July 31, 2004

The Village

Before you spend your money on this movie, be aware that the actual movie is not at all like it is portrayed in the previews. It is not a horror movie, it’s not a monster movie. Most of the “jump out and scare you” parts of the movie are already shown in the previews. The movie has a slow pace, and is in no way an action movie.

The movie starts very slowly, and it’s quite a while into it before anything scary happens as you see in the previews. The suspense and horror of this movie are much more subtle than many “in your face” horror movies, which is why all of the teenagers walking out of the theater were saying how much it sucked. From the previews you expect a scary monster movie and it’s just not that kind of movie at all.

However I enjoy this type of movie much more than gross-out horror movies like Scream and others. They use cheap scares where the bad guy is constantly popping out of some bushes along with a scary moment in the soundtrack. Then he murders the victim and gallons of blood pour onto the ground. Please… Talk about predictable. Scream actually makes fun of how predictable and formulaic horror movies are.

But back to The Village… I personally think it is the mark of a good script and director when he can actually make you fear something as simple as a color. Music is also used to create suspense like many other movies, but in much less quantity than most. Instead he uses simple colors and other signs that something may be about to happen.

That said, I did figure out the movie about half of the way through it, which kind of spoiled the suspense. I felt like he dumbed down the movie too much, to appeal to a more mainstream audience. Namely, there are voice-overs used throughout the movie that basically point out every little detail and nuance of the story, mostly eliminating any mystery or suspense that the movie had. If he had omitted these voice-overs, I think it would have been more of a mystery in the end. There were a few other things that really gave the plot away, but I still enjoyed the movie since I could see what he was trying to do. And there are still scares in the movie, during one scene several girls in the sold-out audience actually screamed out loud, which I’ve never heard in a movie before. Maybe she appreciated the subtleness of the suspense as well. :)

Rating: 4/5

Now for the spoilers… Stop reading if you haven’t seen this movie. Seriously.

I had a feeling that the movie was set in the present day about the time Ivy was taken to the “forbidden shed” and it was made clear that “those that we do not speak of” were a farce. I had a few thoughts that that might be a possibility before, as that would be the only real twist that M. Night could throw in there, but it was all but confirmed around that time.

However, though I figured out the movie, I still enjoyed it. I’ve frequently imagined what it would be like if a child was raised in an environment like that from birth. And I think that was the main point of the movie, and what M. Night was trying to explore more than anything. And that aspect of the movie is what I really enjoyed. The children were completely cut off from the outside world, and for all they knew they were in the year 1890 something. They behaved, minded their parents, did their chores, etc. But the “elders” still couldn’t shield them from the pain of loss, and from crime and jealousy. It’s just built-in to human nature I suppose. So anyway, though the actual movie could have been better, I still enjoyed the thought behind the story.

And in case you didn’t completely figure out the story yourself, Mr. Walker, the leader/teacher of the village, is the one who had the idea to start The Village. His father was terribly wealthy, so he used the money he inherited from his death to pay off the government to keep them from flying over the animal preserve. And he actually setup the preserve and built the fence as well, which is why it’s called Walker Animal Reserve. The villagers never created weapons and stood up to the creatures because obviously, the creatures were the elders. Lucious wasn’t as afraid of the creatures as the other kids because he was the only one that was alive when the Village was formed, as noted in the picture of his mother holding him in front of the counseling center.

July 28, 2004

Something’s Gotta Give

Does it make me some kind of sissy if I laughed a lot at this movie, and actually enjoyed it? I mean after all, it’s a romantic comedy with… old people? At least when you watch romantic comedies with young people in them you can tell your buddies that the actress in the movie is hot so it wasn’t so bad. I mean Diane Keaton, while still very attractive for a woman over 40 or 50 or however old she is, just isn’t someone you’d rave about to your buddies.

But of course, Grumpy Old Men, and Grumpier Old Men are two of my favorite movies of all time as well. And they feature old, grumpy people. Perhaps I relate to these older characters because I’m already somewhat of a grumpy old man myself, even though I’m only 22. You could ask any of my friends or my wife… I have a pretty solid reputation for being a grumpy old man that wants to chase the kids off my lawn with a shotgun most of the time.

