Film – Page 2 – mekosh.org

Category: Film

Expanding the Site

Not surprisingly, adding new content to this site is pretty low on my list of priorities. It’s fun, but it takes a backseat to things I need to do. However, in between all of my obligations, I managed to come up with a few little things to add.

The first thing, a photos section, is something that I’ve wanted to do for about two years. It’s just one of those things that I put off indefinitely. Even now, I’m so cheating by including my Flickr photos with their provided script. I prettied it up a little with CSS, but there’s not much I can show in the way of commitment. But, pictures! Finally.

The next thing I’ve done is to make a links page so that I don’t have a huge list on the main page. The “Worthwhile Clicks” will remain on the home page as will the links to my other projects, but everything else is moving to the hyperlinks page. In addition to this, I’ve also tweaked the default WordPress template a little bit to make the header smaller. Sometime this spring, I want to do a full design, but I don’t have the time at the moment.

And finally, I created a new Media section for my collections of books, music, and movies. It’s far from finished, but I think it’s a nice start. The only section available, Movies, lists all of the movies I’ve seen, and many that I’d like to see. It’s going to be in progress for a while until I can add the movies I’ve watched; I’m sure that I’ll be adding movies continuously while playing catchup. I’ll also want to include more features, such as DVD’s I own and a way to sort results.

Let me know what you think about the changes I’ve made and how I can make this site even better. Thanks!

The Incredibles

Annie and I saw The Incredibles on Saturday. It really was as good as I expected and my expectations were sky-high for Pixar’s latest wonder.

One point that has been mentioned in other reviews is the sense that The Incredibles feels more like an action movie than an animated one; it’s true. With the brilliant animation, great plot, believable (yes!) characters, and superb voice-acting, it was easy to forget that the entire movie takes place in a digital world. The CG from beginning to end were nearly flawless; there was one point where I noticed a slight lag, but it was gone in a second.

Given all of this, I thought the movie was better than many of the “action” movies that are produced each year. The Incredibles was funny, smart, and exciting; in sum, a great film.

Things that Should Be Mentioned

The past week and a half have witnessed a flurry of activity. I wanted to write something about each event, every day, but I just didn’t have the time. That seems to be a recurring issue in my life: I wanted to, but I ran out of time. Anyway, here’s a list of the past weeks’ events:

1/17 — I took Annie to Baltimore for her Saturday class and hung out in Barnes & Noble and Borders for six hours. I wrote about loitering in bookstores.

1/18 — Annie and I went to see Cold Mountain; it was an excellent movie with powerful messages and acting. It reaffirms my belief that war is dumb.

1/21 — We took a trip to Harrisburg today to see Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees at the Whitaker Center IMAX. It was interesting to see how her relationship with the chimps has evolved from outsider to accepted member of the chimps’ society.

1/23 — Annie and I almost went to Baltimore today so that we could move her stuff back to her dorm room, but her residence life department is just as inept as mine and claimed that she wasn’t allowed to move in two days early, despite the fact that she had class the next day and it’s a 300 mile round trip.

1/25 — I drove down to Baltimore so that Annie and I could practice riding the busses from her school to her internship downtown. The Maryland Transit Authority’s website is generally useless, but the new digital signs in the busses that announce the approaching intersections are a wonderful idea. I wrote about our bus adventure.

1/27 — I moved back to Scranton, with little planning beforehand. It actually entailed staying up all night so that I’d be ready to go in the morning.

So there’s the rundown. There were many opportunities for posts where I actually did something or saw something interesting, but it’s all lost in the recesses of my mind. What a waste of bandwidth!

Like Pizza, Revolutions is Better the Next Day

I had a nice and balmy (by Scranton standards) weekend in Baltimore. Friday night, Annie and I just ordered some Domino’s from an angry Domino’s woman. Their hand-tossed pizza with extra cheese has just about the exact same consistency as Pizza Hut’s Cheese-Lover’s Pan Pizza, but Pizza Hut still edges them out in taste. Anywho, Annie and I went to see The Matrix Revolutions; my second viewing and Annie’s first. I definitely like it better than I did the first time, but there’s still some rather important questions that the film does not answer. Also, I really appreciated the large number of people who felt inclined to talk back to the movie. Really folks, I’m happy for you. I wish I could have maintained the innocence that allows you to believe that celluloid can hear your suggestions and modify itself accordingly.

Revolutions and Visitation

These last few days have been action-packed for me. Wednesday night, a bunch of us hit up Cinemark to see The Matrix Revolutions. We even saw Neo at the theatre; well, we saw a few people who like to dress up and pretend they’re Neo. Our group was deeply divided over whether the third Matrix is the worst movie ever or just as good as the first two. I think I liked it, but I’m definitely going to need to see it again before I make any final judgement.

Thursday and Friday were also busy days for me with getting ready for class registration and cleaning up before Annie arrived in Scranton. Annie got here around noon yesterday which was later than I expected but for the best because it gave me some time to do some last minute dusting. I’m really bad at keeping things dust-free despite the fact that I’m allergic to dust mites. No really; I live under several inches of dust. It’s convenient for writing memos.

