By Bevans on Friday, December 21, 2007

I thought I'd share the full-resolution image that I used as the background for my Christmas card this year. Here it is. It's 1600x1000 (widescreen) so you may have to resize it, or have it stretch, or whatever. I have it in 1920x1200, so if you want that, let me know.



I also did a version before that with normal, non-Christmas colors. I think this version looks better, but whatever.



Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, this was just done in Photoshop. I didn't actually paint it.

From: Announcements, Ranting By Bevans on Friday, November 23, 2007

Title says it all. The title "Bevans Rants" sucks. I need something better. So, let's hear some suggestions. Preferably something with "Bevans" in the title.

From: Announcements, Design By Bevans on Monday, November 19, 2007

Very blue, isn't it? I took a template that I worked a long time on for another blog I do, and tinted it blue. It was the lazy solution, but it saved me a ton of time, and I still don't know exactly what I'm going to do with this site.

So, let me know what you think. Does anything need a-changin'?

From: Entertainment, Links, Personal, Technology By Bevans on Friday, November 02, 2007

I've been meaning to write a hard-hitting post about politics or religion or something for a while now. But that day has not yet come. Instead, I'm going to share some of my favorite podcasts that I listen to each week.

For those of you who don't know, Podcasts are audio files (usually in MP3 format) that people produce on a regular or semi-regular basis. Their primary purpose is to be loaded onto a portable music player, or just listened to on your computer. And contrary to popular belief, no Apple products are required. I listen on an iRiver H120 while driving to and from class each day. The drive is usually about 40 minutes long, so I've got plenty of time to listen.

A great resource for finding new podcasts on pretty much any topic you can think of is the Podcast Directory on Digg.

So anyway, here they are.


The Ricky Gervais Show

Unfortunately, this one has ended, but you can still find the whole collection on the net (try BitTorrent), or my hard drive. And it's probably the funniest thing I've ever heard. The format is simple: 3 British guys talking to each other. The first (of course) is Ricky Gervais, a comedian/actor/writer who's probably most famous in the US for co-creating the tv show The Office. The second is Stephen Merchant, the other co-creator of The Office. The third is Karl Pilkington, their unemployed friend.

Most of the hilarity comes from just letting Karl speak his mind, with the other two reacting. Most of the stuff he says is ridiculous, inaccurate, or just plain crazy, yet also oddly poignant. When talking about the creation of the universe, he ponders, "Was the Big Bang really that loud, or did it just seem loud because there was nothing there to drown it out?"

They did a 12-episode "season" for free, then did 2 seasons of 6 episodes as part of a subscription experiment (don't worry, most podcasts are free) and then 3 holiday specials last year. Most are about half an hour long.


SModcast (feed)

This one gets its name from the last initials of the show's two hosts: filmmaker/writer/actor Kevin Smith, and producer Scott Mosier. Scott is often busy though, so Kevin's friends or wife sometimes fill in.

This one is probably only interesting if you're a Kevin Smith fan. In fact, it's probably only interesting if you've watched both "Evening With Kevin Smith" DVDs and came away wanting more. Smith and Mosier talk about whatever comes into their heads, from personal experiences to stuff they saw on YouTube.

It's usually about an hour long, and they do one every week or so.


The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe (feed)

This one is hosted by several members of the New England Skeptics Society, and they discuss the latest in science, pseudo-science, and scams, with particular focus on debunking and exposing subjects like the paranormal, conspiracy theories, the medical field, and so on.

They also have some great guests on the show each week, like Jimmy Carter, Bill Nye, Adam Savage (Mythbusters), Matt Stone (South Park), and Teller (he was actually talking too). There are also plenty of relative unknowns that are also very interesting; last week, the guest was an epidemiologist who was talking about the flu vaccine (short version: get it), the bird flu, upcoming pandemics, and how the human race will eventually be wiped out by viruses. Fun!

This one is a weekly feature, and it's usually over an hour long.


