Weblog
Archives Added
Saturday,
April 30, 2005 - 3:20pm cst:
A
new addition to the home page is the Archives link for all these
weblog comments of mine. The archive is updated every two weeks,
so that's where I put the entries from the first half of this month.
I'm still creating all this in Dreamweaver (instead of the usual
blogging software), so I'm still making changes as the need arises.
I've
also added the now-standard static links to each entry, so if you
read something that you wanted to pass along to friends, you could
just sent them that link. Again, it's all standard issue for weblogs.
Doctor
Who Episode 5 - Dalek
Saturday,
April 30, 2005 - 3:10pm cst:
This
week sees the return of those oddly lovable pepperpots - the
Daleks! What new cheap gimmicks will the writers come up with
to keep these cheesy '60s robot-monsters fun? Expect to see
at least one "float
up the staits" gag, especially since few viewers watched Classic
Who's "Rememberance of the Daleks" from 1988. Hint: it's
out on DVD.
Dream
on Silly
Dreamer
Friday,
April 29, 2005 - 2:45pm cst:
I
received a letter today from Merry Clingen, who was one of the former
Disney animators profiled in the documentary Dream
On, Silly Dreamer. She offers some examples of Disney's reckless
spending that spiked the budgets of their animated films, which
resulted in rediculous numbers (e.g. $150 million for Treasure Planet).
So
thanks, Merry, for the letter. I'll try to print it here next weeks.
Or maybe I should hang on to it for that Ghibli book I'm telling
myself to write.
So
Let Me Get This
Straight
Friday,
April 29, 2005 - 8:00am cst:
I
missed the Bush press conference last night, so let me see if I
have this right. The President's plan to save Social Security is
to, let's see...cut everyone's benefits?
Please
tell me Bush fell off the wagon. It really would make me feel safer
to blame all of this on Jack Daniels.
Final
Day at Bank Training
Classes
Thursday,
April 28, 2005 - 2:00pm cst:
Today
is my final day of classes for the new bank job. It's been a lot
of fun and the pace has been fairly quick. This is largely because
this current class has only two students! Wierd. Thankfully, I was
graced with a terrific classmate named Maria; she has to brave an
hour of bumper-to-bumper traffic to be here.
So
my thanks to everyone who helped make this possible. Now I'm off
to TCF Bank, where my miserable sales skills will end my career,
bankrupt Minnesota's banking industry, and derail the economy. But
that's okay, because what I really want to do is direct.
Speculation
on Nintendo Revolution
Wednesday,
April 27, 2005 - 1:00am cst:
A
weblog writer at BrokenSaints.com has some interesting details regarding
Nintendo's upcoming Revolution console.
Some
of the features Nintendo may be looking to integrate include gyroscoptic
control, touchscreen integration, and wireless technology. Interesting
so far, but certainly not revolutionary. The
real revolution may be it's display:
Okay.
No major revelations there, but I bet its got you thinking about
future game design and interactive potential, yes? Yes…but
for me, the first twinge of excitement regarding this machine didn’t
come until the final pieces of the long-rumoured DISPLAY puzzle
fell into place:
-
the IGN boys posted this regarding a patent for Nintendo’s
upcoming display technology, which I linked to a few days ago. It
doesn’t take a rocket scientist to glean that this conceptually
portrays a form of 3D image projection.
-
at a major film conference called ShoWest just last month, a panel
featuring George Lucus, Robert Zemekis, James Cameron, Robert Rodriguez,
and a satellite feed from Peter Jackson has studio reps, journalists,
and theatre owners seriously jazzed about their plans to integrate
cheap digital stereoscopic 3D (like recent IMAX features or the
oldschool Captain EO experience at Epcot) into ALL major chains
by 2007. Lucas even showed several minutes of the original STAR
WARS with remapped visuals that popped off the screen and hovered
in front of audience members. When an agent friend of mine was chatting
with Rodriguez (there to pump Sin City and discuss his experiences
with Spy Kids 3D), he mentioned how they were aware of a game machine
beating them to the mainstream 3D market.
-
the next day, I contacted another strangely influential industry
pal/pundit and shared my thesis purely for fun’s sake (and
perhaps some extremely lame bragging rights). The final shiny block
of tetrisy knowledge slid into place when he excitedly shared the
following - that the Big N had shown a real-time 3D add-on for Gamecube
behind closed doors…AT LAST YEAR’S E3. It has since
gone MIA. This is the sound of four rows dropping.
