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Wow, it is a little hard to believe that it has been this long so I have posted in my livejournal. I blame facebook and two part time jobs. I do not think I have mentioned here that I am working part time for the city of Grand Rapids in the parking ramps as well as last month finally started back working at the Haunt. Both jobs are part time but between them I make enough to survive, not get ahead but survive and in reality it is hard to complain about anything more than surviving.
The city job is for the most part easy. My limited faith in the intelligence of humanity has been proven to be justified. The hours are sometimes long, (did not get home last night until nearly 4AM,) but it is fairly easy work provided you can deal with the lack of any sense of common sense by the majority of the people you come into contact.
It feels good to be back working at the Haunt again even if it is only in a limited basis. It will be interesting to see what all happens this year as the changes that started last year are still being dealt with this year and new things are cropping up. I guess I will see where it goes.
Sorry it is such a short entry after so long, but work, eat, sleep, work is not really that interesting.
-MarkCurrent Mood:  amused |
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I do not know if any of you how might read this listen to This American Life on NPR, so I thought I would mention that the show that is available for free download this week is really, really good. It is all about what has happened to banks and it talks about the different ideas that our government and other governments have come up with to fix the issue. What is best about it is that it is talked about in simple terms, so that we, the average people, can basically understand what has happened and how.
If anyone is interested in checking the story out the link to the free mp3 file is here. It is only free for this week so do not delay. (If you miss your chance to get it let me know and I can send a copy on to you.)
-MarkCurrent Mood:  impressed |
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Over the weekend I drove down to Ohio and participated in Ohayocon as one of the two person Ohayocon Traveling Game Show, where contestants could Win Stuff. I drove down and have found a new toy that I must find a way to purchase. I borrowed a GPS navigator for the trip there and back and I was very close to having a new toygasm. I could just enjoy the drive and not have to focus on a map or what turn do I need to take, etc. Must find a way to purchase one. On a bright note about driving down I actually got nearly 26 miles to the gallon on the drive down and back. I was figuring I would have to fill up the tank four, maybe five times to make the trip, but instead filled up before leaving GR, Columbus and then once again in GR when I got back.
The game show seemed to go really well. I had a lot of fun and the person I was working with apparently does something very similar at the convention that he runs, OMG!Con. There were numerous moments that will live in my memory for quite sometime. Such as the mother of a cheerleader nearly tearing her daughters hair out to get at the hair tie we asked for so she might win a chance to play, (she only won a rubber ducky which just added to the comedy.) Also we learned to be specific what we ask for, ie an unused piece of gum, (only made that mistake once although both of us had gum spit into our hands.) Several staff members came up to Dan and myself over the course of Sunday to say that they thought we were doing a good job and had a lot of fun watching and listening to us ask for different things. Even some former staffers and people from other conventions seemed to like the idea, so it will be interesting to see how many other conventions steal the idea.
There were so many people there it was amazing. The elevator situation sucked as I was on the 14 floor and let me tell you as a person with two bad knees walking up those stairs from the lobby to my room nearly made me want to scream in pain. I only went up once and the rest of the time dealt with the elevator situation as it was something like 20 flights of stairs (it was more than 14 flights because from floor 5 to floor 3 there were 12 flights of stairs). So many of the attendees would just hit both up and down buttons as if that would make the elevators get there sooner and then just jump on to which ever one showed up first so if they needed to go up they would go all the way down to floor 1 before heading back up to whatever floor they were going. This lead to five elevators in a row being completely full of people on the lobby level. In my opinion unless you are going more than 5 flights of stairs take the stairs. But that is neither here nor there and will not change.
I saw a JAFAX 9 T-shirt while I was there which was really cool, I did not get a chance to talk to the person because I caught it in passing but there was no mistaking Newton's hula mecha design.
Speaking of JAFAX I am really disappointed with the staff of JAFAX for not helping out Ohayocon by volunteering at the event especially with the help JAFAX received from Ohayocon last year. If I was in charge of Ohayocon I would take it as a huge insult, so they are lucky it was Emily DeJesus who seemed okay with it and not me.