Webcomics Weekly (feed)

This is a pretty interesting look into the webcomic world, from 4 prominent webcartoonists. They cover everything from artistry to business to marketing to technology, and so on. It's aimed at other webcartoonists, but I find it pretty interesting anyway. It's also a weekly feature that's about an hour long.


NPR

Ok, I know what you're thinking. NPR is a radio station. But they also have almost ALL of their programs from around the country available in podcast form.

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is a very funny quiz show where the questions come from the week's news and events. Car Talk features two hilarious New England brothers attempting to diagnose car problems from callers. Science Friday...well, I think the name pretty much explains it.

There are thousands of different feeds to choose from, and some are even compilations of all stories relating to a particular subject (like movies).


Assorted WoW Podcasts

Yes, I'm a Warcraft nerd. I listen to 3 WoW podcasts: The Instance, Legendary Thread, and the WoW Insider Show. They all talk about the same news stories about the same game, but I enjoy listening to their differing opinions and reactions.

Think of it like being a baseball fan and watching ESPN, Fox Sports, and...some other sports news channel.


So there we go. I'm always looking for new ones, and if I do find some, I'll be sure to post them here. And if you have one that you think I'd like, feel free to send me a link. Even though I've been listening for a while now, I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface.

From: Bragging, Design, Personal By Bevans on Monday, October 29, 2007

Here's a little something I did for another class project. It's done entirely in InDesign, which is to MS Word as Photoshop is to Paintbrush.



I just took a screenshot from the movie 300 and duplicated it using nothing but text. It was pretty fun to throw together.

I'll probably be posting more projects here in the coming months, providing of course that I have something worth showing.

From: Bragging, Design, Money, Personal By Bevans on Monday, October 01, 2007

Double-Click Geek Ale: The best way to drink yourself unconscious playing video games in your parents' basement.

Well, here's the new design I was talking about last week. I made it for one of my classes (assigment: create a product label) and I think it's definitely some of my best work. I was partially inspired by the Summit logo (my dad has a t-shirt of it), which I've always really liked.

I was thinking about how currently-existing beers are always marketed as the perfect companions for watching your favorite sporting event, and since I'm not really interested in most sports, I decided to come up with something that might appeal to me. If I drank.

As always, I've slapped it on t-shirts, sweatshirts, mousepads, mugs, bags, and most of the other stuff that's available at CafePress.

From: Science By Bevans on Wednesday, September 26, 2007

A while ago, I heard about a site that offers $1 million to anyone who can demonstrate psychic or paranormal abilities or events. Up until now I haven't bothered to look it up, but today I did.

The James Randi Educational Foundation's One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge

What I found really interesting was their Log of Applicants. There are hundreds of people listed there who have applied, with nearly as many weird so-called "abilities". Some of these people claim to be able to transfer thoughts to other minds, to be able to control magnetism, to have telekinesis, to be able to exorcise demons, control street lights, and all sorts of other psychic nutjobbery. And not a single one has passed the foundation's preliminary tests. These aren't hard tests either. They're basic, scientific rules that don't allow for any sort of bias or outside interference.

I'm also posting this so that other people can use it to help to debunk the phonies, and to help the truly gifted. If you know or meet someone who claims to have psychic or paranormal abilities (or if you've ever hired one to come to your house, hint hint) then you can just point them to this site. Even if they don't want the money, they can always donate it to the charity of their choice. There's no reason NOT to do it!

From: Design, Money By Bevans on Wednesday, September 12, 2007

I was working on a new merchandise design today, and I realized that I hadn't ever posted my other merchandise designs on this blog. So, in the interest of getting the word out, here they are.

• Angry Cactus
  
• SkyPie

So far, I've actually sold 4 or 5 items with the Angry Cactus logo on them, but so far there've been no takers for the SkyPie. And no takers for the Tony Lived/Tony Died shirts either. Not that I expect any sales, mind you. It's mostly just for me to practice, and maybe make a few bucks on the side.

I really like my new design though. I'll be posting it in the next few days, I think. Complete with full CafePress store, once again. And more importantly, I think I may actually sell a few items with it.