Again,
please don't treat these as solid facts or gospel truth. But Nintendo
is seeking to rattle the game industry; they simply cannot survive
in the current business model. Is this how they plan to rewrite
the rules? And, more importantly, could such an idea prove successful?
Questions, questions.
CIA's
Final Report: No
WMD's
Tuesday,
April 26, 2005 - 12:00am cst:
Add
this final report to all the others:
“After
more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the
WMD-related detainees has been exhausted,” wrote Charles Duelfer,
head of the Iraq Survey Group, in an addendum to the final report
he issued last fall.
“As
matters now stand, the WMD investigation has gone as far as feasible.”
I
don't gloat about any of this. I would give anything to have wrong
about Iraq's WMD, just as I would give anything to bring back all
the dead and wounded. But the fact remains that the Bush administration
either demonstrated horrible incompetence with Iraqi intelligence,
or they lied to us.
Personally,
I would argue the latter. But at this point, it's largely academic;
Iraq is a damn rotten mess, with no real end in sight, and we're
stuck with that. And I honestly don't know when this will end. I
do know that if the powers that be have their way, we will never
leave Iraq. Ever. Think about that.
Get
Firefox
Monday,
April 25, 2005 - 8:00am cst:
Frustrated
with Internet Explorer? You should be. It's a lousy train wreck.
Switch to Firefox. I've been using it for several months, and it's
infinitely superior in every way. Firefox rocks.
I've
added a Firefox button, so you can download the Mozilla browser.
Oh, and Mozilla won't sell you out to the fundamentalist right,
unlike some other companies (cough).
Gannon-Guckert
Given Day Passes For 2 Years
Monday,
April 25, 2005 - 12:35am cst:
Well,
now this is interesting. According to recently-released FOIA documents,
Jeff Gannon-Guckert-What's-his-name visited the White House 200
times (over a two-year period) with a day pass. More than a little
unusual, bit this is par for the course when it comes to Gannon-Guckert.
It
gets even more interesting:
Guckert
made more than three dozen excursions to the White House when there
were no scheduled briefings. On many of these days, the Press Office
held press gaggles aboard Air Force One - which raises questions
about what Guckert was doing at the White House.
On
at least fourteen occasions, Secret Service records show either
the entry or exit time missing. Generally, the existing entry or
exit times correlate with press conferences; on most of these days,
the records show that Guckert checked in but was never processed
out.
America
Blog has more to read, as well as the FOIA documents so you
can read for yourselves. Just how more surreal can this whole affair
become? I suppose it would be asking too much for the press to start
investigating the whole G-G mess, but somewhere in the back of my
mind I remain an optimist.
Top
Ten Movies for May
2005
Sunday,
April 24, 2005 - 8:46pm cst:
Oops!
D'oh! How could you let me forget about this column? Nice big update
of movies and DVD's to hunt down and enjoy.
Doctor
Who Episode 5 - World
War III
Sunday,
April 24, 2005 - 4:30pm cst:
The
second half of the two-part story, featuring ugly green aliens that
have infiltrated the British government. Promises to be a lot of
fun. I haven't watched yet, so don't spoil any surprises for me.
Next week: Daleks!
FBI
Protects Bin Laden's Right to Privacy
Thusday,
April 21, 2005 - 12:20am cst:
This
is very bad. Very, very bad. Some very serious questions about
Bin Laden have gone unanswered for three and a half years. It's
time we got some answers from this White House.
In
a September 24, 2003 declassified “Secret” FBI report
obtained by Judicial Watch, the FBI invoked Exemption 6 under FOIA
law on behalf of bin Laden, which permits the government to withhold
all information about U.S. persons in “personnel and medical
files and similar files” when the disclosure of such information
“would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal
privacy.”
Howl's
Moving Castle US
Trailer
Wednesday,
April 20, 2005 - 11:05pm cst:
Ain't-it-Cool
News has posted the American-release
trailer for Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle.
We have to endure the annoying simple-plot narrator that appears
in all previews, but the movie looks absolutely terrific.