There were a couple of other things that I wanted to talk about dealing with Ohayocon but I forgot my little notebook in the Live Events room when I left on Sunday, which had a page of notes of things I wanted to mention and I wrote them down so I did not have to remember them all. I hope Emily or the staff in the live events room finds it so I can send them some money so they can mail it back to me.
I have spent the last couple of days putting the things I brought down with me back where they are suppose to go and getting my laundry done. Still no word on the job front from anyone.
I think this is the longest post I have done in a while and I am sure if I had all my scribble notes it would be longer still.
Later,
-MarkCurrent Mood:  accomplished |
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I just was informed that one of my uncles on my mother's side has passed away this morning. This is the second uncle on my mother's side that has passed away, both via heart attack. The first one nearly a decade ago now was my mother's younger brother. I saw this uncle two weeks ago when we helped my grandfather move to his new home and he seemed fine, but I guess that is what sudden death means. Obviously no one on my mother's side is going to be dealing with this very well.
The service is currently planned for Friday which means that I will be late heading out for Ohayocon. I hope that Em understands.
-MarkCurrent Mood:  disappointed |
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Well today it has finally become obvious to me that I can no longer qualify myself as a young person. There was a cast and crew get together for the Haunt today and everybody went sledding. We were out there for about two and a half hours and I actually went sledding down the hill only twice and even so right now, nearly ten hours later my knees are still incredibly sore and it is somewhat difficult to move around. Here is hoping that tomorrow it will be easier.
-MarkCurrent Mood:  cold |
| » The Car |
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So I dropped my car off at a local shop this evening. They are going to replace the broken strut with one that is not broken. Then I will have to get new front tires. I was originally thinking about maybe calling Shawn and having him, Rob and myself see what we could do to remove the broken strut and put in a replacement one but the shop I am going to said it was an $80 labor project which means that it would be around two hours or so and using mechanics with proper tool to three dumb asses with what they have to work with time table conversion math, it means that it would be a day to a day and a half project for us. So I decided to save myself the frustration and headaches and pay someone to do it for me. The shop is actually only going to replace the broken one, which is very cool, (it is going to be replaced with a used one but hey only having to pay for one instead of a pair is bonus good for a person with no money.) I am looking forward to the call tomorrow saying it is done so I can park my car while I sit in my apartment again. Wow that does not sound nearly as cool as I hoped but I will at least be able to run errands without having to track someone down to give me a ride somewhere.
-Mark
Jan. 21st, 2009 @ 08:49 pm
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| » Auto Issues |
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I now that I have had this discussion before with you karma, I know that you do not work for me, but all I ask is that you stop working against me. I feel like Rev. Frank Scott from The Poseidon Adventure when he is yelling at God at the end, only instead of God I am yelling at karma.
For the last week or so, when I was actually driving my car around I would hear a rubbing noise, now this being Michigan and there being a large amount of snow and ice on the ground I figured it was just some ice having clumped onto something and was making the rubbing noise. (I have only been going out once every couple of days so it was not surprising to me that I would have built up enough ice to do this.) Well today on my trip to get some lunch as I was driving I saw some blueish smoke coming out from the driver side front wheel well. As more started to come out I pulled into a parking lot and popped the hood to try and figure out what was burning. Not finding anything I continued on my way until a mile or so later as smoke once again started to come out from the wheel well. I was right by where I was going to eat so I pulled in and left the engine running as I again popped the hood and started to look for the place where the smoke was emanating from. Not seeing anything I looked back at the wheel well and still saw small wisps of smoke coming out so I figured it must not be the engine and it must be something inside the wheel well. Turning off the car and getting on my knees in the snow I look and say to myself, "I doubt that piece of metal should be sitting on the tire like that." Once I get over to the passenger side front tire I confirm that the piece of metal should not be sitting on the tire. Going back to the drivers side I look again and it would appear as the rubbing noise that I have been hearing and the smoke is caused by metal on the side of the coil spring breaking causing the spring to stretch out as far as it can, and leaving the end piece of meal rubbing against the tire. Having called around, if the struts are still good than it will only be a $400 job.
