Author: andy

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Review: Prometheus

I came to the “Alien” franchise somewhat late.  It was certainly popular when I was in my pre-teen years, and other kids I knew had seen them, but I don’t think I even saw the first movie until college.  I certainly remember the toy blitz when they released “Alien 3,” thinking they were pretty cool, though in retrospect, “Alien 3” was likely the worst movie in the franchise.  Fox even tried rebooting the series, to some degree, by mixing the Alien and Predator franchises together, something that began as a comic and eventually turned into a few not-so-good movies.

Thus, I think it’s safe to say that the best movies in the franchise are 1979’s “Alien,” directed by Ridley Scott, and 1986’s “Aliens,” directed by James Cameron.  It could be argued that the reason these two movies worked so well is that they’re very different takes on the same idea: a far-future where humans in dirty old space ships come across an alien species with human and insect qualities that wants to kill them…and that, for the most part, androids aren’t to be trusted.  Scott portrayed a single alien on a ship inhabited by various folks, including one young Sigourney Weaver, but set it up in the same vein as a “slasher” movie.  “Alien” was more of a horror movie.  “Aliens,” on the other hand, under the direction of Cameron, saw Weaver and a group of future marines do battle with a whole group of aliens in a human colony.  “Aliens” was more of an action movie.

Which brings us to “Prometheus,” a film connected to the “Alien” franchise, but very, very distinct.  Ridley Scott hasn’t directed a science fiction movie since “Blade Runner” in 1982, so everyone was intrigued to see what he would do with 30 years worth of new tools.  He didn’t disappoint.  The tech portrayed, from the virtual displays to the ship, to the alien creatures, etc. all seem to fit seamlessly into the environment.  We saw it in IMAX 3D and, while the effects were very apparent, they were very complimentary to the overall experience, rather than distracting.  You can tell Scott utilized these new tools to great effect.

The story, however, is kinda confusing.  To be honest, I don’t know what to make of it.  There’s something to be said for leaving a movie with additional questions (something the writers have said were purposeful, in the event they’d get a sequel), but some of the plot holes are so large, it seems like there isn’t much of a way to dig out of them.

As I said earlier, “Prometheus” is very different from the “Alien” franchise.  It takes place in the same universe, involves some of the same players (namely the Weyland Corporation), and generally feels like they’re related.  At the same time, though, “Prometheus” is more concerned with an existential search for our creator, the alien species (referred to as “The Engineers”) that seeded Earth with DNA that would eventually evolve into modern humans (and don’t get me started on the scientific missteps this brings up…).  “Prometheus” takes a look at that search, the powers that seek to control that knowledge, and our overall sense of humanity – arguably, things the “Alien” franchise hasn’t done before.

Generally speaking, I liked it.  I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to see it in 3D, but if you want to, you won’t be disappointed.  There are definite, and obvious, callbacks to the “Alien” franchise, so fans of the series should be pleased.  It is definitely more along the horror line of things, rather than action, so be sure you can handle a few cringe-worthy scenes.

But that plot.  I just don’t know what to make of it.  I think I want a sequel, just so I can see where they’re going with it.  Then again, maybe I don’t want a sequel, so these questions are left up in the air for fans to ponder for another 30 years.

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A Brief Reflection on Turning 30

I remember when my Mom turned 30.  Kristen and I were out playing in the back yard and we saw all our aunts, uncles and cousins from the Plochberger side of the family driving up and quietly moving toward the house to surprise her.  Infamously, Kristen, not understanding what was going on, rushed to head inside to tell Mom that everyone had showed up.  I had to stop her before getting inside and, as she was 4 at the time, it wasn’t too hard for me to catch her.  The Plochberger side of the family has traditionally been very good at donning black clothes, putting up signs saying “Over The Hill,” and making a remarkably big deal of family members turning 30, largely under my late Aunt Sara’s guidance.

Now, it’s 23 years later and it’s my turn.  Now that I think about it, we haven’t had a 30th birthday in the family for quite awhile (Mom was the youngest in the family with brothers and sisters far into high school at the time she was born, so we had cousins turning 30 before I was even 10) and, as I live in St. Louis and they all live a few hours away, we won’t be celebrating like that.  Heck, practically no one I know celebrates 30 anymore like that, as people live to be much older now and 30 is almost like any other birthday.  Even 40, to some degree, is a non-issue.

