Friday, September 26, 2008

TRQ and Unbreakable 2?

So far the Hobbit reading has been going well. I've also enjoyed the Hobbit-related status updates I've been doing on FB. =) I'm about half-way through now.

Just came across this article that hints at a possibility of a sequel to Unbreakable...definitely one of Shyamalan's best. Sounds like it's still a bit too ambiguous to get excited about yet.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Serenity

I finally got Serenity via Netflix today. There will be spoilers in this post.



My reaction: thanks a lot, you sadists who convinced me to watch all 14 episodes of Firefly, and then this movie. Now I shall be haunted by the desire for a show that was canceled well before its time.

As for the movie itself, I think I had to squelch a little of the temptation I get to scold the makers of movie-from-a-tv-show for having to spend part of the movie "explaining" a lot of things that are already common knowledge, in an attempt to help it be a "stand-alone" film. Other than a slightly slower, slightly frustrating pacing during the first 30-45 minutes I was ok with it. Some of the writing wasn't quite as good as the tv show either...not as much playful banter. I suppose they were intentionally going

The only other negative factor I felt was that the characters seemed a little different from the series. My understanding that the movie was supposed to basically pick up where the series left off, but maybe I have that wrong. Mal was a lot meaner and antagonistic (especially with Simon) then he eventually became in the course of the tv show...so that seemed a little "off" to me.

One thing I thought was kind of interesting was what the writing process for the movie must have been like for the creative team, knowing that it was the end of the road; no going back to carrying on the tv show indefinitely. I'm guessing that's what freed them up to make choices like killing off main characters.

I especially liked the twist of bringing the Reaver fleet on top of the Alliance fleet. I think I giggled a little bit. There was a tad too much unbelievability in Mal's ability to fight such a highly-trained assassin, and to take such a beating/shooting/stabbing, and still be 80-90% functional, but that's what makes him the heroic archetype, I guess.

All in all...a good movie, darn it. I'm left wanting more.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Multi-topic Update

I've been pretty lazy about sharing what's going on in my life, mind, heart, DVD player, etc....I know many of you are in anguish, wanting...nay, NEEDING to know what's going on with me. Fortunately I'm uploading a photo to Tumblr once in a while and sending a quick FB update often, so it's not a complete vacuum.

Topics: Marriage, Novel, TRQ, Pushups, God stuff

1. Marriage
Wendy and I are coming up on magic #7! Now let's see, what is it they say happens at 7 years of marriage? Oh...right: you get itchy. So far, no rash or other like symptoms...no itch for me. =) We had grandiose dream-anniversary events flitting through our minds: Royal Gorge train ride, B&B somewhere in the mountains, weekend in NY? But practicality reigns...we're going to "splurge" and do dinner and a movie. We're gonna do a nicer restaurant of course, but we're not above using coupons to do so. =)

2. The Novel
I've gotten some Fan-tastic (if I may presume to call you fans) responses from a couple people so far, with great comments and much-needed corrections. I haven't worked much on the story in the last couple weeks. Maybe the same laziness/procrastination applies here as well. I'm looking forward to make some edits and then pressing on.

3. TRQ = Tolkien Reading Quest
I knocked out the first two chapters of The Hobbit during lunch today, so I've officially begun "The Quest"! Hopefully it doesn't distract too much from "The Novel."

4. Pushups
Oy....this parade got rained on, flooded and trampled. Week 5 kicked my keister. I've been in the 3rd (read=tough guy) column the whole way through, but couldn't do week 5....twice!!! Grrr...I'm starting my third try of week 5 tonight, I don't know what's going on, but I feel so freaking weak now...hopefully this is just a "normal" plateau that I'll get past soon.

5. God stuff
I shared with a friend from church recently, that the term I'm feeling like applying to my life right now is: Awakening (or perhaps Re-Awakening). I think I was an "asleep" Christian for a good number of years after graduating from Biola. Just on cruise control. This last year has brought so many paradigm shifts in my thinking, it's as though I'm discovering God and life as a Christian for the first time. Any arrogance or assumptive thinking I had developed as Christian who had thought he'd arrived at a "comfortable" position of knowledge has been gradually getting stripped away.

"Brokenness" is a term I've always disliked. I think I always had put it in a context of being "broken" by life circumstances, sin, etc....an emotional basket-case kind of image. Bug recently I've been applying it to myself in the sense that God has broken down everything I thought I "knew" about him, life, relationships, holiness...the list goes on. Duh. I've never been a very emotional person, so it makes sense that my "brokenness" is intellectual and spiritual.

