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Movie - Meet the Fockers
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6/27/2005
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(Comments for movie "Meet the Fockers". Please stop reading if you haven't seen this movie and don't want it spoiled.)
My sense of humor must have worn off after years of insipid life. From my standpoint, the movie is just a cloyingly vapid farce with paltry merits, whether it comes to the storyline, the scripts or the acting.
The movie starts with a male nurse who happens to bear the last name "Focker". I don't know if there is really someone out there with this kind of name or it is all made up. Young Focker is gonna get married with a lady whose father is a retired CIA agent. In this flick, he is the only one that takes things seriously and of course, conservatively.
Accordingly to the plan, young lady and her family will visit the home of their in-law-to-be to discuss the wedding. Their in-laws, IMHO, are a kinky, erotic and clamorous couple. Young Focker's mom is a sex therapist while his dad is... (He is what? Lawyer? I don't get it. Looks to me he is unemployed for a long time). When I heard their blabbing on the voice machine, I start to regret my pick.
It's so happened that Young Focker has already impregnated his fiancee before their wedding. With the odd setting and his traditional father in-law, you know what would happen next.
Most of the time, the movie relies on Fockers' overstretch to get going. There is no doubt that it can win some cheap laugh, but that's as far as it may reach.
Hollywood is very good at recycling old plotlines. This movie's plotline is akin to another movie "The birdcage"(Ref [2]). However, at least the latter is more creative and funny in acting.
References:
[1] Yahoo Movie, Meet the Fockers
[2] Yahoo Movie, The Birdcage
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Briefcase - lindWidth
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6/26/2005
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In the days when the CRT (not to mention LCD) monitor is using text mode, when the printer is still dot matrix, it is common practice to limit the width of text file to 80 characters, since it is the default width of text mode (25 x 80) screen. The dot matrix is happy to print this kind of text file without wrapping lines.
Nowadays large screen LCD monitors become commodities, the text mode editor is only Linux pedants' favorite. However, from time to time, it is still necessary to stipulate the width of source files to make sure they look all the same throughout the whole spectrum of editors.
lineWidth is a simple tool to check the width of a source file, raising flags for any line that is out of the boundary.
Goto Ref[1] to see how to download.
References:
[1] HAHAHAHA's Briefcase
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Movie - Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring
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6/23/2005
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(Comment for movie "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring". Please stop reading if you haven't seen this movie and don't want it spoiled.)
Forgive me if it sounds offending, but this movie is phony and fake. I just don't get it.
I have no idea what the director wants to convey. Watching it is like tasting bland fudge wrapped in delicate and colorful plastic paper.
The whole plotline is fabricated in an incredible way. In the mundane eyes of mine:
*) In Spring, with such a sight and location, why the monks get to own this temple? It seems to me that the temple is deserted somehow. Where are all these sly real estate guys in the world?
*) What kind of sickness did that young lady have in summer? Why the mother of that young lady left his daughter in the hands of two monks? Is that faith or stupidity? To add insult to the injury, why the senior monk left the two adolescents alone?
*) In the fall, why these two cops allowed the fugitive finish his calligraphy? Why did they even spend nights there given that there is a man-slaughter suspect who could flee at any second. Why did the senior monk commit nirvana?
*) How is it possible to see snakes in the winter? Aren't they all cold-blooded?
To simply put the story in a mundane lingo:
*) Spring: Animal cruelty
*) Summer: Lust
*) Fall: Police chase and suicide
*) The rest: What the hell is that?
References:
[1] Yahoo Move, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring
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Don't live in someone else's life
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6/19/2005
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I had a good time with APPLE-II when I was still in elementary school, although at that time, I couldn't even spell the word "computer" correctly. However, it is amazing that when you were young, your passion and curiosity could be so easily flamed. Even to be able to print out a beautiful pattern on the screen would keep you in high spirit. Now everything has faded into oblivion except the Apple logo and a processor named 6502. It is probably the first processor I have ever learned in my life. Admittedly, that pleasant experience did play a subconscious part in the decision making when it comes to my career choice. (In hindsight, it may not be the best choice, but it did land me a job years later that, at the very least, pays the bill.)
So when Steve Jobs, one of the Apple founders delivered a commencement address in Stanford days ago, I got the sudden urge to check out the full text.
Besides his checkered past, what I admire most is his firm resistance to mediocrity. That's why I found myself being extremely fond of the following paragraph:
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
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Movie - Cellular
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6/05/2005
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(Comment for movie "Cellular". Please stop reading if you haven't seen this movie and don't want it spoiled.)
This is the longest cell phone commercial I have ever seen. Corporate sponsorship plays a major role in this move. Nokia's video phone gets the focus from time to time.
The plotline is, (how do I put it gracefully), incredible. It is just so happened that there is a fixed-line phone with the abducted lady. What a coincidence is that it can still dial the number after being smashed by a sledgehammer.
Unfortunately, the switching machines in the city's public telephone network are messy. They always give you the wrong caller ID (But I like Dat Phan's cameo role here.) or even party line (Party line may be an overused excuse in Hollywood movies. In the "Pallbearer", David Schwimmer, pretended there was a party line to cover the fact that he lives with his mom.). Since Nokia does not provide base station solution, it is not their fault for the switching system.
Luckily, our protagonist is a brave and smart young man despite the fact that he did not pass the words to cops when he had the chance. (He was right inside the police station at one time. Although the latter part proves that there were corrupted cops in the story, but does the means justify the ends?)
In spite of all the negative odds, the Nokia cell phones prove themselves, on battery life, signal quality and system stability. (I guess that's what the director wants to hear.)
Happy ending. Bad guys are brought to justice while good guys couldn't be more grateful to the Nokia cell phone.
Nokia rocks!
References:
[1] Yahoo Movie, Cellular
[2] Yahoo Movie, The Pallbearer
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Bye-bye, J and K
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6/03/2005
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J left the company for the better. So did K. I've known them for a long time. Smooth ride to my ex-colleagues!
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*)
Grand Opening
*)
Why HAHAHAHA
*)
Stay Foolish
*)
Rabbit Hole
*)
Blotter
*)
Notebook
*) Blotter
*) Notebook
*) Rabbit Hole
*) I Love Rei
*) TEXT2PNG
*) China Blog List
*) Bertrand
*) Bruin
*) Bulldog
*) Hua
*) Mas
*) Nimrod
*) Philewar
*) Rodent
*) Samuel
*) Tom
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