It seems like, in the past 20 years, 30 became the new 50.

Makes me wonder, in another 20 years, if 50 will be the new 70…before I even get there…

In any case, it will be weird to say that I’m in my 30s, but in the end, I don’t see it as a huge shift.  There was obviously a time that I did, but now that I’m here, it doesn’t really mean much.  The only thing that sticks out in my mind is the fact that I’m now 30 and am still, technically, “in training” for my career, though this is commonplace in the field and to be expected.  It’s also a bit different in that I remember my Mom’s 30th birthday (and so does Kristen), but Meg won’t remember mine.  Again, a sign of the times when the average age of getting married and having kids is getting later and later.

Other than that, it’s just another year with two new digits to write, rather than just one.  And that’s fine by me!

It is rather disappointing to have this day fall in the middle of the week, though, as it makes celebrating a bit more difficult.  Brooke, Meg and I will go to the Bottleworks tonight, methinks, which is always a good time, so far as I’m concerned.  This past weekend, my family came to town to help celebrate (that, and Father’s Day, of course), and that was a great time.  In the end, it’s still more fun than last year, as we’re closer to friends and family here in St. Louis, and it’s a birthday that feels at least a little more meaningful than 29.

Regardless, I’m ready to hit this particular milestone.  At the very least, I don’t have to say I’m in my 20s anymore and can try to act like an adult.  😉

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1982: The Year That Was

As I was born in 1982, I don’t remember anything about it.  Thus, I thought it prudent to see what else happened that year, aside from my birth.  Apparently, quite a few things went down, as Wikipedia is helpful in pointing out.  The Wikipedia post mostly involves world events, if you’re curious, but I picked out a few of the more interesting ones to highlight here.  At least, more interesting to my generation.

A few interesting tidbits about 1982:

  • Average cost of a gallon of gas: $0.91
  • Price of a US Postage Stamp: $0.20
  • Average Price of a New Car: $7,983.00
  • Average Price of a New House: $82,200

Here’s a list of stuff that happened in 1982:

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A Birthday Brewery Tour

The sampler at Six Row Brewing Company

Since moving back, Brooke and I have wanted to hit the wealth of new micro breweries that have sprung up in the St. Louis area in the past 2 years, most of which while were were in Iowa (figures…).  As our schedules tend to get busy rapidly, we hadn’t actually done this yet, but in my infinite wisdom, I suggested that a birthday-related excursion to hit some of the better-known breweries would be nice!  Thus, we recruited my Mom to stay at home with Meg while Dad kindly drove Brooke, Kristen, Jake and I to some “hoppin'” locations (see what I did there?) around the city.

The first stop (pictured above) was Six Row Brewing Company, just off of Forest Park Avenue close to Saint Louis University.  Generally speaking, I liked their beers quite a bit.  They also have more of a menu than the other breweries we went to, with sandwiches, soups and pizzas available.  After the sampler, I had a pint of their Centennial Rye, a beer that was quite a bit lighter than other ryes I’ve had in the past.  Quite tasty!  Overall, they had a strong mix of hoppy beers, wheaty beers, and others that can satisfy a wide variety of beer tastes.

Two samplers at Urban Chestnut.

Next, we made our way to Urban Chestnut Brewing Company, which is only a mile or less away from Six Row.  Brooke and I had actually been there before, but being so close to Six Row, I figured we’d be remiss not to check them out again.  Brooke really, really liked their Pilgrim 7 beer back in December, but we didn’t appear to get that one in our sampler.  Overall, I think I preferred this mix of beers to the last one Brooke and I tried, as it had a bit more variety in the beer styles.  In December, I seem to remember everything having more of a “heavy” character, which is fine for winter, but not so good for summer.  However, there were a few refreshing varieties in these samplers and was probably the favored brewery of Jake and Kristen.  Personally, as it is the namesake of the brewery, I thought all the beers were a bit too “nutty,” but you can get over it.  Of their beers, their “Old Tjikko” Spruce Ale was probably the most interesting.  Everyone else smelled a very heavy “tree” character, but I didn’t get much of that until I tasted it, and even then, I didn’t think it was that noticeable.  Apparently, my sense of smell is pretty terrible.  They had another one, “Thrales,” that isn’t listed on their website, but was a pretty spectacular (and alcoholic) Russian Imperial Stout.  It was shockingly smooth.  For something approaching 9%, it had a great flavor and was surprisingly easy to drink.  Worth a look!

