waaa! I just realized that I haven't posted in 2006 yet!
So, happy belated new year to everyone!
The holiday season gets my emotions all in a jumble, so I've been avoiding human contact as much as possible, including being on messenger. I have been wallowing in videos though!
I've finished watching all of my movies (Andromeda Strain, Soylent Green, Red Violin) and my seaQuest DVDs. The ending of season 1 of seaQuest makes me wish that season 2 and 3 were already released on DVD... I'd buy them tonight if they were (and I don't mean those pirated knock-off DVDs that one of my friends directed me to the other day).
Reviews!
DVDs!
Andromeda Strain, 1971
A classic sci-fi movie! I've been infatuated by this movie since I was a kid, and have been looking for the movie on DVD for ages. It focuses on biological contamination from a NASA probe that crash landed in Texas (I believe). It was a great movie, that was quite era specific (back when people were extremely afraid of space-germs from the astronauts returning to earth).
I'd give this movie an 9 out of 10
Soylent Green, 1973
Another sci-fi classic. This one is about the problems of population control and growth in an already over populated future New York city. It brings in topics of government corruption, big-business taking advantage of the little guy, and people trying to make it with what little they've got. It is quite disturbing at points, but the movie does make me think about the possibilities of a "soylent" future.
I'd give this movie 8 out of 10.
Red Violin, 1998
Quite an interesting movie, however I think it applies to people who would be interested in a story that revolves around a violin that is several hundred years old. I used to be an orch dork back in high school (and middle school, for that matter) and really enjoy movies like this. The movie was also quite cultural, spanning several countries (and, according to iMDB, includes dialog in five languages!). There was one scene that bothers me... In the opening scene, there is a shot of a rack of violins... The camera slowly zooms out, and pans to show more of the instruments. In the first few seconds of this clip, you can clearly see the lens of the movie camera! To me, that was quite a disappointment, since the scene was supposed to have taken place in the 1600s (or whenever the violin was being crafted).
But, I really did enjoy the story line of the movie. 7 out of 10.
seaQuest season 1 DVDs, 1993 and 1994
This was definitely worth the bu-ko bucks it cost to buy these DVDs. I've been wanting to watch seaQuest for ages now, and I find myself desiring the remaining two seasons now that I've watched season 1. This is quite the sci-fi series, and has quite a cutting-edge feel to it.
8 out of 10.
Novels!
Robin Cook's Abduction
I actually found this book quite disappointing in the Robin Cook sense, but entertaining in the sci-fi sense. The book was far from the medical-mystery/horror that I was expecting... Abduction was out right science fiction, and far from what I'm used to from Robin Cook (novels within the area of medical and science possibility). Without spoiling the plot of this book too much, lets just say that it bears a striking similarity to some of Jules Verne's works (which, I should also mention that 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth are both mention as sources for Abduction).
アニメ！
Alright, I've watched a few anime's in the past week or two... Lemme see if I can remember which ones they are....
好きなものは好きだからしょうがない (Sukina Mono wa Suki Dakara Shoga Nai, a.k.a.: Sukisyo), School drama, shounen-ai
Sukisyo was definitely one of those anime's that hit the spot. I had been craving a shounen-ai anime for a while, especially after watching "he is my master." This anime, although based on a game (which usually means that I've been left out of the majority of the story line) was pretty good. I think that most people, who aren't homophobes would find this anime a pleasant romance drama to watch.
I did note something a little different about this anime... Even in the most outlandish shounen-ai and yaoi anime's that I've watched, there have always been some female characters. There were none in sukisyo... There was one episode where there were female characters (episode five or six I believe), but they were just in the background and weren't part of the story line. Also, going with my previous statement, each of the emotional relationships that were portrayed in this anime, all of them were quite shounen-ai, and there were quite a few relationships in this anime.
8 out of 10.
うた〜かた(Uta~kata), School-drama
Uta~kata... Now this anime is a bit odd. I've just started it, but it's already been quite difficult to stay with the series... I keep drifting to other things, like watching my monitor degauss or contemplating the meaning of the universe. I'm not so sure that uta~kata is quite my style.
