wildyams

Ok, a couple people at my office absolutely hated "The Matrix Reloaded", and a girl I know hated it so much she walked out about halfway through. Now, as anyone who reads my blog (or who has read it lately) can attest to, I really loved the movie, so it makes me wonder where the hatred of it comes from. The obvious answer is that these people just thought it sucked (duh). Obviously I'm not gonna like the same things everyone else does, and vice versa or whatever, but I haven't really heard many great reasons yet about why people thought "Reloaded" was so bad. I even heard it compared to "Speed 2: Cruise Control" in terms of how bad it was, so I'm really wondering what the deal is. I do know of quite a few other people who really enjoyed it, and as I've pointed out in earlier entries, there are groups of people who are deep into rather thoughtful debates about lots of the finer points of the movie and "what it all means", so I know I'm not alone in my enjoyment of the movie. However, I've heard a lot of negative comments about it as well, so I know my friends who hated it aren't alone either. With most typical movies that come out, there's usually not such a large split like this, but it does happen from time to time, and it seems to inevitably happen with these "big event" summertime-type movies (or with the more "artsy" crowd, with movies that have a lot of critical acclaim, like Woody Allen films or whatever). This leads me to believe that at least SOME of the venom that is spewed towards these movies is simply a result of backlash against a movie that is built up so high. I think people either have their expectations raised so high that there is no way a movie can live up to them, or in some especially juvenile cases people just think they'll be better than others if they hate something that most people like (trust me, I've been guilty of this stupid way of thinking on many occasions, so don't think I consider myself above that). Maybe I'm just more tolerant of movies that don't live up to what I hope they will or something, I don't know (I've never walked out of a movie or even thought about it, actually). I'm just curious, anyone have any opinions on this (doesn't have to be specific to "Reloaded", just on backlash in general)?

Kind of a quick, pre-lunch update. I got my tickets for "The Matrix Reloaded: The IMAX Experience" for this Friday. Just about everyone I asked couldn't go, so its just gonna be me, Grover and Dave (Cookie not Jiggler). I got an email the other day from my friend from college, Becca. She tracked me down from my webpage of people I'm looking for, so that was pretty cool. I hadn't talked to her in like 7 or 8 years, so its a trip to get an email out of the blue like that. Ok, not much else to say, I'm gonna go get lunch.

Just thought I'd throw this out there in case anyone has been looking for one of these: you can buy a riot control vehicle on ebay. The current bid is $85,000 with a little over 4 days left, so get one while you can.

Click the Pic

This matchup is almost reason enough for me to go see "Finding Nemo" (that and the fact that Randy Newman doesn't have a song in it). But since I haven't seen Pixar's latest, can anyone out there do a "tale of the tape" matchup between these two box-office bozos? I'm not looking for a "which movie is better" breakdown, I'm looking for a Clash of the Titans, cagematch, all out spectacle of Neo vs Nemo! And how would Nemo fare if he was ported into The Matrix? Would that factor in? Could Nemo survive in The Matrix if he was out of water? Would Nemo have a trenchcoat and cool shades in The Matrix? Is Neo much of a swimmer? Come on people, gimme some odds or something!

Couple of quick updates for ya:

I FINALLY got this project ready to be looked at by the client finished yesterday. I can't say what it is, of course, but this damn thing has been bugging me for the past few weeks, and its just good to know its all ready to move onto the next step.

Turns out Kobe Bryant tore his shoulder in the 2nd game of the playoffs on a dunk attempt that he got fouled on and will need surgery to fix it. Pretty impressive that Kobe still averaged like 32 points, 5+ rebounds and 5+ assists in the playoffs with a torn shoulder ligament (and that he's the leading point scorer of anyone for the playoffs). You could tell Kobe's shooting touch was a little off these playoffs though, now we know why.

I saw "The Matrix Reloaded" on the IMAX screen up at ShittyWalk last night. It was my second time seeing it, and I thought it was MUCH better the second time. Also, seeing it on IMAX was definitely the way to go. Just during the opening credits you could clearly see the difference. It just fills your field of vision much more than it would seeing it in 35mm. Interestingly, it was not cut to the exact same aspect ratio as the whole IMAX screen, so it was almost like a letterboxing effect, and it was not in a full 2:35 aspect (probably more like a 1:85), but the screen was so large that way, it was truly impressive. Also seeing such a new print like that probably helped, but there was no distortion, or graininess or anything like that. It looked pristine.

