My recent [reply] post has made me realize something, lists are good. Top 5 lists, top 10 lists, worst 10, middle 10, you get the idea. So here's a little list that I've cooked up. Warning: the number of items on this list is much much greater than 10.
In 2008 I had a New Year's Resolution. That resolution was to watch a movie a day for an entire year. Of course, 2008 was a leap year so that meant 366 movies. Out of those 366 I challenged myself to watch at least 100 movies that I had never seen before. An added challenge was that I would be spending three weeks in Russia over the summer, complicating the movie a day deal, thus I allowed myself to watch more than one movie a day, as long as I met my goal of 366. Since January 1, 2008 I've been keeping a list of every movie I have seen, and here it is:
January 22, 2011
The Reply (The Dual)
In response to the comments I'm amassing over at [The Dual], I figure I should clear up a few things:
The Dual
So I haven't ventured too much into philosophy as of late, doing my best to keep things rooted in technology and media, but I did promise that there would be some philosophical debates lurking within the digital pages of this blog. Here's a serving for you. Do keep in mind that I am not a philosopher in the strict sense of the profession, and I haven't touched a philosophy textbook in over four years. These are just the thoughts that run through my head that I feel other people might have thought of or might have something to say about.
dualism - (noun) the division of something conceptually into two opposed or contrasted aspects, or the state of being so divided
dualism - (noun) the division of something conceptually into two opposed or contrasted aspects, or the state of being so divided
January 20, 2011
The Rhythm (4)
A cable company and a cable network align forces to dominate the galaxy media industry, 10% of kids are in danger of the Legend of Zelda, and that girl from the Princess Diaries is Catwoman.
The Rhythm: coming at you in spectacular 4D.
The Rhythm: coming at you in spectacular 4D.
January 19, 2011
The Review (Buried)
My Background: I'm familiar with a few Ryan Reynolds films, such as Van Wilder and Definitely, Maybe and his role as Deadpool in Wolverine. I've come to realize his acting strengths lie in his wit, and from what I knew about Buried, that was one tool he wouldn't really be able to rely on. Also, I don't have claustrophobia or fears of being buried alive.
Review: True to the title. Different. Jarring. Emotional ending. Quality film.
Verdict: rent it.
Just a word about the verdict scale since I never really explained it:
And a side note about Ryan Reynolds, I sure hope The Green Lantern is awesome.
Dream on.
[END TRANSMISSION]
Review: True to the title. Different. Jarring. Emotional ending. Quality film.
Verdict: rent it.
Just a word about the verdict scale since I never really explained it:
- Must see - this speaks for itself.
- Worth it - it's worth paying the money to see it in theaters, which means its pretty good and of high quality.
- Rent it - a quality film for sure, just not one you'll need to have in your collection but worth seeing once.
- Avoid it - don't see it, don't rent it, put it out of your mind now.
- Guilty pleasure - not amazing, probably decent, and will probably get a seriously low score by Rotten Tomatos, but you'll probably enjoy it any. Probably.
And a side note about Ryan Reynolds, I sure hope The Green Lantern is awesome.
Dream on.
[END TRANSMISSION]
The 3DS
The Empire Strikes Back.
In case you weren't aware, this morning Nintendo of America and Nintendo Europe jointly announced a few details about the soon to be released portable gaming platform the 3DS. Are you ready? No really, are you ready for the details because I have them courtesy of [IGN] and [Gizmodo] for you here in this one convenient post. Here we go.
In case you weren't aware, this morning Nintendo of America and Nintendo Europe jointly announced a few details about the soon to be released portable gaming platform the 3DS. Are you ready? No really, are you ready for the details because I have them courtesy of [IGN] and [Gizmodo] for you here in this one convenient post. Here we go.
