…relatively amusing…

In an article posted on Yahoo! News about how poorly the box office did this summer…the following was mentioned:

“A documentary about a bunch of birds, March of the Penguins (15th place, $63.6 million), outgrossed the Ridley Scott epic Kingdom of Heaven (21st place, $47.4 million).

To this, I simply smiled… 😀

A few changes…

Nothing truly important…as usual… First of all, I switched web servers… I was using my old 1.0 GHz Athlon box for my server and my Athlon XP 1900+ for my primary computer…but since getting my laptop, I’ve been using it primarily and my faster box hasn’t really been used…therefore…I switched from the 1.0 GHz Athlon to the faster Athlon XP 1900+ computer…still running Linux, of course… 😛 This may speed things up a little bit, but probably nothing noticeable…

Slightly more obvious a change is the address of this website. http://andyl.homelinux.net/ is (mostly) no more! It’ll still work for awhile…until I decide not to renew it… Regardless, the new address is https://linsenbardt.net/. Yahoo! Domains was running a nifty deal on domain names…so I get it for $2/year…and I paid $10 and now have that address for 5 years…

Anyway, adjust your bookmarks or links from your blogs…https://linsenbardt.net/ is my new address…

Back to studying, I guess…

Review: Must Love Dogs

So yeah, took in a “chick flick” with the wife last night…largely due to a). free tickets and b). John Cusack, who is likely one of my favorite actors. The premise of Must Love Dogs” is rather simple: a woman and a man both went through recent divorces and their family/friends make them sign up at an online dating site, where they both meet each other. She and he both go through the motions of “men/women are all evil, why can’t I find someone perfect, why is the world so messed up,” etc.

Overall, the story is pretty derivative and not thoroughly inventive…as most romantic comedies are, anymore… On the other hand, I did find myself laughing at a few points throughout and I didn’t find myself guessing all of the twists (although, I did guess quite a few of them…). Also, again, John Cusack is the man. One of my favorite movies (and one of the few I identify with on a personal level…) is “High Fidelity,” in which he starred. Both “High Fidelity” and “Must Love Dogs” include his singular wit and humor, which is always fun for me to watch. If you remember, Cusack was in “Serendipity” a few years back with Kate Beckensale and I didn’t think they matched that well (that, and the story was quite unbelievable and didn’t have as much of Cusack’s wit, if I remember correctly)…but Diane Lane and Cusack seem to “mesh” quite a bit better. At the very least, the supporting cast in “Must Love Dogs” is stronger (Christopher Plummer, Stockard Channing, Dermot Mulroney, etc.) than in “Serendipity” (…which consisted of Jeremy Piven…and that’s about it…)

Therefore, if you liked “High Fidelity” and the style of humor that Cusack portrays so well, you’ll likely be able to sit through “Must Love Dogs” and almost enjoy it. If you like chick flicks, you’ll love it. If you don’t like chick flicks and hated “High Fidelity,” I think you ought to avoid it…’cause you won’t find anything of value.

Review: Transporter 2

So yeah, saw “Transporter 2” yesterday, not looking to be terribly impressed… I saw the first iteration in theaters when it came out and was quite dissappointed in it. For the most part, the first movie had some cool action scenes, but everything else was just boring. The movie only barely held my attention, only to be revitalized whenever a badass fight scene would pop up.

The second movie improves on the first one in that there is some form of plot that is somewhat entertaining to follow. The action scenes are even more badass than the first movie was and the storyline held my interest for the vast majority of the film.

Overall, I guess I liked it, but there have certainly been better movies… The acting was marginal at best; most of the effects were excellent, but some were a little cheap; and Jason Statham still could have been better used (it seemed to me that he spent more time fighting than he spent talking…perhaps if there was more intelligent dialogue to listen to, a good plot may have developed more clearly…oh well).

On the other hand, maybe “The Cave” would have been a better choice… 😛

(for those who don’t talk to me much, that was sarcasm…)

Isn’t it ironic…

…dontcha think?

“Any system of thought that denies or seeks to explain away the overwhelming evidence for design in biology is ideology, not science.” — Cardinal Christoph Schanborn

That quote comes from an article posted at New Scientist, submitted by Steve Hosack.

I’m not even going to comment on this except to say that the irony of the statement is staggering and ignorant. I’m very glad I’m not Catholic… 😛

Isn't it ironic…

…dontcha think?

“Any system of thought that denies or seeks to explain away the overwhelming evidence for design in biology is ideology, not science.” — Cardinal Christoph Schanborn

That quote comes from an article posted at New Scientist, submitted by Steve Hosack.

I’m not even going to comment on this except to say that the irony of the statement is staggering and ignorant. I’m very glad I’m not Catholic… 😛

Randomness, etc.

So yeah, a few random things:

1). Yesterday was the Biochemistry Dept. orientation for new graduate students. I’m not really considering them right now, but I am going to be rotating with a professor in that department beginning next week, so it was worth a listen, I guess… Regardless, we got free food, visited with some students in the department (I may be set up in a poker game in the next week or two as a result…heh…), and later in the day, we got to participate in a reception with more free food and about 9 varieties of beer. It is still rather odd to be on campus in a science building with free beer provided to the students. I think I could get used to this “private school” shenanigans…

2). I’m heading to Columbia this weekend briefly to visit with Jan Allmann, who was an exchange student from Germany my senior year of high school. He’s back this summer (though leaving shortly…) interning at MU for something business-related. Anyway, Brooke and I are going to Columbia Friday afternoon for some frolfing and dinner, then returning here on Saturday. My parents and Brooke’s parents are then coming into St. Louis on Monday (Labor Day) for some BBQ, so that should be fun…