Ok, **SPOILER WARNING** My thoughts on watching it again were that I was paying MUCH more attention to what was being said, whereas the first time I was more awed by the special effects. I'm gonna say right now I have my suspicions that there may be some kind of conspiracy going on with some of the people of Zion, where some of them are helping the machines (other than Bane, obviously). I think that Councillor Hamann for one is definitely a little suspect, what with his talk about how people need the machines, how he doesn't know how Neo does what he does but he knows what his purpose is, and him saying in response to Neo telling him he's having trouble sleeping that its a relief cause it means he's "still only human." Also, I wonder about the fact that there's no younger people on the council, if that means anything. I think there are a lot of hints about where Neo comes from, and that he may not be what he appears also. At the end of the movie when he said he could feel the machines and then he zapped them, was almost reminiscent of Luke Skywalker's revelation about who his father is, what his connection to the dark side is and where he comes from at the end of "The Empire Strikes Back." Like when Luke is nursing his hand on the Millenium Falcon as its flying away and he can feel Vader's presence finally and calls out "Father..."

I do see some similarities thematically between "Reloaded" and "Empire" with the question of destiny vs. choice. Unlike the first of this series (and once again echoing the Star Wars trilogy), the sequel is not a stand-alone movie, and has virtually all of its thoughts yet to be completed and all its questions to be answered. I'm still unsure why some people are still so out of tune with this movie. Its a great sequel and a great direction for a trilogy to go. Wouldn't it have been boring if the plots of parts 2 and 3 had just been as simplistic as watching them go about pulling everyone out of the power plant and then having a long shootout with the machines and some party at Zion afterwards? Would the Star Wars trilogy have been better if parts 2 and 3 had just been the Rebels tracking down all the Imperial Forces and killing them off? The fact that there is more going on than just the straightforward conclusion one would imply from the first one is what makes these trilogies great, at least in my opinion it does. Anyway, I can't wait to see it again, and I plan to do so while its on IMAX. No word yet on when the DVD will be released, whether it will be out before "Revolutions", or whether they'll just release "Reloaded" and "Revolutions" together on DVD (or even the whole trilogy together).

I bought "The Animatrix" on DVD last night, and there were 5 out of the 9 stories that lend something more to the movies. The most interesting one I had not seen was the last one (I forget what it's called). Definitely give that a look if you're a fan of the movies. Anyway, that's it, have a good weekend all :-)

According to this article, scientists at CalTech have developed something called Fast TCP (and nicknamed "Internet 2") which can provide download speeds of 8.6 gigabits per second. Now to some people, that won't mean a whole lot, but to others that's an "OMFG!" type statement. In layman's terms, they've supposedly figured out a way to increase downloading speeds by approximately 6,000 times what you get with a current broadband connection; or put simply (in deference to you, Kent) you'd be able to download an entire motion picture to your house in about five seconds. Pretty nuts, huh?

Thanks to Matt for the inspiration behind this entry

So for the second time this year Universal (the company I work for, sort of) had a rather surprising hit (surprised me anyway). First there was "Bruce Almighty" which amazingly is up to like $171 million or something (I'm as puzzled as you are, and yes I'm talking to those of you who saw it like I did). Now "2 Fast 2 Furious" opened with over $50 million this weekend, and that was after some pretty scathing reviews, not to mention that it just looked awful and was the sequel to one of the most vapid, absurd films I've seen in a while, and was missing what most people would have figured was the big draw of the first one: Mark Vincent (you know him as "Vin Diesel"). I guess the good news is that "Vin's" time as an A-List actor may be drawing to a close. After all, "XXX" was by no means a huge hit, and his last movie was an out and out bomb (it was called "A Man Apart", which lost about $10 million before you even factor in the advertising costs (another $20 million or so). So then "2 Fast 2 Furious" has a huge opening weekend without The Big, The Bald and The Boring, and well... you can see where his career might be headed. Too bad we can't get his "Fast and the Furious" co-star Paul Walker to join him, but then again "Timeline" is coming out soon with Walker playing (get this) A SCIENTIST! That's like when they cast Denise Richards to play a nuclear physicist in that horrendous Bond movie "The World is Not Enough" Man, imagine a world where actors actually get roles cause they can ACT!

