Monthly Archives: November 2003

… Or maybe he wouldn’t. I don’t know the man, what right do I have to say what would or would not do him proud?

Anyway, Adam showed me this. It’s really very cool, if you like those sorts of things (which I do)

While looking through my logs a bit, I noticed that I someone had reached my site through a Google search for the word ‘Solow’. Curious, I decided to check it out myself, to see where I ranked, and see who was number one.

To my great surprise and delight, I learned about a Robert M. Solow, who won a Nobel Prize for Economics in 1987. I asked my dad about him, and he said that he was most likely related to us (based on timing, location, etc.) and that he was most likely my grandfather’s cousin.

A cool sidenote in relation to this discovery is the Solow Paradox, named after said relative. The paradox states:

This is amazingly relevant to my life right now (though not perhaps in the way it was meant to be), considering my abundance of computer knowledge, both through formal education and my own ‘work’; and my utter lack of income.

Almost every aspect of my life has something to do with computers, yet I see no money from this. I’m about ready to go and get a retail job somewhere, just to try and pay off my rising debts, yet I still continue to work with computers because they are really what interests me more than anything else. This may be self-damaging, I don’t know.

But I guess I’ll find out, one day :)

Here’s this week’s Friday Five:

1. What food do you like that most people hate?

Sushi and candycorn (not together).

2. What food do you hate that most people love?

Nuts, peanuts, and pretty much all fruit (especially apples).

3. What famous person, whom many people may find attractive, is most unappealing to you?

Russell Crowe. I just think he’s really overrated; and I’m sick of hearing others fawn over him. (I’ve ranted a bit on this before)

4. What famous person, whom many people may find unappealing, do you find
attractive?

Seth Green! (It may be his tendency for blue/green/red/black/etc. hair)

5. What popular trend baffles you?

Most canonical things that interest primarily the preppy kids, the cheerleaders, the athletes- generally your typical highschool/college “in crowd”. Stuff like Dave Matthews Band and Abercrombie and Fitch.

I just saw Matrix Revolutions. My biggest impression is that it is not quite as bad as everyone says. I didn’t think the movie was senseless; it did make sense, albeit a twisted sort of sense (you kinda have to use your imagination…). Of course, this isn’t to say it was completely satisfactory. Without giving away spoilers, I can say that my major gripes are that the last half hour of the movie was a live-action version of DBZ, and the movie stopped at just about the point where the denouement should have started.

Everything that has a beginning has an end, except for this movie. Return of the Jedi this movie ain’t- it’s decidedly unfair to end a trilogy with a cliffhanger. Of course, there will be a fourth in the series- they will milk this thing as long as people keep giving them money to do so.

Last night I watched both The Ring and Ringu, the Japanese movie it was based upon. I’m not sure which is better, though I’m leaning towards the original.

The Ring
Pros: I really like the fly coming out of the TV effect.
Cons: They overdid it with the other special effects, for instance the faces of the dead people. They also obfuscated the story a bit with all that stuff with the horses. Many things seemed to be added just to keep the Americans paying attention e.g. the horse on the ferry, which made absolutely no sense, given later events in the film.

Ringu
Pros: The whole ESP thing made a whole lot more sense than the horse thing. And the previous victims ‘not being themselves’ anymore is a nice touch. Also, the catch at the end seemed to be handled a bit better in this version.
Cons: Ryuji also ‘having powers in that way’ (ESP) seemed a superfluous deus ex machina (these abilities worked better in the son’s character in The Ring). Also, the victims’ faces tended to induce laughter rather than fear (blame the budget). They also seemed to forget about the whole ‘phone call’ thing about halfway through the movie.

Overall, I’d say The Ring is more entertaining (i.e. explodey) and scarier (i.e. ‘Boo!’) than Ringu, but take into account that I saw The Ring first, hence this view is likely skewed. I think Ringu is in general more coherent and has a better storyline.

And now to complete my Scary Movie 3 unreview. Basically, this movie takes too much from the movies it parodies to be any good on its own. It’s basically a meta-movie (which is kinda the point, I suppose). However, if you haven’t at least seen one of The Ring or Signs you won’t appreciate this movie at all. It simply cannot stand on its own.

It has its funny moments, but they are peppered through the lemon that is the rest of the film.

I just got back from seeing Scary Movie 3. I’m going to hold off on making any judgement here on whether the movie was good or bad for now, though. Apparently, a good deal of the stuff in this movie that I thought was cool came straight from another movie (which was based on yet a third movie). So, until I see either, or both, of those other movies I’m refraining from criticising or praising this one.

I’m not going to tell the Oct 31 joke again, as pretty much everyone who understands it has heard it already and I seem to be the only one who thinks it is consistently funny. I did try to be a bit festive yesterday, at least :)

Anyway, I just got back from a micro-party that Beth had, in which we watched the original Little Shop of Horrors (a great Roger Corman film!), Beth made a really cool Gnu-o-lantern, the virtues of various Final Fantasy games were discussed, and we played a rousing game of Settlers (I won!).

Then Chris dropped my new Weird NJ book in the mud. :(

Then I drove home, and managed to avoid being killed by a surprising amount of drunk drivers. :)

system(‘sleep 900‘);
Then I went to sleep.