A Series of Tubes

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Yeah, so, I went to see Snakes on a Plane tonight, and I'm going to have to admit: not too shabby. I honestly thought it would be a huge joke and not even worth my well spent $7, but still a fun experience.

Wow, a shocker... the movie was actually pretty cool. Alright, alright, not an Oscar winner but definitely worth my time and money. This one actually blended thrill/horror with comedy so well that I couldn't tell which it wanted to be. This wasn't a bad thing though, because it wasn't a ridiculous mix. The scary/thrill parts had their moments and then the comedy did at completely different times. One never got in the way of the other.

I'd definitely recommend checking it out. Awesome.

So there's been a lot of talk about the Net Neutrality act lately... especially with increasing media coverage. I rarely watch TV, but the other day I happened to catch The Daily Show on Comedy Central. On this episode, the opening story was an excerpt from Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) talking about what seemed like... something involving Net Neutrality--somewhere. I don't have much to say, other than if you haven't seen it, you have to check it out. It's hilarious!

I have quite a few model companies that really impress me. Not just from a business standpoint, either. I'm talking companies who market to people like me. For example, some favorites that I can ramble off are; Target, Geek Squad, Jimmy John's (subs), and Apple. Today, I noticed ANOTHER of my favorites in full glory.

I stumbled across this new web feature from Volkwagen for the new Jetta, entitled "Watch Safe Happen." Within this whole flash interactive sequence, you can configure, price, and build a Jetta... then crash it. I don't mean a line art animation of it hitting a wall either--they've gotten extremely creative with this. Not only can you build & price the entire car, but there is a beautifully animated version of it wrecking into such things as "lizard foot" and "humpty dumpty." My favorite so far is "UFO." I definitely recommend checking this thing out.

Here's a link to the site: Watch Safe Happen

I just got back from watching Pixar and Disney's new movie, Cars. It's been quite a buzz for the last several months prior to release, as were Pixar's last ventures, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc., A Bug's Life, and of course Toy Story. This Movie definitely pushed limits as far as computer animation go. You KNOW a movie is good when you forget that you're watching computer animations and start looking at characters, having feelings along with them. Pixar definitely one upped everyone with insane amounts of reflection mapping, most of which goes unsaid because there is so much detail.

I love watching Pixar movies because they always relate to each other. For example one of McQueen's main competitors is sponsored by Dinoco. If you remember, Dinoco is the gas station where the characters from Toy Story--Andy and his mom--fill up for gas on the way to Pizza Planet. Instead of Goodyear tires, Lightyear (from Buzz Lightyear, another Toy Story reference) take it's place. Even the end where Pixar pokes fun of it's use of ex-Cheer's mailman Cliff Clavin in nearly all of their movies.

I'm not one to write a movie review, and I had planned on commenting on the animation and how it blew me away. As you can see, however, it's not just the computer rendering that amazed me. I definitely recommend checking out Pixar's Cars as soon as you get a chance!