PS - If you think I'm not aware that this is even MORE true for female actors (we used to call them "actresses"), see this entry.

Christ man, what a day. I am fucking done in right now, and will be heading to bed as soon as I write this. I didn't get much sleep last night, then today was so busy I couldn't take my lunch break till 5 pm. Now I'm home and I'm dead tired. Man I need an easy day tomorrow

Ok, I'm done whining, let the sleep commence.

I got a ton of sleep last night (somewhere between 11 and 12 hours worth), so today was a lot better than yesterday was. We had some long talks about the Matrix movies at work today, and I'm starting to feel more and more like a small minority because I happened to really enjoy it. That's ok though, just cause everyone else doesn't like something doesn't mean I have to hate it too, and I've always said that its more enjoyable to like something than to hate it. Of course, I'm a hypocrite cause there's plenty of shit I hate (mainly everything in mainstream pop culture, so a lot of the time life sucks living in a hotbed of mainstream popdom like LA). Speaking of things that suck (in this case, the NBA Finals), I just wanted to say that I'm glad to see the Spurs lost tonight and for only the 4th time in something like 23 playoff games the Spurs did not shoot more free throws than their opponent did (that will probably be the last time that happens though, mind you). So anyway, that was my day today.

This isn't meant to be a "my word is the law" type of entry where I'm like that guy on the McLaughlin Group telling you how it is, but I wanted to kinda open this up (not that anyone reads this damn thing ) and see what kinda cool answers I might get.

Have you ever noticed how rare it is to find a story with a truly great ending? Whether its a book, a movie, a play, whatever. Truly great endings are hard to come by. A couple of us at work were talking about how Stephen King is a great writer who has endings that just suck ass. I wanted to disagree, cause I like King, but its actually rather true for the most part. Then today I was talking with my roomie Nick about how rare it is to see a movie with a good ending. He was asking me if I ever tried writing a script and I told him if I had a good idea and a good ending in mind, I'd do it, but good endings are hard as hell to come up with. An interesting premise is MUCH easier than knowing how a story ends. Anyway, that got us talking about some of the best movie endings of all time, and I wanted to throw a couple of my favorites out there. Now I have most certainly not seen every movie, and will no doubt omit a bunch here just cause either I never saw them ("Casablanca" I have never seen, and I hear that's a contender), or cause I saw them so long ago I can't really remember what happened. Some movies are great films, but have bad endings, and its forgivable nonetheless, but they won't qualify. Not for me anyway. But if I forget any (and I'm sure I will), then please add some in the comments.

In no particular order, here's some of my favorites (there's clearly gonna be spoilers here, so if you haven't seen one of these, don't read what I say about it):

Vertigo - I love endings that shake you up as well as make you immediately want to see the movie again to see what you can pick up on a second time. Vertigo I saw for the first time a couple weeks back and I knew right away that ending was a stroke of pure genius. The nun walking up the staicase is wihtout a doubt one of the most haunting images I've ever seen in a movie. If ever an ending crystalized a movie, this is it.

Godfather Pt. 1 - I just saw this last night for the second time ever, so its fresh on my mind, but what a fantastic ending! That's probably the greatest character arc I can think of in a movie, and its perfectly completed in both an overt and a subtle way. Not only does Michael complete a masterful plan to set up himself and his family, and take out all his enemies at once; but when his wife confronts him about who he is and has become, his response of telling her that none of what she's heard is true almost says more about how much he's changed than just watching all the killings. Then his wife believing him, telling him to join her for a drink, only to turn around and see him standing with his men kissing his hand as the door is closed on her... Man, now THAT is a fucking ending!

A Clockwork Orange - Man, this ending is like 1984 turned on its head. That look on Alex's face as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony plays and he says "I was cured." is just CLASSIC! Its my favorite Kubrick movie, and I am partial to Beethoven, so maybe I'm biased, but that ending is just such a fantasic payoff after everything Alex has been through. Such a twisted "happy ending", I love it!

