Author: andy

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Year One: Complete

I took my last exam of the year this morning…was pretty obnoxious and relatively hard to tell how we all did. It certainly didn’t start out well, for any of us…So, this test was in my Special Topics class, where we read papers and discuss them and their importance. Last Thursday, we were told we likely weren’t going to have this test. We come in the following Monday to find out that we are having it now, much to our dismay… Anyway, the test was this morning…and it was an oral exam…i.e. the professor points to us, has us walk up to the board, and answer the question(s)… That part sucked royally, but it sucked for most everyone, so it’s not like any one person did that much worse than everyone else.

Regardless, that was it. One year of graduate school down. Three and a half to go. 😛 I’m very much looking forward to getting some research work done over the summer, without having classes to worry about…and I’m looking forward to only having pharmacology/physiology classes to take next semester, rather than having to learn biochemistry, immunology, metabolism, etc. anymore…

I’m also looking forward to, in the short term, doing mostly nothing for a weekend. Next weekend, B and I are going to Columbia for Susan’s wedding (congrats!) and then we’re going back over Memorial Day because Brooke’s aunt is having people over…so yeah, more busy weekends on the way… Hopefully I can concentrate on watching some movies this weekend that I’ve been meaning to…

Either way, classes are done. Now I’m a “Second Year.” w00t!

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Review: Mission: Impossible III

…went and saw “M:I 3” yesterday, and I must say, it certainly blew the other two out of the water…? While the first one was pretty good (minus the fact that they made Jim Phelps the bad guy…), the second one was a disappointment…turning Ethan Hunt into more of a super-hero/Bond character rather than an intelligent spy from the IMF.

The third installment returns to something more resembling the original formula, where you have some impossible missions thrown in and a team to crack them (in the first movie, the whole team died…in the second, he didn’t have much of a “team”…).? They also add a more personal touch to Hunt’s life, allowing the viewer to connect more with the character, effectively adding more depth and purpose to his being.

The effects were excellent and the direction, carried out by J.J. Abrams, leaves me looking forward to the next Star Trek movie that much more…? While the story was pretty simple (discover bad guy, catch bad guy, lose bad guy, bad guy gets your girl, save girl, etc.), the nice “touches” throughout the movie certainly made it interesting and worth watching.? Spend the cash…it’s worth seeing in theaters…

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So, if you’re performing…

…just got back from a concert at The Pageant… Ludo was headlining, and Quietdrive and Princeton were opening (and they all did pretty well, for the record…good concert, overall)…but there was this other guy named Adam Richman who started the whole thing. One guy and his guitar. Sounded so emo it hurt… Regardless, he prefaced one song with a comment from someone reviewing his debut album online:

“It sounds like the soundtrack to an ass-raping.”

Seriously, if someone wrote that about your album…would you tell the audience that? I guess it set the tone for the rest of the songs he performed…

Eeeeesh…

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So, if you're performing…

…just got back from a concert at The Pageant… Ludo was headlining, and Quietdrive and Princeton were opening (and they all did pretty well, for the record…good concert, overall)…but there was this other guy named Adam Richman who started the whole thing. One guy and his guitar. Sounded so emo it hurt… Regardless, he prefaced one song with a comment from someone reviewing his debut album online:

“It sounds like the soundtrack to an ass-raping.”

Seriously, if someone wrote that about your album…would you tell the audience that? I guess it set the tone for the rest of the songs he performed…

Eeeeesh…

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Indeed…

“The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

I’ve got a test on Monday…seeing “M:I:3” on Monday or Tuesday night, I think… It’s 126 min long…hopefully my bladder can take it…

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…so…summer’s gonna rock…

“Superman Returns”…June 30, 2006… Here’s the trailer… The new one came out today, so if you haven’t seen it, you should watch it… Kevin Spacey rules, yo…and, at least according to the trailer, they kept the Christopher Reeve-style music… So, essentially, my summer begins with “X3” on May 26th and ends June 30th…

…yeah…can’t get much better than this…until next year, when “Spider-man 3” comes out, that is… 😉

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…so…summer's gonna rock…

“Superman Returns”…June 30, 2006… Here’s the trailer… The new one came out today, so if you haven’t seen it, you should watch it… Kevin Spacey rules, yo…and, at least according to the trailer, they kept the Christopher Reeve-style music… So, essentially, my summer begins with “X3” on May 26th and ends June 30th…

…yeah…can’t get much better than this…until next year, when “Spider-man 3” comes out, that is… 😉

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Review: Thank You For Smoking

So, Brooke and I saw “Thank You For Smoking” last night for $1 each (cheap tix night…w00t!) and, believe you me, it was worth full admission price…

The movie was about Nick Naylor, a lobbyist for “big tobacco” who is constantly battling groups from all sides, whether it be cancer victims, congress, or his family.? Honestly, throughout the movie, it’s rather difficult to see who the filmmakers are really making fun of: tobacco companies, congress, hollywood, journalists…even bad parents…

Regardless, the movie was hilarious…and one of the few I’d consider to be really, really “smart”…meaning that it was thought-provoking on many levels, and not on the levels you’d expect.? In the end, it was a great movie…I may even get the DVD when it comes out…? If you can, you should go see it…

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Review: “Grizzly Man” and “Hotel Rwanda”

So, DISHnetwork has been kind enough to give us free movie weekends on Showtime and Starz! recently, therefore our DVR has been busy recording stuff.? We caught up with a few movies from awhile back yesterday:

Grizzly Man was about Timothy Treadwell, a self-proclaimed “bear savior” who spent 13 summers in Alaska “protecting” the bears there.? He took over 100 hours of video footage, some of which is in this 3 hour documentary.? The rest of the movie involves interviews with Timothy’s friends and relatives.? You see, Timothy was mauled by a bear up in Alaska…and, honestly, watching himself on the recordings just shows how nuts he really was…and I say “nuts” in the “clinically insane” sort of way.?? I mean, he had no scientific background…he just went up there and spent the summer living with bears…with no knowledge of their lives and how they’re wild animals…? While you have to admire his dedication to the cause, you also have to realize that he treated grizzly bears like people…he would follow them around and talk to them and pet them…and he would also talk to foxes and tell them how much he loves them.? Each animal got a different name.? This guy was crazy.? Overall, it was a pretty good movie, but started to feel pretty long toward the end…

Hotel Rwanda, on the other hand, was a really good movie. ? It centers on the true story of a man in Rwanda that took in refugees during the murder of about 1,000,000 Tutsi people by the Hutu (well, both sides had heavy losses).? As Wikipedia tells us, the really sad thing is how little anyone did to intervene.? There are many scenes where the UN has “peacekeepers” down there, yet they can’t fire and can’t protect anyone…? Don Cheadle’s character saved over 1,200 people by putting them in the hotel he manages, keeping their presence a secret for a long time, then helping to get them out of the country.? The only downside is that the movie gets kinda confusing, not knowing which side is who and what exactly is going on…? I recommend looking up a little info on the Rwandan genocide before watching, just so you have a little basis of what’s going on…? Supposedly, the movie is pretty accurate, from a historical point of view…which is that much more depressing…

So yeah, a few movies to check out…w00t to lazy Saturdays…