Nothing New...

Nothing really new happening... did run across this website about the worst helpdesk tech ever. It is quite hilarious, check it out http://chroniclesofgeorge.nanc.com/index.htm

Movies This Past Weekend

Well Saturday night, A.J. and I went to see "Batman Begins." I do have to say it was very good taking you from Bruce Wayne the child, losing his parents and then on his journey which finally leads him to becoming Batman. Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia... both very good movies) directed the new movie and didn't rely just on special effect, but more on story (what a concept). I will plan on seeing it again next month when it comes out at the Imax downtown.

We also ended up seeing "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." I didn't really have any great expectations for the movie. I was plesantly surprised at the chemistry between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. It wasn't meant to be some deep movie. It provided action, quite a bit of comedy and I think it did that. Is it worth admission... maybe a matinee. Had it not been the only movie on as late as we were there I may have just waited until it came out on dvd and rented it.

All in all a good movie night...

Memories of '99

Not much to say other than these were some pics I scanned from 1999 the summer after graduating from Sac High. I did quite a bit of things that summer... State Fair, Great America, Bowling, etc., etc. Here are some good ones:

An End of An Era

As long as I can remember, my family has gone to my Grandparent's (my mom's side) house for many occations like Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc. Since my Grandparents have passed away for the past couple years the house is being sold. Even though we never lived there it still is like a part of me and I have many great memories of that place. Holiday's will be very different from now on. If everything goes as planned the final paperwork on the sale of the house will be done sometime around the 20th. The other day my mom was over there doing some upkeep and I went over on my lunch. The only thing I had with me was my camera phone so I decided it may be the last time I would be there so I took a few pictures:

My Current HDTV Computer Project

Well recently I decided to try and build an HDTV receiver/DVR computer that I could use also with an HDTV when I eventually get one.

These are the main parts behind it:

• Depending on how it works either my current AMD AthlonXP 2600+ or my new AMD Athlon64 3000+ Processor
• Geforce 6600 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card (with DVI output – to a monitor or HDTV)
• DVICO - FusionHDTV5 Gold QAM Tuner Card (which can receive over the air and unencrypted hdtv channels from digital cable tv)

Video Card:

HDTV Tuner Card:


Diagram:

Yeah, Yeah, More TV Stuff

I know a lot of what I post about it TV stuff. I guess my life really isn't that interesting. Well on to what I wanted to post. If you go here http://www.flickr.com/photos/nachop/sets/450093/show/ it is a slideshow of all the Futurama title taglines that change from episode to episode (much like Bart writing something different on the chalkboard at the begining of the Simpsons each episode). Some are quite funny...

This Weekend

I haddn't really thought about it that much but most of what I have posted on my blog lately is just about tv and movies. Not that there is a problem with that but hey might as well talk about things that have happened lately. Well this weekend was cool, got to go close to Coloma to see a cousin's graduation ceremony and two of my friends both celebrated birthdays (technically only one on the weekend, the other's was on Thursday but we celebrated it Sunday).

So Friday I got off work a half-hour early so we could leave and get there with plenty of time. The graduation was interesting since it was technically only for 3 people, all of whom were home-schooled. They got to use a church close by and had friend and family there (it was acutally quite large and lasted just as long as a normal graduation. Afterwords they had cake and refreshments in basically in the dark :).

Saturday afternoon went with A.J. to his parents house in Folsom to have burgers in celebration of his birthday. People were pretty late getting there so we ended up spending a lot of time watching episodes from season 1 of Scrubs (my gift to him). I haddn't watched it before and though it was actually one of the more funny shows I have seen, guess I should watch it now. After that we ended up going to Adam's house for pizza and some poker. As usual it was a 20 dollar buy in. That was a nice time and A.J. ended up being the big winner up 8 bucks. I finished up a buck.

Sunday we were throwing a surprise party for Kaosio, to which when he did show up he was quite surprised. We had some nice food and visted for a few hours. Once I got home my family ended up going out to chinese food and then after that I went to A.J.'s to watch "The Machinist" as well as the only shows on Sunday that were new, Family Guy and American Dad.

The Machinist was a really good movie. One of those where you keep guessing you know is going on, but in the end you are pretty much clueless to what you find out is really going on. I would recommend it to anyone who likes more of a thinking movie rather than all special effects and action.

All I will say about Family Guy and American Dad, man... I cannot believe they got away with some of what happened on that show on network tv... entertaining though.

Well enough from me for now :)...

Batman Begins

Well I haven't posted anything in a while and most of what I have done lately has been about movies so... "Batman Begins" is coming out in under a week now and I am really looking forward to it. I have already heard great things about it and know the director's work in "Memento" and "Insomnia", both very good movies.

Up to this point I would have to say the best "Batman" was Michael Keaton in the original. This time around the role is played by Christian Bale and it takes place from right after Bruce Wayne's parents are killed and his transformation into what is know as Batman. I haven't really seen Bale in much but from what I have heard he is a good actor. I also know he isn't afraid of taking risky roles as in "American Psycho". He also takes his acting very seriously. Now I want to show you how seriously and it can only be shown in pictures rather than words.

Right before "Batman Begins", Christian Bale was in "The Machinist" where the script called for him to be very skinny (a living skeleton). Well he took that to heart and literally only had an apple and had water each day. He got his weight down to something like 110 lbs and looked like someone right out of a concentration camp:


Then not long after he bulked up and played Batman right afterward.


His body cannot like this treatment. But it does really help take you into the story and for that it is appreciated.

Well that is all for now...