Wednesday, January 31, 2007

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

TV Night - 1/25/2007


Back again with another edition of the widely never read edition of tv night. Thursday is the most crazy night too! Here we go:

Smallville: Clark wakes up in a mental asylum after being attacked; a fellow patient (Phil Morris) tells Clark that their doctor is a phantom who must be killed t...

The Office: After Jan busts Michael for declaring it's "movie Monday," where everyone watches a movie instead of working, an upset Angela pushes Dwight is into ma…

Ok, ok, for my wife:

Grey's Anatomy: Bailey proposes the creation of a free clinic; a Seattle Grace doctor receives a proposal...

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

ASP.NET vs. Ruby on Rails


I don't really know ruby as well as I'd like to, but the parts I know I really love. Actually, if I had the time, I'd be drooling over it on a daily basis. One of the biggest things that make me drool are under the "Get Excited" section of the Ruby on Rails site.

Tonight, while installing all my standard development software, I came across a video showing someone develop a to-do list based on ASP.NET and AJAX. It was cool and all, but after about 10 minutes, I realized, this video is similar to a 15 minute video showing the Ruby implementation of a weblog website. I hoped the ASP.NET version would be as cool, but after about 20minutes, I was left a bit bored. The Ruby version seemed quicker, more fun, and more.... well, more.

See for yourself:

Creating a weblog in 15 minutes

Scott's To-do list

Now, I'll probably end up staying in .NET world, for work reasons. I just find it odd that Ruby's example seemed so much more exciting.

State of the Union address


As you most likely know, tonight was the state of the union address from the president; on just about every channel. As usual, there were things I didn't like so much and things I agreed with. Also, it was fun to watch the gratuitous applause. I lost count of standing ovations after 10; mostly because I didn't care.

For a great play by play of the state of the union, check out my wife's blog: Nat's Chat. She also went on to make a rebuttal of the democrat rebuttal, and a great posting about why there were WMDs in Iraq:

"If my 8 and 9 year old children will hide things from me when they know I am coming - guess what? Saddam Hussein could get the WMDs out of Iraq and into the hands of terrorists or Syria or whoever.

Oftentimes, I don't have "proof" of my children's misbehavior. They leave little traces, I can tell by the look in their eyes, but the hard evidence isn't there or I wasn't present at the time of disobedience. That doesn't mean it didn't occur.

These same principles apply to dictators."
I've been saying it for years, a lot the people in the world act like children: dictators are no exception.

Oscar Nominations


This year's Oscar nominations have been announced; and to my dismay, "How to be a Girl" was not nominated for best short, best screenplay, or best director. This is an OUTRAGE; but I digress, the nominations are here and some of them are a bit of a suprise!

From my wife's blog, Nat's Chat, there is a link to an article of snubbed movies that should have been nominated.

And don't forget to look at the Razzie nominations, they go hand in hand with the oscars and I feel any movie that was nominated in both the Oscars and the Razzies should be considered film of the year.

Here are my picks and maybe some comments of who I think will win, in some cases, it is not who I want to win at all, now that is an Inconvenient truth:

Best Motion Picture Of The Year

  • "Babel"
  • "The Departed"
  • "Letters from Iwo Jima"
  • "Little Miss Sunshine"
  • "The Queen"

Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role

  • Leonardo DiCaprio in "Blood Diamond"
  • Ryan Gosling in "Half Nelson"
  • Peter O'Toole in "Venus"
  • Will Smith in "The Pursuit of Happyness"
  • Forest Whitaker in "The Last King of Scotland"

Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role

  • Alan Arkin in "Little Miss Sunshine"
  • Jackie Earle Haley in "Little Children"
  • Djimon Hounsou in "Blood Diamond"
  • Eddie Murphy in "Dreamgirls"
  • Mark Wahlberg in "The Departed"

Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role

  • Penélope Cruz in "Volver"
  • Judi Dench in "Notes on a Scandal"
  • Helen Mirren in "The Queen"
  • Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada"
  • Kate Winslet in "Little Children"

Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role

  • Cate Blanchett in "Notes on a Scandal"
  • Abigail Breslin in "Little Miss Sunshine"
  • Jennifer Hudson in "Dreamgirls"
  • Adriana Barraza in "Babel"
  • Rinko Kikuchi in "Babel"