The anime is about a school girl who ends up becoming friends with a spirit from one of her school's "7 mysteries." The spirit comes into the real world because of a promise the main character makes with her... And from this promise, the school girl obtains powers granted to her by the mystery girl, who is very -- "magical girl" like (aka, annoying).
Preliminary rating: 3 out of 10 - barely worth watching, definitely not worth burning to a CDR.
Book and DVD covers from Amazon
アニメ shots from AnimeNfo
Several notes of mention:
Okay, so the dream was a bit odd, but it's fun to keep them in my journal...
First, I'd like to propose the question, is it odd to dream in the third person? I don't always dream in third, nor to I usually experience an entire dream in the third person, but it does happen to me occasionally. Anyway... Back to work!
My dream started out in third person, I saw myself walking down into the basement of my house (which, in reality, doesn't have a basement). I was wearing dress clothes (my grey pants, blue shirt, and blue tie). I was carrying a small box of stuff, because I was moving into my "dorm room." I started to unpack things, feeling pretty good about "moving back to college," but was slightly distressed about the horrendous mess the basement was in, including my bed, which was sitting near the stairwell, covered in boxes.
That's when I heard people walking down the stairs. Several of my friends, whom happen to live on the upper floors of this dorm version of my house, decided to come down and help me unpack and clean up the basement. We found oddities, such as a sandwich which had been left down there for ages, a carton of eggs, left sitting out unrefrigerated (nasty!), and a baked potato, smothered in some type of liquid buttery substance, but since the potato was covered in dust, it was also obvious that the buttery substance wasn't butter, since butter would have gelled after sitting for so long. Everyone helped clean the room to the best it was going to get, and that's when they all headed upstairs to finish their unpacking.
I was thinking about what I wanted to do next to make this room a little more "me" - and that's when I realized that my computer was in the computer room! I went upstairs, but not wanting to interrupt my downloads, I decided to take one of my older computers downstairs and install Linux to it... Keeping it a simple audio player, doing a little bit of video playback. But, the only computer that I was able to find was an old broken down HP, and decided that I was just going to have to settle with using my old laptop and iPod.
While I was up there, I noticed that my dress clothes had liquid-butter stained all over them, especially the left cuff of my blue shirt. I was quite annoyed, and returned to the basement to change into regular clothes, wondering why I was doing all of this cleaning in dress clothes. I had stripped off my shirt, and was in the process of taking off my pants, when I heard my car starting. So, I ran upstairs in my boxers and a white t-shirt to look out the window to see Ttam (a guy from my old MCSE classes) sitting behind the wheel of my Mercury Tracer, waving at me with a huge grin on his face, and peeling out of the drive way. He knew he could get away because I wouldn't go outside dressed like that, especially now that it was raining profusely (I could even hear it) but I did step out onto the porch and yell at him as he drove off.
New Year's disappointments...
I don't know how many people that read my journal watch the ball drop in Time's Square (NYC), but I was watching it. And since I like Regis more than the new guy that was doing Dick Clark's job, I decided to watch Regis (although, I only turned on the TV at 11:50 pm - and they were showing commercials until 55). Regis was on Fox, and they did a horrible job.
First, once the countdown started, they didn't show the ball lighting up, just that it had lit up and the countdown screen had started.
Second, they went back to the countdown screen and let Regis count down via a teleprompter that was showing the same thing, just delayed two seconds... Which was quite annoying, listening to Regis count down to 0 while every one was two counts ahead of him.
The last (and most annoying thing of all) was that fox was so focused on Regis and that damn count down screen, that they missed showing the 2006 light up. Grrr, so annoying! I think that's the first time I've missed seeing the year "lit up" this century.
Well, I think that's enough random chatter for this entry. ^_^
The holiday season gets my emotions all in a jumble, so I've been avoiding human contact as much as possible, including being on messenger. I have been wallowing in videos though!