Unbreakable - "Because of the kids, David. They called me 'Mr. Glass'." Man, everytime I see this movie, when Samuel L. Jackson says that it always gets to me. That and I completely love the score that plays over this whole song. A movie that has you thinking its a triumphant awakening for one man, in fact turns into an affirmation for an evil man, and its all twisted around to that horrifying realization for our hero right there at the end. I love endings that broadside you like that and make you realize the next time you see the movie it will be completely different for you because of the knowledge you have.

Swimming With Sharks - This is another movie that has a dark, twisted "happy" ending that's really quite disturbing. The whole movie makes you like Guy, and care about him, and hope he pulls through what he's going through and still keep his wits about him; then you realize the only way for him to get what he wants is to become what he hates, and not only does he do it, he ENJOYS it. Very disturbing, and once again, makes you look at the movie in a whole different light the next time you see it.

Blade Runner (Director's Cut) - The theatrical ending is crap, with footage borrowed from "The Shining", but if you see the director's cut it elevates the entire film. First you have Roy's absolutely beautiful final speech, then you have the ultimate reveal about Deckard with the simple image of Gaff's origami unicorn. This is a truly beautiful film all the way through, but that ending just sends you off in total awe.

Halloween - The rest of this series is not even in the same category as the first one, nor is any other "slasher" film out there. Here we are led to believe the whole movie that Michael Myers is just a crazed psychopath, escaped from a mental ward, who is being pursued by a doctor who is strangely obsessed. Then at the end we find out why, and all because when Dr. Loomis and Laurie Strode look over the balcony there is nothing there. What a truly, truly haunting ending. Its the ending that really makes this film legendary.

Apocalypse Now - Its my favorite movie of all time, so you had to figure it would end up here. Part of what makes me love this movie and this ending so much is having seen Hearts of Darkness, the making of Apocalypse Now. To know that Coppola came up with that ending at literally the last minute really amazes me considering how powerful it is. Willard saying "They were gonna make me a major for this, and I wasn't even in their fucking Army anymore." and Kurtz's whispering of "the horror" as it goes to black with no end credits (they actually handed out showbills on paper at theaters when it was released so they didn't have to have any credits at all before or after the movie). I can't think of any ending that builds and builds like that, then delivers like that. Always leaves me speechless.

That's a good one to end on. I missed a bunch, but I don't want to sit here all night writing them all down. Gimme some good ones if you can think of any.

Haven't made an entry for a couple days, so I wanted to catch up on my weekend, mainly Friday night (yesterday was Father's Day, and I saw my Dad and sister for dinner and a movie). Friday after work I came home where I met up with Grover, cause it was his last night here in LA before leaving for Tucson (which he did Saturday). From Tucson, if things go according to his plans, he'll be moving to North Carolina to accept a job there, so he may not be coming back to LA for a long time, so we wanted to give him a proper send-off. Our plan was for he and I to meet here then head on over to Lucky Strike at Hollywood and Highland to try to get a lane. Lucky Strike is a new bowling alley/bar done in a really Hollywood type style (not really my kinda place, but it was cool for one night). So we went there, put our names in for a lane (they told us it would be 2 hours or so), then we went and got dinner at the Snow White Cafe (I had a rather delicious omlette). Grover and I got into a discussion there about whether there is or is not any absolute morality, whethere time exists, and a bunch of other rather interesting topics. After we ate, we cruised back over to Lucky Strike. We hung out there for the next hour or two before anyone else showed up, and it looked for a while like few people would show, if any. But eventually a couple of Grover's friends from high school, college and work (I guess, I'd never met them before) showed up, and then a little while after that Jon, Steve-o, Pierre and a couple other people I didn't know showed up too. Steve-o had a girl with him that I'd never met before, and apparently, neither had he before that night, but that didn't stop them from being all over each other at the bowling alley I got a couple good photos of them, and of everyone else that I'll probably put online some day soon when I'm feeling more motivated. It was nice to see Steve-o working it with some girl again, cause living in the boonies for the last two years or so has kinda interfered with his social life, you know? Basically, we ended up waiting for something like 4 hours total from the time Grover and I put our name in to the time they gave us a lane, but once we got the lane, it was pretty cool. Everyone bowled a little bit, but nobody was being serious about it at all. It quickly turned into the kind of thing where someone else tries to sneak in a ball during your shot when you're not looking or before you get a chance to throw a ball, so eventually we ended up with a whole bunch of bowling balls cluttering our lane and the lane being shut down. We figured we'd get thrown out for sure, but they didn't chuck us, they kept taking drink orders, they just didn't turn the lane back on. Anyway, a good time was had by all, and I felt like we gave Grover a good send off. Steve-o and I are planning on cruising out there in another month or so to visit him, Cella, Melissa, Nate, Carly and Ivan (just like last year, check my archives from a year ago for that trip down memory lane). Ok, that's enough of an entry for now. Oh yeah, I have two more days of work this week then I'm off to go housesit for my Dad again!

