Now known: The EXCITING! origin of hiccups.
I am pleased to report that the cause for hiccups has been figured out by scientists (according to Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin). Hiccups are a remnant of the evolutionary transition from gills to lungs, from fish to amphibian. Imagine a new baby tadpole swimming around in a pond. I is born as a fish-like thing with gills and develops lungs later as it grows. But at one point it has both! Golly, how does that work? This is where hiccups come in. The tadpole swims up to the surface of the water, takes a big gulp of air into its lungs (hic) and then closes it epiglotis, and dives down and resumes breathing with its gills. The repetition of this process is what we experience as hiccups. Turns out all animals can get hiccups and the same part of the brain controls it in all animals. Apparently natural selection never selected it out of our gene pool.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
the iPhone of the future!
The following are my thoughts on "if I could have my iPhone do anything, what would I have it do?"
Okay, I am so in love with my iPhone.
The phone part, it's okay, but the personal computer? Wow! That is something I would like to see developed further.
So now here is what I want.
I want first of all to be able to talk to my iPhone and to be able to tell it to do things by voice command.
"iPhone call Pete mobile" or "iPhone google charles bronson"
better yet would be
"iPhone, access facebook, update status 'I am riding a segway.'"
even better,
I would like my iPhone to periodically check in with me and tell me things or ask me questions.
"Mahdroo you have an Doctor's appointment today at 4pm."
"Mahdroo, would you like to update your twitter status?"
Now given that, if I really dream, I want the following.
I want my iPhone to run multiple databases tracking my life.
So like imagine 5 excel spreadsheets running:social life, diet, finances, travel, mood
At regular intervals my iPhone would Ping me,
"Mahdroo what is your current mood"
I'd reply "engrossed" or "anxious" or "happy" and it would enter that emotion on a database but also, at that date and time, it would enter the current time, temperature, my location, as well as keep track of how much I spend, and what I eat
"Mahdroo whadya have for breakfast?" "Hummus, Pita Bread."
It would track who I hung out with and what we did.
"Mahdroo, I see that you are moving, what are you up to?"
"Going to festival with Jessica and Paul."
And it would upload this information to my computer, or it would have a built in analyzing AI, which would cross reference all the variable factors and begin looking for patterns [I do not care how BIG an iPHone would have to be to do this, I'd wear a backpack if I had to for this kind of interface].
"Mahdroo, 1 hours after you drink coke/soda your mood becomes Anxious 91% of the time."
"Mahdroo, you have listed friend/contact Zelmo as your 5th best friend, but he is 12th on the list of people you regularly interact with."
"Mahdroo, you call your mother, on average, every 10th day. Would you like iPhone to prompt you to call her more frequently?"
This would be AMAZING. I could add to my subjective understanding of my life and objective report to give me realistic perspective. I think this would be very useful if I wanted to understand my life and make it fit more in line with my dreams, desires and ambitions.
Now, I want to take a moment and address the concerns I can hear people voicing to this. There are two kinds of concerns. The first is the external threat. "Oh no, our data will get in the hands of giant evil corporations." While this is 1984 thinking model is valid, I think this could be easily resolved. The purpose of a phone/personal computer, even though it is on a network, should be to serve its user and not the corporation that made it. We would likely end up with a situation where corporations offered to buy your data rather than steal it or force it from you. That said, this is a tertiary and resolvable concern that people would throw out to cover the more deep fear they would have about the technology I am discussing.
----
The primary concern I think people would have with this technology is that most people don't want to know what is going on in their life, because not knowing is one of their chief psychological & social protections. For example, imagine one day you have double booked an evening. You call Jimmy to say "oh sorry Jimmy, I am so sick, I can't hang out tonight" and then go to a party with other friends. We tend to think of this as a polite way of covering up the fact that we are rejecting Jimmy, and that protecting him from this harsh truth was better than telling him our plans honestly. Now imagine if your iPhone announced "you have cancelled 6 of your last 10 scheduled interactions with Jimmy." You might feel guilty about this. You'd say "shut up iPhone, don't ever tell me anything like that again" because you want to keep the mental protection of not knowing. However, once you got past feeling hurt because you thought it was bad of you to reject Jimmy, and your mean ol iPhone called you on it, you might go on to alter your behavior towards Jimmy, either hanging out with him more, or ceasing setting up events with him. You could even prompt your phone to remind you to do either.