Disney
is set to release Howl's on June 10, including both dubbed
and subtitled versions. Howl's is a runaway
success in Japan (second only to The
Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro in grosses) and is expected
to draw over $500 million worldwide. Disney should be commended
for giving Miyazaki's latest the treatment and care it deserves
(now if Disney's theatrical run of Nausicaa
includes subtitles, I'll really be happy).
Looking
at the release schedule, I'll stick my neck out and say this should
be the summer's best movie and an almost certain shoo-in for an
Oscar.
Ann
Coulter, or That
Wacky Liberal Media
Wednesday,
April 20, 2005 - 1:10pm cst:
On
the more extreme end of the GOP, we find Ann Coulter, who, for some
baffling reason, has been given star treatment with a cover spread
in Time. This, to me at least, is another example of the decline
and fall of mainstream American journalism. I don't object to her
being profiled in Time, but I will object to a willfull bending
of facts in the service of playing nice with the extremist right.
Ann
Coulter is a shining example of the Republican Party's decent into
extremism and bomb-throwing propaganda. Her penchant for inflammatory
comments and false assertions would be easily dismissed as comedy
if she weren't always being carted out on Fox News and other cable
news channels. I'm half-expecting her to pull off the mask and reveal
herself to be Andy Kaufman.
But
whether or not Coulter really believes Tim McVeigh should have bombed
the New York Times building, or that John Walker Lindh should have
be executed "in order to physically intimidate liberals"
is beside the point. The point is that she is willing to employ
violent, almost fascistic rhetoric to silence any dissent or criticism.
This is dangerous, not only to our democracy but also to us personally.
We've seen how threatening rhetoric against judges in wake of the
Terri Schiavo affair can spur
violence against judges.
Someone
who isn't too bright may just get it in his head that some judge,
government official or "liberal" deserves what flamethrowers
like Ann Coulter are spewing. We've seen that very thing happen
ten years ago this week in Oaklahoma. And the language of violence
has only continued to seep into mainstream conservatism. Sooner
or later something is going to explode. Again.
Time
Magazine should be ashamed of themselves. At long last, have they
no sense of decency? Send them a letter and tell them you feel the
same.
Think
Progress also has a short sampling of Coulter's distortions
and lies, which is a good place to start your own researching. Dewa
mata.
God
Bless Sen.
Voinovich
Tuesday,
April 19, 2005 - 11:50pm cst:
I've
been following the nomination of John Bolton to Ambassador to the
UN on and off (thanks largely to my training at my new bank job),
another dispiriting pick from the Bush administration. I'm assuming
you already know about this man and his disdain for the UN, so I
won't bother with the long speeches.
The
Democrats are, thankfully, lined up in opposition, but in order
to keep the hearings in committee, we needed a brave Republican,
an honest Republican, to step forward. It seems earlier today that
Republican has arrived in the form of Sen. Voinovich.
I
clearly have no love for this President or his allies, but I also
have no patience for blind party loyalty. If America is going to
function as a healthy democracy, it needs decent Republicans who
aren't going to be swayed by the party's continuing decline into
extremism. Voinovich's opposition to the Bolton nomination is a
step towards that sanity.
You
know things are bad when Richard Nixon is considered a flaming liberal
in comparison to today's GOP. So my thanks to Voinovich, Hagel,
McCain, and other such Republicans.
44%
Positive, 56%
Negative
Monday,
April 18, 2005 - 1:45 pm cst:
Bush's
approval ratings continue to fall, thanks to the Shiavo fiasco
and his attempts to end Social Security. I've assumed for some time
that Bush's numbers wouldn't drop far below 50 percent, but it seems
voters are (finally) paying some attention.
So
does this mean we're going to bomb another country?
That
Oh-So Liberal Time
Magazine
Monday,
April 18, 2005 - 1:35 pm cst:
This
would be funny if it weren't so sad. Par for the course.
Doctor
Who Episode 4 - Aliens
of London
Saturday,
April 16, 2005 - 7:05pm cst:
The
first of a two-part story. I'll comment after viewing.
Update
(Tuesday): Oops, forgot. I think this was the best episode
of the new series yet, full of modern wit and depth of characters.
The monsters are scary and slightly cheesy, and the cliffhanger
is Doctor Who all the way. Great fun from a show that doesn't take
itself too seriously (the bane of most modern sci-fi). |
