It's been awhile since I've wrote a movie review, despite the fact that I've seen my fair share of them this summer. I don't know how effective I will be at reviewing them this long after but we will give it a shot. For the purposes of this post I will be using a 1-5 rating scale. A rating of 1 implies a complete crapfest/waste of time and 5 means that if you haven't seen this movie, you probably are a loser and we aren't friends anymore.
Transformers: This movie kicked some serious ass. I had my slight reservations about its quality going in, and even maybe hurt my chances by "accidentally" reading some plot descriptions while looking up pictures of the kickass robots before the movie. Regardless I was enthralled watching the movie. The special effects were great, wonderful pacing, good sporadic humor throughout. Really it was an all around great movie, and I would love to see it again like right this fucking second. Can't wait for the supposedly greenlit sequels.
Rating = 5
Straight Men Marry: AKA I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
I saw this one up in Westminster in a crappy yet packed theater, with crappy popcorn and only a somewhat reasonable sized beverage, sitting almost all the way in the back. There was also a man sitting next to me that practically orgasmed every time Jessica Biel was onscreen even telling his date at one point that he so wanted to bang her. I truly hope that if this man goes to see the movie coming up where she bares all that the rest of the people in the theater bring umbrellas. I don't think, however, that seeing it someplace else would have made anything better. I have mixed feelings on Adam Sandler, he has a good number of movies I have found funny, and then a good number that I felt were not. I'm putting this one into the latter category. There were some good parts, the Asian minister who oversaw the wedding was funny and a couple other good bits. But overall the acting felt forced and there weren't nearly enough laughs to make the movie. I honestly think the hardest I laughed was when Dan Akroyd slid down a fireman's pole (no homo).
Rating = 2
Simpsons Teh Movie: Here's another I went into hoping for the best but worried it could be a letdown. I couldn't have been further from the truth. This movie wasn't just hilarious, it was groin grabbingly hilarious. There wasn't enough interaction with the plethora of side characters from the show as they mostly followed the simpsons trials and tribulations, but that didn't take much away from the film. I laughed throughout this movie and I'm sure there are plenty of hidden jokes that I missed. My only real gripe with the movie was they didn't have Kang in it, and while the credits SAID Kodos was in it, I have no recollection of seeing said character.
Rating = 5
Live Free or Die Hard: While not as good as the original Die Hard or even the Second, I felt this movie lived up to the franchise pretty well. It was an entertaining flick and as plots go it could be worse. Bruce Willis still puts on a believable tough guy performance despite his impending Alzheimer's. Even the gay Mac guy had a good showing, though I wish he had got the crap kicked out of him more. I had some qualms with the believability of some of the action in this film. I try and ignore these things because I know "It's a moooovieeee", but when a man takes out a helicopter with a car and jumps onto or off of a jet I can't help but think No WAY. Odd that I have no trouble believing in cars that turn into robots eh?
Rating = 3.5
Bridge to Terabithia: I don't know if this counts as a summer movie, but I watched it on rental during the summer so you'll sit there and like it! I had never read the book and the only thing I knew about it was that the girl was sposed to die, though someone told me that disney went crazy and changed that for the movie. I was expecting a bit more fantasy to this movie, more like Narnia, but instead the whole fantasy element was just kid's imagination. Still it was a somewhat emotional tale and the girl did indeed die. As far as children actors go these kids weren't horrible and neither was the movie, but thats about all the good I have to say about it.
Rating = 1.5
Knocked Up: This came out in June so I'm including it. I thought this movie was really funny. The general plot is of course quite simple. Girl makes mistake and hooks up with loser, some wackiness ensues preventing the use of a condom and well, I don't have to explain the birds and the bees do I? There's plenty of bickering and fighting and getting to know each other and care for each other between the two expecting parents. But throughout all that there was tons of funny material. I enjoyed myself as did my lady. Wasn't the best comedy of the year, and it wasn't 40 Year Old Virgin either, but it was a good one.
