Is it wrong that i can relate to this guy? I didn’t know the trivia about Hudsucker Proxy, and i dig his little game about finding something that happened each year when making change. (click on the image to watch his video)
The remake of Wicker Man is just as insane as the original
The remake (with Cage) isn’t as bizarre as the original, but it still is one of the most ridiculous movies of the past 10 years.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6i2WRreARo]
Megatron Question
What was Megatron when he crash landed into the South Pole in 1900? He couldn’t have been a car or fighter jet because they hadn’t been invented yet. Anyone??
I Am Legend is a Good Read
I just finished the book I Am Legend.
The book is about, well here’s the synopsis….
A terrible plague has decimated the world, and those who were unfortunate enough to survive have been transformed into blood-thirsty creatures of the night. Except, that is, for Robert Neville. He alone appears to be immune to this disease, but the grim irony is that now he is the outsider. He is the legendary monster who must be destroyed because he is different from everyone else.
I really liked the book. It is a quick and entertaining read – especially for being written in 1954. I’m not really in to vampires, but this isn’t about vampires. It’s about a man who is the last man on earth and he’s trying to deal with being alone, and trying to figure out what has happened to the rest of his race. I’d recommend this to anyone looking for some light summertime reading
There are periods when Neville’s coping with his solitary existence – sometimes he drinks himself into a coma and other times he just zones out for months at a time. It reminded me of Cast Away when Tom Hanks was just dealing with being stranded. It is interesting to read and to get inside the head of a character like that. Cast Away had over 40 minutes of silence, but in I am Legend you a exposed to the inner thoughts of the survivor. I can only imagine what it would do to a man – but it sure makes for good reading.
I have heard that there is a movie of I Am Legend coming out where Will Smith plays Neville. I’m not sure how this will translate to the big screen as there are only 2 characters in the entire book but i could see it being similar to Misery and V for Vendetta. Anyone heard anything else?
John Quincy Adams was a Badass
John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – Feb 23, 1848) was a Federalist, the son of the last Federalist President and was one of the most talented men to ever serve the country. He held more important offices and participated in more important events than anyone else ever in the history of the nation. Early in his career, he alienated his political party (the Federalists) by voting in favor of the President Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase and even attended parties for its approval (imagine that happening here in DC!).
Also, at the time, the British (being the little bitches they were) were capturing American ships regularly and confiscating the vessels. Quincy wasn’t having any of it but his boys – the Federalists – were sympathetic to the British. So, Quincy Adams went to the Republican meetings and helped them draft a bill of America’s fighting resolution and put in place an embargo. This embargo made John QA, who was a senator at the time, extremely unpopular with his constituents (the local shipworkers) as it halted their production – but he believed it was the right thing to do at the time and “private interest should not be put in opposition to public good.” Times were so bad back then and business was struggling so bad that New England frequently talked of seceding. The embargo was a big deal and Quincy Adams was enemy #1. In fact, the main focus of Federalist party (QA’s party) in 1808 became the destruction of Q.A and he was actually voted out the party by his peers 9 months before his term ended. He had no friends and was basically ruined.
He may have been ruined, but he was a badass who walked alone and acted solely upon his principles and I back it. 17 years later, he was able to regroup and come back and become president. Talk about a comeback! In today’s world of politics, i couldn’t see anyone going against the public, against their party at the expense of their career to do what they thought was right. That’s integrity.
His birthday is today so raise a glass
Klosterman Reading
I went to a reading tonight of Chuck Klosterman at Olsson’s in DC. As expected, he was articulate and very funny. He read a passage from his new book, Chuck Klosterman IV, and he describes how the book came to be. When he was on a book tour for Killing Yourself to Live (his 3rd book), he encountered all sorts of journalism students and aspiring writers and many of them had never read his stuff and asked where they could get a copy of his previous writings. That’s how he got the idea of packaging up all his previous works and selling them as a very cheap paperback. He didn’t want his best fans to feel ripped off so he put in the novella at the end and the few tidbits/observations. (Note: he also remarked that he’s finished his 5th book which is a fictional novel about a person in North Dakota)
He reading was from CK4 and it was about how to find and deal with your nemesis and your arch-enemy:
What you need is (a) one quality nemesis and (b) one archenemy. These are the two most important mechanisms in any human’s life. We measure ourselves against our nemeses, and we long to destroy our archenemies. They are the catalysts for why we do everything.
