Archive for May, 2005

Episode III

Sunday, 22 May 2005

I just got back from watching Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Here are my initial thoughts on it.

Out of all the Star Wars films, this is the one that puts the most attention towards the actual storyline - something much appreciated. After all, Episode III is meant to be the “anchor” film that ties all six episodes together. Did it do that? Yes, it did. It did it very well. It shows all the things that explain just about everything for episodes IV, V and VI.

I only have two (very small) complaints. The first one is that Chewbacca isn’t explained very well. If you read his bio, you understand that he befriends Han Solo after he frees him from slave labor forced upon him by the Empire. They are friends ever since after that - explaining their connection in episodes IV thru VI. The second complaint is the sighting of the Millenium Falcon which happens right at the beginning of Episode III. At this point in the story, the Falcon would have still belonged to Lando Calrissian. But maybe it’s not the ‘Falcon. It could be a ship that just looks like it.. but I don’t buy that. ;-)

Aside from those two itty bitty complaints, the rest of the movie is spot on. The balance between emotion and action are mixed together very well.

On the action side, it doesn’t get much better than this. Huge battle scenes, dogfight style ship fighting and the best saber battles ever seen in a Star Wars film. No doubt about that.

On the emotional side, when Anakin Skywalker falls to the dark side, it’s totally believable why he did it. The reason is simple: For the love of a woman. One would think that George Lucas did this very intentionally. Is the path to the dark side because of a love for a woman? Hmm…. I mean, Luke Skywalker had no love interest and was able to resist the dark side. Could it be he was able to hold himself together because he had no mate? Hmm….

Here’s a few thoughts that have been rambling around in my head from watching this movie today.

It’s hard to believe that Star Wars is officially done. It’s over. Done with. All the pieces are in place. This is it. The last hurrah. I remember seeing The Empire Strikes Back when I was 5 and Return of the Jedi when I was 8. (I didn’t see the original Star Wars as a kid because I was only 2 years old at the time.) Now I’ve just seen Episode III, and I’m 30. Let’s just say I felt my age today.

If that wasn’t weird enough, I saw Episode III in the same movie theater I saw Empire and Jedi in years ago. Whoosh. This theater has changed ownership at least 5 times to my memory. Back when I saw the originals as a kid, it was owned by the same people who built the place. That has long since changed. Thankfully the theater is still the same. It’s small, quaint and predictable. :-)

Tears fell from my face at the opening note of the main theme song when the STAR WARS yellow logo first appeared. Every single time I hear that triumphant first trumpet blast, it moves me. It happened when I was 5, when I was 8, when I was 22 (1997 when I saw the re-releases) and now when I’m 30. That theme song is one of the best I’ve ever heard, if not the best. That’s the musician side of me coming out. Truly good music moves me and brings tears of joy.

And finally, concerning my own screenplay writing, Star Wars is a huge inspiration. It always has been. Movies like that let me know that people really do like sci-fi films. If you asked most people, they would not classify any Star Wars film as simply “sci-fi”. They would just say “It’s a great movie.”

It is.

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I do know now what I have

Sunday, 22 May 2005

“If I only knew then what I know now.”

Wise words.

These are words of regret. Regret is a painful thing to live with.

Earlier this evening I went out to dinner with my pop and one of his friends. We went to a local Chinese place. While eating we had conversation.

Pop’s friend has two kids from his first wife which he calls “good kids”, and three step-children from his second marriage who are all unappreciative of all his efforts. This man I speak of is hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt due to medical expenses from his 2nd wife.

One of the kids who is in her early 20’s could not afford a car. So he bought one for her. She drove it around and loved the fact it was her car - but it’s not her car - it’s the father’s. He paid for it.

Every weekend this girl hangs out at the mall and spends money. Recently, her debt caught up to her. A notice came in the mail that the car loan has defaulted, adding to an already bad credit score for the father. He finally got fed up, and told the bank to take the car - he’s had enough.

Of course, in her mind, it’s her father’s fault for taking the car away. Never mind the fact that she could have paid the bill. Never mind the fact that she could have stopped wasting money needlessly on trivial things when you have prior fiscal responsibilities. The blame will all be placed on him.

To that girl: You’re an ungrateful brat. You have a father that cares about you, loves you and buys things for you when he doesn’t have to. And now, you’re going to get upset when you have no rhyme or reason to. You made your own bed. Lie in it.

Commandment #5: “Honor your father and your mother…” While I may not be a religious man - this is sage advice to take to heart. You honor the ones who care for you - whether the bloodlines are shared or not.

To that girl: Your father knows you will grow up to live a miserable existence if all you do is take your father (and mother) for granted.

I do not take my father for granted. I full well realize what I have and cherish the fact he is alive and well. You, on the other hand, have absolutely no conception of how lucky you are. Someday your luck will run out. Your beauty will fade. Your skin will wrinkle. You will grow old, and your father will pass on - and then you’ll have no one but yourself to blame for the needless self-absorbed attitude you have.

Will it take your father’s death for you to learn the value of a parent? Let’s hope not.

