Movie time

* Standard Operating Procedure: Another excellent documetary from Errol Morris. It covers the events at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the total breakdown in, well, everything there. As depressing as one would expect, particularly when you see why the documentary is named Standard Operating Procedure. But, you also wonder, what would I do in the same situation? Would I have reported it? Would I have taken part? Given the conditions there, and given the fact that "enhanced interrogation" was given a green light from what was taking place at Guantanamo Bay, it's tough to say.

I particularly liked the comments from the young African-American soldier who said that if there had been no pictures, nothing would have happened, and that there were no pictures of the actual torture taking place in the interrogation rooms. I also liked his comments on the best music to use to annoy prisoners.

* Bolt: In a lot of ways this is very similar to Standard Operating Procedure. OK, not really. I wasn't expecting much from this, so I was pleasantly surprised. Even though this wasn't a Pixar flick per-se, their imprint was all over it. The CG animation was top-notch, and with John Lasseter as executive producer it definitely felt like a Pixar movie. Actually, in that sense, it maybe felt a little too much like a mix of past Pixar movies, particularly Toy Story 2 (unwanted toy vs unwanted cat) and The Incredibles (all the Bolt action sequences). Nevertheless, it's pretty good, and actually got some applause at the end, something you rarely hear any more at a movie.

* A Christmas Story: Had never seen this movie, but needed to watch something that everyone could watch--kids and grandparents alike. Maria wasn't so interested, but I think everyone else liked it a lot, myself included. A little uneven, but man the funny spots were pretty darn funny. Laughed until I cried when the mom convinces Ralphie's brother to eat his dinner. A good movie.

Gaming Family

Dear Diary: sorry I haven't had a chance to write lately, work and home life have been very busy... but not so busy that we couldn't sit down last night and make ourselves our new Xbox 360 avatars. We'll work on the Mrs. to get hers to join the crowd, even though the last time she played a game on the 360 was almost a year ago.

Oh yes, and this does mean that I got my 360 back from repair, and that I have played some Gears 2 (pretty good), and that I finally got the Impossible Guitar Challenge achievement in Rock Band 2 (but only at Medium... we tried Metallica's "Battery" on Expert with No Fail turned on, and I think we would have failed about 5 seconds into the song.)

Stuff that happened this week

Work has been busy, particularly since I was out 1.5 days due to wife business travel and sick child, so I haven't been able to blog much lately. Here's a catch-up core dump:

• My cell phone broke so I took advantage of that and bought a 3G iPhone. I like it but need to find a good website that reviews iPhone apps. I mean, which is the best flashlight simulation program? I have to know! More on life with iPhone as I get used to it (I will miss hands-free dialing, for one).
• My stupid 360 is still broken. Got delivered yesterday to MS but still hasn't shown up in their system, which of course gives me a real warm fuzzy feeling.
• Since stupid 360 is broken, I can't play Gears of War 2 today. I can buy it but I can't play it.
• I got past the annoying section that I was stuck on in LittleBigPlanet. Now I'm stuck on a different annoying section. The user-created levels are kind of fun, though. There was a Ghostbusters homage level that was pretty funny. Plus, since Anna was home sick yesterday, she spent all morning making what appears to be a fun race level. The level creation tools are very impressive considering you're doing everything with a game controller.
• I finally saw Mad Hot Ballroom on DVD. It was good, very touching, particularly for a parent of a 5th grader like the ones featured in the film. My only gripe is that the second half of the film focused almost too much on the semifinals and finals.
  
• Let's see. Something else happened this week. Hm, what was it? Can't quite... oh, that's right, VIRGINIA WENT BLUE, BABY! Go President Obama. Erase the memory of the past eight years from my mind.

The videogame love-hate relationship blog post

Firstly, the long-anticipated PS3 title LittleBigPlanet. Ever since I saw the trailer for this game, the kids and I have been stoked about getting it. We worked out how to play that cute little recorder song on the piano, we debated where to pre-order it and whether we'd thus get a Nariko costume or a Kratos costume for our future Sackpeople. Ultimately, the reason I got a PS3 was twofold: Blu-Ray playback and LittleBigPlanet.

And now it's here. And it's just as cute as it looked, and is just as wildly creative as promised.

And it is also hard as hell.

I'm currently stuck on the Frida level in South America. I have no idea how I will ever get past this level, let alone how my kids will ever get past this level. Luckily, it's not just that I'm a lame-ass gamer (which I will admit that I am), I've seen other posts with people having similar problems with the looseness of the Sackboy controls and the difficulty of some of the story mode levels.

Hey, but that's OK, right? There's always the user-created levels! This would be a valid option--IF the servers were running consistently. It was impossible to get online last night. The one night I was able to get online, performance was spotty. I know it's a massive title, but it's not like there's 50 million PS3s out there. It's running third to the Wii and the 360 in current-generation installed base. Get the servers online! (Apparently another PS3 game, SOCOM, is having even worse server issues.)

People can (and do) complain about having to pay Microsoft for Xbox Live Gold membership, but when Halo 3 shipped, you could get online and play the friggin' game. When Gears 2 ships in a couple of weeks, you'll be able to get online and play the friggin' game. You get what you pay for.

Oh, and by the way, in that previous paragraph, when I say "you'll be able to get online," I literally mean you and not me. Because as previously posted, my stupid 360 is in its stupid free UPS shipping box on its way to stupid Texas to get stupidly repaired/replaced for the second stupid time. So you'll be playing Gears 2 in a couple weeks, but I'll still be waiting for my third 360. Grrr. Like I said, love-hate.

Three movie reviews

I will list them chronologically, which will also order them in ascending positive review points:

* High School Musical 3: Yes, if you didn't know it before, you know it now, I am the father of a tween girl. There was more entertainment value listening to the reactions of all the tween girls in the audience during key scenes: when Troy and Gabriella almost kiss, when Troy takes off his shirt, when Troy and Gabriella almost kiss again, when Troy and Gabriella finally do kiss already. The movie itself? Production values are way higher than previous iterations, but the songs were less memorable. A few good dance routines (the opening game, Sharpay and Ryan's big Broadway number), but other than that, as the tweens would say, whatevs.

* Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure: Wanted to watch something with the kids, I wanted to order it in high-def over my Xbox 360, so Bill & Ted it was. The kids enjoyed it, and it's a guilty pleasure to watch. The effects are pretty lame when you see it 20 years down the road. Personally, Jane Wiedlin was always my favorite Go-Go's member, so it's always fun seeing her as Joan of Arc. And the time travel conundrums were a good lead-in to...

* Primer: OK, I know I'm late to the party on this one... it apparently won a Sundance festival prize in 2004, so it's been out there for four years. I think I saw it mentioned on a list of movies that cost virtually nothing to make (this cost $7K), and it reminded me to add it to the Netflix queue. As implied in the paragraph above, it's a time travel movie. I really liked it--there was very believable techie dialog at the beginning, they did a great job of shooting on (I assume) digital video to make it look like film (edit: nope, shot on Super16!), and it really made you concentrate on what was going on towards the end. Oh, and it's short at 74 minutes, so practically a single treadmill session! I'm still not sure I followed it all that well, but better that than being spoon-fed like in most films. (That whole "golden compass" thing in The Golden Compass still rankles.) So if you've never seen this film, go watch it. I think you can even watch it for free in its entirety on (what's left of) Google Video--here is the link--or you can watch it streaming from Netflix if you are so equipped.

The OLD Xbox Experience

Yes, there's lots of talk about the New Xbox Experience coming in November from Microsoft. Avatars, Netflix movies, disc installs to hard drive, yada yada yada.

I'm currently reliving the OLD Xbox Experience. Namely, last night while trying to get through Rock Band 2's Impossible Guitar Challenge, my 360 froze up. Right in the middle of "Bodhisattva" by Steely Dan. Tried to power down and back up? Red ring.

Tried it again today: this time it froze in the middle of "Ramblin' Man" by The Allman Brothers Band. Power cycle. Red ring.

Yep, system is going back for repair or replacement yet again. Last year it was right before Halo 3 launched. This year, it's two weeks from Gears of War 2's launch. Isn't that just precious?

At least this time I have LittleBigPlanet to occupy my time while it's gone for repair.

Political one-liner of the day

Courtesy of Andrew Sullivan: "Joe the Plumber has now had more press conferences than Sarah Palin."

