A Geekish View of Life

We’ve been hearing about it for months, weeks now. I opened this past Wednesday, Ash Wednesday. I am not Catholic so I am a litte uncertain about the full significance of Ash Wednesday, but the impact of Mel Gibson’s latest film, The Passion of the Christ was not lost on me. I just got back from seeing it. This will be my inital reaction. I may write a more ‘critical’ thought later.

Wheather you believe in Christ or not this film should move you. The story of a man, and innocent man, condemed to die under the strongest and harshest death that has possibly ever been imagined so far. The film begins with Jesus in the garden at Gethsemane and closes with his resurrection. This should not be a spoiler to anyone. The film’s main story follows passing of the 12 hours leading up to his crucifixion. It is not pretty. But it is not two and a half hours of bloodlet and torture. There are moments in the film that give an interesting perspective on his life and how he lived.

These moments really pull in the human-ess of Jesus, They make him feel much more like someone you might have known. He is not one of the iconic images, or the pasty, effemenate image. These moments are part of the hope in the film, they are also instramental in it’s pathos. They give him the flesh that He was supposed to inhabit. And, they are some of the most powerful moments in the film. The remind me of Luke’s account of the Gospel, a little more time spent on the more physical plane. That is what moved me the most. The image of Jesus as a man, a real man with flesh and blood, not some painting in a gallery.

There is some heavy symbolism used in the film, both the good and the evil. The image of Lucifer (the Devil, The Morning Star, Satan) is given an interesting treatment. I find it far superior to what Hollywood usually throws at us.
I’m getting too tired to give much more. I’ll post again tomorrow. Take care all.

Okay. Time for a little more anime fan-boyness. Let’s start with one of my favorite creators of anime/manga, Masamune Shiro. He is friggin’ amazing, technically and visually. His plots aren’t bad either. He has created probably the most believeable mech designes I’ve ever seen! My personal favorite is Appleseed; I know the site is mostly in Japanese but there is more than enough english to get you to where you need to be. They had a movie out in the late 80s early 90s. I liked it when I first saw it. But then I was just a babe in the arms of anime. I found the manga (the comic book version) and fell hoplessly addicted to it. The richness of art detail and the plot thickness were top notch! Although I’ve never really understood how Bri and Deunan stayed “lovers” since he has a metal bod that does not appear to be anantomically correct. Well I guess he could have an attachment . . . ^^;; moving on. When I saw the movie again the golden glow of the early exposeure to anime had long since warn off, now I saw it for what it was; a lowly TV quality half assed lameness that was hardly like the comics at all.

That brings us up to today! Now Shiro-san has gotten off his duff and involved himself more heavily in the film. The film also appears to be pushing the bounds of animation (especially Japanese) by going full digital! w00t! Bri will actually be all shiny if he has a buff and polish! You can catch the trailer here. Or if you want you can head over to animesuki.com and go to the “series” section. There will be a link there for your BitTorrent client.

If you are a fan of Shiro-san you probably also know of his amazing work Ghost in the Shell. The manga is jaw dropping. Beautiful and thoughtful all at once. Some of you may say “Wait. They used that shot in The Matrix!” Yes, the directors did cite is as an inspriation. It set a visual standard to which any following cyberpunk anime will be measured.

Sadly, the film was made before Shiro-san got annoyed that his works were not coming out on film anything like what he had done in the manga. It also seems to be the same with the new sequel, although it has the same team from the first GTIS movie so it won’t look bad, but it won’t really be Shiro either. ::sigh:: So it goes. It does look like it will be as visually impressive though. Go here for the trailers. Hopefully these movies will help redeem their original works. I’m really excited about the Appleseed movie. It was and is my favorite manga to date. Ah! My Goddess pulls in not far behind. Ooo! And Trigun and Akira and GTIS and oh … geez the list goes on. I’ll have to post that some time. Take care all.

Just got out of Art History 2. Ugh. We’re moving into 18th century art. The Rococo period. Ugh. I greatly dislike the Rococo period. The art is so mindless. Not that mindless art is inherently bad. But there is no real alternative to it in that time. Everything was the bloody mindless Rococo crap. The exocution of the art is brilliant but the subject really brings me down. Oh well. Now for a nap before my next class, or at least some time not thinking about art history.

