Wanted (Dead or Alive)

So I watched the movie Wanted and wanted to give my quick 2 cents. I heard very mixed reviews so I wasn't sure if it was going to be any good. Overall, I thought the movie was ok, rather mediocre. Definitely wasn't missing much. Although I liked some of the director's other works like Night Watch, when you bring the movies into English, they are rather absurd. There were points that were just so over the top that it took you out of the movie. The action sequences were great and stylistically awesome, but they couldn't make the whole movie. The dialog and struggle of the main character were ok to watch. Although you can't relate to him in any way, it didn't remove me from the movie like I've heard others hear. The soundtrack was good for this movie and appreciated it. The movie had potential, but it was too over the top I think for me to really get into.

Presidential Address

Just wanted to post my quick thoughts on the presidential address I just got finished writing. I have to say Papa Obama made me feeling hopeful towards the end. He seemed to cover a lot and be very ambitious. Which I suppose is good over all to have an ambitious president. I liked his description of stuff in his way of describing to the public. It felt like a dad or teacher explaining to kids. (This is how the economy works...you see, there's this thing called credit...). A lot of what he was talking about felt very moderate in appealing to a wide range of people. But it also felt A LOT like it was a campaign speech and he was still in campaign mode. He even used some of the same lines. This just makes me worry since one of Bush's problems was his constant campaign mode. My personal favorite thing to do was add odd/inappropriate comments for the audience members they showed, like guys randomly walking out, people not clapping, people clapping too enthusiastically, or just making Penguin noises for McCain (which looked very old, boy am I glad he wasn't elected just alone on that). The republican response was interesting in that the Louisiana Governor had a weird accent to me. An Indian guy sounding like Kenneth from 30 Rock. It was odd having a prewritten response saying some of the same stuff that Obama did, but way to sound semi ridiculous since New Orleans got tons of money from the government for Katrina. Well now that I'm hopeful, time to go to bed since PSU was a downer dropping a very winnable game to OSU. Screw you Buckeyes!

Noncon9

So I had a rather fun weekend going to Noncon. It was incredibly small, and it didn't feel like it was too heavily attended. I was surprised at the size as well as how it was relatively unorganized (compared to my expectations). That being said, I had some fun and would probably attend again, especially for the guests. I attended some fun panels on anime trivia (which I somehow won), fandom battle and dating, and some web comic panels. The best event by far was the lecture and session hosted by Scott McCloud. I've seen his work before and thoroughly enjoyed his lecture. It was fantastic and thought provoking. Other than that, I pretty much did smaller things like watch a few episodes of anime and watch the video games they had. Since I didn't play any of them, it got kinda old hearing the same rock band songs over and over and watching SF4 and Smash Brothers matches. They had some other events like table top card games and live action Role playing, but I wasn't going to do those, especially with strangers since I'm more than likely going to clam up and be quiet. I was disappointed about the down time they had. Some times when there weren't panels going on, it seemed like almost nothing was going on which was disappointing. I suppose the limited staff needed to take breaks too, but it just felt very unprofessional. Overall, I had fun, but was a little disappointed. I guess being in it's ninth year, I was anticipating something equal to or larger than Setsucon. And although the guest list was equal to or better, every other aspect was not. I had fun and will probably go again next year.

A quick note on Adult Swim since it caused me to scream at my TV in disbelief (and in a good way, not like last season's Heroes). Code Geass is amazing in that it was able to get the reaction from me. To go from last week's momentous revelation, to killing off a semi-main character so abruptly. And the repercussions it will have on the rest of the series, along with the presumable killer. I just thought it was an amazing moment of shock that I thoroughly enjoyed. I am really liking this series, and much more than I thought I would. I hope it can keep up the pace. This is now at least 2 weeks of really good episodes.

History of Violence

Just a real quick post to get down my thoughts on A History of Violence. I thought this was a pretty good movie. The beginning had enough confusion to make me wonder, but not too much so I was totally lost. Vigo did a great job. Not totally convinced by his performance, but he did a great job. I do have to say he really has no problem showing off his body in movies. Although this wasn't nearly as bad as Eastern Promises. The nudity seemed a little gratuitous, but the extra features explained it somewhat, and who am I to complain about nudity. I liked the duality of the characters, especially the son's story. Ending seemed to just wrap it up a little too quickly. The violence was pretty extreme, but not a problem since it was expected. Overall, I thought it was a really good movie.