Gotta spend it somehow

Obama's campaign is so flush with money that it's probably going to have a hard time spending it all between now and the election. I saw that they were buying a half-hour block of prime-time network time on all three channels, which will run a cool two million bucks.

And then I saw this post from Kotaku, where the campaign has purchased virtual billboards in the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise (see left).

There you go, politics and videogames. Perfect for an inside-the-Beltway video game fan.

ATM (late) recap

Haven't had a chance to post this week (being out nearly the entire previous week of work will do that to you), but wanted to mention my better half's awesome performance at last Sunday's Army Ten Miler. She beat me and placed in the top 10% of her age/gender class.

I didn't train for this one and it showed... was struggling to keep up with 8:30 miles. It was a bit too warm, too, but that's no excuse. Just gotta do those long weekend runs out where there are actual hills.

Maria is lobbying to do our crazy "half-marathon one week, 10 miler the next week" thing again. Yipes.

Peanuts as Watchmen

Posting a link to a Kotaku article, not because of the story, but because of the accompanying art. Who in the heck thought of making various Peanuts characters into various Watchmen characters? They deserve a medal of some sort, or at least a hearty handclasp. I particularly like Linus as the Comedian, and of course Snoopy as Rorschach.

EDIT: Sorry Kotaku, found the original link, I think.

Better Evan than Odd: Three Artists Walk into a Bar...

Noted political pundit on McCain

David Letterman, of all people, had a common-sense response to McCain's suspending his campaign and flying back to Washington (and leaving him without a guest as well). In a nutshell, he said "You don't suspend your campaign. You keep your campaign going and have your vice-presidential candidate step in and take over for you. Why isn't that happening? Is there a problem with that?"

Wow. Nail, here's the hammer, right on your head. If Palin can't be considered capable for running the campaign while McCain goes back to do whatever it is he thinks he's going to do about this crisis, how in the hell can anyone believe they consider her capable to RUN THE DAMN COUNTRY in case something happens to a 72-year-old veteran!

Mildred Pierce and Stop-Loss

Two quickie movie reviews. Maria had gotten Mildred Pierce from the library so we watched it one evening. A good movie, not fantastic, but good. Lots of snappy dialog like they had back in the day. Joan Crawford looked like someone in the movie but we couldn't quite place who... she was still kind of good looking in a harsh angular way at this point. Today it'd make an excellent training video for sexual harassment. Anyhow, I'd always meant to watch it, and now I have. Check.

A while back I watched Stop-Loss on the treadmill. Directed by Kimberly Pierce (sp?), who also did Boys Don't Cry, it was again another well-done film, not spectacular, but solid. The opening gunfight was as tense as they come and was very well edited. The rest of the film kind of came down from that, but of course it wasn't meant to be an action film. It was good to see them avoid what a clichéd Hollywood film would have done at certain key points, specifically the avoidance of a bedroom scene that seemed destined to happen, and particularly the ending, which was more depressing than most endings I could think of. A little too obvious in its political leanings, but hey, since I lean that way, I didn't mind it. Good film.

Coming to a spam filter near you:

Saw this via Daily Kos via BoingBoing. Hilarious!

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude. 

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you. 

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe. 

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred. 

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds. 

Yours Faithfully 

Minister of Treasury Paulson

The Nation: Bailout Satire

Videogame sound quality beats CD

At least as far as Metallica's new album "Death Magnetic" is concerned, that is. There'd been some comments recently that the audio quality on the CD was overly compressed, and that in fact the audio quality of the songs in Guitar Hero (where the tracks were released day-and-date alongside the album) was considerably better.

Now there appears to be some objective data backing up those claims. Kotaku linked to an article claiming that the sound engineer has disavowed the mastering on the CD. The same article links to a YouTube video where someone had ripped the CD and compared it to the Guitar Hero audio. Looks pretty clear that the CD is waaaaay overcompressed (as in dynamic range, not as in MP3 compression). The waveforms look like the ones I end up with, but I work with science lectures and no one cares if there's no dynamic range.

Should be interesting how Metallica responds to this. And no, I'm not a big metalhead... in fact, it was Metallica's damned "Enter Sandman" that kept me from getting to the last group of songs in Rock Band/Guitar/Hard difficulty.


Engineer Disowns Metallica's "Death Magnetic"

Random Fringe thoughts

I've still only gotten through about half of the new Fox series Fringe on the ol' MythTV box--I got delayed due to finishing up Stop-Loss (review to come one of these years). Here are some initial thoughts:

• From the outset it was too reminiscent of too many other things, mainly Lost (plane crash) and X-Files (title sequence, gore factor, hot FBI agent).
• I thought that landing a plane via auto-pilot was straining credulity. Then I saw any number of other things that strained it worse. You think Harvard would have that much space unused for 20 years? Puh-leeze! There are other credulity-strainers that I'm leaving out... and I'm only half-way through the show!
• I like the attempts at comedy but the rest of the writing is pretty lame.
• I despise the location titles! I guess they couldn't overlay it in the corner of the frame, because that would be even more reminiscent of X-Files. But having them as gigantic floating extruded 3D letters? I'm tired of them... and I'm only half-way through the show!

Having said all that, I'll probably finish it and watch another episode or two. But by then Dancing With The Stars will be back on and I can drop it. 

The most important movie review I will ever post here

Not really.

We re-watched Ice Age 2 over the weekend. Boy is it horrible. Here's how one should watch Ice Age 2: rip the movie to a nice editable format like DV or MJPEG. Edit out all parts of the movie that don't contain Scrat. Recompress to H.264. Watch the nice 5-10 minute Scrat short movie you've just made and laugh.

McCain comments: two political ones, one technical one

Technical comment: I noticed in one of the wide shots of McCain's speech that they had blurred the image on the video screen backdrop in only the part of the screen directly behind him, so that when they cut to his close-up, you got a nice fake depth-of-field look. Very smart. Nice move.

Political comment #1: the rampant hypocrisy present in the Republican party right now makes my brain want to explode. They're claiming that electing McCain will somehow change things. How will allowing the Rs to retain control of the White House do that, exactly? Please! McCain didn't become the Republican nominee by maintaining his maverick status, he became it by casting it aside and by embracing W, both figuratively and literally. How else does one explain McCain's being against torture (of all things) before voting for it? As always, Jon Stewart and The Daily Show did a great job of highlighting other Republican hypocrites, including, yes, Sarah Palin.

Political comment #2: criticizing Obama for being a "community organizer." Loved the one-liner sent in to Daily Kos: "Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor."

Two more beach movies

I totally forgot about two other movies we watched while vacationing.

Movie #1: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. About halfway through this movie I thought "I wonder if they're going to manage to keep Marisa Tomei naked in every single scene she's in?" Sadly, that didn't happen. It was a good, if depressing, movie about a train wreck of a family involved in a train wreck of a robbery. It's one of those non-chronological overlapping various-points-of-view films, and it's handled pretty well, although not as well as something like, say, Amores Perros or (dare I say it?) Pulp Fiction. Overall, though, definitely recommended for the performances and the dialog. And Marisa Tomei.

Movie #2: Kiki's Delivery Service. It's been a while since the kids and I have watched this all the way through. Boy, I love this film. It's just such a sweet movie, with wonderful characters, an interesting alternative universe, and of course stellar animation. I'm not sure what else to say about it other than just watch it already. Not as surreal as some of Miyazaki's other films you may have seen (Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away) but still a fantastic film.

Beach movies

Or, more correctly, movies we all watched while at the beach.

First up was Batman Begins. Maria hadn't seen it so she was curious after seeing The Dark Knight. We told the kids they could watch it but that we would warn them if anything particularly bad or scary was coming up. Language was mild, so that was good kid-wise. And it's pretty violent, but we fast-forwarded through a couple of spots, and most of the fight sequences were so chopped up that you couldn't really tell specifics on how he was trashing the bad guys. It's a good movie--might make a good Blu-Ray demo disc--but I think The Dark Knight is a better one, even if a bit too long. I think Katie Holmes made a big mistake in not signing back up for the sequel, and she probably does too. I'll ask her next time I'm hanging out with her and Tom and the family.