Between those two reactions is the problem with the technology I am envisioning. On the one hand, we think we could not psychologically handle this information. On the other, if we had it (and a useful AI-personal assistant-bot) then we could use it to order our lives more in line with our intentions. Most everyone I have talked to about this idea has proposed altering the technology to fit our psychology. I however propose that instead of changing or limiting the technology because we could not handle it psychologically, we should aim to change our psychology to handle the reality of the situation the technology would present us.
Two different points of view from which to stand are "what is wrong with me?" versus "I'm great, now how do I get what I want?"One of my core beliefs is that if everyone understood what everyone else was actually like, then we wouldn't have as much shame and guilt and fear in our lives, and this would diminish the degree to which anyone is engaged asking "what is wrong with me?" We would be less likely to label things "wrong" and more likely to understand differences in others. I think any given person's perception of how one should act is created from limited access to a realistic understanding about how people DO act (including themselves). To a head, my theory is that if you understood yourself better/more accurately, I believe that you would see that you are the way you are, and the things that you think are wrong with yourself aren't. Instead of not accepting your own thoughts. feelings, behavior, actions, desires etc, and trying to change any of those so you can be how you think you should be, I think people could come from a space of greater-self acceptance. To be clear, access to greater information would not perfectly correlate to increased self acceptance. Another influence would likely be required, such as psychology, to help people choose to accept their life instead of deciding they are a horrible horrible person and getting really depressed. I feel confident that such mechanisms exist and could be utilized. And they aren't nearly as much fun to talk about as awesome talking iPhone AI-bots that help me lose weight.
Yes, AI bots that would make my life more understandable and a secretary to help. That is what I want. Okay, Apple, get to it (maybe I should start learning how to program?).
Okay, I am so in love with my iPhone.
The phone part, it's okay, but the personal computer? Wow! That is something I would like to see developed further.
So now here is what I want.
I want first of all to be able to talk to my iPhone and to be able to tell it to do things by voice command.
"iPhone call Pete mobile" or "iPhone google charles bronson"
better yet would be
"iPhone, access facebook, update status 'I am riding a segway.'"
even better,
I would like my iPhone to periodically check in with me and tell me things or ask me questions.
"Mahdroo you have an Doctor's appointment today at 4pm."
"Mahdroo, would you like to update your twitter status?"
Now given that, if I really dream, I want the following.
I want my iPhone to run multiple databases tracking my life.
So like imagine 5 excel spreadsheets running:social life, diet, finances, travel, mood
At regular intervals my iPhone would Ping me,
"Mahdroo what is your current mood"
I'd reply "engrossed" or "anxious" or "happy" and it would enter that emotion on a database but also, at that date and time, it would enter the current time, temperature, my location, as well as keep track of how much I spend, and what I eat
"Mahdroo whadya have for breakfast?" "Hummus, Pita Bread."
It would track who I hung out with and what we did.
"Mahdroo, I see that you are moving, what are you up to?"
"Going to festival with Jessica and Paul."
And it would upload this information to my computer, or it would have a built in analyzing AI, which would cross reference all the variable factors and begin looking for patterns [I do not care how BIG an iPHone would have to be to do this, I'd wear a backpack if I had to for this kind of interface].
"Mahdroo, 1 hours after you drink coke/soda your mood becomes Anxious 91% of the time."
"Mahdroo, you have listed friend/contact Zelmo as your 5th best friend, but he is 12th on the list of people you regularly interact with."
"Mahdroo, you call your mother, on average, every 10th day. Would you like iPhone to prompt you to call her more frequently?"
This would be AMAZING. I could add to my subjective understanding of my life and objective report to give me realistic perspective. I think this would be very useful if I wanted to understand my life and make it fit more in line with my dreams, desires and ambitions.
Now, I want to take a moment and address the concerns I can hear people voicing to this. There are two kinds of concerns. The first is the external threat. "Oh no, our data will get in the hands of giant evil corporations." While this is 1984 thinking model is valid, I think this could be easily resolved. The purpose of a phone/personal computer, even though it is on a network, should be to serve its user and not the corporation that made it. We would likely end up with a situation where corporations offered to buy your data rather than steal it or force it from you. That said, this is a tertiary and resolvable concern that people would throw out to cover the more deep fear they would have about the technology I am discussing.