From: Design, Technology, Videos By Bevans on Tuesday, September 04, 2007

It's hard to explain this video, so I recommend just watching it (it starts out kinda dry, but it's worth sticking to it).

Basically, it's an experiment in dynamic image resizing, but instead of stretching/squashing or cropping, this tool takes out unimportant elements while keeping important ones (like people), or stretches elements that can be stretched while keeping other perspectives equal. If that makes ANY sense...

Just watch the damn video.

From: Science, Videos By Bevans on Tuesday, September 04, 2007

This video shows 3 different experiments that scientists conducted in zero gravity, presumably on the ISS. They're really quite amazing, especially the last one.

From: Design, Technology, Videos By Bevans on Monday, August 06, 2007

Have you seen the latest thing that Microsoft is working on? It seems to be a sort of photo browser, except that instead of being given a list if images, it sets them up in a 3D arena, facing the direction that they're taken in. With enough photos, it almost seems like you're seeing the subjects in 3D. It's really hard to explain, so I recommend just checking it out.

http://media.labs.live.com/photosynth/NASA/default.htm

Just imagine what would happen if people from all over the world submitted their photos to this project: you could browse the whole world in pseudo-3D.

From: Videos By Bevans on Tuesday, July 31, 2007

This is the funniest thing I've seen all week. I don't want to spoil anything, and most people won't even read this paragraph anyway.



EDIT: Found another one.



If you don't see the video (like if you're seeing this on Facebook or the RSS feed) you'll have to click the title of this post, or the link on the bottom of this post (which you won't see on the web site itself).

From: Reviews, TV By Bevans on Sunday, July 15, 2007

I was just watching some old video files I downloaded a while ago, and I came to the realization that some (or dare I say, most) of the best TV shows get cancelled before their time. So I thought I'd mention some of my favorites, in the hope that I'd get people interested in some of these lost gems. As far as I know, they're all available on DVD.


Carnivàle (2003-2005)

Jeez, it's hard to explain this show. It takes place during the Great Depression, and on the surface, it's about a struggling traveling carnival, and a seemingly-unrelated preacher. In the first episode, the carnival picks up a young man (Ben, the main character) who, unbeknownst to them, has the power to heal others. Ben and the preacher also share some sort of bond, and are gradually drawn to each other. Eventually, you realize that it's not really about a carnival at all, but a battle between good and evil. There's all sorts of mysticism and prophesy and a very deep mythology. Or there would have been.

Unfortunately, it only lasted for 2 seasons. The first season was very, well, deliberately paced, which could be mistaken for "slow". The ratings weren't very good, but HBO was kind enough to give it a second season to tie everything together.

The second season was nowhere near as deliberate as the first, and they abandoned the gradual buildup of the first season to get about 4 seasons of material into one. Things really start happening, and many mysteries are explained, including what the show is really about.

Personally, I can't decide which season works better. At the end of the first, I felt like "wow, this is a really cool show, but I still have no clue what it's about". The second explained too much, and of course there are plenty of plotlines still open, since they were hoping that ratings would improve enough for more seasons, or a movie of some sort.

To be a Carnivàle fan is to know true frustration, but I still recommend checking it out.


Farscape (1999-2003)

Farscape is about modern-day human astronaut John Crichton, who gets lost in space and winds up aboard a ship with several escaping alien prisoners. He accidentally pisses off a military officer, and must stay with the ship and prisoners to keep from being captured. Gradually, he makes friends with the prisoners and acquires lots of enemies. Crichton's quest for a way home is detoured when it turns out that he posesses something that the great military forces of the galaxy desire.

The show was produced by the Jim Henson Company, which means that the show is filled with weird alien creatures of every variety. Some characters are covered in extensive makeup, some obscured under very clever prosthetics, and some are actually elaborate animatronic puppets. Makes the pointy ears and goofy foreheads on Star Trek look quaint.

