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First of all, yesterday I went out and saw Pixar’s latest film, Up, and it was a blast. As usual, the cartoony but more-and-more realistic-looking animation was superb. The plotline was very touching at points but still contained enough eye candy and silly jokes ot keep everyone on the edge of their seat and laughing. In short, it was another great Pixar film, although I’m not yet sure where it will go in my personal favorites; that can only be determined over time, I think.

This afternoon, though, I took the chance to rewatch the film in “Disney Digital 3D”, which is just Disney’s fancy branding to the RealD digital technology. Unlike old 3D glasses that used separate polarization or colors to each eye, RealD uses a more advanced polarization on alternating frames of the digital projection. This results in a much crisper picture than the older 3-D technologies, but it still suffers from a slightly dark look due to the polarization, although that might be due to the fact that I was sitting almost at the front of the theater.

My experience with seeing it in 3-D wasn’t amazing, but I did find it interesting. Only at a couple points in the film did the characters or sets seem to jump out of the screen for me, but when they did, the effect was pretty cool. Most of the time, the 3-D effect was subtle or barely noticeable, or at least subtle enough that I couldn’t decide if it looked much better than the regular 2-D projection. On the other hand, when the film was showing photos or artwork on a wall, it definitely felt more flat to me, so maybe it’s just my imagination building last night’s show into 3-D. I think, to Pixar’s credit, they never stooped to the level of making shots just so they wow the audience in 3-D, but they only used it to full effect when it filled the story. (I’ve seen numerous previews for other movies where it just seems that all the characters are sticking their face right up to the camera, which might be overwhelming but at least seems gimmicky to me.)

My main disclaimer on this front is that I do have an eye condition that does make it hard for me to see things far away (I’m almost legally blind, but not quite), and it may be that part of this condition makes it less exciting to me. People often ask me what I can see compared to them, and I tell them that I’ve never seen like them so I cannot really compare.

I guess my point is that the 3-D technology in films these days is much better than it was even a couple years ago. If it sounds intriguing to you, check out the new world of 3-D films and see for yourself if you like the experience. And speaking of which, besides a bunch of new films coming out in 3-D over the next year, it seems that both Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are going to be released in Disney Digital 3D over the next year before Toy Story 3 is released in June 2010.

Last week, a new tool called Wolfram Alpha debuted on the internet after a couple months of hype about it. At first, many claimed it was too hard to use or that it didn’t do much, but I think this system needs a deeper look.

Although it looks like a search engine box, this web site’s input box is more like the input line on Wolfram Research’s most famous product, Mathamatica. I’ll admit that I played with it for a couple minutes during a college Calculus course, but I couldn’t make head nor tails of what to do with it either. However, I can see a future where Wolfram Alpha is used as much for finding useful data as Google is for finding important sources and documents. And I think that’s what the folks at Wolfram Research want to do: get as much useful data and let people crunch it in as many ways as they like.

So what can we do? I put in my first name, “Daniel”, and found that it’s the 5th most popular name in the US as of 2007. It also includes a graph of approximate age of those named “Daniel”, and wouldn’t you know, my parents were just ahead of the years that “Daniel” was most popular. I can put in “GDP USA” to get some data on our nation’s Gross Domestic Product, but why not put in something more interesting such as “GDP USA/Canada” to find that within the last decade our GDP was 14 times more than Canada’s. That’s probably more interesting. Want to know about the caffeine that gets you through the day? Here’s tons of scientific data, molecular models and everything. And, of course, you can also plot graphs of data, like this one I did for the function “x^2 + 3x – 1″. (I wonder if this will replace a graphing calculator on our phones in a couple years?) Also, I remember there being a heat wave in the middle of May 2001 and the dorm was really hot, so I entered “weather may 2001″ and it picked up my current location and plotted the temperature and many other weather metrics. Sure enough, there were a couple 95+ degree days in there.

That’s only scratching the surface of this new tool. There are examples of querying data for dozens and dozens of areas of research. One thing a friend wondered was where the system got all its data, and I found a “Source Info” link at the bottom of the page, but the “Primary Source” is usually “Wolfram curated data,” which hopefully is considered more reliable to professors than Wikipedia.

