willow_red

I went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness today, and as I said on Twitter, it had absolutely no right to be as good as it was, and JJ Abrams is one magnificent bastard. Overall, this comic sums up my reaction to the movie quite well.

My main problem with the Star Trek reboot movies I think ultimately rests with the trailers. They're done in the same style as all the other testosterone-fueled, big explosions, big fights, partial nudity style of the standard summer blockbuster. And maybe that sells tickets and gets butts in the seats at the theater. But I need to accept that those trailers were not made for me. While I like a big cool explosion and pretty shots of starships as much as the next person, it's the characters and the plot that get me there. Though in this case, the main reason I went to see the movie today was because I didn't want anyone to spoil it for me, and I figure there's at least a small chance of seeing people over the next few months who might inadvertently say something before I could stop them.

The other issue I had with this one was the title. "Into Darkness," seriously?!? I think I had the same reaction upon hearing that title as a good chunk of the HP fandom did when they heard the title "Deathly Hallows." Having seen the movie, I can see how the title works, but I still think they could have done better. In the meantime, I fully expect the next one to be "Star Trek III: The Search for More Money."

So, what have we learned today, kids? We learned that Willow needs to ignore all advertising, including titles and trailers, and just enjoy a quality Star Trek film that knows what the important aspects of the Trek universe are. There's a whole lot more to say, but I don't think I can say it without spoilers, so onto the next post!

A bit of entertainment for your Wednesday afternoon. Parts of the video are NSFW.



Any ideas for a new name for English?

I do not know why this is or for how long, but you can currently get the first Portal game for free on Steam by going through this link. I downloaded it last night (haven't tried to play yet), and it looks legit. Let's see if I can make it through the tutorial this time.

Clicky!

Program:

You are hereby ordered to report to the Games Grid at the Colony Square 12 Theater in Louisville at 10:00 am MST on Sunday, December 19, prepared to forfeit the sum of $4 to admit you to the TRON: Legacy arena. Programs illyanarasputin, nakano, and willow_red will await you there.

Report your compliance to my assistant, Bit.

[Poll #1658271]

END OF LINE

In case you haven't heard, there's a really bad wildfire burning out of control in the mountains above Boulder. Four-Mile Canyon is going up in flames and raining ash on the city of Boulder. According to some reports, the smoke can be seen all the way from Ft. Collins to Monument.

I first saw it while walking my dog this morning around 11 am. The cloud of smoke was only taking up about 20% of the sky then. It quickly grew to 25% and then 33%. I'd post the pictures I took, but my camera isn't speaking to my laptop lately. Anyway, the smoke is now taking up 2/3 of the sky, with a light sprinkling of ash.

For anyone planning to be in the Boulder area in the next couple of days, please stay out of the mountains, watch the news, and above all, be safe. Also watch out for pets. Their lungs are sensitive to the smoke and ash too.

I'm hoping to write two reviews of this movie. Here is the first, which I will keep spoiler-free. The other one will have all spoilers behind a cut.

First off, the movie is nowhere near as bad as the reviews claim. It also isn't the awesome blockbuster it was apparently hyped to be either. The Last Airbender is not the next LotR, but it's still way better than Twilight.

The CG was well done, and most of the effects made sense in the context of the world. Some of the costumes were very good, while others I was less fond of.

There were two major weaknesses of the film: direction and screenwriting. M. Night Shyamalan is just not a good director. He seemed to leave the actors to their own devices most of the time, and it just doesn't work with a cast that is relatively unknown or inexperienced. Also, I hereby revoke his permit to use the slow-motion camera. The movie was too short as it was, no need to make it shorter by stretching out shots unnecessarily. Fight scenes went back and forth between awsome and kind of silly, which is sad because fight choreography was one of the strengths of the animated series.

The screenplay had a lot of problems. Condensing ~10 hours of TV into a feature film is hard. Without getting into detail, I will say that my biggest issue was that it repeatedly broke the rule, "show, don't tell.". However, j_b said he could follow the story okay without having seen the series.

