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Sunday, February 29, 2004
The Passion of Christ
I went and watched The Passion of Christ Saturday with my girlfriend. You hear lots of people describe it as powerful and there's good reason they do. It's hard to find any words to use to describe to people what it's like.It's a very gruesome movie from the get go. Although being how I'm a heartless monster it didn't bother me. Maybe it's that I've just been desensitized with all the violence in the world. Perhaps that as a Roman Catholic I've been told the story so many times I went in knowing how violent the torture of Jesus was going to be. Mel Gibson sure didn't leave anything to the imagination that's for sure. You see every swing of wooden rods bruise and metal teethed whips tear flesh from the body. You watch as blood is sprayed from his body as nails are driven through his hands and feet. If you are even the least bit weak in the stomach it will be horrific to watch. Mel Gibson wasn't just trying to tell you the story of the last day of Jesus, he wanted to you feel it.
Anyways, as to the claims of anti-Semitism. Well I walked out of the movie without any feels of hate toward Jews. Just like I didn't have any hate for the Japanese after watching "Pearl Harbor" or Germans after I saw "Saving Private Ryan." It was pretty clear in watching it that not all Jews hated Jesus. Several of the leaders were shown as being against the actions being taken but the other leaders had soldiers haul them away. The movie made it pretty clear that the leaders whipped the populous into a frenzy and used the mob mentality to influence the situation. The fact of the matter is that corrupt minds can see anything as a sign that they're ideals and beliefs are right. No one in their right mind is going to come out of the theaters pounding their fists screaming, "lets go find some Jews to beat up."
It's a very good movie and well worth anyone's time to go watch it. If you're a Christian you've probably already seen it so I don't had to bother talking to you. However, for all those anti-religion types out there, please go see it. If you go in with a clear and open mind, you might just come out with a better understanding of what the Christian and Catholic religion in particular are about. During the weeks leading up to Easter we are told the stories of the events that the movie portrays. This is the core of the religion and what we focus on. During the Christmas season when we are told the stories of the events that end with the birth of Jesus. It's pretty clear for followers that the Christmas season is just about setting the stage for Easter. While the birth is important it's not the birth we are really celebrating. We're celebrating the eventual sacrifice for all men, even those that had a hand in the sacrifice.
I'll be honest and say I'm a bad Catholic. I never go to mass. In the last several years I've just hit Christmas and Easter masses. The movie is powerful and has got me to think about religion and not be focused on scandals or other crap happening in the church. However, it's no life-changing event and won't do much in the long run to change my views. I'm not about to go and join the priesthood or travel third-world counties trying to convert heathens.
I'd say in the end the best this movie will do is give people a good excuse to talk about religion again. It's not about to start some new resurgence of religion in American, even if there are people that hope it does or fear it might. Neither side needs to get all worked up because it's not going to happen. Just relax and see the movie for what it is, the telling of a story.
on 02/29/2004 at 11:08 PM
Thursday, February 26, 2004
How to Get Your Woman to Game
I found this funny but intriguing article about getting your girlfriend/wife/etc to play video games with you at Gaming Nexus. At first I thought it was going to be just sort of a joke article about girls and gaming but it turns out not to be. It turns out to be a very good article designed specifically to explain the dos and don'ts to guys.The article covers just about everything a guy should think about when trying to get his girlfriend/wife/etc to join him in playing video games. From the basics like making sure she's comfortable with the controllers by giving her the best one you have to choosing games that will be easy to understand and play. These are thinks you would expect to be logical but it's nice to point it out. There's nothing worse than giving her the crappy controller that has buttons that stick or making her play a complex game that expects the player to manage lots of tasks at once.
