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Jul
3rd
Thu
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Hancock

Sidenotes, not relevant to the real point of this post: Did you know the original name of the script was Tonight, He Comes?  And that there is a deleted scene indicating that when Hancock “climaxes,” his stuff shoots holes in the cieling (and that if you look closely in the real film, you can see them).  Did you know that it was in “development hell” for the past five years?

Real entry: I’m not sure how I feel about this film.  I want to see it, but at the same time, I don’t.  It’s strange.  I feel like it could be a huge blockbuster, but I know it will flop.  I can’t figure out if this is a comic book movie or not.  It just seems very random, with a strange title that makes little sense.

Someday I will see the film, but it will probably be on DVD, and I don’t know why that is.

Does anyone else feel that way?

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Jul
2nd
Wed
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Jul
1st
Tue
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Eat More, Move Less
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How to Prevent Choking
How to Prevent Choking
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Another Person Has Died

One of my favorite comic artists, Michael Turner, apparently died a few days ago of cancer.  When I first started getting into comics, his art was the stuff that pulled me in.  He can draw “The Trinity” (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman) like nobody else.

In fact, when I tried to start drawing, his stuff was what I aimed for.

Some of my favorites of his work are here.

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I Won The Lottery

What will I do with all this cash?

Two words:  Wen Deesforlunchtoday.

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Employment Standards
Employment Standards
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Jun
30th
Mon
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AI on AIM

A few years ago I’d have random conversations with artificially intelligent programs over A.I.M.  I used to post transcripts, but have not been able to find any.  Does anybody remember the screen name of the program?  I’d like to start chatting again.
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Let's Donate Some Money to a Big Corporation

Two things…

1)  At a pet expo this weekend, we came across a booth run by PetCo with things such as frisbees, chew toys, etc.  They had boxes and boxes of them, so we approached the booth and asked, “are these free?” thinking they may be free promo items.  The guy said, “Well, you can have them for a $5 donation, or you can have a chance at winning one for a $1 donation which gets you entry to our game.”  I looked around and saw no sign indicating otherwise, so I had to assume they wanted people to “donate” to the PetCo corporation.  (They could have just said:  “Frisbees, $5.”)  Reason #12432 why I dislike that store.

2)  I am going to the casino on July 14th.  Probably MGM Grand, but Windsor is an option if it becomes necessary.  You are invited, but I need to know if you’re coming (funny how that works).

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I Saw Wall-E...!

Three Cheers for Wall-E

I think the reason I looked forward to this movie so much is because it had aspects of everything I like in a story:  1) consumerism that brought about the end of the world, 2) a lonely robot who has discovered he has emotions, and 3) somebody finding their true purpose after a disappointing life (in this case, 700 years).

And, outer space.

Wall-E was everything I hoped for.  While not a perfect movie, any of its flaws are still 10x better than even the best scene from The Happening.  It truly is a movie for all ages, and proof that movies don’t need to be gory or profane to be “real,” and it turns out that real-life actors may not be needed, after all.

I won’t do a plot analysis or anything, because if you’re reading this you probably already have read a few, so I’ll just say 4/4 stars and talk about two other things related to the movie.

Fat People In the Future

Apparently a few of today’s fat people are so upset at how they are depicted in the film that they are doing things such as boycotting it and writing angry letters to newspapers.  You just have to shake your head and laugh at that.  Memo to fat people:  the movie has little to do with you.

Sure, the humans depicted in the film are fat, but it’s more than that.  If you notice the diagrams presented in the movie, they’ve actually evolved into amorphous blobs with little bone structure, due to an abundance of convenient technology that makes moving around unnecessary.  It was inevitable for them.  The good news is that if you’re fat and offended by the film, it is not inevitable for you.  Get off your ass and move around.  Don’t eat that second pizza.  (Or at least learn about nutrition enough to realize that skipping breakfast and restricting your calories can make you fat, too.)

Bottom line:  being offended at something that “is making fun of” a condition you brought upon yourself is kind of silly.

The Sum of His Parts

[Spoiler warning:  if you have not seen the movie, the rest of this article will completely spoil the ending.]

