I Hate Critics

Today was kind of boring. I had the apartment to myself. Went ahead and just watched tons of basketball. Our cable provider is giving us a free weekend of the NBA League Pass. That means that I got to watch classic games for a majority of the afternoon.

Went to see Smokin' Aces today. It was pretty good. I've seen bad reviews for it, but I have to disagree. Each character was given just enough to make them unique. The plot was laid out in the beginning, and then everything was just constantly moving forward. If you miss 4 minutes of that movie, you miss too much.

All of the actors and actresses did well. I was particularly impressed with Ryan Reynolds. Every movie that I've seen him in, it's always a comedy. And his humor is basically the same in each of those movies. Well, he really put it together for this movie. Very serious character, and he did a good job.

Movie critics are useless. They pick their favorite movies, and if something new doesn't crack their top 10 list, they crap all over it. Maybe the director uses a new technique. Doesn't matter. A critic hates it and the whole movie stinks.

The best way to rate a movie is to ask yourself 3 questions:

1. Do I want to see this opening night?
2. Do I want to wait for the DVD?
3. Do I want to see this movie?

If you answer any of those questions with a 'yes,' then you watch the movie. Let's say you see it a theater. Then you ask yourself, "Do I want to buy this DVD?" If you rent it or borrow it from a friend, then you ask yourself the same question. "Is this movie worth owning?" If you see it on HBO, Cinemax, or Showtime, then you ask again.

If you see it opening night, or close to it, and you want to own the movie, it was a good movie. Simple enough. For me, I saw Smokin' Aces on the second night it was out, and I want the special edition DVD that's going to be out in a few months. It was that good.

I'm tired of critics in general. Movie critics, music critics, they all suck.

Fun Decisions

Every semester, I treat myself by getting something I've been interested in for a while. Last semester, it was getting a laptop. The semester before that, I really don't remember. It might have been Guitar Hero. My first year in college, I got one computer and built another.

This semester, I'm kind of torn. I don't get to watch Mavericks games here in Austin. A SlingBox would solve that problem. I could be anywhere and watch my Mavs. On the other hand, I've had my eye on a new monitor. I found a nice 19-inch widescreen at a reasonable price. Not only is it a computer monitor, it is also a TV. Kind of nice.

Then there's the Nintendo Wii. That thing is hard to find. But for a next-gen system, it's pretty cheap. I have wireless internet here at my place, so it would integrate well with my existing electronics. Also from Nintendo is the DS. It's cheaper, but it is also hard to find. I may have found near my hometown, so my parents could get it on reserve for me. Another nice idea.

Then again, I don't need to treat myself. I have ideas, but sometimes that's fun enough.

I should just wait for Spring Break. I could fly somewhere and actually do something different. I've never used my Spring Break as a break. I always go home and do nothing.

Nothing like being nice though.

Kinda Bored

A friend of mine showed me craigslist. Of course I've known about it, but I never actually looked at it. He showed me a very funny post in which the person was making derogatory comments about someone who didn't spell correctly. The same person called it "retarted." Absolutely hilarious.

I'm not the type to go looking for love online. I'm not the type to post a personal in the newspaper either. And I have nothing against people who do.

But that doesn't mean I'm very successful with meeting new people in the real world. I'm shy almost all of the time. I never make the first move. I might make the first look, but that's about it. Even if there's eye-contact, I don't say a word. Besides, the females I'm interested in are the ones who make the first move. Get away from the norm.

Yet, I do find it easier to connect with someone I've never seen before. The only thing you are judging is their personality. If they are friendly and like the same things you do, then it really doesn't matter what they look like. You like that person for who they are. If you just so happen to live near each other, you might exchange phone numbers. If the conversations go well, you might just meet up.

This is what bothers me about 'teh internets.' Once, it was all about personality. Now, sites like craigslist and myspace inevitably lead to exchanging pictures. No matter what the intentions were, looks are an important factor now. Even if you read something like:

22 year old male. 5'8, slim build. Short brown hair and dark brown eyes. Can jog 3 miles without breaking a sweat. Loves to cook, and likes to shop.

Maybe I'm out of my mind, but I'm fairly certain a majority of females out there would raise an eyebrow and question the accuracy of the above statements. Can a guy like this really exist? And if so, is he going to look hideous? What better proof that this guy is desirable than to see a picture of him?

And this is why I won't do the online thing. It's practically a game show. Except that there are no commercials. There are no audiences. You exchange pictures, and one of you says, "Uhh, nope. No thank you." In a game show, if you're a contestant and you don't get picked, there will usually be a women in the audience who looks for you after the show. That's not how it works online.

There's another issue though. Meeting people online is very easy. You don't have to dress up or anything. Most of the time, you don't even have to type correctly. There are hundreds of thousands of people you can just randomly say "hi" to within your state at any given time. If you tried to walk outside and find someone at 3AM, you're more than likely to get into trouble. It's a completely different scene.