It suggests you pick games that will appeal to her and that's another obvious duh! It specifically mentions games such as Animal Crossing, The Sims and Dance Dance Revolution. I would agree these make good starting games that would appeal to many females. They don't require fast reflexes or complex button usages. More importantly they're fun to play because you can relate to them. Games like Animal Crossing and The Sims are really very much like playing virtual dolls. While at first it may sound insulting to make a grown up women play dolls the games are more complex than you think and can be quite addicting. I'm not embarrassed to admit I like playing Animal Crossing. It's a lot of fun. You interact with animals by talking to them, playing games and writing letters. You collect items, go fishing, hunt bugs, dig up fossils, and more. Best of all the game uses a real time clock so the game matches the real world. It changes seasons in the game the same as the real world. So right now in my town it's covered in snow and boring. In another month it'll start to get brighter and there will be new things to do.
The article also covers other things like sharing your memory card with her. Don't be selfish and let her save games and characters on your card.
quote:
They'll want to feel like their place in your life is secure, gaming included. That?s why you need to go out of your way to include them in your gaming experience, to let them know that their presence still remains even when they?re not around.
Ok, I have to sorta disagree with this one. All right, I see the point he's trying to make but at the same time there's the issue of accidents like her erasing you're save games or characters. When you spend weeks working on a game it sucks to loose all that work. Sure the whole sharing thing sounds good but I think the opposite could be just as true. Going out and buying a card just for her might seem like a thoughtful gift. It's saying "You're not just a second rate player that gets to only save wherever I let you. I care enough to give you your own memory card to use as you want". Well that's what I think.
Finally it talks about sharing your games and even *gasp* your system with her. Letting her borrow the system for a while to play at her home. This is definitely a good thing. Not only does it show her you're willing to let her borrow your systems but it gives a good excuse to spend time at her place. She won't feel like she has to always come over to your messy place because you want to play games. Then, because you're at her place it lets her feel like she's in control and can choose the game or even decided not to play. Although as a guy you don't want that, the gesture of power giving makes her feel good.
So that's enough of my ramblings. Go read the article because I'm sure you'll find it very good.
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Photo Gallery of Microsoft Campus
This will be a short post today. I was just catching up on some light weblog reading and stopped by Robert Scobles's site Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger. He posted a link to a photo gallery of a friend that visited his office and toured the Microsoft campus. There are a ton of pictures of Microsoft buildings and the area around. Just though I'd point it out.I've always had a thing for working at Microsoft. Well my three dream jobs would be (in no particular order):
1) Work at Microsoft
2) Work at Nintendo
3) Work for the CIA
Microsoft and Nintendo are really the forefathers in their industries so the chance to work at places like that would just be amazing. As for the CIA, well you can thank Jennifer Garner and ABC's show Alias, and to a lesser extent all the Bond films for that. All the fancy toys and technology just get me excited and wish I could work at the CIA to play with them. Although no way I'd want to work in the Clandestine Service. I'll stick with the science and technology thank you very much!
Anyways, since I've always wanted to work at Microsoft I find it cool to look at the pictures and get a glimpse of what the place looks like.
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
CD Music Settlement
Look what I got in the mail today! It's a check for $13.86. It's part of a settlement from a class action lawsuit against a bunch of music distributors accused of basically doing music price fixing.
You can read up on the whole thing at the official settlement website if you want but here's the basic point.
I copied this right from the website:
The Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit alleging that the Defendants conspired to illegally raise the prices of certain prerecorded Music Products by implementing Minimum Advertised Price policies, in violation of state and federal laws. The Defendants are five music distributors and three music retailers. (A list of the Plaintiffs and Defendants can be found on Page 3 of the Notice of Proposed Settlement.) The Defendants, in agreeing to settle the lawsuit, have denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
So simply put some people finally got fed up with the high price of music and sued a bunch of companies for illegally jacking up prices to gouge consumers. They haven't actually lost or admitted they did it but agreed to settle to end the lawsuit. In all total they're only settling for a few million so it's really just a joke and they still win in the end.
Last year the website was setup and you could file a claim to the settlement. So, some 5 million others and I took advantage of the offer. As a result we're all getting a check for $13.86. Along with the money they're giving a bunch of music CDs to charity and the likes.