Rating = 3.5
There's still a couple summer movies I didn't see that I wanted to. Ratatouille for one, The new bourne for another. I would like to try and see Stardust and might even try and check out the Lost Legion.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
I Try So Hard, So Very Very Hard
Okay that's a damn lie, I'm a complete slacker. So I come back to post again. A certain comment leaver requested a better understanding of the guinea pig playpen in the visual form, so I'd like to take care of that briefly. Here's a picture of the whole thing, and then two slightly closer views of either size. I just cleaned it and did some slight redecorating, so huzzah!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch. My home computers hard drive failed a week and a half ago. I went out and bought a 160gb drive and slowly began the process of getting a fully working fully enjoyable computer back. I was hit with a snag in that my buddy Jason has my copy of XP Professional, so I had to go old-school with Home edition. I hope if I can get the cd from him I might be able to do an upgrade without much hassle. Of course it can be pretty tricky to get cds back from Jason, he's had about 80 of my techno cds on a spindle at his crib for like a year. I have made a lot of progress in my computer fixitude but I've still got a long ways to go, if anyone has any hot torrents you think would help, send em my way.
Another huge inconvenience was that the whole thing kinda nixed my Ipod/itunes connectivity. I tried using a program to offload my Ipod into a new itunes library, and ran into tons of snags ranging from windows updater rebooting my comp during an offload, hanging programs, supposed disk errors. I eventually got everything to the comp and into Itunes, however unfortunately when trying to format the Ipod and sync with Itunes it complains about being unable to locate basically every file that wasn't purchased in Itunes store or audible.com So I have another long task of ripping music to my comp ahead of me, and I'll definitely need to get those cd's from Jason *Shakes Fist*
Meanwhile, back at the ranch. My home computers hard drive failed a week and a half ago. I went out and bought a 160gb drive and slowly began the process of getting a fully working fully enjoyable computer back. I was hit with a snag in that my buddy Jason has my copy of XP Professional, so I had to go old-school with Home edition. I hope if I can get the cd from him I might be able to do an upgrade without much hassle. Of course it can be pretty tricky to get cds back from Jason, he's had about 80 of my techno cds on a spindle at his crib for like a year. I have made a lot of progress in my computer fixitude but I've still got a long ways to go, if anyone has any hot torrents you think would help, send em my way.
Another huge inconvenience was that the whole thing kinda nixed my Ipod/itunes connectivity. I tried using a program to offload my Ipod into a new itunes library, and ran into tons of snags ranging from windows updater rebooting my comp during an offload, hanging programs, supposed disk errors. I eventually got everything to the comp and into Itunes, however unfortunately when trying to format the Ipod and sync with Itunes it complains about being unable to locate basically every file that wasn't purchased in Itunes store or audible.com So I have another long task of ripping music to my comp ahead of me, and I'll definitely need to get those cd's from Jason *Shakes Fist*
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Fuh-ball!
I never really cared about football when I was a little boy...yes I was little once. My interests laid in other sports I guess. I played baseball and a little basketball, perhaps some badminton or even some cheap street hockey with a broken hood ornament. Not that I give a damn about basketball or hockey. My dad was a football fan and he'd watch the redskins games and superbowls and whatnot. I took notice of it but didn't really get interested.
I went to a game in high school and though my team sucked I still had fun watching. So I started going to a couple more games, and watching the NFL with my Dad on occasion and I quickly came to love the sport even more than I did baseball. We occasionally went to some games. Saw a Navy game once or twice, a couple skins preseason or regular season games. We generally try and go to a Skins game every year.
I don't love the Redskins like my dad does. I like the Redskins tho. I like to see them do well, which unfortunately recently is rare. I root for them generally speaking unless there's a severe conflict of interest involved. During those cases I try avoid my Dad. So since I didn't love the Redskins I had to find a team I would love. A team I could support and cheer for like my life depended on it.