Overall, I'd give it a B-. Totally rentable, but fine if you're looking for an excuse to go to the theater.

Oh, and the best actor in the film is Aasif Mandvi, who you might recognize from The Daily Show. This comedian can also do drama, and he made the best of some poorly-written, repetative dialog.

Given that I have heard from no one (well, no one on this continent) about seeing Last Airbender tonight, I probably won't go. From what it sounds like, the movie isn't that great, and seeing bad movies by yourself sucks.

Anyway, if anyone does want to see it this weekend, call me. Otherwise, I will assume no one is interested.

Happy Fourth, Americans!

I got an e-mail from my dog-walker a couple of days ago (sorry I didn't get a chance to post until just now; it's been a hectic week) that she is hosting a Pet Fur Drive. What is a pet fur drive? Well, here's the text of her e-mail with all the details:

Dogma Catma Pet Sitting is hosting a Fur Drive!

Fur Drive

Dogma Catma Pet Sitting
DATE: Friday, May 14,2010
TIME: 6:30 - 7:00 PM

LOCATION: P.C.'s Pantry
2600 30th Street
Boulder, CO 80301

MORE: We are collecting pet fur to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Bring your pet's clean fur in a ziploc bag (no trash or debris) and it will be shipped off to make mats to soak up oil. Fur doesn't have to be shampooed but semi-clean is great!

If you have any questions, contact dogmacatmapetsitting@gmail.com. I will be contributing some of Akito's fur, and I know several of you have dogs and cats who shed. This seems like a better place for the loose fur to go, rather than clogging up the vacuum cleaner like normal.

Am thoroughly perplexed by the current status of my laptop. Wifi quit on me this morning, so tonight, I messed with the cable modem until it started working again. And this is where things got strange. My iPod Touch can see the wifi network, but my laptop cannot. This led to the fun experience of reconfiguring my wireless network settings on the iPod. Everything's pretty much back to normal again, but the laptop still can't see the wireless network, even though it's explicitly allowed to connect (note that it couldn't see the wireless network even after everything got reset to defaults).

The other incredibly weird part is that it detects other networks (my neighbors'), but the GUI to select which network I want to connect to has changed. This makes no sense to me. I haven't made any significant system changes that I know of. The only recent changes made have been to install McAfee (to get rid of a trojan I picked up a couple of weeks ago) and BOINC. Note that both of these software packages were installed and working without problems for over a week before this.

Also, my laptop quit playing sound a couple of weeks ago, which it does from time to time, but it usually comes back, and it hasn't yet. Anyone have any ideas? Google is failing me on this one, and it would be nice to know if I'm simply going crazy. Laptop is running Windows XP SP 2.

Edit: Now the iPod sees the network, connects to it, and claims not to have Internet access, despite three bars.

So it's that time of year again, and in my world, Halloween means it's time to dress up in a costume, and go door to door confusing people collecting canned food for the needy (typically the Denver Rescue Mission).

In its infinite wisdom, CU is playing the homecoming game on Halloween. The game starts at 11:30am. For whatever reason, the students have decided they want to go Trick-or-Canning at noon. Personally, I think that's a bit ridiculous, as people will not be expecting trick-or-treaters that early, and it's much more fun to go when it's dark. But it's their event, so they can go when they like.

Therefore, I propose the following: a renegade Trick-or-Can for us non-students. I'll work it out with the students to make sure we don't hit any of the same areas they did. Also, traffic is going to suck royally anywhere near campus. Let's meet at 5pm (maybe at my house?), and I'll work out the logistics for assigning neighborhoods and where to drop off food.

If you are interested in participating in my Renegade Trick-or-Can, please comment below so I can get a count of how many people we're talking about, and so I can reserve a large enough area for us.

If you have any questions about this event, feel free to ask!