Tag Archives: Movie

HTPC of Doom!

Posted by on June 15, 2012 1 comment

Ok, it wasn’t really of doom, but I liked the title.  This last week I have spent a lot of time building my new media PC to be hooked up to my TV.  I canceled cable, and my Tivo service and am now relying on online services and rentals.  I just got tired of missing things when they aired, the DVR not catching them for some reason and then not being able to see things.

So I built an HTPC (Home Theater PC) to pull in my DVD’s, and play videos straight off the web.  I was using my Xbox for this, but, while the Xbox has been coming out with more and more apps to cover everything, it’s still not perfect.  So I balanced it out with the HTPC.

Sorry for the low-rez, I was excited

Thankfully, I am friends with an HTPC expert, my friend Louis.  The one I built is based on the one he owns.  He helped spec out the parts and guided me through the setup.  See, I haven’t exactly built a desktop PC in around 8 years.  Apparently, a lot has changed since then!  All of the parts arrived on Monday afternoon.  This was bad.  See, I a the type that wants to open and play as soon as I get stuff.  So that evening I dove in to start building.

Huge Mistake.

I was up till 1am before I finally got everything installed and running.  WIndows was fully patched and ready to go.  Then, Tuesday, Louis had me check the mode the Hard drives was running in.  Turns out they were defaulted to IDE and needed to be in ACHI.  Yeah, when I made the switch (even after following instructions to ensure it wouldn’t happen) the OS was wiped out.  I had to do the software portion all over again.

Long story made short, I spent the last few evenings tweaking and configuring.  I am now running the following:

  • [amazon_link id=”B004EBUXHQ” target=”_blank” ]Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost)[/amazon_link]
  • [amazon_link id=”B002X578GE” target=”_blank” ]G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333[/amazon_link]
  • [amazon_link id=”B004Q81CKY” target=”_blank” ]OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5″ 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive[/amazon_link] (SSD) (Boot Drive)
  • 2 x [amazon_link id=”B0042SGDVG” target=”_blank” ]SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive[/amazon_link] (for 4TB Total)
  • [amazon_link id=”B0048D7AD0″ target=”_blank” ]SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card[/amazon_link]
  • [amazon_link id=”B005FE52X6″ target=”_blank” ]ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard[/amazon_link]
  • [amazon_link id=”B005HGPPG6″ target=”_blank” ]LIAN LI Black Aluminum PC-C60B ATX Media Center / HTPC Case[/amazon_link]

Needless to say, I may have gone a bit overboard on the hardware for something as simple as a Media Box.  However, playing Civ-V on the 47” tv is pretty damn cool.

Downside, I am exhausted.  Sleep soon!

Sometimes weird/cool things just happen!

Posted by on June 4, 2012 No comments

This weekend was a pretty productive weekend.  We had a great “Guy’s Night” where we introduced @NeuralClone to [amazon_link id=”B0051E9INK” target=”_blank” ]Highlander[/amazon_link], since he had never seen it. (I know, right?) After which we watched Iron Sky.  You know, the Nazis on the moon movie.  Seriously, go watch that.  It’s one of the funniest movies I have seen.

Saturday the weather was amazing so I spent the time outside replacing the thermostat on my truck.  This is a big accomplishment for me since I am still convinced that the engine in most cars runs on magical wishes and unicorn dreams.  Now if I could just get a starter that works when I shout “ENGINUS COMBUSTUS!”  So you can understand that doing any sort of work on a car is a big deal for me.  Having finished up this feat of manliness, I decided to take Sarah out for dinner for a nice evening.

This is really where the weird/cool stuff happens.

We drove down to Old Town Manassas to go to a small restaurant called City Square Cafe.  It’s a nice little place with outdoor seating.  Dinner was good, the company was great. (But then, that’s why I keep her around right?)  After dinner we thought we would try our hand at a few GeoCaches that were close by.  It made for a good excuse to walk around and enjoy the evening.

No luck on those, by the way.  It was dark and we just couldn’t find anything.

When we returned to the car we found this note on the windshield.
Now, you probably know this, but I wear my geek on my sleeve.  The back of my MINI has the plate “WIZ-POD”, since my truck has “W1ZZER”, and I have lots of stickers of geeky things.  This would have to be one of the first time I have ever been hit on due to my car being geeky.
Sarah and I had a good chuckle about the event and, while I thought it would be weird if I emailed her, Sarah took the initiative and sent off a note to say “Hi!”  Clearly it takes a lot of Chutzpah to drop a note like that to meet someone so, you never know, she may be a cool person to know!

