:

  I think it is way too soon to be doing something like this.  Book(s), maybe, but a film? Especially a Hollywood film.  While it seems as though some of the proceeds will be going to a memorial per the official website, this is still leech Hollywood. 

I am not into these kind movies to begin with, but this story has the same setup for disaster as Titanic, however it appears to be minus the half-shod love story.  I mean, I know how it's going to end, and there's very few movies based on real life events that I enjoy like that.  At least with a World War II movie that's sad, I know that really we win, Hitler loses, etc...  This movie doesn't really have a happy ending.  I guess being optimistic you could say that they helped save more lives.  That something positive to look at. 

  I just think maybe a documentary type of thing, featuring the individuals in the plane crash,  maybe highlighting some of their lives would be more appropriate.  Less drama and more real.

Oh, well, I guess it's up to the familys and the American public, who will or won't pay to go see the movie, to decide whether this is appropriate.  I just think its too early for this type of thing.

Anyway, here's a link to the movie website: http://www.united93movie.com/index.php

Maybe I will see it.  I always like to say I will see anything at least once.

Happy Easter, everybody!

I got called out to work, so I left church early and here I am!  It's not so bad, though.  I am just very thankful that they didn't call me at 5 am this morning to work all day.  4 hours isn't much.  I had some Wendy's on my way in, so I am good to go until I can get home to get some leftovers.

Holy crap!  The Lord of the Rings is on TBS!  Sweet!  I haven't seen The Fellowship of the Ring in forever.  They did such a good job with those movies.

Check this out: http://lunarlandowner.com/index.html

I am just the kind of person that would get suckered into something like this.  "I can own some of the moon!?!?!  That's so cool! Sign me up for a couple million acres!".

ashram

How depressing.  I just fucked up royally.

So, I am sitting here in dispatch listening to the Jurassic Park soundtrack while I work.  I love the soundtrack to this movie.  It made me want to watch it again.  I probably haven't watched it in a year or two.  It is one of my favorite movies.  I remember going to the theater in the sixth grade to watch that movie for the first time.  My grandpa took me.  He is a geologist and was a curorator at our museum and was a teacher at the college.  Anyway, so he would take me all the time to find dinsoaur bones(real ones actually), and help him measure sections for research projects.  The coolest dig was a Triceratops.  I always felt so important, getting to go with all these college kids and my grandpa to these things while I was only in grade school.  It was very fun, though.  For a long time, that's what I wanted to do as a career.

Anyway, my grandpa took me to see Jurassic Park for the first time, and it was mind blowing.  These creatures were so real for the first time for me.  They had moved past anything my imagination had ever conjured.  I remember, while this movie wasn't the first to use CG, it was the first to use it on this sort of scale, with these sort of creatures, and so successfully.  I was enraptured by the entire experience.  It also scared the piss out of me.  I was one of those kids who starts creeping up the chair as the situations get more intense.  It's funny.  I still get creeped out like that now sometimes, and Lindsey teases me when I cover my eyes and can't look.

Well, our dispatcher appreciation week is finally culminating to the big event today.  At 4 pm, I get to leave work early(by 3 hours!) and got to a tailgate party at the Events Center.  After the BBQ, we will head inside for an Indoor Football League game, where we get to go out on the field during some of the breaks and participate in the odd contests that happen at these type of games.  I am apparently racing another dispatcher in a giant hampster ball thing.  Yeah, so it may be fun.  Lindsey will be there, which will be the best part of my day.

We tried activating her XM radio last night, but it wouldn't work.  WTF is with that?  They had some sort of technical difficulties.  I was kind of pissed, because I bought this for her for Christmas, and then it took forever for Wal-mart to ship the frickin gift card with time on it, and now the shit doesn't work.  I feel bad about it, because I bought it for her to enjoy and she seemed pretty excited about it, but it's just not happening!

And that's my day.

ashram