Anyway, back to the movie. Story is good, characters are great, dialogue is good, acting is excellent, etc. You’ll probably hate it if you’re young, or not married, so don’t bother. If you’re older and/or married, you’ll probably enjoy it. I’m pretty sure my mom would be in hysterics if she saw it. So recommend it to your parents to watch or something, if you happen to still be in college or younger.

Gees, I’m never going to live this one down… :)

Rating: 4/5 I didn’t give it 5/5 because that would just be too much of a sissy thing to do! :)

July 26, 2004

Gothika

Before Halle Berry was bouncing her boobs around in a leather cat suit, she was bouncing her boobs around in a white t-shirt as a brilliant/crazy psychologist in the movie Gothika. I just got around to watching the movie last night, and while it’s not as bad as I imagine Catwoman to be, it wasn’t her best film either. I mean, at least in Swordfish and Monster’s Ball you got to actually see her boobs (Link is Not Safe For Work).

The rest of this review contains potential spoilers…

But in case you don’t want to read them, my overall rating is 3/5. Some things in the movie just don’t add up, and I wasn’t really satisfied with the ending.

Some things just don’t add up in this movie. Presumably Halle’s character kills her husband Doug because she is possessed by Rachel Parsons, the girl that her husband raped and tortured. If this ghost-girl has the power to possess Halle and make her kill someone, why does she spend the rest of the movie simply scaring the shit our of her instead? Why does she throw her around the cell, and slash her arms instead of just possessing her again and having her walk out of the prison that way? Or by attacking all of the guards in the place and helping her escape. Or actually, why didn’t the ghost girl just kill Doug herself? She later cuts and attacks Halle in prison, so why doesn’t she just attack Doug and the Sheriff herself? Instead she scares Halle over and over until she finally gets the clue and breaks out of prison to figure out what this girl wants. The story is a bit like The 6th Sense now that I think about it. She sees dead people, and has the help them right the wrong that caused them to be killed.

Both Halle and Penelope Cruz do a pretty good job of playing crazy people, though Halle is a little irritating at times. She keeps saying she’s not crazy, but then she’s constantly acting like a crazy person! She freaks out, she’s violent, she goes into crying fits, etc. Admittedly she’s being haunted by a slashed up ghost girl, but still… If she wanted to appear sane, you would think she would be able to considering only a few days before she was the one diagnosing and treating these people.

It also would have been fun if there were more clues as to what actually happened, rather than them just springing it on you at the end. Most psychological thrillers give you clues at the beginning that make you go “oh yeah…” at the end of the movie, but for me, there wasn’t really any clues that I noticed. You just find out that this seemingly normal guy likes to lock up girls in his basement and torture them. But perhaps this was done so that we are as confused as Halle was about what could have happened, and why she would have killed her husband.

I also don’t get the ending… How is she all of the sudden released from prison? Demon Possession or no, she violently murdered her husband, attacked several guards, broke out of prison, then killed the sheriff! There were no witnesses to her killing the sheriff, and considering everyone thought she was crazy, why didn’t they assume that she murdered the sheriff, rather than killing him in self defense? And why was she alone with the sheriff anyway? Shouldn’t there be a guard or at least some other personnel in a police station besides the sheriff and a prisoner? Where was the FBI that was supposed to be taking over the investigation? Had they just not arrived yet? Why was Chloe released from prison as well? She slit her step-father’s throat, and was then released from prison all of the sudden? Maybe her sentence just happened to be up. And I guess Halle could have got off with temporary insanity since she was possessed or whatever. So it sort of makes sense, but they never really explain anything for sure. Then they set you up for the sequel at the end by making her see another ghost of a kid that has been reported missing. Whoopty doo. I hope they leave the I’m-a-ghost-and-I-need-help type movies to M. Night Shyamalan in the future.

Rating: 3/5

Apple eMac for Sale

Sold!!

