Monthly Archive for February, 2008

Movies and more

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on February 29, 2008
in Movies
. Comments

therewillbeblood_poster.jpgLast night Lexy and I went to see There Will Be Blood. First, I will say that this movie is now on my list of fucked up movies. Fucked up in a good way.

There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis in an Oscar-winning role, is about an oil prospector in the early 1900s and his quest for a particular town in order to drill. The movie revolves around the main character Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis) and his son H.W. Daniel competes with other, larger oil companies and attempts to strike it rich with some almost-forgotten land and tries to broker a deal to build a pipeline in order to avoid railroad shipping costs. The drama is generated from an accident during drilling and the ultra-religious church in the town he is drilling around. I won’t go too much into the story, as the movie really speaks for itself.

Daniel Day-Lewis is, by all accounts, the greatest actor of our time. His ability to capture the essence of a character and make it flow onto the screen is absolutely amazing and There Will Be Blood is no exception to his abilities. The rest of the movie is also excellently performed and adds a degree of realism and stunning that I don’t think I’ve seen matched in any other recent film. That is not to say that I don’t have my issues with this film. My biggest problem is that there were several times that the audio clipped (was too loud for the speakers). Now, I can account this to being in a theater stuck in the back of the 20-plex (we were in theater 18), so that is not the movie’s fault. The music direction was… interesting. It could be rather distracting and quickly pulled me out of the experience of the movie at least a couple times. In a lot of the more intense moments, it was more along the lines of an audio cacophony rather than music, but more often than not, the style of music worked for the scenes.

There Will Be Blood is definitely a movie that everyone should see. The life and wonder generated around these characters and this world is so fascinating that it completely enthralled and captured me. Very good, very interesting movie. Completely recommend. Too bad its Blu-Ray life is still up in the air with the recent death of HD DVD.

In other movie news a new, full Iron Man trailer was just released on MySpace. The awesome part is that even though I don’t have a MySpace account, I can still embed the trailer here. Muahaha. This is one of my most looked-forward to movies of the year. Maybe ever. I have always been a huge fan of Iron Man and the idea of Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark just blew me away. It was a perfect choice. How could he mess that role up? He can’t, that’s how. Maybe this should be a good time to start reading some Iron Man. Yeah, even though I have been a fan of Iron Man, I haven’t read any of the the comics. I just never had the money or the access to a good comic store. Oh well, I’ll figure it out and grab a few collection books or trades as they are called, I think.

I swear, I watched this trailer like five times. Gonna be awesome.

A few changes

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on February 29, 2008
in Site Dev
. Comments

You may notice the change in theme again.  This is the default scheme for K2, the Wordpress theme that I use.  I like the simplicity and blogginess of this theme.  I will work today on GIMPing a header image, but it probably won’t be very good.

Also, if you got email subscriptions, I have changed how email updates are handled.  I am now using FeedBurner to handle email updates.  So, if you want to subscribe to my site via an RSS reader, use the Feed Counter there in the sidebar.  If you wish to get an email when I update, use the subscribe via email link below the counter.  I was tired of using Subscribe2 as I thought it was janky and didn’t work that well.  Many of the early readers that I had got dropped from the email list for some unknown reason.

There are some other small things that I am working on, but I definitely plan a post on There Will Be Blood, the movie Lexy and I saw last night.

CryEngine2 vs Real Life

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on February 25, 2008
in Technology and Video Games
. Comments

I just Pownced this, but if you are not on the cool Pownce train, I will embed it here. This is a fantastic comparison between real life and Crytek’s CryEngine2. This commercial continues to be one of my favorites and this CG comparison is just fantastic. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t perfect, but damn near. What do you think of it?

Jonathan Coulton performs “Still Alive”

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on February 25, 2008
in Funny, Music and Video Games
. Comments

via Rock Band. During a live performance in San Francisco, Coulton brings three people on stage including Leo Laporte of TWiT and Veronica Belmont, the host of Mahalo Daily. I bet that was an awesome concert and a fantastic time on stage.


Jonathan Coulton performs “Still Alive” in Rock Band from Joy Stiq on Vimeo.

