Tagged

I have been tagged by the edige. Here's how it is:

1. Open your pictures folder and open the sixth folder.
2. Post the sixth picture.
3. Tag six people to participate.

From Pups

That's me earlier this month, petting a wolf pup. If you click on the pic, it will make it larger and easier to see.

Edige and Of Masks and Men tagged four mutual friends, so I'll skip them and go after others...

Cole Ann
Derek at Eastern Standard
Derek from Texas
Terri

No, it's not Six, but I'm more of "Starbuck" guy.

my hat for DTV no know limit

I am so not happy with the must go digital with the tv initiative. The signal is on a tighter beam and therefore, harder to get in with an antenna. If there's rain, I don't get at least one broadcast channel's signal in tune. If there's snow, I'm lucky if I can any channel.

I am so glad we've gone this direction, to make the cell phone people happy. Oh, so happy.

Wait, there's this lovely little thing under the television. I think they use to call it a radio. What's this button do? That's cute it lights up, but wait! Those sounds, that noise, those emotions it brings forth...and wait, the commercials aren't as annoying and all the channels come in tune! Why didn't anyone tell me about this old timey invention? It is much cooler than the television.


Seriously, way disappointed with DTV. Don't like it, don't want it, won't be getting cable/dish/whatever anytime soon.

A Parable with Tigers and Mice

A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.

Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!

That is the first zen koan I ever read. It was decades ago, probably when I was but 10-12 years old. The version I read was much simpler, but the story was the same.

I must have read it twenty times and still I wondered if I knew what it meant. The meaning was on the tip of my tongue. I knew it, but didn't know it. (And yet I had no clue what zen was at the time.)

The moment I stopped thinking about it, I understood it.

Later, I would pick up books at the library that discussed zen and the teachings of the masters. I would study the books for as long as I could keep them, but would return them knowing that someone else out there would want to read them and learn what I had just barely grasped. This was a new way to think, the way to think. None of my friends understood the topic or really cared, thinking it some weird puzzle/riddle talk. My parents never spoke to me about it (that I remember). They probably assumed it to be a young boy's fancy of the moment.

I am in no way a zen master. I do not know or even recite the sutras. I do not understand all of the teachings. I have never considered the teachings of zen a religion, but many do. However, if it is a religion, then it is the religion from which I have learned the most. It was simply the fancy of a young boy, who came to understand it's importance as he aged.

So I can remember and enjoy

Cole - ok sweetie time to grow up


Posted for posterities sake.

Hancock

Hancock is a movie about a lone superhero. As a lone man, he's become very lonely, despondant, and a drunk. Will Smith does a great job playing the part of an asshole. Throughout the first third of the story, I grew to love to hate his character.

Along the way, he saves Jason Bateman's character. Yet, Bateman is the only one on the scene that is happy Hancock showed up. Thus is born the beginning of a friendship. Bateman is convinced that he can make Hancock into a good guy. Thus we enter the second third of this story.

Hancock is actually wanted by the law, due to his activities. Bateman's character convinces him to turn himself in and due some time. After all, if he's not out in the real world, the bad guys will become more active, and then the world will want Hancock back. We see some change in Hancock here. Not a lot, but some. We see him resisting change and then start to give in to the change.

Suddenly, he's wanted outside the jail to help with a situation. It's at this point, that I became irritated. We didn't see a completion of the change into a good person, before he left jail. Okay, I'm good with that. We'll see more change and development later in the movie.

Except we don't.

He's out, he's free, and he's saving the world. He needs to adjust to it and we see he recognizes that. This part of the movie is way too short. It is at this point that the third part of the story begins. This is the part of the movie that pisses off most people.

We now discover that he's not the only person like him. There is one other. There is some really cool story background here. It's nothing that us geeks haven't thought before. However, the execution here is awesome. Yet, it's a second movie. It has nothing to do with Hancock the asshole.