Next was Ella Enchanted. The kids hid WAY more at this movie than at Batman Begins. Is it because they've been desensitized to violence? No, it's because that they have ALWAYS hated movies where characters get misunderstood and then bad things happen as a result. (I remember going to see Elf with Anna when she was 6 and her being mortified that everything had gone wrong when Will Farrell was walking alone through the snow.) And misunderstanding is basically the entire deal with Ella. They liked it but could barely stand watching it in spots. I could definitely stand watching it because Anne Hathaway is drop-dead gorgeous. Other than that, it was OK but only just. The lighting and photography made it look like an ABC made-for-TV movie. It tried to be kind of Shrek-ey with its mix of fairy tales and pop-culture references, but didn't succeed as well. The soundtrack had some good tunes (particularly Queen's "Somebody to Love") but this was also a little too reminiscent of Shrek.

So, ultimately, good thing Ella had Anne Hathaway in it.

More Coulton/Rock Band tracks (for a good cause)

Wow, just read this in an article about the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). Jonathan Coulton was there and announced that there will be a $3 PAX song pack released next week, all the proceeds of which will go to Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity. I know one of the other artists (MC Frontalot), but I love Coulton's "Skullcrusher Mountain," so I'm definitely getting that song pack.

Ars Technica: Rock Band 2 rocks to Coulton early at PAX

Olympic technology

This Olympics there was a lot of talk about new technologies and how they had affected the competitions, like the special swimsuits and keeping track of timings to the thousandth of a second.

I know they're over now, but I wanted to mention something I noticed thanks to good ol' HDTV: although technology might have influenced some events, it was great to see that the track and field athletes still had their numbers pinned onto their high-tech materials with good old safety pins.

That's about the only thing we have in common with those guys when we do our 10-mile races... darn pins.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Wow, two opening night movies in a row! My sister must have been in town. Unfortunately, after my kind of OK review of Tropic Thunder, I've probably got to reconsider raising its rating a bit compared to Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

It was one of those experiences where you're at a movie, and other people are laughing, but you're not. You are either not getting the joke, or the other people think it's funnier than you do, or it's forced laughter. I think it was the latter. There were a few amusing bits, but nothing to warrant coming close to labeling this a comedy.

I didn't find the script or the plot particularly good, the characters were bordering on insipid--not quite there like in other Allen films but close--and a lot of the shots were flat out bad. I'm debating whether ScarJo can in fact act.

The one bright spot: Penelope Cruz. Awesome as always. Made me want to watch Volver again.

Olympic "controversies": my take

Because I know America has been waiting for my commentary on these important issues.

First, the "faked" fireworks in the opening ceremony, where giant footsteps gradually led to the stadium. I watched that part and I thought the commentators made it clear that the footage that was being shown was animated and not "real." I guess they could have said something like "Attention people! You are looking at fake CGI fireworks! Do not be deceived!" It seemed pretty clear to me the way they did it. Besides, the rest of the fireworks displays easily blew away (pun intended) the footsteps.

Second, the little girl who lip-synced a song. Who was the director of the opening ceremony? Zhang Yimou. What's his day job? He directs movies in China. What do Chinese movie directors do all the time? Overdub their actors. Particularly those directors who direct in Hong Kong, because basically anywhere in Hong Kong is too noisy to record live audio. And, taking it even farther, there are supposedly some Hong Kong movie stars whose real voices have never been heard in their films, because while they're attractive enough, their voices aren't all that hot. Or for instance, Jet Li, whose Cantonese was apparently pretty bad and got overdubbed in most of his movies because of it. So, since everything gets overdubbed anyway, why not just use someone else's voice? My point is that it's not unheard of to do this in Chinese film, so it's not surprising that a Chinese film director would do the same thing in the opening ceremony.

Tropic Thunder

My sister is in town and she wanted to see Tropic Thunder so we went last night. I think that's the first movie I've seen on opening night since Return of the King. But I digress. Actually, can I digress so early in a post? OK, now THAT is a digression. Let's start again.

My sister is in town and she wanted to see Tropic Thunder so we went last night. I liked it--didn't love it but liked it enough to recommend it. There are some very funny scenes in it, and some very quotable lines (the monologue on HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray was priceless, as was the discussion of going "full retard," even if some special interest groups took offense). Robert Downey Jr. is fantastic, even though I only caught maybe half of his dialogue. Boy, between this and Iron Man, quite the summer for him.

The other notable appearance is Tom Cruise. I'll say no more for those who didn't even realize he was in it, other than to say he was hilarious.

I do like movies about making movies -- for instance, The Player, Bowfinger, The Stunt Man, Wag the Dog (OK, that's a movie about fabricating a war but kind of the same idea) -- so I had high expectations for Tropic Thunder. It wasn't quite up to the level of those other movies, but still worth a view.

One more note. It was ironic that there was a monologue about HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray in this movie, since the entire time I was looking at the slightly-out-of-focus screen and listening to the muffled audio, and I was thinking "My home theater gives a WAY higher quality experience than this crap."

Sackboy Kratos for pre-ordering LBP

Oh my. I think I'm going to have to preorder Little Big Planet even before I get myself a PS3, if it means getting an exclusive Kratos costume for my Sackboy...

360 customer support, or lack thereof

I was trying to help a friend of Theo's get his old red-ringed Xbox 360's 20GB drive moved over to his new Xbox 360 Elite's 120GB drive. Actually, I had been trying to do this over a month ago, when I had the extreme pleasure NOT of talking to Microsoft for an hour and a half on why their data transfer system was not working. At the time the disc included with the transfer cable kept coming up as "unreadable." They gave me lots of things to try, including deleting corrupted files, clearing out the cache with the secret keystroke command, etc.

So yesterday I finally had a chance to update the dashboard, clear out the cache, search for corrupted files, all that junk. Of course, this did not help. The disc still tries to load and then either reports as "unreadable" or gives a gray screen that says something like "This disc must be loaded into an Xbox 360 console." I even tried the disc on my 360 at home. Same problem. Sure sounds like an unreadable disc to me. Doesn't it to you?

Called Microsoft. Talked to one person who immediately transferred me to another person. I tell the second person that I'm trying to help transfer files from one 360 to a new one. He says "Well, you'll need the Data Transfer Kit for that." I tell him I know, I have it, it's already all plugged in, and that the disc turns up as "unreadable" on multiple systems. He then tells me that I've got it connected wrong... he says the old 20GB drive has to be on the OLD console, not the new one. I point out to him that p.5 of the kit's manual says to do it the way I'd done it (old drive attached to NEW console, then 120GB drive plugged in via USB).

I then ask why there is such a reluctance to send me a new disc, when the simplest solution is that the disc is unreadable. After two separate hold times, he grudgingly says they'll send out a whole new kit, and that it'll take... 3 to 4 weeks. I ask if it'd be any faster to just send out the disc rather than the whole thing, since that's the only thing needed, and he says they apparently can't break the kits apart like that.

Ugh. It's really hard to be a 360 booster with support like that.

Believa Pinata

This clip will only be enjoyed, or, for that matter, understood, by Xbox 360 owners who liked both Halo 3 and Viva Pinata. Since I fall into that category, I enjoyed and understood it.

Self-portrait

Not mine, my daughter's.

Leaving Liberty City

OK, call me a wimp, call me a sucky game player, call me Ishmael, whatever. I've decided I'm going to probably give up on finishing Grand Theft Auto IV. I'd really like to finish it, but I just can't spend the time to do so given how its save system works.

Basically, the game auto-saves after you finish a mission, and you can drive to a safehouse and save the game. That's it for saving.

The problem is with missions like the one that killed it for me, "Deconstruction for Beginners." Since I've saved at the safehouse after finishing the previous mission, I have to do the following:

• Get a car
• Drive from Queens to Manhattan (takes a while)
• Talk to Playboy X (at least you can skip cut scenes)
• Get into a car
• Drive a long way to somewhere else in Manhattan (takes a long while)
  
• Ride an elevator to the top of a tall building (takes a while)
• Snipe three guards (hard to locate)
• Ride back down to ground level (takes a while)
• Shoot many people at a construction site (takes a while if you're being careful)
• Kill the boss before he escapes

So, if you fail anywhere along the way (like you get shot, or you fall, or the boss escapes), you get to start all over from the beginning. If I could skip the driving it would be fine. Maybe there's a way to skip the driving. Anyhow, I need something that I can save at any point and drop out of the game, due to sleep or running out of time or whatever. And it doesn't look like GTA is that game, unfortunately.

The Dark Knight

Got a chance to see it last night. Have to leave in about 10 minutes to get the kids at camp so this won't be exhaustive, and of course it will be spoiler-free.