Sadly, as of today, no reply has been seen.

Life is short!  Make new friends! Say hi to people!  You never know who you may meet!

P.S. the car behind me was a PT Cruiser

Sarah and I dressed up as Clara Clayton and Doc Brown from Back…

Posted by on March 27, 2011 No comments

Sarah and I dressed up as Clara Clayton and Doc Brown from Back to the Future III for a friends birthday party.

Iron Man 2

Posted by on May 12, 2010 1 comment

So it’s about time I finally got around to writing up my thoughts on the new Iron Man movie. Seeing as how it was back on Saturday that I went to see it. Honestly there is not a lot to say since I am a big comic book nerd (cue Ogre screaming NERDS!!!) I am a little biased when it comes to comic book based movies. Even the abomination that is Spider-man 3 holds a special place in my heart…a cold dark place in my heart where hopefully no one will ever have to watch it ever again. The thing about the Iron Man movies is that, wait for it,…….. I am not that big of an Iron Man comic fan!. I know I know, but I never really got that into him. If I wanted an eccentric millionaire that net his money on super hero toys I would just read Batman. Of course Tony Stark had a one up on Bruce Wayne in that he actually got drunk and didn’t just fake it. But I digress.

Sarah and I met up with some friends to catch a 5pm show in Fairfax. It was originally going to be the 4:30 show but the directors hall (fancy theater where you get to pick your seats) was nearly sold out. This caused a minor panic and had me getting to the theater for the 5pm show at like 3:30 to be in the non-existent line. Go me. Needless to say there was a lot of sitting and waiting. During this time Sarah discovered Plants Vs Zombies on the iPad and came to the realization that this new gadget of mine can stay…. Of course she renamed it the iPvZ device. Anyways, movie time rolled around and we took our seats. I used the best possible time to escape for a pre-movie bio run during the new twilight trailer, oh noes, did I miss anything important?. Yeah I didn’t think so.

——–Spoilers!!!  Skip Ahead if you don’t want to be spoiled————

For this movie it’s established that Mr. Stark is the Iron Man and now big brother wants to get his hands on the tech, but Tony isn’t selling. While the Govt. is claiming that others are creating suits to match Tony proves otherwise with his super transparent phone and everyone is happy. Well, except this Russian guy who is really into whips and has the stalker wall of Tony. Oh by the way turns out that the gizmo in Tony’s chest that’s keeping him alive is also killing him, so he goes a little bananas. Whip dude invents a suit and comes after Tony and bam the Govt. says “I told you so”.

So Tony works on getting hammered to finish himself off and Tony’s competitor enlists the help of whip dude to build some new suits, like we don’t see that backfiring in the future. Now Tony’s friend Rhody comes in to snag a suit and tell Tony off and Shield. Swoops in to clean up the mess that is left over, mostly Tony. They tell Tony that he doesn’t have to die, he just needs a good hardware based montage to find the answer. Bam just like that Tony invents a new element and he is healed!! (although the healing tastes like coconut).

Now Tony feels better, Rhody has a new and improved suit thanks to some new guns strapped to it, and whip dude has created an army of robot drones that are controlled from an orbiting space station that gets taken out by a kid and a droid….wait wrong movie. But the robot army is real. Tony receives a plot device, er, I mean phone call from whip dude boasting that he is going to blow up some of Tony’s stuff, Tony swoops in and saves the day and realizes that even he needs friends. Then everyone hugs and they fly off into the night.

———End Spoilers————–

Ok so maybe there was a little more to it than that, but you get the picture. Now, things I loved about the movie were:

Playful banter, somehow Robert Downy Jr just knows how to do the banter shtick. It worked great in IM1 and in Sherlock Holmes, and it works great here. The playful banter between him and Pepper Potts was great.

Simple plot, there was not a lot to the story here and that’s a good thing. A lot of time the superhero movies get mired down in story after story all piled on top of each other, and it just gets messy. One villain (unless you count Tony’s demise as a villain) and one main plot. Simple and great.

Great action, all of the action sequences where very comic book. Nothing overly Hollywood about them.

As for the things I didn’t like….there were very few. They could have explained a little more about the random cameos, the cap shield, Black Widow, etc. But it wasn’t that bad without it. Really I just liked the movie. If Marvel keeps with this recipe then they will do well with the rest of the Avenger cast movies!!