3). My laptop has an obnoxious white line traveling horizontally across the entire LCD screen. I called Toshiba about it last night and they said to take it by Mobile Office Machines, here in St. Louis…who’s apparently a licensed Toshiba repair place. So I called them up this morning and I’m taking the laptop by them. They’ll need it for 24 hrs to properly diagnose the problem, then they’ll order the necessary part (while I hang on to the laptop) and they’ll call me when it arrives…and then they’ll fix it… Firstly, thank God I have that 3 year warranty on this toy…and secondly, thank God I live in a metropolitan area with a repair place close by so I don’t have to UPS this thing to China…

4). School is going alright…all still mostly review, but I’m sure it can only get harder from here. I’ve been very good about reading the material ahead of time before going to class so I know what’s going on before I get there…go me…

5). Mike Goodspeed had a very good posting on his blog a few days back…you should check it out… I still stand fast by my decision that George W. Bush is an idiot, for the record…and on a related note, the poverty rate in this country has risen to 12.7%

…so it begins…

“Why do we need explosive detection methods? Terrorists. Because they all want to increase your entropy?”
– Joel Brockmeyer

So classes have officially started. All I had today was BBS 501: the “BBS” stands for “Basic Biomedical Sciences” and, essentially, this class is Graduate School Biochemistry (officially titled “Beginning Basic Biomedical Sciences I”, I think). Today we began a few lectures on thermodynamics, hence the aforementioned quote regarding entropy…spoken by Joel during my Junior Chemistry Seminar class Junior year at Truman…

If today’s class is any indication of the future, then it shouldn’t be too terribly hard for the first few weeks. We had a review on thermodynamics, and by “review,” I mean back to Freshman year of college. I’m sure it’ll get more difficult, but flipping through the first few weeks of the syllabus, all I can see is stuff I’ve, at the very least, heard of if not studied on multiple occasions in various classes throughout undergrad. I think the primary difficulty will be in the sheer amount of material, however. As in, I’ve got this class weekday mornings at 9:00 am…so when I have my first test in just over 2 weeks, I’ll have had about 11 lectures…which is the equivalent of almost a month of lectures (MWF) at Truman. So yeah, I dunno…it could be easy…could get a lot harder really quickly…

The exams will be completely in essay form and we are assured 3 hours to take the exam and each lecture will be covered by only one question on the test…therefore, we are relatively aware of what’s going to be on the test already…that, and we are being told to a). get the previous tests from upperclassmen and b). that the questions are very similar from year to year.

Graduate school?! So far, it sounds a lot easier than I would have thought in many of my undergrad classes…on the other hand, I’ve only had one day to deal with…but, then again, I only have two real classes to worry about: this one and a class twice a week that deals with reading “classic” papers (i.e. the original Watson and Crick DNA structure paper, etc.).

Only time will tell, I guess…

This is it…

Yeah, very shortly, I will be attending classes at Saint Louis University, “officially” making me feel like a graduate student (the summer thus far hasn’t been much besides a “job,” of sorts…now I actually have to study and such…). This is both exciting and rather scary, the former due to the fact that I get to finally delve in to my chosen profession…the latter because…well…it’s graduate school… Likely this will be my largest challenge to date. The really odd parts follow:

    — I am going to school at a new place with new people and new professors.
    — I am at the bottom of the food chain again, much like I was five years ago at Truman.
    — I don’t have as many friends/bar buddies in this town, so I won’t be as socially active as in recent years.
    — Along with that, I’m married now, so my roommate won’t be able to help me in my classes as in recent years…on the other hand, it’s easier now that I don’t have to make time to go to my girlfriend’s place to hang out with her once and awhile…she’s conveniently at my place all the time now… 😛
    — I no longer have “responsibilities,” such as attending AXE meetings, Wesley House functions, or working for ITS. It’s school and home. That’s it.
    — I have to drive to class every morning. Snow or not. And fight for parking.

So yeah, completely new shenanigans to deal with. Really, I’m the same old person in a completely new environment…making me wonder how I’ll deal with the situation. Will I study as much as I should? Will I make it to class on time? Or at all? Will I be able to manage money better now that I’m married and on my own? Will my personality remain the same, or should I expect another paradigm shift as what occurred in college? …or will I wake up tomorrow and still be in my bed at the old apartment in Kirksville?

…as Spock once said: “Life…is not a dream.” And as he also said, in a different movie, I “will perform as according to one’s gifts.” Hopefully I’m as prepared as I can be for the flames I am to be thrust in to….’cause it’s going to be close to five years that I’m roasting in them…

“Sounds like fun.” (…that was Kirk, this time…)

Review: Wedding Crashers

For the record, I’m very much enjoying Brooke having the job at the movie theater…since that means we get free movies every week… 😛

Anyway, we saw “Wedding Crashers” last night and I think I’ll have to agree with Andy S.’s review on this one. For the most part, it’s a very funny and entertaining flick…but, at the same time, it’s just about the same thing as every other movie that these actors (Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, etc.) have ever been in…

Yet, again, it’s a funny movie and worth seeing. While most of the movie was completely predictable, there were definitely a few parts that I didn’t see coming… Brooke even pointed out that the movie had more of a plot to it than she expected… The whole “crashing weddings” gig really only lasted for a 5 minute music video of sorts toward the beginning until the two main characters, Vaughn and Wilson, made it to Christopher Walken’s daughter’s wedding. There were many “laugh out loud” moments throughout the movie, which was the reason we went to see it in the first place (well…why I went…Brooke wanted to see what the heck John McCain was doing in the movie…).

But at the same time, I already bought “Old School,” so I’m not sure I’m going to have to buy this one when it comes out…since it’s practically the same movie…