The movie was very good, probably the best of the comic book movies this summer. Iron Man was more fun certainly, but this was more thought-provoking, way better directed, well-written, and very well acted. Heath Ledger deserves all the praise he's gotten for his turn as The Joker and then some. I can see why some reviews have said the movie kind of falls flat when he's not on the screen. I liked Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent where some reviews have not. Maggie Gyllenhaal (I'm sure that's not spelled right) has kind of a thankless role but does a good job with it.

Issues? It really is kinda long. To its credit, it doesn't drag nearly as much as Hellboy 2 did, even with a 25% longer runtime. But even so, it's long. I will also have to revisit Batman Begins to hear what is up with Batman's voice. I didn't much like it in this one; granted, Bruce Wayne is trying to disguise his voice and sound tough to instill fear etc., but it still sounded odd.

I'll definitely try to see it again, hopefully at an IMAX theater.

Wanted review

We were in NYC this weekend, and by the time we finished dinner all the Dark Knight showings were sold out until 10:30 or 11:00. Since that's way past our bedtime, our options were the new X-Files movie (which has gotten soundly trashed by the critics) and Wanted (which apparently has a 70% favorable rating on RottenTomatoes).

I didn't want to be disappointed by the X-Files movie, so we saw Wanted instead.

Big mistake.

I really hated Wanted. It wanted soooo badly to be clever with its direction and cinematography, or cool like The Matrix. In fact it's such an obvious Matrix ripoff (unbelieving neo-phyte, too-cool black group leader, super-hot female ass-kicker/love interest, many guns) I'm shocked it wasn't immediately dismissed by reviewers because of it. Unlike The Matrix, though, it had stupid juvenile dialog and an absolutely moronic plot. "The Loom of Fate"? Excuse me? The friggin' LOOM of friggin' FATE?!?! Oooh, and the secret code? It's BINARY! Ooooh! Binary code! How high-tech and cool and stuff!

Only redeeming points to this movie? 1) Set in Chicago. 2) It was rated R so you actually got to see and hear adult things, instead of obligatory PG-13-level sex and violence. 3) Angelina Jolie was of course hot, although she could use a good turkey sandwich with a side of cranberry sauce.

Movie Catsup

No, ketchup. Catch-up, sorry, CATCH-UP.

Saw Hellboy 2 last weekend while everyone else was going to see The Dark Knight. I believe that I was a victim of both high expectations and poor image quality. There had been so many raves for the movie, and I was such a big fan of the first one, that I was really thinking good things for the sequel. To be sure, there were some good things about it and some funny lines, and Guillermo Del Toro is wonderfully inventive. It just didn't really win me over completely, and inexplicably seemed to drag quite a bit in spots. And yes, the projection seemed dark, and some scenes had that telltale digital-film-not-real-film blurriness.

I just finished Lars and the Real Girl, which Maria recommended to me. I really didn't like this movie at all. Maybe it made me uncomfortable since the lead character was clearly ill. But beyond that, his brother was very unlikeable, the general practitioner clearly overstepped her bounds in suggesting that everyone play along, and the premise of the film really wasn't set up very well. It was trying to be quirky and touching at the same time, and I just found it uncomfortable. Plus, dude, those dolls are like $7K. Where does Lars find that kind of scratch? Anyhow, the things I did like: Emily Mortimer (also the only thing I liked about the Pink Panther remake which I had the extreme misfortune to see last summer), Patricia Clarkson (always quite fetching), and the noose made out of a USB cable.

Font humor

Spent today in a class that reviewed for teachers when to use some fonts and when not to use others, so seeing this video today on Digg was timely. Although I have no idea why the hero to all the fonts is... well, can't spoil that. Anyhow, cute and good production values.

Edit: waaah, I was going to embed it but it's too wide. Darn artsy-fartsy widescreen videos. Here's the link instead.

E3 press conferences

Not like I went to E3, sadly. I watched the press conferences on G4TV. My quick comments:

Microsoft: Glad they're reworking the interface. Avatars are a total Mii-ripoff and is almost embarassing. It's cool that they're working with Netflix: I might actually use the "watch now" service. Love the idea of being able to purchase things for my Xbox via the website, as well as copying games over to the drive for convenience. Now if they'd just lower the 120GB drive's price down to ridiculously expensive instead of obscenely expensive. Will probably get Lips, will definitely get Viva Pinata 2 and Gears 2, less sure about the goofy EyeToy ripoff game or the latest SceneIt.

Nintendo: Kids are excited about Animal Crossing for Wii and new Pokemon Ranger. Other than that, snore. The Wiimote add-on for more precise tracking is interesting but it sounds like it's not backwards compatible, and another frisbee-catching-dog game isn't doing anything for me. And Wii Music? Ugh. Looks dumb dumb dumb. Just because Miyamoto created it doesn't make it good. (Edit: glad to see that Ars thinks the same thing, even after having played it)

Sony: I want Little Big Planet.

All three: My comment to a friend via email was "Man, they don't pay Steve Jobs enough money." I'm so used to seeing Stevenotes and how friggin' good they are, that I don't realize how abysmally horrible other companies' presentations are. Don Mattrick of Microsoft was awful. Reggie Fils-Aime (Nintendo) was arrogant, and Cammie Dunaway (Nintendo) couldn't even pronounce "Pokemon" correctly, and it's one of their A-list properties. Jack Tretton (Sony) was at least a little self-deprecating, but still boring on the whole.

Delta movie

I meant to blog this a while back.

Hadn't flown Delta Airlines anywhere in quite some time, but recently did so for work. Like the good little boy that I am, I watched the in-flight safety video. It was REALLY good. The lighting, the camera angles, the editing, the actors. Seriously, I can't believe I'm talking about an in-flight safety video either, but I really liked it.

WALL-E

Packed up the family and went to see WALL-E on Sunday. I'm not sure I was struck agog by it as the vast majority of critics have been (it's got something like a 96% positive rating over at Rotten Tomatoes), but it was very good and quite moving in spots. It owes an AWFUL lot to E.T., though: that took it down a peg or two in my book. On the plus side, it's wonderfully subversive: how many other movies can tell its (adult) audience "Hey, you're fat pigs that are trashing the earth and only exist to buy stuff at Wal-Mart!" And it's interesting to see how the kids reacted to this potential future.

The CGI was top-notch, as is to be expected at this point for a Pixar film. Loved the persistent nods to Apple, too: the iPod video and the Mac startup sound play an important part, and "Macintalk" got a credit for the voice of Otto.

As a very few people know, I love movies that start out with little to no dialog (e.g.: 2001, Once Upon a Time in the West), so that alone makes me partial to WALL-E. Not sure it's my favorite Pixar film but it's up there.

Music humor

My kids are at a day music camp for a few weeks and are both playing guitar there. They got in the car the other day and the following exchange ensued:

"Dad, guess what we learned today? A, B, C, D, and E!"
"That's nice."
"Guess what we're going to learn tomorrow?"
"What"
"EFFIN' G! (giggle giggle giggle)"

Get it? F and G? Effin' G? Ha ha ha!

They're grounded. (Not really, I actually thought it was pretty effin' funny.)

Tech support fun

I've recently gotten some excellent technical support for some odd reason. Latest example was last night from HP. But let me back up a bit and tell why I had to call them.

On Monday, Maria's computer, a HP Slimline, just up and clicked off in the middle of running. Would not power back up. I called customer service, told them the symptoms, told them I tried plugging into a separate outlet, but it appeared the power supply was dead. They concurred and FedExed me a new power supply on Tuesday. (Nice of them to give me the option to repair it myself rather than have to send in the entire computer somewhere.)

Last night (Wednesday), I set out to replace the dead power supply. Turns out, since this was a Slimline, the operation was trickier than normal, and none of the online documents described how to get the power supply out. So I called tech support. The first person I got was able to walk me through taking apart the computer. No escalation to Tier 2 or 3... very first person. She was exceedingly patient, gave me some hints on what to do, and even verified the steps I took when I put it all back together... and I mean ALL back together. In addition to removing all the drives, I even had to unscrew the motherboard to give the power supply enough clearance to be maneuvered out.

Anyhow, got it all back together, took it over to its normal table, plugged it in, and... STILL no power? What was going on? Was it some kind of fuse or reset button on the motherboard? Did I manage to blow something while taking it completely apart? How could two power supplies be bad?

