If you're looking for an original movie to watch that will twist your brain then check out Primer. This movie was an independent film made by a former engineer and math major. It was made on a shoestring budget ($7,000) but it doesn't show. In case you didn't catch the above clue this movie is science fiction. But, like most succesful movies and books of the genre, it doesn't deal with the science as much as the underlying psychology and human impact. It involves the time-old fascination with time travel, but adds a fresh new twist. By the way, it also won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
The two main characters, Abe and Aaron, are engineers working on a project in their garage after hours. Well, after some time they find an interesting side effect of their intended device...it allows for time travel. But here is where it gets interesting, and slightly more plausible than other time travel stories. The device will only take you back in time to the point at which it was turned on. So, they try it out. Turn on the machine (using a timer), go hang out in a hotel, later in the day come and get in the box/room, sleep for a while, get out of the machine and it's the beginning of the day.
They are sure not to interfere with the copies of themselves in order to avoid bad consequences, at least in the beginning. But this movie quickly develops larger themes of trust and power. What would you do with this power?
This movie is impossibly complicated. If you don't like to think while watching movies then don't bother with this one. I had to go to online forums to even begin to figure out what was going on. I now have a good idea of the general concept, but the specific actions and events are beyond me. One poster said he lost count at watching the movie 23 times and trying to figure out what was going on. This is definitely a movie you have to think about, and it's potentially addictive.
I really enjoyed how original the movie was. The actors actually did a good job of acting like engineers. Unlike Hollywood movies, they stuttered, they talked on top of each other (a lot), they were sometimes monotonous. I think it was very appropriate, as it added a lot to the atmosphere, intensity, and believability of the characters. The rating says PG-13, the beginning of the movie says R, but it should be PG. It gets really intense, but that's just because of the situation. I've heard the movie got the PG-13 rating because an actor mumbled the word "fag" while talking on the phone. I barely even heard it.
Anyway, this was a very deep movie. This is the way movies should be made, good story and dialogue rather than relying on effects and big name stars. I recommend this to anyone who likes to watch movies for reasons other than going brain dead for two hours in front of a screen.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Monday, July 25, 2005
Hawaii Travel Log (Posted by Alicia)
Star Date Saturday July 2, 2005
Flight to Honolulu--Wake up too early for our liking (4:30 am)
Reach Honolulu--This looks a lot like LA with low income apartments everwhere; Waikiki is a little more upper class with hotels everywhere; Parking garage is crazy
Hit the beach--AHHHH, warm, clear water
Star Date Sunday July 3, 2005
Early church at the Honolulu tabernacle--half the ward is visitors
Drive up Tantalus--finally some vegetation that reminds you you're on a tropical island
Stop at National Cemetery--burial site for soldiers fighting in the Pacific; A memorial not hit up by liberals like the World Trade Center's about to be
Star Date Monday July 4, 2005
Pearl Harbor and USS Missouri--beginning and ending of WWII involvement for the United States. Very emotional site--oil still coming up from USS Arizona where over 1,000 sailors were killed instantly
Hit the beach--AHHHH, water still warm and clear
Fireworks over the ocean at night--Happy Indenpendence Day
Star Date Tuesday July 5, 2005
Happy 12th Birthday Mark!
Drive up to North Shore--get out of crowded Waikiki, woohoo!
Stop at Schofield Barracks where Grandpa Schultz was stationed during WWII--is that really the same tank as Grandpa worked on?
Stop at Dole Pineapple Plantation--Did you know pineapples don't grow on trees, they grow individually on bushes. Fresh pineapple in Hawaii is better than anything you can get in the stores here on the mainland.
Hit the North Shore--waves dead this time of year (0-2ft) but we did see some kite boarders. Spent afternoon at Waimea Bay and saw a little of Waimea Canyon.
Drive back home through Laie.
Dinner at a shrimp truck which started up and drove away when we were done eating.
