Archive for November, 2004
Welcome to Mooseport (2004)
The previews for this movie weren’t flattering, but it ended up being different then I expected. I thought it was going to be some bad acting by Ray Romano, some believable transition to the big screen but something that didn’t do him justice, and I figured it was going to be based around how podunk and silly this little town was that he lived in.
In the end, it was amusing. Romano ends up running against the former president of the United States all to win a girl’s heart that he was too dense to propose to for over six years. “Everybody Still Loves Raymond” and Romano is consistently winning in the polls, but in the end, he doesn’t win. But the moral of the story is he is honest, awww.
For those of you who love “Raymond” because of it’s crazy situations, dysfunctional family matters, and relatable situations, this doesn’t’ have any of that. It does have Romano’s trademark “wandering speak” type of humor. Instead of “Ray’s” hornball husband personality, in this movie, he is honest and fair and never has done anything wrong or told a lie. Kind of unbelievable. But it is funny to see Romano get hit with a golf ball, so at least rent it for that.
The season premiere of the OC on Fox.
At the end of last season, I swore I was going to cut down on the TV, and this was the perfect show to cut out. The racy stories, the unbelievable situations, and the unrealistic nonchalant attitude that most of the characters have the day after something life altering happens were all things I figured I could do without. A modern day 90210, it’s really a crappy show.
But there I was on the couch watching on Thursday night for the premiere, instead taping Joey.
The main thing I wanted to see was what happened with Seth Cohen, because at the end of last season when he was upset that Ryan was leaving, he took off sailing, leaving his prize girlfriend behind and all the progress he had made into a cool new life behind.
The season opens with him angry and upset at this parents, and he is living with Luke and his gay dad in Portland. Ryan is in Chino with this bombshell brunette from last year plodding through waiting for his baby. And Marissa, has gotten sexier, now she’s a drunk with more problems then a middle eastern country.
By the end of the episode, Ryan is tricked into believing his baby has died, clearing way for him and Seth to return to the OC.
Will I continue to watch? I am going to try not to. But as Britney Spears is living proof, you don’t have to have a good product just know how to sell it. It’s kind of like Volcano insurance…
Avi S. stops into town
On a day that already had a ton of stuff going on, I got a call from a good old college bud, Avi S.
He was working in out in Greenfield (Green’tucky) for the night, which is about a half hour east of us. But he actually drove closer in to town and we went out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse.
It was same old same old with Avi, which is great that things haven’t changed. He is doing well in his job, enjoying it and getting paid well, and enjoys this first business trip down here first to Peoria Illinois and now Greenfield IN. He was doing some testing on the lighting at a Walmart in Greenfield.
It sounds like Avi is going to go to Texas with his girlfriend to meet up with Jerry D. over Christmas break. We talked about other good old times, and newer news like the Michigan win on Saturday in triple over time against Michigan State. He was at the game, the lucky bum.
We ended up for a short time at a Starbucks and this is where we took almost 9 photos, trying to get a good one with my crappy camera. So here, the posed looks as it was done to obnoxiousness.
8-Bit Color Channel vs. 16-Bit Color Channel
Someone at work came to me with a problem yesterday where they were getting an error message in Illustrator about not being able to read a 16-Bit image.
I had never had this error message, and when I hopped into Photoshop, I found that this .tif image was set to 16-Bit color. I changed it to 8-Bit Color Channel and everything seemed to work just fine.
16 Bit Color Channels are basically more information per channel. For example, for RGB, that would mean you would have a 16-Bit greyscale and then 48-Bit Color RGB Image (16 per Channel of Red Green and Blue x 3). It is more information and if I would have to guess without doing too much research, is something similar to RAW. It contains more data than most users need, but at least they can utilize it if need be.
Photoshop can edit in 16-Bit image mode to some degree. None of the layers options work, but most of the basic tools do. So, you may want to work in 8-Bit until you have the image where you need it then convert it to 16-Bit Channel.
The Mid Ohio Comic Con is quickly approaching!
I ordered my tickets on Friday and am all set to go to the Mid Ohio Con for a second year to see if I can get a sketch from one of my favorite artists, Adam Hughes.
My plan of attack right now is twofold, to save money, but to get there early enough to be very close to the beginning of the line. Those who order advance tickets online get in a half hour earlier then the rest of the attendees, so that is a nice benefit. But I was naive last year in thinking that that would be enough. I was only a handful of people back from the front of the line, but still I was over 20th down his sketch list which anything over 12 is usually not going to get one.
So I will be traveling probably at about 2 am over to Columbus Ohio to try to get in line at about 5-6 am. Then I should be there early enough to get a great spot in line and a chance at a sketch.
I am also pumped because I have found someone down here that is also into comics just about as much as me, and she really wanted to go. Christine Mulligan will be my partner in our day of what will most likely be adventure and strung out fanboys. But it will be cool to finally have someone to talk to about this as we walk around.
Identity Crisis is a must read!
Identity Crisis, a new event involving the DC characters by writer Brad Metzler is a book that I had thought about picking up, but really looked like most of the other dribble that comes out in the comic world. But Christine had the first five books that are out so far, and she let me borrow them. There is never any harm in giving it a try then. (The cover to issue 6 picture here on the left, with Batman holding his hands.
It blew me away, and has hooked me. I can’t say that anyone who doesn’t read comics this would necessarily be a great pickup point, but I have seen articles in main stream press on how big of a deal this seven part mini series has become.
I ignored the hype, and the enticing Michael Turner covers, who is usually a touch overrated, and opened the first book on Saturday. The story starts out with a bang, a great mystery. A DC character that I had heard of in passing, Elongated man, is the main character. Brad Metzler does this great job of getting you introduced to this character quickly, and then all of a sudden, the tragedy drops.
You get a sense that this Elongated Man loves his wife very dearly, so when she is murdered, burned beyond recognition, you begin to ask yourself, what would you do?
People think that comic books are all a bunch of super heroes flying around saying stupid crap. When in fact today’s comics are based in reality, with real emotions and decisions under some exaggerated circumstances of course, but a relatable human emotion none the same.
Things snowball from there. A dark secret is told as the supposed identity of the killer is revealed to be Dr. Light. It seems that Dr. Light found Sue Digby, Elongated Man’s wife, many years ago unprotected. Well, he didn’t kill her, instead he did something worse. We see a very delicately treated scene where you connect the pictures that he rape’s her!
Well, the Justice League doesn’t know what to do. They know this evil man will come after her later, having found her once, to kill her. She won’t ever be safe. The moral dilemma. They decide to wipe his mind, which spawns lying among the team, hatred, and many other problems that come with evil.
As the story escalates, another wife of a super hero barely lives through a hanging. Superman is nervous, and so is Batman, who is always so calculating and composed that it seems like no one is safe. Lois Lane then receives an anonymous note that they know who she is and that she is next. Also, as issue five leaves it, Tim Drake’s (Robin) dad has been attacked and apparently killed. So not only is it shocking, it is affecting some major characters, not just those that we could care less about.
That is where the books have left off. No one knows who is doing it, and there are no clues. They can’t figure out how this killer is getting past the defense systems that are alien in nature. No normal man could get through them.
Only time will tell. Keep posted here as I review issue six which is due out the middle of November.
