The Pretend Critic

iPad Babysitters

2013-06-13T12:37:00.001-05:00

How much should a child be allowed to use an iPad? Is it okay for them to use it if they are reading a book or playing a learning game? For a child, is reading a physical book better than reading an ebook?

Parents with tablets and smartphones have yet another glowing screen to worry about frying their kid’s brain with. It isn’t just the tv anymore. If we are keeping score, is watching television shows on the iPad doubly bad? Cause I might be in trouble.

A 2011 study found that while more than half of children younger than eight have access to iPads, smartphones or other tablets, their usage was still relatively low: five minutes of daily use compared to 29 minutes of reading or being read to.

I bet if they conducted this study in 2013 it would be more than 5 minutes per day. There were probably a lot of Kindles in that 2011 study, and what kid wants to play with one of those.

➔ Parents aren’t relying on iPads and smartphones to babysit their kids | Quartz

20 Years Since Jurassic Park

2013-06-12T09:26:00.001-05:00

I remember June of 1993 for only one reason. It is the month I went to see Jurassic Park twice. It remains one of, if not the best, movie-going experiences I’ve ever had. It is crazy to think it has been 20 years since my 10 year old self sat at The Strand Theater and witnessed Spielberg’s masterpiece.

Back then I was a wimp when it came to movies.[1] I remember being concerned that the dinos would scare me and I’d look like a baby in front of my friends. I didn’t have to worry. None of them were paying attention to me as I sat clutching my arm rests as the raptors stalked around the kitchen. It was an amazing feeling of exhilaration when the helicopter took off and the music rose. Nothing like it since. There may never be.

I love reminiscing on my JP memories, which is why this post from Scott Mendelson was so much fun for me to read. It provides a perspective on how in hindsight the film was on a pivot point that led us to the modern blockbuster. Jurassic Park is a near perfect film that happened at a perfect time.

Jurassic Park is perhaps a defining example of the perfect combination of newfangled and old-school blockbuster film-making. It represented both a preview of what was to come and the last gasp of traditional mainstream movie-making in one glorious concoction.

➔ The box office legacy of Jurassic Park, 20 years later… | Mendelson’s Memos

Okay, I still might be. ↩

The New iOS 7

2013-06-11T11:35:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we got out first peek at this year’s new and improved iOS. It has been 7 years since iOS hit the scene and the “world’s most advanced” mobile operating system was starting to feel stale. Apple had iterated iOS to the max and it was time to re-think how we use our iPhones. I don’t think they achieved it. It still feels like the OS, just prettier.

Apple mostly made a side-step today with iOS 7, but it feels like they put it on a better path with more room to move forward into the future. It is fresh and “modern”, though it seems to borrow a lot from the aesthetic of Windows phone, and even Android. Which, one could argue, is a circular reference.

I welcome the new look of iOS but found it odd of how critical they were of the previous design elements. That is not something Apple has ever done in the past. It seemed like a strange thing to keep bringing up.

It is the most popular criticism, but I also do not like the new icons and colors. I have never liked Apple’s choices of washed out, unsaturated colors. I do like some of the translucency, but it might take some getting used to. I wonder if other app developers are going to follow suite. Will they iOS7-ify their app icons and designs?

The biggest disappointment for me with the announcement was that they didn’t show us anything on inter-app operability, or how apps can talk to one another. There is a lot of room for improvement in that area and they didn’t seem to give us anything. For example, if you take a picture with the camera there should be a contextual menu that allows you to “send” that photo to any app on your iPhone that can deal with pictures. Maybe you can pare down that list in settings. Then you can edit the photo with said 3rd party app and when you hit save it kicks you back to browsing your photo library.

There are apps that achieve this same thing currently using url schemes, but it is inelegant and severly limited. I love creating workflows in Drafts. You can string actions from 3 or 4 apps together. It is cool stuff.

I also use Mr. Reader to browse my rss feed. It allows you to send text and links to other apps, and even pre-format your links. It works well, but I wanted Apple to embrace what developers have hacked together and support it in the OS. I realize it is really nerdy, edge-case, stuff… but I was still hoping for it.

I’m definitely excited to get iOS 7 this fall, but I am even more excited for Apple’s iPhone hardware announcement. I really hope that don’t only give us an “iPhone 5S” with the same exact form factor. But I’m sure they will.