Wow, I thought when I started this that I wouldn’t have that much to say, I guess I was wrong. I am giving Iron Man 2 a good 8 arc reactors out of 10.

Quick Aside, this post written entirely on the iPad, and my hand kind of hurts now.

Jonah Hex

Posted by on April 30, 2010 No comments

It’s now secret that I am a comic book fan.  (Fan is probably an understatement)  I love the super hero comics and even some of the Sci fi type comics.  The one odd ball in my current pull list is Jonah Hex.  I don’t know what it is about Jonah Hex as a comic but it really appealed to me.  For those that don’t know, Jonah Hex is an Old West style spaghetti western type comic.  The character of Hex is a Bounty Hunter who used to fight in the civil war.  He was raised by Indians and is a tough as nails, hard to kill bad ass.  Imagine Batman in the old west (with no money and a scared up face).  Hex has no powers and no reservations on who should live or die, as long as he gets paid.  The comic is gritty and real(ish, it is a comic after all.)  That’s the main draw for me.  Simpler time where the line between black and white was much thinner, and there were no real politics to how Hex handled situations, and no hidden motives.  So two years ago I heard they were planning a Jonah Hex movie.  I was elated!  The story could have been pulled from any of the great runs of the comic and been amazing.

Skip ahead to the present.  Many announcements were made about the movie.  Josh Brolin was cast as the lead and I thought “Yeah, I can see that”.  Even him talking about the makeup and the limitations of doing the Eye and the Lip skin flap, and how they had to fall back on how it looks now because it was the most feasible, it’s all understandable.  I groaned when I heard Megan Fox was cast.  (Personally I think as long as she shuts up she is ok.)  I secretly wished she would be cast as Tallulah Black.  (Tallulah ended up as another severely scarred up Bounty Hunter.)

So now we have the trailer launched.  I see the story they are going for and I am thinking……WTF?!?!  Take a look for yourself:

Seriously.  Hex is not “Supernatural”.  He has no powers.  He got his scared up face from the Apache Indians!  Why did they think they needed to go with some strange powers just because it’s a comic book movie?!?  Look at 3:10 to Yuma.  It was a great Western movie with a bad ass and it worked!  That should be the same recipe for Jonah Hex!  I know I will still go and see the movie because I want to see more comics made into movies but I reserve the right to be upset about the changes to a beloved character.

Sigh

Las Vegas and Kick Ass

Posted by on April 21, 2010 No comments

So I haven’t posted much this last week because I am in Las Vegas for a Microsoft conference. I love traveling because it gives me the chance to scope out what gadgets other people are using for their trips. Personally I am traveling kind of gadget lite with only my laptop and my Droid, but I love walking through the airport or even around the conference floor and seeing what phones, readers, and laptops people are using. Amazingly enough. I have only seen a grand total of 2 iPads! Guess people haven’t jumped on the bandwaggon just yet. Also got to see 1 Nook e-reader out in the wild. Now this may be just because I am at a MS conference but the primary phone has been the blackberry, followed by the iPhone, an then a mix of Droid and WinMo phones.

But anyways, enough with the geeking out, I am really enjoying the conference and learning a ton more about server management. I also am taking this trip to Vegas much lighter that others because I am getting to the point where it’s not about sight seeing and more about relaxing.

Speaking of relaxing, I took a break last night and went to see Kick Ass. For those of you without a TV or internet (how are You reading this?) Kick Ass is a new superhero movie about an real life version of a comic book hero. Instead of super powers or mass ammounts of money it’s just a guy who wants to help people. It is very based in reality and amazingly graphic. I highly reccomend that You pay attention to the rating on this one as it is not for kids at all. Personally I thought it was amazing. It will certainly set the bar for upcoming superhero movies and center them in reality. Given that I am writing this on my Droid I don’t want to go into too much detail but I will say Go See It! Hopefully there won’t be too many copy cats that get themselves killed. Remember kids, don’t try this at home!

Trenches!

Posted by on February 16, 2010 No comments

Just a quick post to pimp out an amazing Web Series called Trenches.  I had the great opportunity to be a part of the creation of this series and working with it’s creators is always a delight!  If you get the chance, check out Crackle.com and more specifically their Trenches site.  They will be running the series over the next few weeks so come back often and tell your friends!  (Rumor has it that even Felicia Day ended up with a Pre-release copy of Trenches while at Farpoint!)