The tech politely suggested that I try a different power cord. Well, sure, I'll try that, but c'mon, when has a power cord just failed spontaneously like that?

Yep. It was the power cord. Ugh. All that work and it was the friggin' power cord.

Anyhow, props to HP for some excellent support. Stupid power cord.

Wii statistics

I skimmed this post on Kotaku where they crunch some numbers that were just released by Nintendo generated by Wii owners who opt-in to the Nintendo Channel. Maybe a bit skewed as a result, but still fascinating. Bottom line is that if you own a Wii, you probably play the hell out of Guitar Hero, Wii Sports and Wii Play, and almost nothing else.

On a side note, we saw Guitar Hero III on the Wii today and Anna and Theo couldn't get over how awful the graphics were compared to Rock Band on the 360. It'll be interesting to compare apples to apples and see Rock Band on the Wii, to demonstrate just how underpowered the Wii is.

News: Nintendo Channel Reveals Hard Truths...

Crystal Skull abridged

My blogging hero, Mark R., linked to this abridged script for Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skullbleep. It is totally awesome and thus I must also link to it.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: The Abridged Script

PS to Mr. R: I wasn't one of those people who were appalled by Crystal Skull... luckily I hadn't gotten my hopes up for it.

Unaffected

My children are in no danger of the tomatoes out there that have salmonella. Firstly, Maria only gets cherry tomatoes. Second, I've had to pay my kids to eat tomatoes.

Charles Moskos

I read his obituary in the paper yesterday. He's best known as the creator of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military, but he was best known to me as a Northwestern University professor. I took his "Social Problems: Norms and Deviants" course as a junior. The majority of the grade in the class was a research paper, and for that paper I wrote about UFOs as a social problem. I even arranged to talk to J. Allen Hynek, noted UFO researcher (as in creator of the phrase "close encounters of the third kind") and Northwestern professor emeritus, about my paper. Grade? Nailed it. I have to find it and post it sometime.

But I digress. Moskos was a popular NU professor. May he rest in peace.

My Crystal Skull Hurts

So we bundled up the kiddos and went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last Friday. Kiddos really liked it. I think both of them put it before Raiders. I hate to say this, but maybe that's why I didn't like it--I just wanted something a little more than what would be enjoyable to an almost-ten- and almost-eight-year-old.

I mean, I know you always have to suspend the disbelief big-time in these movies. But my disbelief suspension reservoir drained quite a bit when Indy survived that thing he really shouldn't have survived at the beginning of the movie (spoiler free review here folks). Then it sprung multiple leaks when those spooky monkey native guys attacked them. What, were they just waiting around for years until Dr. Jones arrived? And no comments from Dr. Jones, not even "Jeez, what's with the spooky monkey guys?"

I liked seeing Karen Allen, I didn't even mind Shia LeBoof or however you spell his name. There just wasn't enough plot, and the action scenes were either rehashes of previous Indy movies, rehashes of other movies (oh my god, how can I be comparing an Indiana Jones movie to National Treasure of all things?), or so overly CGI-ed that it didn't impress like the older movies.

Bottom line: I liked Iron Man way better. You may now order me my "I'm an Old Fuddy-Duddy" button.

And while I'm posting about fake guitar games...

I called EA today to ask about my friggin' wireless guitar controller for Rock Band. Interestingly they said they were backordered on them (cough remanufacturing cough) but that they were sending out a free wired guitar to people who were waiting for their guitars. I'd rather have a wireless one, but hey, if they want to send me a free guitar, I'll take it.

Guitar Hero R.I.P.?

I wondered why Kotaku posted something about the death of Guitar Hero today. Then I saw the video for the upcoming DS version of Guitar Hero and understood. Ars Technica also has a post about it. Basically, it makes it look utterly, totally lame. And is that really Scott Weiland? Oh my God.

Guitar Hero DS: a new trailer, some bad, bad ideas (Ars)

In NYC, it easy to get taxi

Since it's Wednesday, I thought the only game-related thing that would make me laugh until I cried would be Zero Punctuation, or Penny Arcade.

I didn't expect it to be a review of the upcoming Incredible Hulk game on Gamespot.

"HULK TIRED OF TYPING ABOUT HULK GAME!"

The Incredible Hulk Hands-On

The Golden Compass

One could either look at this film as a dumbed-down version of the Pullman book, or a simplified version. I'm not sure I was a big enough fan of the book to consider it dumbed-down. It was definitely simplified and probably easier to follow for younger kids. I read the story summary on Wikipedia and even THAT wasn't easy to follow (although the film certainly makes it more clear that Dust equals original sin, even if they never call it that). I thought the young girl playing Lyra did a great job, showing the character's determination and wildness. Nicole Kidman was all right as Mrs. Coulter, James Bond is hardly in the movie as Lord Asriel, and all the Magisterium people are adequately creepy, with Count Dracula-Dooku-Saruman yet again cast as the big baddie. SFX were good, yay polar bears.

Ultimately I think I'm going to have to re-read the books, though. I remember thinking that the writing was much better than, say, the Harry Potter books, but reading those story summaries had me thinking "Is that really what happened? Jeez, what a mess!" Maybe if I read them again it'll sink in better. Oh, sorry, back to the movie. It was fine, I think Anna would really enjoy it. I wonder if it did well enough internationally to warrant the second and third films... I kind of think it didn't.

Iron Man

Quick review of the movie and of the moviegoing experience:

Movie: I liked it a lot. Not ga-ga over it--it seemed to drag towards the end, and the final battle just didn't make sense to me as far as what happened. But it was the acting and the script that really made this film and not the special effects, and ultimately that should be true of every film, even the special effects extravaganzas. Robert Downey Jr. was perfect as Tony Stark, Gwynneth was fine (on multiple levels, he said knowingly, nudge nudge), and there were some great secondary roles (particularly the creepy S.H.I.E.L.D. representative whose name escapes me but you've seen him in a bunch of films).

Moviegoing experience: Whoa, totally sucked. Firstly, the picture quality was quite bad. Movie theaters are going to have to get with the program and realize that people's screens at home are giving way better results. The quality made me want to see it again, but this time at home via Blu-Ray or even a HD download.

Secondly, here we are at an 8PM showing of Iron Man. There are at least 4 or 5 kids in the theater, and I'm talking 3- to 5-year-old kids. Throughout the movie, one of them is talking very loudly. It made Maria mad enough that she basically swore off going to see movies like Iron Man in the theaters, and I can't blame her for that. It wasn't so much the noise as the mentality of some parents, or lack thereof.

Misadventures in dating

In Liberty City, that is.

I was at the point in GTA4 where I needed to get something going with "Michelle," a friend of a friend of my cousin Roman. This unfortunately took me much more time than I was expecting.

Try 1: picked her up and took her to a bar. I think I sideswiped a police car on the way and had to lose them first. (Turns out that you can run red lights right and left in Liberty City, but don't sideswipe the cops.) OK, lost them. Took her to the bar. I didn't know I wouldn't be given the choice to NOT drink. I was very VERY drunk leaving the bar. Driving home was NOT fun (take that, MADD), but I made it, and was invited upstairs (woo hoo!). But then I managed to jump off a bridge (don't ask) and lost all my money. Restart.

Try 2: picked her up and took her to a chicken place. (By the way, Michelle doesn't mind it when I run red lights willy-nilly, but she isn't fond of the sideswiping either.) Much easier drive home, but she rejected my advance. Restart.

Try 3: bought a new jacket and some glasses first, which she seemed to like. Picked her up and took her bowling. Oops, spent all my money getting new threads and had none left to bowl! Drove around aimlessly with her without knowing what to do to either get money or take her home. Restart.

Try 4: hotwired another car, picked her up and took her to Burger Shot. (Thank goodness Michelle is a cheap date.) Took her home and... success! Went home and saved.

Unfortunately, all these tries took waaaay too long to do and I stayed up waaay too late. In the real world, not in Liberty City.

loudQUIETloud

I realize that this documentary isn't new--it came out in 2006 I think--but I'm still enjoying loudQUIETloud: a film about the Pixies. I was quite the Pixies fan back in the day (y'know, back when I actually listened to new music :) and it's fascinating to watch this film on their 2004 reunion tour, hear what each band member had been doing (the two members who weren't Black Francis and Kim Deal were ekeing out a living, which is a shame for such an influential group), and of course get to watch concert footage of them performing their songs.

One scene struck me in particular, not really sure why. They were touring in Iceland, and there was a gaggle of teenage girls getting Kim to give them autographs. After she left, the girls were just screaming in delight. Not sure why it got to me: maybe because these girls were still fans even though they were probably not old enough to remember when the Pixies broke up; maybe because they seemed to really look up to Kim as a role model of a real female rocker. Not sure. It got to me, though.

And just to tie this back in to videogames, I am TOTALLY getting Doolittle when the album comes available later in the year in Rock Band. Bet me and the kids could do a mean version of "Hey" if not for that unfortunate repetition of the word "whore" (at least it only shows up once in "In Bloom").

Piece of junk Rock Band wireless guitar

In an attempt to jump start the economy I profligately purchased an Xbox 360 Rock Band wireless guitar from Gamestop. Thought it'd be fun to allow all four of us to play if we wanted to.

Got it in, turned it on, paired it to my 360, fired up Rock Band and... no overdrive! I'm tipping the guitar, I'm shaking the guitar, I'm smacking it on the back like it was choking on a piece of hot dog... nothing.

Checked the forums and sure enough, lots of people are reporting the same problem. Some people even reporting that they're on their fifth guitar with the same problem.

But I couldn't be that unlucky, could I? I call Gamestop and ask them if I can exchange it. Sure, they say, we have another one in stock, bring it down.

New wireless guitar set to go and... no overdrive!

I call EA today. It's going to take 10 days for them to get me the UPS box to ship it back in, let's say 5 days to get it back to them, 10 days for them to turn it around, and then another 5 days to get it back to me. 30 days in all. And they don't provide the option of sending me out a new guitar with a credit card number as collateral.

Man, if that game wasn't so much fun...

My Kid Could Paint That

Just finished watching My Kid Could Paint That , a documentary on a four-year-old girl, Marla Olmstead, who started painting abstract art that seemed beyond the usual blobs and swishes that, well, my kid could paint. Her paintings started selling for tens of thousands of dollars, articles and news stories ran worldwide about her, and the filmmaker started making his documentary about her.

Then a 60 Minutes story ran about Marla, raising questions as to whether she had painted some of her paintings. The documentary film crew is there at the same time, filming their reaction to the 60 Minutes piece, and then the documentary itself takes a left turn and itself questions the truthfulness of the paintings.

And that is the key to what I liked so much about this documentary: the age-old question "what is truth?" There's multiple layers of this question present in this film. It's discussed when an art historian goes into why people dislike modern art (many consider it less "truthful" than imagery that is more realistic and therefore ostensibly more "truthful"). It's in the background when everyone is trying to get Marla to paint a piece, start to finish, while a camera rolls... hoping that that will once and for all confirm the fact that Marla painted the paintings all by herself (which of course got me thinking about Heisenberg and how the act of measuring, even at a subatomic level, influences the actions). The filmmaker even points out that his film has varying levels of truth, by deciding what to show and what to edit out (the scene towards the end of the film with a Times reporter in particular hammers this point home).

Not the slickest documentary out there, but an interesting story, and an interesting story about the story.

A few random movie notes

* Maria watched Juno on DVD and enjoyed it more than she thought she was going to. I liked it a lot when I saw it in the theater, but then recently I've run across some things on the web that take it to task for being too cute, for the characters being too clever or witty or hip, and basically just being unrealistic.

Then a thought occurred to me (yeah, honestly, a thought).

People rarely criticize action movies for being too unrealistic. Granted, there's a line, but you go see a good action movie for good action. You want Spider-man (or for 2008, Iron Man) to be larger-than-life and be awesome and take down all the bad guys.

Movies like Juno are action movies but with words instead of super-powers. You'd love to be that clever and hip and funny. Juno is a superhero, basically.

Hm, I was starting out defending the movie but I'm not sure I did such a good job of it ultimately.

* I watched Lost Highway finally. A now-ten-year-old movie by David Lynch that echoes (reworks? recycles? overuses?) lots of his other work. I mean... dead blonde? Strange short guy? Red curtains? Backwards filming? It's Twin Peaks all over again! I liked it, but not as much as Mulholland Drive, which again had lots of the same themes and devices, but just seemed to work better.

Ubuntu Upgrade Update

Did the online upgrade and it worked great this time. The only snags I hit were that it removed Parallels (that's OK, it didn't really work like I wanted it to work--namely letting me use the Windows install/partition already on the computer) and Skype (less OK but not the end of the world).

Ultimately it's pretty impressive that the Ubuntu project stays on its mark and meets its deadlines for new releases, then allows you to upgrade to the newest version of the OS via an online download. That's something Microsoft or Apple have never done.

To paraphrase The Jerk...

The new Ubuntu is here! The new Ubuntu is here!

Engadget: Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 available for download

I sure hope the online upgrade procedure goes better than last time. This time I'll back up...

MythTV epic battle

Since no one reads this thing anyway I can confess that I'm on the beta testing list for my MythTV distribution of choice, KnoppMyth. I did some graphic work for the developer and got on the testing list.

Recently I decided to upgrade my main KnoppMyth server. It was underpowered since it's about 3 or 4 years old, so I decided to gut it, get a CPU that could play back HDTV without XvMC support, and get some energy-efficient components in there too since it's on 24/7.

The upgrade consisted of a Biostar TForce TF7025-M2 motherboard with onboard Nvidia 7025 graphics, a low-wattage AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core BE-2350, an 80 PLUS certified Antec EA380 power supply, a Western Digital "green" 500GB SATA drive, and some dumb Sony DVD burner.

The good news was the energy-efficient components definitely paid off. I got a Kill-A-Watt device to check things around the house, and checked the system before and after. Before it idled at about 120 watts, and after it idles under 60 watts! Yahoo!

That's it for the good news. The bad news was that the current release version of KnoppMyth wouldn't install on the system; there was a "c7 respawning" error that had been reported on the forum and that I couldn't get to go away. So I thought I'd take advantage of my tester status and download the next release version, which also included the current MythTV, 0.21. Install on the main server went OK other than a few snags, the main one of which (one of my encoders will occasionally disappear after reboot) doesn't happen often enough to matter much.

Installing the same version on my remote frontend (by the treadmill, see my Dancing with the Stars post), however, just refused to work. Wouldn't connect to the backend. I'd done all the things I needed to do, I thought, but still wouldn't connect. I finally did a few MySQL command lines recommended for two-year-old versions of KnoppMyth, and my remote frontend FINALLY connected.

Then I had to fight with the new way you enable XvMC on slower machines like my remote frontend. Finally got the xorg.conf file configured with the proper magic commands (found on the XvMC wiki page of the main MythTV wiki) and now that seems to work.

Anyhow, I was tearing my hair out but things now seem to be working OK. Of course, now that I've typed this, both systems are probably in flames at my house right now.

Dancing with the Stars recap

I finally got MythTV back up and running (a post in itself, maybe I'll do that next to hide this post) so I was finally able to watch Dancing with the Stars the best way to do so: with massive filler-skipping and commercial-skipping. I watched the 90 minute Monday show and the 60 minute Tuesday show in a single hour of treadmill running. Now that's efficiency.

Looks like Kristi Yamaguchi has this one in the bag, but then again, everyone thought Cheetah Girl whose name I can't recall had it sewn up. It's kinda unfair since Kristi has at least some kind of dance background (I'm sure all figure skaters take some ballet), but a woman hasn't won since Season 1 I think, so hey, let it be Kristi.

I loved the whole Shannon Elizabeth/Derek Hough thing. I don't like the "showmance" junk; couldn't care less about the "are they or aren't they" thing (although if I were Derek, I mean, c'mon, it's Shannon Elizabeth for crying out loud!), but oooh, the footage of her just falling apart and Derek complaining about all the other couples' faults? Love it. Heh heh heh.

I thought Cristian's foxtrot was overrated: I was unimpressed and didn't think he held his intensity enough to warrant his score. Jason Taylor is getting better, not sure if he's good enough to stay on. Frankly, I thought Mario pulled it off best of all... he got criticized but I thought he had the hip action and the arm lines down pat.

Although I'm not a fan I thought Tony Winner Girl's reaction to her 9s was priceless. And I was sorry to see Marlee Matlin go: I always thought she was smokin'. It was just too difficult to pull off I guess.

