Thursday, February 22, 2007

Question of the day:

Is attempting to help out a friend at the expense of your own comfort selfless or stupid?

Saturday, February 17, 2007

I've disappointed the world, there will be no long winded list driven ramblings tonight. Instead I will be watching Little Miss Sunshine. Also a quick note to myself, it may seem like it at the time but staying up until 6:00 am watching Goodfellas is only a partially good idea.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Yep I'm back, as promised I am going to attempt to finish off this list if only to keep myself from going insane with regret. I may be a bit brief or in fact cryptic with some of my writings here, especially about the movies. Trust me I have my reasons. Actually the main reason I may be brief with some of them is that it has been a while since I have sat down and watched them(Hey there are only so many hours in the day and I still have a lot of 24 to catch up on!). So here we go, on with the show...

Movies
Pretty Poison
You know what I have realized recently? Back in the 60's and 70's they made some pretty damn twisted movies, twisted in that way that feels so very good. What we have here is a classic tale. Mentally unstable boy meets mentally unstable girl. Mentally unstable boy tells Mentally unstable girl that he is a secret agent. Mentally unstable girl goes along with the story becoming his Mentally unstable partner. After that it is a combination of murder, sex, uneasiness and well a little more murder a with a possible dash of deciet.

Oh did I mention that Mentally unstable boy is played by Anthony Perkins, and Mentally unstable girl is played by Tuesday Weld? IMDB says that Perkins performance in this movie combined with portrayal of Norman Bates in Psycho got him typecast for the rest of his career. Well to be honest it very well may have, he certainly was able to tap into something to bring out a real feeling of mental illness. Tuesday Weld was no slouch in the convincingly disturbed department either. I haven't seen a lot of her other work(yet, but I have a few choice films on my rental queue) so I can't really make a judgment of he performance based off of her other work but she definitely set a bar here, even if she herself doesn't agree.


Clerks 2
Hmm... the name of my blog is Askewed Views. The name of Kevin Smith's production company is ViewAskew. I wonder what my feelings towards Clerks 2 is going to be.... geez I hope I give it a good review, otherwise I'll have to find someone else to blatantly ripoff my web address from. Oops I mean the similarity is an homage to the original, not a ripoff!(please don't sue me, I have nothing, nothing but this website and a lifetime supply of mental scars).

My bias may keep me from being totally objective about this movie besides if you have watched and enjoyed any of Kevin Smith's previous flicks you probably have already checked this one out. On the other hand if you haven't seen any of Smith's flicks yet well; A) where exactly is the rock you are living under these days? and B) Don't start with this one. That shouldn't be a newsflash to you though the giant “II” on the poster should have tipped you off that there is at least one other movie you should see first. For those of you “rock people” I would suggest you not stop at Clerks and Clerks II, if you enjoy them don't forget to watch all of the Smith flicks(yes that even includes Jersey Girl

Slither
Small town, check. Meteor carrying parasitic alien, check. Kickass/smartass reluctant hero, check. Totally insane(in an awesome way) writer/director, check.

Seriously what isn't to like about Slither? Even the commentary on the DVD is great, but really with Nathan Fillion you are always assured an entertaining commentary experience. (see how I was able to give a really really brief note on my feelings about the movie while still finding a way to sneak in a little ass kissery towards the Captain, that was damn impressive.)

Lollilove
Mmmm mockumentary. I don't think this needs much of a review either, let me just do a little plot sum up for you and you can decide on your own. A rich couple attempt to start a charity that would improve the lives of the homeless by handing out lollipops with inspirational wrappers to them.

One could almost say that along with the humor there may be a statement about some groups of people being more out of touch with reality than others.... But we don't know anyone who would say that kind of thing now do we? Of course not.

Idiocracy
Remember how there may or may not be people that would say that the last movie I talked about had a bit of a political statement? Well those same people who do or don't exist should have been watching Idiocracy. I know this is supposed to be a comedy but I'm scared. No I mean it I am really scared because I think this is a Nostradamus like prediction of our future. Be honest with yourself, you know at least one person who would gladly spend an entire day watching a tv show featuring nothing but someone getting hit in the balls repeatedly.

Hard Candy
Remember what I said about my trying to avoid cussing on the blog here? Well this movie creeped the fuck out of me. It creeped the fuck out of me bad, especially during this one scene. I don't want to give too much away but the scene I am talking about is easy to spot. If you are a guy you will know EXACTLY what scene I am talking about, if you are not a guy you can probably guess which scene I mean by my strategic use of all caps. If you still find yourself unable to pick out the scene I am speaking about simply find a guy to watch the movie with, while watching periodically glance over at the guy, if you see him looking incredibly uncomfortable(almost pained) and attempting to cross his legs or in some other manner protect his junk you have found the scene.

I will never trust Kitty Pryde again!


Other movies I will probably write something short and vague about in the future, but you should watch in the present.

The Quick and the Dead
The Lake House
Snakes on a Plane (Before you judge me for listing this one please keep in mind that I am a big fan of MST3k and thus I am a fan of so bad it is good. Plus, it has Samuel L. Jackson )
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I knew making a long list of stuff I want to write about would bite me in the ass. This is going to have to go back into To Be Continued... mode (Don't these cliffhangers just kill you?)

Until next time, Happy Doodles!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Hey there. Long time no see! How have you been? How's the family? You look good, have you been working out?

Ok there now we have the pleasantries out of the way.

I apologize in advance for any spelling and grammatical errors that may occur. It is very late/early and I'm all hopped up on the soft drinks and insomnia.

Wow has it really been a half of a month since I've put anything up here? I have no honest excuse so instead I will lie and claim burnout from that one time when I uploaded all of my archived posts from the MT blog one by one into Blogspot. Did I mention that I had to do it one at a time? That was a lot of ctrl-C and ctrl-V'ing.

So anyway, instead of actually being creative I have decided to do a little rundown of what has been keeping me entertained lately. I'll try to break it down into some sort of list but knowing me as I do I am pretty sure halfway through this could turn ugly. Don't say I didn't warn you.

TV

Bones

I am still really enjoying this show but Fox is not making it easy for me to keep up with it. Seriously is there any way we can have a few more delays between new episodes? What American Idol is coming back you say? My wish for more delays has been granted?? Thank you Fox, once again you prove you know more about what I want than I do! On a somewhat more serious note though I am really enjoying Stephen Fry's work on the last couple of episodes.

House M.D.

See the majority of my comments about Bones.

Lost

While I didn't hate season 2 like a lot of people did I did notice the definite loss of momentum after the rocketbuster first year(yes I said rocketbuster). So how is season 3 doing? So far not bad, though the long break was a bit of a drag. On the other hand the long break means that now there is a 3 month block of new episodes (Take that FOX!!). I think the story is finding some ground again, maybe they learned the lesson of the often aimless and constantly repetitive nature of the last season.


Armed & Famous

So when I heard about this show I knew it was doomed. As a matter of fact I was completely content not ever watching it because I knew it was a lost cause. So how did it make the list? Simple, my friends Wife is a huge pain in the ass who made me watch it with her. So of course I got addicted I mean come on both Wee Man and Ponch and Trish Status all on one show? Honestly could it get any better? Hey is that Jack Osbourne... Holy... is that Latoya Jackson going undercover as a prostitute??? Is that... hey where did the show go?

Battlestar Galactica

Still great but losing awesome points nearly weekly. Come on BSG come up with something spectacular soon I'm begging you.

Mythbusters

Come on do I really need to explain my love for this shoe? You know what, I refuse to do it. Watch an episode and if you still don't get it then you wouldn't understand any explanation I would give anyway. Go on, go.. watch.. I'll wait.

It Takes a Thief

Is it real or staged? Who cares it still rocks. Watch it and slowly realize just how easy it would be for some nut job to sneak into your home while you are there, slaughter you(and any family you may have) and steal all of your stuff. Good times!

Dirty jobs

Think your job sucks? Watch this you may change your mind. Actually this show could very easily be very average and forgettable but Mike Rowe makes it completely worth watching. I'm not sure if it his humor, his insanity, or if I just have a sick fascination with seeing him suffer. Whatever it is it works.

