Month: November 2004

Which OS Are You?

Windows 95“Which OS Are You?” poll is circulating the blogs these days. Lots of people take it and they turn out to be “OS/2”, and than there are so happy that they aren’t “Windows ME”. Well, I guess I got closer to “Windows ME” than most of them, because I turned out to be “Windows 95”.

The description is as follows:

You are Windows 95 You look better than your older brother but your communication skills are still lacking. You start well, but often zone out.

Now, what was all that about “older brother”. I am an older brother. You do they mean RMS? :)

Lucky and Martin

Lucky

Today’s submission to “Picture of the day” project touches upon the subject of love of animals. Out of 6 shots done, I found only 3 usable. Out of those 3 three, I picked only 2 for the submission.

Lessons learned again today include making sure that background doesn’t have any wires growing out of person’s head (I used to have trees and polls, but now it is down to minor subjects) and making sure there is enough light (it turns out it is pretty dark under the table where dog eat) for moving subjects (like people and dogs). I also realised that I way too far behind in learning Gimp. I mean I can do a few tasks easily now, but whatever requires patience is out of my league. Like cutting out a noisy background.

Lucky and Martin

Album location: /photos/2004/2004-11-15_POTD

Shaolin Soccer

I am amazed. No. I am Amazed. Nope. I am AMAZED and IPRESSED. Yeah, that’s about there. I have seen “Shaolin Soccer” on DVD right now. I thought it would be yet another funny Chinese kung fu flick with some action and some jokes, and that something of what I like about all Chinese movies…

I was a bit wrong there. This movie is really a breakthrough in Chinese-American movie-making. It brings the best of both cultures. Let’s see. From Chinese side it takes, of course, all the kung fu action. It also takes this traditional “simple way of viewing complex things and complex way of viewing simple things” thingy. And actors are all Chinese. From the American side it brings an excellent production, computer graphics and special effects, and the simplicity of story (although that could have been Chinese too). The mix turns out to be mind blowing film!

It does have a few weak points though, again brought from both cultures: poor soundtrack which mostly a kind of Chinese Britney Spears, weak supporting roles, and few underdeveloped characters.

Still, this movie is very refreshing and way too unexpected. I’ll rate it as a 9 out of 10. Surely worth a rent if you ever enjoyed at least 1 American and 1 Chinese movie.