I have put my 1ghz Apple eMac up for sale on eBay. It’s set at buy it now for $700, or less than that for bidding of course. Shipping is $46 with insurance, since it’s a 63lb. box.

It’s my first auction on ebay, so I don’t have any feedback, but if you regular this blog you know who I am anyway. :)

It’s a great little machine, I just upgraded to a dual G5 and don’t need this one anymore.

Bid on the eMac at eBay

July 25, 2004

The Bourne Supremacy

One interesting thing about this movie is that there isn’t really catch-phrase, a fancy theme song, a super-duper-action-star type lead character, mind bending special effects, etc. Basically there is no gimmick. It’s not like Mission Impossible which depends on its huge star and well-known franchise name to do well. It’s not like the Matrix which relies on multi-million dollar special effects to get people to come in the theater. It’s not like I, Robot which relies on an established science fiction franchise to draw interest. It’s just a plain old, damn good spy/assassin movie.

The pace is fast and constant, really never letting you catch your breath as you watch Mr. Bourne outrun the bad dudes. I haven’t really felt such an intense movie in a while. Most action movies have a few tense scenes, but in The Bourne Supremacy I felt pretty tense the entire time. There are a few laughs, a few gasps, but mostly it’s just car chases, boat chases, foot chases, and Jason Bourne outwitting all the silly CIA operatives.

The one thing that was kind of iffy about the movie is the cinemaphotography… During the fight scenes and car chase scenes, the camera is always focused very closely on the subject, rather than giving you more of an overview. The camera is also very shaky and blurry, so it can be difficult to tell what is really going on. However this also may be one thing that contributes to the edge-of-your seat feel of the movie since you really don’t know what is going on sometimes. Or maybe they were trying to make you feel more like what Bourne was actually seeing and doing. It’s just something I noticed, which could be counted as a knock against the movie since I really shouldn’t be thinking about the cinemaphotography.

But overall I thought it was a really fun movie and I liked it a lot.

Rating: 5/5

Nice Chattanooga area Movie Theater

I live about 15 minutes from Tennessee’s largest mall, the Hamilton Place Shopping center. There are 3 movie theaters in the area, which I have been going to for several years. You have the one in the mall that is always packed, expensive, and you have to wind your way through all the teenage kids loitering outside. Then there is Wynnsong theaters across the street, which doesn’t have quite the same loitering problem since it’s not in the mall, but is still always crowded. Then there is the “cheap theater” that is only a couple of dollars, but there are lots of kids there too since it’s cheap. Plus the theaters are filthy, the floors are sticky, the chairs are broken, the sound sucks, the film is dirty and has hair and dust all over it, and the entire place smells like a locker room. Literally. But hey, it’s only a couple of bucks, right?

Anyway, thanks to my friend Kevin I recently went to another movie theater in Cleveland, about 18 minutes away. This theater is brand new, has very steep stadium seating so you’re sure to have a good view, the largest screens I’ve seen in a non-IMAX theater, nice seats with a headrest, no sticky floors, no odor, good sound, etc. Plus it’s $.50 cheaper than everywhere else in town ($5.00 for matinee, $7.00 for a later showing). So if you live around Hamilton Place, consider going to the one in Cleveland instead. I highly recommend it. I’ve seen 3 movies there in the past two weeks because I don’t have to deal with the hassles of going to the crowded Hamilton Place area, and it’s cheaper and nicer. Before I went to this place I only saw a movie every few months because I just hate dealing with the Hamilton Place area.

Their show times aren’t on movies.yahoo.com or anything, so you’ll have to go to www.uecmovies.com to check for show times.

July 21, 2004

Damn you, Internet Explorer, Damn you to Hell

I have all but decided not to use CSS for layouts for the next few years until IE gets its act together and actually supports half the things that other browsers like Firefox and Safari have supported for years.

