Here's my review for Revenge of the Fallen. It was a lot of awesome packed in with some what the heck. I think the biggest weakness of this film is that they tried to do too much. A lot of the movie doesn't flow well or even make sense a few times, because they didn't have enough time to build everything up.
It isn't entirely clear whether RC is all three motorcycles or just one. They do not combine.
The bots with the most camera time can only be described as hillbilly ghetto-bots. They provide tons of comic relief, but I wouldn't pick them on my team.
There are several instances where some characters just disappear.
In the opening sequence, the Autobot Sideswipe looks way too similar to the Decepticon they are chasing. I spent a few moments wondering why RC was shooting Sideswipe.
Soundwave, Ravage, Waspinator, Starscream, Megatron, Devastator and about fifteen Decepticons who are never named. Lots of combat. Really awesome. On the downside, many of the unnamed Decepticons look enough like Megatron, that it looks like he gets killed several times.
Jetfire and Wheelie aren't what you'd expect.
Overall, a decent film as long as you can get past the choppiness at the beginning.
I'll see if I can get a more in depth review up tomorrow.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Earth2Comics
Today, I'd like to give a shout out for my buddy Mike at Earth2Comics, the best damn comic shop in South Florida. He's got comics, graphic novels, collectible miniatures and busts, collectible cards, and more. It's also the home to our Sunday D&D game, because Mike knows how to treat his customers right. Thanks, Mike.
http://EARTH2COMICS.NET
http://EARTH2COMICS.NET
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Geek Heaven
As some of you may know, I have a new job working back in the construction industry as a bookkeeper. I had been glad to get out of bookkeeping when I went to work at Learning Today, but the environment there quickly changed my mind.
Most people want their bookkeeper to be a mindless bean counter, which, as you know if difficult for me. the mindless part, that is. Most people also think their bookkeepers need to be women. The sex of the applicant should be irrelevant, but it makes it near impossible for me to find work. Compounding this is the number of bookkeepers who are dumber than bricks. it astounds me how they can have a job when I have so much trouble finding work.
Luckily, my current employer needed someone who could work the warehouse and unload trucks, so I was able to get a leg up for this position, because I've done that before, and I have experience working in the construction industry. As usual, when I finally found a job, my skillset was a perfect fit.
I enjoy bookkeeping, but one of the things that bothers me is that there is usually very little room for innovation. You learn their system, you do it their way. If you suggest improvements, you're rocking the boat. It's how I've lost most of my jobs, thinking too much. Luckily, my current employers loves that. Anything that will improve productivity is alright by him. I'm implementing all sorts of new procedures to improve how we track jobs and inventory.
What I'm really excited about are the chances to work with ideas I've never been able to explore before. Until now, I've had relatively little exposure to Access. We needed a way to track service calls, and I suggested that we could do it with Access. My boss gave me a go, and when I presented the finished product, he was impressed and thankful. He also liked the Excel vacation tracker that I created and the Excel job mapper that I created.
The mapper is the one that I'm really proud of. The first part was easy. We do alot of Winn Dixie service calls, and I wanted a tool that would allow me to type a store number and give me all of the pertinent information. I set up a table and used lookup commands to pull up the information.
We also map the locations for our plumbers, so I thought it would be useful if the tool could create the map at the push of a button. When I started, I was pretty sure it could be done, but I didn't have a clue of how I would get it to work. I did my research and found some guy doing similar projects, but neither worked for me. After a few hours of studying what they had done, I was able to figure out how to read the information from specific cells and how to send it to a web browser. Once I figured that out, it was simple to create the Macro. I love doing this kind of stuff.
Most people want their bookkeeper to be a mindless bean counter, which, as you know if difficult for me. the mindless part, that is. Most people also think their bookkeepers need to be women. The sex of the applicant should be irrelevant, but it makes it near impossible for me to find work. Compounding this is the number of bookkeepers who are dumber than bricks. it astounds me how they can have a job when I have so much trouble finding work.
Luckily, my current employer needed someone who could work the warehouse and unload trucks, so I was able to get a leg up for this position, because I've done that before, and I have experience working in the construction industry. As usual, when I finally found a job, my skillset was a perfect fit.