The show is full of sci-fi goodness like spaceship battles, laser gunfights, elaborate story arcs, oppressive military forces and all that, but it also has some truly amazing characters. Though there is a core group of characters, there are also often additions and subtractions as Crichton and his shipmates meet up with new people, all with their own agendas. Nobody is who they seem to be on the surface. Trusted allies can wind up betraying their friends, enemies can become friends, and just about everybody is crazy.

Farscape was the show that really helped the Sci-Fi Channel get off the ground, and helped it to become more than a glorified rerun network. The show ran for 4 seasons and was apparently approved for a fifth, but then Sci-Fi axed it. It was their most popular show, and they cancelled it. Of course, it was also their most expensive show.

Fortunately, Sci-Fi let them finish the show with a 3-hour miniseries a couple years after cancellation, but it's really hard to tie up 4 years of an elaborate story in 3 hours.

I think they still air the show in reruns, but it's one of those shows that you need to watch from start to finish, so I recommend DVDs.


Star Trek (1966-1969)

I just wanted to briefly mention the grandaddy of them all, because without the original Star Trek, where would Science Fiction be today? Like any good sci-fi, it was far deeper than it seemed. The show tackled numerous social issues, from race to war to religion, you name it. It only lasted 3 seasons before it was cancelled due to poor ratings, but it changed the world. And it looks better than ever on the recently released remastered DVDs.


Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005)

Enterprise never got the respect it deserved. True, it started out a little slow, but so did every other Star Trek show, and most other TV shows too, for that matter. The first season is pretty decent. The second season is good. The third season is great, and the fourth is also great, but for different reasons.

The show takes place many years before the Original Series, and the Enterprise is the first and only human ship capable of long-range space exploration. There's no Federation yet. Humanity has only had contact with a few alien races (the first being Vulcans, of course) so they're eager to get out there and see what's what. In fact, in the first episode, they see their first Klingon (dun dun duuuun!) and have to return him to his homeworld.

For the first 2 seasons, it's all classic Star Trek fare - seeking out new life and/or civilizations, going boldly and all that. The one hickup is the inclusion of the "Temporal Cold War" storyline. In the first episode, we're introduced to a new evil alien race called the Suliban, who are these crazy souped-up genetic experiments from the future, or something. Fortunately, there aren't that many episodes involving the TCW, and they're mostly absent from Seasons 3 and 4.

In Season 3 and 4, the episodes are way better. Season 3 is basically one long storyline where the Enterprise has to stop a race of aliens bent on destroying Earth. Season 4 takes major strides toward the formation of the Federation, and plays with a lot of established Trek lore. In one 3-parter, you get to see them deal with some of Khan's leftover genetics experiments, meet Data's great-grandfather, and find out why the original Kirk-era Klingons looked so much different than they do on the other shows.

The characters are kinda standard, though they get much more interesting as time goes on. Captain Archer is more like Kirk than other captains, though he's also somewhat less sure of what he's doing, since what he's doing has never been done by other humans before. The science officer is an uppity female Vulcan who seems to only be there to tell the puny humans how stupid they are for the first season. The rest of the cast are all humans for obvious reasons. There's a likable southern engineer who winds up in a lot of embarassing situations (and provides most of the swearing on the show), a quiet British armory officer, a worrisome Asian communications officer, and the token black guy who flies the ship, or something. Oh, and then there's Phlox, who's an alien doctor (best character on the show).

After 4 seasons, the show was ended due to low ratings. The final episode (which is generally considered equal to Paramount kicking each of the show's fans in the balls) is a Holodeck simulation on the Next Generation Enterprise, featuring Riker and Troy looking pretty old and overweight playing the characters they played 15 years ago. Sigh.


I've got more shows to cover, but I'm getting tired of writing, so I think I'll make this a two-parter and continue tomorrow or something. And yes, I'm going to mention Firefly.

From: Bragging, Personal, Technology By Bevans on Friday, July 13, 2007

I'm really excited. I just ordered a new laptop.

"But Bevans," you may say, "you're broke as fuck. How can you afford a $2,600 laptop?" The answer: student loans. No, really. Now that I'll be attending Brown College (starting next week) I need a laptop, because they require them there. So everything works out: I fulfill a requirement AND get a kick-ass laptop.

