As of yesterday, Laura and I have been engaged for one year. Isn’t she just so beautiful?
Monthly Archive for December, 2005
Since the weekend, I’ve been trying (without any luck at all) to impose some kind of hiatus on my internet usage. Despite my lack of success so far, I’m going to press on with it so there’s unlikely to be any updates here until next year[1].
So, Merry Christmas to all.
- We (that’s Laura and I) may post a kind of 2005 wrap-up, Christmas post aimed squarely at family and friends, but we’ll see. [↩]
At the end of a really packed weekend, I went to see Kind Kong last night. I learnt three things:
- Just how overboard a movie can go
- Three V-Rexs are no match for the Kong
- Kong is massively sexually frustrated (and very lonely).
For an excellent review of the movie[1], you should head over to Binary Bonsai. But I have to disagree with Michael on one fundamental point; this is NOT the best movie of the year. The major problem being the level of realism. Although I’m not talking about the graphics, the animation in this movie was incredible. Kong himself was spectacular and the graphics in general were awesome, a computer animators wet dream.
The Two Types of Unrealistic
There are two types of unrealistic in movies, one I can handle, the other is what ruined King Kong.
The first type of unrealistic is the “band of movie makers and rough and tough sailors (including a beautiful woman) travel to an as yet (mostly) un-discovered island where they briefly battle the natives, who capture the beautiful woman and offer her to as a sacrifice, before going on to battle the local wildlife in an attempt to rescue the woman and, in the process, discover a gigantic ape which they capture and bring back to New York (to the protests of the beautiful woman who has fallen in love with the ape)”[2] thing. That bit, which is clearly a tad unrealistic, I’m fine with. That’s just a good story line and there are many, many good movies that require the audience to suspend their disbelief. It’s the other type of unrealistic that bothers me.
The other type of unrealistic basically involves what actually happens to the characters throughout the movie. Primarily, my problem is with how many times each and every character on the island should have died but didn’t. For example, how the hell did anyone survive the stampede scene? Did anybody else think “shaken baby syndrome” when Kong was running through the jungle with Anne?
Conclusion
For me, there were just too many times when I found myself laughing at things that weren’t meant to be laughed at. There were a few scenes I could have done without and a few elements to the story I thought were un-neccesary or out of place. As I said, I basically agree with everything in Michael’s review over at Binary Bonsai, except all the parts where he says what a great movie it is. To sum up, I’d say it’s worth seeing. In fact, it’s worth seeing just for the animation - the whole storyline thing is just a bonus. One thing it has done is really make me want to see the original.
It was a big relief to finish uni last month. Anybody who’s been around me for any significant length of time over the past year would know I was just ready for it to be over already. At the beginning of the year, I made the decision to start earning some money and switch from full-time uni and part-time work to full-time work and part-time uni. While I wouldn’t actually do it any differently now, in hind sight it made things tough. There’s nothing worse than coming home from a day (or a week) at work and then having to spend the next three-four hours (or entire weekend) working on assignments you care little about.
The first semester of they year wasn’t so bad because one of my subjects was group project, and although it was a lot of work, there were several upsides. First, I was working on something I cared about and was interested in (the Shin Dig website), and second, I was working with someone who I work very well with and who is very driven and hard working (Mr. Brown).
The semester just gone, however, was so much harder. I had near on zero motivation and it became a real struggle to get anything done. This of course meant everything got pushed back to the last minute which usually makes things worse. Final exams were no exception and having not done any actual study throughout the semester I decided to take a week off work in order to do some. Unfortunately I was still procrastinating and wasted most of that week. Without a word of exageration, I probably just made it to five or six hours of study per subject. Given my results that either means I’m really smart[1] or the subjects were actually very easy.
Overall, I’ve really enjoyed studying at QUT. True to it’s name, it’s a great university for technology. While, of course, there are things that could be better, the vast majority of subjects I took were well worth their while. Sure, I now have a gigantic HECS[2] debt that will take me decades to pay off, but I have infinitely more knowledge than before, and a total of twelve new letters[3]…what more could I want for my money.
Anyway, what’s next? Well, true to ambition (for at least the past 8 years or so), I’m going to start a business next year. There is a big plan in the works which will slowly see more and more light of day as I feel comfortable telling people about it. In the mean time, I’m going to stay working where I am and hopefully, go part time within a few months. I also have this crazy idea that I’m pretty good at building websites, so if anyone is looking for a web designer make sure you contact me.