With the hey hey hey it hurts me

Email is back up and running. Server guy still had it configured to the old IP. Of course with the new server was also the webmail upgrade. The new version comes with a feature that blocks all images in emails and replaces them with "This image has been removed for security reasons." So you know it looks beautiful. Basically, write up a nice looking document, bind it, put a nice cover on it, them vomit on it. That's what my emails look like. So every time I open an email I have to click on a link at the bottom to reload with the images. Of course I could add a plugin that overrides that feature, and I so love editing php files only to have it not work for some unknown reason.

Anyways. If you see me online the next couple of days it's because I only got eight hours at work this upcoming week. From 40 to 8. I nearly choked laughing. That should only be for this week since it's our soft opening. The week after is our Grand Opening and we should be jumpin'. Of course, I say if you see me online. Since we have a friends and family night tomorrow, I decided to use the opportunity to save some cash to get my X Box online. That of course not only means the Live service, but also getting a router. I've gotten one picked out already that has been X Box tested and approved. My only concern is where the exact spot is in the computer room to drill and run the ethernet cable down to my room is. I'm not going to lie, I'm excited about it. About a frickin' router for Godsake. I should just go put on one of my Think Geek t shirts. Oh wait, I'm already wearing one.

I also have a WTF? coffee mug - asmyth82 8:21 PM -

Is this thing on?

Well it looks like I'm back up and running, though I still can't check my email. I don't get a lot on a daily basis. That's good or bad depending on how you look at it, but it annoys my to no end.

I want my MTV. And by MTV I mean email. - asmyth82 5:41 PM -

Server move

I haven't been able to access my site or my email all day. They had said that if everything went well, I'd experience no down time. I wonder what went wrong. - asmyth82 6:40 PM -

P.S. means "Oh yeah..."

Updated the links. Anything missed or needed added, let me know. - asmyth82 9:12 PM -

Things overheard

1) At work

I was sorting DVDs the other day. Behind me, on a table, was a bunch of stuff, DVDs, CDs and video games. Two female coworkers were walking by when one stopped the other and the following occured (paraphrased):

Coworker 1: Now here's a game I can't believe we sell. *picks up a copy of Medal of Honour: Allied Assault* I can't believe we have this and kids can play it. I think we should ban it.

Coworker 2: What's wrong with it?

Coworker 1: It's a World War 2 game. You think it's going to be a Steven Spielberg type thing, cinematic and stuff, but it's just violent. You can walk right up to a guy and shoot him in the face. The guy you shoot is a nazi, wearing a swastica and everything.

Coworker 2: Wow.

Coworker 1: *Sarcasm apparent* Yeah, that's what we should have kids doing. Shooting nazis. Let's glorify World War 2. Brilliant idea.

At that point I turned around and looked at coworker 1. I didn't say anything, but I was tasting blood for a while after I bit my tongue so hard. Amazing we could find people to hire living under a rock. For starters, as everybody knows, video games have had players shooting nazis since the original Wolfenstein. It's not a new concept. And her Spielberg comment. Did she not see Saving private Ryan?! Yes, absolutely no violence in it at all. If you buy the copy edited by that guy in the States who shortened the movie to 24 minutes by cutting out all the violence. This is the kind of person who must just buy into all that crap about video games causing kids to perform acts of violence. Politicians love people like this. Yeesh.

2) On the street:

I was waiting for a bus earlier today and heard this:

*Street guy 1 hands street guy 2 a cigarette*

Street guy 2: Thanks for the cigarette. It's broken but that's OK. What's your name?

Street guy 1: *stumbling* It doesn't matter. I'm drunk.

At this point Street guy 1, 2 and 3 were standing around me, boxing me in. Street guy 2 ended up going on and on about some religious something or whatever conversation with me. Basically I nodded over and over and hoped he wouldn't try to burn me with his cigarette. "Feel the holy spirit!"

He wandered a few steps away after 10 minutes and I thought that was it. He tried striking up a conversation with a guy standing next to me, but when that failed he came right back at me. He finally got on a bus and I caught the guy next to me giving me a wierd look. I just shrugged and he asked, "What the hell was he going on about?" "I don't know. I just smiled and nodded." The guy paused for a second then replied "He was one messed up mother fucker."

Really? That was news to me - asmyth82 9:03 PM -

Here comes that leprosy

I missed wishing Matt a happy birthday yesterday. Well fuck me. Forget the fact I wasn't near a computer at all yesterday, I could have done it earlier in the week, like Saturday. What an inconsiderate bastard I am.

Yup - asmyth82 8:16 PM -

The Matrix Reloaded Revisited

I've given more thought on the new Matrix film and decided that since my last post was done in a rush, I'd post my latest thoughts. Plus the fact it's my site so I can do whatever the fuck I want.

The first film, as has been pointed out countless times, had threads of the Christ story. They didn't come right out and say it though. In the second film, they smack you in the face with it. Y'know, just in case you missed it the first time and missed every conversation about the Matrix since it came out. Or are just retarded, that could be a possibility.

Speaking of retarded, I saw a clip on TV today of some panel discussion they had with the cast members on one of the Zion sets. The clip was of Keanu Reeves giving some explanation about God knows what. I sat there listening to him drone on and on, making no coherrent point I could distinguish. They cut to shots of some of the other cast members and they all had the same look on their faces, the same idea running through their heads: nod occasionally and pretend to understand. I shouldn't say everyone because they cut to Hugo Weaving and he was sitting there, head leaning on his hand with a look best decribed as having just smelled the foulest pile of dog shit on the planet while fighting a massive headache. I sat there thinking what the fuck is Keanu on? Then I remembered...

It was Keanu Reeves.

Also, the first movie's heady question was what is real? Understandable, considering the subject matter. In the new film, the philosophical question is the existance of choice. Multiple times the line "You do have a choice, it's just that you've already made it," was uttered a few times. It really played up the fate/destiny versus free will debate which it only touched on the first time.

I will most likely have to see the movie again to see if the second time around to try and catch all the heady conversation filling this movie to see if it is actually thought provoking or just bullshit double talk shovelled in to fill the gaps between action scenes.

And I know all about bullshit double talk to fill space.

It's good to be the king. - asmyth82 8:38 PM -

Reloaded to make you go "huh?"

PVP says it pretty damned well.

Remember the first one? Remember that you'd run into people saying stuff like "I didn't get it. What happened? I don't understand!" If you're like me, you slapped most of these people then slapped their parents for raising stupid children. I got the first one, first time as I'm sure most did. Careful, spoilers may pop up here and there. It may help understanding the movie if or when you see it.

The second seems to go out of it's way to confuse. Perhaps it's not me not understanding, (I chalk totally missing one long dialogue up to the character's French accent.) I think I caught most of it, but will most likely have to see it again to make sure.

That whole scene from the commercials with Trinity driving the motorcycle off the building and causing a huge explosion happens right at the beginning. It then jumps ahaead to the scene where she jumps out the window and is followed by an agent. (This isn't spoiler, this is all from the TV ads.) Turns out this is all happening in Neo's dream. He hasn't been sleeping well due to these dreams. He and Trinity go with Morpheus to a meeting of all the hovercraft captains. All the humans ships have been called home because of the findings of the Osiris, (if you saw Dreamcatcher and the short film "Final Flight of the Osiris", you know the info.) The machines are digging to Zion. Morpheus wants one ship to remain at broadcating depth in hopes the Orcale will contact them.

Neo can now sense things that happen in the matrix so he goes to confront three agents who show up. Instead of just destroying them like he did to Smith at the end of the first one, the agents have been upgraded to actually put up a better fight, so they can block and hit Neo now. Neo takes off and we find out the Orcale has disappeared.


Once back in Zion, we find that not everybody believes in the prophecy and that Neo is the One. Others do and ask him to bless their children and give him offerings and food.

Two of the crew who stuck around to wait for the Oracle are attacked by an agent, who turns out to be Smith back from the dead. One crewman gets away, but Smith catches the other and turns him into a copy of himself. The copy picks up the phone and exits the matrix. Yep, there's an agent in a human's body now.

Neo gets the messgae that the Orcale wants to meet him and it turns out they couldn't find her because she's been moving around through the program's backdoors. Turns out she and her bodyguard are not human, but programs of the system.

After they talk, Smith shows up. This is the big fight from the commercials. It turns out, from what I can figure, that Smith was "freed" from the matrix program when Neo detroyed him, but instead of going and being dleteed totally, his will to survive was strong and he now exists outside the program as a rogue. There are a bunch of rogue programs throughout the movie. That's why Neo can't just fly into Smith and detroy him I guess, because while Neo can modify and rework the matrix, he can't do the same to programs outside of it.

Morpheus, Trinity and Neo meet with one of the oldest rogue programs the Oracle told them to meet. He's holding a program called the Keymaker and they need the Keymaker to get to the program core.

I don't want to give everything away so I'll stop there. Do they stop the machines? Do they save the day? See the movie.

Some things about the movie, (stop reading if you want to skip spoilers, more so thatn already,):

The rave in Zion. I found it stupid. Stupid and full of nipples.
The Merovingian. He may have had a French accent that caused me to miss the entire dialogue and make me wonder if I was drunk, but he used a dessert he programmed himself to make a woman horny. Can you tell a couple of guys wrote this movie?
SO much kung-fu. After a while it got to the point where I was actually saying "Enough with the kung fu already." I can't believe a movie actually made me say that.
The Neo/Architect conversation. As the architect mentions different things, the monitors all around them flash different scenes. He mentions Neo being an anomoly and the screens show clips from the first movie. He talks about making the matrix based around humanity's grotesque history, one screen flashes Hitler then George W. Bush, I shit you not.
Neo being able to zap the robots in the real world.
I apparently missed the trialer for Revolutions. I hate when they hide stuff after the credits. I don't want to sit through scrolling text. If the credits were accompanied by clips like at the end of a Jackie Chan movie, then I'd wait.
My brother saw it too. He thought they could have done so much more with the freeway chase. I thought the chase rocked, but I asked him what they could have done. His response was "I don't know. Something." So I'll take that as him talking out his ass. The only thing I didn't like about the chase was the fight on top of the truck. It didn't seem to have the speed associated with it it should have. Yes, the background was blurring by, but they were jumping around on a high speed platform, you think they'd have to modify their fighting a bit to accomodate that.
The fact that the current matrix is the sixth version. The first was the too perfect world Smith mentioned in the first movie that the humans rejected, but all the other versions have been like the current one. The machines have even left free people about to build Zion and work towards the One. Then each One was given the choice to either walk out one door, shut down the machine and kill everyone in the matrix, or go out another door, the machines destrot Zion and everyone in it and then the One chooses a bakers dozen of people to repopulate and rebuild Zion and the entire thing starts again with a new Zion and a new matrix that leads up to a new anomoly, the "One." That made me go woah.

"I love swearing in French. It's like wiping your ass with silk." - asmyth82 10:56 AM -

Working again

Well, the new store opening weekend is over, now all that needs to be doneis get the merchandise in and set up. Saturday and Sunday were general "meet everybody and have some fun" days. It was pretty cool. Something they didn't tell me, the Merchandise and Media people have 6 am starting days. There's a 6am now? Jeebus, I was up at 4:30 yesterday morning. Wanna know what's wrong with that sentence? "I was up at 4:30", that's what. Luckily, true to their word, I can work 7 to 4 instead of 6 to 3. It just makes it easier to get there since I can grab a ride with my dad as he heads into work. Spent yesterday scanning bar codes on CDs. All day. Tedious, but tedium has never bothered me. If somebody offered me a job where I would have to sit and watch paint dry, I'd take it. I don't bore easily. I had a rythym going until the portable printer's battery started wearing down, then it occasionally took a while to print and we started falling behind.

I have today and Saturday off, which is nice. I'm just glad to be making some money again.

Thursday after work I'm planning on seeing The Matrix Reloaded. I'll throw up my thoughts on it after I see it when I have a few minutes, so either Friday night or sometime Saturday. Not that anything I say about it will make people see it or not. If you don't plan on seeing it, you don't exist since everyone and their mother will see it. I can basically tell you my review now: Awesome. Woah! Holy Shit Dude!

That's another nice thing about work, it's located just down the road of the movie theatre, across the road from the mall, and right next to Jack Astor's. So seeing movies, buying anything I can't get at work, or grabbing some food and a beer after work is now easy as hell with minimal travelling.

I also need to get some sponsers for the Labbatt 24 Hour relay. I should really get cracking on that and also book the time off work soon. Doing something for charity while drunk off your ass is a stroke of genius and it isn't surprising it's been doing so well for so many years.

/end talk - asmyth82 11:46 AM -

And the monkey has a name

Well the polls have closed as it were and the new mascot of Blogs of War now has a name: Furious George. Emotional comments have been posted about him.

It's great that something I did is getting a reponse like that. I may just have to print off the comments, a copy of the monkey and frame them together on my wall.

This monkey never surrenders - asmyth82 11:16 AM -

Hello Bigtime

I've been mentioned at Blogs of War! Being the egotistical bastard that I am, that kind of thing makes my day.

He even capitalized friend. - asmyth82 1:31 PM -

X2: The X- ening

Friday afternoon I saw the new X men movie. Who wants a review? How about spoilers? I'll try to keep them to a minimum.

I'll start with characters I basic order of appearance. At least as well as I can remember.

Nightcrawler
Sweet opening fight scene. When I first saw pictures, I thought he was going to suck, but the actor did a great job. Even got down the German accent.

Wolverine
This was another movie filled with alot of Wolverine. Which is fine by me. They could have added "X2 - Now with more stabbing!" to the movie poster.

Jean
My prediction: The next movie, (yeah, there will be a third without a doubt,) will be all about Jean and the Phoenix. They hint at it with about as much subtlety as hittingyou over the head with a bat.

Cyclops
Did you think that he was a whiney do nothing in the first movie? Did he annoy the hell out of you? Good news! He as maybe ten minutes of screen time then he's "knocked out" for over an hour, finally reappearing in the last 15 minutes of the movie.

Storm
I heard Halle Berry was upset that her character didn't have enough screen time or as many lines this time around. But when she was spouting crap like "Do you know what happens to a toad when it's struck by lightning? The same thing as everything else," can we really blame them for cutting down her lines. Though it sure did seem to me she more screen time and more lines, so that must have been a rumour.

Iceman
Ugh. Lemme start by saying Iceman: Cool character. In the movie: Like an escapee from Dawson's Creek. Whiney do nothing bastard.

Rogue
The Dawson's Creek crap is infectious I guess. She and Iceman do this love story thing that felt like it was written by any TV hack.

Pyro
I know what they were thinking. "We have an ice guy, let's have the opposite and have a fire guy!" The pyro character is a friggin' third tier character. He can control fire, but can't create it. That's like saying "My super power is I can shoot bullets, but somebody has to give me a gun first."

Magneto
He has more to do this time around. Just all around awesome.

Mystique
Another character with more to do this time around. Spying and ass kicking, need I say more?

Lady Deathstrike
Stryker's personal assistant. Remember Kurt Russell in Soldier? How he only said maybe 45 words? She has maybe 12 total, and that's a stretch.

Collosus
Yep, he shows up for a few minutes. Does the steel skin thing for a few seconds and tosses two guys through a wall.

Syren
The female version of Banshee. Except where he's a second tier character, she's a third.

Kitty Pryde
She shows up briefly as well. Though it's a different person than from the first movie.

Also saw Beast in his human pre-blue formm on a TV for a few seconds on a panel show discussing mutation..

Basically, the movie was awesome. If you enjoyed the first, or just action in general, check it out.

Also spent the past couple of days sick.

That's it - asmyth82 9:33 AM -