Original Screenplay

  • "Babel" - Written by Guillermo Arriaga
  • "Letters from Iwo Jima" - Screenplay by Iris Yamashit, Story by Iris Yamashita & Paul Haggis
  • "Little Miss Sunshine" - Written by Michael Arndt
  • "The Queen" - Written by Peter Morgan
  • "Pan's Labyrinth" - Written by Guillermo del Toro

Adapted Screenplay

  • "Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" - Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Peter Baynham & Dan Maze, Story by Sacha Baron Cohen & Peter Baynham & Anthony Hines & Todd Phillips
  • "Children of Men" - Screenplay by Alfonso Cuarón & Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus & HawkOstby
  • "The Departed" - Screenplay by William Monahan
  • "Little Children" - Screenplay by Todd Field & Tom Perrotta
  • "Notes on a Scandal" - Screenplay by Patrick Marber

Best Animated Feature Film Of The Year

  • "Cars" John Lasseter
  • "Happy Feet" George Miller
  • "Monster House" Gil Kenan

Achievement In Art Direction

  • "Dreamgirls" - Art Direction: John Myhre, Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
  • "The Good Shepherd" - Art Direction: Jeannine Oppewal, Set Decoration: Gretchen Rau and Leslie E. Rollins
  • "Pan's Labyrinth" - Art Direction: Eugenio Caballer, Set Decoration: Pilar Revuelta
  • "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" - Art Direction: Rick Heinrich, Set Decoration: Cheryl A. Carasik
  • "The Prestige" - Art Direction: Nathan Crowle, Set Decoration: Julie Ochipinti

Achievement In Cinematography

  • "The Black Dahlia" Vilmos Zsigmond
  • "The Illusionist" Dick Pope
  • "Pan's Labyrinth" Guillermo Navarro
  • "Children of Men" Emmanuel Lubezki
  • "The Prestige" Wally Pfister

Achievement In Costume Design

  • "Curse of the Golden Flower" Yee Chung Man
  • "Marie Antoinette" Milena Canonero
  • "The Devil Wears Prada" Patricia Field
  • "Dreamgirls" Sharen Davis
  • "The Queen" Consolata Boyle

Achievement In Directing

  • "Babel" Alejandro González Iñárritu
  • "The Departed" Martin Scorsese
  • "Letters from Iwo Jima" Clint Eastwood
  • "The Queen" Stephen Frears
  • "United 93" Paul Greengrass

Best Documentary Feature

  • "Deliver Us from Evil" - Amy Berg and Frank Donner
  • "An Inconvenient Truth" - Davis Guggenheim *sigh*
  • "Iraq in Fragments" - James Longley and John Sinno
  • "My Country, My Country" - Laura Poitras and Jocelyn Glatzer
  • "Jesus Camp" - Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

Achievement In Film Editing

  • "Babel" - Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise
  • "Blood Diamond" - Steven Rosenblum
  • "The Departed" - Thelma Schoonmaker
  • "United 93" - Clare Douglas, Christopher Rouse and Richard Pearson
  • "Children of Men" - Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Cuaron

Best Foreign Language Film Of The Year

  • "After the Wedding - Denmark
  • "Days of Glory " - Algeria
  • "The Lives of Others" - Germany
  • "Pan's Labyrinth" - Mexico
  • "Water" - Canada

Achievement In Makeup

  • "Apocalypto" Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
  • "Click" Kazuhiro Tsuji and Bill Corso
  • "Pan's Labyrinth" David Marti and Montse Ribe

Achievement In Sound Editing

  • "Apocalypto" - Sean McCormack and Kami Asgar
  • "Blood Diamond" - Lon Bender
  • "Flags of Our Fathers" - Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
  • "Letters from Iwo Jima" - Alan Robert Murray
  • "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" - Christopher Boyes and George Watters II

Achievement In Sound Mixing

  • "Blood Diamond" - Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and Ivan Sharrock
  • "Apocalypto" - Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Fernando Camara
  • "Dreamgirls" - Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer and Willie Burton
  • "Flags of Our Fathers" - John Reitz, Dave Campbell, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin
  • "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" - Paul Massey, Christopher Boyes and Lee Orloff

Achievement In Visual Effects

  • "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" - John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Allen Hall
  • "Poseidon" - Boyd Shermis, Kim Libreri, Chaz Jarrett and John Frazier
  • "Superman Returns" - Mark Stetson, Neil Corbould, Richard R. Hoover and Jon Thum
I am really would have liked to see Superman Returns take it for Visual effects, but even with that $200+ million budget, they didn't do that much that we haven't seen before. Pirate won it with the character of Davey Jones alone.

