Archive for April, 2007

I’m sick

Published
by
Austen
on April 30, 2007
in Life
. 2 Comments

Yep, that’s right! I’m sick. I had a sore throat this weekend that was pretty bad. This morning I still had it, but not as bad. A trip to the doctor’s confirmed (or at least 90%) accuracy wasn’t Strep throat, but they’re doing the full (not quick) test now. The funny thing is ever since this morning I’ve been feeling better and better (without any medicine) so now, at 4:00 my soar throat is almost gone.

So yay, I missed school today. But I also missed a Spanish test, and a Science lab. And the next few days will be all makeup work. Tutoring during lunch periods, tests after school lets out, etc.

Of course, being sick isn’t what it used to be. It used to mean a day blocked off from any form of learning… a day to have an excuse to sit on the couch and watch TV all day. But not anymore. The 21st century has made sure of that. Now I can get my homework online, and email teachers to schedule tutoring appointments because I missed their class today.

And this broke my perfect record! I’ve never been absent all this year! (Although I’ve been late a couple of times.)

Serenity

Published
by
Austen
on April 29, 2007
in Movies, Television and Videos
. 0 Comments

Serenity is probably the best Sci-Fi movie to come out in the last decade (when digital technology was available.) I have talked about both Serenity and the series it was based on, Firefly. I recieved the complete season of Firefly on DVD for my 13th birthday, knowing nothing about it. I did eventually find out though, that it was a sci-fi TV show made during the 2001-2002 season that takes place 500 years in the future, and now instead of riding boats, we ride spaceships.

The show pulled very much from a classic western style of life. The main characters were crewmates on a small ship called Serenity who are always trying to evade the Alliance, an interplanetary government trying to control the galaxy. Of course, they’re not the good guys. There ways of getting things done can be considered… violent at times.

Anyway, the TV show (all 16 episodes of it) were simply amazing. Despite a normal TV budget, it is still in my opinion one of the most imaginative and great shows I have ever seen. Joss Whedon, who created Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the executive producer, and despite his fame, the show was cancelled before the end of the season. But the fan base was amazing. The fans pushed for Joss Whedon to continue it, even raising money to give to him. Finally, in 2005 Serenity comes out. Serenity is the continuation of the TV show, and it stays true to all of the characters, only this time we have a slightly larger budget.

Even without seeing the TV show (although it definitely helps) Serenity is funny, exciting, scary and just FUN all at the same time. Take a look at this clip from the opening sequence of the movie:

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

That clip shows the characters and the heart of the show/movie. Although Serenity is a Sci-Fi movie, it doesn’t over-do the special effects (the budget was fairly low) and it keeps things real. So rent Serenity from your local store or on Netflix! You won’t be disappointed. Then, if you like it, buy Firefly on DVD.

Goodbye Lost, may you rest in peace

Published
by
Austen
on April 27, 2007
in Television
. 2 Comments

Lost that was is now dead. Lost used to be a great show, as I have mentioned at least 6 times on my blog. Season 1 was amazing. Season 2 was always exciting. But Season 3 really has jumped the shark. Seriously. If I were to list every single un-resolved mystery on Lost, it would go on for pages upon pages.

But I won’t, for that reason. I’ll just do some of Season 3. Season 3 has been like The Twighlight Zone, only in color. It’s jumped the shark. When did it do it? When we found out that there were in fact 2 islands, and then when Eko died. Oh, and then when Desmond started time traveling and seeing the future. Oh, then there was the whole thing with Hurley’s restraunt being hit by a meteor, Nikki and Paulo being buried alive, Locke being thrown out a window by his father, and then his father all of the sudden appearing on the island, and then a helicopter coming to the island, but crashing. And then Desmond’s ex-fiance is all of the sudden there, and then there’s the farm on the island that no one ever knew about containing none other than Mikali, who is in fact an other, dies from a seizure the next episode by being electrocuted by some weird electro-fence thingy. But then Mikali is alive again, all pregnant women die on the island, and now, FINALLY when this new woman on the island says that they found Oceanic Flight 815 and that there were no survivors!!!

These aren’t even all of the new mysteries introduced JUST in Season 3 so far. The sad thing is that Lost is still such a good show. Aside from the whole thing that each episode there’s another person who suddenly appears on the island, the quality of the acting and episode structure is as good as it’s always been. I will continue to watch Lost, but it has recently crossed the line where it no longer makes any sense, and it can’t come back from that. Because even if they had a whole season explaining all of the mysteries, they wouldn’t get through them all.