When my parents first got a computer and access to the internet, I was the one who spent a majority of the time on there. It felt very natural for me to set up an email account and find other people. I had some very unique experiences during that time. Today, roughly 8 or 9 years later, I don't keep in contact with anyone from that period.

But I really lucked out on blogger. I really did. I found two people, and I'm happy that I did. Yes, they live really, really far away from here. But I don't care. I'd still do just about anything they asked me to. On the MySpace, I've even put them ahead of other people I've known for over a decade.

I dunno. Just wanted to show some appreciation. They are special to me.

Dreaming Again

Amazing.

I haven't had anything interesting to talk about in the past couple of days. I've really been trying to get back into posting at a more regular pace. Was hoping that I could go every other day here, but things happen. I'm just going to have to try harder.

I started out with "Amazing" because I realized the obvious. I'm only in a creative mood if there's music playing. I was sitting here for an hour just trying to go through various topics. I said, "Screw it" and put on iTunes. It's been running for a while now, and finally I get my creative burst.

I had another awkward dream last night. It was awkward because I didn't know how to react to it. I'm still trying to figure out why I dream about the things I do. I never have nightmares. That's supposed to be a common thing, right? I don't mean every night. I just figure the average has to be around 3 a month or so. I have no clue. I haven't had a nightmare in quite a long time.

Every dream I have is about my reactions to situations. I don't reflect much on the dreams where I know it's only a dream and I abuse that knowledge by flying, punching, or whatever. I only think about the dreams where every action is based on instinct. So, most of the time, I can wake up and analyze my dream. This can lead to feeling content, happy, or just indifferent. Sometimes, I just feel awkward.

I want to believe that dreams tell us what we want. Personally, I've never dreamt about a person I've never met or seen. I've never dreamt about a place I've never been to or heard of. So, all of my dreams have to involve things I am familiar with. The things that I value the most should be the easiest for my brain to access, so it would make sense for my dreams to be about the things I value most.

When I dream about a situation, I figure it's just experimentation. Given some extreme circumstances, how would I react? Again, I am not surprised by my reaction most of the time. The times I am surprised, that's when I feel awkward.

I don't know. Maybe I should focus less on the surroundings and more on the general theme. Every dream has a theme. And every dream has specific elements to it. It's just a matter of how deep you're willing to dig.

Late Night

Fun stuff.

I love Guitar Hero. It has to be the most innovative game of the past 5 years. Well, I finally finished one of my goals for Guitar Hero 2. I completed "Free Bird" on expert with a 5-star rating. I wanted to make sure it wasn't a fluke, so I tried to do it again. Success. I don't have 5 stars on every song yet, but my mental block is definitely gone.

No classes today. It's supposed to get worse. Unfortunately, Thursday is looking fine. It's going to warm up enough to melt any ice and if there's any precipitation, it's only going to be rain. My favorite kind of weather. Well, I like it dry also, but I take the cold any way I can get it.

I'm waking up before noon again on my days off. It's really weird. But I've also figured out why I like staying up late. If I'm around the same people for more than 8 hours, I go crazy. Also, because everyone else is asleep, I can actually hear myself think. There are no children yelling, no adults talking loudly, and anything I hear is because I want to hear it. That could be music, a tv show, or nothing at all.

I just looked at the calendar and realized that it's mid-January. One more month before things go crazy. I really don't like Valentine's Day. People put too much effort into one day when they could spread it over an entire year. Such a give up.

Well, there's one thing I like about Valentine's Day. I really like those candy hearts. I think I'm the only one, because everyone else I know says that they taste like chalk. They must be eating the bad ones.

Cold Rain

This is going to be awkward.

I am an uncle. I don't call my nephew by his name. I call him "The Kid." It's easy and I can't forget it. You know, when I'm talking to one of my parents, I can just say something like, "You won't believe what The Kid did today!"

Later today, my niece is going to be born. I know that it will be today because that's what I was told. Reason enough. Well, this means that I will no longer be able to refer to my nephew as "The Kid." I have to come up with something new. I may just go with "The Boy." That's easy too.

Still hoping that the university closes on Tuesday. There's a 50% chance of sleet in the morning. I think that's more than enough for the administration to become cowards. All of the rallies and events that were planned to honor Martin Luther King Jr. have been postponed. I just need 24 more hours of freezing weather.

Just as a precaution, I'm going to try to adjust my sleep schedule right now. I won't be able to handle a full day without proper rest. As a result, I'm going to have to alter my blogging schedule. I will still try my best to keep writing here every other day. It's just not going to be past 3AM. Oh, and the nice thing about my schedule is that I only have to go to bed early on Monday and Wednesday nights.

Just counting down until graduation. Still wish I didn't have to go through the ceremony. Oh well. After 5 years, what's 2 hours more?

Almost There

Ahh, yes. The greatness of having two different places to write.

