Saturday, March 15, 2008

Falcon-Man

It's a sunny winter afternoon, people are walking in the street and everyone is happy... But wait a minute, there is a woman screaming... A flat is burning. Policemen arrived. Someone is calling the fire brigade. Cars are slowing down so their drivers can see what's going on.

# Insert John William's music here #

Someone yelled, "Look at the sky." What's this? It's a plane. No, it's an eagle. No, it's a piece of cloth. No, it's Superman... No, it's not. It's FALCON-MAN... The Man himself!

Flashback: here is how everything started.

I was driving home after going to the local computer mall with my dear friend Falcon (as you can see, I didn't know his secret identity, yet). We noticed a lot of people standing in the street with a police officer or two. Some MPs were there (you do know why, don't you?). A few seconds later, we saw the fire extending out of a window. A lot of people were standing there. Before we knew that there was a fire we thought it was an accident and we were looking to see if someone needed our medical knowledge. But after we knew it was a fire, I looked to the passenger's seat and saw Falcon changing into Falcon-Man. I smiled and thought, "so, it's you!" Falcon got out of the car and said to me, "I will go up and check if someone is still there." I said, "But it can't be, with all those people standing there." But he didn't listen and went ahead. I don't know why he used the stairs, but I guess he didn't want to blow his secret identity to everyone... He didn't have his mask.

My car was in a very awkward position. After a few moments, I was forced to change its position to make way for the cars already honking their horns behind me. I stopped at the opposite side of the street, facing the burning building. I couldn't park there, as this is a very sensitive area. So, I stayed there looking at the gathered people.

After some minutes, I started to call Falcon on his cell phone, but he didn't answer. I didn't know what to do. I called him again. No answer. Some moments later, the firemen arrived, and I found Falcon-Man returning to the car, now that his work was done.

The following part is written as told by the great Falcon-Man (Legal notice: This is exclusive to this blog. Falcon-Man didn't authorize any other geek to write about his adventures. If I see his heroics written on any other site, I will be very angry. You won't like me when I am angry. Besides, I have some powerful friends, eh?):

I went up the stairs quickly. I heard a woman yelling, "my mother is still in there." I busted the door open with a single kick. I checked the door knob to see if it's hot or not. (Snake's note: He later told me that it's a safety procedure so that those who are opening the door won't be engulfed in the flames because of the pressure difference. Not that the flames will hurt him.)

I went in, I yelled for the lady. I found her in her bedroom. I took her to safety. It was very difficult to see inside. My infrared vision was disturbed because of the heat, so I used my cell phone to light the way for me. I saw that I was getting a call from Snake. I couldn't answer now... What a sissy?!

After I handed over the lady to some gentlemen at the door, I went in again. Again it was very difficult to see. I shouted if there was anyone else in there. But there wasn't. I went inside the burning room. It was the kitchen. It was very hot inside and the flames were apparently coming from the natural gas pipes. (Snake's note: Later on I told him that I saw some workers cutting the main gas supply.) Water wouldn't work. It was time to use my Freezing Breath move. I took a deep breath, but alas... I inhaled some smoke that made this pathetic human lung irritated. I started coughing... Imagine this... It was worse than Mac-onite!!! I thought about doing the super spinning move to create the nano-Black Hole. But then, I heard the fire brigade cars coming. I thought, "Oh well, let them have some of the glory. There is nothing left but the dirty work."

I went back to the building entrance. I looked to the car where Snake stopped, but the car wasn't there. What a sissy? Did he turn tail and ran? I looked further and I saw him parked in a far place. I should change my friends. Too bad Falcon-Woman wasn't with me today.


This act of selfless heroism made me really ashamed of myself. I didn't go up there, not because I was afraid (I wasn't afraid, and that's the truth). But I just didn't go up there. Maybe it was the car. Maybe I thought that there was no need (I didn't know that there was someone in the flat until Falcon told me). I am really ashamed of myself.

But I am more than happy to know a person like Falcon. I am really honoured to have him as my friend. What he did today was an example to everyone. I hope it will be one of his good deeds to present before Allah on the Day of Judgment.

What? Where are the pictures?! I am Amorphous Snake, not Peter Parker!

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Three Movies from 2007's Best

No Country for Old Men

You might have noticed that I am a fan of the Coen's Brothers' work. I mean, I liked Fargo, Miller's Crossing, The Ladykillers (2004) and The Man Who Wasn't There (first post of this blog!!!). Many reviewers have stated that No Country is their magnus opus. Well, I agree...

