Hey everybody, another one of my new-fangled quasi posts that rely on you to make it interesting in the least. Recently, I have found myself wondering where all my blogger correspondents will be schooling next year. So, not to stress anybody out, but couldjall comment on where you're applying? Just a rough list, no need to defend anything. Anyway, here is a list I threw together after SNL a couple of weeks ago, except for Stanford to which I applied early for reasons unknown. So, without further ado, Ben's Ten, in approximate order of preference:
1. Stanford
2. Cornell
3. Notre Dame
4. Carnegie Mellon
5. Northwestern
6. Purdue
7. Michigan
8. Washington
9. Santa Clara
10. Oregon State
post script
Oh yeah, and if you have any recommendations for a good engineering program, I would be grateful to hear it. I can't wait to be just like Dilbert!
post post script
I will probably end up at Northwestern.
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Monday, November 22, 2004
A great gift for the holidays...
During Art, we're starting a new project, so Mr. Fykes set us loose on the magazines to get ideas. Lara found this clipping from a 1989 issue of Omni Magazine that I would like to share with you all. (the book says... with "LIVE SOUNDS" of the WOMB against a background of rain, the ocean and waterfalls. For better sleep, deep relaxation and mood settling..Originally recorded in Digital Stereo)
~Nancy
~Nancy
Sunday, November 21, 2004
BATMAN
Hey all, I know it seems like all I ever post about is movies, but seriously...I wouldn't know what else to say. But as long as no one cares, I was talking with Ben earlier today, and invariably we ended up talking about Batman (basically 'cause we're geeks), and I asked if he'd seen the Batman Begins trailer. He hasn't. So he told me to post about it. So I am.
Hit the link above for the official site, which has the awesome teaser trailer, and a buncha photos (Batman has never looked better in live action).
If you want my opinion on it (being the comic book geek I am, I naturally have one), I can't wait. First, Chris Nolan is directing it, and did a TON of work on the script. For those who don't know, he wrote and directed "Memento," which is one of my favorite films of all time. Honestly, when they were searching for a Batman director, this guy never came to mind because I never thought in a million years we'd be this lucky. Still blows my mind. Oh, and David Goyer, who wrote all the Blade movies and has been writing comic books for years, also wrote the script
Second...the cast, which is stunning for ANY film, never mind a superhero blockbuster. I get giddy just thinking. First and foremost, Christian Bale as Batman. Now, most won't recognize his name, but if you ever get a chance, go rent "American Psycho" or "Equilibrium," and get ready to experience one of the greatest actors of our time. Or, hell, go see "The Machinist," which is playing this week only at Cinema 21, and has his best performance I've seen (I'm undecided yet about the movie as a whole...I'll be sure to post a review when I've figured it out). More than anything, though, you'll know this guy IS Batman. I can't wait to see people's reactions to seeing him for the first time.
The rest of the cast...Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Bruce Wayne's business partner Lucius Fox, Ken Wantanabe (the samurai from "The Last Samurai") in a sort of villain role (it's an interesting character...still don't know how he's being used), Cillian Murphy ("28 Days Later") as The Scarecrow, Liam Neeson as one of Bruce Wayne's trainers, and Gary Oldman (another name you may not know, but the man's amazing) as Police Lt. Jim Gordon.
Seriously...this is the kind of talent the movie industry would be buzzing about no matter what the movie. Most of them have been nominated for or have one major industry awards. Every one of them are incredible. To have this kind of talent on Batman...it's a dream come true for me. So yeah...long post, I know, but I gotta spill the love for Batman Begins before every other person on Earth will be.
Hit the link above for the official site, which has the awesome teaser trailer, and a buncha photos (Batman has never looked better in live action).
If you want my opinion on it (being the comic book geek I am, I naturally have one), I can't wait. First, Chris Nolan is directing it, and did a TON of work on the script. For those who don't know, he wrote and directed "Memento," which is one of my favorite films of all time. Honestly, when they were searching for a Batman director, this guy never came to mind because I never thought in a million years we'd be this lucky. Still blows my mind. Oh, and David Goyer, who wrote all the Blade movies and has been writing comic books for years, also wrote the script
Second...the cast, which is stunning for ANY film, never mind a superhero blockbuster. I get giddy just thinking. First and foremost, Christian Bale as Batman. Now, most won't recognize his name, but if you ever get a chance, go rent "American Psycho" or "Equilibrium," and get ready to experience one of the greatest actors of our time. Or, hell, go see "The Machinist," which is playing this week only at Cinema 21, and has his best performance I've seen (I'm undecided yet about the movie as a whole...I'll be sure to post a review when I've figured it out). More than anything, though, you'll know this guy IS Batman. I can't wait to see people's reactions to seeing him for the first time.
