Raves

Nordstrom’s of the world

Surely You’re Joking

These past few days have been mostly a blur. Studying late in to the night, getting a quick bit of sleep, and then waking up to take whatever final I might have. Only to repeat the same schedule, irrespective of the time. This has lead to some serious issues for my biological clock, thusly I really don’t have a natural idea of what day or what time it is.

And so it was just past midnight, in my somewhat futile attempt to study physics that I decided to go look up a book I’ve been meaning to read for some time now: Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!

I read the first few pages and then returned to my studies. However, I decided to take the book with me so that I could finish it off at a later point.

Well, 3am rolls around. I’ve been laying in bed for a good while now, to no avail. I pick up from where I left off.

It’s now just past 4. I’ve been reading for an hour straight. This is simply one of the best books I’ve ever read. I really wish I could have met him.

The little lady came back again and said, “Mr. Feynman, Mrs. Eisenhart would like to see you.”
“OK, OK!” and I go over to Mrs. Eisenhart, who’s pouring tea.
“Would you like to have some coffee or tea, Mr. Feynman?”
“Mrs. So-and-so says you wanted to talk to me.”
“Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh. Would you like to have coffee, or tea, Mr. Feynman?”
“Tea,” I said, “thank you.”
A few moments later Mrs. Eisenhart’s daughter and a schoolmate came over, and we were introduced to each other. The whole idea of this “heh-heh-heh” was: Mrs. Eisenhart didn’t want to talk to me, she wanted me over there getting tea when her daughter and friend came over, so they would have someone to talk to. That’s the way it worked. By that time I knew what to do when I heard “Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh.” I didn’t say, “What do you mean, ‘Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh’?”; I knew the “heh-heh-heh” meant “error,” and I’d better get it straightened out.

In writing this post, I stumbled upon http://www.gorgorat.com/, which appears to have the complete text of the book online. I would still recommend checking it out from the library though.

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Casino Royale

  • Raves

“Now you can tell all your friends that you died scratching my balls.” – James Bond

Note: There may be some spoilers, nothing too bad, just a warning.

Wow. What a fantastic movie. I left thinking that was one of the best Bond movies, ever. Easily one of the top five. Better even than GoldenEye (although interestingly enough, it’s the same director, Martin Cambell). I like that it’s a smart film. It’s written for a newer, younger generation that’s tired of formulaic movies. Granted, the basic outline of James Bond movies is rather formulaic, but Casino Royale breaks out of this with a few exceptions: a really nice car is destroyed, there are some gadgets (although not nearly as many as in past films), the girl, the villain, guns, and action. Lots of action. The action scene is awesome. By far the best that I can remember…ever.

What’s missing? CGI. Which is good. We all know how the Clone Wars went down with that completely CGI scene. Speaking of bad CGI, anyone seen the shitty CGI for Spiderman 3 yet? Yea….not going to be seeing that movie. Just in case anyone was wondering, I don’t mind CGI…but it has to be good CGI. What’s good CGI?

matrix-super-punch.jpg

John Gaeta is my hero. That’s good CGI.

But back to Bond. Um yea. Great Fantastic film.

From en.wikipedia.org:

It currently has a powerful 8.2/10 rating on the Internet Movie Database and it has been rated at #229 in the top 250 movie of all time; the highest rating for a James Bond movie.

(Emphasis added)

The best part is the end. Craig finally utters the immortal words:

Mr. White: (I’m paraphrasing here) Who are you?

James Bond: Bond, James Bond.

Cut to black. Roll credits.

I give it an A+ and strongly recommend seeing it in theaters.

[tags]James Bond, Casino Royale, movie, review[/tags]

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X-Men 3: The Last Stand

  • Raves

The movie was good.

The last scene was excellent.

The scene after the credits is jaw dropping.

That’s right, you NEED to watch ALL the credits, then watch the last scene. Just about everyone at the Cinerama waited and then went “OOoooooo!”

[tags]xmen, xmen 3, the last stand, movie[/tags]

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V for Vendetta

Holy crap. What a freaking hawsome movie. Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith from The Matrix) does such a great job playing V, despite the fact that we never see his face. That takes talent. Natalie Portman also does a great job. It’s a mix of 1984 meets Clockwork Orange meets The Matrix. It does a great job of illustrating what fear can do to society and in the movie how “Fear became the ultimate tool of this government.” In many ways, V for Vendetta shows what might happen to America if we continue on our current path: “People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.”

Other Memorable Quotes:

Evey Hammond: Who are you?
V: “Who?” “Who” is but the form following the function of “what”, and *what* I am is a man in a mask.
Evey Hammond: Well I can see that!
V: Of course you can. I’m not questioning your powers of observation, I’m merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.

————————————-

V: Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

[tags]V for Vendetta, Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman, 1984, Clockwork Orange, The Matrix[/tags]

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The Constant Gardner

  • Raves

What a great movie. The first 45 minutes or so are a little difficult to follow, but the movie brings it all together very nicely by the end.

From Netflix:

Based on John le Carré’s best-seller, this tale of political intrigue centers on Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), a member of the British High Commission based in Nairobi. When his wife (Rachel Weisz) is murdered, Justin refuses to leave the matter to his superiors and begins his own investigation. Not even the rumors of his wife’s affairs will stop him from uncovering the truth — a conspiracy much larger and more dangerous than he’d imagined.

Link: The Constant Gardner

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From the Balcony

  • Raves

Matt Matteson told me about this on our way up to the pass Friday. Statler and Waldorf, the two old Mupets who always are in the balcony, are now reviewing movies on Movies.com. This is one of the better pieces of movie commentaries I’ve seen and their Balcon-ism’s are hilarious. For example: coinci-DANCE; where music starts playing in a movie and everyone starts dancing in perfect choreography.

Link: Statler & Waldorf: From the Balcony

[tags]Matt Matteson, Mumpets, Movies.com[/tags]

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Saw II

I’m not going to put any spoilers in here. But I will say that Saw II was an awesomly-great movie, even better than the first one. I didn’t see the trailer (the theatrical trailer that is, not to be confused with the teaser) before the movie and I would suggest you not see it either. If you must see a trailer, see the teaser. It doesn’t reveal as much and will make the movie significantly better. As a warning, this is a very violent movie and not for the faint of heart. Even I flintched a couple times. Here’s my one little hint, four is better than three.

[tags]saw 2, movie, review[/tags]

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The Brothers Grimm

  • Raves

Saw the Brothers Grimm. Actually just back from it a not long ago. A good movie. Probably not worth seeing in theaters, but definitely work renting from NetFlix when it comes out.

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Done With Firefly

I just finished the last of the Firefly dics. Wow. FOX really does suck. That was a really great show and now I can’t wait for Friday when I’m going to go see Serenity in the theater! But come on Fox. Family Guy and now this?

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Firefly

I’m sorry for ever doubting anyone who said that Firefly was awesome. I just watched the first disc at Kit’s house and now I put the rest of the discs at the top of my NetFlix list. Jacqueline is right though, it is kind of confusing as to whether it is a sci-fi or a western. It’s sort of a mix of Red Dwarf, Andromedia, and a good ol’ Western movie. Unfortunately, Fox decided to dump the series (this was like three years ago, by the way). In any event, there’s a follow-up movie to the TV show: Serenity which is due in theaters in 12 DAYS! So I’m going to go see that for sure…probably on the 30th, too.

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