Over the past couple of years I’ve tried to learn as much about web standards and CSS as I can, and have promoted it heavily to every web designer I encountered. I consider myself to be pretty knowledgeable with CSS (this site not being a great example), but I am increasingly running into more and more and more problems when trying to use CSS exclusively for laying out web sites. 99% of these problems come from Internet Explorer, but almost 99% of the internet uses that bastard of a browser, so they don’t see the site as it was intended.

Specifically I’m running into a ton of problems with 3 column layouts in CSS. It drives me nuts. Things get bumped to the bottom of the page, overflow, overlap each other, etc. This stuff just doesn’t happen with tables.

Now I’m not considering going back to 1995 and coding with all nested tables and font tags, not at all. But I am strongly considering doing all of my sites with a basic table for the layout structure, and using CSS for fonts, colors, padding, margins, etc. Especially on 3 column sites like the one that’s giving me problems now.

I know I could fix the problems I’m having, but it would take hours of research and searching for the latest hacks and IE quirks that have to be worked around. These hours could instead be spent by adding features to the site that people will actually notice, or adding more content, or doing more marketing. And really, how many users are going to care if the site is in 100% CSS, or a single table and CSS for the rest? I’m guessing the only people that care are a very small group of anal web designers who make up perhaps .3% of the entire internet population. And frankly I don’t think those people are included in the target audience for any site I’ve ever worked on.

So really, what is to be gained by wasting hours and hours of extra work by making this site work in CSS? I get to display a silly little gif badge on the page saying it’s valid xHTML Strict? Whoopdee doo! And the code size will only be increased by a few bytes. It’s not going to take that much code to make a very simple 3 column table. So instead, it frees up many hours that I can use to add new sections to the site which will generate more interest in the site, I can spend more time marketing the site, I can spend more time doing graphics for the site, I can spend more time posting content to the site, etc.

I still think CSS is great, and saves a ton of time in the long-run, but for some sites like sites with 3 column layouts, it can be more trouble than it’s worth in my opinion. For simple 2 column layouts, etc. I may still use 100% CSS because that’s a lot easier to deal with, but for complex e-commerce and informational web sites, it’s just a lot of wasted time in my opinion. Does that make me a bad web designer? Or am I just being realistic? I mean I’m not getting paid insane amounts of money like Zeldman and other web standards advocates that can spend days fixing an obscure layout bug in IE4.0. I‘m down in the trenches where price is a major selling point. Clients want their sites cheap and fast. They don’t care about web standards, and their customers don’t care about web standards. they just want you to press the buttons for them and get their site online so they can start achieving whatever the goal is for their web site. So do I choose being anal about web standards, spending much more time on development, have to charge more to the client and possibly lose the job because I’ve overcharged? Or do I swallow my pride, fire up Dreamweaver, spit out a site in a few days that still meets or exceeds client expectations, save the client some money, get paid faster, etc? The choice seems obvious to me.

July 18, 2004

I, Robot

I hadn’t heard much about this movie going into it, other than the teaser trailer from a few months ago advertising the NS5 as your new home companion. I generally try to avoid watching previews for movies, because I think they ruin the plot of the movie by summarizing the entire script into 2 minutes. What’s the point in watching the whole movie after you already know everything that happens?

Anyway, I didn’t go into the movie with any expectations of it being good or bad, though the chances of it being bad were high, because futuristic movies are easy to make cheesy and unbelievable. I haven’t read any of Isaac Asimov’s books, but I used to read a lot of other science fiction books, so I’m pretty familiar with the general plots they use.

Only a few minutes into the movie, you are treated with a shot of Will Smith’s ass. I don’t really see how this shot was entirely necessary, because he was standing in the shower, but there was no shower curtain. Who takes a shower with no shower curtain? But if you always wanted to see Will Smith’s Ass, go see this movie!

