Jae Walker’s blog

xkcd - A Webcomic - Two Mirrors

nobody@vox.com(Jae Walker) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:04:41 -0400

xkcd - A Webcomic - Two Mirrors

http://xkcd.com/555/

This is just so very perfect - urban legend meets physics!

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Now we know why they let Comic Sans in...

nobody@vox.com(Jae Walker) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:02:06 -0400

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An Engineer's Guide to Cats (with yodeling)

nobody@vox.com(Jae Walker) — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:07:02 -0400

This is priceless - the cat yodeling near put me on the floor...

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

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100 Movies #3 - Cloverfield

nobody@vox.com(Jae Walker) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:43:00 -0500

Cloverfield

I simply cannot praise this movie too highly. I found myself completely immersed in the experience - I cried twice, I yipped, I flinched - I cared.

I'm unaffected by shaky-cam nausea; alas, at least one of my friends who went to see it at my urging threw up in her popcorn bucket half an hour in. When it comes out on DVD, I'm sure that seeing it on the small screen will mute the shaky-cam nausea effect.

It's hard to talk about why I enjoyed it so much without spoilers, so I'll just say this: they did it right. There's no sound track - lots of ambient sound, but no dramatic music to warn you the bad things are about to jump at you, or to signal when you should expect an emotional moment. Instead you have the echoing not-quite-silence of an abandoned subway station as the backdrop to one character haltingly giving his mother bad news via his cell phone. I cried.

Oh, and word of advice? When all of the rats are running toward you, turn around and run with them. Outrun them if you can. Smart animals, rats.

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100 Movies #2 - Venus Beauty Institute

nobody@vox.com(Jae Walker) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:32:55 -0500

Venusbeautyinstitute

I have no idea why I put this in my Netflix queue. Someone must have said something good about it - I tend to add to my queue while I'm reading blogs. It's not the kind of movie I'm particularly drawn to - it's essentially a character study. It's also subtitled French, but that's not such an obstacle. Again, I'm not sorry I watched it, but I finished it mostly with a sense of obligation because I'd started it. I kept waiting for something to happen.

I quote Netflix for what it's all about:

Unable or unwilling to find a long-term romance, aging hair stylist Angèle (Nathalie Baye) settles for the salon's distaff camaraderie and for living by proxy through her co-workers. But her life gets upended when a stranger -- a shaggy-haired, bohemian stud named Antoine (Samuel Le Bihan) -- abruptly declares his love for her. The guarded Angèle faces a dilemma: Should she take a chance on intimacy, or remain inside her protective shell?

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100 Movie meme #1

nobody@vox.com(Jae Walker) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:31:46 -0500

A number of my friends on Livejournal are trying to watch and blog about 100 movies this year. Give my Neflix addiction, I thought I'd do so as well. At least, I'm starting.

#1 Angels & Insects

Angelsandinsects

I put this in my Netflix queue on the recommendation of someone on my LJ friends list. It's a Victorian period piece, chronicling an anthropologist's somewhat uneasy return to civilization. The photography is beautiful, and the costumes are perfect. I found it hard to really care about the characters, and was reasonably satisfied with the story.

I don't feel a need to own it, but I don't want my 2 hours back either.

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