----
The primary concern I think people would have with this technology is that most people don't want to know what is going on in their life, because not knowing is one of their chief psychological & social protections. For example, imagine one day you have double booked an evening. You call Jimmy to say "oh sorry Jimmy, I am so sick, I can't hang out tonight" and then go to a party with other friends. We tend to think of this as a polite way of covering up the fact that we are rejecting Jimmy, and that protecting him from this harsh truth was better than telling him our plans honestly. Now imagine if your iPhone announced "you have cancelled 6 of your last 10 scheduled interactions with Jimmy." You might feel guilty about this. You'd say "shut up iPhone, don't ever tell me anything like that again" because you want to keep the mental protection of not knowing. However, once you got past feeling hurt because you thought it was bad of you to reject Jimmy, and your mean ol iPhone called you on it, you might go on to alter your behavior towards Jimmy, either hanging out with him more, or ceasing setting up events with him. You could even prompt your phone to remind you to do either.
Between those two reactions is the problem with the technology I am envisioning. On the one hand, we think we could not psychologically handle this information. On the other, if we had it (and a useful AI-personal assistant-bot) then we could use it to order our lives more in line with our intentions. Most everyone I have talked to about this idea has proposed altering the technology to fit our psychology. I however propose that instead of changing or limiting the technology because we could not handle it psychologically, we should aim to change our psychology to handle the reality of the situation the technology would present us.
Two different points of view from which to stand are "what is wrong with me?" versus "I'm great, now how do I get what I want?"One of my core beliefs is that if everyone understood what everyone else was actually like, then we wouldn't have as much shame and guilt and fear in our lives, and this would diminish the degree to which anyone is engaged asking "what is wrong with me?" We would be less likely to label things "wrong" and more likely to understand differences in others. I think any given person's perception of how one should act is created from limited access to a realistic understanding about how people DO act (including themselves). To a head, my theory is that if you understood yourself better/more accurately, I believe that you would see that you are the way you are, and the things that you think are wrong with yourself aren't. Instead of not accepting your own thoughts. feelings, behavior, actions, desires etc, and trying to change any of those so you can be how you think you should be, I think people could come from a space of greater-self acceptance. To be clear, access to greater information would not perfectly correlate to increased self acceptance. Another influence would likely be required, such as psychology, to help people choose to accept their life instead of deciding they are a horrible horrible person and getting really depressed. I feel confident that such mechanisms exist and could be utilized. And they aren't nearly as much fun to talk about as awesome talking iPhone AI-bots that help me lose weight.
Yes, AI bots that would make my life more understandable and a secretary to help. That is what I want. Okay, Apple, get to it (maybe I should start learning how to program?).
Friday, January 23, 2009
my hotmail using mother
My 60+ year old mother.
I was helping her with her computer this morning.
I got her off a pc and onto mac 5 years ago.
She is running OSX 10.3
And using Safari v1 for a browser.
Yeah, they invented Safari in 2003, and she is still running v1
and there are no longer any 10.3 compatible updates for it.
This means Hotmail is no longer compatible.
(yes she uses hotmail).
She can't send and delete emails on hotmail.
Oh god. Why?
Like herding cats,
I have trained her how to download and install browsers
and now she has ie, safari, firefox, camino and opera.
And one by one we found that none of them worked, until...
Opera! Hooray! The only one!
So we're going to let her use opera
and go take her mac to a mac store to get
osx 10.5 so she can use safari to check her
hotmail.
Whhheeeeeee
I was helping her with her computer this morning.
I got her off a pc and onto mac 5 years ago.
She is running OSX 10.3
And using Safari v1 for a browser.
Yeah, they invented Safari in 2003, and she is still running v1
and there are no longer any 10.3 compatible updates for it.
This means Hotmail is no longer compatible.
(yes she uses hotmail).
She can't send and delete emails on hotmail.
Oh god. Why?
Like herding cats,
I have trained her how to download and install browsers
and now she has ie, safari, firefox, camino and opera.
And one by one we found that none of them worked, until...
Opera! Hooray! The only one!
So we're going to let her use opera
and go take her mac to a mac store to get
osx 10.5 so she can use safari to check her
hotmail.
Whhheeeeeee
Saturday, August 2, 2008
A blog topic about blog topics (gackkk!)
If you are reading this, you've probably already thought "why does Mahdroo have a blog?" And the obvious answer is not that I want to keep you appraised of my life (gosh, go find my Twitter account for that. jk) but rather because I like wasting time on the intranets. So to further clog the pipes, here is a list I found of all the blog topics I could try out (or you!).
http://weblogs.about.com/od/startingablog/tp/BlogPostIdeas.htm
1. Lists
People love lists, and just about any kind of list is bound to attract traffic. Top 10 lists, 5 things not to do, 3 reasons I love something, etc. Start with a number then take it from there.
2. How-to
People love to find easy-to-follow instructions to help them accomplish a task. Whether you want to teach your readers how to throw the perfect curve ball or how to avoid getting bitten by a mosquito, the choice is yours.