I thought the story was good, and though it predictably involved the end of the world and the en-slavery of mankind, there were enough twists to keep it interesting. It exposes you to some interesting ideas of what the future could be like, and possible moral dilemmas that will have to be faced as robotics and artificial intelligence progress to the state they are shown in the movie. And according to the film, this will all happen by 2035. At first I thought this would be impossible, but then I thought about what was going on in the 1970’s, and how far we’ve come since then, and it seems a lot more likely. However, all the cars fly in the movie, and the entire infrastructure of the cities have changed, which I think will be the biggest challenge. There are still people buying used cars from the 1970’s today, and those cars just wouldn’t be possible in the infrastructure and roads depicted in the movie. But perhaps since everything is made by robots and they don’t use gas, cars are much cheaper in the future.

The animation of the robots was extremely good I thought, especially the human-like facial animation of the main robot Sonny. The other special effects were top-notch as well, and in fact so good that I didn’t even think about them. Many times in movies I note the special effects and think how good or bad they were, but in this one they blended into the physical aspect of the world so well that I didn’t even pay any attention to them, which is what special effects try to achieve, so congratulations to the special effects team.

The very end of the movie is a little puzzling, as I don’t really know what is supposed to happen, but I won’t go into details because I don’t want to ruin the movie. I can’t really tell if they’re trying to set it up for a sequel, or simply leaving the ending of the movie up to your imagination.

Overall the movie was great. Good story, great effects, and surprisingly, quite a lot of laughs.

Rating: 5/5

My new G5

When I placed the order for my G5, Eric at Apple Sales assured me that it would be here by Friday, and he was correct. So I took half the day off from work so I could be here when the FedEx man arrived, and would have more time to play with the new machine and wouldn’t have to wait until 6:00pm to see it!

It was here when I got home, so after running around in circles and giggling like a little school girl for a few minutes, I opened the box and got everything setup. Here are a few pictures of my setup as it is now:

In the top picture you can see my eMac which I’m still selling, my 19” Mitsubishi Monitor, Klipsch speakers, etc.

The second pic obviously shows the pretty little G5.

And in the last one you can see the G5, my external LaCie 160gb Hard Drive, the Subwoofer for the speakers, my battery backup, the EyeTV, etc.

Setup

Setup was of course a breeze… I just unboxed it and plugged in my MX700 wireless mouse, the USB hub, power cord, keyboard, etc. It came with a DVI -> VGA adapter so that I could use my CRT out of the box. One thing that was kind of limiting was having only 2 USB ports on the back. That pretty much only leaves room for the keyboard and mouse, though usually you’d plug the mouse into the keyboard I suppose. But luckily I had a USB hub already, so it wasn’t a problem. Before I hooked it up I just had to pull the latch on the back and pull down the side door to see the insides of the machine, and man, it is the most beautiful computer innards I’ve ever seen. There are no cords hanging all over the place, everything is just where it’s supposed to be. Everything is easy to access and can be inter-changed by only pulling a lever. Truly amazing.

Speed

In comparison to my eMac and Powerbook, well, there is no comparison. This is one speedy computer. All programs respond instantly, even Garageband, iPhoto, etc. I haven’t spent much time in Photoshop or Dreamweaver yet, but the time I have spent with them, they seem very responsive and fast.

I ripped a DVD, and when compressing the video to fit on a CD, it was going at around 1.8x, almost twice as fast as real-time. On the eMac it usually compresses the video at around .7x or .8x. So instead of taking all night to compress, it only takes a couple of hours. Compressing the audio for a feature-length movie took about 9 minutes, whereas on the eMac it usually takes 25 minutes.

The “xBench”http://xbench.com/ scores for the G5 were around 201, whereas on my powerbook they were under 100. And during the G5 testing I had Safari, Mail, iChat, iTunes, and Quicksilver open.

Needless to say, this machine is really fast and is worth every penny.

Halo is quick and good looking. I can run it at 1280 x 1024 with no skipping frames at all. It’s very smooth and fluid. Doom 3 will be a different story of course, but for anything less than that, this machine smokes.

If you’re looking for a Mac and already have a screen or don’t mind purchasing a Cinema Display or a cheap CRT, this is the Mac to get if you can afford it. The G5 is on a totally different level than the G4’s in the other Macs, plus you have the option to upgrade the machine that just isn’t that possible with the eMacs and iMacs.

