Monthly Archives: July 2008

Randy Pausch

Posted on by
Reply

Randy Pausch passed away the other day at the age of 47 to the sadness of many due to cancer. I honestly had no idea who this guy was until I read a story on wired.com about him and watched the following video. The premise of the lecture in the video is simple: if you knew you were going to die really soon, what would you say in your very last lecture?

I watched the whole thing, twice actually, which to me was pretty impressive since it takes a lot to get my attention. I dug deeper and read all sorts of things about Randy and watched some of his other videos that he has up on YouTube. The above video, which currently has over 4 million views, is almost a year old and brought worldwide attention to this remarkably cool guy that helped make people’s dreams a reality. Some really nice quotes from the talk that got my attention were:

“You just have to decide if you’re a Tigger or an Eeyore.”

“Be good at something, it makes you valuable.”

“The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.”

“Syl said, it took me a long time but I’ve finally figured it out. When it comes to men that are romantically interested in you, it’s really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do. It’s that simple. It’s that easy.”

I especially like that last one.

More importantly though, the talk was entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” and thus the talk made me think about a lot of things. As a child, I had the following dreams:

  1. to be a teacher, or at least help others to learn
  2. to make video games and get paid for it
  3. I tried desperately to think of a third dream but I have nothing :( , I’ll say traveling though since this is something I definitely want to do more of

I can honestly say that as of this very moment, my life isn’t really headed in a direction where 1 and 2 will happen on their own. They will only happen with a little work and effort. My inclination is to throw a sad face in there but I’m not going to since realistically, a little sad face won’t change anything – only doing something will. Thank you Mr. Pausch for making me realize this, you will missed.

Dark Knight

Posted on by
Reply

So the latest Batman movie finally came out and has shattered all kinds of records at the movie box office.

Being a huge Batman fan I watched it over the weekend and I was simply astonished by the quality of the film. It’s not the best movie of all time as the IMdb Top 250 list which, in it’s defense, is based on user ratings might still be telling you (here’s a pic that shows when it was on top of classics such as the Godfather and Casablanca), but it’s still pretty damn good.

The story is incredibly intricate yet most things can be easily put together by the viewer without everything being explained. Even with all the intricacies, everything remains rock solid.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

For example, the accounting inaccuracies found by that “kid” whom tries to blackmail Bruce Wayne are a surprise to Morgan Freeman’s character Lucius Fox. When he asks Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne / Batman about them Bruce says that he wants to play the project close to his chest. The kid even mentions something about it being some kind of crazy military cell phone project! This of course ends up being the sonar cell phone system that Lucius and Batman use at the end of film.

The film is full of intricate details like the one above. Everything the late Heath Ledger’s Joker throws at Batman keeps the viewer guessing, until finally he has corrupted “White Knight” attorney Harvey Dent played by Aaron Eckhart which results in his transformation to the villain Two-Face. The acting done by all of cast is exquisite but the talk on everyone’s lips is the performance given by Heath Ledger.

“You complete me,” The Joker tells Batman during the film after he’s been captured and is being interrogated by Batman. It’s actually the other way around though, The Joker completes the movie and Heath Ledger’s performance really elevates the entire movie to a level of greatness not normally seen in comic book movies. There’s talk that Heath Ledger will win a Academy Award which is something unheard of when it comes to comic book movies as well. Sadly, such an honour would be bestowed posthumously. Either way, I’m keeping my fingers crossed as this movie deserves it.

e3 2008

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been a few days now since e3 started and all kinds of news has come out about various games and such.

The biggest news is of course the announcement that Final Fantasy 13 is coming to the Xbox 360. I was watching the press conference “live” and was absolutely floored when this information was revealed. I knew something was up when Yoichi Wada (current president of Square Enix) came on stage seemingly only tell us things about games we already knew. They even let him walk off the stage! But then he politely came back on stage, interrupting Don Mattrick (Senior Vice President of the games division er, “Interactive Entertainment Business” at Microsoft) and said there was one more thing that he wanted to show the audience. I had a gut feeling it was FF 13 on Xbox 360 but the IGN video feed I was watching shifted to a camera looking on the stage and a large portion of the audience from way way behind the audience for the duration of the video. Only when the FF 13 logo came up at the end of the trailer was my feeling confirmed.

The internet erupted with chants and cries of how this effects Sony. After all, now countless Xbox 360 owners who were debating buying the PS3 just for the game no longer have to. I’m personally amazed that SE is actually giving the Microsoft’s Xbox 360 the time of day so to speak. SE didn’t do anything on the original Xbox, what made them change thier minds now? Could it be that SE has noticed that PS3s just aren’t selling at the same rate the PS2s did? It would be pretty cool if the Xbox 360 version sells more copies than the PS3 version of the game. I’ll probably be getting the PS3 version myself eventually though.

Apparently the game is only coming out on Xbox 360 in territories outside of Japan. This probably isn’t a big deal for the five people that own Xbox 360 in Japan since they probably own a PS3 anyway. In North America though, the console wars just got a whole lot more “war-y” and once again, it’s all due to a Final Fantasy game.

Edgefest 2008

Posted on by
Reply

So yesterday marked the return of Edgefest as they skipped putting on a show last year. I decided to buy a ticket many moons ago since it was announced that the newly reformed Stone Temple Pilots would be performing. Amazingly enough STP weren’t the headliner, they were co-headlining with Link Park whom I’m not really a big fan of but decided to tolerate since the ticket was rather expensive. Sam Roberts and Ashes Divide rounded out the acts that I actually wanted to see.

Ashes Divide played a decent set. I haven’t heard their entire album but what I heard yesterday had a very APC feel to it. Sam Roberts was pretty rockin’. Him and his band played all of the hits everyone knows and loves. They have a very “Canadiana” feel to them, much like that of the Tragically Hip.

STP played all of their hits as well. Scott Weiland talked to the crowd a bit which is something I always like at a live show. He didn’t chit chat as much as I liked but then again no lead singer ever does :( . It had rained all kinds during the day but luckily my friend Steve supplied me with a rain protector thing that kept me reasonably dry. Scott commented on the rainbow that appeared during their set and asked Chester Bennington, lead singer of Link Park, to come on stage and sing with him. But other than that, he didn’t really say much and Chester didn’t make an appearance.

When Linkin Park finally came on they started out with some mellow songs that I’d either never heard before or just didn’t recognize. According to a blurb I heard on the Edge today this was due to half the band being missing because of a problem at the airport. The part of the band that was missing was looking to get a helicopter to make it the venue but for some reason that never happened for whatever reason. After those first few mellow songs, I pretty much recognized every song. All in all their set was very flashy but Chester didn’t talk to the crowd at all. I wouldn’t say STP stole the show but they definitely put on a better one.

Other than the acts there was tons and tons of rain. Where’s there’s rain, grass and lots of people there’s bound to be mud. I saw numerous people covered in mud from head to toe throughout the day. Also saw a bunch of guys mudsliding. The other big topic of news was the beer area that was terribly executed for some reason. The line to enter the area was enormous and super slow moving. The beer area had a maximum capacity so once people were in, they didn’t bother to leave. My friends and I didn’t even bother trying to get beer because of this. Word from the radio station is that this will be rectified next year.

All in all, Edgefest 2008 served as a decent way to pass the time for a Saturday afternoon. Hopefully they will be some good bands next year :) .