The rest of the cast...Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Bruce Wayne's business partner Lucius Fox, Ken Wantanabe (the samurai from "The Last Samurai") in a sort of villain role (it's an interesting character...still don't know how he's being used), Cillian Murphy ("28 Days Later") as The Scarecrow, Liam Neeson as one of Bruce Wayne's trainers, and Gary Oldman (another name you may not know, but the man's amazing) as Police Lt. Jim Gordon.
Seriously...this is the kind of talent the movie industry would be buzzing about no matter what the movie. Most of them have been nominated for or have one major industry awards. Every one of them are incredible. To have this kind of talent on Batman...it's a dream come true for me. So yeah...long post, I know, but I gotta spill the love for Batman Begins before every other person on Earth will be.
So I was cleaning my room,
and I found the digital watch that I took with me on Los Embajadores after sophomore year. I bought it at Hi-School Pharmacy so that when the dirty Mexicans stole it I'd only be out three bucks. Yes, this marvel of American (okay, Taiwanese) engineering cost less than a Big Mac meal. You'd think that was a bargain, but looking at it now, I think the Big Mac would have held together for longer than this cheap plastic piece of crap. It's off by an hour and a half (and possibly twenty-two and a half hours). That's only about a minute every three days, so it doesn't bother me too much. What bothers me is the style of the watch, and correspondingly the fact that it once touched my wrist in broad daylight. First of all, it's light blue plastic. It might as well come with a big sticker that says "Please do not embarrass my bearer by mentioning my existence." Six-year-old boys wear blue plastic watches, and those are only the loser six-year-olds who wear watches in the first place. Second, instead of having cool functions like GPS or text messaging or USB flash memory it has three stick figure pictures on the front. At first sight, they appear to be: 1. A pair of Siamese twins conjoined at the waist. 2. A man scratching himself where he has absolutely NO BUSINESS scratching himself on my watch. 3. A man humping an airplane. I couldn't figure it out until I noticed the big white triangle on the "ADJUSTABLE STRAP!" that read "PLAY! RUN! RIDE!" (So the second twin's head was actually a soccer ball, the scratching man was running while scratching himself, and the airplane pervert was actually riding a decapitated horse.) It was a little disappointing. Instead of three pictures that told a story, something like "The Siamese Twins with Jock Itch who Hijacked Air Force One," my watch was really telling me, "Christ, kid, if you want to be able to afford a better watch you better start doing something cool, because I sure as hell can't get you there." But here's what really takes the cake. On the face of this light blue Taiwainese plastic QUARTZ watch decorated with Olympic event icons are painted six abbreviations for cities, with LONDON = 0 in red along the top. We've got "NYK - 5," "RIO - 4," "TKY + 9," "BKK + 7," "PAR + 1," and "MSW + 3." That's right, this watch was really intended for classy businessmen who are constantly traveling from London to New York, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Bangkok (yes, Pat, Bangkok), Paris, and Moscow, and need to reset their watches every on the plane. Or, I guess, British Olympic athletes who travel all over the world to perform for (among others) Brazilians while wearing their three dollars worth of complex chronometry. You'll notice that it didn't mention Vicente Guerrero ("SHTHLE - 7"). I can't help but feel a little guilty, like maybe I degraded the watch by taking it somewhere other than a major international center of commerce, culture, and airplane-humping. By the way, I failed to mention that this is an "ACTION WATCH," which really means, "If you wear this watch, it will replace any action you might have gotten without it." (Hmmm. While examining it right now for any shred of redeeming value, the buckle fell off. Think what a tough spot I'd be in if that happened during my horse race.) You know what, I vaguely remember keeping it in my pocket on Los Em. I hope to God I did. The silver lining to this cloud is that the underlined, capital-letter "COLWELL" on the underside of the watch is still there. Thus, the three dollars I spent on the Sharpie were well worth it, except for the several cents' worth that was applied to the watch. I'm considering burning this to remove any evidence that I spent real money on it.
I hate cleaning my room.
//\//
I hate cleaning my room.
//\//
Saturday, November 20, 2004
THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE
It has arrived.
I've been reading some reviews for this film (almost all of which are positive, by the way), and I'm thrilled to see how many of them had never seen SpongeBob before, and after seeing this film couldn't believe they hadn't. Me, I've been a SpongeBob fan for a long time now. And this movie...this movie is a dream come true.
After the amazing opening sequence (to spoil it would be a sin, even though I know most of you will never see this movie), the movie does drag for a good fifteen minutes. Throughout those fifteen minutes, I wondered just how good this would really be, and was sure they'd just showed all the good parts in the trailer. But then SpongeBob and Patrick get wasted at a bar. No, not a bar with beer...it's a kids movie. At a place called Goofy Goober, whose mascot is a singing peanut. And they get wasted on ice cream. As with everything in the film, it executes better than it sounds.