Everything about this movie is beautiful, even the violence (which is plenty). I know it's hard to say that the violence was beautiful, as it's hard to put the two words in the same sentence. But, the Coen Brothers are famous for their style. Their movies are highly stylized, and so is the violence.

I won't say anything about the story. But you should know that the movie introduced the "best" villain since, say, Darth Vader! (EDIT: I think we have seen some pretty good and memorable villains since Darth Vader, like Hannibal Lecter, The Terminator and many others that I totally forgot about). This guy, Javier Bardem, really deserves an Oscar. If he doesn't get it, then that's what I would call a rip off.

The movie probes into the state of chaos and violence that our communities are degenerating to, in the first minute of the movie, Tommy Lee Jones is telling us about the good old days when his grandfather was sheriff.

This movie is highly recommended. It gets an Amorphous Score of 5/5. Do yourself a favour and watch it.


There Will Be Blood

This movie is Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, Boogie Nights) tale of an oil man, Daniel Plainview. It's a tale of greed, power and madness. It spans about 30 years during the beginning of the 20th century. The character was magnificently done by Daniel Day-Lewis. No words can describe his superb performance, so I won't waste my time trying. The only thing that will be a reward for him, will be to walk out tonight with the golden bald statue!

You get to see the rise of Daniel Plainview as a major oil man from his first well till ... (well, I will leave this out). His greed and will to dominate all his competitors fuel up his anger and hatred. He is a man who hates all people, except himself. He want success to himself, and himself alone.

The movie is professionally done and is a feast to the eyes, but... I think that the movie could have used a little trimming. Don't get me wrong, the movie is terrific as it is, but I think that some non-important scenes took too long and, in my humble opinion, didn't affect the story a lot. But you see, watching Daniel Day-Lewis acting is really great. If I were the director, I would leave every shot recorded to film alone. Let the world see what real acting is...

Hollywood doesn't seem to be getting it right this year. For example, Atonement could have used an extra 30 minutes, while There Will Be Blood could have been better with 30 minutes less of its 150 minutes runtime.

The title of the movie is deceiving, there is very little blood throughout. Moreover, Paul Thomas Anderson made a great move that I really appreciate in movies: he delayed the first lines of spoken dialogue. As in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Once Upon a Time in the West.

EDIT: This movie joins some of the best movies to touch the subject of greed (one of the characteristics of the human personality), like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (by my favourite actor, Humphrey Bogart) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (by the eternal Sergio Leone).

This movie is a great watch and is, again, highly recommended: 4.5/5 Amorphous Points.

Michael Clayton

George Clooney has his share of great movies, but some were not so fortunate, cough*Ocean's Twelve*cough.

I wouldn't get into any details as this is the kind of movie that you must follow all the plot twists and turns. But my only complaint is that it has been done before, many times. I won't say what movies were like this one as you will know what to expect then.

If you let the repetition fact go, then you will have a nice movie. Clooney's acting is superb, but he is no match for Daniel Day-Lewis... Hell, even Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises is no match for him!!! The music is also great. It's from the same composer who did Batman Begins.

So, a good plot and an interesting one at that, superb acting and a good score will make a good movie... But this is not Best Picture material. They did this movie a huge injustice by placing it in the same category with other superior movies.

A good 4/5 Amorphous Points is the score.

Oscar Night 2008

Today is special for any movie lover. This is the Oscar night. Due to the time zone differences, it will be actually on tomorrow's (25th of February) early morning. I like to watch the ceremony itself. So, I record it on video when it's being aired, live. This way, I won't see all the ads when it's re-run. I have kept this tradition for 3 years! Also, I do not visit IMDb or any other movie or news site till I watch the thing myself.

The Award itself means nothing to me. After all, they gave Shakespeare in Love the Best Picture Award!!! It's the gathering of all the stars and directors. It's the features that are shown in between the awards. It's the speeches made by the winners.

I skipped college today! I left college at about 9 am and then I went straight home. Since the movie scene has been very active lately, rips for No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood were released yesterday. I downloaded them, but I had to watch them. To hell with college!!! After watching both of them, I threw in Michael Clayton as a bonus.

So, in case I don't publish the reviews on time, here are the Official Amorphous Awards... (for the movies I have seen, of course)

Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood
Best Actress: ----- (haven't seen any of the movies)
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men
Best Supporting Actress: Saoirse Ronan for Atonement
Best Director: The Coen Brothers for No Country for Old Men
Best Original Screenplay: ---- (haven't seen most of the movies except one)
Best Adapted Screenplay: No Country for Old Men
Best Cinematography: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Best Editing: No Country for Old Men
Best Art Direction: There Will Be Blood
Best Costumes, Makeup, Music, Song: ----- (haven't seen most of them except one or two)
Best Sound: No Country for Old Men
Best Sound Editing: No Country for Old Men
Best Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Best Animated Feature, Foreign Movie, Shorts...: ----- (haven't seen ANY of them!!! I am a loser!!!)