Star Date Wednesday July 6, 2005
Girls and boys split up. Girls go to flea market at Aloha stadium to buy souvenirs while boys go to Bowfin submarine museum. Shopping at the flea market was seeing the same trinkets over and over and over again for the same price. Eric of course had a hard time fitting in a submarine.
Take off for Laie and Polynesian Cultural Center. Travelled to many islands while staying in Hawaii. Drum roll from Tonga, coconut tree climbing from Samoa, poi balls and stick game (and tattoo for Alicia--don't tell the bishop :)) in New Zealand, hula dancing in Hawaii and much more. Temple beautiful but closed for regular use.
Dinner and night show awesome of course. Fire dancers the best.
Star Date Thursday July 7, 2005
Definitely more relaxing day!
Shop at Sam's club--same store as on the mainland.
Afternoon at Hanauma Bay snorkeling with the fish. Now don't touch the coral (unless the waves push you in it)!
Star Date Friday July 8, 2005
Another relaxing day.
Hike up Diamonhead Crater. How many steps were there?
Morning at the beach snorkeling a little bit.
Afternoon walking around, saw indoor aquarium at local store.
Evening crazy drive with dad trying to find where Grandpa Bartholomew's mission home used to be. Got a flat tire in the process and changed it in the Sam's club parking lot.
Star Date Saturday, July 9, 2005
Day to go home--sniff, sniff.
Pack up and head to airport--sniff, sniff.
Bye Bye beautiful Hawaii. We'll miss the constant and beautiful weather, warm beaches, and beautiful scenery. We won't miss the crowds (better in the off-season?), crazy streets, and crazy parking structure at the hotel.
Isn't vacation great? Now it's back to the real world, whatever that is.
Flight to Honolulu--Wake up too early for our liking (4:30 am)
Reach Honolulu--This looks a lot like LA with low income apartments everwhere; Waikiki is a little more upper class with hotels everywhere; Parking garage is crazy
Hit the beach--AHHHH, warm, clear water
Star Date Sunday July 3, 2005
Early church at the Honolulu tabernacle--half the ward is visitors
Drive up Tantalus--finally some vegetation that reminds you you're on a tropical island
Stop at National Cemetery--burial site for soldiers fighting in the Pacific; A memorial not hit up by liberals like the World Trade Center's about to be
Star Date Monday July 4, 2005
Pearl Harbor and USS Missouri--beginning and ending of WWII involvement for the United States. Very emotional site--oil still coming up from USS Arizona where over 1,000 sailors were killed instantly
Hit the beach--AHHHH, water still warm and clear
Fireworks over the ocean at night--Happy Indenpendence Day
Star Date Tuesday July 5, 2005
Happy 12th Birthday Mark!
Drive up to North Shore--get out of crowded Waikiki, woohoo!
Stop at Schofield Barracks where Grandpa Schultz was stationed during WWII--is that really the same tank as Grandpa worked on?
Stop at Dole Pineapple Plantation--Did you know pineapples don't grow on trees, they grow individually on bushes. Fresh pineapple in Hawaii is better than anything you can get in the stores here on the mainland.
Hit the North Shore--waves dead this time of year (0-2ft) but we did see some kite boarders. Spent afternoon at Waimea Bay and saw a little of Waimea Canyon.
Drive back home through Laie.
Dinner at a shrimp truck which started up and drove away when we were done eating.
Star Date Wednesday July 6, 2005
Girls and boys split up. Girls go to flea market at Aloha stadium to buy souvenirs while boys go to Bowfin submarine museum. Shopping at the flea market was seeing the same trinkets over and over and over again for the same price. Eric of course had a hard time fitting in a submarine.
Take off for Laie and Polynesian Cultural Center. Travelled to many islands while staying in Hawaii. Drum roll from Tonga, coconut tree climbing from Samoa, poi balls and stick game (and tattoo for Alicia--don't tell the bishop :)) in New Zealand, hula dancing in Hawaii and much more. Temple beautiful but closed for regular use.