The sampler at 4 Hands Brewing Company.

4 Hands Brewing Company was next on the list.  This one’s within walking distance (a bit far, but doable) of our old place in Soulard, so it’s pretty close to Busch Stadium.  Unlike the other breweries, 4 Hands doesn’t have a huge beer list available as they just launched at the end of December.  This was probably Kristen’s least favorite brewery because just about all the beers had a noticeable hop character…which, of course, is good so far as I’m concerned.  🙂

This is the first location where Dad had any beer, as well, so it’s probably a good thing he waited this long, as he tends to like hoppy beers, too.  I thought their Single-Speed Session, a Blonde Ale, was good, but Dad and I both got their Divided Sky Rye IPA.  Big and hoppy.  Mmmm…  Brooke had their Saison in Columbia last weekend at another bar, and it was still good here.  Sadly, while their website mentions a “Pyrus” saison for Fall and Winter that they didn’t have anymore of.  It’s made with “pear juice, whole white pepper corns, and the zest of fresh oranges,” so it definitely piqued her interest.  We’ll need to go back later in the year, I expect.

Four beers from The Civil Life.

Last, but not least, we went to The Civil Life Brewing Company, which is in an odd location about a mile or two from our house.  They also had sandwiches available, had a “back room” where some poetry reading was going on, and a nice upstairs seating area to get you away from the bar if you want to.  They were probably the most “industrial” of the locations, though from the outside, it looks pretty boring.  The beers were good, though to be honest, by the time you’re on your fourth stop of tasting all those previous beers, the flavors all start to run together a bit.  Also, I don’t really remember much about these four, and looking at their website, I’m not remembering much about which ones we actually got.  I just asked the bartender which four were their “best,” and I remember them being very good, but again, I can’t recall what they were.  If I had to guess, I’d say we had the American Pale, the Rye Pale, the British Bitter and the American Brown, but I could be wrong.

We need to go back there, though.  The beers pictured were 8 oz and were $2.50 each, so you can’t really argue with the pricing.  Especially for people like Brooke that may not want a whole pint of one beer style, it makes it pretty easy to get a good sampling without over-doing it.

A big thanks go to Mom and Dad for helping facilitate our little beer excursion!  I definitely had a lot of fun!  Next time we do this, we’ll probably keep it down to two breweries on a single trip, as four is, perhaps, a bit too much if you’re really wanting to appreciate the distinctions in beer varieties.

Oh well.  You live, you learn.  🙂

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Dominican Republic Vacation, Part III

I spent enough time talking about our experience(s) in the Dominican Republic, but I thought it would be useful to briefly discuss the country itself.  Generally speaking, all the people we met were very friendly and were very helpful.  Few spoke much English, though the host at the front desk of the main lobby spoke at least 5 languages to some degree.  There were a few instances when we would be shopping around the resort and the shop keeper wouldn’t understand much of what we were saying, but we made do.

There were quite a few Europeans at the resort.  Definitely a few Americans, but it appeared that the vast majority of other tourists were from Europe (also reflected by the number of topless women walking around on the public beach close to our hotel).  It seemed like many of the Europeans were from Spain, though some were French, a few Germans, some we thought were Dutch.  Overall, a good “smattering” of many Western European countries taking in the Caribbean air.

We were curious about the work force at the resort.  Specifically, the hostess at our buffet off the lobby, where we typically got breakfast, also worked at the French restaurant we went to Tuesday night.  Bear in mind that she was there when we rolled in for breakfast, and she was also there that night when we got dinner at 9:00.  And there are practically no towns near the resort for all these people to live in.  So where did they all come from?!

We asked two people, one a bartender at our lobby and the other, a guy who set people up with scuba trips near our pool (“Frannie,” as he was affectionately called by Rachel and Mallory.  Short for “Francisco”).  The bartender said he comes to stay in an apartment near the resort, where many other workers live for much of the time, and he’s there for 24 days straight before going home for 6 days once a month after about an 8 hour drive home.  Frannie, on the other hand, lives about an hour away and takes maybe 2 days off per month.  So generally speaking, if you work at the resort, you’re there a lot.

