Kimputer's Weblog

… or does it ?
The first half, is of course the new tagline from Philip’s new Sense and Simplicity worldwide ad campaign, dropping the decade old Let’s Make Things Better. Apparently, all is better and can’t be made any better. That’s a good sign.
But the ad campaign itself is somewhat puzzling. We have the TV sets, the DVD recorders, and the tooth brushes. Then you have a 3D Ultrasound (the size of a bulky PC from the eighties), and a CT scanner which would fill a small living room. Who are they trying to impress ? The already tight health care budget ? The consumer sure as hell won’t buy one.
Then there’s one last item I’m wondering about. The Heart Start Home Defribillator. If the price was suitable, would you buy one ? So you can shock the ones in need when a cardiac arrest arrises ? (In my case, I’d have to shock myself when I’m down. If that’s possible, then it must be true, Philips really can’t make it any better).

Another Spielberg/Hanks collaboration, which often result in fine end products, and even if they screw up, they’re still satisfying. So also this one. The movie takes off just fine (a foreign playing Tom Hanks just begs for sympathy), and the economy class flight is also fine (topically figuratively speaking, of course). No high points, no deeper meaning, no controversial topics. Just a crazy idea worked out to a full soft comedy/drama script. Acting is done just fine, and the direction is done with experienced technical skills. During the landing however, the plane somehow outruns the landing strip by a few miles (again, figuratively speaking), because the long stretched ending bears nothing extra except the predictable. All in all, a fine product for light entertainment.7+.

I’m taking the term proofREADING a bit literally lately. Due to Opera’s (a web browser, currently version 7.60 beta) ability to read text, I’m putting it to the test on my weblog entries now and then. And see, I even caught the first error by listening to myself. (And now you might think I can’t get enough of myself, well, you think correctly)

Of all people, ME, THE (self-knighted) crusader for free (and more free) stuff, finally gets a gmail account (all I had to do was beat up an old lady after I hacked into her normal e-mail account and forced her to invite me), when almost all computer illiterates already have one. Now I can finally join the interesting conversations.
“Yow Tienz, how many invitations do you still have left ?”
“Me gots zero, as I just started out today.”
Clearly, DON’T start bidding for a gmail account yet. (Not that I would’ve taken any bids worth less than 1000 euros seriously anywayz)
So, start mailing me at my nickname @ gmail . com as mailing myself gets boring after a while.

Another offspring of the “sister-of”-syndrome. With only one solid hit in the open, it is, as always, an exciting experience to find out if the whole album is filled with potential hits, are that you’ve heard the only one already.
The album is filled with poppy songs and a few ballads. The positive thing is her tendency to play with the tempo on most of her songs adds a layer of freshness to it.
The bad things however, overshadow the good stuff. For instance (having seen some pretty admirable live performances), her voice is powerful, but on the slower ballads, the timbre is unstable. Her voice is shaky when reaching the higher tones. Then there’s the freshness that wears off after the second or third round of listening to the album. Also, the hooks on the other songs don’t have the same positive spin as These Words. They even lean to the negative side, making longevity an impossibility. The fourth round of listening will be a trying task. Combined with the uninteresting topics and lyrics, some nine songs will end in the trash bin very soon. (The tenth being the title song, which might have a shot at the charts, but not reaching the same heights as her first hit). This deserves a grade just for the effort.5-.

While trying to save the world from giant robots on a blue screen, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow opened with $16.2 million. While saving on furniture and set design (all of the film was shot on a soundstage with blue screens), the special effects still pushed the budget to $70 million. A mark that might not reached if the movie loses audience at a normal pace (a weekly 40-50% decline).
Second was comedian Bernie Mac starrer Mr. 3000 with $9.2 million. Not so resident after all, is a drop to number 3 for Resident Evil: Apocalypse, with $9 million.
Wimbledon is clearly wasted on the Americans, as it takes in $7.8 million, good for only a fourth place. Cellular drops to number 5 with $6.9 million.

Describing this movie anything less than stellar wouldn’t do it justice. And this includes acting, directing and writing. Easily being one of the smartest script of this year, the movie is somewhat poetic, yet grounded to reality. Inner thoughts and emotions entwined with witty dialogue make it compelling with the director keeping it interesting on screen with subtle tricks. While the movie focuses mainly on one relationship, it branches out to a few more complications, which are luckily, just as interesting.
Some people wait for that gem that only comes by only a few times a year. With certainty I can tell you this is it. A definite must-see.9-.

