|
brotherjebediah
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Jason
Location: Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Gender: Male
Interests: The God of the Bible, cars, cartoons, music, politics, movies
Expertise: KIA new cars
Occupation: Artist
Industry: automotive
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
8/15/2005
|
|
SubscriptionsSites I Read
|
|
|
|
| Howdy folks. It's been 6 months since my last update. I thought it'd been longer. Things are still the same for the most part. I will promote our film company though. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but we've been around for about a year. We first started last year with the 48 hour film contest in July (2007), and last night I just saw the showing for our 2008 entry. Last year we did a horror film using sock puppets (and it inherently became a comedy as well) called Unravelled. Our film this year is Gravity, a tragedy (after first drawing Film de Femme, requiring a female lead, which we didn't have any females at the time to use! Thank God for second choices!) and I was the main character. Not to sound arrogant or anything, but I've been told by numerous people that my performance was fantastic, great, etc. The film has some points that could use some work (editing mostly), but for the 48 hour deadline (which was Sunday evening) we had to go with what we had finished to enter the film on time. If we turned it in late we would miss out on the opportunity to win any of the real awards (best acting, best cinematography, best use of character, best music, etc.). So here's some links. This is our main webpage: http://www.pushforcheesefilms.com and this is our user page on YouTube (if you click on the number in parenthesis it will show more videos): http://www.youtube.com/user/pushforcheesefilms If you watch the videos on YouTube you can comment (provided you have an account and are signed in). If you don't have an account, comment on here. Our current film won't be available for viewing for probably a month.  | | |
| It seems to be a long time since I last wrote in this purdy little white box. Hello to all my fans and friends, seemingly all 5 of you out there. I hope the beginning of 2008 has been swell for you.
I would just like to start out with a very negative note. I hate misspelled URL pages! Have you ever been attempting to go to a website and have a minor typo? Like "dicitonary" or something? And the page opens up, with one of those dastardly evil sites that are owned by some Satan-spawn company that makes money by every misspelled hit that probably happens a number of times, each day? And then when you attempt to go to the site you had intended, you get hit with pop-ups, the other Satan-spawn that crawls the internet? My favorite thing about pop-ups is what one of my favorite TV shows did with them. The show Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which is a part of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network, they had a fantastic episode in which Master Shake started surfing the 'net on Frylock's computer, and pop-ups started occurring, in real life! And last I checked, the website is a real site, and has insane pop-ups! The site is www dot yzzerdd dot com. Let me warn you, before you go to enter the site, make sure your pop-up blocker is working. I just went to the site, and within 30 seconds the blocker had blocked 8 pop-ups. If you want to see the pop-ups, make sure you are finished with everything else you're doing, web related. Turn off the blocker, and be prepared for an assault of pop-ups. Anytime I've done that, I had to ctrl+alt+del and shut down the internet through the task manager.
Also, today the newest Veggie Tales film came out. I haven't seen it, but plan to in the morning. If I remember to get on again tomorrow, I'll do another update with my take on the film. It's called The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, which is the characters that were in Jonah (Larry the cucumber, Pa Grape, and the other guy, Mr. Luntz? not sure what his type is).
Update: 44 pop-ups blocked!
| | |
| It's been over 2 months since my last post, so I guess I can satisfy your craving for some White Rantings. What you crave. Sorry for the lame White Castle rip off. There's lots going on, and I should be getting home to get some sleep, but hopefully I'll fill you in enough for the time being. This weekend I am participating in the 48 hour film contest. You can probably web search it. It's a nationwide contest where you have 48 hours to complete a short film. Friday night we receive our genre, and every team participating will have a specified (and exact same) character, prop, and dialogue that is required in the film. The teams have until Sunday evening to turn in their final work, and I think it has to be less than 7 minutes long. I am looking forward to this, it's more than just us making a silly film and posting it on the internet, this has potential to be entered into the national contest, with showings at the Cannes festival. And I'm sure it'll be up on YouTube (I hope we're allowed to do that). I'll post a link when it's up, if it's allowed.