3. Reviews
You can write a review of just about anything on your blog. Take a look at the following suggestions:
* Products
* Websites
* Books
* Movies
* Music
* Restaurants
* Hotels
The possibilities are nearly endless. Just think of something you've tried and write about your experience and thoughts.
4. Photos
Post a photo (or photos) related to your blog topic.
5. Link Roundup
Write a post that includes a list of links to other blog posts that published great posts or to websites you like.
6. Current Events
What's going on in the world? Write a post about an interesting bit of news.
7. Tips
Write a post to share tips to help your readers accomplish something in an easier, faster or cheaper way.
8. Recommendations
Share recommendations for your favorite books, websites, movies or other "favorites" related to your blog topic.
9. Interviews
Interview a prominent figure or expert in your blog topic then publish a blog post about it.
10. Polls
Register for an account with a site like PollDaddy.com then publish a poll related to your blog topic in one of your blog posts.
11. Contests
People love to win prizes, and blog contests are a great way to drive traffic to your blog as well as encourage visitors to leave comments. Blog contests can be used to write several posts such as an announcement post, a reminder post and a winner post.
12. Blog Carnivals
Join a blog carnival (or host one yourself) then write a post about the carnival topic.
13. Podcasts
Sometimes it's easier to talk about something than it is to write about it. If that's the case, try audio blogging and post a podcast.
14. Videos
Share a video from YouTube or one of your own, or host a video blog.
15. Quotes
Share a quote from a celebrity or prominent person in a field related to your blog topic. Be sure to cite your source!
16. Links to Interesting Content from Digg or StumbleUpon
Sometimes you can find some really interesting submissions on Digg, StumbleUpon and other social bookmarking sites. It's fun to share links to some of the best submissions related to your blog topic or of interest to your readers in one of your own blog posts.
17. Your Turn
Turn the tables and post a question or comment then ask your readers what they think about that question or comment. Your turn posts are a great way to spark a conversation.
18. Guest Posts
Ask other bloggers or experts in a field related to your blog topic to write a guest post for your blog.
19. Point/Counterpoint
A point/counterpoint post is where you present two opposing sides to an argument or issue. This type of post can even be separated into two different posts where the first presents one side of the argument and the second presents the other side.
20. Answer Reader Questions or Comments
Look back through the comments left by your readers and find any questions or statements that can be used to spark a new post.
http://weblogs.about.com/od/startingablog/tp/BlogPostIdeas.htm
1. Lists
People love lists, and just about any kind of list is bound to attract traffic. Top 10 lists, 5 things not to do, 3 reasons I love something, etc. Start with a number then take it from there.
2. How-to
People love to find easy-to-follow instructions to help them accomplish a task. Whether you want to teach your readers how to throw the perfect curve ball or how to avoid getting bitten by a mosquito, the choice is yours.
3. Reviews
You can write a review of just about anything on your blog. Take a look at the following suggestions:
* Products
* Websites
* Books
* Movies
* Music
* Restaurants
* Hotels
The possibilities are nearly endless. Just think of something you've tried and write about your experience and thoughts.
4. Photos
Post a photo (or photos) related to your blog topic.
5. Link Roundup
Write a post that includes a list of links to other blog posts that published great posts or to websites you like.
6. Current Events
What's going on in the world? Write a post about an interesting bit of news.
7. Tips
Write a post to share tips to help your readers accomplish something in an easier, faster or cheaper way.
8. Recommendations
Share recommendations for your favorite books, websites, movies or other "favorites" related to your blog topic.
9. Interviews
Interview a prominent figure or expert in your blog topic then publish a blog post about it.
10. Polls
Register for an account with a site like PollDaddy.com then publish a poll related to your blog topic in one of your blog posts.
11. Contests
People love to win prizes, and blog contests are a great way to drive traffic to your blog as well as encourage visitors to leave comments. Blog contests can be used to write several posts such as an announcement post, a reminder post and a winner post.
12. Blog Carnivals
Join a blog carnival (or host one yourself) then write a post about the carnival topic.
13. Podcasts
Sometimes it's easier to talk about something than it is to write about it. If that's the case, try audio blogging and post a podcast.
14. Videos
Share a video from YouTube or one of your own, or host a video blog.
15. Quotes
Share a quote from a celebrity or prominent person in a field related to your blog topic. Be sure to cite your source!
16. Links to Interesting Content from Digg or StumbleUpon
Sometimes you can find some really interesting submissions on Digg, StumbleUpon and other social bookmarking sites. It's fun to share links to some of the best submissions related to your blog topic or of interest to your readers in one of your own blog posts.