Just saw one of the funniest and saddest things ever. I was watching a NOVA episode about dogs, where they came from, what can we learn from them, etc. There was a segment about dogs and nerological disorders, like intense shyness and narcolepsy. It’s sad but oh so funny to watch a narcoleptic dog. They are walking and then they are on the floor alseep. It is like the preception of narcolepsy in humans. It’s sad to see really…. but I couldn’t help but laugh. Brand me heartless but it was funny to watch.

Em. What else. Oh. I finished my painting last er early this morning. Yeah on Saturday at around 11 pm I decided to scrap my original plan and do a whole new painting. Yep. It was literally a 11th hour conversion. (insert corny laugh track here) But it was done. I did it all pretty much in about 12 hours give or take. It was marathon painting. Sadly that seems to be the way it often goes. At least for me. Over ambitious, last minute changes and a freak out dash to the finish. ::groan:: I need a better work ethic. Ugh. But first I need sleep. G’night.

Okay, I just finished watching the news, and I guess it should weigh in on the subject that is headlining the California Bay Area news boradcasts, news paper, radio ect. Here’s the skinny:

• The Mayor of San Francisco allowed City Hall to begin doling out marriage licences to same sex couples.
• It is against current California State law to have same sex marriages leagaly observed, ie. marriage licence.
• The Govoner has a press confrence saying that he is going to have the Attorney General take the case to court.
• San Francisco has been giving out marriage licences since Febuary 12th.

Okay. That’s the bare bones of it. Democrats generally are pleased, and Republicans are generally mortified. Since pretty much everyone has an opininon I guess I’ll add my own.

Bear with me. I have a fairly conservative view point. I believe that the same sex couple is morally wrong. That said, I don’t hate them. I hold them no ill will. I listen to a SF based radio station and on the morning show a woman called in and said her and her partner of 22 years just got their licence. That is beautiful. Two people that have been willing to put up with all the crap that the humans are capeable of for 22 years and are still together. Beautiful don’t ya think? That’s an accomplishment. I think they deserve something. They apparently have passed through all the ‘critial years’ (3, 5, and 7) and are still okay. I say, “More power to them!”

I still don’t agree with the lifestyle but they are responsible adults, they will choose to do whatever they want to. I am not in a position to judge them ‘evil’ or ‘Gonna buuuuuuuun in the Firey flaaaaaaames of Hell!’ Nope. They are people, just like you and I. They eat, sleep, defecate, laugh, cry, get angry, and love just like everyone else. They even put their pants on one leg at a time. Unless they are amazing gymnists and can do it in one jump with both legs.

So let them have their licence, if it is found to be legal. There are plenty more things to worry about. The state budget for example, which was why Grey Davis was recalled in the first place. The same sex marriage is not a whole sale destruction of the nuclear family; that’s the problem of the people involved. Take it to court and see what the court says, that’s the proper and legal way to settle this. Then, LIVE WITH IT or Change it, legaly. That’s what the appeals court is for. In the mean time this bickering is pointless. Let the poor people live their lives. If you’re dissatisfied with the results work to fix them, don’t bitch and moan, then do nothing. ::climbs down of soap box::

Okay. I’m done. Have a good life. Live it! Experience it! But don’t be stupid! Think first then speak/act. Take care all! This is Zim signing off from Earth. No Gir! Ack! ::sounds of huge tower of something technologically advanced falling over and breaking into bits::

Dooood! Nausicaa fans of the world . . . FREAK OUT! And check this out! Slashdot | Jet-powered Nausicaa Glider Project. Yes only in Japan would they even think of doing THIS. Americans and done similar, ie. the Batmobile, but nothing this crazy . . . or cool! I want one. ::drool::

Okay. Technology is my addiction. Well one of them. Anime is the other big one. But that’s neither here nor there. I was supposed to work on my painting for class, due Monday, and yet I spent most the day tricking out my little laptop even more. ::sigh:: I am a tech junkie. But I guess you all might benefit from some of the cool stuff I down loaded so I’lll list it here.

