Reviews of movies, anime, and the occasional TV show mixed with warnings on Blogger spam. Also to be found are musings on whatever I am thinking about - all from the point of view of being left to watch everything from the sidelines of life.
Watching this video of a Brazilian rescue helicopter shaking itself apart made me think of of how current political and economic events going on across the world are being handled. My second thought was that it did not look real and appeared to be a RC model. Amazing how the human eye and brain responds to something it has not seen before.
I hope and pray those injured will recover quickly.
aka Boris
Any doubts about the seriousness of the anime series are dispelled by this grim episode that follows a pilot nicknamed “the Angel of Death.” Thrilling action scenes punctuate a slower moving story about survivor’s guilt and the tremendous toll war takes on those who fight it. While photojournalist Makoto Shinjo learns more about life on the base, the real star of the episode is attack pilot Boris. The ghosts of the Vietnam War are beginning to haunt the stories of Area 88.
There is a poetic quality to both the visual and verbal imagery of this series that sets it apart from most anime. The thoughtful and meditative scripts are matched by the art and directing, making for stories that are not easily forgotten. This particularly strong episode sets the tone for the entire series very early on.
After hearing a rumor about a pilot called “the Angel of Death,” Makoto becomes intrigued. Ominously wondering if he is Shin Kazama’s personal angel of death, the photographer sets out to find out about the enigmatic pilot named Boris. A master of ground attack missions, he is reputed as getting all his wingmen killed -- so nobody wants to fly with him.
The Iview Cypad 760TPC I purchased earlier this month has been a lot of fun to monkey with. Being new to tablets and the Android OS, I have to say the stability leaves something to be desired. It appears to be app related and I did go in forewarned about the crash rates of mobile operating systems.
Battery life has been good since I disabled the telephone related drivers on it. I get better than five hours doing a mix of things including playing games, web browsing, reading, and watching videos. Performance has been fast, but with occasional slowdowns that seem to come from my monkeying with app installations too much. The temptation to play with new software is severe due to the plethora of freebies available.
One of the apps I really like is the Gospel Library one from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Not only are scriptures available, but class manuals, conference talks, and magazines. All of them can be highlighted and annotated with that synced up to your Church account online. This week I matched up all of that from my hard copy of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. This week I will get the Holy Bible synched up as well.
Another app I have gone nuts with is the Kindle for Android one. Yes, I now have the equivalent of a Kindle Fire in many ways. The sheer volume of public domain books they have up had me downloading like mad while watching a movie Saturday night. Being able to watch something and multitask on the Net is an unexpected bonus for me. The IMDB app makes it a handy “look up the actor” tool, too.
I purchased one book and read it, The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. It was nice to find a straight forward translation, since the one I had dated back to the 1980’s and was aimed a business men. There are some formatting errors, but nothing egregious and it was a quick read. Reading on the Cypad is easier on the eyes than expected and the ability to look up archaic words is very handy.
After testing multiple browsers on the tablet, I have kept three on it: the included Android one, Firefox, and Opera. If a page does not render correctly in one, one of the others usually can handle it. Opera is my main one due to its much better controls and rendering. I am disappointed that embedded videos do not work well, if at all, on the browsers. Dedicated apps appear to be the only way to go since websites are detecting mobile devices and do not act normally as a result.
With a new mini HDMI to HDMI cable, I finally was able to test out the video output of the Cypad and was stunned by how well it upscales to 1080p. With only limited space to play with until I get a new microSD card, I can’t test a full length movie yet. I can see using this to teach Sunday school lessons with downloaded Church videos and one of our new flat screens.
On the PC end of things, VLC 2.0 is finally out and it looks like I will be going back to it for my video playing needs. So far it has rectified all my problems with VLC, but further tests await. Besides the improved performance and compatibility, a lot of little things have been added and tweaked. The ability to jump chapters in ripped videos means I will be able to do screen captures more efficiently for my Blu-ray reviews. Anything that speeds that up is good with me, because I resent having those huge MKV files taking up room on my hard drives.
I have been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic with a friend online and have some issues with lagging despite a 100-105 MS. It may be my old video card cannot handle some of the areas with only 512mb of memory or it may be the fact I live in the middle of nowhere. More playing should give some clues. The game is good and if you liked Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic you will love this.
Typing the date out in the title made me look not twice but thrice.
Anyway, last night was miserable and had difficulty sleeping due to coughing fits. I love it when an upper respiratory infection goes into the chest. That said, it appears that the end of the bout is nigh. At least I hope so.