17. Your Turn
Turn the tables and post a question or comment then ask your readers what they think about that question or comment. Your turn posts are a great way to spark a conversation.
18. Guest Posts
Ask other bloggers or experts in a field related to your blog topic to write a guest post for your blog.
19. Point/Counterpoint
A point/counterpoint post is where you present two opposing sides to an argument or issue. This type of post can even be separated into two different posts where the first presents one side of the argument and the second presents the other side.
20. Answer Reader Questions or Comments
Look back through the comments left by your readers and find any questions or statements that can be used to spark a new post.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Summer Movie Reviews
I have a bit to say about this year's summer movies. Mostly I have unadulterated enthusiasm for what I liked, but if you stick with me, I have some intelligent things to say too.
Iron Man: (4 out of 5)
I feel like my demographic won a national contest. Comic book nerds rejoice; the theaters are ours! Iron Man was very good. Like Spider Man 1 good. It managed the fine line between fun and hokey and not serious, and holding my disbelief at bay. I bought in the whole time, which is the best most movies can do, and it rewarded me with a really fun time. It was actually worth seeing twice.
Batman: Dark Knight: (5 out of 5)
Damn. Damn yall. Did you see this on imax? DAMN! This film never let up. So cool. I don't have anything to say except that I want to see it again.
EDIT: I did see it again. DAMN! This film is awesome!
Hancock: (2 & 1/2 out of 5)
My expectations of this film were SO low that it couldn't actually have been as bad as I thought it would be, and so I actually enjoyed it. The original story is this: imagine a super hero who is a metaphor for America. He is lazy and ignorant. He doesn't care about anybody but himself, and when he finally does decide to help other people out he causes SO much collateral damage that it would have been better if he'd never involved himself in the first place. Then imagine a story where our super hero learns to take responsibility for his actions, including going to jail for his crimes, only to be let out because he is needed to save the day. Right. This is a fun fantasy land.
However, this redemption story wass not good enough, SO in the 8th rewrite of the script they added a whole new second half where we introduce two new villains and we learn that actually Hancock has been alive for thousands (think immortal Greek God) of years and doesn't remember because he has Amnesia. First, this is a stolen plot device from a FAR superior story, and it is sickening that they used it as such a throw away. Fuck them for ruining this awesome plot idea and wasting it like cheap crap. Fuckers. Anyhoo, it makes the second half of the film a little interesting and very confusing (to everyone who isn't familiar with this plot idea already...ie not me). The sucky thing is that it throws the whole Hancock as America metaphor out the window and replaces it with pulp comic book schtick. And then Hancock saves the day and does the right thing and then the film sort of ends.
It was cool to see a superhero crush the ground each time he landed and took off, if that is what you want to see, and apparently I do. The CGI was alright, so I'd say the movie was only half bad (the story half).
Chronicles of Narnia: (1 ouf of 5)
I actually got bored and started looking at the wall of the theater, which if you think about it, took a lot of people to build. The detail of the fabric on the wall was of particular interest. How thick do you think those walls are anyway? Anyway, yeah, the film... First off, abominable special effects. Unforgivable. Second, the morality this film presented was repugnant to me. Those who took action were either evil, or punished, and the film only praised those who submitted and became followers. The weak will inherit the earth bullshit. Submitting to God is not how you defeat an enemy army and makes for a shitty movie, so the protagonists had to keep awkwardly oscillating between being ineffectual "killing-is-wrong" prats to being action-stars slitting throats. Complete douchery from start to finish.
Speed Racer: (4 out of 5)
I am the only one I know, but I really enjoyed this film. It was a visual rollercoaster for 5 year olds, with lots of pretty special effects. Ask me on any given day and I am actually irked that I cannot get enough pretty special effects. So finally given that which I long for, I cried tears of happiness at the awesome retina-takeover ending. God I love spinning color.
Wall-E: (5 out of 5)
Wow. Wow. Uhm. I have a lot to say about this film. It has an insanely high rating over at metacritic.com and every review is aglow with praise. The review I like the best is actually the harshest (Salon.com). Their review basically goes like this: "One of the greatest films ever, however it is a little disjointed; the second half is not as amazing as the first, and the happy ending feels a little forced." <--Right. But still one of the most amazing films ever! I was most interested in what the film means. Remember "An Inconvenient Truth"? It was about the fear crawling into all our hearts that we may actually destroy the earth, and be unable to repair the damage before it kills us all. "Will we save ourselves before it is too late?" is an uncertainty that quietly tortures us. Such pent up emotion is exactly what the catharsis of movies is for. Films usually address this pent up emotion by answering our unspoken question with a "yes we will survive" as Bruce Willis blows up the Asteroid, or a "no, we are screwed" as Mel Gibson drives around Australia scrounging for gas. But even in the latter scenario, someone is left alive.