I'm not truly sure if there is an exact reason I jumped on the Colts bandwagon. It was around 97 or so. My grandmother was from Indy, which I used as an excuse for awhile, but not with much conviction. I do kinda like the jerseys, or at least when they aren't just wearing white. I knew some of the history of the team, and I loved that Baltimore hated them. Not that I truly hate Baltimore, but its fun to see them angry. It might have been that I saw them in a playoff run that although they didn't go all the way, they sure showed some heart.
So I don't know precisely why I am a huge Colts fan, but I do know that they are currently the World Champion Indianapolis Colts, and that pretty much kicks ass. I don't know if they can repeat, they've had some pretty tricky hurdles thrown their way in the offseason. I'm not giving up hope though, I've got faith they can overcome those odds and triumph once again.
GO COLTS!
I went to a game in high school and though my team sucked I still had fun watching. So I started going to a couple more games, and watching the NFL with my Dad on occasion and I quickly came to love the sport even more than I did baseball. We occasionally went to some games. Saw a Navy game once or twice, a couple skins preseason or regular season games. We generally try and go to a Skins game every year.
I don't love the Redskins like my dad does. I like the Redskins tho. I like to see them do well, which unfortunately recently is rare. I root for them generally speaking unless there's a severe conflict of interest involved. During those cases I try avoid my Dad. So since I didn't love the Redskins I had to find a team I would love. A team I could support and cheer for like my life depended on it.
I'm not truly sure if there is an exact reason I jumped on the Colts bandwagon. It was around 97 or so. My grandmother was from Indy, which I used as an excuse for awhile, but not with much conviction. I do kinda like the jerseys, or at least when they aren't just wearing white. I knew some of the history of the team, and I loved that Baltimore hated them. Not that I truly hate Baltimore, but its fun to see them angry. It might have been that I saw them in a playoff run that although they didn't go all the way, they sure showed some heart.
So I don't know precisely why I am a huge Colts fan, but I do know that they are currently the World Champion Indianapolis Colts, and that pretty much kicks ass. I don't know if they can repeat, they've had some pretty tricky hurdles thrown their way in the offseason. I'm not giving up hope though, I've got faith they can overcome those odds and triumph once again.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
The Cage Of Non Doom!
Really late guinea pig update!!!!
I did indeed get around to creating a little piggy nirvana for the guys, actually quite some time ago. I looked up a site online that had suggestions/directions on how to do this and didn't seem too tricky to manage. Basically you get some organizational grid things, they're the sort that have corner connectors and you snap them together to make cubes or what not. Instead of cubes you just build a rectangular enclosure with those and then have to make a base to hold bedding materials.
That part was slightly more tricky. The material recommended is called corrugated plastic or coroplast. Essentially this is plastic cardboard and is used quite frequently in the sign making business. Unfortunately the first place I tried to acquire this material tried to steal my dollar signs, quoting me a price at least 5 times what I was expecting it would cost. I think it's possible they just misunderstood what I wanted, in that I just need a sheet of the plastic and not a sign made, but I had made that pretty clear I thought some I label them douchebags.
I was able to acquire the sheet from an alternate vendor for a little over 20 bucks. I had to steal my moms minivan to transport it home and that night began the long arduous and painful task of measuring and cutting and scoring and bending and folding until I formed what equates to an upside down plastic cardboard box top. I then slid that down into the rectangular cage and that was basically it.
I didn't exactly stop there tho. I wasn't satisfied with just making a bigger house for the fellas, I wanted to make them an awesomer living space. I made them a small second level sort of L shaped in one corner, they have a food and water spot on both levels. I bought them some hiding places, a small hutch for upstairs and some little tunnels they like to run through and gnaw on. I bought them a hammock which I was worried would lay unused but I've seen them both hop up and just chill in there. I even bought them a lounge chair.
I've also upgraded their diet, while i still give them plenty of hay and food pellets, I quite regularly hook them up with some dill and parsley. They LOVE that stuff, if they hear me with the bag or smell the stuff they start squeaking all excitedly, good times.
Long story short...too late! I spoil the hell out of my guinea pigs. This really shouldn't surprise me, because I always tried to spoil our dogs too. I don't see why my animals shouldn't have as awesome a life as they can.
