Wednesday September 21, 2005 - 9:56AM EDT
The below post is actually from yesterday. I just forgot to put it up from notepad.
I saw the movie Lord of War. It was different. It was almost like a parable. It seemed kind of like a documentary because of the subject matter. It did use the typical formulaic elements of your standard screenplay but not to the same end. There was a sense of realism to the subject matter. Because although everything was fictionalized, everything that went on felt like it could and is happening in real life. Nothing about it seemed faked or exagerated. It wasn't a story with a hard begining and end. It seemed more like a slice out of the continuim of the real world. I don't know why more attention wasn't paid to it. I really haven't seen a more like that at all. The story was secondary to what it was trying to tell us and it worked nicely. But it wasn't trying to tell us something with to much of a biased towards one side. It seemed like a completely unbiased reflection of what goes on for real. There was no real ending to the movie. It sort of just cut away and you felt as if the movie continued on without someone watching. You'd be a fool to call anything in this movie into question. Although it is pure fiction you can't say the picture it paints is false. Because you can read about what it shows in the paper everyday. It is very light on the political partisanship too. In fact there is no partisanship at all. Which makes its message stronger. It presents the story in a matter of fact way. Even the main character when pressed for a reason why he does what he does gives the most simple banal answer, "I'm good at it". I've heard the words geopolitical satire, political thriller describe this movie. I wouldn't go that far to describe it. I've also read some reviews that say the plot and characters are light. They are, but it works because the message is so heavy. Our minds don't need to burdened by deep characters and heavy plot. The focus should be the message. The point is to not think about the feelings and plight of the main character but the plight of the world in what this movie shows. I think those who don't like the movie would focus on the story and are expecting something along the lines of your typical political thriller or action movie. But this movie is different. I see it as kind of a fictionalized documentary. This movie isn't like Tears of the Sun or Beyond Borders. Those movies attempted strong heavy plots where the focus was the characters set against the backdrop of geopolitical plight. The main component of Lord of War is the plight. The story is the background, something to move along the action and keep us interested in studying the gears of gunrunning. When I read other reviews of this I get the sense reviewers are trying to place the movie into the normal categories and they can't therefore they don't like it. Some criticize that the movie doesn't go deep enough into the morality of the message. In other words it doesn't take a side. Which I think was a perfect thing to do. Surely its message is that this stuff is horrible but it doesn't make a herculean effort to place blame specifically on anyone. It also doesn't try to provide solutions. It is informational in its approach.
Andrew Niccol does an admirable job of showing us violence of the world we live in but doesn’t give us any reason to care. - full article
Above is the final line from a movie review. It was from a reviewer who didn't like the movie that much. The reviewer is looking for something to fit the mold and doesn't find it. The reviewer does make a curiously insightful comment about it working better as a documentary though. The last line is kind of disturbing to see written. Read it again, then read the whole review. You can see that the comment should be put in the context of a screenplay analysis. But then again, why are we waiting for someone to give us a reason to care about the violence of the world? Does the reviewer know what they are writting? In the assement of the movie I feel as if this person missed the point completely. They are looking for something else, something cookie cutter and can't find it.
Those watching this movie and looking for the typical movie exagerated fair aren't going to find it. And that is what makes it so real. We can pretend that our interactions with people are deep but the majority of what we do on a daily basis is so utterly shallow it is pathetic. Man I'm bored.
Tuesday September 20, 2005 - 10:42PM EDT
I switched from the mini packets of oatmeal to the straight oats in a can. I figure it is less sugar and less extra chemical. There is a whole bunch of creaming agents in those little packets. I switched a few months ago and have gotten used to it already. In fact I think I like the additional blandness better. I usually put in a quarter to half teaspoon of sugar which is more than enough to sweeten it along with the milk I use to cook it. I also have the straight oat bran which I almost forgot about. I'll start eating that too.
Tuesday September 20, 2005 - 12:07PM EDT
The proposed photo identification requirement drew prompt criticism from some Democrats in Congress who said the rule could be abused to discriminate against members of minority groups, the poor and the elderly.
The
American Civil Liberties Union also expressed concern that a recommendation for a central data base of voter information could pose a threat to Americans' privacy rights. - full article
I don't know whether to be mad or glad at this article. I keep wanting to ignore this shit but I can't let garbage like this be said without taking it to the curb. The snippet from above makes me angry. Fucking clueless clowns. Privacy concerns? Are they being serious? Since when does requiring photo ID discriminate. Last time I checked you needed photo ID for just about everything else. What the hell are these people thinking with comments like those. They don't make any sense. Explain the abusive nature of requiring photo ID. Then the ACLU has to step in with their 1.5 cents. Funny part is that having a national database would actually eliminate the requirement for carrying photo ID. Because they simply look up your name with your picture in the national database. Do either of these clowns want greater involvement in democracy. Apparently not. Since they seem content with one of the worst voting systems in the world. So many contries have us beat in voting system it is not even funny. India does it better. Freaking India. Do you know what their poverty rates are? Discrimination is requiring an address for voting. Discrimination is the weird ass registration laws that vary state to state. Discrimination is forcing you to vote in only one single place in the country where telecommunication networks cover the land. Fuck even South Africa allowed citizens living in the U.S. to vote in the United States when their first election where held. So you telling me we still need to send out those voter list binders to the thousands of polling places around the country in which my name is contained in a single one. Your telling me that in a world where I can log on to a webcam and view any place in the world I have to stay in my neighborhood to cast a vote. This commission must be proud of themselves with their 87 recommendations. I'd save money and give the task to a high school class. We could take them to taco bell for lunch. They's probably do a more thorough job as they would make decisions based on logic and their expertise with technology. This commissions wait until now to make some of these recommendation. People have been screaming this crap for years now. And they are just recommendations. That is another problem. It is not like they are saying you need to implement this immediately to insure a fair vote. They just throw it out there for everyone in congress to ignore or criticize.
I'm tired. I just want to go home. This job is so boring.
Record companies already make more profit by selling a song through iTunes than on a CD, with all the associated manufacturing and marketing costs, Jobs said. - full article
I remeber commenting on this a while back. So now Jobs has said what I thought in the first place. It seemed pretty obvious that the record companies made more money through a download. I thought 99 was in fact more expensive. I've never payed to download a song because I think it is a rip off. Mainly because of their strict DRM policies. You know what I just realized. When are those Billboard record sales stats going to start to take into account download statistics. Maybe they do already.
Tuesday September 20, 2005 - 11:03AM EDT
I had this typical blog post about Nintendo and input devices in general written up. Nothing too exciting. About halfway though I asked myself a question. It doesn't matter what the question was. I didn't make the post and I am still trying to answer that question.
Monday September 19, 2005 - 4:24PM EDT
I don't see how Sony and Microsoft can compete with the free online gaming of Nintendo. How can Microsoft continue to charge for access when Nintendo is going to offer it for free. Thid doesn't make sense to me. Unless Nintendo has some other pricing model. Then again since they are offering game downloads so they get money there. For once Nintendo's online strategy which was non existant on Gamecube has got everyone else beat, even the PC. I'm guessing it will be ad driven. Nintendo was the only of the three major console makers to actually make money off their gaming divisions. Microsoft lost 4 billion from XBOX. The game division of Sony used to be the most profitable division in the whole company I don't think it is anymore. The fact Nintendo made money was mainly due to Pokemon and Gameboy. Sony hasn't made the online plans public yet. Somehow I want to get Nintendo DS just for the free online gaming support. I could play mario cart online anytime I want. The dual-screen thing can go suck a nut that is corny. I wonder what the new Gameboy is going to be like or when it is coming out? Probably sometime after Revolution. I bet with the new Gameboy you will be able download games just like Revolution. That would only make sense. I wonder if that would lower the price of games if they came out as download only. You wouldn't have to worry about manufacturing. Flash memory is getting cheap enough that by the time a new gameboy comes out it will only cost like $50 for 4GB or more. A portable game would probably take up less than 2GB. You could probably store all the old school games in less than a GB. So here is what I picture the new gameboy will be like. Slot to fit all the current Gameboy games to be backward compatable. SD for game saving and downloaded games. Built in wireless like the DS now. Large high res, possibly OLED screen. What the fuck am I describing this shit for. I need a shower. Fuck it is so hot in this office.
Monday September 19, 2005 - 11:24AM EDT
I mentioned solid state storage before eventually taking over for harddrives. Becasue it is superior is just about every technical and practical way. The only hurdle was that it was "expensive" to produce. Which is really just garbage and the result of market and production. That kind of "expensive" is the worst kind of illusion. Well with the launch of iPod nano, it has kind of marked the explosion of flash based memory. It was already happening but it is the first device of its kind to use so much for its price. People who argue the the nano is more expensive for a comparable iPod mini have no idea. You can today buy large flash based harddrive that size of regular computer harddrive today but they cost ten times as much. Flash has no moving parts so it is more reliable. Also no moving parts means less power consumption. It is also orders of magnitude faster than a regular harddrive. Much more durable in extreme condition. All fighter jets use solid state harddrives, they wouldn't be caught dead running their aviation operating systems on spinning harddrives. I am not sure about commerical and civilian aircraft though. Information density is not quite as good as your standard harddrive but it is getting there. In a 10 years or less they they might have solid state storage that has a capacity of more than 10 terabytes on something the size of those smart chips on credit cards. The speed of storage has really lagged behind computer speed. Solid state storage will catch it up. And will make Windows taking so much time paging out to the harddrive a thing of the past.
Saturday September 17, 2005 - 6:53PM EDT
Chavez is now saying the US plans to invade Venezuela. That is ludicrous even for even that wacko. He has gone completely over the edge. That man should seriously be in a mental hospital. How much sense does US invading Venezuela make. Besides the fact that the active duty army is already spread out very thin. The US can't afford another war. Especially not with a country that provides a good portion of its oil imports, so it would be doubly devestating financially. This new Iranian president is just as bad. Along with that lunatic in North Korea and of course those blind morons who run China. President Bush looks relatively sane to against these clowns and he is an idiot. Come to think of it. I don't know of any world leader that has any real credibility. World has gotten progressively worse and those clowns just fuck shit up all the time.
Saturday September 17, 2005 - 1:03AM EDT
Never read the books but love the movies. With the end of Star Wars movies (they all kind of sucked in retrospect). It is not something that I like going back and watching again really. The Lord of the Rings movies were great and I definately still go back and find them quite entertaining. Spider-man and X-Men don't come out for a while. So that leaves us with the Harry Potter franchise. Can't wait for the next movie.
News about Nintendos controller made in onto the front page of yahoo news. Maybe if they can build enough buzz and hype surrounding their system it will make it huge. They are off to a good start. Although it always comes down to the games. I can't even imagine what kind of games will come out for their new system.
Friday September 16, 2005 - 10:40AM EDT
The new Nintendo system that is coming out soon supports old school game downloads. Nintendo has said all the games they published themselves would be available, although they also said it would probably depend on the popularity as to whether they make some available. The president said they are also in talks with third party developers to make their games available. Sega has said they are interested in making their library of games available for download. Streets of Rage on a Nintendo system. Never thought I would see that day. Since Sega is now strictly a software developer and do not make anymore game consoles it would make sense for them. I hope they do it because there are definately some good Sega games out there. And when I talk about making Sega games available I mean all their systems not just the Sega Genesis. I am talking all their systems before that and probably even a few of their older arcade games. Any game that Sega published could be downloadable and playable. Also Bandai has already signed on and Nintendo is in talks with other third-party game developers to allow their old game library to be downloaded. Since Nintendo is the only one with this service I can't see why any game developer wouldn't do it. Those old games are just sitting in their library and they aren't getting anymore money from them. The huge ROM scene is the only way people play them and nobody pays for ROMS on the internet. Still haven't seen system specs or game graphic demos of the Nintendo Revolution. Seens tons of things like that for XBOX360 and PS3 so until they come out they are boring. I wonder if some game company could come up with some game that uses 2 controllers at once on the revolution or maybe 4. A boxing game with two controlles would certainly be interesting and maybe quite intuitive. My god that was the queerest sentence I have ever written. I still want crepes.
Fuck what I am going to do this weekend. I know, work on websites, like I do every weekend, like I do everyday. Fuck I have to find something else.
Revolution Controller - comments(0)
Thursday September 15, 2005 - 11:56PM EDT
Imagine sticking your hand in a 3D box and being able to input all of your movement in games and you've got the basic idea. - full article of Revolution Controller article and pics
New Nintendo Revolution controller debuted today. It is different for sure. Link to pics at bottom of post. Funny part about it is that I've wanted something like this for my computer for years now. It uses motion sensors mounted on the TV to detect motion. It also somehow detects twisting of the controller and distance from the TV. This is funny because if anyone has played video games you have invariably run into the gamer, usually inexperienced, who tries to move the controller to move the person on the screen. No doubt the designers of the controller experienced these scenarios. Anyway, back to me wanting something like this for my comptuer. I remeber working at the helpdesk and mentioning to my coworkers that I wish I have something other than a mouse where it could sense my hand movement to direct the pointer on the screen. I want some crepes. Maybe I'll go to that place near south street this weekend. So I would like something similar for my computer, but a little more basic and lightweight. Kind of waiting to see more game demos of the controller in action. Could be a paradigm shift in controllers for game consoles or just a cheap gimmick that fails.
orange liquid in my mousepad - comments(0)
Wednesday September 14, 2005 - 12:21PM EDT
I am going to start gathering my information to apply to the Jet Program for teaching in Japan. I'm excited just to get the process started.
Doesn't take long, but I am already starting to feel like I am wasting time at work. Like I could be doing other things, then sitting in a chair 8 hours a day. Maybe I will ask them to drop my work schedule to part time. Like 3 days a week or something like that. Maybe not. I'm broke as a joke. I'm also hungry right now. And bored.
Wednesday September 14, 2005 - 10:28AM EDT
CHARITIES ARE FOR SUCKERS
I'd never thought I'd see an article like that. It almost makes me want to cry tears of joy. It is not front page news but it top under Yahoo!'s most popularly emailed section. It is not nearly as vicious and indictment as a few of my blog posts but I've never seen that point of view verbalized in any news story up until now. Also it doesn't go the Iraq war route as a pillar empirical evidence which is doubly good because it shows a glimmer of real insight. He makes a couple of bold statements that I wouldn't wholeheartedly agree with and I think they are ultamitely extraneous. However the overall sense of the arguement and what he is trying to get across I agree with for the most part. There is the possibility that if probed in more detail the opinion could differ radically from mine but on the surface it is similar.
Today is a day for two-fors, because I also found this little gem.
Fed: Minorities pay more for housing loans
This is what some may categorize as institutional racism or at least be in a conversation with such things. I'm always reluctant to put the label of racism on things because it is such an ambiguous term, it doesn't mean much in itself because race is undefinable. Racism is a encompassing term for other more concrete issues that merit more detailed analysis or at least a better look. This is example of the intrisic problems with the system.
Actually lets make today a threepeat
Dutch to Open Electronic Files on Children
Not much explaining here. I've posted extensively on this. For a refresher my view is that some people are overly paranoid when it comes to privacy issues and that they are fooling themselves by thinking that not having centralized databases of information on them somehow protects them. The information exists somewhere and if the government wants it they can find it. What do you think the CIA is for, those acronyms aren't meaningingless letters that is what they do. Lets just stop playing cloak and dagger with a lot of this stuff, we are not little kids anymore.
Wednesday September 14, 2005 - 12:04AM EDT
Went to the supermarket. Got normal stuff. Milk, bread, bannas, organic baby spinach. Didn't buy lunch the last two days at work. That is a nice money saver. I ate, but at home instead....
Tuesday September 13, 2005 - 3:47PM EDT
Katrina highlights need for electronic health records. Never thought I'd see that kind of headline. The "need" for electronic records. Ha, that just sounds funny. People are still arguing whether to implement them in many places now someone says they need them. Just shows you how reliable those paper backups are.
Tuesday September 13, 2005 - 3:41PM EDT
Looks like another productive day at work. Which is funny because I actually did get a bunch of things done. Well, relatively for a corporate environment.
Why do I still think that if I work at some company I'll have a clear picture of what I need to do for a project? That shit rarely happens. My pathetic planning at home has more clarity and organization then most of the projects I've been unlucky enough to work on. Can I get one project where I can come in and actually accomplish something on a daily basis. Probably not.
I can't even sit still at work for more than 2 minutes. I'm hungry. Fuck I'm bored.
Well I'm back to looking for more Nintendo Revolution rumors. Now that I got the IPOD nano, this is the next gadget that I am waiting for. There is speculation that the new nintendo controller could use some type of holographic interface. Knowing a bit of holography from some research I did a few years ago (mainly reading a lot of books on it) it is definately possible. Though I don't know what type of holograms would be used. There are quite a few out there. Tokyo Game show is upcoming the 16th which is Friday. Occasionaly nintendo will present something there. Maybe they will drop some more hints on their new system there. The rumor is that they will definately show the controller and some games as well as provide specs on the system.
Does anyone know what is it to be an Eagles fan? We don't think reasonably. We expect perfection at all times and if we don't get it you are booed like no tomorrow. If your an Eagles fan every other sentence about the team is filled with hyperbole. You hate any team that the competes against the eagles and would prefer to see their lifeless bodies dragged of the field after the eagles destroy them. Brian Dawkins is the most vicious hitter in the NFL as countless opponents have learned. Most of all we'd do anything for a Superbowl victory.
Monday September 12, 2005 - 11:38PM EDT
Football season has begun. The only thing that stops me from killing myself in the cold season that is coming up. Oh man I'm still living in a cold climate. This was not supposed to be.
Monday September 12, 2005 - 12:35PM EDT
Ok, new week. Last week I made some progress. This week I will make more. I'll create my daily list here at work today, during lunch or when I have down time...ha. Book I had on hold is in, I'll pick that up today after work.
I was just thinking about how we let it go for so long the naming of sports teams after Native Americans. Aside from the "Fighting Irish" we don't name any other teams after a group of people. It is just a weird anomaly that everyone has taken as normal, even some native americans themselves. The word redskins doesn't come from the color of their skin as some might think, it comes from the term used in colonial days to desscribed bringing back the bloody scalp of a Native American or "injun". You used to be able to get money for how many "redskins" you could bring back. That is disturbingly vicious to be such a common word. Even then word nigger which is seen as much more taboo in many cases was just a misunderstanding of the spanish/portuguese word for black (negro). Everyone has gotten so used to it. It is something to think about only because it is so common. It makes me completely ignore certain rules and standards people have just for the sake of standards. I think, how can any society take all of its "holy" structure so seriously when such blatant double standards exist. If you take this issue as a tradition type thing you can let it slide, it is normal, it is ok (I have my own opinions on tradition). But if you try to apply some kind of universal reasoning to it you have a problem. Because either your reasoining is messed up and you can't use it for all the other things you want to or this issue is messed up and you can't call it normal or ok. Anyway, time for lunch.
Monday September 12, 2005 - 9:53AM EDT
This article is good. Well good in the sense that it presents a point of view that is not often verbalized. Part of the reason a lot of people have this distorted view of science. Because where they get their information about science is distorted.
Friday September 9, 2005 - 4:44PM EDT
Have you heard this Homeland Security Cheif speak. Chertoff is his name. If this guy isn't the epitome of a yesman I don't know what is. He might actually be a drone. Someone just downloads the days speeches into his main memory and he repeats verbatim the feel good words.
Friday September 9, 2005 - 3:33PM EDT
I keep hearing that people still want paper bank statements or that direct mail is the most effective way of advertising. I love the confidence that some put in these statements. I freaking hate paper statements and wish I never had to recieve paper mail ever again. Sure packages, but just fucking text on a page, no. That shit is going to change awfully fast. And I would be striving to make everything paperless. With the advancement of OLED and LCD screen technology and portable technology, they problems of information protability and instant access that plagued the "paperless office" are finally begining to be resolved. Anyway, long story short, I don't want junk mail or paper bills anymore. I get all my bills electronically. The only stuff I get through paper are quarterly stock updates, insurance and loan corespondences. I want to get rid of all that.