Of course I'm not complaining but $13.86 is nowhere a fair repayment for the years of paying way to much for music. I think something in the range of $100 would be more appropriate. Anyways here's to getting a half take of gas free from the music industry!
Sunday, February 22, 2004
46 down, 2 to go
Well it's been a week now since getting my new hard drive installed. In my free time I've been ripping my music collection to mp3s. With the new hard drive I have so much space I figured I might as well just rip my entire collection to mp3s. Ok it's not a lot by any comparison since I only have 48 cds. I had 51 at one point but managed to loose three of them. Actually, I'm pretty sure my roommate from my second year at college "barrowed" them and never put them back because I have the jewel cases but the discs are missing.I had ripped about half the collection up to now. Originally, I ripped my music using CDex. I used the blade encoder and set it to 192kbps constant bit rate. While better than tv or radio it was still no where near CD quality music. I blame it half on the blade encoder because honestly folks it's just plain junk. MP3s can be created from 32kbps to 320kbps, so the real problem is the fact that the music is only created at 192kbps, which is nowhere near max quality.
This time around I'm making sure to rip all my music in high quality. I'm still using the CDex program just because it's works fine. However, I've switched over to using the LAME encoder. Specifically I'm using version 3.90.3, as after doing some researches it appears to be the best version out there. LAME includes several preset settings that automatically adjust to provide the best quality music possible. The settings are --alt-preset standard, --alt-preset extreme and --alt-preset insane.
--alt-preset standard
This preset should generally be transparent to most people on most music and is already quite high in quality. The resulting bitrate should be in the 170-210kbps range, according to music complexity.
--alt-preset extreme
If you have extremely good hearing and similar equipment, this preset will provide slightly higher quality than the "standard" mode. The resulting bitrate should be in the 200-240kbps range, according to music complexity.
--alt-preset insane
This preset will usually be overkill for most people and most situations, but if you must have the absolute highest quality with no regard to file size, this is the way to go. This preset is the highest preset quality available and creates mp3s with a constant bitrate of 320kbps.
The standard and extreme presets use what is called VBR (Variable Bitrate). With VBR the program looks at each part of the song and adjusts the quality level. For quiet parts or even silent sections of a song it's silly to waste space so it turns the quality down. When the music is loud and complex it turns the quality up. The insane preset uses CBR (Constant bitrate). With CBR it just uses the same quality regardless. So you waste space on the quiet sections and you loose quality on the loud sections. The benefit of CBR is that you always know the file size for a song where as VBR you won't know till it's done being created.
So for my collection I decided to go with the --alt-preset extreme setting. If I was making archive quality rips I might go with the insane setting but I'd rather not waste the space. A MP3 in the 200-240kbps range is going to be pretty darn hard to distinguish from a CD on anything but the highest quality stereo equipment. For my computer speakers I think it will be perfect.
So to summarize, I'm using CDex, with the LAME version 3.90.3 encoder and setting it to --alt-preset extreme for the quality.
It's late though and I don't feel like starting another disc so, Genesis's "We Can't Dance" and Local H's "Pack up the Cats" will just have to wait to get done tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Get a free Windows update CD from Microsoft
Microsoft is giving away free patch CDs!http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp
This is for all users of Windows XP Pro, Windows XP Home, Windows 2000 Pro, Windows ME, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows 98. It includes all hotfixes, patches and updates as of October 2003.
It's totally free (free cd + free shipping) so all windows users might as well take advantage of it. It's not going to cost you anything so why not spend a minute or two to order it. More importantly when you get the cd, use it!
Heck even non-windows users should order a copy because you all know windows users that don't update their systems. Give copies to all your friends and families to promote safe computing.
You may keep your system updated with the latest patches, anti-virus software, firewalls, etc but there are people that don't. I know it's a pain to do but it's well worth your time and energy to help others out. If nothing other than to know that the next time some worm gets released you know your friends and family won't be part of the problem.
