"Behind you"

Looks like I'm contributing to this here blog a wee bit more often. I'm so glad!

I just got back from seeing RotK. Yah, I'm one of those people that waited until Friday to see it. The most noticable thing was the ass hole sitting directly behind me stupidly laughing and making comments through the whole damned thing. Why the fuck did you pay $9 just to laugh at the whole fucking time?! Ass hole! Shut the fuck up!! Bastard. Coincidently I must have sat in front of the same ass hole at the two recent Matrix films and X-Men 2. How does this one ass hole find me anyway? And why always sit behind me? You can't sit behind someone else?

Also I thought it was a good movie. Seemed quite cut up for sake of time or pacing as the infamous Peter Jackson director would say. But the effects are truly nothing short of amazing. Especially that infamous spider I'm sure every reviewer on earth has mentioned ceaselessly.

Of course it did sway from the book here and there. As with the other movies I thought it was missing any real representation of the passing of time. Except for the end of this one actual amounts of time are mentioned and discussed. But for instance when Aragorn decides to set out for this "path of the dead" or whatever it was called (yes I know I should know this having read the whole book) he actually seperated from the Rohan/Gandolph crowd and came back past Rohan with Aowyn, convincing her to stay in the Kingdom as directed by her father. It was quite a drawn out and dramatic argument from her as she really wanted to go with Aragorn.

Also there was one really spectacular scene in the book involving Gandolph versus the arch villain in the battle for Minas Tiruth (I'm too tired to look up spellings; deal with it). And I thought Minas Tirith's gate was all wrong, although I may have imagined it the way I did because I'd been playing so much Stronghold. But I thought that gate was the kind with metal bars the go up and down, not wooden that swing in and out.

However there were somethings that they got right. The start of the battle involving catapulting the heads of the human soldiers for instance. I didn't think that would be included in the PG-13 movie, but it was. Also the very last line spoken by any character of the movie was identical to the last line of the book. And I'm glad for that! It's like they suddenly decided to stick real close to the book towards the end or something. Except for these couple chapters that is. Didn't really take away anything from it I felt.

So all in all I felt it a satisfactory movie and would recommend it. But is there nothing else to speak of?

Oh yes. The company I interviewed with, implied I was their leading candidate and practically talked in the past tense as if I was already in...finally called me back to tell me they'd picked someone else. Thanks for nothin! And some say I'm bad with phones? These people don't even call freaking people back. It's ok to say no, just tell already why don't ya?! Damn it. Maybe Apple is hiring :-).

Haven't really started with the writing private contractor job thing. Just not into it and the web site I go through is too disorganized and confusing. But now that I know that last position is gone I'll start working on it anyway! I only have about a week to do quite a lot. But it's not like I don't have a lot of time or something. So why not? Not much to lose now is there?  ¶ 1:51 AM 0 Comments  

 

"Lucas could have done it better..."

For the news department today I've started contributing to a friend's new blog, entitled The Infinite Wisdom of Trees. I also found this hilarious list of don'ts to keep in mind while viewing RotK. Then I combined the two. Oh I wrote the Canadian version of one:

"There's orcs all aboot da screen eh...where's waldo?!"

I'm sure the Canadian author of said blog thought that was hilarious. I thought it was funny. I wonder if Canadian translations can be a profession ;-).

Oh and that Sadam guy was captured. I'm sure you haven't heard anything about it. Barely mentioned on the news. Barely 23 hours a day. Hey lets have a little coverage eh? Damn media. Now the liberals are even more shrill. First it's "can't even capture Sadam!!" then it's "so what!! where's Osama?!!". Jeeze make up your mind why don't ya. And do some re-direction away from an obvious accomplishment. Ya duh. That'll widen your appeal to the public at large.

Now I feel compelled to reveal a project I've been contemplating lately. Namely I'd like to make my own custom PVR (think Tivo). Not to save money on buying a $200(US) Tivo mind you, but just to see if I could do it. First I'll need a job so I have money enough to do it of course. Once I buy all the parts and assemble the computer I'll follow the instructions of one of the many free PVR projects out there. Or maybe I'll try all of them and see which one works better. That will be part one: assembling and building a PC/Linux-based PVR just for the sake of doing so. Sort of an intellectual pursuit/exercise.

Part two (should I get that far) will be to make my own interface for such a device. Now this part will take a lot longer. Again assuming I get to the part I will make it Windows-based and use nothing but freeware I can find. And of course use my favorite interface program: LiteStep. Now this step two will take a really, really long time. Now for some of the free software I use I may have to implement CygWin emulation layer to run some of the Linux-exclusive programs involved.