July 15, 2004

Claustrophobic Feet

I have claustrophobia of the feet.

What does this mean? I’m not sure exactly. I’m quite sure it’s not a real medical condition or anything, and most people are probably annoyed by it.

For instance, I just bought new shoes and socks, and the shoes aren’t broken in yet, and the socks are sewn poorly at the toes so that they bunch up. Put these two together and you have some very tight, uncomfortable, and unforgiving footwear! I had my old shoes for about 3 years, some shell-toe Adidas low-tops. I had the same problem with them in the beginning, but after three years of “breaking them in”, they were very loose and flexible in all the right places. I also stopped tying them and would instead just tuck the laces under my feet inside the shoe. This made for quick and easy on/off, but there wasn’t much support, and my feet had plenty of room to breathe this way.

But with my new shoes, I have to tie them, and all of the padding is still “fluffy” so they fit my feet very tightly. And since they aren’t broken in yet they don’t give me much flex when I walk or sit in my office. This makes me feel like my feet are set in concrete because I can’t wiggle my toes or shift around in my shoes, and it makes me very uncomfortable.

I don’t freak out or anything, it’s just noticeable to me and distracting. So right now I’m sitting in my office at work with my shoes off, until I wear them enough to break them in and they are comfortable again.

Has anyone else ever experienced this new shoe foot claustrophobia? Or am I just a weidro? I think my wife thinks I’m just a weirdo. :)

July 12, 2004

Dude, you’re getting a G5

I woke up Sunday morning and thought to myself “Hm, I wonder if I’d qualify for an Apple loan today?”*. So I filled out the online approval form, and wonder of wonders, I was approved. So my next thought was, “Hm. Now that Apple has given me all of this money to spend, I should probably buy something!”. So I went to the Apple site and started looking around as if it had been my first visit to the site. Things look a lot different when you actually have a chance of buying them! I skimmed past the iMacs, as they aren’t much faster than the eMac I have now, plus there will be a new one coming out in September. I already have a Powerbook, so the Powerbooks and iBooks were out. I already had the eMac and it’s too slow. So, that left me with the G5! My credit line was for $2,000, so that was also my budget. The cheapest new G5 is currently $1,999 for a dual 1.8ghz G5 with only 256mb of RAM and a 80gb hard drive. That is just silly for a machine of that speed. 256mb of RAM for a dual processor G5? How silly!

So I next set my eyes on the Apple refurbished store, where they feature computers that have been returned, or damaged and later repaired. They have all of the same warranties as a brand new machine, and they are eligible for Apple Care as well. And some say you actually have a better chance of getting a good machine because you know they have been personally inspected, whereas brand new machines coming off the line may only be checked for quality every 10 or so machines. (that number is a guess, I have no idea how the quality control process works) The refurbished store showed me a shiny new dual G5 1.8ghz machine with 512mb RAM and a 160gb hard drive. It’s twice the machine as the brand new one, and for only $1,799! I think this is because it is a “Revision B” machine, whereas the new 1.8ghz machine is a “Revision C” machine.

I added the machine to my shopping cart quickly because while I was shopping around on the Apple store, the 1.6ghz G5 disappeared! I didn’t want my machine to disappear before I could buy it, so I went ahead and added it to the cart. But when I did, it said that it would be shipping in 30 days! This was obviously not acceptable, because I am not a patient person when it comes to waiting for new Macs to arrive at my house. So I called the Apple store and spoke with Eric, who assured me that it would ship on Monday! I went ahead and completed the order through Eric at the Apple store, because he said he got a commission and begged me to let him place the order for me. After he looked up my loan number, he gave me my order number, and sent my new beast of a Mac right to my door!

It should be shipping out today, and will arrive on Friday, as it’s coming ground from Sacramento.

I will be plugging it into my new 19” Mitsubishi CRT monitor, which I’ve been using as a second-monitor for my Powerbook. I’ll post pictures of “the Opening” for the 2 of you that would like to see it.