Prison Break

Still enjoying it but not sure if it is still a Prison Break. Shouldn't they have to change the name now? Also are they planning on a third season? If they are I would suggest not killing everyone off, well unless the plan is to bring in a whole new group of cons with a new story. At that point would it be Prison Break: The Next Generation?

TV on DVD

Firefly

This is just here because I don't think I will ever be able to do a TV on DVD list without mentioning what is quite possibly my favorite TV show of all time. I bet you still can't guess my reason for having some bitter feelings towards FOX can you?

Wonderfalls

I only mention this because bitterness towards FOX was brought up a second ago. Firefly may have been the biggest trigger but that doesn't' mean that it was the only choice I wasn't happy with on the network.

24

I avoided this show for the longest time. During the first season it had way too much hype on too flaky a network for my taste(Zing!). So I didn't watch that first season out of fear of getting attached and having the show ripped away suddenly which would have probably sent me over the edge prompting a mild psychotic episode that would end with a tight white jacket and nearly unbearable regret over the deeds I had done in my rage. Once the show became a hit and the seasons started piling up I realized my only hope was DVD. So I finally got around to starting the show up and I now realize what the hype was about. In the end I am glad that I went the DVD route on this one though, the cliffhangers on every episode would most wreak havoc on my impatience.

A quick other note about 24. on Patton Oswalt's MySpace page he made a comment about this show, I made a brief reply about finally starting out watching it. I was then promptly referred to as “a douche” by another reader of the page. Now I try to avoid using profanity on my blog, mainly because in the real world I have been known to use it with amazing proficiency so when I do any writing I like to challenge myself by avoiding it. But in this case I need to ask. Seriously, What the fuck? Normally it wouldn't upset me that I was called a name. There are thousands of reasons that I would accept for my being labeled a douche but I will be damned if simply discovering a TV show a few seasons late is going to be the act that catapults me into the magical land of douchedom.

Star Trek Voyager

The Blues Brothers were “On a mission from God”, Indiana Jones was after the Ark of the Covenant, Frodo had to drop a ring into some magma, Harold and Kumar needed some delicious White Castle burgers, and I well I am on a quest to watch every single episode of every Star Trek show ever made at least once. Right now I am on Voyager, luckily it isn't as terrible as it could be because Voyager has a nostalgic charm for me. TNG started before my time and ended while I was in the very impressionable stages of my birth into geekhood. DS9 never seemed that interesting to me when I was that young, think about it the whole show was based around an intergalactic gas station(ok so I over simplify), plus the religion aspect didn't appeal to me at all. Then came along Voyager with Action, adventure, new aliens, and eventually 7 of 9 Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 0-1( I did that all from memory, impressed?). Hey I was young and stupid, I needed something sci-fi to cling to!

The Shield

I gotta have something on the list to redeem myself for defending Voyager don't I?

Lucky Louie

DANGER DANGER good show on horizon, must crush it beneath my heel before word gets out and happiness spreads like a deadly plague!

Do you remember back when Roseanne was really good? Those few seasons where the show really was something different, like it was based around a family and events that could actually almost be real? Lucky Louie took that concept and pushed it further. Yes there was some exaggeration to it but on the whole the show worked for me because not only was the writing hilarious but it seemed very true to life. I know those people! Hell I'm probably one of those people.

well it is 4:30 am and I still have e-mail to tackle so this list is going to have to be one of those To be continued deals.

Fear not faithful reader for if you have made it this far you are indeed strong of mind and resistant to torture. Those qualities deserve reward and as such I will give you a quick preview of what I may or may not be writing about in part 2!


Movies

Pretty Poison

Clerks 2

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Lollilove

Slither

The Quick and the Dead

Idiocracy

The Lake House

Hard Candy

Snakes on a Plane


Podcasts

Weezy and the Swish

AST Radio

Daily Giz Wiz

Net@Nite

Comic Strip Live: Stand Up Comedy


Books

Deja Dead

Death du Jour

Monday Mourning

Break No Bones

Interview with the Vampire

Merrick

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Well of Darkness

The Fellowship of the Ring


Stand-Up Comedy

Louis CK

Maria Bamford (more specifically about her awesome new CD and my hopes for her Comedy Central special coming up on Friday)


All Around Geekery

Effinfunny.com

Ubuntu

Beryl / http://wiki.beryl-project.org/wiki/Main_Page

A Special Thing

Winzy

Blingo

Fallout 2

Xbox Rewards / Oblivion


Until next time remember, Mule won't run with five.


Thursday, February 01, 2007

Whew, finally. I uploaded all of my old posts. I attempted to preserve as much as possible, a few links and some pictures may have been lost in translation but other than that it should all be there.

After reading as much of that as I had to to repost it I realize now that there is a 50/50 chance that I am somewhat insane... or at least off balance.

Now for the hard part. To be continued...

November 01, 2006

Random thought

This is actually a post from my new toy at http://www.AskewedViews.vox.com I'm planning on keeping this site around in some form or another and using that for my random blog thoughts, but right now I'm playing it by ear.

First off let me say, Last Christmas #4 arrived and delivered the awesome, I can't wait for the final issue to come out, LC has been one of a couple of forces that have been pushing me back into loving comic books. Now if only I could find the Daredevil TPBs that I want so I can get caught up... Also money would be helpful in this endeavor.

I don't care if it makes me a bad person, weird or what but I have really been enjoying Saints Row. Maybe I just have some aggression to get out or something I'm not sure, but it has been fun. We'll see if I make it all the way through though. I will admit that there is no way that anyone under 17 should be anywhere near this thing, and I'm usually pretty lenient on things like R rated movies and such, but this is one dirty bird of a game.

DVD commentaries, I used to think they were a bad idea. I was wrong, I've been going through my collection recently re watching everything with commentary, in a lot of cases I actually had a better appreciation of the movies. Take X3 for example, I really wasn't happy with it on the first viewing, then when I saw it on DVD I was still on the fence about it, then I watched it with commentary and I was able to understand better a lot of the decisions that Ratner made.

I'm incredibly disappointed in myself. I used to be able to put my thoughts into writing fairly well, and much more interestingly than I am able to these days. Now when I try to write something with real substance to it my brain starts to hurt.

Shaun of the Dead... still awesome.

September 02, 2006

Is this what happens when you have too much time on your hands?...

So I have this idea. I want to take a cult classic TV show let's say one that has been around a good 40 years or so. Then I want to update it, I want to take away 3/4 of the campyness. I want to update the CGI, I want to update the sound... I even want to upgrade the quality of the film just to show off the difference in production quality between the actual acting and the CGI inserts. You know, really what I want to do is take away the old style charm of the show and replace it with cool out of place computer graphics.

Oh wait.... I was a little slow coming up with this idea Oh well.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the HD upgrade of the show, but I find the updated effects to be unnecessary. I like the old Trek just the way it is. At least I can get the originals on DVD so really I can't complain too hard.. Well I can but I shouldn't.

...Still, I hope they leave TNG alone.

August 02, 2006

Addiction

Ladies and gentlemen I have a confession to make. I am an addict. No I don't mean I drink excessively, I don't mean I huff paint, I don't mean I smoke marijuana cigarettes, in fact I don't mean any kind of mind altering substance at all. Actually I never partake in any of those specific kinds of addictions.

No, what I mean is I have a very serious and incurable addiction to Firefly, well Firefly/Serenity/Everything in the Firefly 'verse. Why then am I not a completely active member of any of the communities online? Simple, like I said I'm addicted, too addicted. Once I see, read, or hear of something Firefly related I then have the impulse... no a driving force that pushes me to .. well to watch Firefly again. It starts innocently enough, I read something online about one of the actors or something the like. Then I think “Hmm, maybe I should put in one of the DVD's and watch an episode”. Of course that episode always ends up being the first episode “Serenity”. That obviously leads to the thought “Well that was fun, maybe I'll keep going and watch “The Train Job” that one is fun too” pretty soon I've watched the entire first disc and at that point there is no turning back. Then of course there is the Feature Film “Serenity” (not to be confused with the name of the pilot episode of the tv show “Serenity”, or the name of the ship “Serenity” which of course the other two are named after). Watching the movie is good but again it is one of those things where afterwards I am drawn back into the 'verse and need to get my Firefly fix and the whole “I'll just watch one episode” debacle starts back over.