As I said, there aren’t many towns near the resort itself.  We drove through one town between the airport and the resort, but we only saw a few gas stations, a few small eateries and buildings, yet no houses or apartment complexes to speak of.  Certainly not enough housing to account for the hundreds of workers at our resort, let alone the others in the area.

The buggy ride is really where we really saw the impoverished conditions of the rural population.  There were shacks we passed with an adult or two sitting under a tree outside, and a few kids running up to our buddy train to give us “high fives” as we passed by.  The kids actually had some decent clothes on, but compared to their living conditions, that doesn’t say much.  There were a few run down buildings we passed that had satellite dishes, however, so it’s hard to determine exactly what resources they have.  At the “plantation” stop during the ride, we were told that the average wage in the area (if not the country) is about $100 per month.  He pointed across the road to a single-room rural school building, where the uniforms to attend there cost $65, obviously cutting in to that meager wage.  I can’t be sure how accurate the young man was who was describing this all to us, however.  He may have just been trying to sell some products in support of the school.  In any case, the people we saw in rural areas of the Dominican Republic didn’t seem to be living by standards anywhere close to what we do here.

According to Wikipedia, the gross annual minimum wage for the Dominican Republic is almost $1500.

I should note that, during that buggy ride, we were accosted a few times by sales people trying to get you to stop by their table or shop to buy some things from them.  Obviously, they knew where the buggies tended to bring tourists, so they set up specifically to prey upon them.  We were warned about it by the folks running the buggy service, but as it’s public land, there wasn’t anything they could do.  I’m sure this kind of thing is true of just about any country you go to, though.

The last thing I found interesting was the road system.  We were driving for a little over 30 min between the airport and the resort and a good deal of that trip was on 4-lane divided highway.  However, in many cases, we saw unfinished roads running alongside ours, or unfinished buildings with people selling things from the bottom floor while rebar stuck out at the top.  We would go through roundabouts that only had two roads connected.  Overall, it just seemed like they were either A). primed for expansion to send roads to additional towns and resorts, or B). they ran out of money and will continue their projects when more comes in.  Either way, the driving experience had an “unfinished” feel to it.

Regardless, it seemed like a nice country, one I wouldn’t mind seeing a bit more of someday.  The capital, Santo Domingo, especially seems like it would be an interesting city to visit, with lots of sights and history to experience.

That’s it!  Can’t think of anything else to write on the subject.  Surely I wrote enough by now. 🙂

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Dominican Republic Vacation, Part II

Picking up where we left off, Tuesday morning involved an excursion to the Dominican Republic countryside so we could drive buggies (or “boogies,” if you follow their spelling).  We rented 3 buggies (two people per car) and drove in a single-file line down dirt roads and along a beach.  We visited a few different locations, including the aforementioned beach, a “plantation” where coffee, cocoa and tobacco are harvested, then a cave that was supposedly filmed as part of “Jurassic Park.”  It was rather difficult to determine whether the “plantation” was actually functional, or whether it was an outpost in the middle of nowhere set up to show tourists how coffee and cocoa are made, and cigars rolled.  In any case, it was somewhat instructional and proved to be entertaining.  Overall, the buggy ride was a nice diversion from an otherwise beach-centric vacation.

Tuesday afternoon, we returned to the beach, though I think we were a bit more relaxed than the day before.  Brooke and I took the opportunity to remain in the shade for most of the time, giving our (limited) sun burns a rest before hitting it hard the next day.  We did, however, make an attempt at renting some kayaks to try and make our way out into the ocean where there was a partially submerged ship used mostly for scuba excursions (I think).  The girls were able to make it out there, but my kayak was very, very uncomfortable, so I couldn’t quite make the trip.

(…and before you think me a weakling, bear in mind that Brooke and I switched kayaks at one point and she had problems as well…it wasn’t just me!!  Brooke and I were both sore for the next few days from that kayak trip…stoopid kayak…)

That night, we ate at the buffet close to our hotel where we normally just ate breakfast.  This allowed us a bit more flexibility with how we spent our evening, so we were able to eat a bit earlier and then enjoy some “family time” that night playing cards and hanging out, getting a little more relaxation in.

Wednesday was our last full day in the Dominican Republic, so we generally stayed close to the beach.  Nothing too interesting to report from that day, though “the kids” sent Mark and Diana to the spa for a few hours in the afternoon, something I think they enjoyed.