So, now that I have the King of All Computers on the way, I will be putting my eMac up for sale. I’ll post it here to see if there is any interest before throwing it up on eBay for the masses. I’ll post details and pictures of the eMac soon, but in case there is any early interest, it’s a 1ghz G4 with 256mb of RAM, 80gb hard drive, CD-RW, all original cables, the original box, manuals, etc. It’s in perfect condition. I’ll throw in iLife ‘04 as well (the boxed version). I’d like to get $675 out of it, but if someone makes a reasonable offer it won’t necessarily be refused.

*Actually, my wife and I were talking about selling my iPod and buying a 40gb one because my music won’t fit on my 10gb one anymore, and she suggested I try to apply for an Apple loan. I didn’t think I would be approved, because I wasn’t approved the last time I tried, but I did anyway because I always do what she says. :) So, thanks honey! Hope you don’t regret making the suggestion!

July 09, 2004

The Butterfly Effect

I was interested in seeing this movie when I first saw the previews, as it looked like a pretty decent idea for a psychological thriller, and I thought it would be interesting to see Ashton Kutcher try a dramatic role, rather than his usual over-the-top physical comedy as seen on That 70’s Show and just about every other show he’s ever been on. I skipped it in the theater though, mainly because I have Netflix and wait for most stuff to come out on DVD.

Overall I really enjoyed the movie and thought it was one of the better ones I have seen recently. Ashton does a great job in the more dramatic and serious role in my opinion, only showing his “70’s” character a few times. The younger versions of Ashton were also done well and were convincing as a “younger Ashton”. They even had the same hairstyle, which is probably unrealistic, but I imagine they did it so you could more easily relate to the character in the past and present.

I found the story to be entertaining and it did a good job of keeping you guessing and making you feel as confused and hopeless as the character was.

There were a couple of inconsistencies in the story, but again, if you don’t try to overanalyze it, it’s easy to overlook them and just enjoy the movie.

If you like psychological thrillers I would definitely recommend renting this film, as long as you aren’t one of those movie-critic-types that overanalyze everything and suck all the fun out of movies.

5/5 Stars

July 07, 2004

Gmail - Fun while it lasted

I’m switching all my email back to the IMAP accounts on my server, and using Apple Mail to check my email again. For the past 3 days Gmail has been terribly unreliable for me, on multiple computers. Messages weren’t being moved, I had to click the send button 5 or 10 times before it would finally send the message, and many times I just couldn’t login at all. I get a message telling me that Gmail is unavailable, and to cross my fingers and try again in a few minutes.

I haven’t heard reports of this very much elsewhere, so maybe it is just the server that they put my account on or something.

Granted this is of course still a Beta period for the service, and I’m sure it says somewhere in Google’s use policy that it is beta and you should expect downtime and so forth, so they’ll probably iron-out the issues eventually, but for now I just need to check my email whenever I want, not whenever the servers are up and running.

I still think Gmail is great, feature-wise, and will definitely miss the super fast searching of old messages, but searching your messages slowly is better than not being able to access them at all, don’t you think?

I also haven’t received anymore Gmail Invites in a couple weeks, maybe they’re having load balancing issues so they’ve stopped inviting people, and are trying to improve the speed and reliability.

July 05, 2004

Top-grossing movies

From Erik… How many of the top-grossing movies of all time have you seen? I haven’t seen the ones in bold. Hm, I watch a lot of movies… :)