The CD soundtracks to both show and movie are the same deal. “Hey that is the song that River dances to in “Safe” I should watch that episode. Wait, that episode has some call backs to a couple of previous episodes, I want that fresh in my mind.... OK where is disc 1...”.

Well now I have a new enabling device, it is called “Done the Impossible” a brilliant documentary profiling the rise and fall and rise of Firefly as seen through the eyes of the fans (which includes many people involved in the production of the movie/tv show). I've just watched it tonight and it is amazing. Of course that means that tomorrow first chance I get to sit down... that damn Firefly Disc 1 is going to magically find it's way into my DVD player.

Posted by Pierce at August 2, 2006 04:08 AM
Comments

I totally understand this addiction as I too am a chronic sufferer. From the moment I watched the film in the cinema (all four times of it) to the pruchase of Firefly ( and subsequently the film) there is rarely a day that goes by where I do not think about them in one way or another.

At one point I watched the entire series of Firefly and then Serenity along with all the extras on the DVD - only then to rewatch them with the commentaries turned on! I then pretty much did it all again the next day...and the next...and the next. Although I believe nothing bad can come of this - perhaps the with the exception of involuntarily speaking with a bit of space lingo, it has begun to worry me slightly.

I am also one of those fans who believe that everyone in the world should be crazy about this show and have currently 9 direct converts under my belt. However, each time that I lend out my precious, precious DVDs I feel compelled to take it right back, and am more than a little angered if they have taken more than 3 days to watch all of the boxset.

Good to know I am not the only one out there.
(I have now reduced my viewing time down to just 2 hours a day! Good thing or Bad thing?)

Posted by: Steve at August 23, 2006 04:18 AM

July 08, 2006

Technical Difficulties


Please stand by while the evenings headliner is located and ushered towards the stage. I'm getting close I think, but I'm making a mistake of using a tool to do some of the CSS here, while also reading a book trying to reteach myself some coding and learn some actuall CSS myself. As usual I'm a hopless case. Also as you can see by my banner I could use some practice time with Photoshop as well... though I am almost happy with how the under construction picture worked out.

July 08, 2006

Technical Difficulties


Please stand by while the evenings headliner is located and ushered towards the stage.

February 14, 2006

Journey to Babel

So moving across the country is kind of a pain in the hind end, all the packing, and stress, and hurrying, and stress, and not sleeping, and stress.

So how do I survive? Well I resort to the drink but most people could use laughter (unless "most" people have a Pepsi addiction as I do. What, you thought I meant booze?).

Well my friends if laughter is your particular heal all, and you enjoy sophmoric humor mixing the idea behind Brokeback Mountain and the Back to the Future III into one movie trailer then have I got a treat for you. I very well could be the last person on earth to find this, but during a break from the packing tonight I happened to come across This. Now you can come across it too. Enjoy.

Also while I am on the subject of the funny I need to recommend a couple of comedians I saw live recently.. I know I have a full post brewing inside of me about that night, but for now I highly recommend you go check out both, David Crowe and Troy Davis Both incredibly funny individuals who very very good at what they do. They certainly provided us with an awesome night out.

Sorry about the spelling on this one, typing it up from the webform so no spellcheck. Luckily my punctuation is always horrifying so no need to apologize there. Ok that is all for now, carry on.

January 27, 2006

Jaynestown

Yep that's right, I messed up the blog pretty good before I left thinking I would have time while on this vacation to maybe play with the format a bit. But guess what... Doesn't look like I'm going to have time till I get home... Speaking of home, might be moving soon. Fun but also worrysome.

So just stick it out, hopefully I can do something awesome in the near future to fix this joint up. Until then go freaking help me out with an iPod or something would ya? GOSH.

Oh yes, and Have a nice day!

January 09, 2006

Caretaker

So, it's a new year I see.. Well my friends it has been a while again hasn't it? A lot has happened since last I put pen to paper, or more accurately finger to keyboard.

Where to start, how bout with the depressing stuff, that way it only goes up. So on Christmas Eve we had some of the family over to celebrate, basically just my brothers and sister and their families, during the night my Grandma's health started declining very fast, it had been coming for a couple of days, but she did bounce between up and down so we could never be sure. Anyway, it was becoming clear that this was the big dip down, she pretty much fell asleep that night and sleep on until the 27th when she passed away. As you can imagine this put a bit of a damper on the holiday. I personally had pretty much made my peace with the whole thing over the course of the last year or so, so when it happened I wasn't so much sad as relieved that she was finally at rest. This unfortunately lead to me many times in the days following feeling as if I was in the wrong, as I wasn't grieving the same way everyone else was... a lot of tears and hugging, perhaps I am in the wrong who knows?

So of course following the news we contacted everyone we could get a hold of, there was however one horrible incident. One of my moms brothers. You see long ago we were a very tight family, got together very often, well when this uncle of mine got a divorce about 14 years ago he pulled away, he fell into his own little world. What does this have to do with anything you ask? Well, he barely saw his own mother since then, I mean very little, in the last 14 years he saw her maybe 6 times, and most of that was because his children dragged him with them. So my Dad called him that morning because Mom was in no condition to be talking to people, he was very short and curt with Dad. Cut to a couple of days later, his daughter who lives in California calls, we assume it is to find out about the funeral time and stuff.

As it turns out she was calling to see if she could stop by and see Grandma on her way to the airport to go home, We assumed her dad would have called her and spread the news to the kids we didn't have contact info for.. He didn't, what is worse is one of his sons was living with him at the time (he has moved for work since) and she had been in town for two weeks staying with him... He never told them that their Grandmother passed away... That is a very very messed up thing for someone to do. Luckily my cousin was able to stay in town long enough to come to the funeral and along with her brother represent their part of the family that couldn't make it. It was nice getting to see them again since it has been a long time, if only the circumstances had been better...

But that is all behind us now, we can only go forward from here, and go forward we will. Unfortunately for me, Grandma's passing also places me jobless as my job for over a year now had been home care for her, I'm not sure where I head from here hopefully somewhere good, but at least I do know now that I've done one thing good in my life in making her last time here as comfortable as I possibly could.

What will you remember about 2005? For me, no matter how good some of the stuff in the middle of the year was I will remember that at the beginning of the year (February) My Dad's Father passed away, and at the end of the year (December) my Mom's Mother passed. How is that for depressing bookends?

So next week I head to visit friends in Michigan again for my yearly trip, I had it planned out ahead of time which is probably good because other wise I may have had to skip it, but a bought ticket is a bought ticket so you have to use it. Or at least that is my story and I'm sticking to it.

So I'll cut this short for now since I have probably beaten my old record for longest run-on sentence and most tiring paragraph (a record I set back when I was in ITT, the run-on sentence record is second only to my award for perfect use of the semicolon which I got a few months later. How is that for range? And now I am running for president of the parenthesis society!). More posts to come soon I hope, I've found a few cool new things to mess around with online. Also I plan on uploading some pics from the family stuff of late, probably to the moblog, but maybe one or two in here as well... Not sure if I'll be able to post anything from the Michigan trip while I'm there hopefully I can though. I need this trip to be fun.

January 09, 2006

Caretakerr

So, it's a new year I see.. Well my friends it has been a while again hasn't it? A lot has happened since last I put pen to paper, or more accurately finger to keyboard.

Where to start, how bout with the depressing stuff, that way it only goes up. So on Christmas Eve we had some of the family over to celebrate, basically just my brothers and sister and their families, during the night my Grandma's health started declining very fast, it had been coming for a couple of days, but she did bounce between up and down so we could never be sure. Anyway, it was becoming clear that this was the big dip down, she pretty much fell asleep that night and sleep on until the 27th when she passed away. As you can imagine this put a bit of a damper on the holiday. I personally had pretty much made my peace with the whole thing over the course of the last year or so, so when it happened I wasn't so much sad as relieved that she was finally at rest. This unfortunately lead to me many times in the days following feeling as if I was in the wrong, as I wasn't grieving the same way everyone else was... a lot of tears and hugging, perhaps I am in the wrong who knows?