After a long day out in the sun, we went out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant which, in my opinion, was the best meal we had the entire time down there.  It was a “teppanyaki“-style restaurant, where the food is cooked in front of a group of patrons and you choose what you want to eat.  Needless to say, I was pretty full after eating just about every meat imaginable, as well as a healthy portion of rice and soup.

The next morning, we all said our “goodbyes” to the country in our separate ways: some walking on the beach, some getting up early to read, some swimming in the pool.  We checked out late-morning and headed back to the airport, where we waited for a 3:00 pm flight (thankfully, there was a Wendy’s).  The flight back was mostly uneventful, aside from some turbulence.  Frontier was kind enough to provide 25 channels of cable TV once we crossed into US airspace, so that was a big plus.  We were on the ground by 7:00 pm and, somehow, made it through Customs in about 15 min, which shocked me to a sufficient degree.

All in all, it was a memorable, great vacation!  Thanks again to Mark and Diana for taking us all along with them, and to my parents for watching Meg and Edie while we were out of the country.  And Stu for taking care of the chickens and Sam.  Can’t forget that.  🙂

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Dominican Republic Vacation, Part I

In recent years, Brooke’s family has been hitting up tropical vacations.  Up until now, we haven’t gone along, but this year, as Rachel turned 21 and I am turning 30 in a few (short) weeks, they kindly took all of us on a Caribbean vacation to Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic!

We left Meg and Edie with my parents for the week and got up to hit an early morning flight to the DR on Sunday, putting us there in early afternoon.  That way, we had a good “half day” available to orient ourselves and check out the pool and beach before dinner.  We stayed at the Grand Bahia Principe Ambar, which is one of four hotels in the “Bahia Principe” family of all-inclusive resorts in Punta Cana.  Each hotel is situated next to one another, and each one has its own selection of restaurants, pools, and so on.  To some degree, visitors to each hotel can visit each other’s restaurants and attractions, but the Ambar hotel, specifically, is “adults only,” so while we could visit all the other restaurants, the visitors to the other hotels couldn’t visit ours.  It definitely helped keep our general environment quiet and relaxing.

Sunday was the only day we spent any significant time by the pool (pictured above), as it tended to be pretty hot with all that concrete abound.  Our rooms were on the bottom floor in a building right next to the pool, and just beyond the pool lies the beach, so we really couldn’t get much closer to our primary destination!

The hotel was pretty nice, overall, with a stocked mini bar, bathrooms with Jacuzzi tubs and walk-in showers, and cable TV with a total of three English-language channels (CBS, NBC and ABC).  If you want to watch Mythbusters dubbed in Spanish, they’ve got you covered.

My primary hiccup with the whole excursion, of course, was a lack of free Wifi except in the main lobby area.  Granted, I know we were down there to “relax,” but with one of the biggest electronics and gaming conferences going on all week, my RSS readers were collecting 600+ articles for me to wade through by the end of the day.  The Wifi they provided, however, was pretty quick and not the job done.  Just a minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things!

At least they were kind enough to bring me a cocktail while I skimmed metric tons of articles, eh? 😉

Before continuing, I should mention the general “structure” of our days.  We’d all get up and go to the main lobby area, which was connected to an all-purpose buffet that switched out their selections for each meal.  We always ate breakfast there, but usually ate lunch at a beach-side buffet that didn’t care so much about “dress codes.”  After spending our days at the beach, we’d usually clean up before dinner and meet at the lobby again for a cocktail or two (and some free Wifi).  Then, it’d be dinner time, shopping/walking/cards, then sleep time.

Anyway, Sunday encompassed some time spent at the pool, taking in our surroundings.  We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner that night around 9:00, so by the time we were done there, we were mostly ready for bed.  There were more than a few restaurants available for eating, and sometimes multiple in each style.  Many seemed to required reservations, even though there weren’t very many people eating by the time we got there.  I think some restaurants were more lax on that requirement than others…

Monday was a “beach day,” so we didn’t do all that much, aside from get some swimming, tanning and reading done.  For the record, I finished Catching Fire and started another book, Losing My Religion, so yes, indeed, I did read books while on vacation.  After a long day on the beach, we hit up a French restaurant, where I had lobster for the first time (good!).  It’s the kind of thing I didn’t really feel right having in the Midwest (as we don’t really get fresh lobster here…), so I was anxious to have some while in the Caribbean.  Again, this was a late-night dinner reservation, so we didn’t do much afterwards.

