Just got through watching Angels & Demons, basically filmed as a sequel to the The Da Vinci Code, which was actually the second book written. On the positive side, that means if you missed (or skipped) watching the code, you won’t have trouble following this film in the least.
It carries that rapid pace, oft’ times so difficult to achieve in writing, while creating a very thrilling mystery you just can’t help but watch. The ending is also one that (ofc) shakes the Vatican to its core, and as anyone whose ever watched some Star Trek is likely to recall, what happens when matter makes contact with antimatter is explosive stuff ^_^.
The only thing I can complain about, is that the film gives away the ending well in advance… if you are keen enough to be paying close attention in the first place. A bit of knowledge about psychology, as it impacts the kind of stuff we do over in SAS, also helps a sharp mind to combine inductive and deductive thinking, to narrow the possibilities down quite considerably. That being said, if you didn’t pay close attention, you might be shocked silly at the finale!
Hey, I’m a geek, my attention span has moments of hyper-focus on minute details all day long. Gotta love programming :-P.
Movies
Got to enjoy one of my favourite films, Planes, Trains, & Automobiles. In it’s own way, it’s an extremely well done film. Critically, what can anyone say, but it’s an awfully small world with a lot of ground to cross. Sense of humour required :-P.
Combine the tightest prick this side of Chicago with the worlds most annoying shower curtain salesman, and the inevitable twists of fate, and you’ve got the holiday trip home from hell. Much of the things that go wrong for Neal Page and Del Griffith, you could only choose to laugh at or cry about, if they ever happened to you, which they finally break down laughing on the “Highway”, once things finally go up in flames. It’s just something you’ve gotta sit through and watch to enjoy, while being thankful you’re not these two poor schleppen.
For how little it’s been on air over the past decade, I’ve been very happy to see it on often this past year. The movie also illustrate one of the few things, I actually like about English:
Car Rental Agent: [cheerfully] Welcome to Marathon, may I help you?
Neal: Yes.
Car Rental Agent: How may I help you?
Neal: You can start by wiping that fucking dumb-ass smile off your rosey, fucking, cheeks! Then you can give me a fucking automobile: a fucking Datsun, a fucking Toyota, a fucking Mustang, a fucking Buick! Four fucking wheels and a seat!
Car Rental Agent: I really don’t care for the way you’re speaking to me.
Neal: And I really don’t care for the way your company left me in the middle of fucking nowhere with fucking keys to a fucking car that isn’t fucking there. And I really didn’t care to fucking walk down a fucking highway and across a fucking runway to get back here to have you smile in my fucking face. I want a fucking car RIGHT FUCKING NOW!
Car Rental Agent: May I see your rental agreement?
Neal: I threw it away.
Car Rental Agent: Oh boy.
Neal: Oh boy, what?
Car Rental Agent: You’re fucked!
You can stream together arbitrary amounts of profanity, until you finally calm down lol.
After catching the opening segment three or four times, I’ve finally gotten to watch a classic western. It has about as much to do with historical fact, as my big toe has with rocket propulsion, but never the less it’s a good portrayal.
In a cavern, in a canyon,
Excavating for a mine
Dwelt a miner forty niner,
And his daughter Clementine.Oh my darling, Oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine,
You are lost and gone forever,
Dreadful sorry, Clementine.Light she was and like a fairy,
And her shoes were number nine,
Herring boxes, without topses,
Sandals were for Clementine.Drove she ducklings to the water
Ev’ry morning just at nine,
Stubbed her toe against a splinter,
Fell into the foaming brine.Ruby lips above the water,
Blowing bubbles, soft and fine,
But, alas, I was no swimmer,
So I lost my Clementine.In a corner of the churchyard,
Where the myrtle boughs entwine,
Grow the roses and the posies,
Fertilized by Clementine.Then the miner, forty-niner,
Soon began to peak and pine,
Thought he oughter join his daughter,
Now he’s with his Clementine.In my dreams she still doth haunt me,
Robed in garments soaked in brine;
How in life I used to hug her,
Now she’s dead, and I draw the line.
