Jered carving
Originally uploaded by estherknits.

Having picked myself up from the over indulgence in turkey (above) and the depression of not having anyone comment except my wife… I am back, bringing you the cool things I find, or the stuff on my mind.

Over the break, I saw a few movies: Rent, Unleashed, Shultze gets the blues, and Millions.
Mini Reviews below.

Rent

• This musical-adapted movie worked as a musical. There was a charcter who didn’t really have a point, a few who were plain unlikeable and the music… Let’s just say that the first song, and two songs in the middle were great. Everything else was a little too rock opera for me. I went with a die-hard Rent fan, and I’m hoping that she doesn’t read this: I didn’t like it. I wouldn’t recommend it. I’m sure it’s a great play, but not a great movie. Period.
• 

Unleashed

• An interesting concept holds the amazingly choreographed fight scenes togther. While it’s shy on character development and Bob Hoskins plays an unbelievably cruel charcter, the movie works. Not overly well, but it works. The fight scenes, while painful to watch at times, are great, very fluid, and more realistic that the normal kung-fu showy moves.
• 

Schultze gets the blues

• German movies are slow. I’m married to a German, she’s explained this to me everytime. German movies are slow and this is no exception. The idea that people change over time and don’t really realize it, was well depicted. The actors have portray a great sense of the German dry humor. It’s a slow tragedy, but worth a watch to see what real Germans are like.
• 

Millions

• This was one of the best movies I have seen all year. A touching story about a boy who sees saints and suddenly comes across more money that he could imagine. I don’t want to ruin the movie for anyone, but this one is excellent. The way that it is shot is very smart, with excellent uses of special effects and the story is touching. See it this holiday season.
• 

Admit it. Everyone has them. Even you lurkers who are reading but not commenting!
Today’s only post, no matter what other cool stuff I find of even if the world falls apart, will be about enemies.

Esther and I have started a list. If you are a reader and you have enemies, the must be our enemies too. To give you an idea of our list here is what we have so far.

• Bill O’Reily
• Lady at Mr. Li’s
• bird flu
• Bad Virginia Drivers
• Monday-Friday
• Ann Coulter
• The Man

Post a comment and I’ll add your enemies to mine

Myspace is for losers. So much so I’m not even going to link to it.

What is up with this closed community where you have to become a member to comment (which I am against completely) or membership is required to see a person’s friends. It’s stupid. Yes, it brings more people into the fold, but I am of the mind that a blog should be an open book any way. It’s like facebook where you have to be made friends. While I understand it, I don’t like it. I think that if you are going to be on a social networking site, like facebook or myspace, you should be forced to be open to everyone.

Plus, have you seen how god aweful some peoples sites are. I know that you have to be a “rocket scientist” or something to get a site that looks half decent, but come on people, your sites look like crap! Either learn how to make your own or don’t do it period. I thought we had moved beyond the Geocities sitebuilder days, but apparently not.

Why are people allowed to upload what ever shape or size of picture they want? Why not constrain them to a 72×72 image. Follow digg’s example with a dynamic upload and crop function.

Myspace is for losers. If you’re on myspace, and you don’t want to be a loser, email me and I’ll get you a non-sucky site with 90% of the crap that they have on that sucky site.

Esther used to be an R.A. (Resident Assistant) in Nation Hall. I was shocked to read this:

Three fires have been set in Nation Hall in the last several weeks, university police report.

Most of the fires were extinguished soon after they were started.

The fires have been on the dormitory’s third floor, fourth floor and basement. Campus police do not suspect a resident of Nation Hall. Butch Herring, director of Police and Parking Services, says such incidents, including acts of vandalism and setting of fire alarms, tend to be caused by visitors.

“Usually, the residents tend to take care of their halls,” Herring said. “It’s normally been a visitor to someone in that hall.”

Herring says the person or persons caught for setting the fires could be charged with aggravated arson, which is a felony. They could be fined $1,000 and could be sentenced to jail if convicted. In addition, if they are Pitt State students they would likely face expulsion.

“It’s unusual that they come in groups like this,” Herring said. “We’ve never had three in three weeks.”

The fire in the basement was found by nursing freshman Kayla Moyer, who blew out the fire soon after it started.

“You could tell it just started,” Moyer said.

Aaron Cadman, director of Nation Hall, says that he is unaware of any specific evidence that would incriminate anyone.

“If they do live on campus and were charged with the fires, chances are they would be kicked out of housing,” Cadman said.

Damn arsonists!

I’m famous, and to just to my wife and Mrs. Gomah. Last night while watching the Posiedon Adventure I spotted a moleskine, used by the main character (and Jayne Cobb of Firefly), played by Adam Baldwin.
I immediately sent an email to the moleskinie fetish site Moleskinerie, and guess what…. front page!

Only a matter of time until the royalty checks start rollin’ in.

On another note: The Posiedon Adventure was absolute rubbish! Please gouge your eyes out before watching.

In a previous entry, I shared with you how Mrs. Gomah, from Abidjan, needed my help to get a large sum of money. I also posted by response. Here is what rolled in over the weekend.