➔ Apple’s iOS 7 video

Blog Format Changes

2013-06-05T13:51:00.001-05:00

If you have followed this blog for any amount of time you have probably noticed the layout and design have been in an almost constant state of flux. In the most recent iteration I have simplified; eliminated everything other than the posts. I like the extremely basic design and I like that it is easy to read.

A couple weeks ago I learned how to render an iPhone specific view, so now it should be easy to read on the small iPhone screen as well.

I’ve also added the ability to post quotes or short blog posts that don’t have a title. These type of posts have no link that would allow you to click into them to leave a comment so at the bottom right-hand corner of every post I added a little link icon that will take you to that individual post.

For now I am happy with the site. I wish there was a way to put the search box near the top of the page without making it look dumb, but for now it will be stuck down at the bottom. I’m going to try to leave the site alone for awhile… until I decide to change it again.

iOS text editor nerdery

2013-06-04T12:15:00.001-05:00

As evidenced by the existence of this blog, I enjoy writing from time to time. However, I rarely have motivation to get home from work¹ and sit in front of the computer. I found myself writing on the iPhone and iPad more and more. I bought a few different iOS text editor apps, but nothing offered a good way to post to my blog.

There were options, but it always required multiple steps. I usually wrote in markdown, so I had to convert it to html, then I had to copy and paste it over to a separate app. I used Blogsy on the iPad and the Blogger app on the iPhone. Most of the time I just didn’t post from my iOS devices because it was messy and prone to formatting errors.

This week one of my favorite iOS text editors released an update that added lots of nice features. In addition to bug fixes and formatting options they added an in-app purchase² that allows you to publish your text file directly to your Blogger, Wordpress, or Tumblr blogs. This very post will be my first test, so we will see how it goes.

I like writing everything in plaintext using markdown ³ to format all the links, footnotes, and annotation. It is simple to use and powerful once you get used to it. The only missing piece was being able to post that txt file to my blog. Hopefully Byword has solved that problem.

➔ Byword • Simple and efficient text editor for Mac, iPhone and iPad.

Work, where I sit in front of a computer all day. ↩
The in-app purchase is $4.99. ↩
Technically I use multi-markdown. ↩

Some Thoughts on Silver Linings Playbook

2013-06-01T16:37:00.001-05:00

When a film gets Oscar buzz I am immediately wary. Ever since Crash won the best picture I cannot trust anything the academy exalts. However Silver Linings Playbook actually looked good, and I heard a lot of good things about it from people who had good taste in movies. I went in with pretty high expectations.

The film is mostly about mental illness and dealing with life when things don't go your way. But at some point it changes to be about family and love and hope. At some times it is a comedy; sometimes a drama. It tries to make light of some heavy stuff, and asks a lot of the actors when they are not merely shouting at one another.

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence give us characters that are interesting to watch, but I never got past the feeling that both of them were playing at something. I was never convinced that either of them were actually crazy. They were merely actors trying to act crazy. I am not one to judge what a crazy person has to act like. I mean, I don't think anybody can say for sure what truly makes somebody crazy. In the scope of the narrative. I didn't find them to be crazy enough for my liking. They did shout a lot, so if that means one is crazy then they nailed it.

I was very aware I was watching actors on a screen the entire time, but that doesn't mean the movie was devoid of charm. In the end it was quite "cute"... if not a little convenient or, dare I say, forced.

Overall I liked Silver Linings Playbook. It was fun to watch. The acting is interesting. While I think Bradley Cooper did the better job, I enjoyed the movie more when Jennifer Lawrence was on screen... but that might have little to do with her acting prowess and more to do with dance pants.

I didn't find the script and overall narrative to be quite as compelling as the academy seemingly did. There is some potential meaning in the fact that it was very unextrodinary events that brought the characters together in the end, but I can't deny that the payoff was slightly disappointing. It could have been saved with the confrontation scene between the two would-be lovers, but that whole thing fell flat for me. I guess I'm just not a romantic.

Maybe the movie tried to be too much. As a comedy, it wasn't all that funny. As a serious piece of drama, it never had the right tone. As moving pictures about characters going through life (albeit strange) it kept my attention and entertained me for a couple hours. That is all I ask of a movie nowadays anyway.

This American Life | Trends With Benefits

2013-05-28T14:24:00.001-05:00

This weekend I spent a lot of time in the car, which gave me a good opportunity to catch up on a few of my favorites podcasts; This American Life, Radiolab, and even some Roderick on the Line.

This American Life and Radiolab are great programs I am usually not interested in government and politics, but when they choose to tackle it, This American Life does an excellent job at making the subject matter interesting and easy to connect with.