In a rather odd dichotomy, this shirt is one of my most geeky but also one of my most sporty-looking:

As you can see, it almost looks like a sports shirt. All the geeks wear it because it’s the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything, of course! Yes, that’s right, it’s the ultimate answer to everything in Douglas Adams’s classic Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series.

Of course, this shirt was from ThinkGeek.com, the place to get all things geek. It’s been featured on “The IT Crowd” and Transformers as well. I think I actually got this shirt as a present from work. One time, we all did a good job on a project or something and the boss bought us all whatever shirt we wanted from ThinkGeek.

One of the reasons I was excited about this shirt today was because tonight we’re going to watch The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the 2005 film that was co-written by Adams and was released by Touchstone Pictures. I enjoy the film a lot and am looking forward to sharing it with friends.

First, let me preface this post with some information about my television watching habits. I’ve never owned a TV in the almost 9 years since I moved out of my parent’s house. Most of that time, there hasn’t even been a TV set in the house, although for a year or two a roommate had a TV tuner card for his PC. For a couple months I had cable with all the trimming, and all I really watched was reruns of Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and Cosby while making lunch or dinner. Oh yeah, and during that short period I watched lots of TechTV and Star Trek: The Next Generation. That was seven years ago. The only TV shows I’ve watched since then, besides the occasional episode of Charlie Rose or late-night talk shows, is Band of Brothers, Firefly, and Monthy Python’s Flying Circus. Oh, and The Colbert Report makes an appearance once in a while, although a lot more this fall before elections. Yes, that’s hardly a typical TV watcher, I know.

I like all these shows to an extent, but the only ones I took the time to get fully involved in was Band of Brothers and Firefly. I’ve watched all of their episodes, but then again, each one only has 10-20 episodes ever. Part of the reason I liked these was that I don’t like to commit to TV. The longer the show goes, the less point it ever gets to, from what I hear, and it quickly seems like a waste of your life. (Although, comedy shows are completely different because there’s little story arc, but they make us laugh.)

When I was told that Joss Wedon, maker of some of TV’s shows with the most cult following and creator of the great sci-fi series Firefly was coming out with a new show, I decided to check it out. After watching the first two episodes, I’m still not sure what to make of it, but it’s definitely interesting. It’s definitely a science fiction show injected with almost everything I hate about today’s world of TV.

The premise of Dollhouse is that this company has created a method of turning people into a pretty simple, rather blank personality without a care in the world. They live in this utopian place where they have no worries and are waited on by helpful staff to make sure they’re in the best condition possible. But from time to time these “blank slates” are programmed with other personalities in order to perform a predetermined job. After the job is performed, the “active”, as their creators are call them, has their memory wiped and they think they fell asleep and they go back to their carefree, utopian existence.

This sounds great. It’s a great sci-fi premise. It’s just a bit past what can probably be done with today’s science, but not out of the realm of possibility of the near future, for sure. And, like every sci-fi show, it’s exciting to explore the moral and ethical ramifications of humans having the ability to perform these actions. Within the first two episodes, many things are explored and hints at many other things are forthcoming. Joss Whedon is definitely still on his A-game as far as the writing goes.

The characters and cast are definitely set up well. Olivia Williams (Rushmore, The Sixth Sense) plays the head honcho of this Dollhouse operation, calling the shots of which missions should be run, although it’s unclear how she gained this post. Harry Lennix (The Matrix Trilogy’s Commander Lock) plays Echo’s “handler”, a highly trained ex-law enforcement man who accompanies the lead “active” on missions and is tasked with making sure the “active” is not hurt or damaged, and he seems a bit unsure of how well this technology all works, I think. There’s also a preppy, geeky 20-something programmer that seems to have come up with this technology and is pretty confident in his work. Also, there’s an FBI agent who’s trying to track down this elusive Dollhouse organization and seems to stay a step or two behind them while the rest of his colleagues is sure he’s chasing absolutely nothing.