It has been odd for my father to get ill with the same thing at the same time, so that has been a new experience.
aka Joseon X-Files: Secret Book
A stylish and intelligent science fiction drama from South Korea that offers up many questions and a few answers, Secret Investigation Record is highly entertaining but all too short. Clearly a homage to The X-Files, it manages to be its own beast thanks to well fleshed out characters and historical setting. Being loosely based on real records from the era lends a Project Blue Book feel to it as well.
I was a big fan of The X-Files during its early seasons, having watched it from its broadcast premiere. Unfortunately, it became clear around the third season that the creator of the show did not have a clue to what he was doing and was making it up on the fly. So it was with a mix of curiosity and trepidation that I approached this Korean drama set during the Joseon Dynasty.
Luckily for me, the made for cable television show turned out to be very good right from the first episode.
While it is no fun to report that the cold has started to move into the chest and I have used up what reserves of energy I had to fight it, it seems like a mere trifle after hearing from friends that their young son has cancer. Perspective brings clarity and I find myself worrying a great deal over the boy and not at all about myself.
My prayers go out to Jonas, for he and his family need them.
After a couple of low quality attempts to adapt Marvel Comics’ star spangled hero, Hollywood finally succeeds with this big budget period piece. Old fashioned movie making uses modern technology to portray the journey a sickly young man takes to become a super hero. Nazis get punched out, evil rears its (very) ugly head, and lots of things blow up -- just like they should in a comic book movie. But the real message of the movie is that it is what is inside that counts.
It was something of an article of faith amongst comic book fans that Captain America was a hero who could not be successfully adapted for a modern movie. His appearance was too hokey, he was too bland, and most of all he was too American. Being a remnant from a more innocent and patriotic time, it just would not translate onto the big screen in a way that audiences could connect to.
Fortunately for us, Marvel did not listen to the naysayers and neither did Paramount Pictures. Be warned and settle in for a long read, for this is going to be a big review of a big movie.
The sore throat started yesterday and the drainage is now terrible, which is making me a dim and irritable guy right now. It is the penalty for being with friends with small kids, so I cannot whine too much. Upping the H2O2 therapy to two glasses a day will help, hopefully.
We finally have above freezing temps and I’m wearing my thermal underwear to keep warm. Not a good sign.
At least the congestion has not gone into my chest.
As the world economic situation deteriorates, another problem is rising and that is the steady beat of war drums across the globe. Political, rather than economic, interests are the prime motivators as old grudges flare in some places and civil unrest lures in outside forces in others. The latest hotspot is one I did not see coming and would be ridiculous to fight a war over if it were not for changing geopolitical conditions.
Argentina is ramping up the rhetoric against Great Britain over the Falklands and it is getting more serious than any dispute over an island filled with sheep should get. After having lost the Falklands War in the early 1980’s, it appeared to be a nonissue until recently when South American countries began expanding their military arsenals. A steadily declining U.K. military is now unlikely to be able to defend their citizens living in the Falklands, so an opportunity has arisen for Argentina. Claiming the Brits are sending nuclear missiles to the area is an extraordinary claim, the kind that is usually ginned up for a war.
Another thing to consider is that they now have the backing of Brazil, which has become an economic and military regional power looking to expand their influence. There is a desire to get rid of all European influence in the area and also American influence. Throw in a presidential re-election campaign for Cristina Kirchner and things start getting restive.
While that little drama unfolds, the Obama administration is quietly preparing for war with Iran and an armed intervention in Syria much like what was done in Libya. That means bypassing Congress again and should be of concern to more people than it is. If we hit Syria, Iran will fight us since they have sent forces in to back the dictator Assad in what really has become a civil war. No matter what happens, I expect Islamic extremists to end up in control of Syria, just like Libya and Egypt.
Israel will most likely be forced to hit Iranian nuclear weapons facilities this year. Survival is an important thing to the Israelis and they need to protect themselves from the increasingly irrational Iranians. Civil unrest remains a fear in Iran and they recently cut access to large parts of the Internet in hopes of preventing more.
Asia is not exempt from all the “fun.” Continued over flights of neighboring countries territory by China is still causing tension and an arms race in the area. Their ships have been equally aggressive and have challenged Philippino sovereignty. Japan also has the Russians sending bombers over their territory as Russia tries to reestablish their might around the Kurile Islands. Oddly enough, tensions with North Korea appear to be abating or are on hold while the new regime sorts itself out.