Man oh man, check out THIS quote about why Microsoft won't be making any more web browsers for Apple:

Jessica Sommers (product manager for Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit) said Apple is in a better position to create a browser with more features and that offers a smoother experience because "Apple has access to functionality in the [operating system] that Microsoft doesn't." She added, " They can do things because they're developing on their own [operating system] that we as a third-party programmer can't do."

Now if THAT isn't poetic justice, then I don't know what is!

Link via Fark

What is it about Tuesdays? Last week I had a busy ass Tuesday then went to bed early, and that's about what I had going on today. I wasn't quite as busy today as I was a week ago (I got to take lunch at a normal hour and all), but I was pretty much nose to the grindstone from start to finish today. Its not so bad though, there's definitely a lot of satisfaction in knowing you got a lot done at the end of the day. Anyway, tomorrow's my last day of work this week as I'm gonna be off and at my Dad's house starting tomorrow night. But in any event, its bedtime for me.

Ok, before I go, here's a disturbing quote for all you music downloaders out there, compliments of Senator Orrin Hatch (The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee):

"If that's the only way, then I'm all for destroying their machines. If you have a few hundred thousand of those, I think people would realize the seriousness of their actions."

"There's no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws."

Thanks to the return of Daypop , I came across this rather interesting and hilarious thing on a phenomenon going on in New York called flash mobs. Essentially someone sends out an email and tries to have other people forward it around with a time and meeting place for as many people as possible to show up at. Then all the people show up, do whatever the email instructs them to do, and after ten minutes, everyone leaves and goes back to whatever it was they were doing. For instance, in that link I provided, it says they all showed up at a rug store, pretended to all be people who live in a house together and were there to shop for a rug, but their agreement is that they all must unanimously agree on a rug to purchase. So they flooded the store for 10 minutes and gathered around a rug, then they all just left the store. I love random shit like that

Man, just got home from work, another busy day today. But its all good cause now I'm off work till Monday I forgot to mention this, but my soon to be ex-boss and friend John started a blog a couple days ago, and since he's a very smart and funny guy I definitely reccomend you go check it out. Of course, he's not to be confused with Jon. The way to tell them apart is look for the "H" in their names, as in: Jon's evidently hitting the road for a while, meanwhile I'm gonna help John configure his blog a bit if I can. Ok, I'm gonna pack up my stuff here at home and head on over to my Dad's place. I think I may hit The Hat for dinner, I haven't been there in a long, long time.

Just wanted to write down what happened today, in case anyone cares, or in case someday I want to go back and read what I did today. Well, first off, I slept in till about 1 or so, then got up after a couple phone calls, and started my laundry (I've been way overdue cause I was waiting till I got here to do it, since it would be free to do it here at my Dad's place). Once I got that started, I was watching TV when Jon called and said he was on his way over here. Since all my clothes were in the laundry except for what I'd worn the day before, I put those dirty clothes on so when Jon got here I'd be wearing something I could go out in. Jon and I went to Dave's and then went to Islands for lunch (this was maybe at around 3:30 or so). We ate there, then I got ice cream, then Jon dropped me back here and took Dave back to his place to see Jen, who'd just got home from her last day of work. Jon then took off to go hang out with some girl he's friends with in Orange County. I finished my laundry here at my Dad's place, then watched TV for a bit, then called Dave up again to see what he and Jen were doing. Jen had eaten dinner, but since Dave had such a late lunch he wasn't hungry. I, however, was hungry, so I went to The Hat (they were closed last night when I went there, and I was still hankering for one of their pastrami dips). I took my food back to Dave's house, and watched "One Hour Photo" with him (he'd never seen it before). He liked it, so we talked about it for a bit, then just chatted for a couple hours, and now I just got home. So there you go, that's what I did with my day off today. Tomorrow a bunch of us are supposedly gonna get together for lunch again, but this time at a more lunch-like hour. We'll see how successful everyone is at waking me up tomorrow though, I guess