I got the best one that I could find for $2,600. I chose Dell, because they seem to make great laptops, and also because they seem to be the only ones selling laptops powerful enough for my needs (besides people like Alienware and Voodoo, who happen to sell them for crazy prices).

I'm really glad I'm in a Graphic Design program, because that means that I can satisfy both my professional and leisure needs with one machine without having to give one or the other precedence. It'll process large graphics and high-res video AND make my games look amazing with high framerates.

So here are the stats. They're not the best that Dell had to offer, but for $2,600, they're pretty good.

• Model: XPS M1710 (Black)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7400 (2.16GHz/667MHz/4MB)
• Memory: 2GB DDR2 SDRAM 677MHZ
• Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900
• Screen: 17 inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WUXGA
• Hard Drive: 80GB 7200RPM SATA (I know this is kinda small, but I intend to upgrade it later)
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium Edition
• Other: 8X DVD+/-RW, Built-in Bluetooth, Wireless ethernet, etc.

Now, the hardest part will be waiting for it. It isn't set to arrive until about the 30th.

UPDATE: Now it's looking like it'll be here by the 25th. Woot.

From: Personal, Politics, Ranting By Bevans on Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Sorry folks, I've decided not to run for President in 2008. My 2000 campaign was a bigger success than I ever imagined (I got one vote), and I honestly don't remember if I ran in 2004. But in 2008 you will not see my name on your ballots.

Why? Because, quite simply, I don't want to be the one to have to clean up Bush's mess. I don't want to have to fix the colossol clusterfucks in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran (just wait). I don't want to be the one to try to patch up our international relationships. De-Bushifying our education, healthcare, welfare, social security, and numerous other public services would be a major undertaking, and I just don't want to spend all my time doing that. I don't want to have to break up all the illegal monopolies that have formed and flourished thanks to Bush's "let big business do whatever the fuck it wants" policy.

In fact, undoing all that Bush has done to this country and this world is going to take decades, so I may not even run in 2012 or 2016. We'll see.

Another reason for not running is that I'll probably be labelled an "enemy combatant" or something and hauled off to a secret prison somewhere, just for writing this post. Naturally, that would put a major strain on my campaign. So it's best to just leave it to someone else for now.

In the coming weeks, I'll be offering my opinions on the other losers running for President in 2008. And what a sorry bunch of...

From: Health, Personal By Bevans on Thursday, July 05, 2007

I found this list of 10 Things to Know About Procrastination from a well-respected psychology web site. As I was reading it, more and more I was saying "yea, this is definitely me".

To pad out this post, I'm just going to cut-and-paste some excerpts that I think are particularly relevant to me.

• They don't pay bills on time. They miss opportunities for buying tickets to concerts. They don't cash gift certificates or checks. They file income tax returns late. (Oh shit, my taxes!)
• "Telling someone who procrastinates to buy a weekly planner is like telling someone with chronic depression to just cheer up," insists Dr. Ferrari.
• Procrastinators drink more than they intend to—a manifestation of generalized problems in self-regulation. (I've always suspected that this was true, which is one of the reasons why I don't drink.)
• They distract themselves as a way of regulating their emotions such as fear of failure.
• One of the types: Avoiders, who may be avoiding fear of failure or even fear of success, but in either case are very concerned with what others think of them; they would rather have others think they lack effort than ability.
• Just over the course of a single academic term, procrastinating college students had such evidence of compromised immune systems as more colds and flu, more gastrointestinal problems. And they had insomnia. (Oh yea, I've definitely got the insomnia.)
• Procrastination has a high cost to others as well as oneself; it shifts the burden of responsibilities onto others, who become resentful. Procrastination destroys teamwork in the workplace and private relationships.

Well, that's about half the article right there. But the rest is definitely interesting too, and worth a read.

UPDATE: I just found another great article on the same site, called Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature. And if any of you out there ever visit Digg, you'll probably notice that I just get a lot of this stuff from there.