Stupid karma always out to get me.
-Mark
Jan. 20th, 2009 @ 03:27 pm
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| » Tai Chi Day 2 |
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Well today I made it about an extra fifteen minutes into the "fast" program and I have worked up more of a sweat in those forty minutes than I have done in a long time. My knees did not protest nearly as much in the first part today which I am going to have to assume is a good thing. The "fast" program has a lot more twisting of the waist and using of the lower back so today my sides and lower back are complaining. There is about fifteen to twenty minutes left that I have not gotten to yet and I hope to see some of those tomorrow.
Still waiting on hearing back from the city of Grand Rapids about the job so I guess I will be calling my aunt in the morning to find out what is going on, and then heading down to the document place to take the next step on my bankruptcy paperwork.
I think I am going to sign off now to go and take a shower.
-Mark
Jan. 13th, 2009 @ 06:29 pm
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| » Tai Chi |
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After some deliberation I decided to follow Joe's suggestion of Tai Chi to try and get exercise and attempt to lose some weight (because I do not have to go into the cold to do it). After getting a couple of different Tai Chi videos from Netflix and watching them I decided to try one by a guy named Scott Cole, so today I did my best to follow along with the video as it was doing slow Tai Chi, (faster Tai Chi is on the second half of the disc). After going for about three minutes my knees started to protest and ask me what the hell was I thinking. I didn't listen to them and continued on until the fast Tai Chi part started at which point I had decided that fifteen minutes or so was a good first time and will try again tomorrow to see if my knees might protest a little later. It feels strange to be a little sore in the midsection when all one is doing is moving slowly but I hope that means that I am doing it right and will be getting benefits from it as time goes on.
I hardly ever sweat and yet I can feel sweat on and around my hair as well as my back and shoulders, now I remember why I am glad I rarely sweat.
Not much else going on right now, later all.
-Mark
Jan. 12th, 2009 @ 03:04 pm
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| » Watching Television |
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This evening TLC seems to be having a fat people night and watching some of these people who have spent years just eating and are weighing in at near a half ton and weight like that, and when watching these shows I am starting to wonder if that is going to be me in ten to fifteen years.
Listening to all these morbidly obese people talk about how they don't feel like they are eating more than others, etc. I cannot help but wonder. I am not doing as much exercise wise because I am not working at the Haunt right now, and I am sure I have gained weight and lost muscle. I need to find something that I can do each day and find someone or something to keep me on it each day until it becomes a habit. I think that is my biggest issue with exercise and such is I never do it enough to make a habit. I got into the habit of making my bed when I had a water bed and even though I have not had a water bed in about one year or so and I still make my bed even though there really is no need. So I need to find something that will work for me. Any suggestions for those few of you that read this journal?
-Mark
Jan. 1st, 2009 @ 07:46 pm
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| » Happy Holidays |
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Well as it is now less than a week until Christmas I have made a disc of Christmas music to listen to in my car, of course with all the recent snow I have no idea how much I am actually planning on driving. I also broke down and purchased a Christmas tree. (It was finally cheap enough for me to be willing to purchase one.) After setting it up and putting Jiji's present under the tree I found that she had wrapped a present for me as well. I hope it is something I like.
( To see me Christmas tree check behind the cut )
Went out to dinner with my father, sister, her husband, and my nephew. My father was originally concerned about the roads but both my sister and I said it was no big deal. I did see a car in which the driver apparently forgot the saying, "Don't crowd the plow" because the car had impaled itself upon the salt spreader on the rear of the plow truck. I thought it was funny as hell.