As for movies in both the Razzies and the Oscars, it looks like Superman Returns, Poseiden and Click all are the best and worst of the 2006.

Monday, January 22, 2007

TV Night - 1/22/2007


Some good stuff on TV tonight and if you don't have a TiVo or a DVR, you'll be stuck hoping for an online version, or reruns. Here is a rundown of some good stuff to look for.

24 - 9pm on Fox - President Palmer and his advisers deal with a series of lethal terrorist attacks that rattle the country.

Super Nanny - 9pm on ABC - Jo helps two marine biologists who cannot control their 3-year-old and 18-month-old sons.

Heroes - 9pm on NBC - Nathan seeks Simone's help to save comatose Peter; Hiro and Ando go in search of the sword in Isaac's painting; Jessica struggles with Niki's decision…

Studio 60 on the sunset strip - 9pm on NBC -
The staff comes back from the holiday break to prepare for the first show of the year; Danny is in full pursuit of Jordan; Matt bids in an online auction...

Some good stuff and that is just at the top of the list, there are lots of other things too... We need 3 TiVos!

Be a filmmaker...


Want to make a movie on your own and do it the right way? Want to do it without having to spend so much time studying and browsing the internet? Sounds like you need a brief overview of the filmmaking process. You are in luck over at Sollthar's Filmmaking Guide 2. Sollthar is the online name of an independent filmmaker out of Europe.

While you are over there, be sure to look into the FXhome set of tools for special effects and compositing. They are quite amazing!

Razzie 2006 Nominations


The razzie (Golden Rasberry Awards) nominations have been announced and boy are they bad! Oh wait, they are supposed to be bad. Don't know what the razzies are? They are the "oscars" for bad movies and this year's selection is just as bad as usual.

The razzies are a pretty interesting, and have even been visited by the stars they are slamming. One year, Halle Berry even showed up to accept her razzie for Catwoman, while holding the oscar she had won.

My pics are starred and yellow.

Worst Picture:
Basic Instinct 2
Bloodrayne**
Lady In The Water
Little Man
Wicker Man

Worst Actor:
Tim Allen (The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, The Shaggy Dog and Zoom)** - For Zoom alone!
Nicolas Cage (Wicker Man)
Larry, The Cable Guy (Dan Whitney) (Larry The Cable Guy: Health Inspector)
Rob Schneider (The Benchwarmers and Little Man)
Marlon Wayans & Shawn Wayans (Little Man)

Worst Actress:
Hilary Duff & Haylie Duff (Material Girls)
Lindsay Lohan (Just My Luck)
Kristanna Loken (Bloodrayne)**
Jessica Simpson (Employee Of The Month)
Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct 2)

Worst Supporting Actor:
Danny DeVito (Deck The Halls)
Ben Kingsley (Bloodrayne)** -- I obviously didn't like Bloodrayne
M. Night Shyamalan (Lady In The Water)
Martin Short (Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause)
David Thewlis (Basic Instinct 2 and The Omen )

Worst Supporting Actress:
Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns)
Kristin Chenoweth (Deck The Halls, Pink Panther and RV)
Carmen Electra (Date Movie and Scary Movie 4)
Jenny McCarthy (John Tucker Must Die)
Michelle Rodriguez (Bloodrayne)**

Worst Screen Couple:

Tim Allen & Martin Short (Santa Clause 3)
Nicolas Cage & His Bear Suit (Wicker Man)
Hilary & Haylie Duff (Material Girls)
Sharon Stone's Lop-Sided Breasts (Basic Instinct 2)** -- Didn't see this movie, but it is constantly nominated. So it must be real bad!!
Shawn Wayans & EITHER Kerry Washington OR Marlon Wayans (Little Man)

Worst Remake or Rip-Off:
Little Man (Rip-off of the 1954 Bugs Bunny cartoon "Baby Buggy Bunny")**
Pink Panther
Poseidon
The Shaggy Dog Story
Wicker Man

Worst Prequel or Sequel:
Basic Instinct 2
Big Momma's House 2
Garfield 2: A Tail Of Two Kitties** -- yawn!
Santa Clause 3
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

Worst Director:
Uwe Boll (Bloodrayne)**
Michael Caton-Jones (Basic Instinct 2)
Ron Howard (The Da Vinci Code)
M. Night Shyamalan (Lady In The Water)
Keenan Ivory Wayans (Little Man)