News flash: Wii owners don't buy games

In news that's news only to the non-gamer, Kotaku mentions a NY Times article that discusses the abysmal sales of software for the Wii. I know of at least one Wii owner who only plays the bundled Wii Sports and may never get another game for it... I'll bet there's tons of people out there like that. So although Nintendo touts bringing non-gamers into the market, those same non-gamers may have bought the Wii on a whim or because "everyone's buying one," and then never buy new games for it.

Kotaku: Wii Owners Don't Buy Games

The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

I watched Sweeney Todd this weekend with my mom. I'd seen it in the theaters over Christmas but wanted a chance at seeing it again, so Maria bundled the kids out of the house to go see Nim's Island (Anna: thumbs up. Theo: thumbs down) while my mom and I watched the blood.

I think my initial review of the movie was confirmed by watching the DVD: I would rather see this on the stage. Musicals like this on the big screen always have to have big-name stars, who can't always be Tony-award-winning singers. Even with all the help that a copy of ProTools could muster, Johnny Depp's singing was only bordering on good, and Helena Bonham-Carter-Burton's singing was bordering on really bad. The songs themselves were impressive (sorry, not a theater-head, so never saw Todd on stage and am not that familiar with Sondheim) and would have been even more so with better singing talent involved.

The movie itself? Just OK, nothing really I can single out as being particularly noteworthy. The blood was quite bloody, which is perfect for blood. But ultimately the songs made it worthwhile.

Oh, one annoyance to note. Must all Tim Burton films now begin with some kind of montage of things being manufactured? I know both Willy Wonka and Sweeney Todd start like this, and I imagine I could come up with some others if I tried. Quite the other end of the spectrum from Pee Wee's Big Adventure and its opening title.

Rock Band progress

As if anyone cared, but here it is anyway:

* The kids and I did indeed enjoy playing "Still Alive." Theo was on drums, and Anna and I traded off on vocals and guitar. Anna got a 99% on vocals the first time out! (Sure, that's on Easy, but hey, she's a kid!)

* We're also still working on "Highway Star," and looking around for another good song to do.

* I have been trying to get through Solo Tour, medium difficulty, drums. For the first time I failed a song repeatedly; namely, "Green Grass and High Tides," a.k.a. the never-ending song. I did great until it gets going REALLY fast at the end, and I could never kick drum correctly... it might be switching it up on me, on-beat and then off-beat. Or I might just suck at it. Nevertheless, I discovered if I just concentrated on snare and cymbal, and ignored kick altogether, I could (just barely) stay in the yellow, instead of veering into the red. So I finished it, but it certainly doesn't bode well for me getting through Solo Tour set to Hard, let alone Expert.

No Dancing with the Stars posts? Let's rectify that!

I got started late with this season's shows due to travel schedules, but I'm back on track now. Some random comments:

* I think the women have a good shot at getting a winner this year. Some of the men show some promise but none look good right out of the gate like Helio did last year.

* Priscilla Presley is painful to look at but she's been doing well. Shannon Elizabeth is just fine to look at, on the other hand. I also have always liked Marlee Matlin and her appearance here is doing nothing to change that.

* For the men, Tall Football Guy just seems too tall, Spanish Actor Dude seems clumsy in spots, and Rap Guy has promise but better get better quickly.

* This week, Julianne Hough looked, um, quite, um, fetching in her short bob of a wig and maroon lipstick. I literally didn't remember she was Adam Carolla's partner.

It's hard to overstate my satisfaction!

Tomorrow, April 1, 2008, we will get to download the Rock Band version of "Still Alive" by Jonathan Coulton for FREE. (That equals ZERO Microsoft points, Kotaku helpfully noted.)

My kids are going to FREAK. OUT. There will be screaming and yelling and fights breaking out over who is going to get to sing. And that's before the kids get involved!

Happy with my half-marathon time

First time that Maria and I ran a half-marathon (the National Half-Marathon to be specific), and we're pretty happy with just breaking the 2 hr mark. I might have been able to run it a little faster than that, but was just fine doing it at that pace. I felt pretty bad for the folks who had to continue on and do the marathon, only because more than half of the people running the race were doing the half-marathon, so it thinned out for the marathoners quite a bit, thus making for a lonely second lap.

I've looked at conventions from both sides now

Just spent today working our booth at the National Science Teachers Association convention in Boston. All I can say is OUCH. Actually, I can now say that any booth babe at any convention that has to stand around all day like I just did, but who unlike me does it in heels, is twice the man I'll ever be. Or something like that.

Analog cutoff stuff

We're less than a year away from the switchoff of analog TV transmission, and I've found out some interesting stuff lately.

First, turns out that I'll be affected more by the switchoff than I thought. When analog broadcasts are turned off, TV stations will be given the option of moving their digital broadcasts back to VHF (right now almost all of them are UHF-based). Sure enough some of my local channels will be going back. But right now I only have a UHF antenna on my roof. Oopsie. Have to find out what to do. Ugh. Here is a good discussion of the issue.

Secondly, I got my in-laws (who don't get cable) one of the infamous digital to analog converter boxes, using my $40 coupon the government sent me. It works surprisingly well. They were never able to get their local CBS affiliate, and now it's crystal clear. They're quite impressed with the results.

No Country for Old Men

Just finished it today on the treadmill. I really liked the screenplay; I think there's no question that the Coens deserved the Oscar for that one. The movie itself, particularly the ending, requires some rumination, and I think that's a good thing. The other Oscar-nominated movies I saw this year (Michael Clayton, Juno, and Atonement) require far less rumination. Basically, I'll have to decide what I thought of No Country... I'm pretty sure I liked it and I'm pretty sure it's brilliant, but it may be one of those films where you have to watch it a few times to realize it.

Theo and Odyssey

Figured I'd kill some time while waiting for work video to write to tape by blogging, and figured that I hadn't blogged about Theo for a while. Something that happened recently was that I got to see his rehearsal for his Odyssey of the Mind team. I was very proud of how he did; he was one of the few kids that you could hear, and he spoke very clearly and expressively. The actual event is this Saturday and I'll hope he does just as well for the judges!

Movie Reviews 3/10/08

I've decided to start doing my reviews here since my almost-ten-year-old PHP database is getting quite old and creaky. (Not sure how best to migrate those reviews out of there, but that's neither here nor there.)

Saw Charlie Wilson's War in the theater last night and enjoyed it quite a bit. Not quite up to the level that I enjoyed Juno or Michael Clayton, but it was very well written (by West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin) and well-acted, particularly by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who deserved his Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a cranky CIA operative. Watching the movie, you wonder how many times the U.S. will have to repeat history. Ugh.

Also finished up Sunshine on DVD. Danny Boyle branches out and makes a good sci-fi flick. Not fantastic, but pretty darn good. A little 2001, a little Solaris, a little 28 Days Later... altogether an interesting mix. Interesting mix of actors too, particularly seeing Michelle Yeoh not being typecast as a kung-fu chick. It made me wish that that other fanboy favorite, Quentin Tarantino, would hurry up and branch out as well. Time's a wastin'...

Radiohead rockin'

Anna and I decided to take a crack at playing Rock Band World Tour, which meant forming a band. She's a brown-haired drummer named Naoko and I'm a purple-spiky haired punk rock girl guitarist named Annamaria. Anna ROCKS on drums! We played Creep by Radiohead to win a van and we won it (and 20 gamerscore)! Shoulda seen her banging those skins. Awesome.

Wave of Calibration

I used some birthday money and got Rock Band. Kind of profligate but I thought maybe me and the kids could play at least a few songs on Easy, particularly once "Still Alive" comes out for download.

Took everything out of the box and set it up, then made a cool punk rock chick with purple hair for my guitarist and a cool punk rock dude from Chicago for my drummer. I got through a few songs on guitar and Medium, but jeez drumming is going to be hard. I'm doing OK on Easy, but only because Easy really doesn't make you play the kick drum simultaneously with the rest of the drums at the same time very often. Once that happens, I'm doomed.

I also realized that calibration is CRUCIAL for the drums. I was having to hit the pads way early and it sounded way out of sync with the audio. So instead of picking the default LCD calibration, I went Manual, and it made a huge difference, both in my score and in my enjoyment. Just like with Guitar Hero, it made it really feel like I was playing drums, particularly with Gimme Shelter and Wave of Mutilation.