Had the pilot light on my wall furnace go out twice on Friday. The first time I had no idea why the furnace when off and did not know if there even was a pilot light or if it was one of those electric start ones. So the repair guy came out and got it on and showed my how to relight it for the future which was good as it went out again later Friday evening. Jiji let me know both times by meowing a lot at me and then crawling under the bed covers to be warm.
Yesterday I moved a large portion of my furniture around in the main room of my apartment which seemed to open up a decent amount of space. Tomorrow I am going to move stuff around in my bedroom. Hopefully the same will occur there as well.
Not much else going on right now, I hope everyone has a great holiday this week.
-Mark
Dec. 21st, 2008 @ 07:22 pm
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| » Christmas Cards |
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For the past several years I have meant to send out Christmas cards but for one reason or another have never done so. This year I made it a mission to actually follow through with the whole Christmas card thing and today I mailed out some Christmas cards, and I am quite proud of myself. If you would like to be one of the lucky people to get a Christmas card from me please comment with your address and I will do my best to make sure you get to have a Christmas card from me.
I have figured out how to screen comments so that the whole world will not see your mailing address.
-Mark
Dec. 16th, 2008 @ 03:24 pm
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| » Sitting Wasting Time |
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Haven't posted in a while, mainly because I have not been working so I could write that I woke up, played games on the computer and then watched television, but that would be a really, really boring and pointless entry. A couple things happened today which lent itself to making a post so lucky all of you that read this.
For the last couple of months I have been wearing a pair of boots that I purchased on eBay. The boots are from the company that supplies the U.S. Military, and the boots are suppose to be the same type that the Marines wear and I figured if they stand up to the punishment that the military puts them through they should last for me. I have been very, very happy with them and they have been well worth the $65 that I paid. My lower back is no longer as sore as it has been, my right ankle has not been hurting, and my left knee does not hurt nearly as much as it has in the past. So I have bookmarked the seller so when I get some extra money I am going to purchase another pair so I have a back up.
I have been playing Diablo II on my computer and I went and got a character hacker because I was sick and tired of spending all my points on dexterity just so I can actually hit the monsters. I have beat the game before so it does not matter to me how I beat it I just want to have fun playing the game. So using the editor I have made all sorts of fun items for my player to use and today beat the game and got a chance to play the secret cow level again for the first time in a very, very long time. Now I need to see if the character editor will let me change so I can play the cow level again.
I was flipping through the channels and found on BBC America the UK version of Gladiators. It was fun to watch through and unlike the American show the audience seems to not like the gladiators and that to me is the whole point of the show, to watch the contenders get their butts handed to them by the gladiators. The audience was actually booing the gladiators and the gladiators were acting the part of assholes so maybe that is the difference. In the UK they are trying to make the contenders the "good" guys and the gladiators the "bad" guys. Oh well, it is a new show that I will have to check out when I can again. I wonder when the US version is going to be starting up again.
Later all,
-Mark
Dec. 13th, 2008 @ 05:47 pm
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| » Economics Question |
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If you are not interested in reading Mark bitch and complain about the federal government ways to "fix" the financial crisis it would probably be better for you to just not read this entry.
I am going to preface this with the point that I do not know much about the large scale economics of how all the credit markets in this country are connected, and if someone reads this and understands how this all works please post a comment and explain any and all fallacies that are in my reasoning. That being said here we go:
I checking my e-mail this morning and I saw a little news article saying Fed unveil plans to unfreeze consumer debit market. Which I went over to because I was wondering what grand scheme Secretary of Treasury Paulson had cooked up today. His great idea today another $800 billion to the financial industry. I had to say wait just a minute, $700 billion isn't enough? We have to give them $1.5 trillion in two months in order for them to start to loan people money? If the auto industry had come to Congress like this everyone, (not just a large portion), would be saying that they need to work it all out in bankruptcy. Looking at another news story about the Fed throwing a fresh lifeline to financial system I read that $100 billion of this new bailout is to buy up debt. Hold on a minute wasn't that the point of the original $700 that it was decided that just buying stock was the best way to go, and still banks did not go and lend money, they took the money, sat on it, and then purchased some smaller banks. What is to stop that from happening this time. Is there a plan, some sort of new law that is going to be added to any new bailout bill that states that the money must be used to loan to people so that the economy will start to move forward again?