Will any of these hotspots break out into actual fighting? I think the Middle East is the closest thing to a sure bet thanks to Iran and Syria. In the long run, Asia is building towards war, but internal stresses in China may derail that.
So why do I feel like the atmosphere is like that of the years leading up to World War I?
After much deliberation, the replacement for my PocketPC ended up being an unexpected bargain. This post was composed on my new iview CyPad 7" Android tablet. I am trying out the Blogger app and typing with my thumbs, which is taking a lot of getting used to. At least the touch screen works for me -- iPhones and iPads usually don,t work with my fingers.
I will write a proper review next week if I can get the latest ROM to flash. So far the camera is the only thing not working.
Fighting off a sinusitis flare up makes getting up and out to get a haircut more of a travail then it should be. Despite that, I survived and am no longer shaggy. In theory I am more presentable, but theories and reality are very divergent I find.
Currently I am working on HD screen captures from Captain America: The First Avenger for a review of the Blu-ray and DVD release. As I suspected, the film looks better in 2D than 3D. I cannot wait for that fad to die out again and from the way theater attendance has dropped the studios will be forced to give up within the next couple of years.
So far subscribing to Hulu Plus has been a good decision. I am finding things of interest that are not on free Hulu and have begun to dip my toe into the waters of Korean dramas. The show I started watching last night is particularly interesting because it blends a 17th century historical setting with The X-Files. If it sounds strange, that is because it is! Secret Investigation Record follows the investigation of an honest magistrate in the corrupt government trying to unravel a sighting of a mysterious glowing giant gourd flying through the sky and the disappearance of an entire village. So far it has been very good.
Silent films are another thing I have been getting more into and Hulu Plus has a good selection of classics there as well. It has been decades since I have seen Nosferatu or Phantom of the Opera and as an adult I think I will appreciate them more.
There has been controversy over the Obama administration issuing waivers to some states in regards to the No Child Left Behind standards. For once, I agree with them on something. The program has done nothing to really improve public education despite having noble intentions. As it is, I suspect we are drifting toward the Japanese model of having private schools as the only way up and out, with public schooling being a death knell to one’s prospects. That is in the very long term, unless the coming economic collapse hastens things. Our systemic education issues will not be resolved through the government, I am afraid.
I am not sure how I feel about Smith Brothers Warm Apple Pie throat drops. If it were not for the cinnamon bits in them, they probably would be disgusting. As it is, they serve to remind me how much I like cinnamon.
One has to love translations from one language to another and the misunderstandings that can be involved. In this case, I just opened a booklet to a multimedia device and the second thing listed under notes says:
Avoid strong beat and collision.
But what if I want to put some techno on it?
My father and I went to the local Republican precinct caucuses tonight and I noticed that the local high school had put up signs directing the two parties to their assigned rooms. Both signs spelled caucus as “causus” much to my amusement and despair. Boy, public education is really working out well, is it not?
In a somewhat more serious vein, it was a fairly mellow caucus with only a little bit of angry debate on resolutions. Normally there is much more than what occurred. Rick Santorum was the big winner in our part of Houston County and it was not even close. This was no surprise and went the way I expected.
I will admit I was one of two “Other” votes, for I wrote in Sweet Meteor of Death aka (SMOD) to register my extreme lack of motivation/approval/endorsement of the remaining candidates. It really looks like the GOP is determined to assist in the Obama re-election efforts in every way possible and I am very weary of it.
Check out The New York Times article via Instapundit for the details.
Quotes that indicate something good may have come out of this fiasco:
The events of the past couple of years, though disheartening to chronic fatigue syndrome patients, may have a silver lining: Research into the disease, much of it privately financed, is ratcheting up.
and
“The disease had languished in the background at N.I.H. and C.D.C., and other scientists had not been paying much attention to it,” said John Coffin, a professor of molecular biology at Tufts University. “This has brought it back into attention.”
Dr. Coffin, who at first supported the mouse retrovirus theory but later disputed it, noted that the illness “does seem to have characteristics that would suggest infectious origins” and that other retroviruses could be involved.
It has been a bleak thing waiting for medical science to come up with anything to deal with the illness and I stopped holding my breath for even a treatment a long time ago. It is one of many things that caused me to lose what little faith I had left in government organizations to solve problems, but only one. My hopes are that the private sector’s ability to innovate will eventually pay off though I doubt it will be in my lifetime. So little is truly understood about the immune system that the science involved can only be considered to be in its infancy.