Like wise followed up with Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and Crimson Tide.
Absolutely moving song
Tonight while waiting for Funny Girl to start on TCM, I overheard a very moving song during the previous movies exit. After all my years, I can’t help but contrast it against the paths that I have crossed, relationships made both in my real life and in the virtual world. It’s rather like listening to a tender memory.
Mmm. Mmm.
Memories, light the corners of my mind
Misty watercolor memories of the way we were.
Scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind
smiles we give to one another
for the way we were.
Can it be that it was all so simple then
or has time rewritten every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again
tell me would we? Could we?
Memories, may be beautiful and yet
what’s too painful to remember
we simply choose to forget
So it’s the laughter we will remember
whenever we remember
the way we were.
In salute of old friends and comrades alike… cica 1996 – 2010.
Things have finally settled a bit, this is perhaps the closest to a proper day off yet: played Raven Shield for a few hours on the [SAS] Proving Grounds, took a break for chores and followed that up with some Quake Live, then went back to the [SAS] Proving Grounds for a couple hours. Then a few rounds of Clan Arena in QL before dinner.
I don’t play much Clan Arena in Quake Live, because it is rarely my `style` in the public servers; maybe more formal matches might be better. CA games basically amount to a round based last team standing form of competition, where everyone starts out with a Mega Health, and virtually all standarded weapons, plus plenty of ammunition; the catch of course being, there are NO power ups, no health kits, no extra ammo. You best have rocket launcher skills as well ^_^. Managed to get in a few good team games, before ending up in a mixture of 2vs2 / 1vs2 games, giving great chance to practice weapons selection and application. I also learned of a spot on one of my training maps, where you can rocket jump over (or camp on top of) a wall. One cool feature of Clan Arena mode, is you can rocket jump freely without taking any damage; it lends itself to a very fast, furious, and high octane form of combat. Although, it often becomes a crazy melee.
For lighting things up a bit, Charles Dickens Great Expectations, and Wanted. The former redefines the expression (from the more modern vernacular), of “Gee, what a small world! While the latter, is a gritty but enjoyable action flick, with some very nice fight scenes—that kid is to fighting ability, what a Terminator is to durability.
A day behind schedule, but I’ve also taken the time to burn a SMGL disk, that I’ll likely setup on my desktop, and experiment with porting code to x86_64, as well as playing Quake Live under Linux. Sourcemage is a GNU/Linux distro, that I actually found when Googling for some git operation lead me to their wiki; it also looks like a distro on par with my tastes. I was smiling the other night, when I read a section header in the install docs, about knowing thy `compiler`, until I realized it said `computer`, and my glasses really needed a cleaning lol.
Wew it’s been a jumpin’ hopin’ day!
I was up all night fiddling with Code::Blocks and Stargella, plus work this morning, and ideas for an interesting project. However it’s a project that would call for C++, and I hate C++, lol. I like C, but hate C++… funny. On the upside, I’ve finally gotten Stargella builds sorted out, and I’m tempted some what to hunt down and eliminate ‘itches’ here and there, but I’m not sure whether or not patches would be welcomed for some things that seem to be, to be good ideas. They’ve accrued a fair number of open patches and bug reports, so I don’t think it’s a highly active project. The code base is only about sixty some thousand lines, not to big for all it does.
Sigh, nothing but work on the horizon o/. At least there’s something on TV tonight that I haven’t seen before, the original Night of the Living Dead. Geeze, what is it with all the zombie flicks lately? Compared to what I’ve seen of the remake (beginning / last half), it certainly has a more spirited beginning, bah I need some pop corn lol. I’ve no idea ottomh what they filmed it in, but it does give an interesting feel to the movie, different then most contemporary films of the era.