And after that, there were few times I stopped laughing. The visuals took a bit of getting used to (there's always a shift of animation style from small screen to big), but worked just as well on the big screen. In fact, it worked better (the animators really used that bigger budget), ESPECIALLY with Plankton. See, Plankton is actually a plankton, only he desires to rule the world. And man, the animators went to TOWN on this guy. His every movement is some extension of himself, and I loved this guy more than normal (and I've always loved him). Doug Lawrence, as with the rest of the cast, did some steller work here.
And really, if you ever watch this, I think you'll be surprised and awed at just how grown-up the script is. SpongeBob getting wasted is the big one, but there's all the little jokes that me, Spencer, Tyler Vranizan, and Pat were laughing to that the six-year-olds who surrounded us weren't (they...pretty much got the butt humor). Many a strange look were thrown our way.
But, of course, it wasn't too grown up. It's still a cartoon, and that's still why I love it. There's still a scene where SpongeBob and Patrick are crying so much that they shoot water from their eyes into the other's mouth. But then there's that scene at the end where SpongeBob launches into an 80's-style rock video, complete with Patrick in fishnet stockings. It really has to be seen to be believed.
But seriously...I know SpongeBob isn't for everything, and that's a damn shame. But if it weren't for The Incredibles (which was perfect), this would be the best animated film of the year. So if you're a fan of animation, or just comedy in general (and by "fan of comedy," I mean comedy in ALL its forms, so long as it's done well), you will LOVE this film. I know I did.
Oh, and I saw it at the new Century 16, which is a NICE theater. We were at the end of the hall, in a rather small theater, but it all looked kinda jammed in there, so I don't know if they even have a giant theater. But we'll find out. The seats weren't as comfy as I'd hoped...Regal still has them beat there. But stadium seating is enough to make it the best mainstream theater around. Fox Tower is still the best theater overall.
I've been reading some reviews for this film (almost all of which are positive, by the way), and I'm thrilled to see how many of them had never seen SpongeBob before, and after seeing this film couldn't believe they hadn't. Me, I've been a SpongeBob fan for a long time now. And this movie...this movie is a dream come true.
After the amazing opening sequence (to spoil it would be a sin, even though I know most of you will never see this movie), the movie does drag for a good fifteen minutes. Throughout those fifteen minutes, I wondered just how good this would really be, and was sure they'd just showed all the good parts in the trailer. But then SpongeBob and Patrick get wasted at a bar. No, not a bar with beer...it's a kids movie. At a place called Goofy Goober, whose mascot is a singing peanut. And they get wasted on ice cream. As with everything in the film, it executes better than it sounds.
And after that, there were few times I stopped laughing. The visuals took a bit of getting used to (there's always a shift of animation style from small screen to big), but worked just as well on the big screen. In fact, it worked better (the animators really used that bigger budget), ESPECIALLY with Plankton. See, Plankton is actually a plankton, only he desires to rule the world. And man, the animators went to TOWN on this guy. His every movement is some extension of himself, and I loved this guy more than normal (and I've always loved him). Doug Lawrence, as with the rest of the cast, did some steller work here.
And really, if you ever watch this, I think you'll be surprised and awed at just how grown-up the script is. SpongeBob getting wasted is the big one, but there's all the little jokes that me, Spencer, Tyler Vranizan, and Pat were laughing to that the six-year-olds who surrounded us weren't (they...pretty much got the butt humor). Many a strange look were thrown our way.
But, of course, it wasn't too grown up. It's still a cartoon, and that's still why I love it. There's still a scene where SpongeBob and Patrick are crying so much that they shoot water from their eyes into the other's mouth. But then there's that scene at the end where SpongeBob launches into an 80's-style rock video, complete with Patrick in fishnet stockings. It really has to be seen to be believed.
But seriously...I know SpongeBob isn't for everything, and that's a damn shame. But if it weren't for The Incredibles (which was perfect), this would be the best animated film of the year. So if you're a fan of animation, or just comedy in general (and by "fan of comedy," I mean comedy in ALL its forms, so long as it's done well), you will LOVE this film. I know I did.
Oh, and I saw it at the new Century 16, which is a NICE theater. We were at the end of the hall, in a rather small theater, but it all looked kinda jammed in there, so I don't know if they even have a giant theater. But we'll find out. The seats weren't as comfy as I'd hoped...Regal still has them beat there. But stadium seating is enough to make it the best mainstream theater around. Fox Tower is still the best theater overall.
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