So of course following the news we contacted everyone we could get a hold of, there was however one horrible incident. One of my moms brothers. You see long ago we were a very tight family, got together very often, well when this uncle of mine got a divorce about 14 years ago he pulled away, he fell into his own little world. What does this have to do with anything you ask? Well, he barely saw his own mother since then, I mean very little, in the last 14 years he saw her maybe 6 times, and most of that was because his children dragged him with them. So my Dad called him that morning because Mom was in no condition to be talking to people, he was very short and curt with Dad. Cut to a couple of days later, his daughter who lives in California calls, we assume it is to find out about the funeral time and stuff.

As it turns out she was calling to see if she could stop by and see Grandma on her way to the airport to go home, We assumed her dad would have called her and spread the news to the kids we didn't have contact info for.. He didn't, what is worse is one of his sons was living with him at the time (he has moved for work since) and she had been in town for two weeks staying with him... He never told them that their Grandmother passed away... That is a very very messed up thing for someone to do. Luckily my cousin was able to stay in town long enough to come to the funeral and along with her brother represent their part of the family that couldn't make it. It was nice getting to see them again since it has been a long time, if only the circumstances had been better...

But that is all behind us now, we can only go forward from here, and go forward we will. Unfortunately for me, Grandma's passing also places me jobless as my job for over a year now had been home care for her, I'm not sure where I head from here hopefully somewhere good, but at least I do know now that I've done one thing good in my life in making her last time here as comfortable as I possibly could.

What will you remember about 2005? For me, no matter how good some of the stuff in the middle of the year was I will remember that at the beginning of the year (February) My Dad's Father passed away, and at the end of the year (December) my Mom's Mother passed. How is that for depressing bookends?

So next week I head to visit friends in Michigan again for my yearly trip, I had it planned out ahead of time which is probably good because other wise I may have had to skip it, but a bought ticket is a bought ticket so you have to use it. Or at least that is my story and I'm sticking to it.

So I'll cut this short for now since I have probably beaten my old record for longest run-on sentence and most tiring paragraph (a record I set back when I was in ITT, the run-on sentence record is second only to my award for perfect use of the semicolon which I got a few months later. How is that for range? And now I am running for president of the parenthesis society!). More posts to come soon I hope, I've found a few cool new things to mess around with online. Also I plan on uploading some pics from the family stuff of late, probably to the moblog, but maybe one or two in here as well... Not sure if I'll be able to post anything from the Michigan trip while I'm there hopefully I can though. I need this trip to be fun.

December 07, 2005

Stay tuned true believers

Somehow during the MT upgrade process I mucked my style, so I'm taking the opportunity to play around with this site
http://styles.movalog.com/generator/
It could be an interesting couple of days ahead for AVdN.

December 04, 2005

All Our Yesterdays

Just a couple random pics from my my pics folder, cause I'm a bit bored




So I thought I would make a little comment on the qualit of the pictures. I realize the quality of them is kind of low, on the moblog normally I am able to use the "It was a phone camera what do you expect?" defense.

For these pictures on the other hand I actually did use a Sony Cybershot 32. megapixel camera. I know this camera to be capable of some just awesome pictures, in fact I've taken one or two that I think rock myself.

So for the Italian house prayer the quality is all my fault, I take the blame for it being a bit wonky. Taking the picture was kind of spur of the moment thing. While unpacking it and trying to decide where to hang it an argument over what it meant ensued. Naturally I went to the internet to find out, that is when I grabbed the camera and mangled the photo with a flash glare.

As for the quality on the picture of the sky I have a far better excuse, a few of them actually. First the picture was taken from a moving car, a difficult task but since I was going freehand I think I held the camera pretty straight. Another thing is I used a program to downsize the picture automatically, I do still have the large sized file on my end and I assure you it does look a bit better.

I need to dig out the book on my camera and see if I can set it to save in a format other then jpg. Going through some of the stuff I've shot with this camera made me realize photography can be really fun, especially when you can actually take a GOOD picture.

December 02, 2005

Obsession

And so we climb out of the pit of self loathing and for a brief moment stop plotting magnificent revenge on clueless siblings. Onto something hopefully a bit more entertaining.

Podcasts, we know what those are now don't we? By we I of course mean you, I obviously know what they are. Could you imagine if I didn't know what a podcast was though? I mean what are the odds that if I didn't know what one was that I would randomly throw the word Pod and Cast together into one and ask if we know what it is?.. Ok revealing too much random thought.. must.. get.. back... on... track...

So we are all cool with the idea that a Podcast is basically an mp3 or audio file similar to a radio program of some sort or the other right? Yeah I'm pretty sure some podcasters don't really like that explanation because it's more than that but I like to keep things easy around here (it helps with my own fragile sanity). Well we also know that now there are Videocasts, or Vidcasts, or Video Podcasts, or umm... Video's that are kind of meshed in with Podcasts now right? Gotta thank the iPod video and iTunes for the meshing, not that the mesh is a bad thing.

What am I getting at here? Oh yeah, I thought it would be an interesting idea to share the podcasts that I have subscribed through iTunes. Note that I said interesting not good or bad. Also I should say I am aware there are many good podcast retrieval programs out there, I happen to use iTunes simply because it's convenient and easy to keep everything organized.

So, here is what I listen to and watch in no particular order.

Command N (Video) A tech news show hosted by Amber MacArthur and Mike Lazazzera.
It's a good cast, I watch it when I'm looking for a geeky good time.

Diggnation A podcast rounding up the top stories of the week from Digg.com. hosted by Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht.
This show is great, you put Kevin and Alex in front of a mic for any reason pretty much and you certainly hat my attention. This one is also available in video form I generally stick with the audio version but once in a while something happens that you just have to go back and grab the video to see.

dl.tv (video) IPtv show hosted by Patrick norton and Robert Heron. Similar in some aspects to the old ScreenSavers show (back when Patrick Norton was a cohost) Lots of techy goodness.
A very good show. Give it a watch, you just might learn something.

Family Guy Foxcast Freakin' Sweet!!!

Happy Tree Friends (video) Animated woodland creatures that usually meet a horrific and hilarious demise.
This may not be for everyone, but I'm not too proud to say that my mind is twisted enough to find this to be hilarious.

Infected with Martin Sargent I'm still not quite sure what exactly to make of this one, I know it's funny and it's filthy. Just like Martin.

Security Now! Hosted by Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte. Straight up very good and important information in the realm of digital security.
I wasn't sure if I would really want to listen 40 minutes of talk about security, I'm glad I decided to give it a shot, I now listen to this one pretty much immediately when a new episode is released.

SWGack A weekly show covering pretty much all aspects (good and bad) of the MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies. Hosted by Alex Albrecht and Joshua Brentano.
I had quit SWG for a while, decided to take a break and all that. A few months passed, I kind of forgot about how fun it was. Then this little podcast came along and reminded me how much fun I had in the game. Again I'm pulling the put a mic in front of Alex card and I'll listen. Even if it is Alex's fault that when I started playing again I went towards being a Creature handler in game only to have the profession completely ripped out of the game pretty much as soon as I got up to it. I also credit this show with keeping me level headed enough to stick with SWG through the NGE.

This Week In Tech Do I really need to say much about this one? If you remember the old ScreenSavers tv show, or you like tech of any kind or any of that fun stuff just do yourself a favor and check it out.... as if you haven't already.

Weezy And The Swish Comedy-casting at it's finest. Hosted by Louise "Weezy" Palanker and Laura "The Swish" Swisher. They bring in the funny and they slice like a [expletive deleted] hammer!
I Love stand up comedy, especially when done by intelligent people. Weezy and The Swish never fail to bring forth laughter.

Radio Free Burrito The newest addition to my subscribed casts. This is Wil Wheaton's latest attempt to remind everyone that in fact he is a bigger geek than you, and he could totally Pwn you at any given moment. All your base are belong to Wil
Seriously though Wil's podcast is pretty cool so far. It'll be pretty interesting to see where he heads with it from here, Give it a listen, totally worth the time. Also I was being truthful, all your base really are belong to Wil.

