19 posts tagged “movies”
Contrary to popular "critical acclaim" this is not a "hysterically funny" film. It has sharp funny moments, but it's not a comedy that the packaging and advertisements suggest. Rather, it's a look at the public process of what was a covert war and the ramifications of not following through. In my mind it results to two thoughts: we have experience in 'nation building' but why wasn't Afghanistan worth the effort? And now that we've decided to follow through on this latest endeavor, what is the end point? I don't think it's a metric, but there's got to be some way to successfully stabilize and allow the government to operate independently. Phillip Seymour Hoffman had a great role and Tom was great. Julia was... meh.
Best quote:
Charlie Wilson:
You mean to tell me that the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan is to have
the Afghans keep walking into machine gun fire 'til the Russians run
out of bullets?
Gust Avrakotos:
That's Harold Holt's strategy, not U.S. strategy.
Charlie Wilson:
What is U.S. strategy?
Gust Avrakotos:
Most strictly speaking, we don't have one. But we're working on it.
Charlie Wilson:
Who's 'we'?
Gust Avrakotos:
Me and three other guys.
After sitting at the airport for a about 4 hours I've finally made it to Dallas (again).
I hoped I could get a chance to see the scenery while I'm here. I might get a few hours on Friday but it won't be long.
I'm again at a low point in my blogging. I'm not one who just writes whatever, yet at the same time there's plenty I could be talking about. I'm sure plenty of you would be bored about what I would talk about.
My job is going alright, but you start getting that long distance point of view after being in a job for a few months. It pays well and life goes on, but there's no excitement and not much challenge. I suppose that's the same with most jobs.
So, I've started working on a few things. I'm elbows deep in Cocoa and Programming for mac OS X, trying to get involved in developing applications for the mac and (more importantly) the iPhone. I think it's a pretty cool programming platform and it has huge potential. I have a Blackberry and it annoys me how often that the system just freezes while it's downloading messages. If you're trying to look at your calendar, good luck navigating until it's done. Maybe I can do something challenging, like starting my own company. That would be cool. Also, I've dug out my sketchbook over the last few weeks. If I have anything interesting I'll throw it up for you all.
We're also debating on going to Bermuda for vacation. Has anyone been there? What do you think? Has anyone been there?
Real quick review:
Alright, time to head to work.
Quick rundown of the last four movies I've seen:
So I dragged my laptop home as well as pulled my old PC out of the dusty disuse where it resided. For everyday use, I have come to resent either the slow hanging nag of my computer system or XP. Every time I boot, some process starts in the background and updates a program I either haven't used or don't even have active at the moment. It's grinds my system down for the first 15 minutes and is maddening to someone who's used to updating programs only when they've been restarted (say after a month of continuous use without problems).
The weekend was really good. If you haven't seen the National Air & Space Museum, it's worth a visit. Though I believe the larger one in VA has much larger planes and ships you can actually enter or see (Enterprise shuttle, SR-71 Blackbird, etc.), this location at the National Mall was definitely worth a visit, particularly since it only cost us time and the price of a Metro fare. The throng of people was a bit much though, even for a holiday weekend crowd. People took pictures in front of displays you were trying to read, or stood in front of displays for no reason.
Fun Fact: Pluto is in the Planets display, though the Greek light is extinguished, and the display reads that Pluto is considered a "Dwarf Planet" because it hasn't cleared out the surrounding space around it. What? So Pluto has to actively remove orbiting space debris to compete as a planet. I guess it should start developing rockets or some massive gravitational field.
Movies:
Spider-Man 3: Lots of fighting and crying. Too much faux angst.
Books: Got through this, finally
As much as people enjoyed this, I didn't think it was a great piece. It's very good, and significant piece of literature. I just didn't think it was fantastic. I think I was just disappointed with the story itself, and not the setting or writing.