You may remember me talking about Orrin Hatch being a wacko the other day for wanting to destroy the computers of people who download copyrighted material. Well, in a follow up to that, it seems that the old adage about people living in glass houses not throwing stones is rather applicable in this case. It turns out that Hatch is using unlicensed software on his own web site. Gee, how shocking that a politician turns out to be a hypocrite

Also, I had to post this (compliments of Fark):

$500 / 0br - Large Manhattan Room (one catch)

I have a large 15x10 room in a relatively large East Village apartment for rent. The apartment has one full bath and a half bath which is in my room. There is a large common area. Itís a great space. There is one catch you should be aware of. I am a professional bee keeper. I maintain a rather large hive of Africanized honey bees. Due to the economic downturn and the reduced demand for honey I was unable to maintain my work studio and therefore I now work from home. The hive is located in the living room. I have plenty of protective gear and they mostly keep to themselves and go about their business of collecting pollen and producing delicious and reasonably priced honey. However, occasionally something sets them off and hive becomes enraged and tends to swarm. Generally you should be ok if you just keep your door shut but this can be a hassle at times. If you have any allergies to bee stings or maintain a large collection of predatory insects this is probably not the place for you.

So basically Thursday I didn't do much, Friday I went to John and Kate's going away party that was thrown by one of Kate's co-workers, Saturday I had a BBQ at my Dad's place, and yesterday I didn't do anything again. All in all, a rather productive weekend. This Friday after work it sounds like everyone is gonna go out to give John one last send off, being that its his last day of work after more than 5 years with the company, then on Saturday Kelly is having ANOTHER goodbye party for John. Its Goodbye John-o-Rama I guess Its good though, cause I am most definitely gonna miss John and Kate, but I completely understand them leaving LA to move to Buffalo (they're from Buffalo and their families live there, otherwise I wouldn't understand it). Today at work I was slammed again, thanks to some shoddy work by one of our vendors. The beauty of my job is that since we're the last ones to look at DVDs before they get sent out for mass-production, we're responsible for making sure EVERYONE else has done their jobs properly. I'm not complaining though. That's what they pay me the big bucks for I guess

Since my last entry was kinda bland, I figured I owed it to anyone reading this to put something better up, so here you go, here is a photo-retrospective of my life away from work over the last 3 to 4 months or so (no, this isn't everything, just a couple highlights of me and my friends). Enjoy:

Click for Pics

I'm feeling a little introspective tonight. Every now and then I come across these time periods where things just seem to be in flux. Times they are a changin', I guess. My boss and friend John is quitting work this Friday, and leaving the state in a little over a week. My good friend Chris already left the state, and he's been my friend longer than anyone else I know. My friend Jon is on the road right now, but he'll be back to start a new job in another two weeks or so. I got a phonecall from Mary last night, and I hadn't talked to her in something like 8 or 9 months. She told me that her good friend Brad had killed himself a while back. I knew Brad, but I wouldn't go so far as to say I was friends with him seeing as how I hadn't talked to the guy in probably 3 or 4 years, but I did know him back then, so it was fairly shocking to hear he'd killed himself. As I say though, I was never very close to him (he was really more "a friend of a friend"), so hearing about him is not anything like when I found out one of my best friends, Craig, had died in a motorcycle accident a couple years back. But there's been a lot of death and suicide in the air lately it seems. I've had a couple people I'm close with tell me they've either had thoughts of suicide or actually tried it at one point or another. Losing someone you're close to is never easy, but unfortunately its inevitable. Koga is going through a rough period right now because his dog of 16+ years was just put to sleep today, so its really just bad news all around I guess. It just feels like its circling all around me right now, without settling on me. I guess I'm lucky that way, still I hate to see people close to me going through rough periods like that. I just wanted to try to send some good wishes and thoughts out there to my friends who need it.