I've seen a large number of films in the theater lately, so here's a quick rundown: Transformers: Great film. Ratatouille: Great film. Ocean's 13: it was pretty good/ OK. Nothing spectacular. Disturbia: OK film, though it took almost the entire movie to build up to the horror aspect of it, which lasted about 10 minutes, and it didn't really close with enough explanation (Sorry Paul). Hot Fuzz: Great film. If you liked Shaun of the Dead, you'll like this film. If you didn't, but like Cop films, you'll probably like this film. If you've not seen Shaun of the Dead, but like British comedies, you'll probably like this film. Also, not a film, but I've managed to completely catch up to Season 3 of The Office. I bought the 2 pack of Season 1 and 2 at Meijer last week, and this show is fantastic. I usually laugh out loud with every episode. Meaning it's funny enough to get a real, long laugh, not just some snickers and giggles. And one of the episodes of Season 2: Conflict Resolution, I was laughing so much I fell out of my chair and was crying (from the laughing, not because I'd hurt myself from the fall). If you know the show, it was when Dwight and Jim were with Michael going over Dwight's complaints, and Jim would explain each of the pranks he'd pulled on Dwight. I think the best part is I can think of people at some point in my life that some what relate to some of the characters. And Mindy Kaling (Kelly), Jenna Fischer (Pam), Angela Kinsey (Angela) and Melora Hardin (Jan) are purdy ladies. 
Musicly: After Ichthus in June I bought the new Project 86 album: Rival Factions. It came out a week later, and I got a coupon at their concert for $2 off if I purchased it at Best Buy. So after searching the Louisville stores, which on the computer claimed to have a bunch in stock, but finding out they didn't (happened at both Louisville stores) I called a week later and the Outer Loop branch had one in the store, I asked if he had found one, or was going by what the computer stated. The guy told me, "It's in my hand right now, I'm going to put it by the computer at my station." I'm thinking he might have recognized my voice, since I asked them the same question the previous week, and he found that the CD wasn't on the shelf anywhere. It's a good album. It's a bit short for my taste (just around 35 minutes long), but it doesn't have any real short songs, so it's good for me. And the case is blue, and the book is this whole 2 image thing, like the old 3-D images, where if you look with one color (red or blue) you see one part, the other you see the other part, and both it's 3-D. This isn't 3-D, it's just it's almost a censored view of things, and then when you look through the blue part of the case you can read the lyrics and other propaganda themed messages (that's the theme of the album). Also: I just purchased the new Smashing Pumpkins album: Zeitgeist. The picture is different than the one I purchased; Best Buy has an "exclusive track" on the album purchased at their locations: "Death From Above". The difference in the album is the color is orange rather than red, and the track listing on the back uses all 13 stripes to list the songs (instead of the top stripe having the album title) and number 09 is the exclusive track, instead of "Bring The Light". Plus, 10-13 are one number higher than on the other version of the album (they'd be 09-12). When I was younger, and their previous work was fresh, I didn't hear too much of their music. Just the few radio songs and MTV plays (yes, MTV did at one point in history play music videos!) I loved (and still do) "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and "Zero". Now that I'm older and perhaps "more mature(?)" I have come to like their other stuff as well, pretty much anything I hear on the radio. This new album, which has Billy Corgan returning on the vocals and singing, and "All the rest" as his assignments, and Jimmy Chamberlain returns at the drummer. D'arcy and James are not involved this time. I'm not sure who they have with them on tour, but I know they are on tour now. As for the album itself, it's a great piece of work. It's mostly hard rock, and has one track, "United States," that is over 9 minutes long. That's a plus for me. I like it when a band has music that's longer. I don't need a 30 minute song, but I don't like this 2 and 3 minute stuff. You get into the song long enough to be let down because it's over once you've gotten into it. A 9 minute song is almost like an opus, it's probably got a nice intro and exit/ finale, and some vocal stuff with breaks, and "movements" as they're called in orchestral work: different music styles happening in one song. A great album. I picked it up for $9.99(+ tax) at Best Buy, though they give a discount on new releases, it's probably $13.99 now.
