…a genius at life, of course!
I ran across this video of our good friend, Jean-Luc, singing and dancing… If you aren’t a Star Trek fan, you probably won’t find it all that amusing…but if you are, then it’s well worth the watch…
(For the record, this isn’t a new video or anything…just a good reminder…)
So, I’m getting a bit bored with my old WordPress theme, so I’m looking around for other options… This one is called Mandigo and seems to have plenty of options, including a 1024 px setting, rather than simply 800 px (i.e. it fills the screen now…). I have yet to figure out how to really streamline all the links to the right-hand side of the blog, however, so I’ll have to toy with that…
Look okay? Or is the old one better? This one is “widget-enabled,” which theoretically allows me to add some nifty plugins (like a plugin that will randomly rotate photos from my Picasa site…).
Anyway, we’ll see…maybe I’ll switch back…but for now, I’m giving it a try… I’m sure you all care tremendously… 😛
So, we had this conversation last week on the way to our annual lab float trip (which was lovely, by the way…), but I was wondering about the quality of certain decades of music… As in, personally, I’ve never cared for music from the 80s, but I really like music from the 90s. I can listen to the LAUNCHcast “90s Rock” station and consistently find great stuff from Live, Bush, Nirvana, Chili Peppers (you know, back when they didn’t suck…), Pearl Jam, and more…but if I listen to the “80s Rock” station, it’s all generally terrible.
My question, thus, is whether a). music in the 1980s was actually worse than music in the 1990s, or b). because I grew up in the 1990s, is my perception of 1990s music more favorable?
I kinda lean toward answer (a). myself, largely because it seems to me that people can listen to music from the 60s, 70s and 90s with little or no problem, but you have to have a “special taste” for music from the 80s… But then again, perhaps it’s just because I have a softer spot in my heart (yes, I have one, dammit…) for music of the 90s…
Of course, there are exceptions to these rules…there are plenty of bad songs from the 1990s and there are some decent songs from the 1980s… I’m just speaking on a broad basis here…
Thoughts?
So for those who didn’t hear my story of woe, I tried seeing “Transformers” on the 4th of July at the Des Peres Wehrenberg Theater. There were a few “projector issues” at the beginning (of course, after sitting through commercials and previews…), but the movie got started about 10 min late. Then, about 2 hrs into the 2.5 hr movie, it died. And by “died,” I mean that screwdrivers and wrenches were coming out in the projection booth. Needless to say, we were not pleased with this development, but were given passes to see it again at another time…
…so we saw it again last night, but this time at the Wehrenberg Galaxy theater, where they have digital projection and a “Mega Screen” (not as big as IMAX, but noticeably bigger). Now, this is the way to watch a special-effects ridden movie, lemme tell ya… It’s like the jump from 25″ standard-def and TV speakers to 50″ high-def with THX-certified surround…
Oh yeah, so the movie itself was quite good, even with having to see the first 2 hours twice. The story (simplified) is about bad-guy robots that are after information a guy contains, and then good-guy robots (nearly all of which come from General Motors vehicles…) are protecting him. There’s plenty of comedy (you know, when your car starts chasing you and helping you get dates…things like that…) and plenty of action, whic is to be expected. The story itself makes a general amount of sense, and translates relatively well from the 1980s television show to the big screen.
The special effects have been described as “the best ever” for a movie, and while I’m not sure if they’re the absolute best, they come damn close… The acting, on the other hand, I’m unsure about. The main character, Shia LaBeouf, was really good and makes me excited for “Indiana Jones 4,” where he’ll play Indy’s son. A few other bit part actors were alright, but then there were others that seemed to either “call in” their performance, or were just given crappy lines…including Jon Voight, Anthony Anderson, and John Turturro. It’s not like they were acting badly, but something seemed a bit “off” about their performances…amongst others…
Anyway, it was a great action movie with damned incredible special effects…to the point that, frequently, the Autobots looked very realistic. It was only in that last climactic fight scene where I really started noticing the CGI effects, when you’re getting really close in with the actors and the robots… Still looked good, but wasn’t perfect…
If you plan on seeing the movie at all, you need to see it in the theater… Otherwise, you can borrow the DVD from me when I buy it in a few months… 😛
We saw the new Michael Moore flick, “Sicko,” last night at the Chase Plaza Theater. A guy played an organ before the movie started and I could buy a beer at the concession stand…and after the matinee movies started, they brought out the full bar for mixed drinks… I think we’ll be going back there… 😛
The movie itself is a documentary about the health care “system” here in the United States, about corporate profits and buyoffs of government officials, about how people in the middle class that had insurance were denied claims, and about how socialized health care (i.e. Canada, France, England) isn’t the evil that the right-wing wants us to believe.