VDay

So I suppose overall it was an OK Valentine's Day weekend. To be cryptic, didn't quite feel right and definitely had some mixed emotions and feelings. I imagine I will have to deal with those in the weeks to come once I figure out exactly how I should handle them. I tried and feel that I succeeded in planting the seeds of doubt, which is good. I just now need to act upon them which will be difficult. Quite the different reaction I was going for, but oh well, I did my part I feel. ...Sigh...
So other than doing much of nothing and "planting seeds" on Saturday, Michelle and I went out for dinner. It was pretty good, even though they ended up giving me the wrong meal. I was more impressed by the wine I ordered. I ended up ordering a 2007 Riesling. Although a little bland on the back end, I feel it went really well with my meal. I figured the Riesling was a safe bet since I tried others and knew roughly the taste. Also, at that price, I didn't want to get something I didn't like, like a strong red wine with a lot of tannins since I'm still new to this.
Afterwards, we saw a movie by Michelle's choosing (which I also had an interest in seeing). We saw Coraline. I thought it was a very pretty stop motion film and loved the world it was set in. The voice acting was done very well and kudos to Dakota Fanning on her role. I thought the beginning was pretty slow and not that interesting with it's long and convoluted set up. But towards the end, especially the ending sequence, were really big payoffs. They were a lot of fun since we were invested with the characters so much. I didn't get to see it in 3D, which I'm kind of glad about since I always have trouble with it and it didn't seem like I was missing much. I'm glad there were no shots shot for the sole purpose of 3D. The one major gripe I have with this movie, and I have to give props to Alex Albrecht on the Totally Rad Show for making me even realize this, is how the movie is marketed predominantly towards kids and by the end the fantasy element gets pretty intense and some of the thematic scenes could have been pretty scary for a young kid. For me, I loved it, which in of itself, is my point entirely.
Since Michelle failed to come up with any other plans for the weekend, I decided to just watch some Naruto and the usual Adult Swim Saturday block of shows. Although I was struggling to stay awake, I thought the episode of Code Geass was really good and a definite game changer. I'm really excited to see what happens next. Hopefully I can maintain the excitement since I have to wait a whole week for more.

Death Note 2

So tonight I watched the second Death Note Live action movie. Just wanted to share my quick thoughts. I thought it was really good and stuck to the source material fairly well, considering you only have 2 hours to tell 10 hours or so of material. I liked the changes they had to make. It made things exciting enough that even though I knew what happened, it kept things interesting. I watched the movie with English dubbing since I enjoy the dubbing of the series so much. I also included subtitles so that I could get the original translation. Although drastically different at times, the dubbing was really good. Since this movie had a conclusion and a few more twists, I feel that this one was better than the first one. I'm also intrigued at the extra plot line they set up for a third/spin-off movie. I will have to check it out when it comes out. The one major thing that bothered me last time and again this time, why the heck is a Red Hot Chili Peppers song the major sell of this movie. They keep on pushing it in the trailer and everywhere, yet it is so unrelated. I just wonder if this is a "cool English" thing or are they really popular in Japan. I don't know.

New York Comic Con

So this past weekend I went to New York Comic Con down in NYC. I went Friday and Saturday. I had a blast and it was a lot of fun. Cons always are. Like usual, I spent way too much, but fun is all that matters. I attended a bunch of great panels like the world premiere of the new Futurama movie (pretty good this time around), a premiere of Yatterman, got to see the Penny Arcade guys, saw some great Funimation products, and even got into a discussion of gender in comics. I got to see the creator of VGCats which was awesome! I also was able to visit an official Square Enix store and [watch] people play prereleases of actual games, like game journalists do. It was a very cool experience. The whole thing though was absolutely huge. There were well over 60k people there and it sure was packed at times. This is both good and bad. Big cons come great opportunities as well with them bringing in some great panels. There were also plenty of exhibitors. The show floor was absolutely huge. It took me both days to walk through the entire thing. One major complaint which I feel conflicted about, is how the con was advertised. It was advertised as a pretty equal mix of comics, anime, gaming, sci-fi, movies, and tv. This was simply not true. All of the other content paled in comparison to the comic book stuff that was there. Plenty of panels and almost every exhibitor was dealing with comics. I feel conflicted since even with my limited appeal to comics, there was still plenty for me to do and see, even too much as several panels conflicted. I initially thought this would be a great time to learn some more about comics since I want to somewhat, but I couldn't devote much time to it. My other major complaint about the con weekend, is that their panel rooms were entirely too small. Every one I went to was pretty much packed to capacity. Some of the panels I wanted to see, I couldn't even get in since they were so full. It also became unwieldy to navigate the panel area since the lines had over 1000 people in them. I would have loved to go see other panels like the guys behind Robot Chicken, the guys behind Venture Brothers, and the crew of Dr. Who. Instead I saw plenty of other stuff, but I feel this could have been handled better since only 1000 ppl could see them with attendance over 60K. I also missed out on the Fringe cast and panel. It was being held Sunday and as much as it would have been cool to go back down, I needed sleep and that was pretty much the only event I really missed on Sunday. Some of them seemed more kid oriented. A great weekend. Next year I might be more accustomed to it all.