Casey Affleck Film Festival

I'm going to start posting reviews here, or maybe my Netflix account, rather than on my old website. I'm not even sure why I still have that darn website. Anyhow.

Somehow we ended up having a little Casey Affleck film festival courtesy of Netflix. Got in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Gone Baby Gone. I liked both of them quite a bit. Affleck is quite creepy in Jesse James... I decided it's almost like the first celebrity stalker shooting. Maybe it was. It was also cool to hear them talk about various locations in and around Kansas City. Apparently James lived on Troost for a while: they didn't mention that but did mention places like Excelsior Springs. Anyhow, loved the cinematography and story, acting was good, music a bit repetitive.

As for Gone Baby Gone, quite an effective directorial debut by Ben "I'm Bleeping Jimmy Kimmel" Affleck. Kept things moving, nothing too spectacular, but did the job. I loved the screenplay, and the acting helped to reinforce that. Great story, and solid acting. Damn, Ed Harris needs to get an Oscar one of these days. I mean, Scorsese has one now, why not Harris?

Godspeed E. Gary Gygax

Had to post the news that Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons and Dragons, passed away at the age of 69. Not like I knew much about him other than through his creation, but I blew enough time with it from 1977-1982 that it deserved a little post for the other nerds out there.

Gary Gygax dies

A birthday story

Anna made me a nice birthday card, which included a sweet little birthday story:

"This story is about the most dazzling Dad in the world. One day Dad and his daughter Debra went shopping. Dad didn't like Debra. Lucky for him there was a Gypsy booth and he gave Debra to the Gypsies and got Anna and Theo instead. They lived happily every after.

"Ye Olde Epilogue: Mom was happy about Anna and Theo, but she liked Debra because she would clean her room."

OK, it's a sweet story except for poor Debra.

The talent in the family

Had to post this drawing Anna did, it was too chibi to pass up. Me, I can't draw a straight line with a ruler, that's why I have a computer!

Harry Potter and the Dead Disc Format

HD-DVD has been in trouble since Warner pulled support from it just before CES. Then, after a spate of announcements, none of them good, came word that Toshiba was going to throw in the towel and stop production. At first it was just a rumor, but overnight it became official: HD-DVD is dead.

Ironically enough, we watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on HD-DVD last night. I'd gotten the first five movies on HD-DVD for Christmas--now it looks like I better take very good care of my Xbox 360 and the HD-DVD add-on drive, or start investigating how to rip HD-DVDs to hard drive.

The King of Kong

Another documentary, and another topic near and dear to my heart: videogames.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters has gotten such rave reviews that even my sister rented and watched it. And the reviews were positive for good reason: it's exciting, there's heroes and villains, twists and turns, and some truly poignant moments. (Keep watching till the VERY end or you'll miss some final twists... and check out the extras for even more!)

Excellent documentary, highly rated. Go watch it. Oh, and as the t-shirt says, "Billy Mitchell is a jerk."

Coulton and Portal and Myxer

That should probably be Portal and Coulton and Myxer, chronologically speaking.

Since I like videogames (even though I stink at them), I of course had to get Valve's Orange Box, just to play Portal. It's a great, mind-bending puzzle game, with an equally-satisfying plot and some hilarious writing. As icing on the cake (if you will), when you finish the game you get the most bittersweet, hilarious song during the credits, called "Still Alive."

Writer of said hilarious bittersweet song is one Jonathan Coulton. I had purchased "Still Alive" from Amazon but then finally got around to checking out his website and his other songs. Immediately purchased ten of them, including a fantastic cover of, yes, "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot. (He also has a very creative song that can't be purchased, but check out "When I'm 25 or 64" on his website, you'll see what I mean and why it can't be purchased.)

Then while tooling around on his website I saw he has ringtones. Well, actually, he points people to a website called Myxer that lets you easily create your own ringtones. So now, just to come full circle, I have "Still Alive" as my ringtone on my Verizon phone without having to pay their ridiculous RENTAL fee for a ringtone song.

HD downloads not so HD

There's been a few articles about this recently; I'll link to the latest one I've seen that shows stills from the Vudu download service. Basically, if I may paraphrase Scotty, ya' canna' break the laws of bitrate. A 4- to 6-megabit per second 720p download to your Vudu or Apple TV or Xbox 360 just can't compete with a 30- to 40- megabit per second 1080p movie played from HD-DVD or Blu-Ray (ok, played from Blu-Ray since HD-DVD is all but dead). At least it can't compete as far as quality goes... it's trying to compete as far as convenience goes, but if these screenshots can be believed, there's not much advantage in quality over the standard definition download, and the SD downloads can start playing much more quickly than the HD ones.

I've bought some HD downloads from Xbox Live, and I've liked the quality, but I also haven't had my eyesight checked in a while. Maybe it's time.

Gizmodo: Vudu Test Confirms HD Download Worries

Fox News "expert" gets taste of her own medicine

Let me try to condense this story, particularly for the non-gamers out there in my vast audience.

There's an Xbox 360 game called Mass Effect. It's a space opera-type game where you can go all kinds of places and have your character do all kinds of things.

One of those things is to get involved in a relationship with a human (or alien) and have a tryst with them. The scenes involved are PG-13 level at worst. I've seen naughtier material on Desperate Housewives.

Well, some right-wing blogger, without playing the game, started calling the Xbox the "Sexbox" and railed against Mass Effect for showing graphic sex scenes and full nudity. Game bloggers then picked up on this and forced the guy into multiple retractions.

THEN, Fox News, always eager to stir up controversy with nothing to back it up, tried doing the same story. They got a woman named Cooper Lawrence to be the on-camera "expert" and decry Mass Effect for having such filth in a game marketed to young children (it's not, of course, it's rated M for mature). Obviously had never played the game, never seen the game, might not even know what a videogame was if it hit her in the head.

Now, the Intertubes are getting their revenge in a juvenile but poetically just manner. They are entering hundreds of reviews of her book on Amazon.com, decrying it for being filled with filth and smut and inappropriate images. Of course, no one's read the book, but just like Ms. Lawrence on Fox, that's not stopping them from having an opinion of it.

Aeropause: Gamers Trash Amazon Rating

Fix Windows MBR with Ubuntu

Like I said, the most random things will drive me to post to this blog... like this quick howto from Ars on how to fix a Windows master boot record with an Ubuntu live-boot CD. I recently screwed something up on my new Windows machine that hosed the MBR, and went through a much more annoying process to fix it. Do it like this instead.

ArsGeek: How to fix your Windows MBR with a Ubuntu liveCD

HD-DVD death knell gets louder

Paramount had posted a denial of the Financial Times report that I posted in my last entry, about their having an escape clause from their exclusive HD-DVD support.

Well, now Daily Variety has confirmed that an escape clause does indeed exist, and also reports that Universal has let its HD-DVD exclusivity contract lapse.

In matters such as movies, I think I'd believe Daily Variety more than Financial Times. Now if Apple throws in with Blu-Ray as is widely expected at next week's Macworld Expo, that'll just about be it. Very interesting that everyone thought the war would last through at least 2008, but now it looks like it's almost over for HD-DVD.

Blu-ray could win high-def battle (Daily Variety)

HD news a-plenty

Well, since I just received Harry Potter 1-5 in HD-DVD for Christmas, and picked up Serenity and Monty Python's Meaning of Life in Amazon's buy-one-get-one-free offer, that means it's time for HD-DVD to bite the dust.

First, Warner Bros. comes out a week ago and drops support for HD-DVD. Then the HD-DVD group cancels their Consumer Electronics Show press conference. There's rumors that Apple will announce their first Blu-Ray-enabled Macs at next week's Macworld Expo.

And today I see this report from Financial Times (via Kotaku) that claims that Paramount, the only studio supporting HD-DVD exclusively, has an "out" in their contract that allows them to drop HD-DVD support if Warner does.

Not looking good for HD-DVD, and I guess I better start reading up on how to crack AACS on my discs so I can future-proof them.

On the local HD front, one of Maria's Xmas gifts to me was the green light to purchase a new HDTV. I sold my old one via Craig's List, literally in less than an hour (I priced it aggressively), and brought home a nice new 42" LCD 1080p TV last night. Man, does MythTV look good running at 1920x1080p! Xbox looks good too but I'm seeing some interference via component, so I think I'm going to switch to running it via VGA instead. Wait, I ordered the VGA adapter already, so I AM going to switch, no thinking about it.