In Wall-E all life on earth dies. Humanity has destroyed the Earth, not through war, but through pleasure seeking and sloth. Rarely has a world as bleak as this been imagined. 700 years in the future we have completely destoryed earth, and it is unihabittable. But Humanity has survived (whew) thanks to space travel. But instead of boldly & intentionally pursuing another planet to live on, Humanity is dumb, complacent and purposeless. We are not trying to save the world or ourselves. Humanity is simply slurping away at soda and uncaring of anything beyond their own pleasure.
This is such a huge fundamental shift in thinking in film plot that it is easy to ignore. Normally there is an external force that oppresses people: a villain, or government, or matrix. If the force were defeated, then people would be alive and free and do wonderful things. The message here is that the force is not "out there" but in here, inside each of us. Our own laziness, apathy & pleasure seeking will be our demise. When was the last time you threw away a glass bottle rather than recycling it because it was easier?
It is hard to imagine a Disney film asking us this question. The group I saw it with had a 6 year old, and he was pretty confused/freaked by aspects of the film that he didn't have vocabulary to explain. He said it was sad that earth was so dead. I am amazed that Pixar got away with making this film.
The ship full of ambivalent materially-content humans looks like a metaphor for America (or the 1st world). Imagine people so content with their lives, and oblivious to any problems in the world, that all they did was amble around focused on pleasuring themselves, apparently unwilling to work on the world's truly pressing needs (or ignorant of them). That perfectly describes the world of Americans, and the state of humanity in Wall-E. Like Al Gore, Wall-E & Eve bring a message to the people that there is something to do. But that is where the similarities split. Unlike real life, the humans in Wall-E leap into action like a progressive's wet-dream.
This happy ending seems tacked on. Humanity returns to Earth, gives up their life of leisure and gets to the hard business of replanting the planet. In reality I think most people would want to go back to their lives of leisure. Instead, we whisk through the replanting of the planet during the credits, and soon kids are swimming in creeks beside green hills and willow trees. A good message to send to the children I suppose. "Kids, sure we're gonna f* this planet all to hell, but, we CAN fix it, you see? So don't cry too much, k? This IS a Pixar film y'know!"
This makes the overall message of the film come out a little schizophrenic: we may screw everything up worse than you can imagine, but it could still be okay.
Kung Fu Panda: (5 out of 5)
Up to this point there have been two classes of computer animated films; pixar & all the other ones. The quaint, forgetable films like Over the Hedge, Open Season, Barnyard, Chicken Little. I contend that Kung Fu Panda is the rare gem that breaks this mold, a film that transcends quaintness & forgetability. It is Awesome. Most notable is that the story is the anti-Shrek. It avoids references and cultural jokes in favor of being universal and timeless. And that would make it as bland as every other film, except it is funny. I and everyone in the theater laughed. A LOT. Hard explosive belly laughter. Time and again this film was funny. Jack Black brings that which he does best to this story. And the story is great. It is everything to everyone. "Follow your dream & self actualize" - but with bodacious fight scenes. I saw it twice in theaters and then watched it again on my computer. This might just be my favorite film of the summer.
Interestingly, this film totally broke the Box Office record in China for an animated film, earning 135 million, over 40 million more than the next closest animated film (wow!). The news in China is all like "dude, why can the Americans make a better film about China than we can? WTF!"
Iron Man: (4 out of 5)
I feel like my demographic won a national contest. Comic book nerds rejoice; the theaters are ours! Iron Man was very good. Like Spider Man 1 good. It managed the fine line between fun and hokey and not serious, and holding my disbelief at bay. I bought in the whole time, which is the best most movies can do, and it rewarded me with a really fun time. It was actually worth seeing twice.
Batman: Dark Knight: (5 out of 5)
Damn. Damn yall. Did you see this on imax? DAMN! This film never let up. So cool. I don't have anything to say except that I want to see it again.
EDIT: I did see it again. DAMN! This film is awesome!
Hancock: (2 & 1/2 out of 5)
My expectations of this film were SO low that it couldn't actually have been as bad as I thought it would be, and so I actually enjoyed it. The original story is this: imagine a super hero who is a metaphor for America. He is lazy and ignorant. He doesn't care about anybody but himself, and when he finally does decide to help other people out he causes SO much collateral damage that it would have been better if he'd never involved himself in the first place. Then imagine a story where our super hero learns to take responsibility for his actions, including going to jail for his crimes, only to be let out because he is needed to save the day. Right. This is a fun fantasy land.