That’s probably enough for now.  More to come in a few days!

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Progress

I’ve been here at Wash U for over 6 months now and we submitted my first paper (from here) to Molecular Pharmacology this morning.  Granted, there’s no guarantee they’ll publish it or anything (in which case we’ll just send it elsewhere), but the fact that I was able to pull together enough data for a journal article in the relatively short time I’ve been here, while also learning electrophysiology, is pretty good.  The work we’re hoping to publish in Mol Pharm is what I’ll be presenting at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting this coming October in New Orleans (!!!!), so it’s kinda nice to know I’ve already got all the figures done: I’ll just have to arrange them on a poster-size sheet of paper and remind myself what I did almost a year earlier.

It was very helpful to hop onto a project we knew would pan out.  At the time I started, I don’t think we intended to go as far with it as we have (my boss initially told me that I could have all the data done by the end of last year…HAH!), but it went in some interesting directions and lead to a stronger paper, in the end.  I definitely learned quite a bit during the course of the research, though there’s still a ways to go before I would consider myself an “expert” in these techniques and concepts.

Honestly, I’m pretty pleased we got this paper out.  My boss here is very focused on productivity, which is a good thing as I’d like to get a few papers out in my remaining time here.  Once this one’s published, that’ll be three “first-authored” papers (i.e. your name is first on the list of authors, indicating that you did the bulk of the work and the writing) in total.  I’d like at least one more, if not two, before I get out of here.

My plan is still to begin applying for teaching positions this Fall, preferably for liberal arts colleges in Missouri, Iowa or Southern Illinois.  Having 3 papers complete is helpful, but having a good deal of data toward a fourth one would be even better.  There’s something of a “quality vs quantity” game you play in this field, where it’s good to have your name on a bunch of papers (i.e. having a lengthy list of papers you’ve contributed to on your C.V. when you’re applying for a job), but at the same time, it’s arguably just as good to have your name first on fewer papers, making it clear what your contribution was to the work in question.  I guess we’ll see which one’s more important in a few months.

Regardless, I haven’t posted much about how things are going in the lab, largely because there’s not much to tell.  I’m learning more and more each week, I’ve presented data to the lab a few times, and I’m gaining more confidence that I’m not a complete idiot (though I still feel like it at times).  This environment is definitely different from my experience at SLU and Iowa, though: a far more “Ivy League” mentality about productivity, the quality of other people’s science, and the need to get more funding in order to do high quality work.  It certainly isn’t making me want to go into academic research as a career, but it’s nice to get to see it first-hand as I interact with other postdocs and students from around here.

So, now that this paper’s complete, I’m moving on to different techniques and different concepts.  I think this new project is a bit more interesting to me, from a physiological perspective, but is by no means easier to study.  In many ways, it’s addressing the kinds of things that other people have avoided because they’re such a pain to address, but we’re hoping the skills our lab has will give us an advantage that others may not have.

After all that work, though, I think it’s time for a three-day weekend.  Or maybe a vacation.

Or maybe both. 🙂

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Review: The Avengers

Let’s be honest: Was there really a chance this movie wouldn’t be good?  When it was written and directed by Joss Whedon and contained just about every star imaginable from recent Marvel-based movies?  When it’s rocking 93% on Rotten Tomatoes?  When it made $1 billion in the span of less than 2 weeks?

Yeah.  It was good.  And it’s not very surprising.

There are a variety of reasons why the movie is very, very strong, from the quality of writing, to the effects, to the “star power,” to the “let’s throw money at it and surely something awesome will come out” mentality to its production.  However, I’ll focus on two things in particular.

First, Joss Whedon had his work cut out for him because much of the “origin story” was already told in other movies, including Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Incredible Hulk.  Almost every character that showed up in this movie was already introduced in a previous one, which allowed Whedon the freedom to spend his 2.5 hrs of screen time on the story at hand: not the description of each character and why we should care.  I’ve talked with a few people that have seen the movie and now want to go back and see the “origin stories” of the characters they missed.  It didn’t detract from their enjoyment of this movie, but it certainly inspired them to seek out additional material to help enhance the experience of this film.