Anyway, this seemed appropriate here somehow:

And we'll bask in the shadow
Of yesterday's triumph,
And sail on the steel breeze.
Come on you boy child,
You winner and loser,
Come on you miner for truth and delusion, and shine!
-Pink Floyd

First off this is NOT directed at anyone in particular, so don't think I'm trying to make a point with this or something. This is a serious question I'd like some feedback on because the question really doesn't just apply to me and my blog, but to many other people, and because I really will take the responses to heart and this will help me establish some type of way of doing things here.

Ok, so here's the question: Is it wrong for me to put pictures of my friends on my blog? See, I have a digital camera that I carry around, and when I see something funny or interesting or whatever, I take a picture, usually with the intent that it might end up on my blog. I think its funny to post funny pictures of me and my friends on my blog, and Iíve assumed that other people did too. However, I can totally see where people might not like funny or embarrassing photos of them on the internet (thatís so obvious it doesnít need an explanation, so donít think Iím oblivious to that). Just because I have stupid, embarrassing photos of myself online, doesnít mean everyone else is comfortable with having their embarrassing photos online. So the question is this: is it ok for me to put photos of my friends on my blog? Or if so, should I send them off to the people who are in them first to get their approval, or so they can photoshop out any defects or whatever? Iíll be honest, I donít like the idea of having to wait for approved or retouched photos, and I donít like the idea of not being able to post pics of my friends or whoever when weíre goofing around, but at the same time I prefer that to pissing off my friends or making them feel like theyíve been publicly humiliated or something. My policy thus far (even though its not really official or whatever) is that if I post something online and whomever itís a picture of doesnít want it online, if they tell me, Iíll pull it (and wonít be upset about it, I can understand that completely). But is this enough or do I need to take more steps to ensure I donít piss people off? After all, I could post pictures and then not be available for a day or two or something and someone could be rather embarrassed having their picture online during that time, so an argument can be made either way. What do you think?

Its been kind of a stressful week for me this week. Thankfully tomorrow's Friday, then I can relax and sleep in this weekend. I was watching "Ocean's Eleven" just now while I was having dinner. I only watched maybe 15 minutes of it while I ate, but unfortunately it was the scene where Julia Roberts is talking to George Clooney for the first time. Man, I can't watch that scene. Julia Roberts just looks too damn weird in that scene. Maybe its the lighting or something, or more likely, she's just had a ton of work done, but she almost doesn't even look human in that scene. It looks like she pulled her face back and its all stretched thin or something. Thankfully I finished eating before that scene came on, cause seeing her in that scene always creeps me out.

Tomorrow is John Bell's last day with my company. After work we're all going out for dinner and drinks and who knows what, then on Saturday Matt and Kelly are having their "Dog Pile on John Bell" party as his last weekend here in California before he and his wife Kate head off to Buffalo. I know all of us at work are definitely gonna miss the guy, but hopefully we'll all keep in touch through emails and our blogs and whatnot.

The NBA Draft was tonight, and apparently the Lakers picked up two quality guys (including Bill Walton's son, which should be interesting). Anyway, I got some stuff to take care of, then I wanna get to bed cause I'm fucking beat.

Check out this story about how some cat in Japan got shot in the forehead with an arrow and survived uharmed (except for a scar on its forehead, of course). Evidently another cat last week was discovered with a similar arrow in its hip, but escaped unharmed as well (the arrow fell out on its own and the cat ran off). Is there someone stalking cats in Japan with a bow and arrow?

