BrowserMetrics

I was over my moms this evening.

"I want to show you something. It's weird."

"Weird? How?"

She was leading me to the far side of the the balcony.

"Oh. We can't see it from here."

"What? What's weird."

When my mom uses the word, weird. It is rather unsettling. It's not like us younguns who casually toss it off. It's disturbing.

We head upstairs for a better look.

"What's weird? What is it?"

She won't tell me. She wants to show me. We look out the window into the small briar patch between the houses.

"Do you remember the chairs that your Tita Mina brought over? I think that's one of them there." [In the woods]

Creepy. Who would've done that. How? Why?

"Gabe said that there were homeless living in the Haunted Woods by school."

I don't think this put up by a homeless man. There's kids playing in the backyard. They could've set up the chair as part of their 'fort.'

Still, the chair sits in the vegetation waiting for someone to sit in it.

Labels: spooky

Tom Cruise once again tackles science fiction in Joseph Kosinski's Oblivion. Kosinski is the director of the notorious Tron: Legacy. Tron: Legacy was a movie I looked forward to, but afterwards, I wanted to burn my Mac mini. It was stupendously boring and superficial. Looks pretty like Olivia Wilde, but ultimately looks were deceiving. So would Oblivion be the same?

I digress. We were supposed to be talking about Oblivion, Tom Cruise, and the director, Kosinski.

Oblivion was written by Kosinski from one of his stories that became a comic book. I can see the comic book panels now and understand the langorious pace several issues would combine to match the first hour and a half of the movie. There was lots of mood setting placing Tom Cruise into the barren, post-alien apocalypse Earth. It took a while before we get into the meat of the story. Tom Cruise must save the remnants of the post-alien apocalypse Earth from the alien invaders. Or was is it the other way around? I should've put spoiler alert there. Or are you now keen on one of the many twists! Spoiler Alert!

Tom Cruise was Tom Cruise. Shirtless. Looks the same as he did years ago. Wears the same Yankees cap from the other alien invasion film: The War of the Worlds. He's the star. Show him as much as possible. And don't forget to have him running, running, running. Letting those little legs carry him as far and as fast as they can.

The thing most fascinating about Oblivion is that the it started to make sense once the movie began unraveling its mysteries. Things that felt like coincidence where actually explained. Of course, YMMV depending on if you buy the premise of the world Kosinski built. Early on I was not buying it; but the reveals made it worth while.

Oblivion was a lot better than Tron: Legacy. It had some of the same problems though: superficial, pretty, but it definitely made up for it with the twist and turns.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Admission suffers the same issues as Burt Wonderstone. It's all over the place. Is it a romantic comedy featuring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd? Is it a stab at social commetary a la Mean Girls? Is it another movie? Yes. Yes. Yes. The problem was it was marketed as a romantic comedy at first and that social commentayr comedy second. But there is also another movie there about Tina Fey's character and her long gone son given up for adoption. If you had told me there was this movie, I would not wonder what the movie was about. It was made into 3 movies by the creators of the film and all seemed fine. They didn't sell it that way and that made it feel lousy. The movie deserved better, because it's better as a whole.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

She's hit the big 200,000 mile milestone. At close to 12 years of age, she's still going strong. Maybe another 100,000 miles in her. She needs a better paint job for the hood and clearing the cataracts from her headlights. I think she also needs new shocks and struts.

Is she worth it?

I think I can just keep driving her the way she is now. Yet, I know she needs some fixing up to get her to the next 100K milestone. I want to keep her. She's driving better than the Mini though even after her cooling system went on the fritz last month. She's a strong German girl. She'll continue. She'll continue.

Onward to 300K!

Labels: automotive

If only I could write a movie review one tenth as good as the man, fare thee well Mr. Ebert. See you in the balcony.

Labels: fare thee well, movies, review

I reached my goal. It didn't look like it until that last week and that phenomenal steep drop. No idea why, but it may be an illusion as the last day of the month it's just right below my goal. At least I reached my goal.

It was a battle. I was also participating in Concept2's March Madness -- row 5000 meters for at least 25 days in March. I was on pace to do it too, but then I got ill the last week. (Did this illness contribute to that drop?) I came up short but I did do around 150 K this past month. That's a lot. I also did a 15K piece on the rower; that is some serious sitting. My ass hurt afterward. Perhaps it's getting ready for cycling.

It's time for a reset. What's the next goal?

Labels: fat war, get off your butt