November 2003 Archives

Not a whole lot happened this week other than seeing The Last Samurai Wednesday night which was pretty sweet, but I already mentioned it in my last post. Yesterday at work I had to give a brief presentation on some of the things I've been working on over the semester. Being on the Customer Service team, there isn't a whole lot to really show off especially since the majority of the work I do is on the staff website which the other staff members see every day. So, in order to have something cool to show, I whipped up a quick little page that allows other staff to quickly create content pages for the staff site so that I don't have to do as much processing for them. I hardly spent any time on it, I just wanted to get a demo version done for the meeting, but everyone seemed to like it a lot which was kinda cool. I was so nervous though I couldn't talk right and I got all red in the face while I was presenting. How lame. One other cool thing that happened was I got a video card in the mail which I didn't expect at all. Apparently Paul had an extra GeForce4 MX 420 lying around and knew of my problems with my Voodoo 3 3000, so he decided to help a brother out. How generous, thanks! :) Aside from greatly improving my fps in TFC, one cool thing about the new card is that it has S-Video out, and our 59" widescreen TV has numerous S-Video input ports, so I just had to take my computer downstairs and try it out, hehehe.

I had to buy a S-Video cable to do that, but I'd say it's $20 well spent. While at Best Buy picking up the cable, I finally got around to buying the Half Baked dvd which I now watch on an almost daily basis. Speaking of dvds, Christmas is almost here, and I know what I want (thanks to EDDIE). ::drool::

Only 3 days of class left before the Thanksgiving break, and what a well-needed break it will be. I can't wait. The scary thing though is that after the break, there are only like 4 days of class left before finals. Scary.

I just got back from seeing a sneak preview of The Last Samurai. Since I didn't know anything about it other than Tom Cruise stars in it and my friend was an extra in it, I didn't have any expectations for the movie. Let me just say THAT MOVIE WAS AWESOME. It combined most everything I could want in a movie, epic battles, japanese people, muskets, japanese, cannons, samurai, sword fighting, engrish, seppuku, kimonos; it had it all. It even had ninjas! It was kinda like The Patriot meets Seven Samurai (two of my fav movies), but 10 times cooler (as if that's possible). So overall the movie was totally awesome and I am definitely buying that dvd the day it comes out. One thing I found funny was how in one scene Tom Cruise walks into a japanese house with mud caked all over his shoes and tracks in all this mud. The audience gasped in horror at that sight (since wearing shoes in the house is taboo), which I found pretty cool.

Other highlights of the evening included the airport-style searches before entering the theater. They searched all bags and purses, and were checking peoples' cell phones to see if they can take pictures. Not to mention the metal detector wands. Before the movie started there was a long message about how bootlegging movies is pretty illegal and whatnot. Apparently the MPAA is a bit paranoid. :) I saw the Ain't It Cool News guy there. I see him at a lot of movies. Apparently I (or my evil twin) also work for him. Just check out the Contributors and the Business End lists. I saw several other familiar faces there. Had a good time. Make sure to see The Last Samurai when it comes out! It gets my seal of approval. I really should get some sleep now.

The irony of it all is that I have a bunch of japanese homework to do now. (-_-)...

Matrix Moves

I'm just posting this for the sake of posting. Above is my weak attempt to recreate the matrix bullet ripple effect using primitive photoshop techiniques. Granted I didn't spend a whole lot of time or effort on it, but I'd say it's at least decent. The green is actually from my monitor (which was showing a white page at the time oddly enough), and is the only light source in the pic. It makes a neat gradient off the white backdrop (a sheet of paper). I also have a regularly lit version, but I like the green better. (more here). This is what happens when I get bored. And yes, he is balancing on his own, unaided.

At work I saw a (brief) preview of the Alien vs Predator movie. I didn't even know they were making one, but the very idea is pretty sweet. I can't wait for that one. How often do you get to combine two of your favorite movies into one? I'm not gonna have high expectations for it though since most movies these days tend to suck. Hopefully this won't be one of them.

6:45am
My mom comes in to my room to make sure I'm up in time for work. I tell her I don't have to be at work until 9:30am. I have 2 alarms set, one for 8:00am, the other (my cell phone) for 8:30am. Normally I have the two alarms on my clock set 15 mins apart and my cell phone set 5 mins after the second alarm.

8:00am
Alarm clock goes off. Doesn't phase me one bit. As usual I simply turn it off. It's pretty much a reflex now.

8:30am
Cell phone alarm goes off. Scares the crap out of me. I'm friggin tired. I'll just sleep 5 more mins.

from 8:30am on
I'm having the coolest, strangest dream. I'm dreaming I'm in Japan with my family. So many cool sites, so many cool people. I'm having a blast! Wow, I speak fluent Japanese apparently. Suddenly I'm walking down a hallway in some Japanese building and who do I see? Woah, it's the Hieroglyphics crew! Why are they in Japan? Why are they in this crappy building? Why are they talking to me? Why am I even dreaming about them? I haven't heard that cd in weeks. Who cares, this is awesome! Japan rules! This is the best dream ever! I don't want to wake up. wake up....

9:20am
Damn, I was having the greatest dream. What time is it? 9:20?!?! HOLY GOD I'M LATE! I'm supposed to be at work at 9:30, omg! I get dressed and I'm ready to go in a record 5 mins. I call my boss to tell him I'm gonna be 30 mins late. He sounds rather disappointed. I've never been late before, this is bad. Real bad.

9:35am
I jump into the car and begin my frenzied drive to work. Once I hit MoPac it's 85mph. No less, often more. I nearly have a wreck swerving to avoid a deer that has been obliterated all over the road. That's not a pleasant sight. Poor deer. All of a sudden a small rock flies off a big truck in front of me and smacks my windshield. Oh great, now I have a small, permanent pock mark on my windshield. It's right in my line of sight too. That's really annoying. Damn trucks.

9:50am
I pull into the UT parking garage across the street from work. I hate parking in the garage. That's $7 down the drain right there. Convenient location though. Oh well, I'm late as hell.

9:55am
I arrive at work, 25 minutes late. I feel horrible and seriously stressed out. What a way to start off my day/week.

~11:00am-ish
I come to the grim realization that I am failing Statistics class miserably, thus extending my college career another semester. Yay 5.5 year plan. I think I'm gonna be sick. ..or have a stroke. Or both.

So that is a basic run down of my awful day. I'm so stressed out, even now, that my chest hurts. I think the worst part of today was telling my parents that I'll probably have to stay yet another semester at UT. It's tough because they've been so excited about me graduating next semester. It's a really big deal to them and I feel like I've really let them down this time. That alone makes all this unbearable. Ugh.

As you can see, I FINALLY got some Stikfas. They're pretty cool except some of their joints are either too lose or too stiff. I found them at Gamespot, but unfortunately they only had 2 kinds. I'm hoping the other Gamespot near here has the samurai one. That's the main one I want. They're kind of expensive though. Not sure how many more of these I'll pick up. I guess it depends on how easily I can find them, heh. At any rate, Shawn wants to make a movie with these, but just taking their pictures was difficult enough. I can only imagine how hard it must be to make a movie with them. models.. sheesh.