How do i know the difference between my nemesis and my archenemy? Here is the short answer: You kind of like your nemesis, despite the fact you despise him. You will always have drinks with your nemesis. you would attend the funeral of your nemesis, and -privately- you might shed a tear over her or her passing. However, you would never choose to have a cocktail with your archenemy, unless you were attempting to spike the gin with arsenic. If you were to perish, your archenemy would dance on your grave, and then he’d burn down your house and molest your children. You hate your archenemy so much that you keep your hatred secret, because you do not want your archenemy to have the satisfaction of being hatred.
If this distinction seems confusing, just ask your girlfriend to explain it in detail; women have always understood the nemesis-archenemy dichotomy….
Matt Damon Interview
I’ve been a fan of Matt Damon since Good Will Hunting and he’s continued to rock since then. Here’s a link to a pretty good interview with him. One of my favorite parts is when he talks about how he takes roles where the character doesn’t say much. He references a quote from Clint Eastwood:
apparently he got a script, read it, came to the first rehearsal, handed the script to the writer and almost all of his lines were crossed out. Clint said, ‘It’s such a great script’, and the writer said, ‘But you crossed out all my lines.’ Clint said, ‘I crossed out your lines because now I don’t have to do any work. I know what my character is thinking’.”
This is only slightly related, but i read this quote about The Departed
Matt: (on working with Jack Nicholson) I have a lot of funny stories, but I like this one. Marty [Martin Scorsese, director] called me up and said, ‘Jack had some ideas for your scene tomorrow. He’s going to wear a dildo.’ So I thought, ‘Uh, okay.’ I thought he was joking, but he actually did! I was impressed at how obscene he was willing to be. With Jack, you expect the unexpected.
Triathlon: Mission Accomplished
As i wrote a month ago, i signed to do my first triathlon which happened this past weekend. Here’s how it went:
The Beginning: “Damn that bouy is far” (Objective: 1 mile swim)
The swim started with a bang and all the other swimmers left me in the dust. First off, we had to swim 100 yards just to get to the starting line! I knew i would need all the energy i had so i was pretty upset about this fact. Also, I was somewhat intimidated by the choppy open water and the madness of all the serious guys. The only advice i got from anyone was, “don’t get too close to the buoy or you’ll get pinched in between it by other swimmers.” Thanks dude. Anyway, the race started and I immediately found myself all alone – in last place! This made matters worse as i tried to catch up and just tired myself out. The 2nd buoy (1/2 mile) seemed to take forever to get to and i will confess that my trusty sidestroke was pulled out more times than i had wanted. But after the 1/2 mile marker, i hit a groove – especially in my breathing. It seemed that i wasn’t exhaling under water and once i realized this i was able to cruise. Nevertheless, i was by far the last guy out of the bay and a good 15 minutes behind every other male and probably 20 minutes behind all the females
Bike Leg: “This shit ain’t no joke” (objective: 27 mile bike)
The bike started off good. I got a little rest in after the swim and pounded some gatorade. The course was rumored to be “highly technical.” I had no idea what that meant, but i found out quickly at mile 2. At that point, i hit my first hill and my entire right calf cramped (this is understandable considering i had never riden my bike on a hill. I repeat never) Also it seemed that my gears didn’t work. These two happened on mile 2 and I dismounted, walked and stretched. I then got on Commodore Williams and decided to do the rest of course without shifting and using only my left leg. After all, i didn’t want to get a DNF on my first time out. I’m not that guy. Back on the bike, after only a few minutes i realized that my gears weren’t actually broken, i was just already on the lowest gear there is. This was both a great and horrible realization as you can imagine. But i continued on. Left-leg-only riding went well until about mile 15 and then the left leg started cramping. So i decided to use both for a while gingerly. It should also be said that around this point a super-hot woman came out of nowhere and decided to ride in front of me (not drafting, but about 20 yards) for about 8 miles. She was truly an angel (granted, i could have been delirious) and following her got me in the groove. The last 15 miles of the course, i was doing at around 20 mph and by the time i hit the “big hill” i was hauling ass. I climbed that bitch and got back to transition in good shape Continue reading “Triathlon: Mission Accomplished”
Happy 4th
The first motion in the Continental Congress for independence was made on June 4, 1776. After hard debate, the Congress voted unanimously, but secretly, for independence from Britain on July 2. The Congress reworked the text of the Declaration until July 4, when the 12 colonies voted for adoption and released a copy signed only by John Hancock, President of the Congress, to the printers.
