Recently got through a viewing of Where the Wild Things Are.  Prior to my viewing, the only things I knew about this film was that it comes from the Maurice Sendak book of the same name, and that the writer/director (Spike Jonze) has made a name for himself as the helmer for numerous episodes of MTV’s Jackass.  Needless to say, I faced this cinematic feature with some trepidation.  To say that I scrutinized this movie, would be somewhat of a misnomer.  Not only was there critical analysis during, but it was completely dissected and digested while I tried to sleep.  There are few movies that cause me to perseverate on their meaning such as this one.  It wasn’t until I loosed my sub-conscious mind on the movie that came to rest on it’s intention.

Whether Mr. Jonze was intentional in the message I received or not I have not yet researched, lest I risk my views tainted.  First off let it be said, that I feel the target demographic for the movie and those of the book do not have any shared sub-sets.  While some overlap is inevitable due to their common ancestry, I think preteens and younger will find the film some mixture of boring and creepy.

Watch out! spoilers ahead

(more…)

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Around 2003/04, I bought a used original xbox from a friend of mine.  In the moment it probably seemed like a pretty foolish investment, considering the Xbox 360 was ready to, or had already hit the open market.  I purchased this aging piece of hardware without regard to its product shelf-life, because I had other more nefarious plans for it.  For weeks it sat in my office, no games to play on it, no Television hooked up to it, it just sat, and waited.  During that time I was reading, printing, compiling and testing, collecting all the information I would need to take this aged “game console” from a single purpose appliance to one of the most robust and powerful media hubs known in existence.  To this day even I have not found a more powerful and flexible media center on which to play my multitudes of media types.  From this single box, I can watch all my PVR’d television shows, video podcasts, and DVD rips.  As well as and extensive number of codecs/formats: mp3, mp4, avi, mkv, ogg, thm, divx, xvid, and the list goes on and on.  It will even play media that has been compressed and RAR’d into archives right from within the RAR file itself.

The Media Center for Xbox, or xbmc has taken the original hardware to it’s limits and is no longer developed for that platform.  Thankfully the developers saw “outside the box” and have moved the concept onto a more universal platform that has continued to grow and mature.  It makes an excellent replacement to the media center editions of Windows, linux installs, or AppleTV reloads as well as a liveCD/USB installation.

Recently the project has gained some traction with some sponsorships from IPTV startups Boxee and 9×9 Networks.  This is a major win for an open source project.  With active and interested subscription services using and supporting the platform, there is no place to go but up.  While XBMC in it’s current iteration has no peer (especially in the private “closed source” sector) it appears that it will continue to exceed expectations for some time to come.

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The event I miss most from the Olympics, Summer AND Winter, is the Medal Race.  There are no more competitors for the biggest and most entertaining aspect of the Great Games.  I blame Ronald Reagan.  I think destroying the Olympic Games should be given to his credit.  After all, it was he who single-handedly tore down the Iron Curtain and destroyed communism in the former USSR.  Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union the Olympics lost their appeal in the medal grab.  The competitive spark is now relegated to individual events depending on their relative popularity with the viewing public.  Without that political tension, it might as well be a Saturday afternoon at your favorite Pee-Wee sporting event in your community center.

The political homogenization of the games is nearly complete.  It’s almost pointless to even mention the competitor’s country of origin, because quite often they train elsewhere with coaches from leading countries in the cold-war era.  Even the judged competitions (regardless of not being a sport to begin with) have been generified to the point where we don’t even see the individual judge’s scores, just the composite.  Mark off another potential rival.  Even American Idol knows you have to hate somebody.  How boring would it be if Randy, Simon and (formerly) Paula just sat silently while an announcer, or electronic scoreboard gave the results of the audition.  So now all the competition comes down to people we never heard of, with some oblique reference to a country they “represent” moderated by anonymous judges.

Without a rivalry the Olympics are boring, thanks a lot Ron.

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“The Miracle” is Dead.
It’s one of those events that, when it happens in your lifetime, grabs you by the throat and makes you take notice. I had to read the notice ten times before I gave it any credence. The “Red and Blue” has been closed for good.

“The owners of the Miracle Twin Drive-in in Burton said Tuesday it will not reopen. The announcement by National Amusements comes on the heels of U.S. 23 Twin Drive-In Theatre in Mundy Township being put up for sale.