So maybe there's more like three or four steps:

1. Pick out and purchase necessary parts for such a device, including micro ATX case, micro ATX mobo, TV card and large HDD. I'll need a CPU of at least 1.8 Ghz.

2. Assemble system and parts and install Windows to do initial test. Maybe I can trick it into using an external USB CD-ROM to setup Windows (wouldn't that be nice?).

3. Attempt setup of Linux-based PVR projects to see if I can at least get it partially working. All those scripts, this step isn't looking easy!

4. Whether I accomplish step 3 or not start looking into using Windows freeware and LiteStep solution to interfacing with the PVR.

Bonus step: Try making Windows-based bootable CD so it goes straight into PVR program. More space for TV recordings on the HDD!

For the fantastic future: burn recordings to CD/DVD and/or edit out commercials. Ya right. By the time I got that working such a device would be obsolete.

Now this is either a good idea or the insane ramblings of a geek that needs something to do. Either way it'll be very difficult! I would also need some sort of easy way of changing the configuration, too. I'll leave until last along with documentation :-).

So I guess that's all for now. Thanks for letting me trust pass on your blog phoobar! Oh one more thing: in case you're wondering where my title joke came from, I borrowed them from here. Good night.  ¶ 1:33 AM 0 Comments  

 

Entry supplemental...

Now normally when I have something supplemental like this I just edit the last post and add it. But in this case I felt like making it a separate note. Two points of note I wanted to mention. As kind of a side note and without expecting much I found and this web site accepting applications for this regular writing gig on the subject of computers. All it asked for was a writing sample followed by "a paragraph or two" on my background in the subject and my education and also why I feel I am uniquely suited for the position. So I wrote up a short article about turning file extensions on so you recognize the real type of file it is, in particular don't trust anything with a vbs or js extension. Then I wrote an enthused/geeky/somewhat restrained bio about how much I like computers, how I do stuff on the side, how I've had tech support experience both on the phone and in person. How these things of taught me how to empathize and relate to a computer user who is just frustrated and angry that something doesn't seem to be working the way it's supposed to. Then my education of course. I figured I had no chance but...

I got accepted into the first round picks of applicants. I was getting so accustomed to "we're sorry but we haven't accept your application at this time" I wasn't expecting too much. So my first reaction was "hell's frozen over!". But I they liked it I guess. Turns out it's a "private contractor" gig requiring between 15 and 20 hours a week typically. I have a mentor and everything. I just found out I was in on Thursday so I haven't heard anything more than I've made it to this phase. So I'm not to the money phase quite yet. But I read someone else's work on this site the other day and noted the writing quality was quite awful. So if that's the standard I think I stand a good chance. Of course a lot of the credit goes to writing to blog. Wow, that was a REALLY bad statement. I just mean I'm glad I'm writing this blog that isn't being read by anyone anywhere to practice my writing skills. So hopefully tomorrow I get another email and I find something else out. Oh and I won't be saying which web site this is or what I'm doing because I'm trying to keep myself anonymous and the writing job will most likely require my displaying my first and last name.

The other news is my job interview. I was so nervous! First I stayed up way later than I wanted to then I couldn't sleep for the life of me. My heart was just pounding in my chest so loudly! Should have got up and started writing now that I think about it. But I didn't think of that. So I got probably less than 4 hours of sleep that night before the interview, which was last Friday (today's Sunday). I have no idea how I may have appeared to that interviewer. Of course, this was merely a preliminary interview most likely to weed out the non-useful people. I took some aptitude tests, clarified my resume and questionnaire and took a typing test (which I should have done way faster and better). I do think I smiled and seemed interested and responsive and personable. At least that's what I was going for, I don't know if I succeeded.

Also one of my references forwarded the email, which was sent to him regarding the job. And it said I was their top candidate, which I was unaware of. I wonder if references are supposed to send those to the applicants. I am unaware of the rules for such things. That reference did such a great job of in the email he sent too. So I'm waiting to hear back on this job. I was also surprised at the apparent willingness to adjust a possible work schedule to my class schedule if I needed to. I thought I would just be handed a schedule and told to show up! Had no idea they'd adjust themselves accordingly. So maybe I'm looking way more in? Unless I did poorly on the aptitude tests or something. Or whatever tricky psychological tests she may have been doing. I did manage to recognize and and correctly answer some well-hidden Boolean logic type questions. So there's that.