However, this redemption story wass not good enough, SO in the 8th rewrite of the script they added a whole new second half where we introduce two new villains and we learn that actually Hancock has been alive for thousands (think immortal Greek God) of years and doesn't remember because he has Amnesia. First, this is a stolen plot device from a FAR superior story, and it is sickening that they used it as such a throw away. Fuck them for ruining this awesome plot idea and wasting it like cheap crap. Fuckers. Anyhoo, it makes the second half of the film a little interesting and very confusing (to everyone who isn't familiar with this plot idea already...ie not me). The sucky thing is that it throws the whole Hancock as America metaphor out the window and replaces it with pulp comic book schtick. And then Hancock saves the day and does the right thing and then the film sort of ends.
It was cool to see a superhero crush the ground each time he landed and took off, if that is what you want to see, and apparently I do. The CGI was alright, so I'd say the movie was only half bad (the story half).
Chronicles of Narnia: (1 ouf of 5)
I actually got bored and started looking at the wall of the theater, which if you think about it, took a lot of people to build. The detail of the fabric on the wall was of particular interest. How thick do you think those walls are anyway? Anyway, yeah, the film... First off, abominable special effects. Unforgivable. Second, the morality this film presented was repugnant to me. Those who took action were either evil, or punished, and the film only praised those who submitted and became followers. The weak will inherit the earth bullshit. Submitting to God is not how you defeat an enemy army and makes for a shitty movie, so the protagonists had to keep awkwardly oscillating between being ineffectual "killing-is-wrong" prats to being action-stars slitting throats. Complete douchery from start to finish.
Speed Racer: (4 out of 5)
I am the only one I know, but I really enjoyed this film. It was a visual rollercoaster for 5 year olds, with lots of pretty special effects. Ask me on any given day and I am actually irked that I cannot get enough pretty special effects. So finally given that which I long for, I cried tears of happiness at the awesome retina-takeover ending. God I love spinning color.
Wall-E: (5 out of 5)
Wow. Wow. Uhm. I have a lot to say about this film. It has an insanely high rating over at metacritic.com and every review is aglow with praise. The review I like the best is actually the harshest (Salon.com). Their review basically goes like this: "One of the greatest films ever, however it is a little disjointed; the second half is not as amazing as the first, and the happy ending feels a little forced." <--Right. But still one of the most amazing films ever! I was most interested in what the film means. Remember "An Inconvenient Truth"? It was about the fear crawling into all our hearts that we may actually destroy the earth, and be unable to repair the damage before it kills us all. "Will we save ourselves before it is too late?" is an uncertainty that quietly tortures us. Such pent up emotion is exactly what the catharsis of movies is for. Films usually address this pent up emotion by answering our unspoken question with a "yes we will survive" as Bruce Willis blows up the Asteroid, or a "no, we are screwed" as Mel Gibson drives around Australia scrounging for gas. But even in the latter scenario, someone is left alive.
In Wall-E all life on earth dies. Humanity has destroyed the Earth, not through war, but through pleasure seeking and sloth. Rarely has a world as bleak as this been imagined. 700 years in the future we have completely destoryed earth, and it is unihabittable. But Humanity has survived (whew) thanks to space travel. But instead of boldly & intentionally pursuing another planet to live on, Humanity is dumb, complacent and purposeless. We are not trying to save the world or ourselves. Humanity is simply slurping away at soda and uncaring of anything beyond their own pleasure.
This is such a huge fundamental shift in thinking in film plot that it is easy to ignore. Normally there is an external force that oppresses people: a villain, or government, or matrix. If the force were defeated, then people would be alive and free and do wonderful things. The message here is that the force is not "out there" but in here, inside each of us. Our own laziness, apathy & pleasure seeking will be our demise. When was the last time you threw away a glass bottle rather than recycling it because it was easier?
It is hard to imagine a Disney film asking us this question. The group I saw it with had a 6 year old, and he was pretty confused/freaked by aspects of the film that he didn't have vocabulary to explain. He said it was sad that earth was so dead. I am amazed that Pixar got away with making this film.