Second, while I expected the dialog to be witty and amusing, I didn’t expect genuine laugh-out-loud moments.  By no means is The Avengers a “comedy,” though it has its share of hilarious parts that don’t feel forced in the least.  The theater cracked up on multiple occasions, typically centering on the Hulk, who ends up stealing the show during the latter 30 min of the movie.  So even if you aren’t necessarily a “comic book movie” fan, I think you’ll appreciate the humor that comes of it.

Aside from these things, generally speaking, the movie is so well-paced that you forget how long you’ve been sitting in the seat.  Each character is introduced so as to “ease you” in, rather than having the entire team show up together, leading to a longer slog through the film (Fantastic Four comes to mind). Heck, you don’t even see the Hulk until relatively late in the movie!  But when you do, you’re ready for it.  I guess I’m saying that no one over-stays their welcome and the characters all fit together in a very cohesive manner, which is very difficult to do when you’re dealing with a movie consisting of 8+ main characters.  It’s obviously an ensemble cast.

I also paid the exorbitant fee required of seeing it in IMAX 3D.  Let’s just say that this was another case where the money was worth it.  The 3D wasn’t over-done and, overall, enhanced the viewing experience without too much “look at me, I’m in 3D!!” shenanigans.  I’ll be satisfied with my Bluray release in a few months (when I definitely buy it…), but I’m glad my first exposure to the movie was in IMAX 3D.

To summarize, it’s a spectacular movie.  In some ways, it’s a good thing that most of these characters have their own franchises, so we’ll have a few years of their own sequels before we get the inevitable “Avengers 2.”

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To SSD, or not to SSD?

Last year, my laptop died.  Rather than replace it, I opted for upgrading my desktop PC to make it gaming-capable, among other things, as it tends to be far cheaper and is much, much easier to upgrade when components go on sale.  At the time, I did the bulk of the upgrades, but I didn’t get new hard drives, as they were still functional and I didn’t think they were as important to spend extra cash on when I could put that money into a new processor or RAM.  So, since that time, I’ve been using a previous-generation hard drive on my next-generation motherboard.

The drive I was using was 160 GB, so not exactly a large capacity to work with.  As lots of stuff is moving toward cloud-based storage, and as we have a 400 GB external hard drive, 160 GB was still enough to do most things, though it felt “cramped” at times.  Hard drives are relatively cheap things to upgrade, where you can get a 1 terabyte hard drive (that’s 1000 GB) for about $100, and frequently cheaper.  However, that upgrade would give me all kinds of capacity, but not a huge jump in “speed.”

There are a variety of reasons for this, but part of it is that traditional hard drives actually have spinning parts, much like a record player.  As an illustration, in the image above, you can see the compact disc-looking thing, and what also looks like a needle.  Obviously, the drive’s operation is far more complicated than “it’s just like a compact disc,” but in many ways, that’s really all it’s doing.  Bigger and faster, but the same basic concept (well, and without lasers…).

Enter the “solid state drive,” or “SSD.”  Unlike a regular hard drive, this one has no moving parts.  In fact, it works much more similarly to the SD card you put in your camera.  For this reason, these guys tend to be fast in comparison with a traditional drive.  However, the cost is also far higher when in a “price per gigabyte” paradigm.  The highest volume SSD I can find sits at 960 GB, and is running $3,150 right now.

In order to run Windows and an array of programs (comfortably), you need over 100 GB, and then a second drive to store your pictures, videos, music, documents, and so on.  Thus, when this 120 GB drive from Mushkin hit $100, I was ready to take the plunge.  $100 for 120 GB was my “benchmark” price for such a thing, when it would be worth it to spend the cash on a low-capacity device when I could get 1 TB in a traditional drive for the same money.

After some hiccups concerning the cable I was using, I finally got the thing installed this past Sunday, up and running with Windows 7 Ultimate, a variety of games and “useful” programs, and a formatted 160 GB traditional hard drive (my old one) to be used exclusively for media storage.  In running a Windows-based test on my various components, where the old hard drive was definitely limiting in my overall performance, now my drive is the fastest thing in there, and my processor is what’s lagging (though not my much).  The computer boots up and is ready to use in about 20 sec, which is far faster than the minutes it used to take.

Overall, I’m a believer.  Where people used to say “add some RAM to ‘pep up’ that old computer,” the SSD is, increasingly, what people are going to suggest.  For $100, you can improve your computer’s speed to a ridiculous degree, turning it into the speed demon it once was when you first bought it.