We went to the Mall at Steamtown last night and hung out there for a few hours. We also went outside to see the lunar eclipse but only stayed out for a few minutes because Scranton’s weather is incredibly bitter in the winter. This morning we also hiked to the cathedral for 8:30 AM Mass; the wind chill was about 15 degrees so I hope God appreciated our dedication. We were able to hit up brunch together which was a nice surprise. Although the weekend seemed to fly by, it was still great. Even better is the fact that I will be visiting her school next week for the Bachelor’s Ball and Auction. No, I’m not for sale or lease. Get over it.

My Birthday Weekend

Eventful times since the last entry. I left Scranton around noon on Friday and went home for about an hour before leaving again to go visit Annie in Baltimore. I planned on getting down there about three, but traffic caused me to show up at 6:30. She surprised me with a bottle of Tommy Hilfiger cologne that I haven’t really been able to afford for a while and also quite a few printouts of a comic we like. She also decorated her room in festive birthday decorations, which I noticed immediately (inside joke)! Annie and I went over to the Towson Town Center and she treated me to a birthday dinner at Rainforest Café. When I make my millions, I want an enormous fish tank and a night sky built into the bedroom ceiling. Annie and I both ordered roasted turkey and bacon wraps with some of the best steak fries ever. After dinner, we walked around the mall for a bit before calling it a night.

On Saturday, we went back over to Towson and went to a few stores, but mostly just Barnes & Noble and Borders. I love large bookstores; they’re so much better than the boring little Waldenbooks in the malls. After spending obscene amounts of time in both, I decided to buy O’Reilly’s PHP Cookbook, which seems to be leaps and bounds over the Peachpit Press books by Larry Ullman. It actually explains why certain functions are used! I’ll write up more about the book after I try out some of the recipes.

Annie and I ate Flamer’s food in the mall’s food court and then hit up the cinema for School of Rock using her student ID: $6/ticket in Towson! School of Rock was not only as good as I had hoped, but also it was better than I expected. Jack Black rocked like only he can and the soundtrack was excellent. In general, I highly recommend the movie to anyone looking for a good light comedy. Annie and I ordered some pizza when we got back to campus and watched Saturday Night Live with Justin Timberlake acting as both the host and the musical guest; he did not rock. Nor did the hour and a half that it took for Domino’s to deliver.

Sunday was another good day. Annie and I went to the Cathedral for Mass and then went to Ruby Tuesday’s for lunch; it was good—as always—and really nice to not have to rush home after Mass (as is usual when I have to go back to Scranton on Sunday). We then went grocery shopping at Giant so Annie isn’t forced to eat the delicious food in her cafeteria.

I left Baltimore at about 4:00 PM so that I could be home in time for a little birthday dinner that my family was throwing for me and my dad (his birthday is the eighth). My mom made lasagna with salad and garlic bread that was all quite delicious. And then there was cake; by this time, I was starting to feel like I was going to explode, with Ruby Tuesday’s already devoured, I was full halfway through salad. Twenty-one is the year of the computer I suppose, as the cake was decorated with an old-school computer with a monochrome monitor.

For my birthday, I received a nice supply of cards with valuable monetary gifts enclosed, a Kodak Easy Share Camera Dock for my digital camera, Bleachers by John Grisham, and a gold pocket watch from my dad that he received for his twenty-first birthday. All in all it was a great birthday weekend.

Two Weeks into a New Semester

The past two weeks have been really reassuring for me. I was a little nervous coming back to school after nine months, but I’ve been able to jump back into the swing of things without too much trouble. I was also a bit nervous about moving into a house with seven guys I didn’t know; living with a group of jerks wouldn’t make my transition back to school any easier. However, the guys in my house turned out to be a good group of people. I didn’t realize it when I was moving in, but I already knew Dan from our Mario Cart parties with Dennis last year. I also found out that I’m working with Frank at the CTLE, so that makes two people I know who happen to be living across the hall.

Meanwhile, my classes and work are looking much more promising than last year. Stage Combat, my E-Commerce class, and Swing, Latin, and Ballroom Dancing are probably going to be interesting and hopefully quite manageable. Introduction to Consumer Technology might be a little bit drier than I expected but not too bad. Theatre History is shaping up to be a little tougher than I expected, but I should be able to handle it without too much difficulty.

Annie and I are also back to our long-distance relationship status which is not cool. However, we’ve made it 3.25 years—as of tomorrow—so I think we can hang on a few more semesters without losing our minds. It tends to cause some stress when our only communication is on the phone or email, but it really eases tensions that we get to spend every other weekend together. In fact, last weekend we were home and went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. It was undeniably a popcorn movie, but it was a fine flick nonetheless. I guess that’s just the way the semester will go: two weeks at a time.

The Last Week of Summer Vacation

It’s been only a week since my last entry, but it’s been a busy week. Last Monday, Annie and I finally were able to head out to Rickett’s Glen State Park, a place that we had talked about visiting for at least a year. We headed out a bit later than planned, but we weren’t planning on hiking for 12 hours anyway. It was simple enough to get to the park, just drive 30 miles from Bloomsburg on Route 487; once we arrived at the park, it was a different story. We should have known it was a bad sign when there were road signs pointing us to the Falls Trail in two different directions. We finally found the trail that we wanted, a 2.8 mile trail that passed by the largest falls and was not too difficult. That trail should have connected to another trail that was 1.3 miles long. The park map lied. Repeatedly. The trail began smoothly enough, despite the fact that we accidentally went ten-minutes down a non-marked service trail. OK, minor setback. We saw the largest fall, the 94-foot-high Ganoga Falls which was a cool, stepped waterfall.

After that, the trail went downhill, and then uphill, and then downhill again. Turns out that the trail was barely blazed. We’re talking knee-high grass and mud that forced us to hike along the side of trail through thick forest for hundreds of feet. It also took us about five hours to go a supposedly five miles, so the path was definitely longer than the map said it was. Not fun. We were very happy to get back to the parking lot and have some dinner. There were about a dozen geese and ducks around the lake (about ten feet from our picnic table) and we fed them with croutons from our salad. Unlike the two little kids who were throwing sand at them, or the high school kids throwing Frisbee’s at the birds. I’m sure they’ll all turn out to be responsible members of society.

Tuesday was my last full day of work (I worked a few hours on Wednesday morning). After work, my dad and I tried to update my computer with more RAM and a new 30 GB 7200 RPM hard drive; it didn’t work after we were done. Thank you, HP, for your wonderful computers, lovingly crafted with easy updates out of sight and out of mind. As of this writing, I still don’t have my computer back up and running; hopefully it’ll be done by Friday.

On Thursday, Annie and I went back to King of Prussia, mostly so we could see The Matrix Reloaded on IMAX. We went there about two weeks earlier, but we missed the 7:00 PM show and we didn’t want to wait for the next show at 10 PM. Anyway, the movie rocked! Not that it surprised me, but it was just amazing to feel every kick, punch, and gunshot from the vibrations of 12,000 watts of surround sound. Oh, that and the fact that great action scenes deserve a five-story movie screen. The seats were also of the quite comfy, high-backed, rocking variety; I thought it was worth the $11.50 a ticket.

After the movie, we were hungry and craving Pizza Hut pan pizza so we drove around for a while, but King of Prussia only has an abandoned and boarded-up Pizza Hut. So we went to get on the Northeast Extension of the PA Turnpike and I accidentally pulled into the EZ-Pass Only lane (I don’t have one) to get a ticket. That may have something to do with the fact that the “EZ-Pass Only and Tickets” sign is the same color and style as the “EZ-Pass Only” sign. Stupid Penn-DOT. So I push the button to talk and then I realize that there’s nobody in the booth. After waiting a minute or two—to the annoyance of all the EZ-Passers behind me, I pull away quite pissed that I’m going to be forced to pay the highest toll because I don’t have a ticket. Thank God that the toll-booth guy at the next exit was extremely nice and let me go with only paying the normal toll for the exit. We found a Pizza Hut on the way home and had some delicious cheese-lover’s pan pizza and breadsticks.

Yesterday, our last day of summer vacation, Annie and I went to Beltsville State Park. We made a small mistake in going on one of the last Saturdays of summer in that the park was packed with people. The park is usually not that crowded, especially in early summer, but on Saturday the parking lot was nearly full. However, we still had a great time, just like we always do at the park. Annie and I both went back to school today; she went back to Baltimore and I’m in Scranton for the first time in nine months. It’s a little strange being back in school after such a long break, but hopefully everything will go well this year.

Dinner and a Movie

I didn’t really do any work yesterday. After finishing with the comment code, I got ready to go out with Annie to celebrate a mini-anniversary: 38 Months! It was also a good rationalization for why I needed a little break from this horrid project in which I’ve wrapped myself. I’m in way too far to quit now, but the end of the tunnel seems to keep moving further away. Ouch, that’s a bit trite.

Anyway, Annie came over and we whipped up some Parmesan spinach noodles—compliments of the Lipton Corporation—and enjoyed a candlelit dinner in my dining room and then headed out to a movie. We usually go to the Bloomsburg Cinema Center, but I refuse to go there after what happened on Thursday night. Long story, but we were turned away five minutes after the movie started because we didn’t have exact change. I’ll explain more after we’ve written a letter of complaint. So anyway, we went to the Selinsgrove Cinema Center (probably owned by the same person as the Bloom one, sigh) which is nicer than Bloom’s anyway.

We wanted something entertaining and lighthearted so we went to see The Italian Job. It wasn’t much of a thinking movie, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Seth Green was surprisingly funny as a high-tech computer genius who insists that his roommate at MIT stole the Napster program from him. The film is basically Ocean’s Eleven with a smaller cast and a stylish stunt that involves blowing the road out from under an armored truck. I have a pet peeve with motorcycles chasing cars in movies: why doesn’t anyone ever slam on their breaks and give that organ-donor their comeuppance? Well The Italian Job made me happy if only for the fact that someone throws his door open and sends a motorcyclist airborne. I almost cheered aloud.

My Favorite Movies

I added a list of my favorite movies to the Links page. It’s far from complete and I’ll be adding more films to it when I think of them. All titles link to pages in the Internet Movie Database.