I've been alternating between this blog and my MySpace blog. There's a reason I'm using both, but I wouldn't know how to explain my system of determining which topics go where. But, the one thing I can explain is that fewer people in my hometown read this.

I'm very anxious to go back to Austin. I've been home for one week longer than I had planned, and I'm ready to get back to my normal setting. That's not to say that I'm tired of being here. I just want to get back to school and finish things up.

Whenever I go home, I tend to stay indoors and away from public places. There are just people I don't want to see. Besides, if I want to see you, you'll know that I'm in town. I'll let you know somehow, and I'll set aside a day or two just for you. Luckily for me, there's less than a handful of people I'll tell, so that leaves plenty of time to do nothing.

My last full day here consisted of sleeping until 2PM, watching my usual shows, going to Best Buy, then to Sports City Cafe, and then back to Best Buy. I played a Guitar Hero 2 demo while there and showed some people how it's done. There's nothing I love more than hearing morons talk about "Oh, I'm going to do this song on hard. That's right, hard!" Psh, whatever. Get over yourself. Here, I'll help.

Either way, there's still one thing missing from my MySpace profile. That would be a picture of myself. The problem is that I don't like pictures, so there aren't very many in existence. I don't like pictures from phones, so that's out as well. I want to make sure it's something classy, not just a party shot from a bathroom. There are way too many of those on the internets.

The reason I'm looking into this is because I've met some of my MySpace friends through the internets. They have no idea what I look like on a bad day or a good day. And there are two such people that I owe it to. I've known Jae and Jamie for over 2 years.

Eh, I'm just thinking.

Last Registration

I'm supposed to register in 4.5 hours. Woo-hoo.

The way it looks, I'll just have class on Tuesday and Thursday. Something like 9:30 to 3:00. That also includes 1.5 hours for lunch. Not bad at all. But that's if I get my undergrad research class. I like writing, and I don't mind learning about new topics. The only thing is that I have to find a professor who is willing to advise my research. I've been trying to think of various topics that I'm interested in.

I wouldn't mind looking further into security issues that are present in today's technology. I'm also curious about how students with no prior programming experience visualize the course material in computer science classes.

I recently took a course titled Information Assurance and Security. In this class, we learned about different forms of attacks that hackers can use. We also analyzed communication methods and protocols. I did read a bit of the assigned book, and I was fascinated by some of the topics we discussed in class. This is why I wouldn't mind doing further research in this area.

But, I'm also curious about visualized programming. I didn't start programming until I arrived at UT. We were forced to learn assembly for a special processor the professor created. Over the next courses, we learned about C and C++. These programming languages allow the coder to write very specific instructions. You can manipulate the address of data and individual bits with ease. So, when I started to code in C++, I didn't see boxes or anything like that. I saw one task and divided it into smaller tasks. Then I divided those again into even smaller tasks. Eventually, I had one line for each operation.

With Java, you focus on the object and adapt it to your needs. If you need something to represent a container of water, it's one attribute. If you also need it to know the temperature, that's one more attribute. So, when I have to code something in Java, I see the object in my head. I see a shape, labels, and compartments.

So, if you jump into some course similar to an intro class, what do you see that helps you? Do you draw it out? Do you create a flow chart? And if you look at someone else's code, how do you interpret it?

Kind of nerdy, I know.

But it is the last time I have to register. Makes me happy.

Gadget Gadget Gadget

I really want that new iPhone.

Really cool specs. I'm very impressed with the battery life considering that it has a bunch of small things constantly going on.

The only thing that sucks is the price tag. About $500 with the two year plan. From what I understand, it won't be available until June. Seems like a nice graduation present.

Engadget.com has more news about other less significant items.

Return of the King?

Wow, it's been long enough.

If you look at the last three posts, there's something funny about each one.

First, let's start with my rant about the Mavericks. I was completely upset to see them lose to San Antonio. I mean, maybe you've heard me mention how much I hate San Antonio, but that still doesn't give you a good idea of just how much hate there is. Well, since that post, the Mavericks have gone 28 and 7. Not bad. That also includes to wins against the Spuuuuhhhhrrrrrsssss in their own arena.

Second, I wrote a post about stupid football coaches. Since that post, I've seen the Longhorns lose two games and go to the Alamo bowl. Of course, they won and all. Still, that was a disappointing season. Also concerning dumb coaching moves, Bill Parcells sucks. The one thing that has beaten him all season long is the deep ball. They aren't even thinking of defending the pass. So, we get two costly defensive holding penalties. A stop would have been nice. By the way, Roy Williams has to be the most frustrating player in the league. You can watch him get beat by a tight end on one play, and then watch him intercept a pass on the next.

Oh, and I know hindsight is 20/20, but Bledsoe should have been holding the ball. Veteran playoff experience. That's all you need to know.

Third, well, there's nothing funny about the post with Jessica Biel. That's one nice posterior.