Personally, I thought the movie was really, really well done. The main criticism of the film, however, is that it’s “one-sided” and that the health care industry as a whole doesn’t have the opportunity to rebutt. In my opinion however, after seeing what was presented in the movie, I find it hard to believe that an argument against these claims even exists. One is that socialized medicine will mean longer waits and less choice over doctors. Moore goes to Canada and shoots that one down quickly (20 min to 1 hr waits at any hospital). One is that, due to socialized medicine, you get higher taxes. He goes to France and shows a couple that makes the equivalent of $100,000, pays their taxes, and still travels all over the world (i.e. Sri Lanka, of all places…), has a new plasma TV, leather couches, etc. Another criticism is that doctors don’t make as much in Canada or England as they do here. Yeah…they still drive Audis that sell for $50,000 here…
Also, the movie isn’t all about health care. For much of the movie, he discusses other socialized systems in goverment. For example, in France, if you have a job, you get 5 weeks off a year minimum. That’s full-time or part-time. It’s required. If you’re sick, you get to take time off…paid… 65% from the government, 35% from the business. A guy had cancer, took three months off and went to the south of France…and was paid the whole time. It’s just a different mentality over there, and they’re all about preventative care.
So yeah, it was good, and I think the arguments were well thought-out and thoroughly established…let alone the fact that it was a highly entertaining and funny movie, too. It was also pretty depressing. Without explaining completely, let me just say that Moore takes some sick people to Cuba…and they get better treatment…and cheaper drugs… The examples of what people have to go through here, and that living somewhere else (and not necessarily in poverty) gets you better health coverage, is simply sad.
Thus, I ask you…see if you can find some rebuttals to this movie (whether you agree with them or not), ’cause I’m rather curious what could possibly shoot down what I saw. Sure, I bet Moore did some picking and choosing as to the examples he showed, but obviously we aren’t getting the whole story from our government (i.e. crazy right-wing Republicans) or the media (i.e. FOX News)…
Edit: CNN ran a little blurb about the film bringing up “fudged” facts… For those that care, Moore got to respond to it to Wolf Blitzer right after it aired, and then posted a full retort on his website later. Moore’s response to Blitzer is somewhat entertaining in the beginning, but his response on his website includes full citations for his claims about the report CNN ran just before his interview. If you have concerns about Moore’s statistics, it’s worth a read.
Yeah, I know probably no one is left who looks at this, but I hate failure and am desperate….anyway, I’m trying to learn to crochet and am miserable at it. Anyone know of a good crochet-er in St. Louis who can teach me what I’m doing wrong?