January 18, 2011
The Pilot
Why do they call it a pilot anyway? Is it because it's the first episode of the show and it's flying the series? That sounds incredibly lame. So I'm not sure why it is called a pilot, but the television pilot is the premiere episode for a new television series, for which the goal is to establish characters, plot, mood, and direction from which an entire series may be spawned. Sounds easy right? I'm sure you've had a good idea for a TV show, I've had a few myself. And I've even gone as far as writing a pilot for one of them and I'm thinking I may begin working on the second soon. The hard part is getting it in the right hands and getting it made, but I'm not here to talk your ear off (or is it write your eyes out) about that part of a pilot, I'm here tell you about what they mean for us, members of the public who watch them for entertainment.
January 17, 2011
The Experiment (1)
[UPDATE] You guys need incentives don't you? So here you go: if you can come up with a sentence that can be read in more than two different ways, and I'm talking a substantial sentence here, not something like "I lv cts", try 10 words or more (the more the better), if you can do that you'll get two free movie tickets from Fandango. Get to it! Furthermore, what to do with "y". In the case where "y" is acting as a vowel get rid of it, in all other cases it can stay in such as "yodel", but not "baby". Get it? Got it? Good.
Here's a nifty thought/social experiment a fellow student and I just came up with while working on some general relativity. Could the English language work if we removed all vowels? Except for "I" being used as a pronoun and "a" as an article of course. The internet and texting has already created a language that is filled with abbreviations, but can we abbreviate the abbreviations further? I'm not a linguist. I mean, my mom always told me that English was my worst language and it also happens to be my first. This is definitely an interesting challenge. Could you come up with the ultimate ambiguous sentence that could be read multiple different ways? I'm not sure, that's the beauty of the experiment.
So here are a few simple examples I've come up with:
Th clr rd s wsm.
S spt rn.
Here's a longer one:
W bgn b rxmnng mprtnt dscvr md b Frd n th lst cntr.
Can you understand them? Post what you think they are below or Twitter or Tumblr (the links are in the new "A Link For Your Thoughts" section on the left). If you can create something that is entirely ambiguous I think you'll deserve a prize. Show me what you've got.
Drm n.
[ND TRNSMSSN]
Here's a nifty thought/social experiment a fellow student and I just came up with while working on some general relativity. Could the English language work if we removed all vowels? Except for "I" being used as a pronoun and "a" as an article of course. The internet and texting has already created a language that is filled with abbreviations, but can we abbreviate the abbreviations further? I'm not a linguist. I mean, my mom always told me that English was my worst language and it also happens to be my first. This is definitely an interesting challenge. Could you come up with the ultimate ambiguous sentence that could be read multiple different ways? I'm not sure, that's the beauty of the experiment.
So here are a few simple examples I've come up with:
Th clr rd s wsm.
S spt rn.
Here's a longer one:
W bgn b rxmnng mprtnt dscvr md b Frd n th lst cntr.
Can you understand them? Post what you think they are below or Twitter or Tumblr (the links are in the new "A Link For Your Thoughts" section on the left). If you can create something that is entirely ambiguous I think you'll deserve a prize. Show me what you've got.
Drm n.
[ND TRNSMSSN]
January 16, 2011
The Formula
"Get Kill the bad guys."
That's pretty much it, that's the whole formula for making a video game. Okay, admittedly we can add "save theprincess world" in there too because that's pretty much a given as well.
From Super Mario to the Legend of Zelda and even wrapped within Halo 3, Red Dead Redemption, and Gears of War, and pretty much any video game you can there lies the simple formula. Given it's simplicity, the formula is easily maleable and can be formed to fit nearly any storyline. For instance get the bad guys and save the world can be adapted to get the bad Covenant and Librarian and save Cortana and the local universe for Halo 3 and get the Locusts and save (what's left of) humanity for Gears of War. Or in a quite litteral sense for Mario and Link, get the bad guys and save the princess. I'm not trying to completely diss the video game industry for lack of creative ideas or originality because clearly they know their target audience, someone like me who will play a good series forever even if bosses, temples, stories, and quests clearly get reused over and over again. There are plenty of people who would complain about that, understandably, but to those people I say "go play WoW then".