Here is the "Mark plan" for how to deal with this financial crisis.
1. Each and every person being effected by this housing bubble bursting (whether it is your home being foreclosed on or because of the yoyoing of your interest rate causing you to nearly going into foreclosure), should be given the opportunity to sit down and present the bank with a good faith amount of what they can pay in a month. This must be at least what the minimum payment was before rates went up. Banks should then be made to allow for this payment level and adjust the mortgage length accordingly. (What once was a 10 year mortgage is now a 20 year, etc.)
2. Each bank that is willing to work with people in this way could get access to federal money to help continue to loan out to the consumers to continue the economy, but that is the only use for the extra monies. This will ensure that any money tied up in longer mortgages is still available for any other loans.
3. Banks would need to fix the "sub-prime" mortgage issues. Loan officers should be punished for approving bad loans, etc. People should not be allowed to borrow more than they can afford to pay back.
The "Mark plan" would allow the financial markets to "recoup" their bad loan losses by keeping the number of foreclosures theoretically lower while allow Americans to keep their homes. Is it a perfect solution, no as it does nothing to help the millions of Americans already foreclosed upon, but is it better than just throwing money at the financial sector and saying, "Be Healed!" I think so.
Your comments are welcome.
Nov. 25th, 2008 @ 03:58 pm
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| » Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy |
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I was looking through a series of Anime titles on Netflix when I came across when that made me so happy that I immediately put it to the top of my queue. I am finally going to get a chance to see the original Japanese Golion which for those of you who do not know was made into Voltron. I wish that it was a new release so I could review it for Recoil magazine for next month but I think it has been out for a little while now and I just was not aware of it.
Spent about two and a half hours in the basement today going through a bunch of my stuff and trying to organize it. While going through a box of stuff that my mother had given me last year I found nearly all of my old report cards/progress reports from Kindergarten to high school. I found some of the papers I wrote in classes, and one of them I wrote I cannot believe that my father did not end up getting in trouble for. I guess that is a big cultural difference, even if it was just fifteen years ago.
Tomorrow I hope to spend some more time down there and get through a couple more boxes. If I can manage to get all my crap down there down to two or three boxes, then when Rob moves out it will not be nearly the chore it would be then.
Not much else going on right now. Write again later.
-Mark
Nov. 24th, 2008 @ 03:33 pm
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| » Studio 28 |
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Today being the last day that Studio 28 was open I figured I should check out one more movie there before it closes for good. So I went and saw Eagle Eye not the greatest last movie to watch in a theater but it was a movie I was interested in seeing and I was rather surprised to still see it in a first run theater since it has been out for nearly two months and that so rarely happens anymore. As I walked around the theater and saw all the old classic movie posters up I had to keep myself from thinking of ways to maybe get one of them.
With the demise of Studio 28 I wonder which theater will take up showing the smaller run type movies now. Studio was the theater that showed Spirited Away and I believe they showed Howl's Moving Castle. It was with Studio that the anime club I was with showed Wings of Honneamise, Ghost in the Shell, and Patlabor 2 all as 35mm prints.
Kind of rambling here so I guess I will sign off.