At the end, Wall-E has sacrificed so much for the good of humanity that he is a broken, beaten up hunk of metal who is barely conscious.  (Side note:  how cute that, even in such a condition, he still extends his hand as best as possible and introduces himself to strangers, “WaaaAAall-EEee.”)

He knows that he will die unless he gets back to Earth where he has collected replacement parts from other Wall-Es, so that he can replace the broken parts and reassemble himself.  They get there just as time runs out, and a frantic Eve races to swap out all that bad components, including a motherboard with what must have been flash memory (nerd alert) because there was no hard drive.

This all leads to the heart-breaking scene of Wall-E rebooting with no memory.  Instead, he simply has his prime directive and continues collecting trash with no emotion.  Then his love, Eve, approaches him and says her goodbyes, leaning in for a robot-kiss, at which point Wall-E’s memory is restored.

But restored from where?  As we saw when she presses his play button, there is nothing but static.  His memory banks are empty. She replaced so much of him that he is essentially a new robot.  But somehow he remembers anyway.

This could have happened for three reasons:  1) a “magic” happily-ever-after ending for a kids movie, written with no other thought than that.  2) Their first kiss from earlier in the movie somehow imprinted “Wall-E” onto Eve’s hardware, and by “kissing” him she unknowingly transferred him back, or 3) robots have officially become more than just a sum of their parts, and it didn’t matter if he had a new leg, arm, eye, processor—whatever—because the being that is “Wall-E” exists outside of those parts and in the instant his memory was restored, he was touched by the hand of God.  Wall-E is the first of God’s new children, the saviors of the planet who bring humanity back to Earth (watch the story told throughout the end credits) to start a Garden (of pizza plants!) with an apple tree that sprouted from an old boot.

So I found it very fitting that his companion’s name was Eve.

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Jun
27th
Fri
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The day has finally arrived!

I am so glad that Wall-e is getting nothing but positive reviews and I can’t wait to see it.

“Immediately, we realize this isn’t your typical kiddie cartoon. No pop culture jokes? No instantly-recognizable celebrity voices? A decimated, humanless landscape full of towers of garbage and decrepit buildings? A lonely robot trying to learn about love and humanity through centuries of its trash? This looks more like a beautiful, haunting sci-fi movie than a children’s movie, because that’s exactly what it is.”

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Jun
25th
Wed
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2012

So the world is supposed to end in 2012, at least according to Mayan prophecy and scientists who say we’re long overdue for certain disasters such as stray asteroids, supervolcanoes, and earthquakes.  I found the following list of things that might happen on 2012wiki.com.  Which one would you rather it be?

1. Yellowstone SuperVolcano

2. Asteroid / Meteorite / Comet Impact

3. Flu Pandemic

4. Nuclear War

5. Grey Goo (nanotechnolgy)

6. Man-made Black Hole (see my previous entry… spooky)

7. Crustal Pole Shift

8. Rapid-onset Ice Age

9. Megatsunami/Global Flood

10. Economic Collapse

11. Peak Oil

12. Extraterrestrials Attack

13. Non-nuclear WW3

14. Gamma Ray Burst

15. Magnetic Pole Reversal

16. Biblical Rapture / Judgement Day / Second Coming

17. New World Order is revealed

18. Singularity

19. Return of Planet X / Niburu

20. Solar Flares

21. Nearby Supernova

22. Supernova becomes visible

23. Coronal Mass Ejection

24. Spiritual Evolution

25. Worldwide Depression/ Loss of Will to Live Inspires Nihilism and Anarchy

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Jun
24th
Tue
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$6B Idea

Idea time!

If the human body produces energy, and we have a “too-much-energy” kind of lifestyle (are fat), couldn’t we jack our peripherals and doo-dads into this energy?  Can scientists find a way to give us an electrical outlet, say, on our hip, so we can charge our iPods and cell phones wherever we go?  This would 1) be convientient, and 2) use energy and therefore require more calorie usage, either helping people loose weight or allowing me to eat large amounts of ice cream whenever my laptop is about to die.

Plausability?

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