Budd's Alternate Reality

Movie review and preview review

nobody@vox.com(Budd) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:59:48 -0600

Saturday night I experienced the awesomeness that is Zombieland. This
movie was hilarious. The guest cameo was perfect for the movie. The
main character was channeling Michael Sera, and doing a good job of it.
It makes me wonder if they actually wanted him for the role but he
turned it down. Woody Harrelson pulled off the role perfectly. Great
movie. Not for young audiences due to sci-fi/horror violence and
language.

Before Zombieland we were graced with the preview for 2012. At ten
seconds into the preview I broke out into uncontrollable laughter. A
few seconds later someone else shouted out "oh, come on!" The preview
is completely silly and does nothing to make me want to see the movie.
It actually had the opposite effect. Who approved this preview? Who
approved the scenes from the preview in the movie? This one is going to
bomb badly in the theatres.

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What Did I Miss?

nobody@vox.com(Budd) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:49:30 -0600

About a year ago a friend of mine that loved Buffy, let me borrow season 1 after finding out that I had never watched the show. Yeah, I, the geek, had never seen Buffy. It was obviously love at first sight. I watched the entire series in less than 6 months. This made me wonder what other shows that I missed that I should reconsider in the age of Hulu.

Babylon 5 was the next show I have started on. Seasons 1 and 2 are on Hulu and my friends had all raved about how good the show was. It was harder to get into because the entire show seems to be one huge story arc. I haven’t finished the show yet. I am only midway through the third season. The show is truly good and I am glad that I am watching it now as I think I am at a better place to understand and appreciate this show.

If you missed B5 the first time around, check out the first two seasons on Hulu. Power through the bad CG and the first couple of episodes. They are developing characters and creating an intricate plot. I don’t say this lightly, but what I have seen, blows Buffy away. Seriously, check it out.

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Radnor Lake Natural Area

nobody@vox.com(Budd) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:23:20 -0600

Took the girls to radnor lake this weekend to enjoy the fall colors and natural cool temperatures. We did a hike of around 2.5 miles and took some pictures.

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Us, Against Them

nobody@vox.com(Budd) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:30:50 -0600

This seems to be what human social interaction boils down to. We always
have to have an enemy. It is kind of strange. I think who we choose to
be our enemy is in who we define ourselves as.

In today's world of America wanting to be the rest of the world and the
rest of the world wanting to be better than us, the initial
identification of most Americans is not that of being American. We tend
to categorize ourselves and each other by political affiliation. Gone
are the days when it was okay for John to be a Democrat because he still
hated the commies. Without a common enemy, our country is dividing
itself.

When was the last time someone fought a war just to conquer lands and
make themselves god emperor. Now people fight for "reasons." People
fight for religion mostly and a lot of times because the have always
fought (insert name of random group here). In Israel it is weird
because the war wasn't necessarily about religion to start with, but was
made that way really quickly. Why? That was a major difference and the
easiest way to differentiate between the two groups.

So, America is dividing itself into red and blue and will soon devolve
into Drazi like fighting. It is silly, but as humans, we need a common
enemy to keep from making enemies of each other. Only now it isn't PC
to have enemies.

Orange, Orange, Orange, Orange!!!!!!!

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Zombies for Halloween

nobody@vox.com(Budd) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:00:25 -0500

http://www.zazzle.com/budd921/zombie+gifts

Thank you,

Budd Black

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Ashli's Ender Review

nobody@vox.com(Budd) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:03:04 -0500

Ashliender

Ashli is 8 at the time of recording

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Repo! The Genetic Opera

nobody@vox.com(Budd) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:57:00 -0500

I watched this the other night because the local science fiction convention made a bid deal about getting one of the people responsible for the movie as a guest.

I will have to say that I was unimpressed. The trailer got me excited but the actual film was a let down. Books are supposed to show you not tell you, so movies may need to take that to the next level. This movie (I can't insult opera or musicals by calling it either), sadly explained every little thing and mostly in comic book pages inserted throughout the movie. The songs were forgettable and that is the kiss of death for any musical production. When I say forgettable though, it is my nice way of saying bad. Anthony Head is in this and he is a very talented singer, but most of the rest of the cast were terrible.

The plot is interesting at first glance but it isn't really developed. It just kind of stumbles along. With all of the telling that they do, one finishes the movie with a pretty bad sense of why anything happened. After about 30min, I was ready to give up, but I finished it for my loyal readers. I kept hoping it would get better or that one of the songs would be really clever and that I would end up liking it.

Musical tastes may differ, so some people may like this movie. I did not and cannot in good faith recommend that anyone sit through this movie. As a lot of other reviewers have said, this movie wanted to be good and is quite an ambitious undertaking. In the end, it just falls flat. Paris Hilton is in this movie and actually plays her part well and this is one of the few good things I can say about it.

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Ender is Done

nobody@vox.com(Budd) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:02:47 -0500

Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1)

Orson Scott Card

I just finished reading Ender's Game to Ashli. She loved it. She has even recruited her friends as toon leaders in her own Phoenix Army at school. Her favorite quotation is, "Cover your butt, Bernard is watching. God." It was great to share this book with her. I hope she remembers it all of her life. It is really rewarding to have a piece of literature that you like so much and to be able to pass it on to your children.

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Ender's Game

nobody@vox.com(Budd) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:21:56 -0500

Last night for Ashli's bedtime story, I pulled out Ender's Game and read
her the first chapter. I forgot how good it was. Well, I didn't
forget. It is always a book I recommend to people as awesome, but I did
kind of forget. I have read her the first chapter of Redwall (I have
not read this book before) and of Ender's Game and she will have to
choose tonight which book we read through. I don't know which one to
root for. I haven't read Redwall, but Ender's Game just flows out of
me. Good thing it is her decision.

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A Little Bit of Stress

nobody@vox.com(Budd) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:54:02 -0500

This week at work, I went back into my old position after about 2 years on a special project. They handed me a caseload of 120 cases and said get to it. 120 cases is a lot of cases and although almost everyone has more than that, starting me there is very stressful, especially when I haven't done the job in 2 years. Thankfully, I have a patient supervisor that understands. I am picking it back up and I think I still have the knowledge, but I just need some refreshers. It would be easier if they had not have moved me to a cube with two monitors that are going out and a computer that is on its last leg and takes forever to load anything. Oh well. I have applied for several new jobs and I have had one promising interview.

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