Thats all of the pretty much for now, there are a few others I have downloaded an episode or two to test out, but to be honest if try to listen to any more then I already do I'll have to invest in some caffeine pills or something so I can thwart my bodies attempt to sleep.

Now the hard part, I wrestle with myself in my mind as to whether or not I should publish this or trash it because I am sure it is a completely muddled confusing conglomeration of random rants and inane conjecture. I should really clean it up, but it's far to close to 4 am for editing.

And thats all I got to say about that.

December 01, 2005

I, Mudd

Somewhere between the ages of 10 and 12 I was treated quite seriously for stress induced stomach ulcers. The pains I had were actually very easy to describe, like a sharp knife cutting in and occasionally twisting. Pretty awesome for a kid that age to be that stressed out isn't it?

Something about the holidays always seems to remind me of those times.

November 28, 2005

The Best Of Both Worlds aka A Tale of Two Soundtracks

So I am a fan of this short lived TV show called Firefly, I may have mentioned this once or twice. You know Firefly don't you? The television predecessor to the movie Serenity a movie I enjoyed, again I may have mentioned this.

So, I totally forgot to mention on here the soundtrack situation for both movie and show. So here is the deal, I finally got them both

First impressions. Lets start with the Soundtrack for Serenity The Motion Picture (as it was released first)
23 track
49 minutes and 9 seconds or so worth of music in total
3 minutes 56 seconds for the longest track.

So my first thought was woah hold on! I'm pretty darn sure the movie was just about two hours long, they couldn't scrounge up more then 50 minutes worth of music? Seriously it seems like a total waste of space to me to leave that much emptiness on a disc, throw in some movie quotes or something if you have to just give me something fun to listen to. A little bang for my buck you know?

So already we were off on the wrong foot.

Onto the actual music. What I noticed while listening to the soundtrack was how it really did remind me of watching the movie. When I saw the movie I hadn't actually thought I had payed attention to the music, but it's such a subtle thing that it does creep into your mind, which is good. I realized that as a movie soundtrack this did the job pretty well. However, as a stand alone CD I don't think this soundtrack has all that much appeal. Sure the music is decent, but it's not a melodic type thing, it has more of an emotional zing to it which if you don't have the context of the movie you will probably miss much of what you are meant to feel. The reaver related tracks however if you Do have the context really rock. Again if they would have used the free space on the disc to mix in some movie dialog to help set the feel for the tracks it might have gone a long way in making it better.

Bottom line. I'm glad I have it, but only because I collect Firefly and Serenity related items, and I am a huge fan of the series. If I were not I don't think there would be much here.

next up The Original Television Soundtrack for Firefly.
25 tracks
1 hour and 30 seconds or so of music
3 minutes 27 seconds for the longest track.

Again why so short? You can't tell me that out of 14 episodes of hour long TV that there wasn't at least 80 minutes worth of music you could have pulled. Or if not different tunes how about extended versions of some of these? I don't know, maybe I expect to much.

So the music of Firefly is one of the things about the show that I just absolutely fell in love with. Such a beautiful mixture of genres and cultures and styles, done in such a way that it just totally works. Yes much like the movie soundtrack the music on this disc also can remind you of the episode or scenes that it is representing. However the difference with these tracks is huge, that being you do not have to have seen the show in order to enjoy this music. Yep thats right I said it, the Firefly soundtrack I believe can stand on it's own as a very nice little score of music. Oh sure, some the only song with lyrics on the disc (The Ballad of Serenity) won't appeal to everyone, but most of the other stuff is very melodic, soothing at times, and most importantly good.

I do have some gripes on this one though. Why can't the music be in order from episode to episode on the CD? Maybe it is just me but I like things linear. I like when A leads to B leads to C leads to D. It's not a big complaint, but it's there. Also again, some of the tracks just seemed a bit short. I understand they were created for a television show which of course meant they needed to work in short doses, but a little reworking and you could have had some very very nice full pieces of musical awesomeness.

For the record my favorite track on either disc is from the TV soundtrack, song 23: Rivers Dance. Such a fun energetic tune, it totally works. Although I gotta be honest track number 16 nearly won simply on it's title alone "Book's hair/Ready for Battle" I mean come on Book's Hair! Ok that may be one of those jokes you have to be a fan of the show to get. But seriously you should be a fan of the show....

Bottom line on this one, Very very good in my opinion, worth the buy even if I wasn't a fan of the show (which I am)

P.S. I would like to take this opportunity to remind you all that I am still hoping for a free something or the other as you can see by the column to the right here. I also would like to point out that I found out while checking status the other day that the Free iPod offer has been bumped up to a video iPod or a $250 iTunes gift certificate. Come on, I only need 2 more completions and I can shut up about that particular offer!!! You do want me to shut up don't you? Of course you do, I hear it all the time, people are constantly asking me to shut up. My silence is on high demand. I must be popular.

November 28, 2005

The Best Of Both Worlds aka A Tale of Two Soundtracks

So I am a fan of this short lived TV show called Firefly, I may have mentioned this once or twice. You know Firefly don't you? The television predecessor to the movie Serenity a movie I enjoyed, again I may have mentioned this.

So, I totally forgot to mention on here the soundtrack situation for both movie and show. So here is the deal, I finally got them both

First impressions. Lets start with the Soundtrack for Serenity The Motion Picture (as it was released first)
23 track
49 minutes and 9 seconds or so worth of music in total
3 minutes 56 seconds for the longest track.

So my first thought was woah hold on! I'm pretty darn sure the movie was just about two hours long, they couldn't scrounge up more then 50 minutes worth of music? Seriously it seems like a total waste of space to me to leave that much emptiness on a disc, throw in some movie quotes or something if you have to just give me something fun to listen to. A little bang for my buck you know?

So already we were off on the wrong foot.

Onto the actual music. What I noticed while listening to the soundtrack was how it really did remind me of watching the movie. When I saw the movie I hadn't actually thought I had payed attention to the music, but it's such a subtle thing that it does creep into your mind, which is good. I realized that as a movie soundtrack this did the job pretty well. However, as a stand alone CD I don't think this soundtrack has all that much appeal. Sure the music is decent, but it's not a melodic type thing, it has more of an emotional zing to it which if you don't have the context of the movie you will probably miss much of what you are meant to feel. The reaver related tracks however if you Do have the context really rock. Again if they would have used the free space on the disc to mix in some movie dialog to help set the feel for the tracks it might have gone a long way in making it better.

Bottom line. I'm glad I have it, but only because I collect Firefly and Serenity related items, and I am a huge fan of the series. If I were not I don't think there would be much here.

next up The Original Television Soundtrack for Firefly.
25 tracks
1 hour and 30 seconds or so of music
3 minutes 27 seconds for the longest track.

Again why so short? You can't tell me that out of 14 episodes of hour long TV that there wasn't at least 80 minutes worth of music you could have pulled. Or if not different tunes how about extended versions of some of these? I don't know, maybe I expect to much.

So the music of Firefly is one of the things about the show that I just absolutely fell in love with. Such a beautiful mixture of genres and cultures and styles, done in such a way that it just totally works. Yes much like the movie soundtrack the music on this disc also can remind you of the episode or scenes that it is representing. However the difference with these tracks is huge, that being you do not have to have seen the show in order to enjoy this music. Yep thats right I said it, the Firefly soundtrack I believe can stand on it's own as a very nice little score of music. Oh sure, some the only song with lyrics on the disc (The Ballad of Serenity) won't appeal to everyone, but most of the other stuff is very melodic, soothing at times, and most importantly good.

I do have some gripes on this one though. Why can't the music be in order from episode to episode on the CD? Maybe it is just me but I like things linear. I like when A leads to B leads to C leads to D. It's not a big complaint, but it's there. Also again, some of the tracks just seemed a bit short. I understand they were created for a television show which of course meant they needed to work in short doses, but a little reworking and you could have had some very very nice full pieces of musical awesomeness.

For the record my favorite track on either disc is from the TV soundtrack, song 23: Rivers Dance. Such a fun energetic tune, it totally works. Although I gotta be honest track number 16 nearly won simply on it's title alone "Book's hair/Ready for Battle" I mean come on Book's Hair! Ok that may be one of those jokes you have to be a fan of the show to get. But seriously you should be a fan of the show....