Dinner and night show awesome of course. Fire dancers the best.
Star Date Thursday July 7, 2005
Definitely more relaxing day!
Shop at Sam's club--same store as on the mainland.
Afternoon at Hanauma Bay snorkeling with the fish. Now don't touch the coral (unless the waves push you in it)!
Star Date Friday July 8, 2005
Another relaxing day.
Hike up Diamonhead Crater. How many steps were there?
Morning at the beach snorkeling a little bit.
Afternoon walking around, saw indoor aquarium at local store.
Evening crazy drive with dad trying to find where Grandpa Bartholomew's mission home used to be. Got a flat tire in the process and changed it in the Sam's club parking lot.
Star Date Saturday, July 9, 2005
Day to go home--sniff, sniff.
Pack up and head to airport--sniff, sniff.
Bye Bye beautiful Hawaii. We'll miss the constant and beautiful weather, warm beaches, and beautiful scenery. We won't miss the crowds (better in the off-season?), crazy streets, and crazy parking structure at the hotel.
Isn't vacation great? Now it's back to the real world, whatever that is.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Pictures from Hawaii
Well, a picture is worth a thousand words. It would take at least that many words to describe our trip to Hawaii so I'll just put a few pictures up (for now, at least).
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Book Review--The Stars My Destination
So when I was traveling to Rhode Island the airline magazine had a list of the top 15 science fiction books of all time. I wrote down the list and decided to start reading them. After all, I am a nerdy engineer, I should at least try to fill my role in life. The first one I chose to read was The Stars My Destination.
I enjoyed this book a lot. It is kind of a remake of The Count of Monte Cristo. One of the reasons I enjoyed it so much was because of my disdain for modern formulaic movies. You know what I'm talking about...the good guys are perfect and incredibly strong, the bad guys are pure evil, yada yada yada. It's just as bad with chick flicks. Girl meets guy, girl hates guy, girl and guy fall in love, girl and guy get in a fight and break up, guy does something nice to get girl back. Yuck, where's the originality? But I digress.
So, as I was saying, I liked this book because it wasn't very formulaic (in most ways). The protagonist was a guy bent on revenge. We wasn't very likeable, in fact, I'm sure many people reading the book would hate him. First of all, let's define the setting. The book takes place in the distant future, I think after 2500 AD, if I recall. In this time period people have mastered the art of teleporting (called jaunting in the book). I'm not sure if it's strictly teleportation, but the idea is that you can physically move locations by thinking about it. There are, of course, restrictions. You have to have physically been to the place to where you're trying to jaunte. Secondly, you have to really have your bearings right upon being there, not just get a glance of the place. So, to protect from invaders they have some locations with darkened lights around the walls and mazes to get to rooms. This development is important to the story. Oh, one more thing, people can only go hundreds, maybe thousands of miles. They can't go from planet to planet, for instance.
The book starts with the protagonist, Gulliver Foyle, being abandoned aboard a spaceship. He was the only survivor in some accident, and he doesn't remember what happened. After 170 days another spaceship comes around. He triggers the emergency lights to let them know that there is someone on board worth saving. The other ship approaches, slows down, and takes off without him. Pretty much the rest of the book is about him finding revenge. But it's much deeper than that, and there are some great twists in the story by the end.
Much like The Count of Monte Cristo the protagonist is uneducated. He has to learn in order to exact his revenge. There is a part where he is in jail with a mentor as well. Although it follows that story closely in outline, the particulars, especially the ending, are different enough that it is really its own story.
It's very interesting noting the role of religion in both the futuristic science fiction books I've been reading. In this book religion has been all but outlawed. There are so-called "cellar christians" who practice their religion in cellars out of sight. Although this is the case I think the book is showing how terrible the world would be without the hope that comes from religion. There were definitely religious undertones that seem to indicate a favorable outlook towards religion. The pornography of the day was pictures of cellar christians singing hymns, kneeling in prayer, kissing crosses, etc. An interesting twist on things. Again, I think the author was trying to show how wrong this situation was by showing the counter case. The same is true of the theme of revenge. I somewhat disliked The Count of Monte Cristo because it's basically glorifying revenge, but this author gets it right in the end, I think.