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Nope, bad idea

Monday, 23 May 2005

Looks like that “someday” I mentioned before concerning the image headers happened sooner than I thought. I went back to straight text. The reason is because on some pages (like the archives for example) took about 10 times longer to load because of those images - I found this out at werk today. It’s not that the images were big, there was just a lot of them. So it’s back to regular styled text. Maybe it’s a lil’ more boring, but it loads quick. ;-)

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Clone Wars

Monday, 23 May 2005

To anyone who’s into Star Wars at all: Check out the Clone Wars cartoon. It is VERY good - and I am not a cartoon guy. I have watched this DVD many times and it is just really.. really good. Volume I is on DVD now and Volume II will be on its way soon enough. The DVD is definitely worth the buy. You get to see things in it that the movies couldn’t show because it would have been too hard to make, which includes but it not limited to:

- Elite clones
Special group of clone warriors that operate just like Navy Seals.

- Kit Fisto
Underwater Jedi fighting. Need I say more.

- Mace Windu
We see a lot of this guy in the films, but man does he rip it up on Clone Wars.

So check it out. Trust me - get it. :-)

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Thanks to those who care / web site stuff

Wednesday, 25 May 2005

I’d like to take a moment to thank those near and dear to me (friends, relatives and girlfriend) for putting up with my attitude for the past few days. Monday and Tuesday positively sucked. Today I think I’m coming around to my normal self again.. or at least what I consider to be normal (after all, everyone’s definition is different).

—

I noticed in my server logs today that several people are reloading the home page over and over again. This can only mean one thing: Some people have finally noticed the random quote at the top right and kept reloading to see how many quotes there were. To kill that mystery, the current count of random quotes is over 20. I say “current” because I add some whenever I either think of or find some random saying on the internet that I feel fits this site. Maybe I’ll get to 30 someday, or 40, or more.. Oh, and it’s true, some quotes have links to lil’ sound clips.

And yes, the “posted by” mark at the end of each article also has a random line in it, such as “spewed forth from” or “stain removal provided by” and so on. There are not as many of those as I have random quotes for the top, but I’m sure I’ll think of a few more. ;-)

I put these things on this site to keep it interesting.

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Whores run rampant in the capital city

Wednesday, 25 May 2005

I just saw a story on WPRI (that’s channel 12 on the telly) and I had to write about it.

Note: My cable considers “local” channels to be Connecticut and Rhode Island, that’s why I get the RI stations.

Evidently there are lots o’ whores in Providence RI when the sun goes down. I mean, there must be if it was enough to make the evening news. Anyway, I watched the story. In short, arrests for whores are down - which you can take either way. Either RI cops are getting better at keeping whores off the street, or, they just don’t give a shit about it. You can make up your own mind about that. The news station obviously tried to put a positive spin on it.. “Hm.. arrests are down, it must mean the cops are doing their job!” Again, you can make up your own mind on that.

The part of the story that really perked my ears is the following statement: “Police are working with community leaders to develop a prostitute-free zone.”

Read that again: Prostitute-free zone.

When one reads this, the first thought that goes through your mind (and if it isn’t, it should be) is “Does this mean there will be areas in Rhode Island where prostitution is OKAY?” If you have prostitute-free zones, will there also be designated zones where a whore can parade around freely?

And I got the perfect “Prostitute Zone” for ya: High school parking lots. They’ll make millions. No, no, no.. scratch that. That’s just me being very sarcastic. Carry on. ;-)

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New computer for pop

Saturday, 28 May 2005

I built a computer for pop a while back. It was a Pentium 4 1.6GHz with a cheesy mobo, 128MB of RAM, 32MB of shared video memory and an ancient 8GB hard drive. Today I decided to take the retired Dell Dimension 4400 (which has a 2.4GHz proc, 40GB hard drive, 512MB of RAM and a 64MB vid card) and rebuilt it for pop.

I had the original Dell “restore” CD-ROM with WinXP Home Edition so I installed that. Service pack’d it and then installed all his stuff. Worked out quite well, and it zips along quite nicely. I had forgotten that this Dell is no slouch.

It’s kind of funny that a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 with 512MB of RAM, 40GB hard drive and 64MB vid card is considered obsolete. I mean, it does run everything (with the exception of high-end games) quite well. The computer is speedy enough to handle just about anything you throw at it, and it’s really quiet.

What’s funny is that if I decided to sell this computer, the most I could get for it is probably 200 bucks.

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Cool station wagons

Saturday, 28 May 2005

I came across StationWagon.com and noticed some wagons I actually wouldn’t mind owning. Dare I say, some look quite cool. Here are a few:

1995 Aston Martin Virage
Sweeping lines, nice wheels.

Custom 1955 Chevy Nomad
Looks like something Satan would drive. I like it.