Jason out!
| | |
| In case you weren't aware of the recent internet idea, today was "don't buy gas day". Also known as "We're going to stick it to them (the oil companies) because they've stuck it to us all this time!" I'm not sure about your geographic location, but here in Louisville, the gas prices leapt (not quite a jump) from $3.089 to $3.249 for a gallon of regular (87 octane) gasoline (aka: petrol). I'm not sure if todays event and the price increase are related, but I'm not happy about gas being more than $3 for a gallon. I can remember seeing gas for $.999 a gallon at Thornton's near UPS and the Ford Plant on Fern Valley road, when they remodelled. And that was between 5 and 6 years ago. It can't be too long ago, because I started working at UPS in 2000, and quit in 2003. So it's sometime between then. Now, the price was lower than everywhere else, but it wasn't a matter of more than $2 lower! So what can be done about these gas prices? Telling the companies we're not going to fill up on a a specific day won't do anything (except probably raise the price). I heard something on the news last night from AAA (the company that helps you with your car needs). They said to reduce the demand, it'll reduce the cost. Right now fuel is a huge demand, because so many people drive gas chugging trucks and SUVs, and the cars aren't exactly light on the fuel either. And everyone drives insanely fast. What can be done: Reduce your speed, this will reduce your fuel consumption. If everyone drove at 55 mph, they'd be amazed at how far they can go on a tank of fuel. A lot further than cruising at 70, 80 or even 90 mph. Get rid of all the gas chugging stuff. We have no need for large SUVs and trucks. Yes, I know, there are some of you that have a lot of kids or a job that requires a huge truck. OK, for the big family, mini-vans hold more and sometimes get better gas mileage than that SUV. The truck: well, you need the space so keep the truck. But if we encouraged the auto manufacturers to build more efficient and smaller vehicles, instead of building ever increasing size, speed and power vehicles, there'd be less of the big stuff on the road, and less fuel consumption. And the truck issue: buy that hybrid truck. Apparently GM is pulling it's hybrid truck, because no one was buying it. Why didn't anyone buy it? I don't know, I didn't even see any on the lot where I work. Another thing, pester the heck out of the companies to BRING DIESEL ENGINES to America. They have them in many other countries. I believe there's even some in Mexico and Canada. It's just a matter of modifying it for the American requirements, which can't be that hard: Mercedes and Volkswagen have something here. A diesel hybrid would be great as well. You've possibly seen my long blurb about hybrids and diesel and all that, so I won't go into it here. Another way to lower cost (that AAA said): reduce consumption by reducing dependance on oil fuel vehicles. Walk, ride a bicycle, etc. Even taking a fuel vehicle (namely a transit bus, or carpooling) can help. Stop with the one person in the vehicle 90% of the time. Have you seen Over The Hedge? It's a Disney film with a bunch of big actors supplying the voices. They live in a forest right next to a suburban neighborhood development, that they don't know is being built over the hedge. There's a part where the animals are exploring the neighborhood and they ask RJ, the racoon that knows how us humans live and work, etc., what this thing is (a large SUV, resembling a Hummer). He says it's something the humans use to travel around. How many ride in it? "Usually, one." I think this is classic for how most of America is, riding around a lot of the time by ourself, using slightly less fuel (per vehicle) than if we carpooled. Carpooling will reduce the consumption of the vehicle in use, but it will overall increase when you consider 2, 3, 4, etc. people riding in one vehicle, rather than each travelling individually. So thus my points: Drive slower, drive less, convince the auto companies that WE WANT DIESEL ENGINES! (Note: as of this writing, at one of the stations, diesel is $2.699 a gallon where the regular gas is $3.249! That's $.55 a gallon less, for a MORE EFFICIENT FUEL!) EDIT: I noticed after posting this that the price at one of the stations in this area was $3.299. The Speedway that had the $3.249 regular and $2.699 diesel went up to $3.299 the following morning. Diesel has stayed at the same price this entire week. It's actually been at $2.699 for a number of weeks, probably over a month!