CableCARDs

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on February 23, 2008
in Computers, Technology and Television
. Comments

tivo_cablecard.jpgAs I understand it, some of you may be shackled to your cable company’s crappy DVR. Well, it turns out that, if you didn’t know this already, you have an option. Some would say satellite, and that is indeed an option, but what if your landlord won’t let you put a dish on the unit or even in the yard? Maybe you can’t get line-of-sight to the right area of the sky? What if your house is really only wired for cable or some craziness like that? Well, let us say that you have resigned to the cable way, but you really, really hate their DVR. Well, have you heard of CableCARDs? These little credit card-sized cards go into the back of newer third-party DVRs. The cards are essentially tuners that receive all the channels that you subscribe to via your cable provider. They are designed with digital cable in mind and will decode these digital channels, allowing you to watch and record them. DVRs you can use these with include TiVo and Niveus devices. These two companies’ devices (along with many others) are on the list of CableLabs certified CableCARD devices. This means that if the cable company says they don’t support TiVo and you can’t use it on their system, you have just been lied to. The FCC requires all cable companies to support and offer CableCARDs to their customers. You may still have to pay a “rental fee” for using the CableCARD, but research and articles suggest this price will probably be much, MUCH less than the “DVR fee” the cable companies currently charge you. So, you may have to call TiVo if the unit itself breaks, but if the CableCARD craps out, then that is the cable company’s issue.

So, now you want yourself the beauty of a TiVo HD and to dump that shitty 20Gb Motorola DVR the cable company gave you. I would suggest reading through this set of articles before you go demanding your CableCARDs and doing some research into the DVR system you are wanting to get and what CableCARDs it supports. That article focuses around the newer M-Cards or Multistream Cards, but I think the message is still very much valid. M-Cards do the same job as that dual-tuner box you watch TV through now, meaning you can watch one thing while recording another and all that. Normally, you would have to get two single stream cards to the job. This may still be the case in some TiVo boxes, so I would keep your eye out and check the specs of whatever you buy.

If you are feeling especially spry, you could try building your own PVR out of a spare computer and MythTV or Windows Media Center and use a CableCARD reader (or two), but personally, I am not that self-confident and don’t have the expendable income to experiment. If you choose this method, keep in the mind that processing HD content requires a LOT more horsepower than SD content. An Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 has a hard time decoding and processing HD. I’m not saying they can’t or won’t do it, but it will/can be taxing to the system, so keep that in mind.

There you have it. I hope this inspires at least a couple of you to give the boot to crappy DVRs and go with the good stuff. Remember, the first hit’s free.

Mario Kart Wii

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on February 19, 2008
in Video Games
. Comments

mk_wii_boxart_lg.jpgFirst, to those I said that Mario Kart Wii would be out in March, I lied.  The release date has not been released and it is expected in Q2 2008.  Sorry.

It turns out that at the Game Developer’s Conference ‘08, IGN got their grubby hands on a demo build of the new Mario Kart game.  The guys at WiiFanBoy put together a nice summary of what the game is shaping up to be.  Instead of me sitting here and resummarizing a summary, why don’t you check it out for yourself.

I am super excited about online play, something I’m not usually excited about.  However, online play in Mario Kart Wii will give Lexy and I an opportunity to play the game with our JC friends without actually being in JC.  Not that I don’t like being in Jeff City, but it would be nice to hang with them while sitting on our own couch and them on their’s.  Make sense?  Of course it does.

The game, it appears will feature a great variety of tracks, characters, and even vehicles to choose from.  The CC system has returned with stipulations on what type of vehicle you can drive in each class.  More info on this stuff is in the article linked above.

I am actually kind of excited about the crappy piece of plastic steering wheel that comes with the game.  Yeah, another accessory to find a place for and we will need/want at least two of them, but still, it adds that little extra bit to get you into the game.

So, are you excited?  I know I am.

The Japanese… awesome

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on February 18, 2008
in Media
. Comments

I Stumbled this video. It is made of awesome.


Rolling Tires Down A Ski Jump - Watch more free videos

Looks Around

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on February 18, 2008
in Apple, Bitching, Drama, Home, Rambling and Work
. Comments

Things are changing for Lexy and I, so I decided to change the look of this here site.  I like it, makes it look a bit more “bloggy” somehow.  There is some work to be done with the sidebars, but I can’t figure out what I need to do.  Suggestions are welcome.

