Kimputer's Weblog

Maybe it should be called “pulling a Sam Raimi”, because he kinda does it again. While his biggest accomplishment involves a certain spider, his roots lie with the horror genre. Through his Ghost House Pictures production company he makes small budget horror flicks, all of which have earned their money back in the first week of release. Following The Grudge’s success is Boogeyman. Enough to scare the competition away from the top spot, with some $19.5 million.
Second place is for romantic comedy The Wedding Date, featuring Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney. Are We There Yet? lands on number 3 with $10.4 million and number 4 is for Hide and Seek, with $8.9 million. Close behind is Million Dollar Baby with $8.7 million.

Sometimes tinkering with old stuff is fun. Mixing it with new stuff could be funnier. Hardware wise, but also software wise.
Now, it’s a Windows 2000 Server with Exchange 2000. SMTP part works good, with normal e-mail clients. Outlook 2003 though will send mail through Exchange, and drop it in the sent items (as it should), then the Exchange picks it up, sends the mail. But on the outbound connection, it only sends EHLO and then QUIT (maybe a few RESET’s inbetween), with no real data exchanged (the pun !). This will leave the user to think everything is okay, and even a system administrator would think it’s okay, as no real error occurs. Don’t you just love illogical unpredictable stuff ? Well, off to patch the whole thing up, even though I know I’m not even going to use it.

Just as the poster suggest, it revolves just around 4 person. Or 2 pairs. Or not. Heavily dialogue-driven, it surely is cleverly written, but it’s definitely weird. Smart parts mix with funny parts, and those mix with dramatic parts. Just like life, not all is explained in the various relationships, and so, you’ll have to think “What the hell is going on ?” and “Why ?” a few times. So even when there are a lot of things too coincidental, it still feels very much like real life, and maybe that’s why it’s so enjoyable.7½.

They win. I give up.

Geachte heer Ung,

Het is niet geheel duidelijk of u al antwoord heeft gekregen op u vraag. Mocht dit niet zo zijn dan horen wij dit graag. Mocht u nog
vragen hebben, dan kunt u voor meer informatie terecht op http://www.upc.nl.

Wij vertrouwen erop u hiermee voldoende te hebben ge
nformeerd.

Met vriendelijke groet,

UPC Nederland

They’re stupid. And they have their feet in their ears. On top of that, their heads are up their asses. And here’s the proof:

Geachte heer Ung,

Wij danken u voor uw schrijven.

Mocht u nog vragen hebben, dan kunt u voor meer informatie terecht op http://www.upc.nl.

Wij vertrouwen erop u hiermee voldoende te hebben ge
nformeerd.

Met vriendelijke groet,

UPC Nederland

Het is niet mogelijk te mailen naar service@upc.nl. Indien u nog een vraag of opmerking heeft dan kunt u reageren via het
contactformulier op de website van UPC. U vindt het contactformulier op http://www.upc.nl

Did I ever asked for your thanks ??? And, this is not the standard automated reply, as I already have that. From the email header, it’s clearly another stupid “service” employee on a laptop writing this ingenious reply, hoping the case will go away. One more UPC envelope in my mailbox, and I’m writing again.

Yeah, I gotta get something off my chest. And since I don’t have chest hair, yup, it’s THAT time again. Gotta bother UPC a bit again. (History links one two three). Off to http://qmail.upc.nl/ to complain about this:

Geachte UPC,
mijn ervaring (aanvaringen meer) met uw bedrijf zijn altijd slecht geweest. Door uw technische en administratieve onkunde zijn zaken geheel uit de hand gelopen, maar gelukkig ben ik er met lichte kleerscheuren afgekomen. Of toch niet. Mijn leraar Nederlands heeft me meerdere malen onvoldoendes gegeven voor het onterecht, te veel en overdrijvend gebruik van eufemisme. Dus laat ik het maar herformuleren: Ik heb na menig jaren vechten, half ontbloot het strijdtoneel verlaten.
Ik lijdt tevens nog steeds aan een lichte vorm van het UPC complex, zegt mijn psychiater. Dus hier ligt ook het grote probleem. Ik krijg met regelmaat nog steeds geadresseerde reclame van u. In de laatste stonden maar liefst drie aanbiedingen. Dat alleen is al erg, maar bij het legen van de postbus en het zien van een UPC envelop, gecombineerd met het UPC complex slaat mijn hart zeker 8 slagen over, waarna het ook nog eens in 3x turbo mode gaat voor tenminste 3 minuten.
Laatst was ik voor een routine controle bij de huisarts en was voor deze keer ook helemaal aangesloten op diverse meetapparatuur. Geheel onverwachts schotelde mijn (nu dus voormalig) huisarts mij een UPC envelop voor, en weldra ging al het meetapparatuur piepen. Mijn psychiater heeft achter mijn rug om contact gehad met mijn huisarts. Conclusie: abnormal myocardial contractility. Een lichte vorm van een hartinfarct dus.
Graag wilde ik dus niet alleen schriftelijk bevestiging dat ik van de lijst die jullie overijverige Director Marketing gebruikt voor de advertenties wordt geschrapt, maar ook wilde ik graag weten op welk slinkse manier jullie Eneco mijn persoonsgegevens afhandig heeft gemaakt. Jullie hebben weliswaar het tv en internet via de kabel van Eneco overgenomen, maar een spelfout in mijn naam (die jullie dus gebruiken) is pas bij Eneco in 2002 opgetreden, lang na de overname dus.

