Marktopia

So just short of a week ago, I became an iPod touch tester for ITS. While I admit that I am not upset about this, I have done my fair share of testing for the enterprise apps. Things that work well include the email and calendar syncing, global address list searching, and overall stability of the device. I even tested out the remote wipe feature today, sucessfully “bricking” my phone in the instance the device is lost or stolen. Overall I am really impressed with the new software for the device. Tomorrow I will post thoughts on some of the third party apps I have installed.

I will admit that it seems like I havn’t been reading much lately.? That is because I have been struggling with the title of this post.? I have read the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson and really enjoyed it, so I thought I would give this book a try.? The premise of this book is that instead of wiping out 25% of Europe, the Black Death wiped out over 99% of Europe, pretty much eliminating Christianity from the planet.? This alternate history goes through the Middle East and Islam competing with China to be the world power.? It goes from the Middle Ages to near present day, or so I think.? See here is where I explain that I was unable to finish this book, this is the second time I have tried to read it but it is too detailed and dry and spends more time with the individual stories than the potential alternate history.

The book is broken into sections about the same people as they are reincarnated through history.? Some of these are more interesting than others and each goes into a lot of detail.? The bottom line is that it isn’t as engaging as I was hoping and I am forced to give up once again.? Now I am moving onto something I have read in the past but need to read again, Ender’s Game and all associated books.? The 4th in the Bean series has come out on paperback and I want to be as familiar as I can with the series before reading it.? I am also rereading the trade comic Astro City, this time reading all of the notes with it to get a better glimpse into this amazing series.? If you want to get into comics, read Astro City, if you don’t know if you want to be into comics but are intrigued, check out Astro City.

Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame creates one of the more bizarre, yet fun stories I have seen.? Hailing back to the day when a plot wasn’t too important and imagination runs wild, this movie has flying disembodied heads, escaping from the belly of a sea monster and a war between the French and Turks.? As I said, this movie is not really going to make much sense, but is a fun ride through a bunch of different adventures.? At times the movie is a bit too bizarre for my liking, but that does not detract too much from the overall experience.? The acting was nothing great, but again, it did not harm the movie either.? I will admit that the effects look a bit dated now with the movie being over 15 years old, but a little bit of suspended disbelief goes a long way.? This will not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you want a nice fantasy story that doesn’t take itself too seriously, give it a look.

Meta Math by Gregory Chaiton will be intimidating for most non-math folks. This is not a put down by any means, I strugged to get through a fair number of parts of the book and I have a degree in the subject. The very basic idea of the book is that there are some things that formalized math will simply not be able to explain, and this is fine and in fact good. That is the philosophical part of the book and makes up about 5% of it. The rest are mathematical explainations to concepts such as randomness and uniqueness and finding proofs to incompleteness theories. This gift was a surprise and a pleasant one at that. I am not sure exactly how Rebekah’s mom found out about this book in the first place, but I am glad she did.

At less than an hour and a half, this movie starts going less than 5 minutes in and keeps going until the end. A “thriller” where a kidnapped woman manages to contact a random cell phone user and has him help with her escape. The story just keeps getting more elaborate from there until a decent ending that actually manages to wrap things up nicely. There is an attempt to throw some humor in occasionally, which was interesting, however a bit confusing in a rather serious movie. Overall, it was good for a movie that was less than 90 minutes long.

I enjoy Will Ferrell and purchased the first volume, so I thought it would be worth checking out the second one. I was disappointed there was no second Celebrity Jeopardy, and I thought that some of the scenes were not some of his top work. If you enjoyed Will Ferrell on SNL, I would recommend the first volume, but you probably don’t need the second one.

I can promise you that this review will not be nearly as long as this movie.? That being said, the movie was still well done even for the length.? It touches on many of the common perceptions about Howard Hughes and expounds on them some.?? There were a number of things I also didn’t know about Hughes that the movie introduced.?? The relationship between Hughes and Katherine Hepburn is the most prevalent one throughout the film, played well by both Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett. The visuals in the film were also wonderful, often portraying the sense of scale that was Hughes’ life.? If the movie’s job was to introduce me to Hughes and get me intrigued with his life, it did do that.

This movie didn’t make it before Christmas, but it was still worth watching now.? It used an interesting mix of computer animation with motion capture to create the characters in the movie.? Also, Tom Hanks played about 6 different characters in the movie, so that was interesting experiencing him doing different voice acting.? The story loosely follows the classic childrens book of the same name, however the movie embelishes different parts of the book into more detail.? More detail includes a random guy riding the train and the conductor doing all sorts of crazy things.? It was a fun movie, not really a classic, but fun nonetheless.

Another Coen Brothers film, The Ladykillers stars Tom Hanks and a bunch of other folks. The movie is kind of a crime caper with lots and lots of dark humor in it. There are random deaths, a garbage scow, a casino and more. It was a good movie, however just a bit to random for my overall liking. It isn’t bad by any means, but it just wasn’t great.

One other rant, this one about J.K. Simmons. You have probably seen him in a number of things recently since I am sure that a show can’t be made without consulting him first whether he is interested in participating. I actually don’t have a problem with him, he is a good actor and is good in almost all roles he plays. The issue is that for the longest time, the only thing I saw him in was Oz on HBO. For those of you who havn’t seen the show, it isn’t for the faint of heart being about life in a maximum security prison. It is a soap opera basically, but with lots of killing, scheming, etc. J.K. Simmons is the head of the Aryans in prison, and is a really really bad man in the show. Now when I see him in anything else, I am reminded of that role and it just diminishes it a little bit. After some time it has gotten better, but it is still going to take some time before he will just be another actor to me, kinda like this guy.

I had heard a number of good things about this movie, but no one ever told me what it was about. When the title credits said it was based on the Odyssey by Homer, I was more intrigued. George Clooney stars in one of his more unique roles as Ulysses, leading a group of felons through Mississippi during the Great Depression on a journey to find treasure. There is an oracle at the beginning, sirens on the water, a cyclops and more references to the Odyssey thoughout the film. Even if you arn’t familiar with the book it is based on, the story moves at a good pace and throughout the film the music helps make the movie. I really can’t say enough about the soundtrack, you should check it out if you havn’t already. I have found that the soundtrack is even better after having seen the film. This is a top movie, I am sorry it has taken me so long to see it.