Bottom line on this one, Very very good in my opinion, worth the buy even if I wasn't a fan of the show (which I am)

P.S. I would like to take this opportunity to remind you all that I am still hoping for a free something or the other as you can see by the column to the right here. I also would like to point out that I found out while checking status the other day that the Free iPod offer has been bumped up to a video iPod or a $250 iTunes gift certificate. Come on, I only need 2 more completions and I can shut up about that particular offer!!! You do want me to shut up don't you? Of course you do, I hear it all the time, people are constantly asking me to shut up. My silence is on high demand. I must be popular.

November 27, 2005

Heart Of Glory

A fair warning to those who accidentally read anything on my page. Grammar, punctuation, and continuity all take a nap about 2. am. right now it is about 2:40 and I am still writing. Good luck and fair journey my friends.

So here is the deal. About seven months ago I was minding my own business, surfing the net, reading my favorite pages (ratemyparentsbasement.com, Thesunburns.org, and WilWheaton.net of course)
when all of a sudden I found myself reading through a post, a post which contained a link, a link to a site which could very possibly shake the very foundation that this entire world universe is built upon... or it might just jolt you enough to make milk shoot from your nose. Either way you better check it out.... just in case.

Little known fact, Jessica Stover is single handedly responsible for reminding me what an awesome word awesome is.

So why bring it up now? It's been seven months, get over it right? Well heres the thing, I did something I don't often do. I opened up my wallet, I put in my order for J.Sto's book. I suggest anyone out there who hasn't already done so hurry up and see if there are any left.

You know come to think of it Festivus is just around the corner and a book would make a sweet gift.

Why get the book? If you have to ask you have obviously never been to the wonderland that is www.jessicastover.com. For if you had been to JSDC you would know that she not only is a gifted storyteller with a vivid imagination and a nearly impeccable eye for detail. But she also is destined for great things. Plus doesn't your bookshelf need a little more awesome?

Oh yeah, and she might have kidnapped your mom.


Excelsior!

Posted by Pierce at November 27, 2005 02:58 AM
Comments

Thank you, thank you.

Oh and your mom says hi. I guess I should return her now that you've made your purchase.

But she's just so good at baking... I don't know.

I mean, I really like brownies.

Posted by: JM at November 28, 2005 01:05 PM

November 27, 2005

Too Short A Season

Yes I know, it has been a while since I last opened up my mind and let the letter fall to the keyboard. I don't have a real reason as to why it has been so long, I've just felt drained lately, no creative feelings whatsoever, in fact no energy or drive towards anything at all to be honest. It's not a great feeling, so I am making an effort to push myself. We will see how it goes. I do have a few things I would like to say, hopefully I can get them out in an understandable manner.

So lets go back a couple of weeks, back to Sunday November 13.
Why do I know that date so specifically? Because on that day something happened that hit me very hard. In fact (and rightfully so) it hit many many many people very hard.

On Sunday November 13th a man passed away. A man named Eddie Guerrero.

I have always been honest and clear with myself and others when I talk about wrestling. It isn't for everyone, I don't think someone should judge someone else because they do or do not like it. But if you are someone who doesn't particularly care about wrestling I still feel that a man like Eddie deserves your attention.

So what made Eddie such a special person? Many things;

Eddie had a charisma on the microphone that is very rarely matched. When Eddie wanted to be the good guy you loved him, when he wanted to play the bad guy you loved to hate him.
In the ring Eddie had the ability to make you forget yourself and just watch. He had that certain intangible ability that again not many truly have that allowed you to suspend disbelief and just watch the working and be amazed and entertained. When Eddie came out you knew you were about to witness some good entertainment. Eddie could tell you his stories in the ring wonderfully. He could convey drama, comedy, suspense, etc... and he conveyed it with apparent ease.

When Eddie passed away he was on 4 years of being sober. That itself is a very powerful thing, if nothing else you need to respect him for that. Actually no what you really should respect is not only the strength he had to stay sober for 4 years but you should really respect what gave him the strength to do that. Eddie had love for his family, a love strong enough to keep him sober, a love strong enough to keep him happy.

To be honest there is no way that my words can bring justice to the amazing story of Eddie Guerrero, so really why try, What I can do is hope that I convey through my muddled views and thoughts that Eddie has brought me (and millions of others) many great hours of entertainment and inspiration. Just because I never personally met Eddie doesn't mean that his passing didn't hurt, that should tell you a bit about Eddie itself. I never met the man and when I read the news it left a pit in my stomach that to be honest still has not gone away.

To close this I would just like to say one thing, Thank you Eddie. You will be missed very much and truly you will never be forgotten. I hope you have found peace at last.

November 10, 2005

The Gamesters of Triskelion

Let me ask you this, why is it that I as someone who lives in the Pacific time zone am constantly being treated as a non entity by the Internet and TV?

Seriously, this happens all the time, anytime there is a big secret happening on a show, or say an elimination or something of that sort. Lets take a good example, let's randomly pick a scenario. How about ohhh I don't know, a show goes to repeats for three weeks, during those three weeks the next new episode is hyped a lot, in that hype they tell you that someone from the cast is not going to survive the episode. You avoid all kinds of spoilers for 3 weeks, then the day of the show about 15 minutes before start time you forget your rule of being Very careful on the net when it is within 3 hours of the show and SLAP the surprise is ruined.

Ok you got me, that wasn't random, that happened to me tonight. My homepage is www.myway.com a decent page that keeps you updated with AP news stories in categories. Here is the problem, I accidentally opened up to my homepage and in the title for one of the stories in the Entertainment section there was a Huge spoiler that gave away tonight's episode of LOST. Seriously this was 15 minutes before it aired in my market, how lame is that? I just don't understand, why on earth is it so important to blurt out the surprise in the title of your article, seems to me if you just say that you reveal the secret in the story it's more of a reason for someone to click on and read your writing. Shame on you Internet, shame shame.

October 15, 2005

Fun with SWG

So I tried The Matrix Online, you know what it reminded me? How much I preferred SWG, so I reestablished my account with that game. Technically I'm trying to start a new character on a new server... it's not going swiftly and I may switch servers again I'm not impressed thus far with Corbantis. However that is not the real reason for this post.

I was bored the other night, very bored. So I I decided to play around with my Tailor on Ahazi see what kind of new outfit I could make for him. I got an idea on my own but I did have to buy one piece from the auction, I got lucky too because there is not a lot of call apparently for a brown Sec-Op duster. but it was worth it, check this out.

click for a larger image.
I know it's not perfect, I don't really have the best eye when it comes to recreating exactly, but I'm pretty sure that you can tell I was going for the Browncoat look there right?

You can see all my characters in that screen shot should you be so inclined, don't get too attached to Arestis on Intrepid though, I'm going to use him in to reach my next goal (Slapping a storm trooper) then it'll be delete city. I hate to do it because I really like that name, but hey I just wanna slap a trooper, plus I hear that server is pretty good still and I want to maybe start up new there.

October 07, 2005

I aim to misbehave

Just got back from seeing Serenity for the second time. I'm claiming that it holds up incredibly well to second viewings, which means it'll stand up to even more.

Again it's difficult to write without being spoilerific but I'm trying. I can say the the emotional surprises still get you the second time around. Just because you know something is coming doesn't mean it won't affect you, in fact since you know it is coming it kind of has a prolonged effect (pre and post event) that includes the happy and the sad of course. It is also easier to notice the little things the second time around. I noticed the music much more this time, it's a mixed bag for me. I really enjoyed the actual music, but there really wasn't a whole lot of it that you could hear, which is understandable in a movie there needs to constantly be something happening, however the scenes where Serenity was just flying were beautifully done, the silence of space combined with the music just did it for me.

Of course there are still things I didn't exactly like, and thinks I wish were different but I feel the good nearly obliterates the bad this time around.

It I wasn't convinced before today's viewing for sure put my name on the preorder list for the DVD release.

October 07, 2005

Serenity pt.2

I'm headed out to see Serenity again today, yep that is right they are getting a repeat viewing from me at the theater. That is unheard of recently, there are just too many new movies to see out there... but here I go. Perhaps I'll have more to say about the movie after a second viewing, attention span depending. I could easily forget to write something down.