Marley & Me
Tonight I was watching a movie called Marley & Me. The films an excellent glimpse into what life can be like, for anyone who hasn’t bee living with their head so far up their arse to notice 8=) It’s about a couple of newly weds, who trade the winter for a warmer location in Ft. Lauderdale, south Florida. In order to stave off his wife’s plans for a family for a few years, journalist John Grogan springs an early birthday present on his wife Jenny: they adapt a yellow Labrador Retriever, the clearance puppy. While successful in his intentions, Johns plan backfires when young Marley proves to be one of the worlds most hyper destructive dogs, yet too much of a lovable lug to just get rid of anytime soon. The movie charts a course that I would call “A slice of paradise” with all of it’s pitfalls to go along with it. Marley & Me follows the lives of the Grogan family, and dear but incorrigible Marley, If you love dogs, you’ll love Marley, if the exact opposite is true, well you’ll be relieved not to be in such deep doggy waters >_>. I love animals, always have and likely always will; having dogs, I can also be sympathetic to the whole ruckus caused by Marley. Hmm, for some reason I can’t help but remember a dog named Milo, that I used to help look after years ago as part of this business; he too failed obedience school (horribly lol).
For me, I would say it is fair to say that I feel a bit of a personal connection with this film. Fort Lauderdale is the city that I grew up in as a child, so Broward county is a name I’d know anywhere, and the news paper in South Florida, is also one that my parents used to deliver for… it’s a small world, isn’t it? Even closer to home then that, their first sons name, Patrick was also the name of one of my elder brothers: most people that know me fairly well, also know that I have an older brother but there’s more to my families history then that. In short, my brothers Reese and Patrick were twins, but only Reese survived. My father also had a son, long before I was born, but Jeffery never quite made it into this world :'(. Whatever the afterlife holds, one thing that I have always hoped, is that someday I’ll see us all together in heaven.
As everything must someday, life on earth eventually comes to an end, and Marley is no exception to that rule. Years role on, and take their toll: Marley grows old, as we all will some day. The ending is very sad, but I would have to say that he had a very good life, and it was one full of much chewing too ;). I think that perhaps, this line from the film sums up best what it’s like to have someone like that in your life:
John Grogan:
A dog has no use for fancy cars, big homes, or designer clothes. A water log stick will do just fine. A dog doesn’t care if your rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he’ll give you his. How many people can you say that about? How many people can make you feel rare and pure and special? How many people can make you feel extraordinary?
If anyone can watch Marley & Me, and take the ending without drawing a tear along the way: I truly feel sorry for any animals in that persons care.
We all have people in our lives, animals as well, that are such an integral part of our life, of every thing that makes it worth living. You can’t hope for more then that.
There was nothing on TV, that I haven’t seen a gazillion-times, so I ended up catching the last hour and a half of Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet while waiting for AVPR to come on. While Romeo and Juliet is one of my favourite articles of Shakespeare, I’ve avoided watching R+J for years: the attempt at mixing a modern setting with the classic dialog, just makes me scratch my head and wonder what on earth they were thinking lol.
While much of the setting (but not the poetry) is fairly easy to translate to the 1990s, not everything quiet an fit so well; not to mention being condensed!
I feel that Lord Capulet’s commandment for Juliet to marry Paris, would simply be lost on a modern audience; at least in the States. Not only is arranged marriage simply not done, Capulet’s order would nether hold in court of law nor communal practice here; in a modern setting, it would also have effectively solved all but the family feud!
CAPULET
Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face:
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;
My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest
That God had lent us but this only child;
But now I see this one is one too much,
And that we have a curse in having her:
Out on her, hilding!
— Act III, Scene V of the play; as rendered in my archived copy.
Friar Laurences use of a postal service was a nice touch, but the ending was somewhat “Lacking”, perhaps I’m just spoiled? The only good thing I can say, is they were so kind as to censor Juliets death—should we say that an ACP round to the temple is likely to be a lot messier then a dagger! I really don’t care uch for the film, just not my cup of tea. Since the goal was to pass time until Aliens versus Predator Requiem came on (which is closer to my style), I suppose that was a success :/. Alternatives would have been Tremors or the Last Action Hero; all of which I have seen much of over the past couple years.