-Mark
Nov. 23rd, 2008 @ 06:19 pm
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| » The Look |
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There has been a joke that I have helped along at the Haunt that when something is broken I just need to come into the room and look at it, (not look to fix it but just look at it), and it will suddenly start to work fine. I call it giving something The Look©2005 (Food for the Illiterate). It never seemed to fail, before the show started I would walk through to make sure everything was working and then later on I would get a call that something was not working properly, I would get my fat butt over to the room that had the non-working thing walk in and have the actor hit the button or set the non-working item off for me and it might not work the first or the second time but the suddenly it would start to work just as it should and I would not have actually done a damn thing to it. (Except for that stupid freaking ballerina and I claim no part of it.) Well apparently The Look is now no longer limited to things at the Haunt. My landlord had me put in a wireless modem for him in his store as one of the people that he does consignment with wanted to come in and do free appraisals for people so he would bring in his laptop but there was only the hard wire connection and that was in the other side of the store. Apparently since the wireless modem was put in he has been having trouble connecting through the hard wire port on the modem. Yet every time I go and look to see if I can figure out what the issue is it works fine. He called me down this afternoon and I went to help, closed down the two browser windows that both said that a connection could not be made. I looked at the network settings which said that it was connected to the Internet, opened up a new browser window and it worked just fine. While The Look is very useful and is not something I want to loose it would be nice if when I am actually trying to fix something it would let me figure out what is wrong.
-Mark
Nov. 22nd, 2008 @ 02:23 pm
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| » webcomic |
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A couple of days ago I ended up on a web comic called Evil Inc., you can see it at here. The basic premise is that in the early 1980's a super-villain decided to stop doing illegal crime and form a corporation for the express purpose of helping other villains. Most of the staff are villains and all attend work in their costume. One of the funny moments in this strip is shortly after the head of Evil Inc is back in charge and brings with him older villains to help oversee his work force. Found it to be funny.
I tried to replace the thermostat in my apartment because I was sick and tired of my choices for heat being either | or 70 and hoping that by putting the selection in between I would get the right temperature. Unfortunately the new one I picked up apparently does not work or is too high tech for what I need it to do. So tomorrow it goes back to the store and I see if someone can point me into the direction of a thermostat with actual numbers on it that can do the job.
Other than that not much going on right now.
-Mark
Nov. 21st, 2008 @ 09:00 pm
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| » Adding Weight |
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I can tell that am I eating too much and not getting any real exercise as my knee is starting to hurt again, after over a month without being really sore. To try and deal with this I am thinking of signing up for an adult fitness activity that the city of Grand Rapids offers. They have a couple that sound interesting and it would run me between $40 and $80 for being able to go to either one or two classes. I am really going to have to give that some thought.
Not much else going on right now, so later all.
-Mark
Nov. 20th, 2008 @ 08:09 pm
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| » Movie |
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So yesterday I ended up going to see the early showing of Quantum of Solace, (love that $4 early show on weekends). I have to agree with the NPR review I heard of it with respect that it "does not break the bad theme streak." The white circle tracking to Bond is moved to the end credits which bugged me, I would rather it not be there (as in Casino Royale than it not be at the beginning of the movie like it has been in every other official Bond film I have seen. Anyway that is just nitpicking on my part and does not really effect the rest of the movie.
The movie was decent, a little heavier on the action than the old Bond films, and I think that is more of a reflection of the time. With the Jason Bourne series kind of redefining what a spy is and how they act in situations, it is only nature that they would try to "update" James Bond. My biggest issue with the action sequences, (at least when it was person to person action), was the fact that it seemed like there was a cut every second and a half, so sometimes I could not figure out who I was looking at, this was especially true when Bond was chasing after another guy in a suit. Then you combine that with shaky cam it became annoying and frustrating. I know that Blair Witch Project was a hugely successful movie (and don't even get me started on that piece of crap movie), and I know that it kind of "pioneered" the whole shaky cam thing, but for pete's sake can movie makers please stop using shaky cam, it does not bring me closer to the action and make me feel like I am part of the chase it annoys me and makes me feel slightly nauseated. Not what I am paying money to feel like. One thing I did like about the movie was the introduction of a large conspiracy group that was the behind much of what happened in Casino Royale and can be used again in further movies. It brings back the idea of SPECTRE and I like the fact that it can be used to tie the different movies together.
Not much else going on, did not do much today other than run to the bank and deposit a check from Jim to cover the gift cards I ran out to pick up during the cast party.
Later all.
-Mark
Nov. 17th, 2008 @ 05:30 pm
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4_horseman's journal