Subject: FROM GOMAH TILL I READ FOR YOU

Dear Benoit,

I’m in receipt of your mail and have noted your ideas therein. However, many thanks for your swift response to my proposition I am from Cote D’ Ivoire West Africa.

My word to you is that I won’t let you down and it will be a blessing to you and your family. There’s no risk involved in this transaction. Sequel to this,i will like you to forward your information like your private fax and telephone number for me to submit to the Bank for the commerce of transfer of fund to your account.

Please be informed that I will like to finalise this transaction with you legally and legitimately to the last letter and I do hope you will not mind it that way. All the documents relating to the fund is there and speaks for itself. With this I don’t think you will have problems in your country. The beneficiary of the fund will have to be changed from the “Foreign Partner” that’s from the name put it to your name and
address. Please help me accord this transaction with the due confidentiality it demands. Expecting your immediate response and May God Bless You.

Kind regards,

Mrs Gomah.

This was followed by another email this morning at 6:42 AM

Subject: FROM MRS GOMAH

DEAR JERED BENOIT
i you dear please A critical key to successfully dealing with this transaction
i send you mail did you recieved it then get back me ok
Kind regards,

mrs gomah

Reponse will be coming shortly.

Yam Roll is an awesome animated show coming to Canadian television sets soon. I hope they do a web release as well.

via [Slashfood]

After that super-long review of the new Potter offering, I found in my Feed Reader an entry on Cinematical on why they don’t particularly care for the HP franchise. An interesting read.

Esther is an avid watcher of Food TV and outside of her thinking Rachel Ray is a hack, the only show that the cannot absolutely stand, but must watch like a car wreck in slow motion is Paula Deen’s Home Cooking. TV Squad has a great little article about how Paula Deen’s primary ingrediants are butter, lard, and oil. The funny thing is Esther’s parents have eaten at her restraunt in Savannah, they said they felt like they were going to have a heart attack after.

I think I gained 5 pounds just by writing about her.

Technorati tags: pauladeen, cooking, food

Last night, November 17, 2005, at 11:59 p.m. the previews began and so did my viewing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. While I have only read 1 of the books (the third one I think), my wife and brother-in-law (12 years old by the way) were eagerly awaiting the movie to start. I on the other hand was thinking about how much sleep I would be lacking the next day.

After watching the movie and getting three and a half hours of sleep, here is my mini-review.
Having sat through the other three, this was a departure from the campy, child-like other movies. It was darker, the characters are looking much older than their age in the film and after trying to distill all the action-packed moments out of the books, it left me wanting more but at the same time full.

There were a lot of parallels between the Harry Potter Franchise and Star Wars in this movie: The dark side (which has been mentioned before, sans embodiment) vs. the light side. The a weird father-son relationship. A cast that is changed more frequently than my underwear (what’s up with no “defense for the dark arts teacher”). The dueling. It all smacks a little too much of Jedi for my liking.

Outside of the Star Wars feel, the score, while co-composed by John Williams lacked the charming and slightly mischevious qualities as the first batch of movies. Notibly missing was the familiar introductory song, instead replaced with a darker sounding embellishment of the tune. The pacing of the movie was okay, feeling rushed at times, but sluggish at others. Moments that were meant to be tense, such as the maze, felt overly forced and moments where there was meant to be genuine character interaction felt awkward and clunky, perhaps lent to by the actors obvious aging.

The special effects where much more subtle, or I should say, better integrated than in previous films. There were not grandios moments where it was very obvious that a big splash was intended, although after a discussion with my wife (having read all of the books), the feel of the “magic” was less spectacular especially when it came to the sets and surrounds of Hogwarts. There were no moving stair cases, no portrait people (okay, yes there was a breif moment, but not as in previous films), no house ghosts.

The most shocking aspect of the film was the amount of mature and some-what adult humor that was peppered through out. The jokes were overtly sexual in nature at times, which is a departure from the very clean and kid-friendly movies of the past. Understanding that this movie starts a much darker chapter in the saga, aimed more at the pre-teen, teen and adult audiences than before, the stage has been set as this whole franchise being super kid-friendly and clean cut. It was not a problem for me, but I foresee a little bit of a backlash against this more adult version.

Outside of the shock factor of the more adult oriented dialog, I was pleased to find that they characters used more common British slang term than before, solidifying that, yes, this story does take place in England, not here in the United States. Throw in Harry Potter saying “git” and a professor sticking his tongue between his lower teeth and lip (a sign of defiance), it brought home a feel that most American’s would not understand without having lived there.

The only other thing that I can say was odd about the movie, besides Voldemort not having a nose, was the manner of dress. In the previous movies there was an archaic feel to the clothing, a 1960’s prepatory school look. This was dropped in the newest movie for a more hip and modern feel with alot of layering and modern accoutrements, although no Griffendor iPod scenes, thank goodness.

I have been told by my wife that the movie was very different from the books, I hear about it after every film but having only seen the movies, I can say that the story is picking up, getting darker and more mature. I like this, although I think crucial character development and back story are lost on the “movies only” viewer. So while I might not understand the nuances of Quiddich or the Tri-Wizard Cup, I can say that I did enjoy the two hours and thirty minutes that could have been filled with sleep.

Rating: