Avatar: Game Changer

I believe Avatar is on pace to beat out Titanic for highest grossing movie of all time; It sure took long enough.

I have read so many various reviews of "hardcore" science fiction fans of late who absolutely despise Avatar, because all it did was "play to the lowest common denominator" or "pander to the masses" with a weak story and amazing special effects. Therefore, it is not a good movie, it is not worth seeing, and it is in no way shape or form a game changer.

I agree, the story is not the most original. But unless you have seen it, you do not have a valid opinion. You cannot have a judgement that mean anything of something you have not seen. And you cannot appreciate that even if this was a weak story (I think it was well done and touched up enough to avoid this being weak), you have to appreciate that this movie IS a game changer. Maybe this movie just teamed great special effects and 3D with a lack of an original story, but now everyone is going to try and team the same effects and 3D with their stories to keep up. So while you might not think this movie is any good, it is opening the door for all those others out there to put it these effects together WITH a great story. It showed that spending the money to make something like this can make the money back. Team that with a great story and you have an out of this world experience.

So Avatar is going to be a game changer; Maybe not in story telling but in the level at which the story can and should be told. Other movies are already delaying or rewriting to try and keep up and fans of the movie going experience should have nothing but appreciation for Avatar, for showing the potential of new special effects whether it be CGI, motion capture, or 3D for movie goers to see.

The Avatar Debate

I watched Avatar in IMAX 3D last night. I went into it expecting spectacular special effects, and a lame retold story. On the effects front I was not disappointed. On the story side I was pleasantly surprised. I was impressed at how convincing the plot turned out to be considering a) it was about a bunch of 10 ft tall blue aliens and b) was similar in nature to: Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, Fern Gully, Pocahontas.

At first the aliens came off as a bit much, but the more you watched the movie and became ingrained in the world that was being created, the more the believable the whole thing became. By the end of the movie I found the whole thing very convincing. Extremely well done. The 3D definately was an extremely cool part of the movie. I am interested to see how it will translate to bluray/DVD. The movie was designed to be seen in an IMAX 3D enviroment, and to seperate that part out of the viewing experience probably will hurt the work somewhat. But I think in the end the imagination and depth of the world created will stand on its own. I fully expect to see sequals of this movie if just for the fact that the world created was done so in such exquisite detail that it would be a shame not to revisit it.

Yes, this movie was hyped quite a bit, and there are a lot of people out there who are saying they don't want to see it based on this fact, and the fact that they heard its an old story redone. While the story is not something new, there were a lot of intricacies that were added to the story that kept my interest throughout. To not see it because it is supposed to be big, is stupid. If something is supposed to be awesome and turns out to be awesome that is a good thing, why not take advantage of that?

I would highly recommend seeing it particularly if you can see it as it is meant to be seen.

I've totally done this

Well not a butterfly costume, but in general. What? You've never felt like you are getting dressed for battle when

getting ready for work?

For my abundance of readers out there...

If anyone does read this from time to time, I have a Google wave invite available. Google Wave seems like a pretty cool application. It will be interesting to see how it can impact blogging once it actually gets up and running.

The invite be on a first come first serve basis.

Leave an email address in a comment or send me an e-mail.

Ohhhh those Golden Arches

So I gotta admit, I'm a McDonald's junkie. One of my favorite times of the year is when McDonald's does Monopoly. I end up doubling or tripling my McDonald's intake. I was thinking about this recently because I realized almost by accident I have a new travel activity. At least once per trip to a foreign country I have to try and sample their McDonald's. So far I have of course had it here in the US. I pretty much lived on McDonald's while I was in Taiwan, after having an allergic reaction to something I ate there. I had to go with something I new wouldn't mess me up (isn't that the most ironic thing ever written?).

When I was in England we were walking around London seeing the sites and by the time we were going to catch our train up north, we realized we had no time to get normal food, and there was a McDonald's next to the station. So of course I had to partake.

Recently when in the Netherlands I needed breakfast prior to flying back to the States, so I hit up the McDonald's and snagged a London breakfast. I thought it was fun that instead of numbering meals they had given names of European cities based on how the meal related. The London breakfast was two bacon sausage egg Mcmuffins, coffee, and orange juice.

So far the only country I have been too that I have not eaten at McDonald's was when I was in Italy. Possibly Canada as well, but I have no recollection of where I ate while I was there since it was when I was a lot younger.

So I have:

US

Taiwan

England

The Netherlands

Where will it end?

Routines, Good or Bad?

I tend to be a person of routine. I like to go to sleep and get up around the same time. When I go to a restaurant its probably one I've been to before, and I probably know exactly what I am going to get before I ever sit down. I like to sleep on the same side of the bed every night, and sit on the same part of the couch. In fact our couch now has what we affectionately call "the hole" from where my butt has worn a groove into the cushions that you can almost fall into.

Is there anything wrong with having routines? It makes me comfortable and gives a steadiness to life that reduces stress. I don't have to worry about new things. It can be a blessing; but it can also be a curse. It can allow you to stagnate, and make life boring. As much as I love routine, I realize it is important to get out and do something differently every now and again.

As I tend to be a creature of habit I try to use occasions where I am forced out of my routines to really try and do things differently. For example, when I was overseas recently I try and eat the local food as much as possible. I had venison steaks, a trio of quail including poached quail egg, I had rabbit stew, haring (see previous post), and I drank new kinds of beer (which can be very rewarding). Its not a big thing, but those are definitely I do not eat routinely. It is fun to try new things. At the very best you can find something new that you really like, and on the other end at least you can say you tried it. It can make a good story. I drank snakes blood and bile once. Was it good? No. Does it make an interesting story? I think so anyway.

It's easy to break routine when forced to and it can have a lot of rewards. It's important to remind yourself this when stuck in a loop at home. Maybe go out and try that other restaurant, or play a board game instead of a videogame. Read instead of watching that television show. Even better, get outside instead of staying in doors all evening (of course living in Texas typically can make the outdoors a miserable experience).

Maybe sit on the other end of the couch and not in the hole, gain a new perspective on things.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

So I just flew in from the Netherlands and boy are my arms...yeah. Boy am I tired. It was a long week but a pretty good time. Five days of meetings interfered with the fun, but otherwise I would not have been there. Highlights of the trip.

-Arriving at the airport and finding out my rental car is a manual transmission. yeah, I never learned how to drive stick, and learning in Europe was not on my list of things to do.

-Getting to my hotel at 9:30am and not having a room ready until 2:30 am. It gave me time to wander around the beach and see the town a little bit. Besides the bitingly cold wind, it was a good thing, because I couldn't go to sleep.

-The Wednesday social dinner where we realized after we had paid for the meal, that half the wine that was included in the bill had not been drunk...and we just couldn't let it go to waste.

Thursday morning was not a highlight.

-Lightning tour of The Hague on Friday afternoon culminating in eating this lovely Dutch treat.

What you are looking at is haring; it consists of raw herring

and raw onions. mmm...mmm...good.

I can't say I was all that impressed with there food overall. It was okay, but it is not a country I would tell you to go to for the good eats. I will say that there fries are really good. The use of mayonnaise although off putting for me, was actually pretty tasty.

-Discovering Gulden Draak.

Now I just need to find a place in the States that sells it. Spec's don't let me down.

Hopefully, if I get to travel like this again I will be able to get a bit more organized before the trip so I can actually go and see more places. This time being the first trip, there was a bunch of different things to get used to. Particularly expecting to have a car, but then not having that work out. I wasn't ready to travel using public transport. This limited where I could go and when since I was relying more on other people. It was a fun trip, met a lot of good people over there. Hopefully it won't be too long before I can do something like this again.