I did indeed get around to creating a little piggy nirvana for the guys, actually quite some time ago. I looked up a site online that had suggestions/directions on how to do this and didn't seem too tricky to manage. Basically you get some organizational grid things, they're the sort that have corner connectors and you snap them together to make cubes or what not. Instead of cubes you just build a rectangular enclosure with those and then have to make a base to hold bedding materials.
That part was slightly more tricky. The material recommended is called corrugated plastic or coroplast. Essentially this is plastic cardboard and is used quite frequently in the sign making business. Unfortunately the first place I tried to acquire this material tried to steal my dollar signs, quoting me a price at least 5 times what I was expecting it would cost. I think it's possible they just misunderstood what I wanted, in that I just need a sheet of the plastic and not a sign made, but I had made that pretty clear I thought some I label them douchebags.
I was able to acquire the sheet from an alternate vendor for a little over 20 bucks. I had to steal my moms minivan to transport it home and that night began the long arduous and painful task of measuring and cutting and scoring and bending and folding until I formed what equates to an upside down plastic cardboard box top. I then slid that down into the rectangular cage and that was basically it.
I didn't exactly stop there tho. I wasn't satisfied with just making a bigger house for the fellas, I wanted to make them an awesomer living space. I made them a small second level sort of L shaped in one corner, they have a food and water spot on both levels. I bought them some hiding places, a small hutch for upstairs and some little tunnels they like to run through and gnaw on. I bought them a hammock which I was worried would lay unused but I've seen them both hop up and just chill in there. I even bought them a lounge chair.
I've also upgraded their diet, while i still give them plenty of hay and food pellets, I quite regularly hook them up with some dill and parsley. They LOVE that stuff, if they hear me with the bag or smell the stuff they start squeaking all excitedly, good times.
Long story short...too late! I spoil the hell out of my guinea pigs. This really shouldn't surprise me, because I always tried to spoil our dogs too. I don't see why my animals shouldn't have as awesome a life as they can.
A Blog Resurrected
So I suck. Seriously it's not news. I'm a slacker and lazy bum with no real ambition. It's cool though because it works for me. I haven't posted in awhile not for lack of substance however, and should my return to the blog world last longer than this posting we might have plenty to talk about.
So the summer started and it's been pretty good to me. There's been an action packed summer movie season, saw a lot of really good movies in the past 2 months. I've been going swimming a lot more recently, which is great. I've always loved swimming, ever since I was a kid and we had a membership to a relatively close pool. I kinda got out of swimming tho for a number of reasons. Lack of a affordable accessible pool was one of them, along with growing up and getting fat and being uncomfortable with my shirt off. Also while swimming is one of the very few forms of exercise I can tolerate, it's only really fun to go to a pool with people, and I guess I didn't have people to go with. So I've been really pleased with being able to do that this year with Becky. Lots of fun in pools can be had for sure.
In other brief summer news I turned 27 a little while ago. It's not so bad I guess, I don't feel old at least. Just another year gone by and another thousand hair follicles lost. My birthday extravaganza comprised of hanging out with my three friends at a pool hall and getting a little tipsy. It was good times and I certainly can't complain about having gotten the night off, but it woulda been nice to spend it with my girl as well.
Thus ends my re-inaugural post, stay tuned for updates.
So the summer started and it's been pretty good to me. There's been an action packed summer movie season, saw a lot of really good movies in the past 2 months. I've been going swimming a lot more recently, which is great. I've always loved swimming, ever since I was a kid and we had a membership to a relatively close pool. I kinda got out of swimming tho for a number of reasons. Lack of a affordable accessible pool was one of them, along with growing up and getting fat and being uncomfortable with my shirt off. Also while swimming is one of the very few forms of exercise I can tolerate, it's only really fun to go to a pool with people, and I guess I didn't have people to go with. So I've been really pleased with being able to do that this year with Becky. Lots of fun in pools can be had for sure.
