That’s the first time I have ever seen a Raven lay an egg. What a pathetic performance!
When I had walked into work on Friday, people were accosting me about why I wasn’t wearing purple. Now the Ravens are not my first team. I’ll support them because they are the home team. Yet, the level of haughtiness shown by assuming that this wold’ve been a win was unpleasant.
The Fake Steve Jobs deserves a round of applause.
I have recently seen two movies that portray the future of mankind as bleak, Children of Men and Idiocracy. The first is the film adaptation of PD James’s novel, and the latter is from the mind of Mike Judge who brought us Beavis and Butthead and Office Space. Their tones are so much different the one a high-falutin’ angsty expression the other downright absurd comedy, but they point to the fact that mankind’s future is not so bright. I liked the comdey, but the drama in Children of Men held some problems.
Several minutes into Children of Men, you are left to ponder how, scientifically, the world’s human females could not produce children. In science fiction, usually that question doesn’t have to be answered. You should let the story unfold. You should settle in and feel what the movie should be telling you.
Except with this movie you get doubts. Why? How does the world devolve into a state of chaos after the realization that the human race cannot reproduce? Wouldn’t it be that human life has become more valuable?
It is missing the backstory. Not that every distopian future needs a backstory, but it needs to be believable that this could happen. I needed an explanation for why it was the female humans could not have babies. So that the lady with the baby becomes even more fantastic. A miracle of sorts. Without the scientific explanation, I couldn’t buy into the story.
Several minutes into Idiocracy, you feel that this is the future if we don’t wise up. The people are stupid because only the stupid are making babies. It points out that our worship of stupid will get us into some trouble in the future. It’s stupid and funny, but downright scary and sad. “So basically it says here you’re fucked up, you sound like a fag, and your shit’s all retarded.”
3 of 5 stars. Children of Men
4 of 5 stars. Idiocracy
Looks as if the rumors are true. Amazing thing is that it runs a scaled
down version of OS X! If it sells as well as the music iPod, OS X will
be the platform to develop for in the next couple of years. Start up
your compilers.
Tomorrow is another big Steve Job’s Keynote speech. He may introduce a new ipod phone or when Leopard will be released. Use this bingo card to play along. You know the rules. Fill in whatever Steve Jobs has said. The winner is the Apple users!
Update:Here’s the definitive Keynote Bingo Card from the originator himself.
The EMS store in Cockeysville is closing down. All stuff in the store is 30% off including sale items. They really are trying to unload their winter clothing but they have some other stuff as well. I picked up the National Geographic Back Roads Explorer topological mapping software. I figure for $35 it’s a good price.
I’m going to use to map my cycling routes.
The map you see here is the route I call “Around Mom’s Block.” As you can see it’s relatively short at just over five miles. It’s a fun little ride with a quick downhill section followed by a nice steady climb. Do it a couple times for maxmimum benefit.
Of 2007.
Well, it’s been quiet. After the burst of activity for the 31 days of December, I took a break. No posting, because I couldn’t think of anything. Should I have put down my haul from Christmas? Should I wish you a happy new year? Should I list my resolutions?
Maybe. Perhaps. I don’t know.
So I planned to lightly post for a while.
Things are the same. The calendar may say a new year, but the days go by all the same.
Well, another year has come to a close. As well as the 31 days of December daily blogging. I hope you enjoyed this year. We’ll see you around next year.
I saw the best picture so far this year just two days shy of the end. While it certainly doesn’t make up for the fact the year in movies sucked, it definitely made watching film a nice experience again.
The Queen deals with the death of Lady Diana and how the royal family dealt with it the week leading to her funeral. The Queen decided to show the famous British stiff upper lip which didn’t play too well with the English mood at the time. They wanted to see remorse and mourning, but got no show of emotion. It left the royalty in a bad situation. Compounding it was the newly elected Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who had summed up the value of the dead Diana as the People’s Princess. The film focuses upon his craft at getting the royals to open up.
What struck me most about this film is the parallels with the US. Or more particularly George Bush. As the death of Lady Diana plays out, the Queen stoically does nothing to show that her death is important. She spends days ill prepared on what to do. She seemed like W in his infamous minutes after the 9-11 attacks. Quietly thinking should I be doing something. Another thing is the aspect of paying respects for someone not quite royalty. Think about former President Ford’s week of mourning ritual being carried out right now. We have elevated the post of President into something of a royal position. Which leads to the contrast of the Prime Minister. I thought he lived in a hovel (10 Downing St.) in the movie and I was amazed how common his home was. A leader of a quasi-democratic government being of the people. Fucked up thing about the US is that only millionaires can be President. We have become the British.
Anyway the movie was well acted. The story line was suspenseful. I laughed a few times. It was a good show. The best this year. Why did it take 363 days for it to happen? And why the Brits?
5 of 5 stars.
