Year: 2004

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

I thought that once in a while I should watch a movie from my wishlist, so I got a copy of “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” and watched it.

During the whole film I had this feeling of dejavu and only when the closing titles started rolling, I remembered that had already seen this movie once. It is a very nice film, but for some reason it just doesn’t stick. Maybe I am too young.

Anyway, George Clooney climbs in my book as both an actor and a director. I hope he continues his work, because the man is talented. It is not so easy to create a good mix out of action, romance, phylosophy, and crime covered with drama. Clooney did it. Of course he was helped by a bunch of people who are really good at helping people like Clooney – namely, Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts and Sam Rockwel. Brad Pitt and Matt Damon were used as backup for sure, because they couldn’t have possibly be credited for sitting silently on a chair for about half a second that the camera scrolls by. Strategic move, eh.

Overall, 7 out of 10 for being a little slower than I like. I also hope that next time I’ll find this post before watching it for the third time…

Vacations

Paphos sky

Today, Fridath 13th, is the official start of my vacations. I am out of office until the 1st of September. I was waiting for this day for some time now. This year is coming hard and slow, and it’s not going to be any easier in the future. Good rest is a must.

First few days I will spend at home, relaxing and enjoying the benefits of family life. Then, I will off to Paphos with Olga and Hazard for a few days. With all the Hazard’s tasks in the office, and Olga’s pregnancy, I don’t know if we will manage to stay in Paphos without coming to Limassol. But we will sure thing try.

When we will get back, I will have few more days to enjoy myself and get used to Limassol again. After that my mother will come for some time, since we haven’t seen each other for a couple of years now.

All of it sounds like a lot of fun and leasure. We’ll see if I will squize the limit out of it. ;)

Punch-Drunk Love

I don’t know how I managed to miss “Punch-Drunk Love“, but I am sure glad that I watched it today. It has been a while since that both Olga and I are not feeling any excitement over “Comedy/Romance” genre. Neither of us is particularly crazy about Adam Sandler too. In fact, even the poster for this movie looks very boring.

Don’t believe any of these. “Punch-Drunk Love” is one of the best movies I have seen recently. Calling it a romantic comedy doesn’t do the film any good. In fact it is more of a suspensly tight drama. Everything about it is excellent. If I would have to say something bad about it maybe I would change the ending somehow. Maybe. Somehow. I am not sure.

It is an interesting wrap up story around “I am to shy to date girls” line. Brilliant sound. It’s not that much of a soundtrack, but a non-stop sound effect type of thing, that does audience mood control. Excellent acting. I am impressed by Adam Sandler. Philip Seymour Hoffman was great too. Emily Watson was not bad at all. Dialogs were great. Camera was great.

This film has “I know what I am doing” director’s stamp all over it. Something tells me that I should give it 9 out of 10, but I cannot hold myself by any argument. So 10 out of 10 that is!

Thought of the day

I think I have finally realized today why I don’t like “corporate” and “enterprise” programmers and the technologies that they enjoy, like Java and XML. Many of them don’t take languages like Perl, Python, and PHP seriosly. Text files in general and the word “script” in particular make smile. I think, many of them are just hiding behind the complex technology.

Programming skills should grow from small and simple to large and complex. Most people have a kind feeling of nostalgy towards things they have learned in the beginning of their way. Sciprts and one-liners do provide small and simple things which programmers should start with. People who jump straight into Java classes will never be able to produce nice code. And those who had started with one-liners will stick to them until there is a strong reason to do otherwise, since it is natural for people to use the most common way, the way they know better.

So, finally I understood that it is not the laughing at my favourite tools that makes me disrespect “enterprise” developers, but it is their lack of base knowledge and unprofessionalism. Maybe now I’ll find peace with them…