In other brief summer news I turned 27 a little while ago. It's not so bad I guess, I don't feel old at least. Just another year gone by and another thousand hair follicles lost. My birthday extravaganza comprised of hanging out with my three friends at a pool hall and getting a little tipsy. It was good times and I certainly can't complain about having gotten the night off, but it woulda been nice to spend it with my girl as well.
Thus ends my re-inaugural post, stay tuned for updates.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Fuzzy Bundles Of Joy
I don't really my first pet experiences. I think we probably had some sort of dogs that I don't remember from when I was quite young. I've seen pictures of dogs in my moms scrapbooks, but don't recall names or memories of them. The first one I remember was a little boy cocker spaniel named Copper. I never considered him mine tho, he was the family dog really. But then a couple years down the line we got another cocker spaniel and named her Sugar. I don't think she was specifically meant to be mine, but that seemed to be the way it worked out. I loved her and she back and for a long time she spent practically every night in my room. She even cared enough to never make a mess in there. I make messes in there all the time, but not the way she might.
After they both passed on we went without for awhile until picking up a beautiful Samoyed named Slick from my dad's sister. I may have had other pets throughout the years, a fish or two perhaps, but never anything pet-able that I recall other than the three dogs. Slick eventually passed on and since my parents were planning to start remodeling the house for eventual resale it was decided there were to be no more dogs. This of course left me saddened to some extent. I didn't think about it all the time of course but on occasion I would reminisce about the old days of having a nice pet to come home and say Hi to.
So a couple weeks ago my girlfriend came into some extra cash and we went to a Pet Store to pick out a fish for a friend of hers. We were wandering around and saw an absolutely adorable little guinea pig, and she persuaded me into getting him. She actually bought him for me and a nice little edible house for him, while I picked out a big cage/starter kit. We brought him back to his new home and he seemed to fit in nicely. He's a bit shy at times but once you have him nice and steady on your lap or chest or something he is awful friendly and cuddly. We named him Snuggles.
Since having a guinea pig was a new experience for me, I did a lot of reading on the subject and a common theme throughout was that they are very social. Since we had a somewhat large cage I decided to buy one for Becky to keep at my place. After positively confirming Snuggles' gender and searching a couple local stores we found another guinea pig that could compete in adorability. Becky loved him and we walked out delighted. After some thought she ended up on the name Patches.
They seem to get along great, there was no real fighting when they first met. Sometimes they might try and shoo the other away from hay they are eating, but I've also seen one peacefully grab a piece of hay from the others mouth. They fucking love eating hay, tho they love eating carrots, lettuce, parsley, apples, bananas and who knows what else. They seem very happy, they run around and chirp and wurble and are tremendously entertaining to watch at play. I want to build them a really big cage/playhouse so they can just goof off and exercise whenever they want.
I still miss my dogs, it was nice to have a pet that waited and greeted me when I got home. A pet that didn't shy away from me a lot, and that I didn't have to pick up to let play. But I dare anyone to tell me that these two guinea pigs aren't cute as fucking hell.
After they both passed on we went without for awhile until picking up a beautiful Samoyed named Slick from my dad's sister. I may have had other pets throughout the years, a fish or two perhaps, but never anything pet-able that I recall other than the three dogs. Slick eventually passed on and since my parents were planning to start remodeling the house for eventual resale it was decided there were to be no more dogs. This of course left me saddened to some extent. I didn't think about it all the time of course but on occasion I would reminisce about the old days of having a nice pet to come home and say Hi to.
So a couple weeks ago my girlfriend came into some extra cash and we went to a Pet Store to pick out a fish for a friend of hers. We were wandering around and saw an absolutely adorable little guinea pig, and she persuaded me into getting him. She actually bought him for me and a nice little edible house for him, while I picked out a big cage/starter kit. We brought him back to his new home and he seemed to fit in nicely. He's a bit shy at times but once you have him nice and steady on your lap or chest or something he is awful friendly and cuddly. We named him Snuggles.