That's pretty much it, that's the whole formula for making a video game. Okay, admittedly we can add "save the
From Super Mario to the Legend of Zelda and even wrapped within Halo 3, Red Dead Redemption, and Gears of War, and pretty much any video game you can there lies the simple formula. Given it's simplicity, the formula is easily maleable and can be formed to fit nearly any storyline. For instance get the bad guys and save the world can be adapted to get the bad Covenant and Librarian and save Cortana and the local universe for Halo 3 and get the Locusts and save (what's left of) humanity for Gears of War. Or in a quite litteral sense for Mario and Link, get the bad guys and save the princess. I'm not trying to completely diss the video game industry for lack of creative ideas or originality because clearly they know their target audience, someone like me who will play a good series forever even if bosses, temples, stories, and quests clearly get reused over and over again. There are plenty of people who would complain about that, understandably, but to those people I say "go play WoW then".
The Week (of 1.16.11)
Week 3 of 2011 means you better make sure your couch is ready to be sat on for an extended period of time, or your Hulu account will be seeing a lot of activity. This week marks the return of many students to college TV shows that have been on vacation. Tune in. As for movies, I honestly don't know much about these films except that Tommy Lee Jones is in one and Natalie Portman is in another.
Movies:
1.21 The Way Back
1.21 No Strings Attached
1.21 The Company Men
Movies:
1.21 The Way Back
1.21 No Strings Attached
1.21 The Company Men
Television:
1.17 Chuck - "Chuck Versus the Balcony" @ 8 pm ET
1.17 House - "Larger than Life" @ 8 pm ET
1.17 How I Met Your Mother - "Last Words" @ 8 pm ET
1.17 Being Human - "There Goes the Neighborhood Part 1" @ 9 pm ET
1.18 White Collar - "Burke's Seven" @ 10 pm ET
1.19 Blue Mountain State - "Riot" @ 11 pm ET
1.20 The Big Bang Theory - "The Love Car Displacement" @ 8 pm ET
1.20 Bones - "The Body in the Bag" 9 pm ET
1.20 Community - "Asian Population Studies" @ 8 pm ET
1.20 Perfect Couples - "Pilot" @ 8:30 pm ET
1.20 Royal Pains - "Mulligan" @ 9 pm ET
1.20 Royal Pains - "Mulligan" @ 9 pm ET
Video Games:
1.17 Monday Night Combat (PC)
1.18 Mindjack (Xbox/PS3)
1.18 LittleBigPlanet 2 (PS3)
1.18 Mass Effect 2 (PS3)
1.18 Mystery Tales: Time Travel (DS)
1.18 Plants vs. Zombies (DS)
1.18 Ys I & II Chronicles (PSP)
1.17 Monday Night Combat (PC)
1.18 Mindjack (Xbox/PS3)
1.18 LittleBigPlanet 2 (PS3)
1.18 Mass Effect 2 (PS3)
1.18 Mystery Tales: Time Travel (DS)
1.18 Plants vs. Zombies (DS)
1.18 Ys I & II Chronicles (PSP)
DVD/Blu-ray:
1.18 Buried (Blu/DVD)
1.18 Takers (Blu/DVD)
1.18 Death Race 2 (Blu/DVD)
1.18 Merlin - The Complete Second Season (DVD)
1.18 Buried (Blu/DVD)
1.18 Takers (Blu/DVD)
1.18 Death Race 2 (Blu/DVD)
1.18 Merlin - The Complete Second Season (DVD)
Suggestions: Get LittleBigPlanet 2 and DVR because you'll need one to record all those shows airing around the same time on Monday night. And check out Buried and let me know how it is because I really wanted to see it (but avoid it if you are severely claustrophobic). Get your week on.
Dream on.
Dream on.
[END TRANSMISSION]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)