A Little of This 'N That

I haven't updated this thing in a week, so I felt obligated to do so, and I had some decent topics as well. I will split this up into sections, since they are all so unrelated.

Movies

Ryan and I went to see I Am Legend tonight. I had been looking forward to this movie for quite some time. Not only have I never read the book by Richard Matheson, but I have also never seen the other two films based off of it, The Last Man on Earth, and The Omega Man. While I did enjoy the film and thought the sight of seeing a place like Manhattan completely empty and on it's way to being reclaimed by nature, I thought the film did have some issues. The story begins after the chain of events leading to the end of civilization has already taken place, and slowly, through flashbacks we are given pieces of the puzzle as to what brought the whole thing on. I think Will Smith did a good job at creating a character who you could sympathize with, and one scene in the movie even made me cry.The only real problems I had were some pacing issues, and some of the special effects. The use of flashbacks was well done and they were intermixed at the appropriate places and times, but where the problems come in is with the last 30 minutes of the film. I think so much happens all at once that the events as they play out are not given enough justice and seem rushed. This also leads to an ending that seems rushed.

This film relies heavily on the use of CGI. Animals, effects, scenery, creatures. You will be hard pressed to find a shot that doesn't integrate some form of CGI into it, save for a few interior shots. While a lot of the CGI is well done, I think the protagonists rely too heavily on CGI where they could have taken more traditional approaches with the use of prosthetics/puppetry etc. Some of the CGI involving the creatures has a fair amount of that CGI'ish look too it, which makes it easy to suddenly feel removed from the believability of the film. I think traditional effects would have gone a long way with these creatures being believable, especially considering their origins.

This is the second film I have seen in the last month (The Mist) which is rare, considering that we seldom go out to see movies anymore, since we have a better setup for watching them at home. One thing that I find interesting is that of these two films, both have had very much what I consider a non-Hollywood ending. I have to hand it to the film industry. It is somewhat refreshing to see films that don't wrap it all up in a fun little package with a bow for you to walk out of the theater smiling and being happy. That's what we're all used to already.

Overall, I give this film 4 out of 5 spiders.

Time Flies

You know, the older I get, the more time seems to slip by faster and faster. I have especially noticed this over the last couple of years. The months and seasons just seem to pass ever more quickly. I read an article today which sheds some light on this, and it turns out, this is a natural process of the brain.

Researchers wanted to do a study on why things seem to move in slow motion during emergencies or times when the mind is in great distress. They performed a test whereby people fell 150 feet into a net, and they had them watch numbers flash quickly across a wrist-worn screen while doing so. The actual fall only took 3 seconds, but the subjects felt like they were falling 3 times as long. The researchers theorized that the brain operates at a faster rate, so they assumed that these subjects should have been able to interpret the numbers on their screens as they were falling, which under normal circumstances would not be readable.

It turns out that they could not read the numbers any better during the fall, even though they all felt like time slowed down. As it turns out, in times of great mental stress or stimulation, a part of the brain called the amygdala kicks in and begins recording an extra set of the memories already being recorded by other parts of your brain. This action creates very strong memories which are interpreted as being longer since they are more powerful than standard memories.

How does this all apply to time passing faster as you get older? Well, when people are young and experiencing things for the first time, the amygdala is called into action frequently, making the memories more impactful and giving the illusion of time passing more slowly. As we get older and have "seen it all", the amygdala does not kick in as often and our memory are only recorded once, and interpreted as time moving faster. I think this study is quite fascinating, and it's good to know there is a scientific explanation to the quickening of time we experience.

Well, that's it for me tonight. See you all later.

Vanilla, Ice, Ice Baby

So the forecast for this weekend calls for ice mixed with ice. You know things are going to suck when you watch the evening news and the weather guy says to anticipate widespread and extended power-outages as a result.

I decided to take a bunch of work home with me tonight in case we end up entombed in some kind of ice palace and can't even walk outside come Monday.

Ryan and I are going to stock up on water and non-having-to-be-cooked items tomorrow. I hope it turns out to be nothing, but if it does turn out carppy, below is what it will probably look like:
Speaking of The Day AFter Tomorrow, I have that film on Blu-Ray and have yet to watch it. Maybe I'll give it a spin this weekend so long as I still have electricity. I hear it was a superb transfer onto High-Def.