This part of the movie is Hancock discovering who he is, a little of the why he has his powers, and how his kryptonite works. I like, I think they used a great idea, and I would have loved to see a movie that was about that. However, as this script was written to be an anti-hero movie, we won't get that.

My only other real objection to this movie was all of the European Americans. The Chief of Police is African American, as is Hancock, and one of the three main bad guys in jail. For some reason, I wanted more African American actors. I'm not sure why, but the movie just felt so "white."

Overall, if you want a not-superhero movie that starts out with a little bit Tony Stark and ends with a little bit Clark Kent, you will most likely enjoy this film.

Review: Force Unleashed & The Dark Knight

Force Unleashed (somewhere else) the book

During the annual video game get together, Saturday after Thanksgiving, I watched some of this video game being played. The graphics are awesome and it looked like you could do a decent amount of stuff as the character. While at the library a few weeks ago, I picked up this book, plus Revenge of the Sith, to read. Force Unleashed takes place between RofT and A New Hope.

I read through Revenge first. Vey had suggested giving it a look, so when I saw it on the shelf, I picked it up. I honestly didn't expect it to be much. The "new" trilogy comes across as very stiff and plot point driven. I didn't feel compelled to like any of the characters, even though I enjoy watching several of the actors. What I discovered about Revenge is that if I tune out the stiff acting and horrible dialogue from the movie, it's a really good story. The author wove in more than the movie did and I actually began to pity Anakin. I felt sorry for Padme, being pregnant and married to a guy who can't seem to really grow up. By the end of the movie, I finally understood what the story should have been, a classic tragedy with Anakin at the heart of it.

With that, I picked up Force Unleashed and dove in head first. Sadly, this book is nowhere near as good as Revenge. Granted, it's based on a video game. I was willing to look beyond that and try to enjoy it, nonetheless. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish this one fast enough. The action sequences from the video game read horribly. The character development is as shallow and stinted as it would be in a video game. There's no real big payoff feeling like there would be from beating a video game. And the video game's story and how it plays into the Star Wars metaplot? meh. Interesting idea, but meh. If you want to experience Force Unleashed, play the video game and skip this book.

Anyone wanting the plot elements that fit into the mythos, let me know and I'll post spoilers.



The Dark Knight
potential for spoilers ahead

I got this one as a Christmas gift. I've only watched it once, so I'm sure I've missed things. It's a very good follow up to Batman Begins. The development of Gordan and Batman's relationship is good. The inclusion of Dent was nice. I would have liked a full movie of him as Dent before the creation of Two Face. Ledger was good as the Joker.

I was surprised at the direction they went with the Joker's personality. He came across as the quiet guy, who finally snaps, instead of the cRAzY mAn I often expect him to be. You know, closer to the '60s tv show version. The portrayal as a quiet, more subdued personality, perhaps more unsecure?, was a great turn and for some reason, a little easier to relate to. This is not to say there was no over the top insanity from Joker, there was. However, there was not a lot of cackling "ha-ha-ha-ha"s. I could have used a few more. Joker definetly upped the ante on what he was willing to do for his cause. That was nice. It wasn't just some random kill people here, blow that building up there. The character was well thought out. There was still some comic book pastiche, but that's to be expected.

I didn't care for the ending with Batman and Gordan's interactions and Batman taking the heat. It felt very forced and just didn't jive with the rest of the movie. I felt it could have been left out. I understand the need to have him outside the law and on the run. After all, we can't have people rooting for a vigilante, now can we?

I wouldn't be surprised in the next movie if they include Gordan's wife moving back to Chicago as part of the plot. They set it up this time, with Two Face's actions.

If you liked Batman Begins, you'll like most of this movie.

War Zone - Spoilers ahead

I went to Punisher War Zone this evening. They got a lot right in this movie, but I also feel there was enough bad to go around. I want to make one statement before I throw in the cut. The cut, because I'm bound to spoil. The statement,

This movie is rated R for strong violence, gore, horrific visuals, swearing (not a lot, really), and an over the top amount of anger (hey, it is Frank. I cannot recommend kids seeing this movie. Nor can I recommend it to people who have trouble with the latest round of Batman movies, Blackhawk Down, or Event Horizon.