I've finished watching all of my movies (Andromeda Strain, Soylent Green, Red Violin) and my seaQuest DVDs. The ending of season 1 of seaQuest makes me wish that season 2 and 3 were already released on DVD... I'd buy them tonight if they were (and I don't mean those pirated knock-off DVDs that one of my friends directed me to the other day).
Reviews!
DVDs!
Andromeda Strain, 1971
A classic sci-fi movie! I've been infatuated by this movie since I was a kid, and have been looking for the movie on DVD for ages. It focuses on biological contamination from a NASA probe that crash landed in Texas (I believe). It was a great movie, that was quite era specific (back when people were extremely afraid of space-germs from the astronauts returning to earth).
I'd give this movie an 9 out of 10
Soylent Green, 1973
Another sci-fi classic. This one is about the problems of population control and growth in an already over populated future New York city. It brings in topics of government corruption, big-business taking advantage of the little guy, and people trying to make it with what little they've got. It is quite disturbing at points, but the movie does make me think about the possibilities of a "soylent" future.
I'd give this movie 8 out of 10.
Red Violin, 1998
Quite an interesting movie, however I think it applies to people who would be interested in a story that revolves around a violin that is several hundred years old. I used to be an orch dork back in high school (and middle school, for that matter) and really enjoy movies like this. The movie was also quite cultural, spanning several countries (and, according to iMDB, includes dialog in five languages!). There was one scene that bothers me... In the opening scene, there is a shot of a rack of violins... The camera slowly zooms out, and pans to show more of the instruments. In the first few seconds of this clip, you can clearly see the lens of the movie camera! To me, that was quite a disappointment, since the scene was supposed to have taken place in the 1600s (or whenever the violin was being crafted).
But, I really did enjoy the story line of the movie. 7 out of 10.
seaQuest season 1 DVDs, 1993 and 1994
This was definitely worth the bu-ko bucks it cost to buy these DVDs. I've been wanting to watch seaQuest for ages now, and I find myself desiring the remaining two seasons now that I've watched season 1. This is quite the sci-fi series, and has quite a cutting-edge feel to it.
8 out of 10.
Novels!
Robin Cook's Abduction
I actually found this book quite disappointing in the Robin Cook sense, but entertaining in the sci-fi sense. The book was far from the medical-mystery/horror that I was expecting... Abduction was out right science fiction, and far from what I'm used to from Robin Cook (novels within the area of medical and science possibility). Without spoiling the plot of this book too much, lets just say that it bears a striking similarity to some of Jules Verne's works (which, I should also mention that 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth are both mention as sources for Abduction).
アニメ！
Alright, I've watched a few anime's in the past week or two... Lemme see if I can remember which ones they are....
好きなものは好きだからしょうがない (Sukina Mono wa Suki Dakara Shoga Nai, a.k.a.: Sukisyo), School drama, shounen-ai
Sukisyo was definitely one of those anime's that hit the spot. I had been craving a shounen-ai anime for a while, especially after watching "he is my master." This anime, although based on a game (which usually means that I've been left out of the majority of the story line) was pretty good. I think that most people, who aren't homophobes would find this anime a pleasant romance drama to watch.
I did note something a little different about this anime... Even in the most outlandish shounen-ai and yaoi anime's that I've watched, there have always been some female characters. There were none in sukisyo... There was one episode where there were female characters (episode five or six I believe), but they were just in the background and weren't part of the story line. Also, going with my previous statement, each of the emotional relationships that were portrayed in this anime, all of them were quite shounen-ai, and there were quite a few relationships in this anime.
8 out of 10.
うた〜かた(Uta~kata), School-drama
Uta~kata... Now this anime is a bit odd. I've just started it, but it's already been quite difficult to stay with the series... I keep drifting to other things, like watching my monitor degauss or contemplating the meaning of the universe. I'm not so sure that uta~kata is quite my style.
The anime is about a school girl who ends up becoming friends with a spirit from one of her school's "7 mysteries." The spirit comes into the real world because of a promise the main character makes with her... And from this promise, the school girl obtains powers granted to her by the mystery girl, who is very -- "magical girl" like (aka, annoying).
