3-14-09: Into the West

(Happy Pi Day)

I had a St. Patrick's Day party at my place last night, which was absolutely wonderful (for me at the very least). About 20 people showed up, but the place wasn't uncomfortably crowded, so it was quite nice. Having my close friends come to celebrate your saint's day is a special occasion, and I owe them my unending thanks.

I wanted to keep things semi-authentic, so I played a couple Irish-themed movies. The first, Into the West, was recommended by my Irish friend Mick. The second was the popular American-made film The Boondock Saints. Both were enjoyed by all.

It's a 1993 Irish classic about two gypsy children and a horse. It's not quite a children's movie from the American standpoint, which makes it really interesting. There are strong hints at alcoholism, and it's far from squeaky clean. It has great acting, a great cast, and you finish watching the movie feeling good about life.

3-11-09: Softball T-shirt Design

Here's a quick t-shirt design I did on CustomInk.com for my company softball team. Just a preliminary design for now:

Make custom t-shirts at CustomInk.com

3-10-09: Preliminary Party Preparation

I just got out of a midterm for my Intellectual Property Law course. Wasn't too bad, though he did sort of trick us by having a couple questions that literally have two answers (e.g. choice E was "B Only"), and he threw on three questions from a Bar exam, but otherwise it wasn't too bad. It was open notes.

Earlier today I did some cleanup for my party this Friday (a pre-St. Patrick's Day celebration). I'd started moving stuff around on Saturday, which went well. Today was equally quite productive; most of the stuff is squared away.

The only frustrating event during this afternoon's setup occurred in my upstairs room, which I'm planning on using as a game/music room, but on Friday it shall simply be the "Foosball Arena." I have the foosball table all set up in the middle of the room, with the center directly beneath the light for the players. I think of this shit! Anyway, I was given an old receiver, CD player, and two speakers by my parents, who are moving down south this month. The receiver is probably 15 years old by now. I wanted to test the sound of the room by lying the speakers on their backs so they're facing straight up, in order to bounce the sound off the slanted ceiling. It worked beautifully, but the left speaker had some issues. So I knelt down and investigated.

It turned out the speaker wire going in was quite frayed. Stupidly, I tried to fix the problem, and ended up shorting out the wires. Oops. The receiver, in its dying breath, flashed "PROTECT". I immediately unplugged everything and detach the speaker wires. Too late. The receiver would not turn back on; it even gave a nice little flash and emitted the tell-tale smell of burnt components. I was a little upset, but not too worried, because I have a trusty backup.

The original plan for the upstairs room was to use my Logitech computer speakers, which are pretty decent, and subwoofer. Upon receipt of the old receiver and CD player (with only an RCA Line Out), I went with that option. The CD player and speakers are still good, but the poor old receiver has suffered an aforementioned untimely demise. My only issue now is that I need to buy a "Y Cable" with a female end in order to plug in the preamp, which only has an 1/8" headphone male plug as the input. No big deal, though, as Radioshack has one for $10. I am saved! It turns out that I have about six or seven "Y Cables" with male ends, and I have no idea why. I must have accumulated them during my high school hardcore audiophile days. I'm part-time audiophile now (I hope you know what the phrase means - it's not a creepy thing; if not, click here).

So, the music setup for Friday is: Macbook connected to the AIWA receiver and speakers downstairs, with the old CD player attached to my Logitech speakers upstairs (playing more easygoing tunes for the more laid back crowd). I think of this shit!

Festivities start at 8:00PM.

3-8-09: Watchmen

First off: 500 posts!

Now to business: Watchmen. Last night, myself and a group of friends went to a showing of the newest addition to the comic book / graphic novel movie parade that's been going on pretty steadily since X-Men arrived. Watchmen has been heralded as the best graphic novel of them all, and this film had a lot of hype surrounding it, especially among fans of the novel.