Hopend nog maar EEN (lees: 1, interpreteer: aller aller laatste) brief te ontvangen, verblijf ik,

KaNam Ung

Third in a row. Another TV episode only available in VCD format (320×240) instead of the usual XViD format (624×352). And on my kick-ass LCD screen, that’s kinda fuzzy (or rather, blocky. But fuzzy sounds nicer). Can you imagine the whole world is actually depending on just a handful of guys with decent equipment to capture it, encode it, and distribute it ?

It has been quite a ride, these past three years. Working for the wrong side, working for both sides, and working for the good guys. That’s the action part. Then there’s the murdered fiancee, and the distant father, and the deceased mother. That’s the drama part. Then there’s the Rambaldi device, and the prophecies. That’s the mysterious part. The first season was quite episodic, but it was a nice build-up for season 2 and 3, where it slowly evolved into highly serialised storytelling that had the effect of a non-stop adrenaline rush, with a cliffhanger waiting to grab you every week. Guess people didn’t like it that much (sliding ratings), so J.J. Abrams must have succumbed to pressure from the big studio bosses. All that added depth is now gone, and episode for episode roll by feeling a bit like the same. It’s still strong writing though, but it’s just not the same. It’s gone from being great to just being good. Let’s hope the tides return soon.

Not so much Hide and Seek, as Robert DeNiro heads back in plain sight to the number one spot this week after vacating it with the Fockers. Teaming up with Dakota Fanning, it brings in $22 million.
Are We There Yet? is past its peak, at number 2 with $17 million. At 3, Million Dollar Baby enjoys its first week of wide release (and does so favoribly, probably due to 7 Oscar noms), with $11.8 million. Meanwhile at 4, Coach Carter hangs on with $8 million. The Fockers round off the top five with $7.6 million.

The past years haven’t been really good, comedy series wise. Most quality shows were gone, leaving only Friends on the air. And so the laugh out loud moments were also gone since May (even as quality for this show was also slipping since season 5 and 6, while regaining only a bit of ground in the last season). Joey was supposed to pick up the thread in September, but it has grown stale in a very short time. This new mid-season replacement (for Father of the Pride), is finally what we’ve been waiting for. It’s a fresh comedy with a good variety of characters and storylines, very unlike Joey, where you can practically fill in the dialogue before it’s spoken. Here things actually happen, also very unlike the static scenario of Joey. It’s going to be a short season (13 eps.), but at least it’s qualtiy.

A product of the George Clooney/Steven Soderbergh partnership, it’s a 10 episode series on HBO. Something of a mix of soft-core The Office and the current batch of reality TV shows, following three actors through their hardships and joys in acting classes and actual jobs. While the title says unscripted, the dialogue may be, but certain storylines are clearly setup and developed. Mostly funny stuff, and here and there they’re trying to blend in some drama.
With the powers behind the show, it’s also fun to see backstage shots for the real and fictitious guest roles the actors landed, opening doors to lots of funny cameos (for instance other actors and directors). While the first four episodes were pretty solid, the fifth was a bit of a letdown. Another half a season to decide if it’s worth a second season.

Just found a COMPLETELY WHITE hair on my chin (must be some 4 weeks old). I kid you not.
So it’s probably time to say something reealllly really wise now. And on the way home, listening to the radio, all I could come up with was:

Any radio host playing Nelly Furtado and Evanascence back to back, should be have all his hair pulled out, and shoved down his ears.

Anyways, gonna shave now, let’s see if I’m just as wise in 4 weeks as I was today .

It’s that time again. But this time, there’s a Quarter Pounder on the line (only for question 1, there’s a bet involved), so please answer truthfully.

1. Answer what YOU think (usually, K-uestions are about what you think I think)

This McMenu (not a fixed menu of course, it’s custom ordered), for one person only, is:
1. much
2. not so much

2.
a. Braeburn
b. Pink Lady

3. This kinda sucKs, but I’m probably (not totally sure yet), allergic to (kicking in a migraine):
a. Water
b. Sesame
c. Peanuts
d. Latex

This icon will indicate if I have answered the K-uestions yet

It’s the third one, that should say enough. Really. Where the first one was unique, blending neat action, style and story into a surprise hit, the second saw the decay eating away the uniqueness. The third is just a non-stop slugfest, without a proper story, dialogue and style to go on. So, enter the new sidekicks. The guy is an empty character with the sole purpose as comic relief (though his physique has some function too), while the female (Jessica Biel) makes a nice transition from actress (critically acclaimed series 7th Heaven) to ass kicking hot chick.
It’s really funny to see how David S. Goyer destroys this franchise (screenplay Blade, added producer duty in chapter two, added director duty to chapter 3). All in all, a typical movie you just want to see once.6.

Rate 1 (sucks) to 5 (cool). Only rate the latest pictures, otherwise I can’t keep track of the average.

Total: 686 out of 212 votes > Average is: 3.236

Lost my 20+ years allround pocket knife this Friday. Searched high and low, emptied the trash bins. Nudding.
And now, I’m helping a client on the phone, and while fiddling around, what do I see hanging around ?