Kingdom of the Crystal Skull starts off more slowly than the other films in the popular Indiana Jones franchise. There’s more dialogue, more explanation. But once it gets going, it’s as fun a romp as the others were. There are the same mystical hieroglyphics that must be decrypted, the same reluctant heroism on the part[...]
I didn’t learn until after I’d seen the movie that The Message was filmed twice at the same time, once for an English-speaking audience, and once for an Arabic-speaking audience. Different actors portrayed each character for each version, taking turns to act their parts on camera. That explains, to some degree, the quality of the[...]
An article on Wired.com recently made a good point. The “carbon footprint” of a car isn’t just how much gas it guzzles. Because each car requires x amount of carbon just to be manufactured. Those snotty upper middle-class people who sport their Priuses around are actually worsening the environment, compared to the person who buys[...]
Today on NPR, I heard I heard a reporter (whom I normally respect) say, “May 12, or five-twelve, is China’s nine-eleven.” First of all, it reminded me a little of Rudolph Guliani, who used “Nine-eleven” as his main campaign platform to his own demise. But more importantly, it made me wonder if the reporter (or[...]
I was surprised at how much I liked this movie. We had decided against seeing it in the theater, not wanting to “waste” money on a movie like this. So we rented it on DVD. We loved it, both my wife and I. To quote her, “It’s not that often that I see a movie[...]
I’m not a professional film critic. And I’m not a professional comic book fan. So I loved this movie. Like many recent films based on comic books, Iron Man got hosed by fans of the mis-named “graphic novel” (actually, “comic book”). But that always happens. For the average movie fan, Iron Man is chock full[...]
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of To Sail Beyond The Sunset (1987) by Robert A. Heinlein, the last novel he published before dying in 1988: “I remember Earth. I knew her when she was clean and green, mankind’s beautiful bride, sweet and lush and lovable… It is futile to mourn over[...]
There is a school of thought, albeit a relatively unpopular one, that poor grammar or punctuation on printed signs should be corrected with a Sharpie or other tool, vigilante style. In the News: Vigilante Copy Editor (New York Times) And there are older instances, such as this one (The Virginian-Pilot).
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls: A Comedy of Manners (1985) by Robert A. Heinlein: “It does not do to encourage bad banners; one should retaliate, urbanely but firmly.”
In The News: Adobe starts subscription for Photoshop and Dreamweaver (BBC News) This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone; many software companies are moving in this direction. Instead of having to ship millions of boxes and discs every year when they upgrade the software, they’re just going to add the updates to the online[...]
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of I Will Fear No Evil (1970) by Robert Heinlein: “…most people think of money as something to pay the rent. But a money man thinks of money in terms of what he can do with it.” “…it’s impossible for a woman to lay it on[...]
For about $5, I made this measuring cup holder that’s hidden inside a kitchen cabinet: (Copyright © 2013 by Wil C. Fry. All rights reserved.)
My wife and I invoked our “30 minute rule” when watching this movie. The rule is: if the movie can’t interest either of us in 30 minutes, then we turn it off and quit wasting our time. According to Wikipedia, this film is based on a 1974 novel and “the story follows the hunt for[...]
Following are some passages I underlined during my 2002 reading of Stranger In A Strange Land (1961) by Robert Heinlein, of which I wrote on Nov. 14, 2002, “Perhaps the best book ever written.” (I no longer feel that way, but it’s still a pretty good book.)
There’s a new White House Tumblr page, and the first entry includes an image with this lettering: “ANIMATED GIFs (HARD ‘G’)”. First, let me say I’m proud that they didn’t put an apostrophe in “GIFs”, as so many on the internet seem to do these days.
Because I assume everyone wants to know my opinion (ha!)… In the News: Is Handwriting Still Important? The Digital Generation Skips Penmanship (BBC News) While I’m admittedly old-fashioned in many ways (for example, I don’t have a “smartphone”), I can usually argue practicality (for example: there’s no point in me having a smartphone). But the[...]
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