So here it is, ladies and gentlemen. No Country for Old Men is the best movie I have seen so far in 2007. There is a lot of movies that I have yet to see, especially the Foreign ones (my favourite!). I will try to write a review for the three movies I have seen tonight, if possible.

Edit:
I don't think I will be able to record it. I haven't used my VCR in ages. I am pretty sure that the head will need cleaning and plenty of it. Besides, I don't think I have video tapes large enough to record the whole thing (about 4 hours). And the last thing I want is what happened to me a couple of years ago: I was watching the recorded show when I found that I didn't record the whole thing. I switched to the TV channel and they were showing it, so I continued from where I stopped, ads and all.

I have faith, strong faith in the TV scene to upload a torrent of the show. Keep up the good work, pirates.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

And the winner is... Blu-ray

Today, Toshiba admitted its defeat! They will stop producing their HD-DVD format that rivaled the Blu-ray one, backed by Sony and Co. Both Blu-ray and HD-DVD (high definition DVD) were competing for the succession of the aging standard DVDs. They offer superior video and audio quality than the normal DVDs and have higher capacities (50 GB for Blu-ray and 30 GB for HD-DVD).

The beginning of the end for Toshiba began this year, when Warner Bros. Studios went to the Blu-ray camp. The rest was like a perfectly orchestrated symphony that played exactly like Sony would have liked it to. Sony has lost a similar war with JVC in the 1980s. The Betamax vs. VHS one. And as we all know (because almost everyone of us has one in his/her home) VHS won...

The key to Sony's success is, undoubtedly, the PlayStation 3. There are millions of PS3s in millions of houses, and each one can play Blu-ray, out-of-the-box.

Microsoft, which opposed Sony and backed the HD-DVD format, issued a press release today saying that they "didn't care for HD-DVD's problems". I guess someone wants to cry but is too ashamed to do it. 2 or 3 years later, when the double layer standard DVDs that are used in the Xbox 360 are no longer sufficient, M$ will go crying to Sony so that they can license Blu-ray for use in their console. My pride hurts... You hear me Bill Gates!!!

Congratulations to Sony and hard luck to Toshiba, after all, both are friends. Toshiba is manufacturing the Cell processors for the PS3s, if you don't already know! Toshiba bought the Cell manufacturing plants from Sony some months ago.

Happy Birthday... to me!

"... to us."
"Yes, Precious... I mean to us!"

Enough Lord of the Rings fanboyism! Today, is my birthday. Now I am 22 years old. I am growing older, and hopefully, wiser.

We are having a small family party here, so I haven't eaten the cake yet. I will save a piece for GLaDOS, so that she may know how a delicious, juicy cake tastes! The cake is not a lie today.

I had a great day, today. Really. A big thanks to those that made it that great.

I received very good birthday gifts this year. I can say that Arsenal Gear is my family's gift. I got a Logitech mouse from G-Company. As you see, all of these are PC hardware. So, I decided to give myself a different gift... I bought myself a new toothbrush!



Sunday, February 17, 2008

Mid-year vacation movies

I have seen a lot of movies this mid-year vacation. I can't possibly write a review for each and everyone of them. So I am just going to rate them.


I am changing my rating system. Instead of the 1-10 scale, I am using a 1-5 one. This way, I will have 10 possibilities, not 20 as in the previous system.


Here is the list, ladies and gentlemen:

Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others): Mind-blowing... 5/5

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: A huge surprise! 4.5/5

2046: no score given, entitled for a re-watch. It was the last part in a trilogy!!! Damn!

Brazil: re-watch is a must!

Gone Baby Gone: Ben Afflick has talent!!! 4/5

Ballad of a Soldier: Heart-breaking. 4/5

Annie Hall: Finally, a realistic romance. 4.5/5

Lust, Caution: Generally, good. 4/5

The Matrix Reloaded: Better than what I remembered from my first viewing. 3.5/5

The Matrix Revolutions: Shouldn't have been filmed... A disgrace to the original. 3/5

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Special Extended Edition): 1000/5! Enough said!

