Antitrust (Hackers 2000)

by

First things first — anybody remember when winter in Alaska meant snow? Not that I’m really complaining, I figure this is just training for when I move to Seattle…but it’s sure wierd as all getouts.

I went out to see Hackers 2000…er…sorry, make that Antitrust tonight. Not a bad little flick…nothing that’s really going to tax your brain, but an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours. I do have to give them some props, though — this is one of the first movies since WarGames that I can think of that had a realistic computer user interface for the most part. Aside from a few dialog boxes that were pretty obviously mockups made for the sake of movie world clarity, the majority of the screens shown were using some variant of UNIX! I’m not sure which one — it’s pretty tough to tell from a command line, and most of the window managers out there have been ported to most *NIX flavors — but one little thing made me really wonder.

At one point in the movie Milo (the main character) is accessing a terminal and grabbing a bunch of video clips and stills, using a combination of GUI and CLI commmands. At one point, he calls up a program from the text prompt called “grabapp” — now, I know for certain that under Mac OS X, the screen grab utility is “Grab.app”, ported from the NEXT program “grab.app”. Made me take notice…could these be NEXT boxes? I highly doubt it, there could be any number of grab.app’s out there, or it could have just been put in to make it look semi-realistic to those of us geeky enough to watch the command line, but I thought it was at least a nice touch.

Anyway, a very entertaining, if predictable flick — catch a matinee sometime. I may pick it up when it comes out on DVD just to make a custom slipcase for it that actually says “Hackers 2000″….

Mom?!?!

by

Just picked up one new DVD to add to the collection today — George Lucas in Love. If you’ve never seen the film, it’s well worth it…it’s a 9-minute long short film exploring the truth behind the story of Star Wars. You can find it online at MediaTrip.com, but I liked it enough to get a good quality copy. Plus, it comes with three other short films, all parodies of popular movies…not bad for twelve bucks!

Bowling

by

Had a good night, tonight. Got picked up by my friend Airy, and we went out to La Mex for dinner (one of the few places left that you can get dinner and enjoy a cigarette, if you’re so inclined) and then headed out to Jewel Lake Bowl to meet Bill and Rich for midnight Neon Bowling. I got a 148 my first game (great, since my average right now is 108), and went steadily downhill from there. Not that much of a surprise, though, as we didn’t start until right around my normal bedtime! Afterwards we came back here, and Airy passed out for a bit while Bill and I talked…but, once it hit 4:30 in the morning, I figured it was time to get them home and get me to bed.

So after this quick site update, I’m off to bed. Gotta make it to work tomorrow….

Up and running

by

Okay, I just got things up and running again. As of right now, everything on my site should be working correctly — now off to bed, I’ve got to get some sleep tonight!

Downtime

by

Sorry about the recent downtime (the last couple days or so) — something went seriously glitchy on the machine, and I had to do a system repair on OS X, which nuked the web directory. Thankfully, I’m not a complete idiot, and had backed up the entire site before the repair, and so a quick copy back, and things seem to be up and running again, for the most part.

Unfortunately, the copying has changed read/write permissions on many of the files, and so not all of the interactive elements of the site — such as my messageboards — are working at the moment. I should have those fixed within the next day or two, but it’s a bit late tonight to go digging for the documentation. I’ll post an alert when things work again, of course.

Words of Wisdom

by

I normally nuke just about every piece of random e-mail I get (and I get a lot), but I got one today that I actually thought was worth sharing…however, rather than send it out to everyone on my e-mail address book (which, to be honest, I find incredibly annoying much of the time), I thought I’d just post it here. So, here ya go!

Read more

Babies are so darn cute

by

Guess I get one more post for the evening. Miranda had a beautiful little girl on Christmas Eve, and she just sent me a picture of the little munchkin! Unfortunately, the link to the baby pic didn’t stick around forever — but take my word for it, she’s a cutie!