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I just woke up a little bit ago cause I was up pretty late over at Matt and Kelly's Dog Pile On John Bell party It was a really great time last night, partying with everyone from work. Couple people got pretty hammered *cough* Mario *cough*, which was funny too. I spent some time talking to Yoko and her niece, which was really quite fascinating, hearing about some of the differences between the US and Japan, and learning some of Japan's history. I talked a bit with the 3rd i guys too, it was good to see that they'd showed up. I got to meet a couple of my co-workers significant others, which was nice. I found out that Matt is even funnier when he's drunk. I got to reminisce some J2K and Jones stuff with Steve and others. A couple people found out that I don't drink and never have, and had Miriam tell me it must be funny to see all my co-workers get drunk while being sober. I got to eat some of Paola's delicious lasagna. I got to talk to Kelly about prepping for a marathon and prepping for a party. But mostly I got to say goodbye to John and Kate, who will definitely be missed. Matt and Kelly were great, they got John a "Slapshot" poster and got Kate some flowers. John also got a Jack Slater (with dynamite throwing action) figure and a Porkins figure. A couple of us had pitched in and put together one last issue of MovieSnooze for John, and we also had a goodbye card that we'd all signed (thanks to Paola for laminating them). It was a great evening all around. Good luck John and Kate, come back and see us again soon

I just wanted to voice a little concern I have here about where we seem to be headed as a society, and about the double-edged sword that is technology. I was reading this article about how some Scottish company made this software that when installed on a network can keep detailed logs, and present detailed reports, about EXACTLY how efficient everyone is at work. It monitors and logs mouse movements and keystrokes to determine exactly what everyone is doing on their computers every second that they are on them. Then it compiles the data and provides reports for employers (or whomever) about exactly what everyone is doing. Now, while this will bring up a big debate about whether its a company's right to know what it's employees are doing with their equipment on company time vs. privacy rights vs. employee efficiency or whatever, I just wanted to say this type of stuff really makes me worried about the future. Its got to be an assumption that no matter what you do for a living, nobody is working 100% of the time, whether you take a cigarette break, go to the bathroom, surf the web, talk on the phone, sleep on the job or whatever. I personally have always felt the issue should be are you doing the work assigned to you on time and correctly. If you are, then it shouldn't matter how you do it, in what order you do it, what things you do to blow off steam or whatever. If someone hires you to dig a 100 foot long ditch in 10 days, and you can dig a ditch at a rate of 20 feet per day, should it matter that you end up only working 50% of the time provided the work gets done? I don't think so. However, clearly this view of work is disputed, or else we wouldn't have these types of concerns in the workplace.

This is where my real concern for the future comes in. See, up till now, in human history, when someone was hired for a job, it was impractical to hire someone to watch them all the time. Even with video recording devices, you'd still have to hire someone to watch them all the time. This is not efficacy or cost effective. Plus, then you'd have to hire someone to watch the watcher, and so on. Now, however, if we can use computers to do this, then there is no need to watch the watcher (or if you do end up doing that, itís rather easy to do), and its also become completely automated to watch everyone, making it cost effective and efficient to watch everyone. What is this going to tell us? That people don't work 100% of the time? We should already know this. But in a society that seems to more and more distill things down to squeeze every last drop of productivity out of everything, this leads to a rather depressing conclusion: to eliminate a lack of productivity you have to eliminate the human element. While this is not a new worry, nor is it a new problem, it is evidently getting closer and closer to being truly realized in most things. The bottom line is that human beings are never going to hold a candle to machines and computers when it comes to efficiency and productivity. The whole point of working is to provide us as people with furthering ourselves individually and as a society/community, right? If we could get computers to do all this work for us so we could ALL sit back and reap the benefits, then that would be great, but naturally thatís not the way that things will work. They will simply make things great for a few people at the expense of everyone else. Itís the double-edged sword that technology is, and donít think I see the quandary in myself being a rather technologically-inclined person. Sure technology affords us many things that wouldnít be possible otherwise, but when combined with some of human natureís more distressing qualities, like avarice, ultimately I think it erodes the overall quality of everyoneís life. Its like this article by William Gibson about how our technology has really eclipsed even what George Orwell envisioned in his novel "1984" concerning the way that Big Brother spied on everyone, and how Gibson believes that we live in a society where soon no one will be able to have any kind of secrets of any kind. Its reading about, hearing about, and realizing things like this that really do make me think that life would possibly have been better if Iíd lived a couple hundred years ago. And yes, I realize that probably sounds very naÔve when you consider all the dangers and different kinds of infringements on freedoms that people had back then, but some things might be worth all that just to live in a society where it might be ok to stop and smell the roses once in a while and not have to worry about "your entire life being logged into some file somewhere.