Category

Rants

Rants are fun to write and read, but take them with a grain of salt.. I'm not that angry or mean of a person.

Sunday, May 18, 2003

My Rant, Reloaded

Ok, it seems my rant against the Matrix was a little harsh.  All in all, I really like the Matrix Reloaded.  It’s just that this trilogy has such high expectations that it unwillingly created for itself.  The producers obviously saw how much potential the first movie created and they are cashing on on this big time.  There’s no denying this.  The animatrix, the video game Enter the Matrix, selling out to powerade in commercials, its capitalism at work, baby.  They even opened the movie early on the 14th to make their opening weekend figures appear larger.  If you pay attention to all these, you can even catch subtle things in the movie like what happened to the Osiris and why the kid is following Neo.  Little things that you can probably guess what happened, but are there simply for the people who shell out the money to feel elite.  I saw the movie for the second time today and I’d like to go over the things I liked and disliked about my favorite movie’s sequel.  Spoiler alerts ahead, but if you haven’t seen it yet, you suck.  I’ve seen it twice.  I’ve given them my money, so I can feel elite.

What I disliked:
1.  The first thing that I disliked was also the first thing in the movie.  I hate it with a passion when movies or stories start with dream sequences.  Maybe I just think its overdone or something, but I always hate dream sequences.  This started the movie on a downward slope for me.
2.  I know Link is supposed to be the comic relief to the movie, but it got damn annoying after a while.  And the puss- joke was out of place.  There wasn’t much comic relief in the first movie, and it should have stayed at the same level.  At least he wasn’t as bad as Jar-Jar Binks.
3.  The Adventures in Zion, as I like to call it, took a long time and had too many corny jokes.  Once again, it should have been either more serious or less boring.  And don’t say I’m too stupid to catch what they were saying.  I understand it perfectly but its boring to listen too.  This is why DVD technology is so great, you can skip past this stuff
4.  I will never in my life retract what I said about the “Rave / Neo Ass” scene.  This is trash that pushes the movie from a PG-13 rating to an R rating.  Producers do this because of a preconception that people won’t go to anything rated beneath R rated movies because it’s childish.  Lots of movies will add meaningless profanity or sex scenes to make the movie seem more adult.  Personally, I think this usually detracts from the movie experience because it seems out of place most of the time.  It is especially evident in this movie.  I think the motive to this make this scene was that they assume you will watch all three movies back to back to back eventually, and you will need an intermission with some cool music.  :D
5.  Morpheus mentioned that they have freed more minds in the last 6 months than the last 6 years.  This goes against what they said in the first movie about most minds not being ready to be freed.  It’s about enlightening the chosen ones, not simply meeting quotas on freed people.
6.  I still think the part with the Merovingian was a little uncalled for.  We could tell what was happening to her without the need for matrix code.  And the part where Persephone wants to kiss Neo is stupid.  It would have worked if she just gave them the keymaker because she was mad at her husband.
7.  The fight scenes, while still awesome, were different than before.  The fights in the first movie used a lot of guns with was awesome.  Also, the fighting revolved mostly around who was stronger in the second one, as opposed to the first.  In the first, they were very creative about how they beat agents.  I liked the old way much better.
8.  I don’t like the fact that Neo can fly.  It’s just weird.

I’m sure there’s more, but i forget at the moment.

What I liked:
1.  I liked the main point about whether it is choice or causality that controls us.  I liked how the Merovingian saw through them, showing that they were just doing what they are told to do by the Oracle.  They are helping that which they are trying to destroy.
2.  I liked the double matrix theory, but I hope it doesn’t go too far.  For example, if it turns out that Neo or any of the others are programs, or if the entire Matrix is just a part of some other program, I will be mega pissed.
3.  The fight scenes were awesome, of course.  But there was still a lot of CGI used.  In the first movie they didn’t get attacked freaking every single time they were in the Matrix.  I know. someone will respond with “Upgrades”.  To that, I say “Upyours”.  Another thing I don’t get is why Neo even bothers beating the shit out of people.  If he’s the one, shouldn’t he be able to rewrite the matrix?

I can’t wait to see the next one in November.  I will have tickets to the first showing then too, so don’t label me a Matrix hater :D.

