Just a reminder that you can read uncensored rants and view personal pictures on my private blog. To make it simple, I’ve added a “PRIVATE” button to the top menu bar on this website in between “CONTACT” and “RSS”. If you know me, just email or facebook me and ask for the password. It’s simple – if I even vaguely know who you are, then you’re in. Don’t worry, I’m not screening out people I don’t like, lol! Otherwise, I will still cross-post geeky stuff right here on wordbit. Thanks for reading amigos.
Easy access to private blog
April 7th, 2011 · Comments Off
Comments OffTags: blogging · site Announcements
Source Code Review
April 6th, 2011 · Comments Off
Warning: this is not a movie for angry nerds. If you ponder over the concepts of multiple dimensions and consciousness and that sort of esoteric stuff more deeply, the purist in you will start to bristle. And don’t even start to go down the road of analyzing why a movie called Source Code has nothing to do with late nights coding in C+ at your Linux box. That said, this movie is such a wild romp through quasi-temporal what-ifs that you’ll soon forget these half-baked concepts.
Source Code is basically Groundhog Day on acid, except instead of Bill Murray, we have Russel Peters. Yes, you heard me, Russel “Somebody’s-gonna-get-hurt-real-bad” Peters has an excellent cameo in this flick. But the hero leading the charge through all the deja-vu moments is aptly played by Jake Gyllenhall, whose portrayal of a desperate soldier is wonderfully tempered with a bumbling humanistic quality.
I love movies in the vein of The Butterfly Effect and Momentum, so Source Code had me at “multiple dimensions” (although, as the inventor of the Source Code emphatically iterates: It’s not time travel, it’s time re-assignment). The director’s previous effort, Moon, was also a mind-bending look at an individual isolated by bizarre circumstances and trying to find out the truth of it all. I’d say he injected more adrenaline into this effort and has come up with a snappy and engaging thriller that is a must-see. Oh, and I loved the ending. 5/5 stars
Comments OffTags: movies · review
My review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
March 31st, 2011 · Comments Off
I’m a little late to the party, but I finished reading this Swedish crime thriller last night. It’s been on the best seller lists for a while and thought I would give it a go. The story centres on a downtrodden journalist, Mikael Blomkvist as he investigates the mysterious disappearance of a girl who went missing 40 years earlier. He gets some help from the gothic, autistic, troubled, grown up Pippi Longstocking character, Lisbeth Salander. She’s the one with the dragon tattoo by the way.
The title doesn’t have anything to do with the story. In fact, the original Swedish title is Men Who Hate Women, which is a far more accurate description of a story populated with sadists, rapists, serial killers, and a combination of those. But that all comes later. Most of the first three quarters of the book is filled with a languorous stroll through textual analysis of old documents, family trees, aging photographs, and red herring interviews punctuated by the anarchy and violence of Lisbeth’s story. There’s also a vendetta against a banker mafia thrown in there.
This translation is crisp and uses sparse, yet vivid English. There is no miring in waffling prose here – the author cuts straight to it but still gives us plenty of atmosphere and tension. The balance between character development and action was perfect for me, but I could see some action-junkie readers starting to drift off if they expect a car chase or shootout on every page (there is only one of each of these in the whole book). Overall, this was a great read and I’m looking forward to the next two books, which are part of the Millennium Trilogy.
Comments OffTags: books · review
A fitting end
March 30th, 2011 · Comments Off
Serenity is undoubtedly a movie for the fans. After Firefly's abrupt end, the absence of any kind of denouement left a gaping hole in the fabric of this fictional universe, and left the fans howling for more. This movie does fill that hole somewhat, but not completely. Answers to nagging questions still linger… Who were the mysterious blue-gloved men? Do Captain Reynolds and Inara ever get together? Who was the Shepherd really? There were some tantalizing hints dropped, but nothing concrete. Instead we get an eloquent assassin who spouts off pseudo-moralistic soliloquies in between giving the Captain a good ass-whooping – a nod to the memorable character in the final TV episode no doubt.Â
The door is certainly still wide open for a continuation of the series, albeit minus a few characters who met their unfortunate end. However, what we do get is a full exploration of the River story – and man, does she kick serious butt. The origin story of the Reavers was also quite chilling and gave the movie a good narrative kick. Â
In fact, the movie does stand quite well on its own and has a lot of heart and soul – perhaps more so than what George Lucas came up with when he cobbled the Phantom Menace together with an annoying floppy-eared Jamaican alien and a wooden kid.
4/5 stars
Comments OffTags: movies · review
Netflix steps it up
March 29th, 2011 · Comments Off
There was some good news on the Netflix front yesterday as the company announced a deal with Paramount Studios. This brings some serious cool to the Canadian version of Netflix, which has a astonishingly meagre library compared its big brother in the States. We now have Iron Man 2 – and the USA doesn’t – I mean, how awesome is that. But just when you thought the awesomeness was over, Netflix delivered another boon to Canadians:
Starting today, watching movies & TV shows in Canada will use 2/3 less data on average with minimal impact to video quality. For example, watching 30 hours of Netflix movies & TV shows will only use 9 GB of data, well below most Canadian ISP data caps. Previously, 30 hours from Netflix typically used 31 GB. Why the change? We know that many of our Canadian members have monthly Internet data caps. This new default account setting will significantly reduce the amount of data Netflix delivers to you each month.
Way to stick to Shaw and Telus. I welcome our new Netflix overlords. Keep the cool coming guys.