If every person would help out 2 others to keep their systems more secure we would probably have half the problems with viruses, worms, trojans, etc.
Now do your duty and order the cd today!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Valentines Day
Well while I watch my new hard drive get partitioned and formatted (see previous post) I might as well tell everyone about what I did for Valentines Day.Being how this was my first Valentines Day with a girlfriend I had to actually make plans to do something. That's surprisingly hard when for every previous year I've just moaned and groaned. I've always considerer it as a stupid holiday for hallmark to sell more card and force guys to waste money on flowers, candy and other gifts. OK, I still think that but now I have to play the game because that's what is expected of a guy.
Actually it's kind of fun being the first time but I'm sure I'll be back to my old sour self next year.
I could sure tell it was Valentines Days when I stopped at the flower shop. The parking lot was full and there were plenty of guys standing around inside looking uncomfortable and feeling awkward. Buying flowers is a hard thing to do because there's so much to think about. How long have you been together? Does she have a certain preference? What is her favorite color? How much do you want to spend? Then when there are other guys there the peer pressure kicks in. If you only get one rose do they think you're a cheap ass? If you know too much about flowers and order some specific arrangement will they think you're a sissy? If you order too many flowers does that mean you're in the dog house and trying to buy her forgiveness? It can be pretty darn stressful.
I have no clue what the meanings of the different colors or numbers are so I just played it safe. When they got to me I just went with a half dozen red roses. I figure you can't go wrong with that. I got her some flowers for her birthday so going with a single rose would make me seem like a cheap ass. Then if I went with a dozen or more it might send the wrong message like I'm trying to buy her love or make her "owe" me for spending so much on her. So at least for me a half dozen seemed like the right number to just say I love you, without worrying about hidden messages.
So anyways I decided it would be the day of four Cs. Culture, Cuisine, Comedy and a Cherry on top. Incase you couldn't tell the "Cherry on top" is a reference to having ice cream! Of course being it's Ohio and in February it's like 10 degrees outside I decided to forgo the ice cream.
I picked her up and boy was she stunning. I am so damn lucky to have such a beautiful girl. I've always feared I'd end up in my 40s still single and finally just settle for some fat chick so I don't end up dieing alone as an old sad man.
For culture I took her to the art museum. The museum has a jazz exhibit right now which I though would be fun to check out. It's a collection of photos taken by Lee Friedlander who worked at Atlantic Records in the 1950s. As part of the exhibit they had a group of jazz musicians that played and also talked about all sorts of things like instruments, music styles, history of jazz, etc, etc. Along with that the local high schools jazz group were playing out in the lobby. Let me tell you those kinds could play! There was this skinny little guy playing the saxophone that could knock your socks off.
So we spent the afternoon just wondering around the museum talking and joking about the art and stopping to listen to the musicians play some good music.
We then went out to eat at a local place for cuisine. Around here there really isn't anything fancy so it's not like we have much of a choice. This town has all the usual fast food places, way to many pizza joints and no fancy restaurants. It really sucks honestly. I like watching the food network and you see all the amazing restaurants around the world and there's nothing close to what you see around here. What I wouldn't give for a four star upscale restaurant!
Anyways, I had this Chicken Roma dish. Basically, it's plate of olive oil coated noodles with two chicken breasts that are topped with diced tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. It was pretty good except for the tomatoes. I just don't like tomatoes. I'll squirt ketchup on sandwiches, fries, etc but can't stand to have a tomato slice. I guess I'm just odd.
Finally, we ended the night by watching a romantic comedy. We went a saw "50 First Dates". It's the new movie with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. It's a very good movie. It has plenty of the usual Adam Sandler comedy bits that'll make you laugh very hard but it also has plenty of serious romantic moments. The ending was kind of bad in my opinion just because it left too many questions open that I would have liked answered. Whatever though, it was still good.
All in all I had a great day and I hope she did too.