Ok, I feel like I'm rambling now...so let me bring it to a close.
Wendy has been a real inspiration/teaching-agent for me as well. I thought I was the reader of the family! She's been voraciously devouring (and applying) book after book...and not sci-fi/fantasy fiction(which is what I usually devour), but heavy, life-changing non-fiction books by some of the greatest Christian authors! We're starting to talk more openly about our spirituality...and other aspects of our relationship with each other and with God.

It's a good place right now.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

House...and TRQ

Ok, my brain must've gotten zapped...cuz I completely forgot that House premiered on Tuesday. I missed it because I was running sound at church for a special event ("Would Jesus Go Green?"), but I had intended on watching it online asap. So, guess I'll do that tonight. I also got Hitman from Netflix...that's for after the kids are in bed.

TRQ: Tolkien Reading Quest

Several Tolkien aficionados are planning on reading through about 22 books related to Tolkien and Middle-earth, starting on 9-22 (Monday). It's actually been a few years since I've re-read The Hobbit and LOTR...and I've never read several of the HoME series, so I think this is a good opportunity to do so, along with the camaraderie and motivation of discussion.

I don't expect any of my half-dozen regular readers to join in this "Quest", but I'm thinking about creating a separate blog (quick-update format, like Tumblr) to make posts directly relating to the reading quest. Although, I barely have a few readers here as it is....we'll see.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Dharma Wants YOU!!!

I've been taking the recruit tests on www.dharmawantsyou.com and want to ask everyone I know to sign up as a recruit. Why? Because I just created a multiple-choice test as a part of the Dharma Initiative's Volunteer Recruitment Program.

Name of the test: Language Appreciation Appraisal

There are 10 multiple-choice questions for you to answer.

You can access the test here

For each registered recruit that completes the test, I'll get 50 Dharma Points to help towards my overall result.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Uh-oh

Remember that Large Hadron Collider that had potential to do some damage? Check out the live webcam to see what's happening: LHC webcam

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Goodbye, Life As We Know It

I wanted to take this opportunity to bid a fond adieu to planet Earth and its inhabitants, on the off chance that the world ends tomorrow, Wednesday, September 10. If you hadn't heard yet (a direct relation to your level of geekiness, I suppose), the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been completed, and will fire up in about 5 hours from this post. The project started in 1995, and cost somewhere between 4-6 billion euros.

I'm not scientific-minded enough to accurately explain exactly what it does (and you probably wouldn't understand if I could), but basically what I understand is that it's going to explore theoretical particle physics...and (here's the kicker) could possibly create a small (tiny?) black hole.

Ummm...black holes. Those mysteries of science that no one really knows what they are, how they're created, or what would happen if one suddenly showed up in Switzerland.

Here's a CNN article that describes it better. (And denounces the black hole danger as "baloney")

[Update: 3 hours later]
Just saw one of my regular online comics following the same train of thought!:

Monday, September 8, 2008

Fall TV Premieres

I have plenty of interests that I don't feel like I have time for (reading, Starcraft, poker, writing my novel, etc.), but I still want to give some of the new shows a chance. Some of them actually look pretty interesting. There's a scary caveat here, though: every new show that I've liked and started to really get into...gets cancelled. Like I'm some sort of fan-curse. (Blind Justice, Day Break, Journeyman)

So here are the new shows I'm interested in giving a chance to see if they're worthy of me dooming them to cancellation (in chronological premiere date order):

Fringe (X-Files-ish?)
The Eleventh Hour (Yay, Rufus Sewell!)
My Own Worst Enemy (Slight reservations about Slater's acting ability to pull off the dual-identity)

**Special new show notes: I did watch the Knight Rider pilot last February, and was mildly interested, but the acting and writing was pretty bad....so not too keen on following as of now.
Also, I've watched one or two episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (which I was pretty excited about when they first released trailers for the show) and the jury's still out on this one too. I might Hulu this series, to get caught up and feel whether I'm in or not.

And of course, there are my returning favorites that I'm also looking forward to their premieres: Office, House, Chuck, Life, CSI:Miami, Numb3rs, Lost

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Funny

Here're a couple pics that made me lol. They're from a series by my favorite online comics guy Drew. The pics are from here, but be warned, some crude stuff is mixed in. (Although some of the crude stuff is pretty funny too!)