John Adams the unofficial whip of the independence-minded, wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3, 1776:
- The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.
He forgot to mention beers, bbq’s, baseball games and fireworks – but otherwise he pretty much nailed it
Also, a song for today: Independence Day by Ani (click here)
Transformers is Good, But I Have Some Thoughts
I went and saw Transformers last night with the rest of the hard-core geeks. My quick thoughts:
- Going to see a movie on opening day truly enhances the movie going experience. I went to see Star Wars Episode I and having people yelling at the screen, applauding at awesome fight sequences, and booing cheesy lines makes the movie much more entertaining. Similarly, last night people were clapping at cool parts and cheering the Autobots victories. It makes a difference.
- Megatron as a toy was always a gun but in the movie he is a fighter jet. I don’t know why they did this. Another Decepticon is a plane too – so it sort of sucked having Megatron one as well.
- The musical score was very similar to the music in The Rock (a great Michael Bay film). The entire time whenever the music began all i could thing about was The Rock. The Rock is a better movie than Transformers because Cage/Connery is a better combo than LaBeouf/Bumblebee and the plot of Rock is much much better
- Speaking of the plot. I had some problems with it.
- The whole point of the movie was to see who could get “The Cube” first. To Autobots got hold of the Cube first (wahoo!) but apparently they had no idea of what to do with it once they got it. Their plan was to drive into a city and just hang out there. That doesn’t make sense.
- Then when the Decepticons are coming to get the Cube, the genius plan is to give the Cube to LaBeouf and have him go to the roof of a building to give the Cube to some US Military helicopters. This would be a good idea except that all the Decepticons are also fighter jets. Don’t you think they’d be able to stop that?
- Throughout the entire movie, they made it pretty obvious that human weapons don’t do anything to the Transformers. However, they keep trying to kill them by constantly shooting them with army rifles. Again, wtf? Are humans just morons?
- All Michael Bay movies are edited so that the fight scenes are so fast, you can’t really tell what’s happening. There are a few Optimus Prime fights and i have no idea what happens in these fights. When the cuts are so fast, things look cool but you can’t tell what’s going on. For instance, i know the Prime has some sort of sword-like item, and i know that he kills some guys with it. But i’m not sure exactly what happens and that sucks.
- LaBeouf has good timing and the scenes with his family are pretty entertaining. The movie is pretty funny. LaBeouf makes the movie work. I’m excited to see him in Indiana Jones 4.
- Megan Fox (the token hot chick) is SMOKIN’ HOT. She plays a very similar role to Tea Leoni from Bad Boys (another Bay film) but she is much hotter. Seriously, she look good.
- There are two supporting roles that made the movie infinitely more enjoyable: John Turturro and the super hot Australian computer hacker chick (Rachel Taylor). I was a computer science major in college and have worked in the internet industry for 9 years and have never seen a chick this hot. And the accent puts her over the top. Great work all around. And Turturro, as always, is just great.
But, is the movie good? Basically, if you liked Independence Day (with Will Smith), you’ll like this. They’re very similar and provided the same level of enjoyment for me. They’re both funny and with a like-able lead character. They both have earth being invaded by alien beings and show the process of the military trying to figure out what they hell is going on.
It’s not the best Michael Bay film – that would be The Rock – but it’s not the worst. I think it’s probably the best after The Rock and Bad Boys.