Fight Club: I haven't seen this movie in ages... Still great. 5/5

I, Robot: A decent sci-fi flick. Not the next Terminator. 3/5

I Am Legend: A bad ending to an otherwise very good movie. 4/5

The New World: Malick delivers... as usual. 4/5

Atonement: My only complaint is that it was too short: 4.5/5

Los Olvidados (The Forgotten Ones): It has aged terribly... Watch Cidade de Deus (City of God) instead. 3.5/5


As you see, they are a lot, but I wanted more... You have to take into account that I was busy with the assembly (err... I mean forging) of my precious Arsenal Gear.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

If the assassin was an Arab...

I remember when Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. I was about 10 years old. We were moving flats then, so most of our stuff was packed in cardboard boxes or plastic bags. Beside some books in an old cupboard we had, there was some pages from the daily Al-Ahram wrapping something. I remember there was an article title printed in large font, saying in Arabic, If the Assassin Was an Arab.

Of course we know that the killer was not an Arab, but was an extremist Israeli. But, as the title says, what if the killer was really an Arab? I think all hell would have broken lose.

My good friend Falcon asked me to write about the recent massacre in Illinois, to demonstrate to the world (err, I mean to the handful who reads my blog!) that terrorist acts are done by other people than Arabs and Muslims.

Yesterday, a student in a university near Chicago opened fire on his fellow students and professors. He was armed with three handguns and a shotgun. The police found 48 empty bullet casings and 6 shotgun shells. He killed 5 people before he pointed the gun to himself.

As you see, this was an act of lunacy. A despicable act that claimed the lives of many innocents. The gunman was not a "raghead". He was not an Arab or a Muslim. He didn't have an explosive belt or a rusty AK-47. He was an American citizen.

Does this make all American terrorists? Nope! It doesn't. This is (I mean, was) a troubled person who did an unbelievable thing. The thing he did should be condemned but without generalizing. Without racial remarks. Without hatred to his kind.

In last year's Virginia Tech shooting spree, the shooter was South Korean, but American media didn't jump to the conclusion that all South Koreans are crazy terrorists, right?

So, dear reader, I ask you the question that haunted my memories for so long:
What if the killer was an Arab?

P.S. I hope that they don't blame the shooting on video games! Blame it on guns, people!!!

"Dave... I am afraid..."

Machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence by 2029, a leading US inventor has predicted.

Humanity is on the brink of advances that will see tiny robots implanted in people's brains to make them more intelligent said engineer Ray Kurzweil.

He said machines and humans would eventually merge through devices implanted in the body to boost intelligence and health.

"It's really part of our civilisation," Mr Kurzweil said.

"But that's not going to be an alien invasion of intelligent machines to displace us."

Machines were already doing hundreds of things humans used to do, at human levels of intelligence or better, in many different areas, he said.



Read the full article here.


Scary!!!


HAL 9000, The Matrix, Metal Gear Solid and Arnold Schwarzenegger comes to mind...

"A gift to remind you of the Alliance..."

Last Thursday I received an early birthday present from my three dear friends: Kamolly, Falcon and Leopard. A mighty gift, it was. A Logitech G5 mouse...

Yeah... Finally, a good gaming mouse. This baby has a 2000 dpi laser engine that rocks!!! Not only that but you can change the sensitivity on-the-fly, sans any drivers!!! You have a choice between 400, 800 and 2000 dpi, which is great for playing FPS games.

The mouse is so ergonomic and feels professionally done. It has extra custom weights to adjust the weight of the mouse to your liking. It also has 2 extra thumb buttons.

Add this mouse to my precious Arsenal Gear and you have a PC gamer's wet dream!



Thanks a lot for this gift, my dear friends.

Friday, February 8, 2008

One Rig to Rule Them All


Three Rigs for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

One Rig to rule them all, One Rig to find them,

One Rig to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.




And for my vanity...


All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.


- Gandalf



Behold... The Rig of Power...



  • Intel Core 2 Duo "Penyrn" 45nm E8400 @ 3.0 GHz with 6 MB of L2 cache
  • Gigabyte P35-DS3R Revision 2.1
  • Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GT overclocked @ 700 MHz with a custom Zalman fan
  • 2x1 800MHz Kingston DDR2 RAM
  • Western Digital Caviar SE16 500 GB SATA HDD
  • Samsung 20X DVD+/-RW
  • HEC 580 W PSU
  • LG L194WT 19" WS LCD


Precious... My Precious...

ARSENAL GEAR

May God protect you.

And may you last me for many years and give me the power to conquer all those in Game-earth. We wants it... We needs it... It's ours... Ours...

Yes... Precious...