Worst Screenplay:
Basic Instinct 2 (Screenplay by Leora Barish & Henry Bean)
Bloodrayne (Screenplay by Guinevere Turner)
Lady In The Water (Written by M. Night Shyamalan)**
Little Man (Written by Keenan Ivory Wayans, Marlon Wayans, and Shawn Wayans)
Wicker Man (Screenplay Adapted by Neil LaBute from a Screenplay by Anthony Schaffer)

Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment:
Deck The Halls
Garfield 2: A Tail Of Two Kitties**
RV
Santa Clause 3
The Shaggy Dog


Ouch, a lot of painful choices there! Many I would have preferred to pick more than one. Oh well, the winners are announced the same night as the oscars. Good luck!

Procrastination

Don't you love those days like this?

Procrastination seems to be getting more and more problematic as time goes by. Piers Steel, a University of Calgary psychology professor, has finished a five-year study (in ten years) about procrastination. It seems in 1978, only 5% of the people admitted to being a procrastinator. Now, it is around 26%! I guess this modern world of iPods, Wii, Playstations, and Internet makes it a bit easier to procrastinate.

Full feeds away!


One of my biggest pet peeves when browsing through the wonderful group of blogs and podcasts on my google reader page is when a feed is not set to show the whole article. I mean, I understand that people are trying to drive you to their site for hits or ad reasons, but it still is annoying to have to click out of google reader to read something. Thanks to tabbed browsing, its not too bad, but still let's all show the full feeds!

Now there is some scientific reasoning behind show the full feeds. Ok, not scientific, but at least a valid reason. Leon Ho's blog posted an article about drawing more subscribers to your site, and guess what!? Full Feed instead of Partial Feed is the first idea!

A year of Cinekids


Another blog / podcast / vidcast that I work on is Cinekids. Cinekids is a video podcast were children review movies. The last new episode was way back in the beginning of November, but we are currently making plans for a new season and new format for the show. The cinekids show just turned a year old and what are the results of a year of movie reviews?

Pretty good results for just a year of a little vidcast! Going from just under 0 viewers to around 200 subscribers a day, Getting selected to be on Yahoo's The 9, Almost being on the now cancelled Megan Mullally show, and having fun while doing it. The kids reviewed their favorite movies, like Superman Returns and The Neverending Story. Thanks has to go out to a couple podcast programs though; we get a lot of subscribers from TVTonic and Democracy Internet TV!

Friday, January 19, 2007

It's a freeware world... almost


free·ware [free-wair] –noun computer software distributed without charge. (via dictionary.com)

Freeware is one of my favorite things ever. As a developer it is always a great thing to sit around and find that little tool, or in some cases huge tool, that is out and available for all to use. I often sit around and ponder what piece of digital candy I could create that would change the world. Haven't thought of it yet, but there is already a great selection out there.

Google is a prime example, they have several free applications that are great to use. Gmail, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and Google Maps are prime examples of their online applications, but they also feature some downloadable standalone applications for Windows and Mac. Applications like Picasa for photo organization, Google Earth for mapping and just hours of procrastination, and also Google Sketchup for 3D modeling.

However, Google is not the only one putting out free stuff. Here is a brief list of free software that does really cool stuff!

VirtualDub - A great little video tool that does almost everything!
Opera and Firefox - browsers that rock! I like opera better, but, so many sites just started supporting Firefox leaving Opera unsupported in some cases.
FileZilla - The coolest little FTP client ever!
Winamp and iTunes - MP3 stuff! Winamp is good, but I really like iTunes, go figure.

There are many others, but, I shouldn't list them all here. Part of the fun of freeware is discovering that new free piece of software. Get out there and google! If you can't find it, don't forget Sourceforge!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Be Kind Rewind


Every once in awhile, you here of a film that sounds crazy enough to be really funny. I just read about a new film called, "Be Kind Rewind", directed by Michael Gondry. His previous movies, "Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind" and "The Science of Sleep", have either been interesting or looked interesting. Now he is back with Jack Black and another quirky movie.


"A man (Black) whose brain becomes magnetized unintentionally destroys every tape in his friend's video store. In order to satisfy the store's most loyal renter, an aging woman with signs of dementia, the two men set out to remake the lost films, which include Back to the Future, The Lion King, and Robocop. " -- imdb

Jack Black remaking Back to the Future is enough for me to see it! What else could be so cool? I can't imagine!