Stay safe everyone and try not to get ice all up on ya!

-Kody

Randomosity

Mmmmm. Randomisnessosityismishness. Yay, I made a new word. Call Merriam-Webster. Hey, if Rachael Ray can get EVOO in there, then I should be able to get that in too. 

So I was at Hastings last-night and I picked up a new "Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan 25th Anniversary" Admiral Kirk action figure. Yeah, I collect toys, wanna fight? Yeah, I'm a Star Trek geek, wanna make something of it? Yeah, I know, I know, I'm supporting a Bribeamount/Vilecum property, but I'm still a trekker.  Anyway, I was amused by the header on the back of the package before the description. 

I recently upgraded my phone to a Sony Ericsson w580i, thus cranking my Sony

 fanboy status up another small notch. It's kind of nice not having a big honking phone with a

 full keyboard since I never used it anyway. It's nice to have a camera again too. Speaking of camera, it has a fun feature whereby it can patch 3 images together into a panoramic shot

. Here's a wide shot of my office. Yeah, it's a lovely shade of Jalapeno, wanna fight about it?

Ryan and I watched Pirates of The Caribbean: At Worlds End last night. While much better than part 2, it was still no part 1, and the ending sucked a small amount of goatballs. Maybe one goat ball. With POTC3, I officially joined the 40+ Blu-Ray Club, and for that I think I deserve some kind of gold foil leaf star sticker. 

Speaking of things you watch (what a crappy segue), how about Heroes. How about that, uhhh, 10 episode season? Wasn't quite a long as, oh I don't know, the 23 episode 1st season eh? I know there is a writers strike going on, and I support all those poor homeless and destitute hollywood writers who need more money just to survive, but how about if we don't call the whole season quits and just have a break like they did last season? From what I've read, they had to significantly alter the story-line to condense season 2 into less than half it's intended episodes, and a lot of stuff was supposed to happen that I was looking forward to.

Thats all for today. See ya!

Catsmess Tree

If only we'd caught them in the act, we would have had a nice candidate for a LOLCATS submission to icanhascheezburger.com

A google search on the topic did produce this humorous webpage which detailed one families adventures in Cat/Christmas Tree intermixing (Be sure to check the before and after at the end)
So when I got home from work lastnight, I noticed Ryan was in the bedroom with the door closed. I could instantly tell he wasn't happy and was directed to go downstairs and view the Christmas tree which I initially walked right past without noticing anything.
The cats had done quite a number on it. Many of the branches were off the tree, the ones that weren't were flattened, and the lights were disheveled beyond repair. Although kitties know not what they are doing (After all, a weird tree just sprung up in the middle of their play area from their perspective), I did not think Ryan could take another Christmas Cat-astrophe.
I had to build a better tree; a cat-proof tree.
After dis-assembling the whole tree, I tried experimenting with various ways of keeping the branches where they belonged, and eventually went out and got some zip-ties and carefully zip-tied each branch tightly into the middle metal pole thingy.
I also got some new gold lights instead of the white ones we had, and got those fastened to the tree, as well as the ornaments and the star. The whole tree is weighted down with our DVD holder book things too.
Now, the worst they can do is just smoosh some branches down, and maybe open a few presents that aren't theres (They opened the corner of a present) ,but hopefully the tree will survive the remainder of the holiday season upright and intact.

Happy Holidays!

Sky is Over

I know, I know. Posting part of a song lyric in your blog is cheating, and generally may not be considered all that interesting, and I'm even treading on an old post, since I already discussed this album, but here I go.
My favorite song from Serj Tankian's 'Elect The Dead' is a song called 'Sky is Over'. As is the case with most of his songs, it is a very powerful song, while remaining vague and cryptic enough to make you wonder exactly what it means. I think he is referring to the dangers both politically/economically and environmentally of a nuclear bomb or nuclear attack.

"Even though we can't afford
The sky is over
Even though we can't afford
The sky is over
I don't want to see you go
The sky is over
Even though we can't afford
The sky is over

Behind closed eyes lie
The minds ready to awaken you
Are you at war with land
And all of its creatures
Your not-so-gentle persuasion
Has been known to wreck economies
Of countries, of empires, the sky is over"




What are your thoughts on this songs meaning? Hmmmm?