From: Design, Music, Technology, Videos By Bevans on Friday, June 22, 2007

It's not an understatement for me to say that this is the most amazing thing I've seen in a long time. This is a Tesla coil (like one of those big metal balls that makes your hair stick up) that is being manipulated to produce crackling lightning at different pitches, resulting in actual music.

This first video is the most impressive light show, and features a few familiar songs. The second is TWO coils, doing an impressive rendition of the 1812 Overture.

From: Money, TV By Bevans on Monday, June 18, 2007

If you're like me, you went away from the series finale with a stunned look on your face. I think the first word I said was "buh?".

A lot of people have formed their own opinions of what really happened in the end. Some take the episode at face value, and just assume that life went on for Tony as usual. But some people tried to look deeper, and have come up with all sorts of theories about what really happened, and have determined that all signs point to death.

Show the world how you think the finale went down.

Tony Died/Tony Lived

From: Family, Personal, Vacation By Bevans on Wednesday, June 06, 2007

For the past 15 years or so, my family and I have enjoyed going up to our permanent campsite east of Hinkley, where we have what is essentially a cabin: a large camper attached to an even larger, fully-enclosed porch that my dad, grandpa, uncle & I built.

We bought the camper used, and it was built in 1977. Needless to say, it was getting old. It had a lot of water damage, and was basically just worn out.

We have a much newer, a little bit smaller that we bought a couple years ago for travelling (yes, we owned two campers and five cars, for just 4 people) since our other one became a permanent fixture (not only was it attached to our porch, but it was also 37 feet long and we had nothing to pull it with). Therefore, we finally decided to get rid of the old one.

My dad somehow found someone to haul the thing away. He didn't sell it, he just said they could have it if they hauled it away. Once it was gone, he added another wall to the porch to enclose it fully, and now we just park our newer camper up there and take it where we want with our SUV.

Whoever it was that hauled it away owned a camper-selling business, and now they're trying to sell it for $2,000. They're never going to get that much, but I admire their chutzpah.

You can see it and some interior shots at http://www.oaklakerv.com/77YellowstoneFW.htm. It looks a lot nicer than it actually is. They haven't fixed it up or anything; it looks like they just took some photos as soon as it rolled onto the lot. They haven't even taken down our old shower curtain or knife rack or anything.

Definitely a fixer-upper. As in, needs a new ceiling, some new walls, some new shelves and benches, a fridge, and it still has orange shag carpeting in some areas (which looks even worse than the stuff Kev's parents used to have on their basement walls). And new tires. And the siding is all dented up from hail. But the structure is good.

From: Technology By Bevans on Thursday, May 17, 2007

Ever try out one of those online chatbot things? They're complex computers programmed to hold a real conversation with you. They're pretty clever actually, although they frequently change subjects like an overcaffeinated, ADD-riddled teenager. So they're very lifelike if you're in highschool.

Anyway, somebody had the brilliant idea to get two of them to chat with each other. Their names are Jabberwocky and Alice. The results are actually very interesting, especially since Jabb seems to be a bit of a jackass. And is it just me, or does Alice hit on Jabb once or twice?

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/brain/i-chat-therefore-i-am/

From: Health, Minnesota, Ranting By Bevans on Sunday, May 13, 2007

I'll write more about this issue later, but I just wanted to comment before I sleep.

1. Fuck yes. Finally.
2. I'll explain why the whole "bars will lose business" argument is bullshit.
3. Why do we have to wait until October 1? Sigh.

From: Design, Movies By Bevans on Thursday, May 10, 2007

From: Movies, Reviews By Bevans on Sunday, May 06, 2007

Apparently, Sony is planning Spiderman 4-6 right now. If they can keep them as interesting as this one was, then I might as well give them my money now. Actually, they'll have to be satisfied with an IOU, because I'm broke. That's if they were actually accepting money for the next 3 movies right now. Oh, but I'm rambling.

So yea, I liked it a lot, despite its flaws. I'd say it was better than #1 but not as good as #2. But maybe I'm biased, since Doc Ock is my favorite Spiderman villain and they got him PERFECT in the movie.