I enjoy bookkeeping, but one of the things that bothers me is that there is usually very little room for innovation. You learn their system, you do it their way. If you suggest improvements, you're rocking the boat. It's how I've lost most of my jobs, thinking too much. Luckily, my current employers loves that. Anything that will improve productivity is alright by him. I'm implementing all sorts of new procedures to improve how we track jobs and inventory.
What I'm really excited about are the chances to work with ideas I've never been able to explore before. Until now, I've had relatively little exposure to Access. We needed a way to track service calls, and I suggested that we could do it with Access. My boss gave me a go, and when I presented the finished product, he was impressed and thankful. He also liked the Excel vacation tracker that I created and the Excel job mapper that I created.
The mapper is the one that I'm really proud of. The first part was easy. We do alot of Winn Dixie service calls, and I wanted a tool that would allow me to type a store number and give me all of the pertinent information. I set up a table and used lookup commands to pull up the information.
We also map the locations for our plumbers, so I thought it would be useful if the tool could create the map at the push of a button. When I started, I was pretty sure it could be done, but I didn't have a clue of how I would get it to work. I did my research and found some guy doing similar projects, but neither worked for me. After a few hours of studying what they had done, I was able to figure out how to read the information from specific cells and how to send it to a web browser. Once I figured that out, it was simple to create the Macro. I love doing this kind of stuff.
Normals vs. Specials
I had an uncomfortable encounter with a normal this weekend.
Once a month, AMC has a special showing of a family movie that is for families with special needs children. This allows our son to wander around and make noise however he likes during the movie. There are usually 2 or 3 other special needs families, and my son runs around visiting the other children, asking them memorized questions. This is actually pretty odd behavior for a child with Autism, and it shows that he is making progress socially.
Unfortunately, this last weekend, we had an issue with a normal who was in our theater. About 30 minutes into the movie, the woman stands up and yells for someone to control their child. Of course the child in question was my son. My wife and I explained that our son had Autism and that he couldn't control himself like her normal children.
I then had to tell my son not to bother the woman or her children. He didn't know how to handle it and immediately shrank inside of himself. For the next 20 minutes, he just sat there staring into space. My wife and I were both livid. All of the progress we had been making with him was neutralized with a single statement. My wife rarely stands up for herself or makes a seen, but she went to the manager to tell him what happened, and she was still fuming on the drive home from the theater.
Apparently, the ticket takers had forgotten to mention that it was a special sensory friendly showing for children with special needs, but it is still difficult not to be upset with the woman who shattered our safe little movie zone. And while I can understand why the movie theater would still let normal families in, it is still difficult not to be upset because of this. It is supposed to be a safe zone where our children will not be judged for who they are. I felt violated by what happened, and I was upset about the potential damage to our son's budding socializing.
Once a month, AMC has a special showing of a family movie that is for families with special needs children. This allows our son to wander around and make noise however he likes during the movie. There are usually 2 or 3 other special needs families, and my son runs around visiting the other children, asking them memorized questions. This is actually pretty odd behavior for a child with Autism, and it shows that he is making progress socially.
Unfortunately, this last weekend, we had an issue with a normal who was in our theater. About 30 minutes into the movie, the woman stands up and yells for someone to control their child. Of course the child in question was my son. My wife and I explained that our son had Autism and that he couldn't control himself like her normal children.
I then had to tell my son not to bother the woman or her children. He didn't know how to handle it and immediately shrank inside of himself. For the next 20 minutes, he just sat there staring into space. My wife and I were both livid. All of the progress we had been making with him was neutralized with a single statement. My wife rarely stands up for herself or makes a seen, but she went to the manager to tell him what happened, and she was still fuming on the drive home from the theater.
Apparently, the ticket takers had forgotten to mention that it was a special sensory friendly showing for children with special needs, but it is still difficult not to be upset with the woman who shattered our safe little movie zone. And while I can understand why the movie theater would still let normal families in, it is still difficult not to be upset because of this. It is supposed to be a safe zone where our children will not be judged for who they are. I felt violated by what happened, and I was upset about the potential damage to our son's budding socializing.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Six Months of Silence
I figured I would throw together a single post to catch up on the past six months and move on from there.
I stopped updating my blog when I lost my job, and I spent a few months looking for another one. The good news is that we had saved up a little to help buffer us. Between that and unemployment, we managed to keep food on the table while I was unemployed.