| | |
| Howdy folks. So over the past few weeks I've seen a number of films. I am not sure how to do the review thing, and I've seen so many lately I'll just give a quick run down and my opinion. In theaters (new films): 300 and TMNT. In the dollar theater (Greentree 10 in Indiana): Flushed Away, Open Season, Charlotte's Web, One Night With The King, The Nativity Story, Casino Royale, The Departed. Yes, it's only a dollar, unless you see it after 6 pm on Friday or Saturday, which is $1.50. If you have 3 or more people with you on a Monday, it's $.50 a person. The food prices are the same as Tinseltown or the other first run theaters, meaning $3.75 for a 32 oz beverage, $5.50 for a large tub of popcorn ("only $.25 for a refill!"), etc. So consider eating at one of the many restaurants nearby. And there's two malls close by as well (River Falls and Greentree). On DVD: Flushed Away (I've seen it once in the theater and 4 or 5 times now that I have it on DVD) and As Good As It Gets.
300 is great, but you have to not be bothered by a LOT of blood and violence and gore (as in, body parts getting cut off, people getting impales by spears and arrows), and also some strange sexual stuff (there is some nudity), though these don't last long. It's a great action film, and looks great the whole time. The color themes are great, the appearance of the characters with their weapons looks realistic (it takes place in probably 300 BC, between the Spartans of Greece and the Persians). There are a few "creatures" in this film, one of which is possibly the great (times a bunch) grandfather to Sloth from The Goonies, as well as some humongous other animals, namely a wolf, elephant and rhinoceros. There's also some transsexuals listed in the credits, which I find humorous considering this movie takes place over 2000 years ago. I doubt there were ways to do "gender reassignment" surgeries back then. But there are explosives in this film as well, I think about 12-13 centuries before the Chinese figured out gun powder. But what am I complaining about, since it has a semi sci-fi thing with the different creatures and such. Like I said though, it's a lot of action. Think Braveheart, but more action and violence, and 1500 years prior.
TMNT is an amazing film. You may complain that it's not like the old ones, mainly the cartoon or the original films. It's done on computer, not live with guys in the rubber suits. Something you need to understand about the rubber suit films: they cost a lot of money to produce. They require people to do the voices for the turtles, people to act out the parts in the costumes, people to do the stunts in the costumes, and people to do the puppet work on the faces of the characters. That's a lot of people, just for the turtles. Each sequel cost more and made less than the previous one. Once the third one came out, it cost a bunch, and didn't make very much. Now think about it being more than 10 years later, and the TMNT have only been active on the small screen. It's a lot cheaper to do a CG film than a live action one. And, with CG you are pretty much limitless on what you can do on the screen. There's no issue with cost prohibitive special effects, safety precautions, etc. The animators can make the characters look like they're really talking, show their emotions on their faces, etc. It really does look great, and it had a good storyline, good vocal work, and it was similar enough to the old stuff that you would enjoy it. Granted, there's no mutants like Bebop, Rocksteady, Krang, etc. Those were used just for the original cartoon. I read recently that the original creators, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman (Eastman sold all his rights to Laird a few years ago) never intended for Shredder to become the main nemesis. In the comics they had a number of villains, Shredder being killed off pretty early in the comics. Shredder isn't in this film, though his successor is, Karai. In one of the comic storylines, she is raised by Shredder as an adopted daughter. In this film, she leads the Foot Clan. Bottom line: go see this film. It's clean, has some great humor, and a good story. And visually it's pretty awesome.
Flushed Away: Great film, clean, lots of humor, good storyline.