The two of us have decided that we are getting out of this money blackhole we call a house.  Its not that the house is falling apart or anything, it is that we are tired of financially supporting those who promised to pay their share on time, when money is due, but have failed to uphold that end of the bargain.  It is sad when those around you decide to treat you not as friends, but as landlords or utility companies.  It is fine if you don’t feel like paying a bill for two or three months, but when you fuck with our future, our credit, there is a line to be drawn.  That is essentially the crux of the problem.  The only people we know in this area, our friends, have not been treating us as friends and that I cannot stand.  I’m not a complete hardass.  I understand that people come on hard times and they don’t make as much money as they would normally, but Lexy supported this house when she didn’t have a job and nobody thought to say, “Hey, let me help take some of that burden.  Let’s share the responsibilities of this house.”  I told many this when we first moved in.  These situations destroy friendships much faster that natural erosion and that is exactly what happened.  My will and want to help other people has plummeted.  Lexy and I have helped keep people afloat in this house with no reciprocation that I just don’t see them as friends anymore.  Really, I see them as people I can’t wait to get out of my life, and that really saddens me.

Yes, the lease on this house is not up yet, but the landlord has been very accommodating and we have a plan that will keep him in a rent check.  The next step is to get a hold of him and present it.  I will keep you updated.

So, Lexy and I have decided to bid adieu to this house, and thus our Warrensburg friends, in favor of a place, hopefully, in Odessa, MO.  The idea is that Odessa is between where Lexy works and where we go to school.  It will also be beneficial to be closer to KC when I go in for the interviews at the Apple Store.

That’s right, I have an interview at the Apple Store in KC.  Actually, I have two more interviews.  I did the phone interview on Friday and am fairly certain that I did extremely well.  Now I have a “group” interview, which I’m not sure what that means, but if I get through that, then I go on to the one-on-one interview.  The idea that was set up by the interviewer over the phone is that I will start as a Mac Specialist as part-time and move on to a Creative position when I can start working full-time.  I am super excited to have an even remote opportunity to work for Apple in really any capacity.

That’s is pretty much a rehashing of everything that is happening in my life right now.

Knight Rider

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on February 18, 2008
in Television
. Comments

knight_rider_poster.jpgI just finished watching the new Knight Rider movie that debuted on NBC tonight. The movie revolves around Sarah Graiman (Deanna Russo) and her attempt to find her father after a car he created picks her up. On the way, the car (K.I.T.T.) decides to pick up Mike Traceur (Justin Bruening) so he can help protect her from the evil men trying to kidnap Sarah and force her to decrypt her father’s files in order to use K.I.T.T. to take over the Pentagon’s wireless remote network and start some wars.  That is probably the quickest and ugliest plot description ever.

I have to say that I didn’t fall in love with this movie. There were some fears that it was going to be a continuation of the Knight Rider storyline, and that is exactly what it was. Yeah, it was a made-for-TV movie. Yeah, it is probably a jumping off point for a new series (at least it left you with that feeling at the end). It really wasn’t that good. The acting was stale and over done. The visual effects were late-90s at best. There was one time that I could actually tell that the car was put on the road in post production. And boy howdy did this movie LOVE the fuck out of some green screen. I’ve seen better green screening done in the tutorials at VideoCopilot.net and they were doing it quick and dirty just to show you how to do it.

I have to admit that I didn’t hate EVERYTHING about the movie. I did like K.I.T.T. as voiced by Val Kilmer. He was amusing and the quick cameo return of the Hoff’s character and the reason he showed up was also good for a chuckle.  In fact there were several times that I laughed out loud because the movie was so ridiculously bad.  From choices of organization names (”BlackRiver”, guess what they do) to just plain ol’ bad acting, this movie had unintentional funny moments all over it.

There you go. I didn’t like it, but I watched it anyway. Feel free to tell me what you thought of it, whether you thought my (quick) review is accurate or complete bull.

My car is getting fixed, so hopefully Lexy and I can get up to Independence this week to see a movie and I will let you know what we saw and what I thought of it.  I should have my first Audio project done tomorrow, so I can upload that and those that want to torture themselves can listen to it and tell me what they think.

Anyone like Indiana Jones?

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on February 14, 2008
in Movies
. Comments

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie posterIf you do, then you should know that you can watch the new trailer for the upcoming movie here and in HD even. I am a huge Indiana Jones fan and I just can’t wait for this movie. Watching an old Indy should be interesting and very cool if Spielberg does it right. The one thing that I don’t like is Shia Labeouf. Truly, I fucking hate that kid. Not because he is successful or popular, but because he is a complete and utter tool in every movie in which I have seen him. Ok, well, I have to get to class. Let me know if you are as excited about this movie as I am.

Oh, and Lexy: Happy Valentine’s Day and I love you.