Kingdom of Heaven

Let's forget for a moment, that Hollywood intends to be historically accurate in anything it does. If I wanted to see an historical saga, the History Channel, not LaLa Land, would be my main avenue. With that said, Kingdom of Heaven is as epic as Gladiator without all the gory battles. Going into this movie, I didn't expect it to be as thought provoking as it turned out to be. Maybe I was expecting Gladiator for the Crusades.

KOH is set in 12th century Europe and Middle East with the main focus for the Muslim and Christian struggle for Jersualem (which, oddly enough, sends an echo to the present day). If you have been following this movie at all, you will know that this has been the source of much controversy surrounding the release. Is this objectification of our current struggle against Muslim terrorists? Is it too offense to raise tensions between our cultures?
Put your fears to rest, hate mongers. Kingdom does no such thing. I found myself wanting to quote Rodney King: "why can't we all just get along?" The script plays a perfect balance, almost effortlessly, with epic battles, dialog and romantic struggles. But it seems to drag and become confusing with its many characters.

Orlando Bloom plays a young blacksmith who is recruited by his father, Liam Neeson's character, who in turn knights him and various events play out from there. The first half of the movie tends to drag on seeing as there is so much to set up. Many factions on both sides want war, while the current King settles for peace. While we are talking about characters, I must say that I didn't find Bloom to carry a strong presence. That respect goes to Liam Neeson. While his role is short-lived, I found myself constantly wishing he would somehow appear to finish the film off.

Cinematically, Ridley Scott does not disappoint. The man knows how to direct a film, that's for sure. While the movie may be a little long without a foothold to keep your attention at every span, it does present a fantastic movie experience.

The Oscars and Hollywood pat themselves on the back

I find it extremely hypocritical that the actors and directors of Hollywood are patting themselves on the back for their support of promoting a better environment. I wonder how much better the environment would be if those actors didn't own 8 cars and had their own private jets.

Quarter of a Century

On August 25th, I passed the quarter century mark. It was, to my surprise, my "Golden Birthday" as a co-worker pointed out. Having never heard of that, it must mean that this year will be showered with riches(i.e. Green for the Money, Gold for the honeys). My birthday lasted all weekend and it kicked ass. So, what is my reward for turning 25? Cheaper insurance and passing that threshold of asking out teenagers. Damn you, college town.

My Mom is a Guitar Hero

As I mentioned in the last post, my mom came to visit over the weekend. Before we were getting ready to leave, she noticed the Guitar Hero guitar sitting next to my entertainment nest and asked what it was with thriving curiosity. I told her how you played a rock star and jammed out tunes with this toy guitar, living out fantasies that burrow in everyone's dreams. Now, my mom doesn't play video games; she never has. To see her excited about playing one was thrilling and I couldn't wait to get back home and endure the trials once again.

She managed "I Love Rock & Roll" (a beginner's requirement) with surprising depth and aptitude. I guess it is an attribute of a musician that you can even pick up a virtual tool and disseminate your abilities across the realm of 1s and 0s.

Forget something?

This past Saturday, my mom decided to come and visit me before heading off to stay with my grandparents. We were just out running a couple of errands when mom realized she needed to stop by the ATM to get some cash. As we were pulling up, this guy in front of us drives away done with his transaction (or so we thought). At the ATM we see the "Would you like another transaction?" screen and realize this guy completely ran off without his card. We tried to get his attention, but what can you do in a situation like that?

We decided to take his card so no one else would get it. I called directory assistance, but they were no help.

What would you do in that situation? Daddy needs a new TV!

Boys of Summer

Inspiration struck me yesterday in the need to actually clean my car. Since moving down to Tuscaloosa, I haven't been able to fully clean my car like I used to (partly due to the fact that I hate washing my car in the designated zone of clean automobiles where I live). Heading over to Jason's house, I decided to grab my polish and wax as well. As I was washing, polishing, and waxing my car, Jason decided to clean out his garage. Several hours later we were done with both.

Sitting around the kitchen, drinking victory beers, the topic of new games came up and I suggested Guitar Hero, ignoring the fact that I don't even own a PS2. After an interesting trip to Wal-Mart to buy food, we grab Guitar Hero. This game is great. Even though it throws everything I know about playing guitar out the window, we still could not stop playing this until sometime after 1:00 am.

Now we just have to get another guitar to rock the duel.

Pictures of You

After a day and a half of trying to get this program to work, I have finally accomplished what seemed the impossible. To begin with, I had to setup a Flickr account. After that, I had to suck down every detail on their website in order to come to the conculsion that "support" was only a tiny breeze of a word thrown out there to be lost among the clutter. What's the point of going to a Wiki if no information is on there? I know it's in Beta, but come on guys!

The steps to get this working:

1. Set up Flickr account and add pictures


2. Get a Flicker API code


3. Download Flapi


4. Use Flickr's RSS feed to figure out your USER ID and whatever SET ID you want to show up first


5. Insert these into the config.xml file


6. Now, if you are hosting this on your own server, then you're cool. Just add the HTML object code for the Flash file and you're up and running. However, if you are, like me, hosted on Blogger, the story is a little trickier. You need to edit the FLA source file Action script to use an absolute reference to your XML file.


7. This is easy assuming you have Flash 8. I had MX 2004 and had to download the trial in order to fix this. If you want the MX 2004 version, I can send that on your way. You WILL need this action script to compile the movie.

Want to know why you have to use an absolute reference in the AS? Because a new security feature in Flash 7 disallows cross browser data access. There are other workarounds, but they are all under the assumption you have access to the necessary server (which we don't have under Blogspot).

Anyways, check out my initial offering.