I still remember the first time I read Shakespeare’s play, a good friend had recommended it as a potential source for inspiration. While it yielded none, it was however a good read; Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet are two of my favourites. I have however, never cared for any of the film renditions of Hamlet. And quite purposefully, I’m not familiar with any of the formal adoptions of R&J to the big screen.
BENVOLIO
Why, Romeo, art thou mad?
ROMEO
Not mad, but bound more than a mad-man is;
Shut up in prison, kept without my food,
Whipp’d and tormented and–God-den, good fellow.
— Act I, Scene II
Chuckle of the day, 2009-09-13
Lucas entered into a wager with long-time friend Steven Spielberg during the production of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Lucas was sure Close Encounters would outperform the yet-to-be-released Star Wars at the box office and bet 2.5% of the proceeds of each film against each other. Lucas lost the bet and to this day Spielberg is still receiving proceeds from the first of the Star Wars movies.
— source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Episode_IV:_A_New_Hope
nights log
So far it has been a fairly uneventful night. I’ve been contemplating taking up another language, I’m interested in both Latin and Spanish, but have started studying neither yet. Mathematically, I would have to favour Spanish… because shall we say, while exposure to Spanish is fairly easy for me, Latin is a bit of a dead language! Really the only languages of value out here, is what *passes* for English, and of course Mexican / Puerto Rican dialects of Spanish. Considering the simpler grammar, studying Spanish in the long run: might also help to improve my German, which is useless at the compositional level, but occasionally handy at the reading level. I think the entire world would agree though, that I should work on improving my English skills, or at least stop the mixture of US/UK elements.
For time passing, I setup sudo on my laptop; had done it some years back, when I was running PC-BSD, but haven’t used it since an updated overwrote my sudoers file, as I had forgotten to backup /usr/local/etc. I knew that PC-BSD was taking ownership of /etc/rc.local and making overwriting changes to sudoers, but didn’t use sudo enough to care lol. That’s one thing that has always pissed me off about PC-BSD, yet I have always respected about the *real* BSD projects: a concept of user edited files. You can play with /etc/rc.local and /etc/rc.conf on FreeBSD without getting biten, on PC-BSD you should use an rc.conf.local file: OpenBSD style. I’m always running the latest FreeBSD STABLE branch on the laptop, in this case RELENG_7, and anxious to see RELENG_8 become a practical reality. Heh, even on the OpenBSD box (which as sudo preinstalled) I don’t bother using sudo that much. What I like about sudo however, is the ability to skip ‘su – root’, and limit access in a more general way—to specific commands. It’s probably one of the best programs of its kind written, since su.
In getting playful, I split up my word lists (:help spellfile) in vim, into smaller organized chunks, and added a few more entries from FreeBSDs system dictionaries. As time goes on, I might expand things further, based on the kinds of texts I end up editing. All of my text editing is basically done in vim, so it also does most of my spell checkin’ by virtue of that. Of course, Vi IMproved has an excellent spell checker, and perhaps the only one I’ve met that could be considered superior to MS Words. While I utterly hate word processors, and find them to be useless paper weights; I generally consider Microsoft Word the best known example of spell checking lol. I’m happy to say though, that I’ve evolved somewhat in the past eleven or twelve years ;). Now if only I could do something about the having-to-type-as-fast-as-i-can-freaking-think-problem, maybe my writing might actually be worth something, someday lol.
The ‘Burbs was on TV, and coming on in a little bit is a good film that I really haven’t seen in a long time. It’s called Throw Momma from the Train, best described as a comedic remake of Strangers on a Train. I plan to log off, lay down, and try to relax for a bit…. hopefully relax. Probably will try to dig up another quick snack, something light but useful.
The internet connection has been offline for the last couple hours, first found out it was up when an instant message popped up on me mid-sentence! Hmm, got about 10 minutes until the movie starts, so it’s time tos tart winding down. I’ll probably be awake early tomorrow, assuming I get any sleep before work….. sigh.