Since having a guinea pig was a new experience for me, I did a lot of reading on the subject and a common theme throughout was that they are very social. Since we had a somewhat large cage I decided to buy one for Becky to keep at my place. After positively confirming Snuggles' gender and searching a couple local stores we found another guinea pig that could compete in adorability. Becky loved him and we walked out delighted. After some thought she ended up on the name Patches.
They seem to get along great, there was no real fighting when they first met. Sometimes they might try and shoo the other away from hay they are eating, but I've also seen one peacefully grab a piece of hay from the others mouth. They fucking love eating hay, tho they love eating carrots, lettuce, parsley, apples, bananas and who knows what else. They seem very happy, they run around and chirp and wurble and are tremendously entertaining to watch at play. I want to build them a really big cage/playhouse so they can just goof off and exercise whenever they want.
I still miss my dogs, it was nice to have a pet that waited and greeted me when I got home. A pet that didn't shy away from me a lot, and that I didn't have to pick up to let play. But I dare anyone to tell me that these two guinea pigs aren't cute as fucking hell.
Friday, June 1, 2007
What You Play?
Somewhere in blogland a theme was suggested. A theme of I had no problem addressing. What am I playing this week? Two things and nothing new.
I am still plugging along in the World of Warcraft. Slowly and steadily my hoard of gold rises and hopefully soon I can go broke quenching my need for speed. The thrill of flying faster than a speeding bullet pulls at me quite incessantly. I got a lot of time in these past two days for various reasons and have made good progress, but the game still feels quite lonely. I still don't think i'll quit completely, it's only 13 bucks a month or so and it's nice to have it there waiting for me if I want it.
I have also been getting in some good gaming time on my PSP. I know a lot of people knock it, but I've never understood why. It has fun games, you can play it in the bathroom and you can watch porn on it. Whats the beef? At any rate recently I found my copy of Burnout Legends and loaded it up to fool around. I hadn't completely finished the game, I still had one crash event I needed to get a gold on, and a couple road rage and race events. Some of those road rage ones were really tough. It's quite hard to believe that "I" would have a problem with the road rage ones, but when you need to take out 8 cars per minute it's not easy.
I finally got all those done, only to realize this only technically takes me down to 89% complete with the game. Apparently I still need to do a couple signature takedowns, and several trophies. Some of these are easy such as get 2000 total takedowns or get 2 bus takedowns in a race. Both will come with time, right now I'm focusing on get 40 takedowns in a single race. I don't know why I care so much, it isn't as if I get a nice Gamer Score like on Xbox live for all my friends to see. I just like having a goal sometimes I guess.
In other news JaxJaggyWires got a new horse and buggy, and we demand a blog about it.
I am still plugging along in the World of Warcraft. Slowly and steadily my hoard of gold rises and hopefully soon I can go broke quenching my need for speed. The thrill of flying faster than a speeding bullet pulls at me quite incessantly. I got a lot of time in these past two days for various reasons and have made good progress, but the game still feels quite lonely. I still don't think i'll quit completely, it's only 13 bucks a month or so and it's nice to have it there waiting for me if I want it.
I have also been getting in some good gaming time on my PSP. I know a lot of people knock it, but I've never understood why. It has fun games, you can play it in the bathroom and you can watch porn on it. Whats the beef? At any rate recently I found my copy of Burnout Legends and loaded it up to fool around. I hadn't completely finished the game, I still had one crash event I needed to get a gold on, and a couple road rage and race events. Some of those road rage ones were really tough. It's quite hard to believe that "I" would have a problem with the road rage ones, but when you need to take out 8 cars per minute it's not easy.
I finally got all those done, only to realize this only technically takes me down to 89% complete with the game. Apparently I still need to do a couple signature takedowns, and several trophies. Some of these are easy such as get 2000 total takedowns or get 2 bus takedowns in a race. Both will come with time, right now I'm focusing on get 40 takedowns in a single race. I don't know why I care so much, it isn't as if I get a nice Gamer Score like on Xbox live for all my friends to see. I just like having a goal sometimes I guess.
In other news JaxJaggyWires got a new horse and buggy, and we demand a blog about it.
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