Speaking of spending money on Serenity the rumor hitting the message boards is that the flick will be released on DVD on December 20! I suggest buying it before the end of the year, it's just good form.

October 05, 2005

Shindig

Ah Serenity where do I start? Well to be honest I really don't know..

So, Friday September 30. Opening day, I decide to get a ride to the first showing possible. Of course I'll have to walk home, but hey it's only 3 miles. As it turns out Friday September 30 was a record breaking day for rain, about a months worth in a single day, and me walking home during one of the hardest downpours. Here's the thing, if I had to do it over knowing how unpleasant the walk home would be I'd still be in that theater at the exact same time I was there, and I'd have a huge smile on my face. By the way, for the record my coat is kind of a brownish color, so the rain didn't kill me.

I really do recommend this movie, perhaps not as much as I would recommend the TV Series but still the movie does do a wonderful job of being something very very good.

If you know Joss Whedon's style of storytelling then you know what I am talking about when I say that you can definitely tell this is his, not only in style and feel but in substance. Joss has a very unique style, and some unique feelings about the way things would work. That is not a bad thing at all, I happen to feel that Joss is a master at making you "feel". Serenity made me Feel that is for sure, very happy, extremely sad, worried, relieved, and pretty much anything on any side of those at one point or another.

Where did the movie fall short? I would agree with Promo on most of what he said Here the scope of it seemed a little flat at times, the problem there I feel is that this was Joss's first time directing a feature length and I would assume much like anything else when you are used to doing something one way there is a learning curve when you have to switch it up, look at the movie and at times you can feel that he is more at home directing TV... for now. Also I am also a bit worried at how well it will play with those who aren't at least familiar with the TV show, they do a decent job of describing the 'verse' at the beginning, but it goes by pretty quick.

I was trying to think back to the music so that I could comment on it, I really did love the music that Firefly had to offer, unfortunately the movie had so much going on I didn't even process the music on it's own on a first watching so I'll have to see it again to comment fully (darn the luck). I do know that the music during the closing credits was very nice, including a (if I heard right) single guitar rendition of the Ballad of Serenity.

Again however I really would like to praise the ability of this cast to not only bring life to each of their characters, but also there is real chemistry between all of them and it shows on screen, I will go on record as saying there is Not a bad actor in the entire group. Special praise should really be handed out to Summer Glau who did a beautiful job, she had a lot to handle and didn't seem to flinch at all. Also Nathan Fillion had a lot of weight to carry in this movie, which he carried in near perfect like fashion.

Since I have no doubt become confusing and really over wordifying in what I've typed out I figure I might as well end this in a fun manner that everyone can enjoy, so check this out, I tried to answer as honestly as I could.

You scored as Capt. Mal Reynolds. The Captain. You are the captain of the ship, so the crew are your responsibility. You just want to do the job, get paid and keep flying. Why is that always so hard?

Capt. Mal Reynolds


81%

Hoban 'Wash' Washburne


81%

River Tam


75%

Simon Tam


69%

The Operative


69%

Zoe Alleyne Washburne


63%

Kaylee Frye


63%

Inara Serra


56%

Shepherd Derrial Book


56%

Jayne Cobb


44%

Which Serenity character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

September 30, 2005

Out Of Gas

So heres the thing. It kind of sucks when you are just trying to do nothing but sit back and watch the season premier of Alias, when all of a sudden you catch a flash of yellowish orange coming somewhere to your side. It gets even worse when you look over and realize that the flash was indeed the power cord on your laptop burning up. Of course you do learn exactly how fast you can move.

So yeah, that was my night, fun huh? The wonderful part of course is that the battery on the thing is dead and I am totally unable to get some stuff off of there that I need. That means I get to rush out the door earlier then anticipated in the morning after I wake up and rush around trying to find replacement. Happily tomorrow I also am planning on going to the first possible showing of Serenity, then on the walk home stopping by the store and grabbing the soundtrack. That'll at least give me something to listen to while I clean up the mess of a system I have here and actually do my backups that I just tonight realized how bad it is that I do not have.

Oh yeah, one nice piece of news I've read about lately on the message boards is apparently there will be an official Firefly score CD or CD set released in November, that of course I feel is a Must buy.

This spot was to be reserved to show off the Blue Sun T-shirt that I will be sporting tomorrow, unfortunately I can't get the picture from my phone to the comp here without the software that resides on the laptop... angering, very angering

I have no real good points for this post I suppose, but you learn anything from me right now it should be Back Up what you can, even if it's just some logins in a notebook, I wouldn't condone this for the most sensitive of information but for some things it is fine, though like me you should still keep the notebook in a very safe location, it did however save me a lot of time tonight.

September 20, 2005

Bushwhacked

Thats right I'm gonna be one of the cool kids from now on.. That is as soon as this sweet t-shirt gets here. Then there is also the Serenity soundtrack that I plan on buying on my way back from the theater on the 30th (when Serenity comes out of course)

I've gotta be honest, this Firefly obsession I've had recently is going to break me, I'm usually very and now I'm throwing cash around on right and left, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. Of course I still also have to keep a little careful, I have to redo my bathroom from the ground up, and I have to buy the plane tickets for my yearly Michigan trip soon.

Curse you Joss Whedon if I ever meet you I don't know if I'd be forced to shake your hand or steal your wallet...

Hmm, must come up with get rich quick scheme that works, this will allow me to do the honest thing and shake hands instead of wallet stealing. Plus it'll have the bonus of lots and lots of money.. Yes lots and lots of money, you can't buy happiness without money....

......I'll do it tomorrow sometime after I'm done with all my procrastinating

September 18, 2005

Mel from the comments was

Mel from the comments was kind enough to do a little footwork and came up with a working link for the full (58 mb) gag reel zip file. So for those who haven't seen it yet check here and hopefully it'll still be up.. Fair warning ahead of time though it's not safe for work or for the young ones as there is a bit of cussin' but really what gag reel is complete without a little of that?

http://www.pxsonline.com/movies/?C=M;O=A

Mel was also kind enough to scour through the message boards and come up with a link to an mp3 of the DVD Easter Egg of Adam Baldwin singing "The Hero of Canton" I grabbed it and uploaded it for easy access, it won't stay up forever but it'll be there for a bit.

AdamBaldwinHeroOfCanton.mp3

I recommend watching the actual video of it still, it's much funnier to see him actually sing it and not just hearing it.

In case you are interested here is the link Mel supplied that I grabbed that from

http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=13&t=3751

There are a lot of good mp3s from the show there including opening and closing themes.


Lets see, is there anything new non Firefly/Serenity related for me....

Well I did sign up for Pokerstars I even tried a fun (play money) game, I got creamed horribly, I'm thinking maybe I should do some more reading before throwing myself in headfirst like that again. This wasn't your regular run of the mill losing, this was a beating of stupendous proportions... Gee thanks Wil for making it sound so cool and fun, you humiliated me I hope you're happy!

I also got my hands on the LOST dvd set and flew through them in just a couple of days, I knew I would like the show but schedule conflicts kept me from seeing it on TV. I feel confident when I say that LOST is such a good show FOX would have been forced to cancel it in a season or less. I'll most likely be adjusting my TiVo schedule so that I can pick up season 2 as it happens.

On a final note it's time once again for me to shill this writing space out begging for free stuff

First up Free Ipod Nano itty bitty but powerful, come one how could you not want one?

Next we have a classic Free iPod Yes this is for the older model, but think of it this way, you don't have to take the iPod you can also choose to receive a $250 certificate for iTunes thats a pretty healthy amount of music no? I could really use 2 more people to sign up and complete offers on this one.

We move onto iPod shuffle again even if you don't need or want the shuffle there is a paypal payment option, in fact they recently upped the amount to a very satisfying $125, how can you go wrong there?

Lastly we come to the mp3player4free link, much like the free iPod link only this one also lets you choose from an iRiver, a Zen Micro, an iPod Mini or $275. So what are you waiting for?

OK time to close this out, even if you don't want to help me get free stuff I'll close out by urging you to take yourself (and anyone else you can bring along with you) out to the movies on Sept. 30 to see Serenity, it would be very nice to make a huge opening weekend.