The problems I have with the show are first, the ethics of he show, if it has any. First, these “actives” live in a commune where they all shower and live together, not sleeping in the same beds, but using the same communal showers. While sleeping, these “actives” are basically locked up in beds recessed below the floor with semi-translucent windows that cover them. None of these beings seem to find this confusing or disturbing but just walk around in a somewhat blank daze. I think this can be overcome, though, because the show is really only exploring this idea, not condoning it. Still, at this point it’s very unclear what the show is trying to say about this idea and it may go in the wrong direction. And, lastly, it seems that an “active” can be bought for any reason, and the first and second episode both include parts where the main character is sent on a mission where it only seems that she is hired to be a charming girlfriend, both on the streets and in bed.

And this brings me to my other beef, which is the way that this show panders to the mainstream TV crowd. First, the main character has to be a knockout babe who kicks butt at some point in every show. I’m not saying that it can’t be a good-looking woman as the main character, but TV shows these days have to always be filled with main characters in which the main character has her shirt off or is wearing almost no clothes at some point, and that should not be the point of a good show. Second, both episodes have shown the main character romantically involved and in bed with another character, which seems to even more emphasize my last point but to an even more disturbing level. Third, every episode seems to be super-intense, such that both 47-minute episodes I watched were more intense than any movie I’ve seen in the last year. The bad guys in the first episode are a couple kidnappers who are working for a serial child molester. The second episode pits our heroes against a psychopathic outdoorsman who seems to befriend people only to suddenly turn his back and try to murder them as a fun “game”. I’ll admit, these are some mean bad guys, but why do TV shows have to be so intense? And why are all the bad guys mentally deranged in some way on all the TV shows, when in the movies they seem to be of a higher life form?

All these shortcomings make me long for more Firefly, where Whedon came up with good characters that didn’t sell themselves on 30-second commercials for the show but actually had a role to fill and something interesting to talk about. Dollhouse may get to that point someday, but I’m not sure if I’m going to stick around to find out if it will. Still, the show leaves us hanging, as the creators and curators of this Dollhouse seem to be a bit careless and it’s obvious that their technology is not yet flawless.

Those are my favorites, in rough order of best to worst. I thought the ads were pretty good this year. Enjoy!

OK, so I thought about writing a Top 5 Movies of 2008, but after thinking about it, I decided it was hypocritical for me to do so. You see, in looking at most movies released in 2008, I guess I’ve only seen 20 of them to date. Considering IMDB has over 18,000 titles listed for 2008, I feel my Top 5 would be a bit limited.

However, I decided I still wanted to talk about my favorites of 2008. Yeah, it’s about a quarter of the movies I saw this year, but I thought these were notable and that probably not everyone had seen them. So, without further ado, I give you some of my favorite films I saw in 2008. If you missed them, I’d recommend checking them out.