Golden Globe results and thoughts...


Ok, ok, I didn't do so well predicting the golden globes. Oh well, I didn't really want to get them all right anyway... *sniff*... So how did I do? 5 correct out of 25. Ouch! Well, it is over and we are onto more important shows like the oscars!

Apparently, the globes had excellent ratings last night. This suprises me a bit as most people don't seem to be award show fans and well, 24 was on last night too! TiVo is great in our house because we watched the globes and TiVo-ed 24. (An interesting side note, for the first time, FOX has released 24 on DVD after a mere 12 hour window!)

The success of the 2007 globes can mean one of many things, but maybe it is that NBC promised to have all the stars from TV and film, and the viewers bought it. I mean, there are the television awards and the film awards; maybe people are tired of all the award shows and are leaning to one massive award show that celebrates film and TV. Maybe the viewers are calling for a massive show business awards program that quickly awards film, music, and TV. I know I wouldn't like that, I love the oscars, even when I only guess 20% correct.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Polymathic Golden Globes Predictions


Movie awards season is here and as an avid fan of movies, and a blogger, it is my blogosphere duty to make preditions of who will win and why I believe they will win. For a list of the nominees, check out the IMDb Awards page! So without further ado, on to the predictions:

Best Motion Picture - Drama: The Departed
This was the only movie nominated that I saw last year. I was a bad filmgoer! Still, it was an incredible movie! As someone said after the movie ended, it was so Scorcese-esque!

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy: Little Miss Sunshine
Little Miss Sunshine was such a great little movie. I don't know why Devil wears Prada was nominated as it seemed very formulaic.

Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama: Leonardo DiCaprio for Departed
Mr. DiCaprio has two nominations this year, how could he lose!?

Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama: Helen Mirren
I'll have to be honest, I didn't see any of the films in this category. I'll just have to honor Stephen Colbert and go with what I feel will win...

Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy: Will Ferrell
I think it is time for Will Ferrell to start winning more often.

Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy: Toni Collette
I only saw a couple of these movies, but Toni Collette in Little Miss Sunshine just has to win!

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama: Eddie Murphy
Going with what I feel again, I'd prefer it if someone from The Departed won, but, I think Eddie Murphy will take this one.

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama: Cate Blanchett
Cate Blanchett is a great actress. I am guessing here, but I think she'll take this one.

Best Director - Motion Picture: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Even though Eastwood has the best odds of winning, I'll go with Inarritu for Babel. This movie has a ton of nominations and it seemed to be a different movie than most.

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture: Peter Morgan
Guessing again, but it is always the movie I least expect to win in the screenplay category.

Best Original Song - Motion Picture: "Listen" from Dreamgirls
Don't know... Just Guessing!

Best Original Score - Motion Picture: Babel
More guessing!

Best Foriegn Language Film: Pan's Labrynth
I've heard a lot of great things about this and the trailers look visually amazing!

Best Animated Film: Cars
Hey, one word: Pixar!

Best Television Series - Drama: 24
This is a tough category, still, I think 24 will take it!

Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy: The Office
Wow, another tough category!

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV: Mrs. Harris
More guessing!

Best Actor in a Mini-Series: Robert Duvall for Broken Trail
Still Guessing, but Robert Duvall rocks!

Best Actress in a Mini-Series: Annette Bening for Mrs. Harris
A lot of submissions to the guessing department!

Best Actor in a TV Series - Musical or Comedy: Jason Lee
Tough category! Jason Lee is one of my favorite actors and he finally got nominated for the hilarious My Name is Earl!

Best Actress in a TV Series - Musical or Comedy: America Ferrera
More guessing, but it seems like a lot of people are talking about Ugly Betty.

Best Actor in a TV Series - Drama: Kiefer Sutherland
24 is awesome, nuff said.

Best Actress in a TV Series - Drama: Ellen Pompeo
My wife is successfully working on getting me a addicted to Grey's Anatomy. I think she'll take this one.

Best Supporting Actor in a TV Series: Masi Oka
Hey, I am a geek, and Heroes is cool! I love this guy's character and he does a great job being the teleporting man!

Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series: Sarah Paulson
Studio 60 is one of my favorite new shows of this year, I'm glad someone got nominated from it.

So what was I disappointed with this year? Where was Battlestar Galactica!?!?! Yeah, it is Sci Fi and not network, but still, it is one of the best shows I have seen in a while!