I guess I'll start at the beginning. I originally started blogging for my job and decided to start my own blog to release my thoughts. I have no idea if anyone will ever read this, but it's good to let things out that you wouldn't normally say. It's amazing how you can feel more comfortable sharing your secrets with millions of people on the internet than you are sharing with a single person face to face.
Back on track. I worked for a company that designed educational software for elementary students. I ran the support department, and at first they loved me. I'm very intuitive and can see problems right away. In my first two months there, I documented more than sixty errors with their system. Unfortunately, always seeing the negative doesn't really win you any friends. Combine that with the fact that I apparently do not understand the intricacies of talking to humans, and you get a disastrous combination. I would say something like, "This feature isn't working correctly.", and for some reason people hear, "You're a fucking retard that shouldn't be allowed near crayons much less computers."
My understanding is that this is a part of communication called translation. It's when the listener uses their personal experiences and feelings to interpret the meaning of the message. unfortunately, most of the people I worked with had never had a job in the real world, and couldn't handle any kind of negativity. The owners would actually pull employees into their office and issue them warnings just for being negative. The funny part of this is that if they had been working for someone else, they likely would have been fired for their attitudes and how they talked to people. I still have documentation of an email that says that we are all too incompetent to accomplish anything unless the owners were there holding our hands.
I loved the job in the beginning, but by the end, I was actually relieved to be let go. I think some of the others were feeling it too, as one of them said to me that I just had a head start on everyone else.
I think it's safe to say that I'm still a bit pissed about how that situation worked out. Anyway, while I was unemployed, i started running a 4th Edition D&D game on the first Sunday of every month at Earth2Comics. We'll also be having a special event this Saturday if anyone wants to swing by. Because I was going to be focusing on the new game, I stopped running Marvel Superheroes for the guys. Scott took over the Saturday game and is running a 3.5 D&D.
I worked on my novel a little too. I've managed to complete seven chapters, but I haven't spent much time on it since December. I'm still running my online game to flesh out the world for my novel, and the new Sunday game is also based in my novel world. If I can ever find the motivation to really get back at it, I might get enough done to start sending something out to publishers.
On another writing track, I've been thinking about writing some children's novels. I've got a concept, but haven't fleshed anything out. I really need to finish one and get some artwork for it so I can send it out to some publishers.
Finally, I've been talking with one of my friends about starting an online browser based game. My cousin is a programmer, and he'll put together a bid for me once I get enough information together for him. unfortunately, when I try to sit down and put things on paper, I don't know what to do. I've really lost my ability to focus on anything other than my job. I'm wondering if my brain wants a rest because my work is so detail oriented and I have to stay so focused.
I stopped updating my blog when I lost my job, and I spent a few months looking for another one. The good news is that we had saved up a little to help buffer us. Between that and unemployment, we managed to keep food on the table while I was unemployed.
I guess I'll start at the beginning. I originally started blogging for my job and decided to start my own blog to release my thoughts. I have no idea if anyone will ever read this, but it's good to let things out that you wouldn't normally say. It's amazing how you can feel more comfortable sharing your secrets with millions of people on the internet than you are sharing with a single person face to face.
Back on track. I worked for a company that designed educational software for elementary students. I ran the support department, and at first they loved me. I'm very intuitive and can see problems right away. In my first two months there, I documented more than sixty errors with their system. Unfortunately, always seeing the negative doesn't really win you any friends. Combine that with the fact that I apparently do not understand the intricacies of talking to humans, and you get a disastrous combination. I would say something like, "This feature isn't working correctly.", and for some reason people hear, "You're a fucking retard that shouldn't be allowed near crayons much less computers."
My understanding is that this is a part of communication called translation. It's when the listener uses their personal experiences and feelings to interpret the meaning of the message. unfortunately, most of the people I worked with had never had a job in the real world, and couldn't handle any kind of negativity. The owners would actually pull employees into their office and issue them warnings just for being negative. The funny part of this is that if they had been working for someone else, they likely would have been fired for their attitudes and how they talked to people. I still have documentation of an email that says that we are all too incompetent to accomplish anything unless the owners were there holding our hands.
I loved the job in the beginning, but by the end, I was actually relieved to be let go. I think some of the others were feeling it too, as one of them said to me that I just had a head start on everyone else.
