Journey's End


Journey’s End
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.
Best thing about driving to the beach? The Beach!

This time, once again, in VA Beach. It was a horrible long drive. One with lots if traffic in DC, then in VA. 95 and 284 was all traffic. But chilling on the sand at the end of the day was worth it.

Undead Things

One of the reasons I had for writing about my love of ghost stories was to explore feelings I had for other types of stories in the horror genre. In fact, I had started that post with ghost stories but intended to touch upon vampires, werewolves, monsters, and the undead. This post is to begin adding to the other post.First things first, these rambling posts were inspired by watching the summer anime series, High School of the Dead. The first episode is standard zombie fare: the dreaded zombie outbreak with no explanation as to its cause. A school in Japan is where the mayhem takes place with students being attacked and attacking alike. The zombie hoard of recently killed students eating the remaining living students. Lots of blood flying in this one. I watched the episode with pleasure. Its fanservice was stupid fun, but it kept me wondering about zombie attacks and our reactions and responses to them.Zombies (the monsters, the stories, and the movies) don't do too much for me. The George A. Romero, slow zombies aren't too frightening. The fast twitch, neu zombies do, but they are not what I'll be discussing today. I can't believe in fast zombies. The dead, because of rigor mortis, shouldn't move very fast. Plus, fast zombies are even more scarier. I just don't want to deal with them.Why is it that in dealing with zombies the major problem arises from stupid mistakes of the survivors? "Don't open the door!" "Don't go out and save her!" "Don't let him in! He's infected!" Your chance of survival is directly proportional to doing common sense stuff and keeping away from them. I guess that's why the Zombie survival book was a big hit. It made explicit the common sense things to do in order to avoid death when the dead rise.In the anime, the kids did the stupid things to die. If you do the stupid things, you'll die. The only way to live is to not do the stupid things.And that's my problem with zombies. Through proper, rational thought, you should survive. Keep your wits about you, and you should live. By being sentient, you should live. Avoid being stupid. You'll be dead. Smart equals living. Dumb equals dead. Your intelligence will get you through the zombie infestation. It's that easy.That said, if it's fast zombies, all bets are off.

Link of the Day [7.27.10]

Should I replace my wired mouse with the new MagicTrackPad? Most of my cursor manipulation with Apple products is based on touching: iPhone, my Mac Book Pro. The mice I use are only hooked up to my computer at work (sucky Dell boxes) and to the Mac Mini (the Intel Mini is replacing the PPC!). By replacing the mouse at home, it will be nothing but touch on a personal level.I'm just about to make the change. I think it may help reduce repetitive stress disorders from using the mouse. It costs $69 plus state taxes and shipping charges. I'm buying it, as long as I don't have to go to the Apple store.http://www.apple.com/magictrackpad/

Ghostly things

Saturday night and I get home, plop on the couch in front of the TV, watch an hour, and then fall asleep. Television is still on. Earlier, I happened to run across AMC showing The Shining and made a mental note to avoid as the night got old. As I tossed and turned through the night on my uncomfortable couch I catch glimpses of what show is playing on the TV. In the quiet of the early morning, I see that the television is back to AMC. Jack Nicholson's frozen, grim visage greets my sleepy eyes as I try to focus on the television. How did I get back to AMC or did I not change the channel the last time to avoid this creep show? I don't think I did it, but I can't be too sure. I'm hoping for a better explanation, but there are goose bumps on my arms.I like all things creepy by which I mean mainly ghostly. A spectre haunts my imagination. Ghosts, to me, are a million times cooler than any vampire, werewolf, or zombie. It's because I can't really know if they aren't real or not. It's because the shades and spirits spring from my own imagination.I wonder why I like ghost stories so much. In my own library, I have several compilations of ghost stories. Plenty of old Victorian frights, some smattering of modern spooks, and plenty of early twentieth century ghosts. Authors as great as HG Wells, Mark Twain, and Ambrose Bierce have creepy stories. They fill several books with some scary things. These books' spines are well worn and plenty of pages are dog-eared. One of my favorites is from the Twilight Zone television show. In this book, there's the favorite "House on the Square" story. We tell this story all the time. I think it has to be a favorite just because of how it was introduced to me. The Twilight Zone book isn't mine. It's my older brother's. One night a long time ago in the house on Cedarhurst, the story kept him from sleeping, so naturally, he comes into my room to read it aloud. It's about ghost hunters debunking haunted places. One ghost hunter is a believer. The other is a skeptic. My brother then focuses on the central detail of the story — the Penang lawyer. It was one of the ghost hunters weapons, but was used in the house on the square to signal the arrival of danger. *KNOCK* went the Penang lawyer. *KNOCK* *KNOCK* again. After finishing the story, my brother went back to his room. *KNOCK* across the wall separating us. Ha-ha very funny, but very creepy as well. From that moment, I had to read the book, and since it is a favorite to look for some creepy stories.There are plenty other ghost stories I love — "The Shadow in the Corner," "The Judge's House," "The Red Room." All are frightening enough to have me leave the lights on before I close my eyes to sleep. I like the goose bumps I get from reading them. I like the hair on my neck to raise as I flip the page. I like that cold chill down the spine wondering if that creaking out in the hall is the house settling. I like ghost stories.

Last One Out, Turn Out The Lights

Tampa v Baltimore 7-20-10

In this trying baseball season for our beloved Baltimore Orioles, the fans who stick around deserve better. Tuesday night, Jason Berken t-shirt night, the Orioles had a decent game. They never said die even though they relinquished an early three run lead to be down four then five runs. It took them to extra innings, but they win one. Like the proverbial stuck clock, they’ll win one every now and then.

We had left the game early in the eleventh inning. But the fans that stayed, they were the real winners.

Things to think about while watching Inception

I really wanted to say this in my Inception review, but forgot before I hit the post button.

This movie will remind you that Nolan’s best film was the playfully, inventive Memento.
I got a vibe of Jacob’s Ladder — where and when is all this happening.
I also got a vibe of Flatliners — they come back.
Nolan likes to work with Cillian Murphy.
He also loves Michael Caine, but then again who doesn’t?
Seeing Ellen Page made me wonder about my car being ticketed.
I thought Ellen Page was gonna be the new Neo.
Why couldn’t Ellen Page have constructed awesome things on the fly?
How come Ellen Page was dramatically underused? Or was she overvalued?
Was that The Pin?
“I am a cypher, a cypher wrapped in an enigma… smothered in secret sauce.”
The movie caps a funny week of weird, strange dreams — earthquake!

Inception

I am preternaturally disposed to not liking Christopher Nolan movies. I don’t know why but a lot his work rubs me the wrong way. I feel that he’s too showy: a wink and a nod to how neat all this film working, the writing, the directing, the acting, is great — acknowledge it. So I approached watching his latest “greatness,” Inception, with trepidation.

Right from the start he didn’t disappoint. There were scenes with lots of talking, exposition, saying rather than doing. It was all too verbose for me. I wanted some action. If I don’t get some action, I’m going to get up and go.

Then the heist began, the trippy shit started happening, and Inception became a much better movie. I realized all that early speechifying helped explain how the heist would work, but all that speechifying just made for a boring movie. It’s as if Hitchcock explained his McGuffins.

I really liked the latter half of the movie. As the heist unfolded, I sat right up in my seat and enjoyed the convoluted structure to the action. It was very inventive and a neat fantasy.

I think I could see this again. Something I thought I wouldn’t say for a Christopher Nolan film.

4 of 5 stars