On to the next topic: the Whempy’s LAN in Columbus was on the 17th, and I went with Krhainos, Swiftwulf, and Codex.  We set up this cool wireless network between our cars as we made the two hour drive.  More about that on its own special page here.  The LAN was exactly as I had remembered it from a year ago.  Must be doing something right then, huh?  No.  I still hate every single thing they do there.  Their tournaments are always FFA or TDM (including CTF and gameplays like this), never 1v1.  They always have the worst rules that you have to follow, like a certain number of people have to be offense and defense.  Offense players are not allowed to chase people entering their bases down.  Also, they have this obsession with playing the oldest games around.  HLDM is fun, but they couldn’t get it working due to some HL virus that I was accused of having.  BS!  They obviously don’t know who they are dealing with, right?  I asked at the beginning of the LAN if the UT tourney was UT or UT2k3 and they said it was UT2k3.  It ended up being original UT, so it was not fun.  The tourneys ended up being HLDM, UT, Quake2, and Starcraft.  I hate their tourney system soo much I don’t know why I keep doing them.  It’s this reputation I gotta keep up, eh?  Right.  I had fun at the LAN though, simply because of the amount of people there.  The unorganized gameplay there is way more fun than than anything else.  I barely had any time when I was not playing anything.  Got to play a little BF1942, though not as much as I wanted.  Got to play a LOT of Q3, and a (almost) 1v1 against Ecrivian that lasted 92 minutes.  Good God!  :D Maybe we’ll go back again next month or the one after that.  Gotta play some more with the mobile wireless!

Well, I guess I am done writing for now, Peace.

Special Link Update! (thanks Swiftwulf):  http://www.macstation.com/whatsnew/monkeyboy/

Thursday, May 15, 2003

What the bloody hell

Ok, if you haven’t seen the matrix yet, you deserve to have it ruined for you.  It sucked.  It didn’t suck in the “two guys a girl and a pizza place” way, but it was not the matrix we know and love.  Too much of the movie relied on stuff that happened in the animatrix, like why the kid is following Neo and what happened to the Osiris.  Agent Smith is back, for no other reason than to get one hundred of his asses kicked by Neo.  Did you notice Trinity’s mad hacking skills?  Apparently, to disable buildings you use secure shell with -root after it.  “ssh 10.2.2.2 -root” is what she typed, no passwords or anything.  Basically, the first 40 minutes of the movie was pointless.  We don’t really have to know everything about the docking procedures of Zion and don’t get me started on the “Dancing / Neo ass” that was pointless.  The only thing that accomplished was turning a PG-13 movie into an R one.  This movie had a lot of cool ideas, but was poorly executed.  Like, lets spend 30 minutes talking to this french guy.  What he said in twenty minutes could have been explained in two.  And his voice was so god damn annoying.  Arrrgh..  And what’s with the 3d matrix stuff all the time?  Did we really have to zoom into her crotch to know what was happening?  The Wakalski brothers are huge perverts, it seems.  The twins were cool, I liked them.  Where did Morpheus get the katana?  I wasn’t looking for it at the beginning, but it seemed to come out of nowhere.  And there was too much of this “hidden door” stuff.  It’s not a bad idea, but it shouldn’t have been used so much for such a brand new idea.  The fight scenes used too much CGI, and it seemed like every time they were in the matrix they got attacked.  What the hell was with the french guy’s wife?  Lets spend like 10 minutes talking about a stupid kiss.  Don’t worry, Trinity, did you forget she’s digital?  Oh well.  I enjoyed most of the fighting, and I’ll probably go see it again soon.

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

The beginning of the end of the end of the beginning of the beginning of the end of the internet.