What they got right:
Atmosphere of Garth Ennis era, MAX Punisher
Ray did a great job as Frank
Scenery
Camera work
Violence

What they got wrong:
Horrid script
Someone couldn't decide if this was a Marvel Knights movie or Marvel MAX movie
Let's kill a whole bunch of characters from the comic book, thereby making it impossible to include them in the future
Silly comic book bad guy's brother
No Frank Castle War Journal voice over

Discuss:
Right now, an hour after seeing Punisher War Zone, I feel like I enjoyed the movie. Frank's base of operations looked good, I enjoyed the actors that portrayed the mainline characters from the MAX comic. I'll refrain from spoiling all your fun by mentioning who they are. I will say they kill all nearly all of them. The amount of violence, level of violence, the same topics with blood, Frank's seriousness while in combat were all good. Blood is seen, innards are seen, bodies are broken, heads blown off.

Jigsaw's brother was atrocious as a character. His lines were iffy. His actions were often stupid and stank of "supervillainy."

The script sucked. It really was horrible. I think one of the problems was they couldn't decide if it was a MAX or Marvel Knights movie. During the fight sequences, it was a MAX movie. When it wasn't a fight sequence, it was "a softer side of Sears." I'm all about showing Frank's weaknesses. They didn't do that. Instead, they wrote two scripts, one for The Punisher and one for my mom.

I can now understand why Tom didn't want to do this movie. He may not have liked the ultra-violence or he may not have liked the shitty script. Either way, he made a good decision, as he doesn't fit this Punisher. I'm not putting him down for this, but Tom played a different character.

The first and second movie are ignored.

There is no extra ending after the credits.

I think I was one of the few people in the theatre that laughed as Frank wove his revenge against the bad guys. I'm sure that doesn't say much for my psyche, but The Punisher is my favourite superhero, even if he is an anti-hero. People like will enjoy this movie for what it is - Garth's Punisher if Garth didn't write it.

Quantum of Solace and War Zone

First off, the trailer for Watchmen is showing before QoS in England - but not in my neck of the woods, here across the pond. I'm jealous, but still love my island friends. No really, it's okay. ;)

Anyways, for those of you heading to see Quantum, I have some advice for you. (No worries, no spoilers here.) First of all, it's still the new Bond. No crazy gimmick devices. Sure, I miss Q Division, but not that much. Second, this is a continuation of the story begun in Casino Royale (the movie, not the original story by Ian Fleming). Third, there is a tonne of action in this film. Lots and lots and lots of action. Fourth, the theme song is alright by me.

I enjoyed it. It was, in my mind, not better than Casino Royale. That doesn't bother me. There were some weak points, but I'll not point them out. If you don't notice them, all the better for you, I say.

* * *

Punisher War Zone can come out anyday, now. While I wish TJ was again portraying Frank Castle, I'll settle for a new actor. Can he really be as bad as Lundgren? No, really. The movie looks darker, more nasty in its adjudication of the bad guys. Now, I've honestly not read up on this movie after hearing TJ wouldn't be in it. However, while researching Marvel Comics today, I came across something that made me take note. War Zone is being released by Marvel Knights Pictures. MKP will function the same way that the Marvel Knights comics function. MKP will make movies for mature audiences.

I just hope the movie doesn't tank, as it's been plagued by production delays.

Here's a Still I'm in from the Harvey Putter set. My character and the blonde female's character were Death Editors. That's Lord Moldymort in the front with Smellitrix next to him. Release date for this movie should be 2010.

Vacation Pics

Okay, here are links to the pics. I have yet to write the story that goes with them, but this will get you started...

Ybor City and Shipboard pics

Roatan Island pics from the ship

Roatan Island pics while snorkeling

Belize

Gala Buffet

Formal Night