Working, Playing
I think I've finally got my topic for that American Government paper nailed down: "The War on Terror: the Frothy Shitpile of Propaganda, Jingoism, and Warmongering or Why the Rest of the World Hates Us". I've been digging through the online school library for citable research materials and coming up with very little so I decided to wing it doing my research on Google out in the wild, wild web. Is that a scholarly no-no even if I stick with reputable sources like New York Times and CNN? I hate the search engine they've got on EBSCOhost and my Google-fu is pretty deadly. I should prolly ask Mohammed, my cantankerous Pakistani prof. before I get in too deep, huh?
The fam and I went to see City of Ember at the dollar movies. It was actually quite charming. I don't know why it flew under the radar. Oh, right. Between Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda, we were all sick to the teeth of rated-G films, which is too bad, really. Bill Murray and Tim Robbins were excellent and the premise tied into CDL's whole Fallout 3 gaming obsession-of-the-season quite nicely: post apocalypse, people taking shelter deep underground in a carefully laid-out shining city planned by the 50's era's best and brightest. The builders schedule everyone to stay in the bunker 200 yearst. Unfortunately, the box containing the key and instructions for a way out is lost to the ages and it's up to some plucky, amazingly not-annoying kids find the box and figure everything out. I liked how the movie let us draw our own conclusions and didn't bludgeon us over the head with the obvious. It never insulted kids' intelligence yet had enough pith to keep the adults thinking. I highly recommend it. Littlies beware, It has one little scary bit involving a star-nosed mole the size of a draft horse, but its short-lived and if you see a pic beforehand of what they look like (or better yet get the PBS documentary about the weird little critters) it's not that bad.
Lastly, I just ordered the new KORG DS 10, which is an amazing bit of tech. It's music-creation software for the Nintendo DS that combines the superior interface of the Nintendo DS and the design concept of the famous MS-10 synthesizer. In fact, it looks easier to manipulate than a full-fledged Korg synthesizer. Doesn't it look like fun? It'll be lightswitch raves galore around here in 5-7 working days.
Here's a demo video.
I'll report back if it's as raw ninja rock power as it looks.
The fam and I went to see City of Ember at the dollar movies. It was actually quite charming. I don't know why it flew under the radar. Oh, right. Between Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda, we were all sick to the teeth of rated-G films, which is too bad, really. Bill Murray and Tim Robbins were excellent and the premise tied into CDL's whole Fallout 3 gaming obsession-of-the-season quite nicely: post apocalypse, people taking shelter deep underground in a carefully laid-out shining city planned by the 50's era's best and brightest. The builders schedule everyone to stay in the bunker 200 yearst. Unfortunately, the box containing the key and instructions for a way out is lost to the ages and it's up to some plucky, amazingly not-annoying kids find the box and figure everything out. I liked how the movie let us draw our own conclusions and didn't bludgeon us over the head with the obvious. It never insulted kids' intelligence yet had enough pith to keep the adults thinking. I highly recommend it. Littlies beware, It has one little scary bit involving a star-nosed mole the size of a draft horse, but its short-lived and if you see a pic beforehand of what they look like (or better yet get the PBS documentary about the weird little critters) it's not that bad.
Lastly, I just ordered the new KORG DS 10, which is an amazing bit of tech. It's music-creation software for the Nintendo DS that combines the superior interface of the Nintendo DS and the design concept of the famous MS-10 synthesizer. In fact, it looks easier to manipulate than a full-fledged Korg synthesizer. Doesn't it look like fun? It'll be lightswitch raves galore around here in 5-7 working days.
Here's a demo video.
Click to viewI'll report back if it's as raw ninja rock power as it looks.