1. Titanic (1997) – $600,779,824
2. Star Wars (1977) – $460,935,665
3. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) – $434,949,459
4. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) – $431,065,444
5. Spider-Man (2002) – $403,706,375
6. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) – $377,019,252
7. Passion of the Christ, The (2004) – $370,025,697
8. Jurassic Park (1993) – $356,784,000
9. Shrek 2 (2004) – $356,211,000
10. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) – $340,478,898
11. Finding Nemo (2003) – $339,714,367
12. Forrest Gump (1994) – $329,691,196
13. Lion King, The (1994) – $328,423,001
14. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) – $317,557,891
15. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) – $313,837,577
16. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) – $310,675,583
17. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) – $309,125,409
18. Independence Day (1996) – $306,124,059
19. Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) – $305,411,224
20. Sixth Sense, The (1999) – $293,501,675
21. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) – $290,158,751
22. Home Alone (1990) – $285,761,243
23. Matrix Reloaded, The (2003) – $281,492,479
24. Shrek (2001) – $267,652,016
25. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) – $261,970,615
26. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) – $260,031,035
27. Jaws (1975) – $260,000,000
28. Monsters, Inc. (2001) – $255,870,172
29. Batman (1989) – $251,188,924
30. Men in Black (1997) – $250,147,615
31. Toy Story 2 (1999) – $245,823,397
32. Bruce Almighty (2003) – $242,589,580
33. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) – $242,374,454
34. Twister (1996) – $241,700,000
35. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) – $241,437,427
36. Ghost Busters (1984) – $238,600,000
37. Beverly Hills Cop (1984) – $234,760,500
38. Cast Away (2000) – $233,630,478
39. Lost World: Jurassic Park, The (1997) – $229,074,524
40. Signs (2002) – $227,965,690
41. Rush Hour 2 (2001) – $226,138,454
42. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) – $219,200,000
43. Ghost (1990) – $217,631,306
44. Aladdin (1992) – $217,350,219
45. Saving Private Ryan (1998) – $216,119,491
46. Mission: Impossible II (2000) – $215,397,30
47. X2 (2003) – $214,948,780
48. Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) – $213,079,163
49. Back to the Future (1985) – $210,609,762
50. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) – $205,399,422
51. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) – $204,843,350
52. Exorcist, The (1973) – $204,565,000
53. Mummy Returns, The (2001) – $202,007,640
54. Armageddon (1998) – $201,573,391
55. Gone with the Wind (1939) – $198,655,278
56. Pearl Harbor (2001) – $198,539,855
57. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – $197,171,806
58. Toy Story (1995) – $191,800,000
59. Men in Black II (2002) – $190,418,803
60. Gladiator (2000) – $187,670,866
61. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) – $184,925,485
62. Dances with Wolves (1990) – $184,208,848
63. Batman Forever (1995) – $184,031,112
64. Fugitive, The (1993) – $183,875,760
65. Ocean’s Eleven (2001) – $183,405,771
66. What Women Want (2000) – $182,805,123
67. Perfect Storm, The (2000) – $182,618,434
68. Liar Liar (1997) – $181,395,380
69. Grease (1978) – $181,360,000
70. Jurassic Park III (2001) – $181,166,115
71. Mission: Impossible (1996) – $180,965,237
72. Planet of the Apes (2001) – $180,011,740
73. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) – $179,870,271
74. Pretty Woman (1990) – $178,406,268
75. Tootsie (1982) – $177,200,000
76. Top Gun (1986) – $176,781,728
77. There’s Something About Mary (1998) – $176,483,808
78. Ice Age (2002) – $176,387,405
79. Crocodile Dundee (1986) – $174,635,000
80. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) – $173,585,516
81. Elf (2003) – $173,381,405
82. Air Force One (1997) – $172,888,056
83. Rain Man (1988) – $172,825,435
84. Apollo 13 (1995) – $172,071,312
85. Matrix, The (1999) – $171,383,253
86. Beauty and the Beast (1991) – $171,301,428
87. Tarzan (1999) – $171,085,177
88. Beautiful Mind, A (2001) – $170,708,996
89. Chicago (2002) – $170,684,505
90. Three Men and a Baby (1987) – $167,780,960
91. Meet the Parents (2000) – $166,225,040
92. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) – $165,500,000
93. Hannibal (2001) – $165,091,464
94. Catch Me If You Can (2002) – $164,435,221
95. Big Daddy (1999) – $163,479,795
96. Sound of Music, The (1965) – $163,214,286
97. Batman Returns (1992) – $162,831,698
98. Bug’s Life, A (1998) – $162,792,677
99. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) – $161,963,000
100. Waterboy, The (1998) – $161,487,252