• WALL-E: I expect a PIXAR film to be the best film of the year every year, and this one definitely did not disappoint. At first, I wasn’t sure about the whole bleak future of humanity, but after a while I realized that it wasn’t the point. The point is the passion, love and kindness of both the humans and the two main characters, which are robots. And, like every Pixar movie, they take computer animation to a whole new level.
• Speed Racer: Larry and Andy Wachowski sure set the expectations of their fans high by making what became a huge hit, The Matrix. While most moviegoers will not see this as a groundbreaking film, Speed Racer is as groundbreaking as The Matrix in terms of special effects. Every moment of the film is a rainbow of the most vibrant colors and even the slowest parts of the film are cut together in really fast sequences. The Wachowski’s definitely took anime into the live-action world with this one. Plus, the story is clean enough for most kids and will keep the adults entertained for the entire show as well – just don’t expect a really deep philosophical metaphor or something. (Update: After another screening, it’s not as clean as I thought and pushes the PG rating to new levels with language and some sexual innuendo, so parents may want to check if it is appropriate for their family.)
• Iron Man: Before this film came out, I’d never really heard much about the Iron Man comic book character and wasn’t expecting much. When I saw it, though, I was totally blown away. Robert Downey Jr. plays the smart and geeky Tony Stark, and after a traumatic experience, he decides to build a superweapon – an armored suit that he can wear. The technology displayed throughout the film is futuristic but in a fairly intelligent way, and Stark does a great job kickin’ butt in that suit. Director Jon Favreau does an amazing job with this action film, and stick around for a hint of things to come from Marvel Studios in the next couple years.
• The Fall: This film is just one wild ride. At first, it looks a bit droll as it follows a 10-year-old Indian girl through a 1920’s hospital after she broke her arm. Soon, she meets a young stuntman for motion pictures who had also fallen, and this is where the real story begins. The stuntman begins to tell a fantastical story, which then becomes even bigger through the girl’s overactive imagination. As the story progresses, both parties make stuff up as they go and insert themselves into the story. The film is rather violent and sometimes disturbing, but a great sight to behold, as most of the frames could be displayed in an art gallery.
• The Visitor: A couple weeks ago, we were watching The Incredibles and a man from my parent’s generation gave us a hard time about liking the movie so much. While I still consider The Incredibles one of my favorite films, he did have a point when he said, “Go watch To Kill a Mockingbird instead.” He’s right, they just don’t make movies like they used to. When I left the theater after viewing The Visitor, one fellow moviegoer said, “It’s kinda like the movies they used to make.” Richard Jenkins does a great job as a boring, old professor until he finds a couple immigrants living in his New York apartment and he decides to let them stay until they could find a home. Jenkin’s character, Walter, finds some new passions in life through music and new friends. Some may be put off by a somewhat heavy-handed social agenda, and although I think it’s something important to think about, the main draw of the film is getting to know these vibrant characters.

What do you think? Have you seen these? Do you like them? Feel free to leave a comment and tell me and my readers what you think.

Today’s readings from the Roman Catholic liturgy brought home something I’ve been thinking about for the past couple days. Here’s what Jesus said in Matthew 7:

Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.

From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.

It reminds me of what Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay said about Tuesday’s release, Good Monsters. For the cover story of CCM, he explained:

[Good Monsters is about the process of] maturing in a person’s life, coming to grips with incredible good and incredible evil in the same body and being willing to share the bad parts and the good parts with others in the community.

This rings true in my life because the world of Christian community is exactly what I am joining. The past couple days we have been moving into a brand new house. With this move, we have about thirty people living within a block of each other. We’re working on bringing “a new way to live” to the University of Minnesota campus. Central to our life is large amounts of common space and having as many daily meals as possible together. We have morning prayer and evening prayer. And we try to keep our lives on a common schedule.

This, I suppose, is a very radical form of community because we keep almost everything in common. But in a couple weeks, I will be joining a larger community. In two weeks I will be giving my life to Christian community. I will say that I love the people in the People of Praise so much that I am willing to bind my life with theirs. There is no fear that I will no like it or not want to be a part of it later in life; its exciting to be a part of the move of God’s spirit.

Is there risks? Yes. Is it going to be easy? No. But all of us are “good monsters”, are not perfect, but are still OK with that. The editor of CCM said in response to Dan’s comments, “I’m certainly not mature enough to intentionally live my life out in community with the kind of humility, gentleness, and risk Dan’s talking about. But I aspire to it.” I’m not mature in many ways, but I’m deciding to live my life with others for good and bad.

Here I am with three signs the world is coming to an end:

• The Krispy Kreme store at the Mall of America has closed its doors.
• My favorite studio, Pixar, has been bought by Disney.
• Kanye West poses for the cover of Rolling Stone as Jesus.

It’s a crazy world.

Check out this Honda Civic ad. It’s amazing.

After work today I’m gonna stop by my mailbox and pick up my Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith DVD. It’s gonna be sweet. I probably won’t get a chance to watch any of it until Thanksgiving, but oh well.

I have all the Star Wars movies now! Yes, that makes me a real geek, I think. But somebody found something fun to do: watch all of the movies at the same time! Here’s the start of what he found – some very cool stuff.

Deepspace5 – “I hope you appreciate your purchase.”