1999 Chevy Nomad Concept Car
Another Nomad in modern form. Very cool looking.

And the ugly prize goes to…

1970 Cadillac El Dorado
Holy SHIT was this car beaten by the ugly stick at the design board. Super-thick whitewalls, gold color (Caddy’s, in any form, are not meant for gold,) side marker lights that are at least a foot long, doors that go halfway into Montana, you name it - this beast has it. 1st runner-up is a 1975 Chrysler Town & Country.. BLEAH…

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Presents for me (sort of)

Sunday, 29 May 2005

I finally bought those things I said I was going to for my Dell Inspiron 6000. I got a 2nd AC adapter (reason: big pain in the ass to unplug the adapter every time I have to take the laptop somewhere) and a new mini-mouse. The adapter dropped in price fortunately, it was 26 bucks. The mouse, 9 bucks.

I also decided to splurge and bought another stick of RAM for my ‘6000. It’s a 512MB stick which will bring the total to 1GB of RAM. I could have gone to 1.5GB of RAM but I said “nah” because it’s only a Celeron processor.

Interesting note about the whole RAM thing concerning the ‘6000: It would appear the RAM-controller is limited to 400MHz.

—

Note before continuing: RAM does have different speeds. The higher the MegaHertz, the faster it is - if your controller on your motherboard supports it. For example, a slower RAM on a desktop computer is DDR 266, also known as PC2100 RAM. A “faster” RAM would be DDR 400, also known as PC 3200 RAM.

If your RAM controller is only limited to a certain speed, the RAM will revert to the maximum limit the controller can handle. For example, if you put in a DDR 400 stick of RAM into a motherboard that can only support DDR 266, the RAM will only run at DDR 266 and not any higher.

If you “mix” speeds with sticks of RAM, the same thing happens. If you have two sticks of RAM, one 512MB stick of DDR 400 and one stick of DDR 266, if you place them on the same board, they will run at the slower speed to stay “compatible” with each other.

—

Anyway, back to the RAM thing on the ‘6000. The RAM controller only supports DDR2 RAM with 400MHz speeds. There has been plenty of discussion on the Dell Message Board about this so I guess it’s true.

I decided to buy the stick of RAM directly from Dell for two reasons. The first is because it’s made by Dell, therefore Dell supported (and the laptop is still under warranty). The second reason is that I know it will absolutely 100% work in this laptop.

What sucked is what I paid for it. 97 bucks. OUCH. I could have very easily bought it elsewhere and saved around 15 bucks, but.. it’s that whole warranty thing. If I buy a stick of RAM and it goes sour and screws up my mainboard, Dell ain’t about to go and fix that - that would be my fault for not using true Dell parts.

Ah well, such is life. When you own a newer computer, you pay the bucks for the parts.

Funny note: Were I to buy the same about of RAM for the Dell Dimension 4400 (which uses PC2100 DDR 266 RAM), the price is 35 bucks.

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Going to give TypeKey a go

Sunday, 29 May 2005

Although I’m not too fond of having my web site go through another web site just to post a comment, I’ve decided to give TypeKey a try.

First of all, since I upgraded from MovableType 2.661 to 3.16, it was a SEVERE pain in the pass just to get the darn thing working.. mainly due to the fact that you really have to DIG on the internet just to find the information necessary to get the fucking thing to work right.

On the TypeKey end: Possibly the most annoying thing about TypeKey is simply GETTING STARTED right after you register. There’s a part on your TypeKey account that allows you to put the URL of your blog to enable it. Sounds pretty simple, right? Wrong. Nowhere does it state that you have to put the ENTIRE PATH to your .cgi comment perl script to get it to WORK. So your URL would not be www.[yoursite].com. It would be http://www.[yoursite].com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi. And ya know it would be NICE IF SOMEONE AT TYPEKEY PUT THIS LITTLE NOTE IN THERE. I had to Google about 20 different sites before I found this out.

On the MovableType end: To get that stupid little TypeKey image thing to actually appear with a link, it involves adding one tag called MTCommentAuthorIdentity. Is this anywhere in the documentation? Nope. Not that I could find. The only way I found this was by literally creating another blog and then heading to the template to see the code - then I spotted it. Okay, good - got that done. Then that ever-lovin’ BORDER started appearing on all the Typekey links. Once again I headed to my test blog to see that code. It’s in the CSS and it’s called .commenter-profile img. If you add the code to your CSS file to read:

.commenter-profile img {border-width: 0;}

..it will get rid of the border.

I also found out the hard way to not use “manual” form links. Fortunately this was easy. Instead of all the form code in the templates, I just used MTCommentFields. Worked great and it didn’t fuck up my templates at all.

—

Probably the best thing about TypeKey is that it’s really easy to SHUT OFF in case it annoys you too much. In case this doesn’t work out I will be shutting it off and then try to find a way to get phpBB to integrate with MT instead for all comments.

And I’ll tell ya, I would pay GOOD MONEY for a programmer that could make phpBB the primary comment system for MovableType. This way I could keep everything here and not worry about if TypeKey goes down for whatever reason. Maybe this will happen in the future..? I hope it does.

– edit –

Looks like I don’t have to pay money, a way to make phpBB as the comment engine for MT does exist - but it doesn’t work with 3.16 - I tried. One wonders if I have to go back to MT 2.661.. (groan..)

– edit –

After messing around I was able to get the phpBB thing to work.. YES! I will eventually push this blog over to that. It’ll be done by tonight or tomorrow.

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