What are your predictions?!?! Leave a comment!

When bloggers marry...


This is a bit of a personal post for this non-personal yet technically personal blog, but it is still great news. This blogger (Josh) and another blogger (Nathania), also co-bloggers of the charitable living blog, were married on Friday afternoon! We then followed up with a wonderful weekend of rest and relaxation, away from the kids, down in Kure Beach North Carolina. The condo at atlantic towers we visited was wonderful and the weather was amazing!

Today we ended the wonderful weekend with an awesome lunch, right on the riverfront, in the awesome city of Wilmington, NC! I never knew how awesome Wilmington is, but it is just amazing. I am sure we will be needing to go back!

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Google SketchUp


Most of my work revolves around Autodesk drafting products and automating these tools for our clients. While that is fun and exciting it is always neat to see Google step into different industries. Last year they started up with Google Docs & Spreadsheets and now they are going into 3D design. SketchUp 6 is now out and it is cool! All sorts of fun things to do that can be exported to Google Earth, or even imported from AutoCAD. There is even a 3D warehouse where you can download different models to play with.

To make it even more cool, since SketchUp 4, there is an API. While most of the work I do is in the Windows world and uses .NET for work, I have always been quite interested in Ruby. SketchUp's API is all in Ruby! How cool is that?

Now I just need to think of some cool little add in that will connect SketchUp to the AutoCAD world so I can learn more about Ruby!

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Top 5 most anticipated movies of 2007


Movies. Movies. Movies. Every year there is an unending stream of new films coming out, and each year this stream gets deeper and deeper. This year, is the year of trilogies! I think there is around 5 or 6 "part 3" movies, maybe more. Luckily only one made my list. Here we go:

5. Grindhouse
Robert Rodriguez constantly gets me excited about his films. They are usually high in style and knowing that he does everything on a digital platform satisfies the geek in me. Even more, I am constantly amazed with how he jumps from an ultra grown up movie like Sin City, to a kid or family movie like Spy Kids. Grindhouse looks to be an interesting experiment in putting two films together (one by Rodriguez and the other by Tarantino). The trailers just ooze style and action. Probably not one I'll take the family to, but still quite exciting.

4. Knocked Up
Knocked Up is the one film I fought with putting on the list. While it looks interesting and quite funny, it isn't the normal geek movie that I'd be excited about. Still, knowing how funny 40 year old virgin was, I am quite excited about seeing this movie.

3. Transformers
What boy raised in the 80's isn't excited about Transformers? Heck, even my 9 year old sun raised in the 2000s is excited about this one. One phrase describes it all: Robots waging war on earth. Lots of special effects goodness... :)

2. The Bourne Ultimatum
After reading The Bourne Identity and seeing the first of this series, I was hooked. While the movie didn't quite follow the story exactly, it was close enough to be exciting. The second in the series gave me a little motion sickness from all the handheld camera shots, but it was still a good film and I am excited to see the next in the series.

1. 300
Sin City was one of my favorite movies of 2005 and knowing that 300 is based on another comic written by Frank Miller just makes the geek in me very happy. Make it using the comic's cells as a story board and it just pumps out even more of that style I seem to like. While I haven't read the graphic novel, I am very hopeful that the film's content equals this style.

Well, there you have it, the top 5 movies for 2007. I just hope I can make it to see some of these. There are a few movies from 2006 that I still need to see!

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

The poly.... what blog?


"Polymathic?", you may be asking? Yes, polymathic. It all comes from the old phrase, "Jack of all trades, master of none, though ofttimes better than master of one". After sitting and thinking long and hard about what blog I could continuously write. I was stumped. Sure, I have had the Dad blog, the diet blog, and even a personal blog. I'll blog for a week or two, then bam, it is gone in the dust. It makes one think, "What do I like enough to blog about regularly?". The answer is everything.

I work as a computer programmer. I am an independent filmmaker. I love science, politics, and entertainment stuff. I am a now a part of another blog that discusses charity in everyday living and the video podcast with children's movie reviews. So why not blog about what I like: Everything.

"GEEK!!", you may be screaming. Ok, yeah, so what? Well, one caveat: This is not to be a personal blog. I don't want it to be just an "Ooh, that looks cool, here is a link to it". I will be trying to write posts about each topic and hopefully be entertaining and informative in someway.

Luckily, with the great addition of tagging technology, you can now only view the posts you are interested in. Just take a stroll through the Tag Cloud and have fun!