“We wish to thank our loyal patrons who have shared great movies and memories with us over the years, and hope to see them at our other area theaters,” a National Amusements statement said.

Spokeswoman Wanda Whitson did not give a reason why it was closing, but drive-ins nationwide have been dwindling for a long time. Only about 10 remain in Michigan.”

The last film I saw there was “Pirates of the Caribbean; At World’s End” and the only reason I remember that movie was because I saw it at the drive in. I don’t remember the second feature. It was some horror flick and I left before it started.
The Miracle was always an experience. An occasion. Great Scott, twenty years ago I remember loading as many people as I could into my old Buick Regal and heading off to “The Twin”to see Nightmare on Elm Street; Freddie’s Dead. I don’t really remember much about the movie but I remember everything about the girl I was with that night.
I never go to indoor theaters anymore. They’re always so crowded, you have no personal space, your in a little folding chair for 2 hours cramped in next to Sally SwineFlue and her friends Paul Pestilence, Terry To-tall-for-my-seat, and that annoying girl and the cell phone who’s either talking on the blasted thing or texting and relaying the information to the other three. I’m not saying I’m the perfect movie goer. I heckle the heck out of movies, but when I’m in my own car, nice and comfortable in the plush car seat, I can roll up the windows and spare my neighbors the ranting criticisms.
And so another bastion of memory slips into the sea of nostalgia. Another experience we can never share with our children, and something their children may never even know existed. Hope is not lost, but it is fading. There are maybe 10 drive in theaters left in the state. I read that the one on US 23 mentioned in the above article was granted a 5 year lease and refurbishment was taking place. I challenge you, good reader. Find the nearest out door movie theater, leave your computer and the rest of the world behind, gather up some friends and family and EXPERIENCE something. Make it an event to remember. Go see a movie under the stars and you’ll never want to step foot in an indoor theater again.

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Matthew London

810-395-2363
E-mail: mythew@hotmail.com

OBJECTIVE
To aquire a position in a powerful Global company, insidiously worm my way up the ranks to a position of power, usurp the current leadership and use the company powerbase to take over the world.

WORK EXPERIENCE
Mad Man
6/2000 – Present
Self Employed | Mi
Various attempts at world domination. Insdious plots involving mechanical, chemical, psycological, and just plain weird means. Attempts to raise the dead that have only been sucessfull on Computers. Most recent experiments involve computer technoligy baised on differing power sources, including steam, Nuclear, Darwinian, Murphian, Schlits Malt Liquier-ian, and the ever popular Bungie. COmputer Mod Specialist in Ireverant and unexpected designs. Mad, they called me mad, Insane, Wendle! But I shall show them, SHow them ALL!!!!

Invasion Spearhead
3/1998 – 9/1998
Noltar and the Minions of planet Lagnos | Planet Langos
Conspring against my own, Deception of the public, Infiltration of society, Intigration of Alien beings into the populace of the planet for emminent invasion and take over. Unfortunate Alien alergic reaction to Hostess Twinkies foiled plot.

Prototype Testing
5/2000 – 12/1997
Things Man Was Not Ment To Know Inc. | Mi
Testing of Temporal Convaence devices in Prototype stage. Testing was successfull.

Weilder, Assembler, and Maintenance
3/1995 – 10/1997
The Laboritories of Mad Dr. BoBo and his singing toupe’ | Michigan
Assisted in the construction of giant robots that where to be bent on the destruction of all man kind. However, due to a design flaw in the elctro-kenetic brain, robots sat around in rocking chairs complaining about how their diodes ached, and how it was better “back in the old days”.

Aquisitions and Disposal
6/1993 – 12/1994
Prof. Harold Rocklinfade | Mi
Procuring freasly burried corpses for Prof. Rocklinfades “Ghastly Experiments” from local pet cemmetaries, animal hospitals, veteranary clinics, county pound, and elementary school class rooms. ALso responcable for the disposal of unsucseffull experiments in Bog behind the Mansion.

Assistant Sludge Monster Wrangler
7/1990 – 6/1991

Blodget Chemical Corporation | Mi
Detention and destruction of Sludge creatures created by careless disposal of toxic chemicals that had been accidentaly mixed together. Also resposable for hunting and capturing any creatures that had broken loose from holding pen “On pain of death”.