A few years ago their episode about the banking crisis called Bad Bank. It was excellent. A few weeks ago they had an episode about the growing problem of people drawing disability payments from the federal government. One thing I didn't realize is that when somebody starts getting disability they don't get counted in the numbers for well-fare and unemployment. Since states pay a large portion of the well-fare payments and none of the disability it is definitely in the states' best interest to get residents off of well-fare and onto disability. And of course, lawyers and companies in the private sector are taking advantage of the rules to make money for themselves. This episode is worth a listen...

➔ Trends With Benefits | This American Life

2013-05-22T14:56:00.002-05:00

Life has been busy the last couple months. Several weeks ago my wife and I found out we were going to have our second child this fall. Shortly after that, after searching for a few months, we bought a new house. In the past 6 weeks I have moved into our new place, traveled for work, and got our old house ready to sell. It has been hectic. I haven't been watching movies and I haven't taken time to write.

I just wanted to let you all know that I am still here. Hopefully things will calm down a little bit as we get settled into our new place and I can get back to it.

2013-03-22T23:24:00.000-05:00

"Flattery won't charge these batteries civilian."

-Sergeant Calhoun in Wreck-It Ralph

Satirical Retro Video Game Adventure

2013-03-22T08:45:00.001-05:00

I'd heard an awful lot of good things about Wreck-It Ralph, so I made sure to check it out on bluray the first chance I got. Our daughter is at the age where she has the attention span to watch a full movie and she was pretty excited by the prospect of having a movie night. We all settled in and our hopes were high for this kid-friendly satirical retro video game adventure.

The beginning of the film has a lot of video game references. I was a little surprised that it went that obscure right off the bat, but it was done really well. I got a lot of joy out of the first 20 minutes.

The feeling of the film drastically changes when we get into the Sugar Rush game. It throws out the retro video game references and goes with a more convention kid’s film and the video game references are replaced with candy references. It wasn't bad, but for the record I liked the first act much better.

The basis of this film is that a “bad guy” is tired of carrying out his dastardly duties and wants to know what it is like to be in the role of the hero. Basically, he wants to better himself and do something good for a change. However, the rules of the game dictate that he must continue to do bad or his entire world will fall apart.

It is a surprisingly heavy message for a kids film. In order for a cop to exist there has to be a criminal. Our definition of good depends on there being evil. They side step it partially in Wreck-It Ralph by making it pretty clear Ralph isn't evil, but just acting out a role. Still, when you think about it, the film paints a pretty bleak picture for our main character. He is unable to move beyond his station in life. there is mo hope for him to ever be a good guy.

Ralph does help out a little friend from another game, giving his life meaning for a brief time. As we leave him we are led to believe that he will live out his days hanging on to his one act of heroism as he is thrown from the top of a building... day after day... for the rest of his life.

Aside from all the doom and gloom of being anchored to your unsatisfying position in life, the movie is quite entertaining. I laughed way more than I thought I would. My daughter loved it and has asked to watch it multiple times since I turned it back into the Redbox. We will probably end up buying it, “and that's not bad”.

Netflix and the House of Cards Release

2013-02-22T10:30:00.001-06:00

Earlier this month Netflix released House of Cards. It is by far the highest profile original content Netflix has in its video streaming selection. They are pioneering the next generation of media consumption, and they are doing it in their own way. If you have 13 episodes of a show that you want the word to see, most networks would go about it just like it has been done for years; one episode a week. Netflix took a different approach. They put it all out there on day one and let you decide how to space it out.

There are probably positives to unleashing the House of Cards firehose in one big burst. For one, it feels different. Netflix doesn’t want to be thought of as just another network with decent content. They want to be original. They want to be new. Releasing an entire series at once is definitely new, and appeals to the subscriber who is going to sit down and binge on video content all weekend. We’ve all sat down and watched 5 episodes of Friday Night Lights in a sitting, and by flipping the switch on House of Cards they allowed some people to experience it that way if they choose.

Still, I would have loved to be in the meeting at Netflix HQ where they argured how they were going to put the series out there. There had to have been a pretty good justification for doing what they did, and I’d like to hear it.

There seems to be a lot more positives to the traditional “one per week” model of show running. That way everybody is in sync, and there is more opportunity for conversations to occur. Netflix has the added benefit of making all the previous episodes easily available. If they’d run a pilot episode and hooked some people in those folks would get on twitter and facebook and talk to their buddies at work about this new show. Everybody could go home and watch it then next week there would be a presumably larger audience ready to watch episode two. With the way they did it we are all left to our own devices. It is going to be extremely unlikely that people are watching the same episodes at the same time. It makes it really hard to have a conversation about a show when you’re all in different places in the timeline.