Open Season: Good film, clean, funny, good storyline.
Charlotte's Web: Same story as the cartoon from years ago, but in live action. Great film, great acting both real and vocal. It's the same as you remember, but acted out rather than just a cartoon.
One Night With The King: The movie adaptation of Esther (from the Bible). Great film, great look, pretty accurate to the Bible. Seemingly historical (though I'm no expert).
The Nativity Story: Movie adaptation of the life of Joseph and Mary before the birth of Jesus. Great look at what it might've been like for them. Seemingly historical (again, I'm not expert).
Casino Royale: OK, I can say this film is pretty good. But what bothered me was the James Bond I know has lots of crazy gadgets and sneaky spy stuff. This film shows us when he becomes a "double O", meaning he's killed two people; a great chase scene, and then a long drawn out finish. A major portion is him playing a poker game, where the bad guy is hoping to win $15 million to finance terrorism. No great gadgets, only a few minutes in the car (an Aston Martin, which he ends up destroying!) and an ending that seems to come a number of times, and finally does. I was disappointed, but it's not a bad film. Just don't expect the same old James Bond stuff.
The Departed: If you remember what I said about 300, be prepared for something a bit toned down. Lots of action, great acting, a lot of big name actors (almost every main character has done a lot of films). Lots of violence and profanity. More so profanity than violence. But if you aren't bothered by the profanity and violence (and one short sex scene with no nudity) this is a great film to watch.
As Good As It Gets ("AGAIG"): OK, this lady I work with let me borrow her copy. She said it was the greatest thing, and since I like Jack Nicholson as an actor I'll love this movie. Let me just say she doesn't understand my taste in films. This movie is a weak comedy about a racist, jerk, obsessive compulsive super author (I believe he says 63 or 64, as in number of books he's written). You only see a little bit about the OCD thing, but you see a lot of him being racist, homophobic, jerk, etc. He does change a little throughout the movie, but the comedy parts aren't very often, and so many times he has an opportunity to say/ do things for the better, and he messes them up. That bothered me. Anyhow, I wasn't a fan of this movie. Jack Nicholson is a great actor, but having him smiling and arching his eyebrows just makes me wonder when he'll add the white make up and green hair. It's funny how this movie came up in our conversation, the lady was telling me she'd seen the movie with Jack Nicholson and a bunch of other famous actors. After a few questions I ascertained that she was referring to The Departed. Some how me liking this meant I'd love AGAIG. When I told her I didn't like it, she's like "you didn't understand or like Seinfeld did you?" I'm like, "I loved Seinfeld, this movie just wasn't that funny." She's like "Oh it won all these awards!" That just means a bunch of stupid people enjoyed it. Many times great films aren't even nominated for awards, and stupid films get awards because someone famous is in the film. There are times great films do get awards, but it doesn't matter. Awards are stupid generally, so don't tell me a movie is great because it got awards. That just means you follow the celebrity garbage. So in closing, no I didn't like AGAIG. As I said, it has some funny parts, but it's not worth it for the whole film that's dubbed a comedy. And the change to the characters isn't enough to make this much of a film. It's more of a dull comedy with lots of attempts at romance. Maybe if you like "chick flicks" you'll like this, but even then I don't know. I thought The Notebook had some great qualities (and not just because Rachel McAdams is gorgeous), and the overall theme of it was a good one. Not AGAIG. So don't waste your time on this. And if you like it, please explain to me what is so special about it, I am just not getting it. Finally, if this lady I know recommends any other movies, I'll think twice before watching them. Oh yeah, AGAIG is also over 2 hours long. So be prepared for a long dull time.
Well, that's all for now. I'd like to see a number of films: Ghost Rider, Meet The Robinsons, Grindhouse, Wild Hogs, Spider-Man 3, Shrek the 3rd, Resident Evil: Extinction. Some of these are out, some not until late spring or summer. I'll fill you in more once I've watched them. Cheers!
| | |
|