It's really hard to go over what you like about a movie, and really easy to go over what you didn't. So I guess you can assume that I liked everything that I didn't like.

So what didn't I like? For starters, there was just too damn much Mary Jane. Kirsten Dunst isn't exactly my favorite actress, and she was exactly the same as she was in the previous two movies: boring boring boring. We have characters in this movie who can shoot webs from their hands, turn into sand, and fly. Why did they have to stick so much "struggling actress" into it? I didn't pay $9.25 for a Hallmark Channel special. Fortunately, the parts that aren't about MJ are a blast to watch. Supposedly, Dunst doesn't want to do any more Spiderman movies, and for that I'm glad.

What else didn't I like? Sandman. The actor was great, the sand effects were great, but they basically turned him into a lumbering Frankenstein monster that kills without thought. His "I just want to help my daughter" story isn't exactly believable when he's smashing people by the dozens.

The fact that the movie had three villains to try to juggle when they weren't advancing the insipid love story meant that they had a lot of story to tell, but not enough time to tell it. You can tell by some noticeable gaps in the story, as well as a couple too-convenient duct tape-style segments that tie things together, that a lot of content got left on the cutting room floor.

I wish they had just focused on Harry, Sandman, and the black suit, and just left Venom as a cameo at the end so they could focus on him in the next one. Why did they feel like they had to jam three unrelated villains into one movie? Hell, even TWO is too much sometimes (I'm thinking of the Batman movies, pre-Bale).

Aside from those problems, it was still a blast to watch. The fights are great (though they use too much CG in them) and Spidey is still a great character. There were even some surprises to ME, and I thought I knew what was going to happen since I know the source material. It had the action, the characters, the humor (oh Bruce Campbell, you're just too awesome for words), and the suspense that the previous movies had.

Basically, I'm saying that if you liked the other Spidey movies, you'll like this one. I give it an 6.5/10.

From: Movies By Bevans on Thursday, May 03, 2007

The first Fantastic Four movie certainly wasn't perfect, but it was overall a pretty cool flick. Actually, it was far more interesting seeing the main characters playing with their powers, trying to go about their normal lives, and bickering with each other than it was when they finally got down to fighting Dr. Doom.

And speaking of villains, this one features a doozy: The Silver Surfer. Well, that's not technically accurate, but I won't go further into that, lest I spoil it for the uninitiated.

Honestly, I was a little surprised that SS was going to be part of the FF movie rather than starring in his own movie first, but I guess it's kinda hard to tell the SS's story without featuring the FF. Rest assured, there will doubtlessly be spinoffs.

And what can I say about the Surfer? They did a really good job of making him look cool. A big shiny man flying through space could look really stupid, but fortunately they pulled it off. I guess they're using a special material to achieve that shiny look without CG for many parts of the movie. Remember how cheesy you thought the CG for Colossus looked in X-Men 3? Well, not all of that was CG either, and that's apparently the same stuff they're using here.

But what's going to be the true test for me will be how they handle Galactus. But if they can make the Silver Surfer, the Human Torch, and The Thing look cool, then they can probably get Galactus right too.

From: Announcements By Bevans on Thursday, May 03, 2007

Welcome to Bevans Rants at No One, or BRNO. I'll probably change that name eventually.

What's the purpose of this god-forsaken blog? To give me a place to make my opinions known, just like every other idiot blogger out there.

"But gee Bevans," you might say, "don't you already have like 6 web sites, three of which are already specifically devoted to yourself?" Well, this is different. Sort of. I'm probably going to incorporate this blog into The Insane Asylum (my former blog-esque site) eventually, but the reason why I'm not just going back to that is because Blogger has such a slick interface. I don't even have to organize things myself, size or resize images, fix links, and so on, because Blogger will do that for me.

So, what will be the first thing I post about?


By the way, any friends of mine who want to post here too can feel free. Just send me an e-mail and I'll let you.

UPDATE: This is just a template. I'll think about making my own look eventually.