There was a ton of social media activity the first few days after House of Cards was released. Then it went away, and I don’t expect it to come back. There are definitely those who have finished the series, but I’d say they are in the minority. I’ve started it, but I’m not very far along. The vast majority of people that will eventually finish the series probably haven’t even started it yet. When each of those people decide to fire up episode one they are going to be on a solitary journey to the end. And that is all well and good. It just doesn’t seem to maximize the hype. Maybe Netflix doesn’t care about hype. I don’t know.

Regardless of how Netflix rolled out House of Cards the company isn’t going anywhere. They have showed they can make original content and they aren’t going to stop with one series. I mean, Arrested Development is going to be huge for them in 2013. I’m sure they’ve got something else up their sleeve to follow that up. GQ had an interesting article last week. Netflix is here to stay, and I’m willing to ride that $8 per month ship until it runs aground.

The movie for the Wallflower in us all

2013-02-15T21:16:00.000-06:00

At this stage in my life I have a house and a wife and a kid and a soul crushing corporate job and an iPhone and a thinning head of hair and a Toyota Venza… and it is pretty hard to remember what it was like to be in high school. There are a lot of films that attempt to tackle the teenage angst of going into the 9th grade. High school dramas are my favorite sub-genre of the coming of age film category… which is one of my favorite types of films altogether. Most miss the mark for me at capturing that genuine feeling of fear and excitement of entering the world of high school. The Perks of Being a Wallflower did not miss the mark.

I loved this movie. I had a genuine emotional response to it, which doesn’t happen very often. It isn’t perfect, and it goes to darker places than I ever had to deal with in my high school career, but it is so good. And while I never would have classified myself as a wallflower, I felt totally invested in the main character's plight.

The ending caught me off guard a little bit, but it was really well done. It made me feel hopeful and depressed at the exact same time. It was an end and a beginning, and you weren’t really sure that everything was going to be okay… but you wanted it to be so bad, and deep down you felt like it was going to be.

I think I felt more emotion from Charlie finishing his freshman year than I felt at any point during my transition into or out of high school, but like I said, it is hard for me to remember anything about that time of my life. Like most of us, all the things I cared so much about back then seem so stupid now.

The film did a very good job at capturing just how much hanging out goes on during high school. Based on my experience at high school I had the expectation that my life was going to be filled with endless hanging out. It didn't seem so special to spend an evening chatting with a friend because there was an over-abundance of it going on all the time. Back then doing nothing was a destination you arrived at no matter which road you decided to take. Now we search for it like a rat in a maze... a really difficult maze.

Watch The Perks of Being a Wallflower. If you don’t like it you can blame me.

A self-proclaimed hater of horror watching Cabin In The Woods

2013-02-09T14:37:00.000-06:00

I’m not a big fan of horror movies, and I don’t watch all that many of them. I am not the target audience for Cabin In The Woods. There was so much talk about the film when it came out that I didn’t want to pass it up. I had to know what was so special about it.

Cabin In The Woods is based on a premise. If you buy into that premise it could be a very rewarding film. If you do not, there isn’t much there for you. I don’t think it is a binary “love it or hate it” type movie. I definitely fell somewhere in the middle. While it offers a fresh (or at least meta) take on the horror genre, I'm not sure it was enough to make it worthwhile for me to see it.

It starts out like any other horror film, setting up how the standard cast of college coeds are going to find themselves in a secluded wooded area. However, early on we find out there are other people pulling the strings. The rest of the film we are left to figure out what the heck is actually going on.

There are parts that are legitimately great. There is a speakerphone gag early on that is awesome. However, the tone is not maintained throughout. In fact, the very nature of the film requires that the tone is all over the place. The different characters in the film have a vastly different perception of what is going on. As the omniscient viewer we see it all going down from both sides. For me it was unable to function as a genuine horror film, and felt like it was merely going through the paces in that aspect. I don’t know if there was a larger message to be conveyed in the narrative or if it was just there to point out the irony of why we enjoy scary movies, but in the end it felt… pointless.

I guess we go back to this premise. Cabin In The Woods is a high concept film when compared to any other horror film. There are actually things to think about and digest… sort of. If you go in expecting a horror movie, then I’m not sure how you will feel about what you are given.

I’m not sure what I went in expecting. