Monday, August 30, 2010
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
A fun collection of stories from Malcolm Gladwell's time at The New Yorker. The problem with this format is that most of the stories are fairly short and this leaves you longing on many of the subjects. However the benefit is that you can move through a subject that you find unentertaining fairly easily. So there is that trade off.
Gladwell has an interesting way of presenting you with a story, allowing the reader to make the assumption on where he is going, but then switching tact and surprising you with direction he takes. Usually this leads to a pleasant surprise and a new angle that you might not have thought of using yourself.
Now, I had read Outliers before this book and wasn't really that impressed with his logic and his writing. That might be part of the reason why I was impressed with this book. It might have also been that his writing style is more conducive to the shorter format that these articles were presented in. What ever the reason I enjoyed the short lighter snippets in this book even if some of them left me wanting more.
Labels: Books
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Paper Heart
Worst movie ever? This movie was terrible from beginning to end. This pseudo documentary was not funny, not entertaining and not educational. Did it bring anything to the table?This was supposed to be a documentry I think but then they decided to throw in a fictional "love story" storyline that just didn't make much sense or really add anything to the movie.
By all means stay away from this movie unless the alternative is watching paint dry. Well, only if the paint is a boring color like white or yellow...
Labels: Movies
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
I was pleasantly surprised by the first Transformers movie. I was very afraid that they would ruin a childhood memory of mine. Luckily I went away slightly awestruck but VERY happy that they had succeeded in making a movie with a decent plot and was done well visibly.This movie was more of the same, at least visually and effects wise. However the plot was kind of thrown together and kind of lame. I really didn't care for it much and it was secondary to the battle scenes.
I have some issues that carried over from the first movie though. They make the Autobots a little more human like and the Decepticons are very insect-like and I just don't really understand why. The Decepticons have all these jagged edges and extra tines and things hanging off of them.
It also seems to me that the robots have no scale when they transform into robot form. I mean I believe a mack truck robot (Optimus Prime) would be much larger than a man but it seems like they make him 40+ feet tall. I would think 20 feet or so would probably be right. I dunno, it just bothers me at how big they get versus their transformed selves.
The robot forms are also a bit too complicated. You lose a lot of identity of the robots and they all start seeming like the same grey machines. So that during the battle scenes you could very easily lose track of who was who. I hate this and I think it really takes away from the movie. We need to identify the good guys and even better, our favorites. It's just too hard as it is.
My final two complaints are specific to this movie. The first is for the stupid Jar-Jar Binks characters that were Skids and Mudflap. I found them to be very racist and just plain stupid that actually detracted from the movie. The other character I found odd was JetFire, the old Decepticon turned Autobot. Yes we get it, he's sooo old that he takes form of a Jet that was used from 1964 to 1998. That didn't really add up to me. Then when he transforms into robot form he has a cane. A cane! What is up with that? That left me very confused.
In the end this was only really worth watching if you are a fan of the Transformers genre because it isn't really great for the boring plot or the confusing battle scenes.
Labels: Movies
Despicable Me
I went and saw this movie with my five year old nephew today. He found it hilarious! Sure enough the "fart gun" went over quite well with him.The movies plot was very scrooge-esque. The evil villain encounters three young girls and eventually his heart grows large and he loves them. Not the most original plot but it works just fine. Jason Segel's character (the nemesis) is a pretty funny secondary character.
The real scene stealers are the several hundred minions (those odd yellow creatures with one or two eyes) as they provide several site gags and some physical humor through out the movie.
I knew going into this it was a kids movie and I wasn't really expecting much. It wasn't my favorite kids movie but there was 3 or 4 times I legitimately laughed aloud at and my nephew did not. I'd like to think it was because those were some adult jokes mixed into the movie. I did laugh at some of the same things he did as well though. This isn't a movie an adult can't sit through but I wouldn't be in a rush to see it without kids.
Labels: Movies
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Up
I thought this movie was going to a be funny kids movie with some adult jokes subtly thrown in. What I got was a pretty dark and sad movie. Definitely not what I was expecting.The opening 10 minutes of the movie is a heart wrenching story about a couple who bond over hero worship and grow old together. Then the wife dies. Pixar amazingly conveys the pain and sadness of the husband. This 10 minute montage was actually the highlight of the movie.
Well, that and Dug the talking dog. He bordered on the annoying side at times as he became slightly overused but they did a decent job not going to him too much. I had a good chuckle when he first appeared and I enjoyed the talking dog gimmick throughout the movie.
What I did find annoying was the little child. Both in his image and his voice. I just didn't think there was enough of a story between the old man and child to carry the whole movie. I dunno, just not too much to this movie and I was having trouble suspending reality for the balloons anyways.
And that bird was wicked annoying too.
Labels: Movies
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Hot Tub Time Machine
What a whimsical journey to one of the greatest eras of our fine country. The 1980s was a time of excess, innovation and great style. If you are allergic to fluorescent colors and big hair you better keep your distance!Granted any movie that takes us back to the 80s has the advantage of cheap comedic laughs with the costuming, other sight gags and references to 80s pop culture.
The movie itself was really just a slapstick buddy comedy. The friends have lost touch both with each other and themselves. Luckily, while on a trip back to an old high school hot spot, they encounter a time machine. A hot tub time machine that is.
While the movie was good for some laughs and nostalgia it wasn't the funniest movie I've ever seen. It might have some rewatchability since there are probably many references to 80s phenomenons that I missed the first time. The movie was lacking any real solid one liners, quotes or jokes to take away so the movie, in the end, is not very memorable.
Labels: Movies
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Manually ejecting a DVD from CyberHome's CH-DVD 500 without power to the Unit
So it turns out my DVD player recently died. It was a fun firework filled adventure. There was some odd noises, followed by some smells, followed by some smoke and of course some bursts of light.
All in all a typical electronics nightmare. Alas, my nightmare was not over since I had a small issue of a netflix issued DVD sitting in the now powerless DVD player.
What was I to do? I had not power to use the eject button!
Luckily I have no fear of cracking open any electronics let alone a measly DVD player.
When I got inside I noticed that this player just had a simple DVD drive along with some electronic boards. The good news was this meant that there was most likely a manual switch to open the drive tray. Now I just had to get the drive separated from the case front in order to find this button.
If you look at the picture to the right you will see 3 squares and two circles. The squares are tabs that we need to tilt the drive face to unhook. The two circles will slide away from the camera to disconnect the tray from the tray front in order to separate these two pieces so you can pull the DVD unit from the case.
At this point you can easily see the manually eject button what just needs to be pushed in and then the tray can be pulled out by hand. Now if you can come up with a tool to push reach this button without removing the DVD unit then you will be ahead of the game and probably won't end up breaking the tray front like I did!
Labels: Tech
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