Let me preface my brief review of the film by saying that I have never read the Watchmen comic, and am only somewhat familiar with the characters. Many people who've read the comic seem to dislike the film. But then again, other critics have said that it's pretty good, so long as you haven't read the comic. So, I went in expecting something pretty good.

And that's what I got: a very interesting, somewhat overwhelming look, at the Watchmen story. I found the film to be quite stunning in its presentation; the visual effects were outstanding, and it didn't feel like it was overdone.

The acting was pretty good, as well. Again, I'm not too familiar with the characters, but they seemed to take their time developing them, so what I was exposed to seemed to be quite convincing.

My only real beef with the film was that I think it was caught between a rock and a hard place in that it couldn't decide which audience to serve: the fans of the graphic novel or the general public (who chose to see the film because it was heralded as a great comic). I thought it did an OK job at explaining the characters, but a lot of the story seemed to go over the head of most people who saw the film without knowing the back story. But... fans of the comic panned the film. So I have to ask myself: to whom was it directed?

But nevertheless, it's a great story. The ending seemed quite cliche, but had some real novelty to it. I wouldn't say it's my favorite comic book / graphic novel film, but I was quite entertained, and mesmerized, by the characters and the story. It operated in a surreal, but strangely real, domain, with some characters you can easily relate to, and others you can barely understand (Dr. Manhattan). I'd say this was a very good film. I, for one, was not disappointed.

3-3-09: UEFA Champions League

It's March, so it's sports bracket prediction season. To warm up for March Madness, I'll start with my predictions for the UEFA Champions League. If you're at all interested in seeing good international soccer, tune in to the tournament on ESPN or ESPN2. The next round of matches are set for next week, so set your DVR to record ESPN next Tuesday (3/10) from 3:30PM to 6:00PM. I don't know what teams are set to play in that time slot, but it's going to be good.

Here are the current matchups in the Round of 16 with the second legs coming up. My picks for the winners are in bold.

Atletico vs. Porto
Lyon vs. Barcelona
Arsenal vs. Roma
Inter vs. Man UTD
Real Madrid vs. Liverpool
Chelsea vs. Juventus
Villarreal vs. Panathinaikos
Sporting vs. Bayern


I don't know how the Round of Eight is selected, so I'm going to just run down the line in the order from the Round of 16:

Porto vs. Barcelona
Arsenal vs. Man UTD
Real Madrid vs. Chelsea
Villarreal vs. Bayern


And for the semi-finals:

Barcelona vs. Man UTD - A dream match-up: Messi > Ronaldo.
Real Madrid vs. Bayern


And the champion: Barcelona.

C is for Cookie

It's good enough for me, too, Cookie Monster.

3-1-09: Dune

My Netflix movie of the week (for last week) is, without a doubt, David Lynch's 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune. I haven't seen that many good sci-fi movies recently, so I made sure this time around to watch a classic. And boy... did Dune live up to the hype. I'd only seen bits and pieces of the film on HBO and other movie channels, but never in its entirety. I also made sure to rent the Extended Edition, which had a three-hour run time.

The basic gist of the plot is that there are a bunch of planets that are part of an empire that are feuding over the mining of "the spice melange," which is the most precious substance in the universe. It allows for extended life and special powers that let some bend space. Different groups use it for different things, but it all comes from the desert planet Arrakis (a.k.a. "Dune"). The story revolves around Paul Atreides, who is the heir to the House Atreides, one of the royal houses in the empire. Paul is thought to be a messiah figure, and the story plays out around that theme.

I can't help but think The Amory Wars and Tremors stole some ideas from this; one in a deeper way, one just took the worms idea (they have enormous worms on Arrakis that are attracted to movement and devour everything). But I don't think either quite live up to Dune. It's just an amazing story, and the film adaptation is marvelous. Great cinematography, excellent cast, excellent film.

If you're in to sci-fi movies, Dune is one you must see. I think I might go ahead and look into reading Herbert's novel.