The most important part about this book is that it was exciting. It was a fast read and very interesting. But it was not just fluff, it tackled difficult issues and the characters had some depth to them. I would recommend this book to others. It didn't have much bad material, probably the language was the worst. But even that wasn't excessive. One final note, the science of the future was beleivable (as much as is possible with futuristic novels) and wasn't over the top. The technology facilitated the story, instead of it being the story.
Well, I've got to post about our trip to Hawaii, but that will take much longer so we'll save that one to a later date.
I enjoyed this book a lot. It is kind of a remake of The Count of Monte Cristo. One of the reasons I enjoyed it so much was because of my disdain for modern formulaic movies. You know what I'm talking about...the good guys are perfect and incredibly strong, the bad guys are pure evil, yada yada yada. It's just as bad with chick flicks. Girl meets guy, girl hates guy, girl and guy fall in love, girl and guy get in a fight and break up, guy does something nice to get girl back. Yuck, where's the originality? But I digress.
So, as I was saying, I liked this book because it wasn't very formulaic (in most ways). The protagonist was a guy bent on revenge. We wasn't very likeable, in fact, I'm sure many people reading the book would hate him. First of all, let's define the setting. The book takes place in the distant future, I think after 2500 AD, if I recall. In this time period people have mastered the art of teleporting (called jaunting in the book). I'm not sure if it's strictly teleportation, but the idea is that you can physically move locations by thinking about it. There are, of course, restrictions. You have to have physically been to the place to where you're trying to jaunte. Secondly, you have to really have your bearings right upon being there, not just get a glance of the place. So, to protect from invaders they have some locations with darkened lights around the walls and mazes to get to rooms. This development is important to the story. Oh, one more thing, people can only go hundreds, maybe thousands of miles. They can't go from planet to planet, for instance.
The book starts with the protagonist, Gulliver Foyle, being abandoned aboard a spaceship. He was the only survivor in some accident, and he doesn't remember what happened. After 170 days another spaceship comes around. He triggers the emergency lights to let them know that there is someone on board worth saving. The other ship approaches, slows down, and takes off without him. Pretty much the rest of the book is about him finding revenge. But it's much deeper than that, and there are some great twists in the story by the end.
Much like The Count of Monte Cristo the protagonist is uneducated. He has to learn in order to exact his revenge. There is a part where he is in jail with a mentor as well. Although it follows that story closely in outline, the particulars, especially the ending, are different enough that it is really its own story.
It's very interesting noting the role of religion in both the futuristic science fiction books I've been reading. In this book religion has been all but outlawed. There are so-called "cellar christians" who practice their religion in cellars out of sight. Although this is the case I think the book is showing how terrible the world would be without the hope that comes from religion. There were definitely religious undertones that seem to indicate a favorable outlook towards religion. The pornography of the day was pictures of cellar christians singing hymns, kneeling in prayer, kissing crosses, etc. An interesting twist on things. Again, I think the author was trying to show how wrong this situation was by showing the counter case. The same is true of the theme of revenge. I somewhat disliked The Count of Monte Cristo because it's basically glorifying revenge, but this author gets it right in the end, I think.
The most important part about this book is that it was exciting. It was a fast read and very interesting. But it was not just fluff, it tackled difficult issues and the characters had some depth to them. I would recommend this book to others. It didn't have much bad material, probably the language was the worst. But even that wasn't excessive. One final note, the science of the future was beleivable (as much as is possible with futuristic novels) and wasn't over the top. The technology facilitated the story, instead of it being the story.
Well, I've got to post about our trip to Hawaii, but that will take much longer so we'll save that one to a later date.
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