P.S. I ordered mine now you order yours!

September 10, 2005

The Message

After sending off a mail to Kymberlie about the hilarious Easter Egg on the Firefly DVD set of Adam Baldwin singing the Hero of Canton song I decided to go and see if it was available online from some shady site or the other. Unfortunately I never did find that, however I found something I consider even better. One of the extras from the DVD set is the gag reel they put together for the shows Christmas party (which turned out to be a wrap party as well) but on the DVD the reel seemed short to me. I found out why, that was a cut down version of the real thing.

So what did I find? Why the full gag reel of course. I actually found it in two ways, one big chunk and 4 smaller chunks. Unfortunately the big chunk is so big that I'm a little worried about uploading and sharing it openly. I did pick one of the smaller chunks to share, and I picked very carefully. About 53 seconds into this file one of the greatest gag reel gags I've ever seen in my life starts. It is from the episode titled "The Message". During the scene where the crew of Serenity is standing around the body of Mal and Zoe's old war comrade Tracey listening to his recorded message. I don't want to give the gag away, just keep your eyes on Nathan Fillion. If you have listened to the commentary from the DVD you will probably know what happens.

without any further ado here it is gagreel3.mov in all it's quicktimey goodness (please rightclick and save)

By the way if anyone really wants the full gag reel leave a message and I might be able to get it to you, trust me it is worth the download.

Posted by Pierce at September 10, 2005 12:43 AM | TrackBack
Comments

http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=13&t=3751

Pierce, try this link. You'll have to scroll down quite a ways (a bit past halfway), but you'll see a lot of links (in yellow) to audio rips from the dvds. Near the bottom of that list under "Misc" you'll see Adam's version of 'Hero of Canton'. Enjoy.

Posted by: Mel at September 18, 2005 12:06 AM

http://www.pxsonline.com/movies/?C=M;O=A

Hey, think I found it. Try this link people. I think it's the only active link (or one of the very few) with the 58MB version. Grab it while you can!!

Posted by: Mel at September 17, 2005 11:42 PM

If you could somehow manage to put the whole thing up (60mb), that would be great.

Posted by: Mel at September 17, 2005 11:18 PM

Ooh, fab. Yes, please! Love your blog, by the way.

Posted by: Red at September 15, 2005 04:36 PM

oooh, me too!

Posted by: promo at September 14, 2005 11:41 AM

Oh, you know I want it.

Mmmmmm. Jayne.

Posted by: Kymberlie R. McGuire at September 10, 2005 09:29 AM

September 05, 2005

The Galileo Seven.... errr Five

Just a quick note, if you haven't heard the The 5 Browns yet you really should.

September 05, 2005

Serenity

Before you read further I need to point out that it is very late, I am pretty tired, and I have probably over edited this post to death. Also I am breaking with my recent tradition of using Star Trek episode titles as my post title. It just made more sense to use a title from the 'verse' I am writing about this time. Keeping all of that in mind please, enjoy.

So what have I been up to lately? Easy, I've kept myself knee deep in Firefly. Let me try to explain myself

Back in '02-'03 when Firefly was actually a TV Series I was a big fan, when I heard the show was canceled I was not only upset and depressed but pretty angry as well. It is not often for a show to come along that will stop everything and just watch. Generally when I watch something I also am doing other things. It is an attention thing, I have a difficult time concentrating on just one thing at a time. Firefly was different, it was well it was different and it was wonderful. I can probably count on less than 3 fingers how many times something has upset me enough that I have written a letter. Matter of fact I don't even remember what the other two or so letters were about... But Fox did hear from me on this one!

Over time the sting went away, sure I stayed with the online Browncoats for a while. Unfortunately the attention problem thing hit me and I fell away from the message boards and the sites, I suppose a couple of years can do that. However I never forgot about Firefly, actually up until a few months ago I still had a VHS copy of "The Train Job" episode which I would watch (and enjoy obviously) occasionally.

So last month I decided that since the release of the movie Serenity is coming up I should rent the DVDs from Netflix, I went to my queue and put disc #1 at top spot on my list. A day later it arrived, that night I popped it in the DVD player, watched the pilot episode "Serenity", and after the episode was over I pulled the DVD from the player, put it back in it's envelope sealed it and sent it back. The pilot reminded me that Firefly is NOT a rental Firefly is a Def finite Buy... and buy I did.

A trip to Amazon wielded nice results and soon as the set came to my door. I paced myself only one to two episodes a night, that way I could enjoy it longer and wouldn't risk burning myself out. Once or twice I did fight with myself to watch "just one more episode" but I only cracked once. After about a week I had finished my first rerun through the series, my first impression was something along the lines of "Wow! So much better on DVD" Now remember I loved it on TV but the DVD is just a better experience.

So why do I love Firefly now? Well it's still different, it's still Sweeeeet (A term I have now officially stolen from Joss Whedon), but this time around I was able to completely immerse myself in the show and really realize what all is there. I don't even know where to start with the praise, if you have read much of what most other fans have said I will probably sound like a broken record, but here goes...


The show is just beautiful, the widescreen formatting allows you to take in just that much more detail. You really see how much effort was put into every scene, every planet, every costume, every inch of the ship... It is amazing how well they meshed all the different cultural aspects together.

The writing was excellent, I am a big fan of keeping a continuity and they definitely had that under control. Even though there was always an ?event of the week? there was still an underlying theme to pretty much everything that happened throughout the season. There also was a very good amount of not only character development, but also character history. All that and I didn't even mention how smart the dialog could be, even when it was being dumb. Not only smart but inventive, and emotional as well. Fear, worry, anger, laughter, frustration, sadness, those are just a few of the states you might find yourself in during the course of the show, and honestly I do not have the words to describe it but it is very easy to become so involved that you can feel these emotions along with the crew.

The praise for the creative areas of the show aren't just contained to the writers though, how about the costume designers, constantly coming up with interesting new looks based on different period in different geographical locations. Or translators having to not only take phrases like ?motherless goat of all motherless goats? and translate them into mandarin, but then also having the unenviable task of helping the actors learn to pronounce them once translated. Even the camera work played an important role in helping you ?feel? the mood and atmosphere.

What is there to say about the special effects other than to praise them as top notch. However I feel you really can't appreciate the effects fully until you watch the extras on the DVD that deal with them, very nicely done indeed.

And finally (at least for now) I will talk about the cast, how talented can one group of nine actors be? As you can tell I have watched these episodes more than a couple of times and I cannot find a weak performance. But really their acting performance is only a part of what makes them the perfect group for his show, what makes them perfect or Firefly is that like all of the fans and Joss himself these actors seem to legitimately love the show, like anything else in life if the people involved really really dig what they are doing the end results almost always made all the better because of it.


Now a few linkable goodies for all the Browncoats out there (if you click on a few of them you might even learn if you ARE a Browncoat.. and if you aren't you really should .be)

Official Site Some nice info, very cool wallpapers and even a screen saver. Worth checking out.

Fireflydvd.net Good site with some info on the community, also a nice forum with some good people.

Browncoats: The Official Serenity Fan Site This is where you should go to learn about being a Browncoat.

Here and here are a couple of good pages to look at to understand what the actors are saying when you hear them speak in Chinese. Just think how nice it would be to learn these phrases yourself and use them on the unexpecting.

Last but not least A quiz to see which character you most identify with.

For me the quiz result does fluctuates depending on mood and the amount of honesty I use in answering... But I just now went through it and came up with Mal (63%). So there you have it, this is your Captain speaking and I am telling you to go check out Firefly, hit the sites and on the 30th get yourself in line and go see Serenity.

Posted by Pierce at September 5, 2005 01:52 AM | TrackBack
Comments

btw, set up a custom page on news.google.com then add a custom news search For "serenity movie" with quotes to see lots of great news & reviews for serenity-then check it daily

Posted by: promo at September 14, 2005 11:46 AM

I watched them this summer on DVD since I'd never seen the show before and it's just so good. And I'm in love with Jayne.

Definitely one of my top things to buy soon.

Posted by: Kymberlie R. McGuire at September 9, 2005 07:14 PM