Anywho, I’m still watching it - it’s still enjoyable - so… It’s not really goodbye to Lost, just to when it still made sense. Anyway… Is it just me or does interface on the satellite phone from 2 episodes ago look just a LITTLE like the iPhone’s??? They have the same rounded corners on the boxes……

Wordpress Plugin: Twitter Tools

Published
by
Austen
on April 26, 2007
in Technology
. 0 Comments

Twitter Tools is a Wordpress plugin by developer Alex King which is really what it sounds like: A collection of various tools to link Twitter with you blog. It allows you to:

  • Archive your Twitter tweets (downloaded every 30 minutes)
  • Create a blog post from each of your tweets
  • Create a daily archive of Twitter tweets
  • Create a tweet on Twitter whenever you post in your blog, with a link to the blog post
  • Post a tweet from your sidebar

Of the 5 above, I only use 3: Twitter links to my new blog posts, I have a sidebar module with my latest tweets, and I can post from that same sidebar. It works amazingly well and simple, and is a great way to get some of your tweets done automaticallly, and also to create a better connection between Twitter and your blog.

Twitter Tools (3rd one down) | Readme | Alexking.org (lots of other great plugins)

Karl Rove, um… rapping?

Published
by
Austen
on April 25, 2007
in Humor and Videos
. 3 Comments

This is already almost a month old, and I don’t know how I missed it. But this was just too good to pass up.

When you hear the phrase “polar opposites” what do you think of? I think of, well, the north and south poles. But after that, I think of rapping and politics. Apparently not.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Wikipedia explains this:

On March 29, 2007, Rove was persuaded to participate in an improvised rap song at a Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington by improvisors Brad Sherwood and Colin Mochrie of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame. A video of the event, showing Rove attempting to dance to the rap and referring to himself as “MC Rove” has since spread on the internet.

Thanks Uncle Bob for alerting me to this very strange video.

The Daily Show: Apocalypse How?

Published
by
Austen
on April 25, 2007
in Humor, Television and Videos
. 0 Comments

Last Thursday The Daily Show had a hilarious segment featuring Jason Jones going to find the “other side” of the global warming debate. He makes a movie with an opposing view to “An Inconvenient Truth” and shows it to a 7th grade class at the request of a parent.

As that 7th grade teacher remarks in the segment: “I found an article from Newsweek that opposed the film’s (An Inconvenient Truth’s) view, but it was over 30 years old.” The clip is hilarious, although way to short. They could have done a whole show on just this! Here’s the Comedy Central embedded player: (sorry there’s no YouTube version)

“Photoshop” not a verb

Published
by
Austen
on April 24, 2007
in Other
. 0 Comments

From the Adobe Terms of Use:

The Photoshop trademark must never be used as a common verb or as a noun. The Photoshop trademark should always be capitalized and should never be used in possessive form, or as a slang term. It should be used as an adjective to describe the product, and should never be used in abbreviated form.

And then, look how they go on:

The following examples illustrate these rules:

Trademarks are not verbs.

CORRECT: The image was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® software.
INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.

And to top it off with the big finale…

Trademarks are proper adjectives and should be followed by the generic terms they describe.

CORRECT: The image was manipulated using Adobe® Photoshop® software.

INCORRECT: The image was manipulated using Photoshop.

All I can say is: Ah, shaddup. I know that Adobe has a copyright to protect and everything, but it just seems so… mean and pointles. Google has no problem making their “trademark” a verb… It’s in the dictionary now. I guess I’m over-reacting, but this is really just so stupid!

[Via Digg]

Oh! and on a completely unrelated note, you should definitely check out this picture that was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® Elements® software!

The image enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® Elements® software pokes fun at the Product® Red® campaign, and at Apple Inc.’s® constant updating of their iPod® Nano® line of iPods®.

I’m finding that I’m having a lot of fun while playing with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements® software, you should all get it from Adobe® as soon as you can so you can do more stuff like this image enhanced with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements® software.

I’m 14 and a half!

Published
by
Austen
on April 24, 2007
in Humor and Life
. 2 Comments

Today, April 24th 2007 marks my half birthday. Why do I care so much? Well…

Let’s say that on a happiness scale of 1 to 10, on my birthday I’d be about 10. So, on my half birthday I should be half as excited as I am on my normal birthday. That’s a 5. And the subtitle for 5 is “fairly happy.” That may not seem like that much.

But… this is in addition to my normal daily happiness which is usually around 4 (sorta happy) or 5. So… that sets my happiness scale to be 9 or 10. (4+5=9 and 5+5=10) But of course, that would make me 15 happy on my birthday, but that actually seems about right anyway.