Real quick, I saw the movie Ghost Town recently and wanted to quickly comment on it being a very good movie. It was genuinely funny and was endearing.

My Thought Exactly...

Wait. What?!

Taxes

So tonight I had the glory of doing my taxes for the first time on my own. Although originally I wanted to do them using just plain 'ol paper and pencil, I decided to use some software since I had some unusual circumstances this year including moving with partial residency and switching financial investment firms and funds. It turned out to be incredibly easy like I had pictured, I just hope I did everything correct. I checked everything twice and it appears so, and I have logical alibis if they count for anything. I was able to get some pretty hefty refunds back this year. Thanks to claiming capitol losses, tuition assistance, student loan deductions, being taxed like I was in a higher tax bracket, and not receiving a stimulus check. I'm extremely satisfied with my returns, which tells me I should make some changes to my W2. I should up my exemptions to be a little more even. I don't want to end up like California, plus I could be making interest on that money. Now I just need to wait for my check.

I've also come to the realization that I am not just a player of video games...I collect video games. It is now my hobby and my collection. I find rare games at good prices and I buy them like a collector does, even though I'd like to play them, I know that deep down the chances of me getting to them are very slim. I can say this since over the past month I bought several new games and preordered others. Most of them have been relatively cheap and a bargain, but the fact still remains. Having a job is just not helping me and is actually having me buy more than I probably otherwise would. I suppose it's ok though. I look at all of these companies closing down and the lack of some good PS3 titles coming forward since it is the smallest console, I think that it is probably a good thing I am buying a bunch of ps2 games for example. I suppose this is just some crappy excuse for me to make my purchases.

Scary Spys

So tonight's Nova freaked the shit out of me. It was about the NSA and more specifically about their surveillance leading up to and post 9/11. I was expecting mostly just NSA stuff and not a scare tactic, but it worked. Most of the stuff I've known and have heard before, but it was still scary being told again. Also, being knowledgeable in technology allows me to know all the possible shit that they can do illegally or without warrants. At the same time, knowing technology, I kinda realize that to effectively monitor a digital source, you can't do much better than what they're doing currently, just with more oversight from FISA. Just a scary episode with really no new information.

They also advertised a great Frontline that looks extremely interesting on Parkinson's. I'll have to check that out later. I think they have it available online. Tonight I also watched Fringe. Although not an extremely great episode, I just realised I never talked about it...I think. This show is pretty fun. It does a good job of creating a freaky and half scary mood. I like the sci-fi stuff that they show, even though I know it isn't at all possible...I think. A good comparison I've heard is that it's a more recent x-files. I think this is pretty accurate, although I'm not too familiar with the X-files. Overall, a very fun monster of the week, sci-fi show.

Yay for Pennsylvania!

Quite the lazy weekend. Saturday I went to Waryas Park and got some nice pictures of the frozen river. It was kinda cool to see with all of the chunks of ice and hearing it creaking and cracking while the river rushed below the ice. Most of the rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and doing chores. I did watch most of the Superbowl though. It got pretty tense toward the end. I'm glad the Steelers won. I also gt a chance to watch Righteous Kill which I thought was a pretty good movie. Not overly exciting, but a find crime drama with a slight twist to make it very worthwhile.

I got into a mini discussion today at work with Joe about this, but wanted to basically spill my rant here as well. Now that I have my surround speakers, it is quite entertaining to watch many things, but I'm disappointed in the quality that goes into the sound channels. It seems to be all over the bar from what I can tell watching TV and movies now a days (assuming of course that everything is hooked up properly). I get great sound from some movies like Hulk, the crowd surrounding me in the Superbowl, moving around in video games, and just ambient music in Fringe. I even get flashes of greatness like in Heroes tonight where all of a sudden I heard clocks ticking all around me. Eerie and fantastic. I then get movies like Righteous Kill that hardly take advantage of a great opportunity. They used it a little in the beginning and towards the end, but really missed a lot of opportunities. Tons of ambient sound could have been used to increase the envelopment of the viewer. Then there's things like ABC which seem to simply pump everything through the middle channel and be done which is flat out unacceptable. I just wish there was a little more regularity of good examples.

Guitar Hero...for NES

This is awesome, although it looks ridiculously hard.