Preliminary rating: 3 out of 10 - barely worth watching, definitely not worth burning to a CDR.
Book and DVD covers from Amazon
アニメ shots from AnimeNfo
Several notes of mention:
- I get my hair cut today.
- My brother's GMC broke down - possibly alternator issues, while I was having a dream about my car being stolen.
- I go back to Owosso (to college) on Sunday - early afternoon/late morning.
- I think I'm addicted to House, M.D.
- I tried to use a different kernel in SUSE, but with limited success
- Miki-ni (Anime server) and Miki-rin (old Dell Inspiraon 5000 Laptop... Circa 2000) are starting to break down. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep them patched up and running. Both are past the five years of operation mark.
Okay, so the dream was a bit odd, but it's fun to keep them in my journal...
First, I'd like to propose the question, is it odd to dream in the third person? I don't always dream in third, nor to I usually experience an entire dream in the third person, but it does happen to me occasionally. Anyway... Back to work!
My dream started out in third person, I saw myself walking down into the basement of my house (which, in reality, doesn't have a basement). I was wearing dress clothes (my grey pants, blue shirt, and blue tie). I was carrying a small box of stuff, because I was moving into my "dorm room." I started to unpack things, feeling pretty good about "moving back to college," but was slightly distressed about the horrendous mess the basement was in, including my bed, which was sitting near the stairwell, covered in boxes.
That's when I heard people walking down the stairs. Several of my friends, whom happen to live on the upper floors of this dorm version of my house, decided to come down and help me unpack and clean up the basement. We found oddities, such as a sandwich which had been left down there for ages, a carton of eggs, left sitting out unrefrigerated (nasty!), and a baked potato, smothered in some type of liquid buttery substance, but since the potato was covered in dust, it was also obvious that the buttery substance wasn't butter, since butter would have gelled after sitting for so long. Everyone helped clean the room to the best it was going to get, and that's when they all headed upstairs to finish their unpacking.
I was thinking about what I wanted to do next to make this room a little more "me" - and that's when I realized that my computer was in the computer room! I went upstairs, but not wanting to interrupt my downloads, I decided to take one of my older computers downstairs and install Linux to it... Keeping it a simple audio player, doing a little bit of video playback. But, the only computer that I was able to find was an old broken down HP, and decided that I was just going to have to settle with using my old laptop and iPod.
While I was up there, I noticed that my dress clothes had liquid-butter stained all over them, especially the left cuff of my blue shirt. I was quite annoyed, and returned to the basement to change into regular clothes, wondering why I was doing all of this cleaning in dress clothes. I had stripped off my shirt, and was in the process of taking off my pants, when I heard my car starting. So, I ran upstairs in my boxers and a white t-shirt to look out the window to see Ttam (a guy from my old MCSE classes) sitting behind the wheel of my Mercury Tracer, waving at me with a huge grin on his face, and peeling out of the drive way. He knew he could get away because I wouldn't go outside dressed like that, especially now that it was raining profusely (I could even hear it) but I did step out onto the porch and yell at him as he drove off.
New Year's disappointments...
I don't know how many people that read my journal watch the ball drop in Time's Square (NYC), but I was watching it. And since I like Regis more than the new guy that was doing Dick Clark's job, I decided to watch Regis (although, I only turned on the TV at 11:50 pm - and they were showing commercials until 55). Regis was on Fox, and they did a horrible job.
First, once the countdown started, they didn't show the ball lighting up, just that it had lit up and the countdown screen had started.
Second, they went back to the countdown screen and let Regis count down via a teleprompter that was showing the same thing, just delayed two seconds... Which was quite annoying, listening to Regis count down to 0 while every one was two counts ahead of him.
The last (and most annoying thing of all) was that fox was so focused on Regis and that damn count down screen, that they missed showing the 2006 light up. Grrr, so annoying! I think that's the first time I've missed seeing the year "lit up" this century.
Well, I think that's enough random chatter for this entry. ^_^