I think it's safe to say that I'm still a bit pissed about how that situation worked out. Anyway, while I was unemployed, i started running a 4th Edition D&D game on the first Sunday of every month at Earth2Comics. We'll also be having a special event this Saturday if anyone wants to swing by. Because I was going to be focusing on the new game, I stopped running Marvel Superheroes for the guys. Scott took over the Saturday game and is running a 3.5 D&D.
I worked on my novel a little too. I've managed to complete seven chapters, but I haven't spent much time on it since December. I'm still running my online game to flesh out the world for my novel, and the new Sunday game is also based in my novel world. If I can ever find the motivation to really get back at it, I might get enough done to start sending something out to publishers.
On another writing track, I've been thinking about writing some children's novels. I've got a concept, but haven't fleshed anything out. I really need to finish one and get some artwork for it so I can send it out to some publishers.
Finally, I've been talking with one of my friends about starting an online browser based game. My cousin is a programmer, and he'll put together a bid for me once I get enough information together for him. unfortunately, when I try to sit down and put things on paper, I don't know what to do. I've really lost my ability to focus on anything other than my job. I'm wondering if my brain wants a rest because my work is so detail oriented and I have to stay so focused.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Adrift
It has been awhile since I have updated. Good news is that I'm working again. I am back doing bookkeeping again. I forgot how much I enjoy working with numbers rather than people. Numbers don't force you to put up with their issues and insecurities. I have also got a pretty awesome boss. He understands how to treat employees, keep them motivated, and reward them for going above and beyond. He'll put gift cards and such in our checks every few weeks, and I have seen him give extra rewards to guys who handle emergency service calls on their days off.
It's interesting working for Joe. Most places I've worked, they could not do proper bookkeeping if their lives depended on it, and they never had any idea what I was doing for them. This is the first time where the owner knows exactly what I'm doing for him and understands exactly how I'm improving things. Joe did not hire me because he could not do the work, he just didn't have enough time in the day to keep doing everything. It feels good to be respected again.
Unfortunately, I feel adrift personally. I have no idea what to do with myself when I am not at work. I have so many projects that I would like to complete, but it seems like every time I sit down to work on one, I lose focus. I can't even seem to enjoy playing video games now. I'll play for a few minutes and quickly grow bored. I have no idea what is wrong with me. It is as if I can not be satisfied with any one thing because there are so many things to do but not enough time to do them all.
It's interesting working for Joe. Most places I've worked, they could not do proper bookkeeping if their lives depended on it, and they never had any idea what I was doing for them. This is the first time where the owner knows exactly what I'm doing for him and understands exactly how I'm improving things. Joe did not hire me because he could not do the work, he just didn't have enough time in the day to keep doing everything. It feels good to be respected again.
Unfortunately, I feel adrift personally. I have no idea what to do with myself when I am not at work. I have so many projects that I would like to complete, but it seems like every time I sit down to work on one, I lose focus. I can't even seem to enjoy playing video games now. I'll play for a few minutes and quickly grow bored. I have no idea what is wrong with me. It is as if I can not be satisfied with any one thing because there are so many things to do but not enough time to do them all.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Gaming-1
Warning - Gaming Post
For those of you who have been enjoying my posts about Witchhunter, I have some bad news. I finally got tired of staying up well past midnight and often not even having a game, so I've stopped going to the Witchhunter games. The good news is that I may revisit Witchhunter again in the future. I intend to introduce my gaming group to the game eventually.
It's been awhile since I've given a Marvel Superhero update. Our fearless heroes have been having a fairly easy time rolling over street thugs and standard super-villains. Unfortunately, they fought a few mind controlled Avengers in the last session. They weren't too happy to discover that Iron Man could give them a pretty good beating. I'm not entirely sure why they were surprised. He is one of Marvel's icons.
For those of you who have been enjoying my posts about Witchhunter, I have some bad news. I finally got tired of staying up well past midnight and often not even having a game, so I've stopped going to the Witchhunter games. The good news is that I may revisit Witchhunter again in the future. I intend to introduce my gaming group to the game eventually.
It's been awhile since I've given a Marvel Superhero update. Our fearless heroes have been having a fairly easy time rolling over street thugs and standard super-villains. Unfortunately, they fought a few mind controlled Avengers in the last session. They weren't too happy to discover that Iron Man could give them a pretty good beating. I'm not entirely sure why they were surprised. He is one of Marvel's icons.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