• GAim

  This supper spiff program may soon replace Trillian as my all time fave chat program. Both are free, and useful, ie. they connect to all the networks that I want to (AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, IRC, and several others). So if they both do that and are free then why would one be better? The features that come with GAim are along the lines of those that come with Trillian Pro (which is the version of Tillian you have to pay for). Really I’m trying them both out to see which one I like better. Both are truely killer and you all should download them and try ‘em for yourselves.

• CDex

  This is a truely spiffly little program for all you music lovers! I love my iTunes but this with WinAmp is quite a combination. It will rip wav files or go directly to MP3! w00t! It’s quite fast too. It’s prime MP3 encoder is LAME (Lame Ain’t a MP3 Encoder) which once was not on my list of faves but now it has come a long way and it qutie good! It may not be as highend as a Fraunhoffer based encoder but hey it’s free and it sounds good. *Note* I am not a true audiophile (aka audio quality freak) so my opinion is rather ‘uninformed’ but it sounds good to me. But the neat bit is that you can set it up to encode tons of differnt file types. For some of the others you’ll need to download their encoders but it’s still cool. I have been playing around with an AAC encoder. it sounds great! Plus if you have my next item you can still play them, even if you don’t use iTunes.

• Winamp 5

  Yep, the venerable MP3 player of the Windoz platform. It is now up to version 5, and if you were keeping track they skipped 4, why? Why not. They’re the ones making it they can do as they please. Version 3 took a fair amount of flak from users. I switched to iTunes. Now they have version 5. I was completely happy with iTunes, so why did I get Winamp again. Well because I got LiteStep (it comes next), and LiteStep is setup to control WinAmp from it’s task bar, which is just darn cool! And they made an iPod plugin for Winamp 5! I may not go back to iTunes. But the music store is a big selling point. We’ll have to see.

• LiteStep

  This roXXorz! Holy Cow does this thing roXXor! This is a shell project based on the AfterStep window manager for Unix and Linux. Thus it will feel really different, but for all you Linux geekz it will feel like home. Basically it replaces the way you interact with Windoz. You are still running Windoz but it just has a much cooler interface. Plus it takes up less memory too. AND it’s theme/skin able! w00t! Now I can geek out and look cool while doing it. Well at least I think I look cool.

• Virtual CD

  This is another truely rad little app. This will make an image of almost any CD. An image is a file that is bit for bit the same as the original. AND you can load them as ‘virtual’ CDs that run of the hard drive. This means that you can put all your game disks in a safe place and still play all your games! Well most of them some people have had some trouble with specific games. However it is free and a sweet way to keep your 50 buxxor disks safe from getting lost or scratched.

Well that’s more than enough for now. I’m going to get some sleep and actually work on my painting in the morning. ::sigh:: I wish I had a digital camera. Then the whole world could see just how much my painting skills are not l33t. Take care all! Peace!

A quick thanks to all of you who read this, and a huge thanks to all of you who got in contact with me. I feel better already. Just don’t ask why I’m still up wasting time at . . . almost 3 in the morning. Just chalk it up to my being entrhalled by the new uber geek-atude that my computer now sports. Hee hee. I don’t have to look at ugly windows XP now! Hee hee. Thank you LiteStep.

Argh! I am sooooo tired. I am supposed to finish a 3-5 page paper for Art History tomorrow but . . . I’m not sure I wanna. I am so extactic from getting my computer up and running again that I can hardly do anything else. That and my BS ability meter is wayyyyyy low right now. My mind could be over taken by a slug right now. Blah. Meh. I’m going to bed. I’ll write it tomorrow and turn it in on Thurs day. Which reminds me I also have to finish my painting tomorrow. That’ll be fun. ::groan:: Oh, well. Can’t be helped. I really hope I’m not slipping into another ’slump’. The emotional state that goes with them is just no fun. Well maybe sleep will help cure it. Take care all.

Yay! Computer is working again! Joy and Happiness! More updates and silliness to follow