The ship full of ambivalent materially-content humans looks like a metaphor for America (or the 1st world). Imagine people so content with their lives, and oblivious to any problems in the world, that all they did was amble around focused on pleasuring themselves, apparently unwilling to work on the world's truly pressing needs (or ignorant of them). That perfectly describes the world of Americans, and the state of humanity in Wall-E. Like Al Gore, Wall-E & Eve bring a message to the people that there is something to do. But that is where the similarities split. Unlike real life, the humans in Wall-E leap into action like a progressive's wet-dream.
This happy ending seems tacked on. Humanity returns to Earth, gives up their life of leisure and gets to the hard business of replanting the planet. In reality I think most people would want to go back to their lives of leisure. Instead, we whisk through the replanting of the planet during the credits, and soon kids are swimming in creeks beside green hills and willow trees. A good message to send to the children I suppose. "Kids, sure we're gonna f* this planet all to hell, but, we CAN fix it, you see? So don't cry too much, k? This IS a Pixar film y'know!"
This makes the overall message of the film come out a little schizophrenic: we may screw everything up worse than you can imagine, but it could still be okay.
Kung Fu Panda: (5 out of 5)
Up to this point there have been two classes of computer animated films; pixar & all the other ones. The quaint, forgetable films like Over the Hedge, Open Season, Barnyard, Chicken Little. I contend that Kung Fu Panda is the rare gem that breaks this mold, a film that transcends quaintness & forgetability. It is Awesome. Most notable is that the story is the anti-Shrek. It avoids references and cultural jokes in favor of being universal and timeless. And that would make it as bland as every other film, except it is funny. I and everyone in the theater laughed. A LOT. Hard explosive belly laughter. Time and again this film was funny. Jack Black brings that which he does best to this story. And the story is great. It is everything to everyone. "Follow your dream & self actualize" - but with bodacious fight scenes. I saw it twice in theaters and then watched it again on my computer. This might just be my favorite film of the summer.
Interestingly, this film totally broke the Box Office record in China for an animated film, earning 135 million, over 40 million more than the next closest animated film (wow!). The news in China is all like "dude, why can the Americans make a better film about China than we can? WTF!"
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Mahdroo and his online personas
http://www.mahdroo.com/
http://mahdroo.livejournal.com
http://twitter.com/mahdroo
http://www.myspace.com/mahdroo
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500970334
http://www.myspace.com/ttw08LAzombies
http://www.flickr.com/people/mahdroo/
http://www.youtube.com/user/mahdroo
http://www.last.fm/user/mahdroo/
http://www.ilike.com/user/Mahdroo
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1038017
http://rss.netflix.com/QueueRSS?id=P6106107178162216536822931877169638
http://digg.com/users/mahdroo
http://reddit.com/user/mahdroo/
http://mahdroo.stumbleupon.com
and uniting all of these together is this awesome page:
http://friendfeed.com/mahdroo
http://mahdroo.livejournal.com
http://twitter.com/mahdroo
http://www.myspace.com/mahdroo
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500970334
http://www.myspace.com/ttw08LAzombies
http://www.flickr.com/people/mahdroo/
http://www.youtube.com/user/mahdroo
http://www.last.fm/user/mahdroo/
http://www.ilike.com/user/Mahdroo
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1038017
http://rss.netflix.com/QueueRSS?id=P6106107178162216536822931877169638
http://digg.com/users/mahdroo
http://reddit.com/user/mahdroo/
http://mahdroo.stumbleupon.com
and uniting all of these together is this awesome page:
http://friendfeed.com/mahdroo
Demand vs Supply in blogging world.
Yet another blog?! The explosion of user generated content on the internet continues.
I heard it put this way:
-The 20th century was an effort in mastering supply. As in, everyone knew what they wanted, but how to get it was the question. How do we maximize supply in the face of scarcity?
-The 21st century will be an effort to master demand. As in, if everything is available to everyone all the time (no more scarcity), then how will people even know what they want? How will we educate everyone to the infinity of available things so they can demand that which will bring them the greatest satisfaction?
So in terms of blogs, well, I know I want one. I don't know exactly what it will look like, so I will shop around and try this and then that. Blogs are available, but I don't know what I want to demand yet. We'll see!
I heard it put this way:
-The 20th century was an effort in mastering supply. As in, everyone knew what they wanted, but how to get it was the question. How do we maximize supply in the face of scarcity?
-The 21st century will be an effort to master demand. As in, if everything is available to everyone all the time (no more scarcity), then how will people even know what they want? How will we educate everyone to the infinity of available things so they can demand that which will bring them the greatest satisfaction?
So in terms of blogs, well, I know I want one. I don't know exactly what it will look like, so I will shop around and try this and then that. Blogs are available, but I don't know what I want to demand yet. We'll see!
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