[Blog] Damn I suck.

Geez I am terrible at keeping this blog up to date. A lot has happened, but I am suffering from a case of writer's block and exhaustion so I don't feel like posting anything.

[Politics/War] Normspank and the Smoking Gun

This was a fun read. And who might the Senator he was spanking, er speaking to be?... Norm Coleman, senator from my own state of Minnesota.

And, for those who have not read the most important news article in the last month (and possibly year), here it is.

[Movie] Star Wars ep3: Revenge of the Shit...I mean Sith

Overall grade: B+

I still don't forgive you Lucas for ep1 and ep2, but ep3 was a lot better. Darker was better. The acting of Christensen and Portman was still flat, but better than the 'I hate sand' stuff of ep2. But he plays evil better than he does a good-hearted caring individual. Jar-Jar was there but did not speak, which is a bit of a cop-out, you made him a major character, so make him prominent.

Eventhough the acting was a little flat between Portman and Christensen, the others did well. The epic battles were epic. I have to admit, I loved the first 10 minutes, I said to 'Nerdwife', even if the rest of the movie sucks, the first 10 minutes were pure awesome.

Mon Mothma was supposed to be there somewhere, but she wasn't really introduced, which I haven't decided if it was cool or not. The digital rendering of Moff Tarkin was also very good.

[Thing] My damn car

Cars, the necessary evil.

I love to drive, I find it relaxing, but it is wasteful.

I used to love my car, but now it is just a source of frustration that costs $1500 a pop to fix.

Thank god I live in a place where I can walk or take the bus to work.

[CubeZoo] Nearly a year later...

Wow, time has done what time does and flew by. On the 26th, the cubezoo blog will be 1 year old. Damn!

In memory, here is the f1rst post:

---snip---

5-26-2004

[Intro] is blog short for weblog or bitch-log?

So I have decided to delve into the world of blogging. Its strange and new and scary. So bear with me while I start out.

---snip---

I think in a year of blogging I now have the answer as to what blog stands for...

This blog was originally started as a place for me to brain-dump things, for all the world to see, because a few friends suggested that some of my ideas and rants should be made available for public consumption. Over the course of the year I have found it to be very interesting (and fun) to be a pseudo-journalist/editor/critic/writer/ranter/drama queen/liberal guerilla. I decided to open my blog to others (hence the explosive growth of 'team cubeZoo' as I think of them. The Internet(s) have given new power to the indirect communicators, now we too can think our opinions are important and spout them off in a public forum for all the world to ignore.

[Sci-Fi] Low Budget Fun

I've seen a couple of good yet very low budget science fiction films lately, and thought I'd comment. The first is my recent purchase of the DVD of "Primer", the winner of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and the Alfred P. Sloan Sundance award for films about science and technology. This is one of the coolest little indies I've seen in a while. Made for about $7000, it is the first film by Shane Carruth. What's more is it is a baffling puzzler, a HARD Science Fiction film (as opposed to soft scifi, science fantasy, or space opera). Not to mention the most compelling and well-done example of a scifi plotline that has all too often been (ahem) abused and badly wrought so many, many different ways. I won't say what kind of oft used theme lest I spoil the surprise. Worth a rental or even a purchase.

The other is "Star Wars: Revelations",
a low budget fan film taking place in the Star Wars universe. It is a free download and clocks in at about 46 minutes (about a 250 MB download). They even provide links to DVD images and artwork so you can burn your own DVD copy (including a behind-the-scenes making of bonus disc!). Not only was this a truly amazing example to me of what a few dedicated fans can do (and that nerds have a little too much time on our hands), but the characters were more involving than the flat and stiff offerings of the last two 'REAL' Star Wars films by Lucas, and I gotta say, even the effects sequences and chase come off as being more interesting and well executed than what even ILM has come up with, if perhaps a little lower res. And its FREE, so worth the time to download.

I guess this just confirms in my mind that all that is required for good scifi is a vision, some perserverance, a little ingenuity, but not necessarily a whole lot of dough.

[Music] I can't get this song out of my head!

'Metal Heart' by Garbage...ever since I heard it at the concert last Friday.

Here is a link to the lyrics.

[blog] cubezoo

I felt like changing the template's appearance, so I did.

enjoy.

[Poem] Dichotomy Random

Dark

Light

Right

Wrong

Sex

Chaste

Freedom

Oppression

Fear

Courage

End

Start