Read Full Entry

Monday, April 21, 2003

The world is not out to get you

Do not read this.  Do not read anything.  Do not trust the government.  Do not trust strangers.  Do not help old people cross the street.  Do not run old people over with your car if you can help it.  Do not run red lights, especially if you are in a large truck.  Do not get convicted of a DUI if you ever intend to fly for money.  Do not fly if you drink alcohol within the last 8 hours.  Do not attempt to fly if your drivers license has a suspension or worse.  Do not land on the grass runways at KSU Airport.  Do not bend the propeller on landing and try to hide it, it doesn’t work.  Do not attempt to go to college to fly if you want any free time at all.  Do not attempt to go to college if you want any free time at all.  Do not live in the dorms if you live near campus.  Do not touch the bathroom floor if you live in the dorms.  Do not attempt to fix the shower curtains in the bathrooms, it is futile.  Do not piss off the large gay guy.  Do not piss off the RA, unless he is your drinking buddy.  Do not talk to the RAs, unless you want to go to the mandatory meetings.  Do not go outside the dorm, unless you want to have a life.  Do not have a life unless you want to fail out of college.  Do not fail out of college unless you want to work at a church all your life.  Do not slack off in high school, it helps.  Do not try exceptionally hard in high school, it doesn’t help.  Do not change Mr. Close’s Networking lesson plan, or you get an in-school.  Do not drop German class before the third year.  Do not forget the deadlines for housing applications.  Do not forget the deadlines for class registration.  Do not take computer courses if you are not a computer major.  Do not take fashion courses, period.  Do not take ‘electives’ in college.  Do not work off campus in your freshman year if you live on campus.  Do not forget to change the refresh rate of your monitor to 60Hz if you are hosting the anime club’s meeting.  Do not let your grade point average go below 2.5 if you are in the anime club.  Do not watch too much anime if you are in the anime club…unless you really really want to.  Do not join the Evil Genius Club at KSU.  Do not join the worship Satan club, anywhere.  Do not drive really fast on the streets between dorms, you’re not cool.  Do not put spoilers on minivans or Volkswagen Beetles.  Do not put anything other than a Darwin fish or a Linux fish on your car.  Do not stand up for your beliefs, unless you want to be ‘special’.  Do not talk in class, or you will be expected to talk every damn day.  Do not finish a project more than 30 minutes before it is due.  DO NOT FAIL ETHICS.  Do not take a class above the required level for your major.  Do not pay for anything from Rosie’s Diner.  Do not pay for anything, if you fail ethics and believe this is ok.  Do not take unwanted pictures and edit them later unless it is with permission or really fuckin hilarious.  Do not refrain from watching Fruits Basket.  Do not watch Puni Puni Poemi.  Do not click ‘Yes’ on Hot or Not.com.  Do not click yes on any message containing the word “Gator”.  Do not rely on one set of cheap CD-R’s for backup purposes.  Do not play games if you get really mad when you lose, there is always someone better.  Do not think that I never lose.  Do not play with bots on low skill levels just because you can win.  Goddammit, Do not smoke pot in the bathroom!  Do not read Maddox’s site if you have any respect for crazy people.  Do not look at Jo’s site unless you respect the mspaint skeelz.  Do not threaten suicide to make people like you, it doesn’t work.  Do not listen to anything rappers have to say.  Do not use a sewing machine with the door open, if you are male.  Do not wait more than 5 minutes for a Campus Loop bus.  Do not use the on-campus bank.  Do not do the “Freshman Experience”  Do not buy Microsoft Office, ever.  Do not read junk email.  Do not install Kazaa, only Kazaalite.  Do not buy a Dell.  Do not spend more than $200 on a piece of hardware…or software for that matter.  Do not pay for a service that should be free, if it were not run by communist bastards.  Do not pass go.  Do not collect $200.

Read Full Entry

Tuesday, April 01, 2003

The internet is alive!

Ah yes, the internet.  One of those necessary evils in today's culture, standing alongside other evils such as thank-you notes, Microsoft, responsibility, and manners.  We don't know why we have these things, but we do.  And when we have something, we do what we Americans do best.  We never notice it until we lose it.  Yes, my friends, I have lost something.  I have lost my internet connection.  Obviously, it is not totally gone or you would not be reading this.  Allow me to explain.  KSU changed their network setup during spring break.  They use these ridiculously expensive devices called packeteers to figure out what you are doing online, like a QoS service.  From port numbers, they can tell if you are web browsing, playing q3, or downloading from kazaa.  Anyways, it's all a master plot to block everything except HTTP (web pages), so its faster for everyone.  Unfortunately, the people who run this system are idiots.  They know nothing about how an internet connection works, and in trying to make it fast they just ruin it for everyone.  The internet, you see, is not made of hypertext markup language, it is made up of TCP/IP.  It is a connection, not a file.  You can download from the internet, but you cannot download the internet itself.  What I mean is that the internet has so many features other than web browsing that these dolts forget about.  The funniest one I can think of is Secure HTTP, port 443 or something (I cant check because the internet is down as I am writing this.)  They completely forgot about this type of connection, and made it impossible to get to sites like paypal, or even the website that runs our work schedule!  Yeah, you guys are qualified to run this operation.  FTP, ssh, and many other important ports were blocked as well.  They eventually 'fixed' this, but it doesnt help when the university is so poor that they can't afford janitors, much less an internet connection.  Fuck you, Bob Taft!  We all know it's your fault! Republicans...  Of course, who needs the internet anyways?  We have phones, and books and crap.  The internet wasn't always around.  What did people do before computers took over the economy and proceeded to fux us over?  How did they send each other their photoshopped pictures before email came around?  What did hackers do all day?  They must have been bored.  They couldn't have posted all these fucking hilarious April fool's jokes.  Some were funny today, such as the QuakeCon trick.  Jo did one for Trancender.  But no one ever goes to the index page of that site.  :D  Almost made my heart jump.  Almost.  Penny-arcade and PvP drew comics for each other, and it was stupid.  That could have been funny if a normal pvp comic appeared on the penny arcade site, and vice versa, but people make it dumb.  Let's see, there was also the ever done "Microsoft buys Linux" ([url=http://www.tomshardware.com]Tom's hardware[/url], how could you?) and Nvidia buys ATi on some loser site, AOL buys DeviantArt, U.S. Soldiers advance towards Baghdad...yeah, I don't believe anything I heard today.  Seriously, some of these jokes are being way overdone.  Its like going to Maddox's site and wondering if he's going to criticize something that people like.  Yes, this is the role that the internet plays in our lives (Thank you Al Gore).  Maybe I will go to sleep earlier tonight.  Nah, it's quake time...lata