High Fidelity Imposters Dream of Hallmark

by

I’d actually managed to go through a couple release days without anything catching my eye enough to spend money on — miracles never cease, eh? I’d thought about picking up Hollow Man, but I think I’ll leave that one firmly in the ‘renter’ category. The effects are great, and the first half of the movie is very promising…unfortunately, the second half blows. A lot. It has, however, prompted a very interesting discussion over on the Home Theater Forum, where I hang out from time to time.

After work today I had to go by Suncoast to figure out when I work this weekend, and discovered that I had a paycheck waiting for me. Rock on…but funny, I didn’t have it when I walked out. Instead, here’s what I ended up with:

High Fidelity: John Cusack‘s recent romantic comedy. A good friend of mine and I have had a vague theory for a while that John Cusack is assembling a loose series of films all revolving around the same character (so far, the only stumbling block we’ve found is that the character has different names in each of these films…still, logic has never stopped us before), and we think that High Fidelity just may be the most recent chapter. So far, we’ve got One Crazy Summer (high school), Better Off Dead (high school), Say Anything (high school graduation), Grosse Pointe Blank (10-year reunion), and now High Fidelity (life in the real world post-school).

The Impostors: I saw this one on a whim when it was in the theaters a while back, and walked out thinking that they just don’t make movies like this anymore. It’s a really silly little comedy, and the best word I can come up for it is delightful — which isn’t a word I apply to movies very much these days. Reminds me a lot of classic Marx Brothers type situation comedys…fluff, but thoroughly enjoyable fluff.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: I’ve been something of an amateur Shakespeare buff for a few years now (ever since Kenneth Branagh released Henry V to the theaters), and this is the latest addition to my so far woefully incomplete collection of Shakespearian adaptations. I’ve counted this among my favorites of Shakespeare’s comedies since I first saw it performed live (in an outdoor theater in Berlin, translated into German, and accompanied by a bevy of attractive young German ladies…ah, the memories…), and this is a beautiful production. Plus, with Kevin Kline, who I find to be an incredible actor, Stanley Tucci, who I’d just seen in The Imposters, and both Michelle Pfeiffer and Calista Flockheart, who are just fun to drool over…can’t go too wrong here!

In any case, that’s it for this batch…was just in a mood to get some slightly lighter fare after the oh-so-comedic batches of discs I’d picked up the last couple times.

Oh, I’d forgotten to mention this — my roommate got me a very cool Christmas present this year: The Hallmark TV Classics Collection, a collection of five made-for-television films. Included in the set are Alice in Wonderland, Cleopatra, Gulliver’s Travels, Merlin, and Noah’s Ark. Of these, I’ve only ever seen half of Merlin, and hadn’t even heard about Noah’s Ark, so I’m really looking forward to diving into this set. So…that’s it for tonight….

I am Jack’s sense of apathy.

by

…and you open the door and you step inside; we’re inside our hearts. Now imagine your pain as a white ball of healing light. That’s right — your pain, the pain itself, is a white ball of healing light.

I don’t think so.

This is your life. Good to the last drop. Doesn’t get any better than this.

This is your life — and it’s ending one minute at a time.

This isn’t a seminar, and this isn’t a weekend retreat. Where you are now, you can’t even imagine what the bottom will be like. Only after disaster can we be resurrected. It’s only after you’ve lost everything that you’re free to do anything. Nothing is static; everything is evolving. Everything is falling apart.

This is your life. Doesn’t get any better than this. This is your life — and it’s ending one minute at a time.

You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake! You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We are all part of the same compost heap. We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

You are not your bank account. You are not the clothes you wear. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not your bowel cancer. You are not your grande latte. You are not the car you drive. You are not your fucking khakis!

You have to give up. You have to realize that someday you will die. Until you know that, you are useless.

I say, let me never be complete. I say, may I never be content. I say, deliver me from swedish furniture. I say, deliver me from clever art. I say, deliver me from clear skin and perfect teeth. I say, you have to give up. I say, evolve — and let the chips fall where they may.

This is your life. Doesn’t get any better than this. This is your life — and it’s ending one minute at a time.

You have to give up.

I want you to hit me as hard as you can!

Welcome to Fight Club. If this is your first night, you have to fight.

— Fight Club