Untitled

Super 8

Super 8 is one of the very few summer movies that aren't a sequel or a prequel or based on a comic book character or worse a sequel or prequel  based on a comic book character.  But don't let that fool you to believe that it's an original movie.  Far from it.  It's indeed a movie with hardly an iota of original idea.  Super 8 is J.J. Abrams endless tribute to his forebears, mainly and namely Steven Spielberg, the producer of Super 8, who himself has a hard time making any movie that is better than Jaws or E.T.  Except for the spectacular and gratuitous train wreck in the beginning, and that charming little movie within a movie in the end credit, there isn't really anything new, exciting or charming about Super 8.  The children actors do a good job in injecting some light and tear jerking moments that supposedly to show humanity but since the story and direction are so lame that it all feels forced and wasted.  Perhaps in movie, there is no plagiarism, only tribute, and in Super 8, it's a sanctioned one from its producer Spielberg.  Watching Super 8 is like reading some cool tumblr blog with endless re-blogs from other cool tumblr blogs which re-blog from yet other cool tumblr blogs which re-blog the blogs that re-blog them.  It's kind of cool, meta and somewhat interesting in the beginning but after a while, you just got tired of this whole endless re-blog thing no matter how cool it looks and especially and (un)fortunately you have experienced the original blog first hand.  Just like if you had watched E.T back in 1982.

BN

Damian Lopez Alfonso And Deidre Murphy Bader

Kissena Park Velodrome

Prints

Some pronts

Film

Sent from my thumbs.

Test

Send from my thumb

Mural

Handball

Space Oddity

From The New Yorker:  Mark Kelly quoted Bowie's Space Oddity "Tell my wife I love her very much."

The Feel Bad Movie Of Christmas

Racer

Pushing Off

Cat

I take crappy pictures with no help from Instagram.

Morning

Canoeing

Read this.  My eyes were open but I couldn't see a thing.  It was akin to the darkroom experience I had at home.  When I got nothing better to do, which was quite often--though my significant other definitely disagreed on this one, after I'd done washing dishes, taking out the garbage, recycles and doing the laundry, sometimes, I would get some black garbage bag and taped it up against a closet in the bathroom or down in the basement at night to make it light proof so I could get my film loaded into the developing tank.  I lined up my material and made sure I knew exactly where they were, film, scissors, reel, tank before I turned off the light.  But spooling the film onto the reel always got tricky when done in total darkness.  I didn't do this often enough so I remained pretty much a beginner all these years.  But overall, I didn't think I had any major screwed-up, even if I had I wouldn't tell you.  As much as I consider myself anal, somewhat and somewhat selectively perhaps, I didn't think I was anal or scientific enough when it came to the developing process.  Everything from dilution to shake (or inversion) to temperature to developing time was just "in the ballpark."  I never tried hard to control the variables, kind of "let it go."  It was the second night on our canoeing trip.  I was awake.  Acutely aware I was lying, essentially in the mud though inside a tent, somewhere along the Delaware Water Gap, breathing in and out the air that was heavy with moisture and smelled river, grass, mud and decays.  It wasn't pleasant like the romanticized nature people always made it to me.  It was just filth, though not the kind of filth like nuclear or chemical pollution that could actually kill you, slowly but surely.  This kind of nature dirt only disgusted and annoyed you and caused inconvenience, at least when you weren't in the "I just love nature" mood, which to me was almost all the time.  The ambient noise at night was just unbelievable as it was unbearable.  I could hear the river making all kinds of noise as it meandered interminably along; the wind stirring up the tree branches, the ruffling leaves and everything else in the air.  And all the nameless bugs were just merrily chirping all night long.  If only I had a mirror I would have seen in my own eyes how terrible I looked, unkempt hair, a stubbled face covered with oil that sure if scrapped off could fire an egg or two.  (Actually I looked like this all the time even on non-camping days.)  It was pitch dark even if I had a mirror I wouldn't be able to see myself.  I was just groping for my headlamp.  I was just excited to field test the headlamp so I could review it.  The whole point of buying stuff now was so I could review them, online.

Insert Your Media

I was at Duane Reade and I found this machine while holding a roll of Kodak 135 VC 160.  I tried CVS moments ago, and their "computer" broke and I was told it wouldn't be ready the following day.  Last time I had my roll processed there, it was scratched and I got a picture that didn't belong to me, I guess they just gave it to me as bonus, I don't know.  I suspect all the machines can actually do a very decent job in developing, scanning and printing, it's just that the folks who man the machines don't care at all.  I mean at all.  I used DOI Camera a couple of times for none other than it's just there, the staff was rude and they just gave you the negative cut at whatever way they want unsleeved.  The pricing seems arbitrary, one time the guy told me one price and the woman told me another when I picked up and they made it as if it was my mistake.  It's just unbelievable.

Speed Racer

iCloud And Other Crap That Nobody Really Understands

The future looks cloudy.

For the most part I'm just flummoxed by all these clouds.  What I can understand is I could, at some point, get Lady Gaga's latest album Born This Way for 99 cents.  Yeah, 99 cents for the entire album not just one song but the entire album.  That's what I understand.  I heard iCloud is ahead of Amazon and Google.  Apple shall have a death grip on your devices and by extension your life if you let her.

Apple's stock down more than $5.

AT 55 Pack, Large

picture from llbean.com

Hard to pack stuff
When did you purchase this item? Within 1 Month
Now I admit I am not an outdoor kind of person and with almost no experience in choosing backpack. I find this backpack lightweight and good looking which are the most important factors. Other than that I find it very hard to pack anything inside. There is one opening at the top and that is it baby. If you never need to unpack or access anything during a trip that's you plan excellent and you don't need to access something in the middle of a hike AT ALL. Otherwise good luck finding some stuff inside. It's minor annoyance. Otherwise, with all the belts and clips, it looks fancy enough on the trail.
I would describe myself as: absolute know nothing about backpack
This item is: Performing as Expected

Paddling Jacket

picture from llbean.com

4 / 5
May 31, 2011
Fashion Statement On The River
When did you purchase this item? Within 1 Month
Thanks to this jacket, I looked absolutely good paddling badly on the river. This thing keeps me dry from the outside and somewhat toasty on the inside. The only pocket is on the left arm and I wish there are more pockets to hold all my junk. But on second thought when you are wearing a PFD, what a fancy name, then you can't access any pocket on the body anyway unless you aren't wearing a PFD like some lawless dudes.
I would describe myself as: very bad paddler
This item is: Performing as Expected

Racer

Canoeing