Slowly Learning...

So I figured the crowds would have died down enough by now to go see this movie, and I was sort of right. There wasn't a line out the door, but there were still a hell of a lot of people for a Tuesday at Cinemapolis. Now maybe I've read too many of Moore's books, seen too many interviews with him and whatnot, but there just wasn't anything really new here. It was a solidly put together documentary with his usual humour and wit, but it was just old news to me. Nothing in there was new or startling or even that thought provoking to me. Insted it seems that Moore has just relied on his segments with Lipscomb, a mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, to pull at our heart strings, which it does. But for someone like Moore who's had such solid films in his past this seemed like a cheap lazy way out. On more of a ironically funny note he did end the movie on a quote from Orwell's 1984 (and then the best Bush quote ever "You fool me once..."), which just so happens to be the book I was reading right before the movie.

RATING: Worth a Regular Ticket Price (But No Need To Rush Out), Worth a Rental

Posted by Thom at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I finally got my trial copy of Star Wars Galaxies to work (just needed to install one other little program). I've been playing that off and on for about a day now and I'm stumped as to how MMORPG's have managed to work and capture an audience. True it's a great concept and should work, in theory. But then again Communism works in theory. So what has made this concept work?

Ok, so we all like to feel like we're connected to the rest of the world and that we can continue to be social creatures without ever having to leave our rooms, but does an MMORPG really do this? From what I've seen so far I'm gonna have to spend the majority of my 2 week free trial just leveling up in order to accomplish anything else. This progresses as follows: find small wood-land (or in my case sandy) creature, attack said creature, kill said critter, raid said creatures corpse for goods, repeat. Not a whole lot of excitement in this process after the first couple times through. And of course at the lower levels this is a slow process since you're weak (and prone to be killed by a giant beetle). Thankfully (or maybe not), the Star Wars universe doesn't contain that puzzling feature were wild bees or killer plants carry around loose change. Of course without the coinage that enemies normally drop in RPGs I have found no way to pay my instructor to teach me new skills (a necessity for leveling up). The only other way I've found to make money is to take on missions. Of course these missions have all repeatedly ended in me lying on my back after I've been knocked out by the latest hoard of vicious bunnies that were terrorizing the moisture farmers.

But back to the main problem at hand. Eventually you'll level up, and then you can join with others and really start to do things in groups. Explore new worlds, seek out new civilizations, the whole nine yards! But of course for me my computer is too slow to handle this. If I get within those 9 yards of a large settlement it can't handle it and starts to chop right up. But then again I'd rather not be in that city anyway because I have no real desire to socialize with these people anyway. With all that chatter going on I lose track of everything going on.

In the end I guess I can see the allure of MMORPGs. For some it is the dream of making your own adventure with your friends, who just might happen to be halfway around the world (although more likely just down the hall). But that's just not my cup of tea. I'm too social to sit around and waste my time killing little vermin over and over again. And even once that's over I'm not social enough to socialize with all the fellow players and join parties to go raid some village or whatnot. So if you happen to be playing Galaxies and see a dark-skinned, horned, loner Zabrak sitting out by a campsite outside Mos Eisley keep your distance. Otherwise I may be forced to engage you in a bloody battle to the death, which will invaritablly end in you looting what few possesions I have on my corpse.

Posted by Thom at 8:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So the time has come to give my input on music as well as movies. So here we go...

They Might Be Giants - The Spine
RATING: S
SOLID, SILLY, STALE, SKETCH, SERENDIPITOUS, SAVORY

So 'The Spine' is aabout what you'd expect out of a TMBG Album. It has catchy melodies, weird lyrics, the works. "Jodi Foster held 2-pair, Bach had 3-of-a-kind, Gandhi said with my Full House I'll blow you're mind," need I say more? So while that is good, it's lacking anything all that new. It's almost like an outline of something that was planned for bigger and better things, but just didn't quite get off the ground. But in the end it's just a pleasent, acceptable album, just with nothing new that stands out from all their other stuff. (It's not really all that serendipitous, but I just like that word)

Audio Bullys - Ego War
RATING: F
FRISKY, FRONT-HEAVY, FUNKY, FORMULAIC, FUROR...FIZZLE

So the album starts off great, it really got me going. It had some nice beats with good melodies, and it played to my current taste for Eurpean-English. So like the adjectivization might suggest it starts off with a furor, and then fizzles, hardcore. Some of tracks were a little cookie-cutter-ish. It was almost like they just found a beat (often times the same one), took a melody, plugged it into a formula, and then 'rapped' over it. At about track 9 or 10 it just becomes irritating. I guess that was the breaking point for the formula. All in all though it's a respectable album, good even if you just skip the end.

Posted by Thom at 7:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been a while, and I have other movies to talk about at some point too, but for now let's go with the most recent one. I've been secretly hoping that someone would release a comedy that was completely devoid of plot, and just made to make you laugh, and this film comes pretty damn close. There is a plot here, but it's mainly for show, and just leads from one silly moment to another. There's not too much else to say about the film, other than the fact that Will Ferrel was right on the mark and funny as ever, so I'll keep it short and wrap it up. But if you're looking for a comdey that will keep you laughing while putting the plot on the backburner then this movie is for you.

RATING: Worth a Full Price Ticket, Worth a Rental/Cheap Purchase

Posted by Thom at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So it's been a while since I posted. Mainly it's because I've been lazy, and I still am, so this is just gonna be a short heads up on some things I've discovered lately.

1 - I never would have gotten into my habit of long showers if I had grown up with sulfer water like I have here. It really detracts from the soothing pleasures of a nice hot shower.

B - It takes quite an adjustment to get used to not watching TV while I eat dinner, but I think I'm up for the challenge. Or at least I hope I am, seeing as how I no longer have cable.

Trois - I wish it were winter. True the driving to and from work would suck, but living with no AC also sucks. And it's much easier to put on extra layers than it is to remove them, eventually you hit a wall with the removing aspect. Plus anyone who knows me knows that I don't get cold. So bring on the snow!

4th - I, Robot was actually a good movie (apart from the major flaw of being set in 2035, but then again 2001 was set in 2001).

V - I'm glad society never took to roman numerals, cause doing math with them is rediculous. Plus if V = 5, I = 1, and IV = 4, then shouldn't VV = 0?

So that's about all I've got for now. If I do get motivated I may write more, but as for now I'm just too lazy.

Posted by Thom at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Every night I sit in my living room and listen to my fridge howl. And every night I think to myself how my fridge is like the shreiking eels. And I also think of how I'm like Princess Buttercup. So in an ironic twist of fate one of these evenings I expect my fridge to eat me, that is unless a giant comes to beat up my fridge and drag me safely out of the apartment.

Posted by Thom at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)