Two videos brought to my attention, the first by Stu, the second by Kate…
A Japanese game show featuring “human Tetris”…
…and Will Ferrell having a conversation with his landlord…
First of all, I’ve only seen the original “Die Hard” and neither of the other sequels, but I went and saw the fourth installment, “Live Free or Die Hard” anyway… (note: that title, by the way, seems to make very little sense given the plot of the movie…)
The movie centers on a group of hackers that are trying their best to bring down the entire U.S. infrastructure, and take advantage of the confusion to get rich. The only thing that stands in their way? Bruce Willis. And, for a guy that may be 80 years old by now, he still kicks crazy ass… Justin Long (whom you know from the “Mac and PC” commercials) is also quite entertaining as Willis’ plucky young side-kick, and Timothy Olyphant (he’s been in a few movies, including the up-coming “Hitman“…) is the crazy bad guy… The acting was perfectly fine, but I was really only there to see Bruce kill people and blow stuff up…and, by golly gee whiz, he sure did… (note: Kevin Smith also has a nice cameo…glad to see that genius is keeping busy…)
I was also rather impressed about the effects, in general. The only thing that was obviously CGI was the F-35 they sent after Willis…which he subsequently destroyed… All the rest looked like it involved old-fashioned pyrotechnics and guns, which is always welcome in today’s more “modern” action films…
Overall, the movie is a big explosion fest, with an ample amount of comedy interspersed, to boot. If you’re a fan of the series, I’m sure you’ll love it…and if you have never watched the others, this one will still be more than entertaining enough for you… Don’t expect anything Oscar-worthy, but then again, I’d imagine most fans of the “Die Hard” series (or action movies, in general…) couldn’t care any less…
Go buy some popcorn and see it… Then go see “Sicko“… 😉
So, we went up to Wisconsin/Minnesota for a little vacation last week, largely because we needed to be in St. Paul, MN on Saturday for Adam Waudby’s wedding. Brooke and I left last Tuesday for Hannibal so we could leave Edie with Brooke’s parents (thanks!) and then continued up to Madeline Island, on Lake Superior, off the shore of Bayfield, WI…and it was a 12 hour drive…a lovely way to spend my 25th birthday, but whatever… We got up there and took a ferry to reach the island, arriving in the 7:00 pm hour or so… We camped at Big Bay State Park, about 7 mi from the ferry landing (big island!), which is nice and far from anything resembling a tourist trap. We made some awesome steaks that night (there’s a picture included at my Google Photos site) and were well-rested for the next day…
Thursday was spent largely exploring the island, walking on the “boardwalk” (as in, a walkway made of boards…clever name, eh?), and then kayaking out in the lake…where I got a lovely sunburn, despite the 70 F weather and partial cloudiness… It got rather cold that night (45 F or so), even though the high was supposed to be ~90 F with a low around 60 F. Moral of the story: never trust the forecast, ’cause if you’re going to northern Wisconsin, it’ll be cold anyway.
Friday we went to Minneapolis-St. Paul for the wedding rehearsal (another 5 hr drive) and a brief stop at the Mall of America. Saturday was spent at the wedding, of course (congrats, kids!), and then we went to Ikea and the Mall (again…) with Mom and Dad. We got a coffee table, a TV stand (of sorts), a wine rack, and a few other small items at Ikea (thankfully, all of which fit in the car with everything else we had…) and didn’t get too much at the Mall.
Now, briefly…the idea of this Mall… For those that haven’t been there, it’s huge. It’s kinda like St. Louis Mills mall, but has four stories (only 3 with stores) and an amusement park (which was pretty impressive). The real downside is the store selection though, I think. As in, I saw at least 3 Starbucks’, 3 Caribou Coffee shops, 2 Claire’s, a two-story Old Navy, and 3 Lids’ hat shops. Now. If you’re going to the mall, do you really need that much coffee? What can you find at one Claire’s that isn’t at the other one (in the same building)? I guess that I was a bit underwhelmed, ’cause while they had plenty of shopping opportunities, it was either the same store multiple times, or all clothing stores… I saw one Radio Shack, no Best Buy/Circuit City, nothing that really interested me (personally). Then again, Mom and Brooke had a good time… 😛
Anyway, we got back Sunday night around 7:00 pm, after picking up Edie in Hannibal. It was a good trip, overall, and we came back pretty well rested and ready to go for work Monday morning…for the most part…
I’ve got pictures of the vacation up, as well as general wedding pictures from the weddings we’ve attended thus far this summer. Check ’em out if you’re curious…
I know I need to get a “vacation post” up, likely later today, but I just had to point this out… Apparently, according to an article in PNAS (a decent science journal), as reported in National Geographic, giant penguins used to roam Peru. New fossils discovered show that one species lived around 42 million years ago and were 3 feet tall, about the size of a modern King Penguin…but the other kind was 5 feet tall and lived 36 million years ago… It also had a foot-long beak to spear fish; both species were more “warm-adapted” than their modern cousins.
w00t, giant penguins! Let the Linux community rejoice! 😉