Oh and there's the Apple Computer thing. Still trying to wrap my head around it. I get this call out of the blue, I call back two days in a row and the person never calls me again. Bah! Ok maybe tomorrow.

This turned out to be a much longer entry than I had planned. So guess I'll treat it like a real entry and explain that the title of the last entry was kind of a sarcastic version of Homer Simpson's "Wuhoo!!". As you may have guessed I'm running out of titles here.

  ¶ 12:10 AM 0 Comments  

 

"Woo-woo"

Wow, been a long time since my last entry. A whole month and 4 days as a matter of fact. But I thought it about time I made some sort of entry. See the thing about that is I don't like to write about nothing. So why write when nothing's happening? But after a whole month I think stuff has happened.

But not a lot. I did finish The Lord of the Rings. That's right 1008 page of pure geeky bliss. 1940s geeky bliss that is. Too bad pop-culture and history revisionists have twisted the various "pipe weed" references. It's tobacco I tells ya! Ya whatever. So I finished The Return of the King, and I'm glad I did. Because I already know there's a sequence at the end of the book that didn't make it into the movie (despite the movie's 3+ hour length). Not that important of a scene really. You can guess most of what's going to happen already. The thing I think I'll like about the upcoming movie is the lack of a cliffhanger ending like every other third installment of a movie (heh). I have a feeling the third movie will be even better than the first and second movies.

Also my sister's eagerness made me already purchase the extended edition of The Two Towers on DVD. And I did like it quite a bit more really and started to understand why they did some of the things the way they did. And maybe a lot of people don't realize this but the whole sequence involving Aragorn and Arowyn's love affair? It's covered in one of the appendices of the book. But it obviously had to be covered for the movies to make any sense what-so-ever. So it's ok!

All right, enough of that. Also in the past month I did have a birthday. I received a the first season of Alias on DVD which is pretty cool and some gift certificates from different computer stores. With those I purchased a strategy game called Stronghold and the new online game Final Fantasy XI. Now Stronghold I played addictively for about three weeks (and purchased the follow-up called Stronghold: The Crusades). I started out in FFXI but never got back into it. I started to think I should be concentrating more on getting a job. And also finishing LotRs which I was also trying to do addictively/obsessively. But I'm finally over Stronghold I think. At least I seem to be able to go more than 4 hours with it anyway. I managed to waste my whole trial month with FFXI thanks to that though.

And FFXI was a pain to install too. For some reason there were read errors, acknowledged by Sony with the 5 CDs I purchased for $50. So as directed I tried copying all the CDs to a folder on my HDD but this didn't work either. Luckily I have another computer with another CD-ROM and managed to copy the contents and transfer everything over the network. Then I went through the several forms asking for the same information over and over again. So I finally get in to the game after creating a character and can't figure out how to move. So I exit out again and figure that out. I think I played FFXI for less than 5 hours total. And I haven't played EQ in quite a while.

Also I have now received at least two job offers. And one is from Apple Computer! Sure first I'm the "Mac Guy" (mockingly) unwillingly now I'm actually getting job offers from Apple. How did this happen? I didn't actually put anything about using Macs on my resume. I mean I'm sure I could web browse and get my email with one but as far as supporting stuff I don't think so. The only Jaguar I know was "64-bit" and branded as Atari (insert snivel here). I hear Apple is a very positive work environment however and if I can get something like that I'd really like it. Even if I do have to use an Apple :-). Should I think Apple wants me more than I want it?

Now maybe if I get a job at wherever I'll be able to relax and play some online games like I should. I did start playing Neverwinter Nights again. I was taking my time and have fun with it. I chose a half-orc barbarian for the purity of it all. Then got a "henchman" who was also an orc/barbarian. I'm already to level 8 at what I thought was the start of the game. Still in chapter 1 I'm fairly certain. If you were keeping track. I used to a NWN server for my friends and I. That was pretty cool really. But we've seemingly lost interest lately. Or I have. I don't think NWN is really that hard of a game. Not the default scenario/storyline anyway. Jeeze I have so many games I could be playing.

So it seems like there should be more to write about than jobs and games and LotRs. And there is really but I don't feel like sharing that. So the title to the last entry from a song. Some guy wrote it, produced it, recorded it and filmed a music video by himself on a Mac. I am referring to Liam Lynch - My United States Of Whatever. I thought it was a good song. I mean I don't really get it that much but I guess it's an ok song. You can find the MP3 and video at Albino Black Sheep.  ¶ 8:54 PM 0 Comments