EDUCATION
Associate Degree,
3/1993
St. Clair COunty COmmunity Colledge for the insane | State:MI
Assc. of Arts and Inhumanities. Subprogram in Mad Science and Alternate “Goofy” physics
High School or equivalent,
6/1990
Capac High School for the insane | Capac, MI

SKILLS

A+ Intermediate
Denile of Reality Expert
Creative Problem Creating Expert
Anoy total strangers in under ten seconds Expert

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I’ve got my pitch fork. I got my torch. Where’s the rest of the mob?
->more to come very soon

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So there is this article about Windows 7. It goes on at length about the naming process for the Windows line. Then there is the follow up article, that is the explanation for the naming scheme. Now all I can think of is the Animaniacs singing about Windows Versions.

FIIIIIRRRRSSSSST There was Dos,
That Bill Gates bought
really a steal,
or so we though

Then Apple’s “Lisa”
Showed us a mouse
and soon after
Windows one came out

But it was just and overlay
’cause DOS still ran everything anyway.
And so it was with Windows 3
and 3.11 respectively.

Then came Windows 95 and we all thought that to survive
We must upgrade immediately or we’ll be left behind the scene.
And so we all clambered aboard and purchased Windows number 4
Only to find that right behind would be Windows 98.

Nine-teee-eight!
Oh how we thought that that was great.
Windows Nine-teee-Eight!
We thought it was divine!

But there were bugs and Billy thought
Lets march a new release on out
and so “SE” became the norm
with patches flying like a storm.

The internet was the new big thing
and IE 4 had us on a string,
Outlook express kept our email
And everything seemed good and well.

But Bill would not settle for millions and millions
He really wanted trillion billions
so two os’s came the same year,
but with different names.

We watched the trick of ME with surprise
as it crashed and crumbled before our eyes
But 2000 seemed rather stable and stayed alive,
So they called it Windows 5!

Then came XP! “Just a point release” or so they say,
Win-dows EEECKS-PEEEE! Really saved Old Billy’s day.
We’ll make More MonEEYY! If we put two versions out,
One for work and one for Home!

And so this OS ran and ran
everything working according to plan
but the longevity of the silly thing
screwed up Bills releasing scheme
For Another OS to take it’s place
and boost profits into outer space.

So Bill killed XP, he pulled the plug
and rolled out Windows Vista.
No one knew that Windows 6
would go right down the Shitstah!

Now all eyes look forward to going back
to all that vista seemed to lack
And we can Only hope that Windows 7
Is not “MS Bob Centennial Edition!”

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I got an email from my cousin with pictures of the candidates and pictures for trains.  It compared Obamma to a sleek super train of the future, Biden as an Amtrak desil, Mcain as an old busted steam locomotive, and palin as Thomas the tank engine fallen off the tracks.

Funny yeah, but I redid it my way with palin as the sleek sexy train, Mcain as the Amtrak workhorse, Bidden as the stuff shirt old steam engine (full of hot air) and Obamma as the toy.

My cousin’s reaction was she couldn’t believe I liked Palin.

So I had to remind her who she was talking too.

This is what I wrote.

Pol’tic’s just make me mad. No one is in touch with the real world in Washington. As far as I’m concerned politicians should start at minimum wage when they get elected, and get a 25 cent raise ever year like real people. Then we might see some action. You miss 3 votes, you missed three days of work, you’re canned, just like normal people.

Reps, Dems, None of them have an actual CLUE as to what the hell’s going on out here. They don’t choose between gas and milk, or milk and medicine. Not a damn one of them could tell me exactly how much a pack of roman noodles costs at the Kroger’s in Imlay City (17 cents) because what we as real people deal with is so far beneath them they would rather go to prison than become an average man on the street.

Vote for me.

I know what you’re going through.

I’m Matt London and I approve of this message, but I damn well don’t approve of the crap we’ve been given as candidates. They’re like lead filled toys from China. They look nice but under the cheap paint they’re poison, every single one of them.

Politics doesn’t SOLVE anything anymore. It just causes animosity and hate between people because “He’s a dem” or “She’s a rep”.

Two cities I would love to see burned to the ground are Detroit and Washington DC. Vaporize them and the occupants and start over with streets of glass as a reminder.

Now I’m all wound up. Where’s Rush Limbaugh. I need someone to really yell at.

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