The very first (unaired) pilot didn’t look too bright, when of course, you missed the other five crazy characters you’ve grown accustomed to. Then the aired pilot switched the wonderful (albeit somewhat stiff) Ashley Scott for the totally unknown Andrea Anders (budget reasons ?) with her fake-ish smile. While the story was pretty streamlined, it didn’t have the same impact as a random Friends episode. The second episode, luckily, showed improvement, with more punchy dialogue and faster cutting packing more jokes per time-packet. With only 4 character though, they will never get the 30+ million viewers back, but for now, they’re at least on the way to grab at least half of them.

This time a special, the K-ooking K-uiz edition.

1. My unique mashed potato recipe, is done with:
a. semi-fresh microwave stuff. Saves time !
b. The real deal, fresh, boiled to perfectious crumblety.
c. Instant powder. Water, stir, ready !

2. My favorite combo to flavour everything (from veggies, to meat):
a. mustard/mayo
b. ketchup/vinegar
c. honey/thyme
d. soy-sauce/sesame-oil

3. Which one reaches the highest temperature:
a. butter
b. olive oil
c. water

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

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

Total: 629 out of 192 votes > Average is: 3.276

A first time for everything. This time it’s me building a PC with a LGA 775 Socket and a PCI Express VGA card. And tell ya what, it actually works.

Well deservedly titled THE Disney bomb of the year. A very talkative, yet empty movie about some place called the Alamo, which marked an important point of time in the US history. That last sentence sounded more exciting than the movie though. On one side, you have a few “important” guys, bickering amongst each other. On the other side you have a Mexican general. Fighting for a lil’ piece of land called Texas. The viewer though, has a fight of his own. Against extreme boredom that is.
The characters are half dimensional at best. In the end, the only thing you have figured out would be “He seems nice, he seems less nice”. The dialogue has no message nor any emotional bearing. The strategy doesn’t go beyond, “You take south, you take south-east”. And on screen, there’s no eye candy to be seen. Clothing, weapons, buildings, scenery, the few battles, it’s all yawn-inspiring.
One tip if you ever get tied down with someone keeping your eyes open with no escape possible, try to figure out where the $100 million went to (I have a feeling a large part is in someone’s pocket, instead of paying writers and producers to make the best of a lousy skirmish in the 19th century).2.

Rate 1 (FR#^&% MESS !) to 5 (how very tidy !). Only rate the latest picture, otherwise I can’t keep track of the average.

Total: 1179 out of 359 votes > Average is: 3.284

Second-rate horror flicks are still doin’ good bizz, the latest being Milla Jovovich starrer Resident Evil: Apocalypse. This sequel took in $23.7 million, enough for the number one spot and beating the original’s $17.7 million. Second was for another premiere, Kim Basinger starrer Cellular (same team behind Phone Booth), with $10.6 million. Third was Without a Paddle, floating around for the fourth week already, with $4.6 million.
Hero has to do with a number 4 place, down to $4.4 million.

Another new NBC show, it’s a very CSI-like show, but only on the medical field. Every week an elite team of the NIH (National Institute for Health) tries to uncover a medical mystery of a strange case. Right now, it seems there’s enough room to insert some personal drama and main character interaction in every episodes main stories, which is a good sign. Casting seems to be top notch too, with Neal McDonough heading the team, with the right amount of intensity, while Kelli Williams (The Practice) plays the ever sympathetic female lead. Christopher Gorham is getting typecasted as a inexperienced newbie though, but he had half a season of the cancelled Jake 2.0 series to prepare for this role.

NBC beats the networks this year, premiering 2 new shows as early as possible.

The first is Hawaii, a pretty standard cop show, with some pretty good actors (Michael Biehn, ER’s Sharif Atkins). Too bad they don’t have any challenges to face. The stories are pretty straightforward, including a fixed story outline for every episode, like any other cop show. The characters are pretty non-descript. Nothing special after 3 episodes, meaning no depth, no exploration, and thus, holding no future. Not for me at least. Definitely a bye to this series.

Second up is Dreamworks Animated Studios big assignment. Taking Siegfried and Roy’s concept to the 3D animated fantasy world, we see how the animals live behind the show (walking and talking like humans, living in houses and such), while taking a few potshots at themselves. Refreshing in some ways, but not laugh out loud funny (like Dreamworks’ Shrek, for instance). There seems to be a tight story line for every episodes, but somehow, it doesn’t feel special enough.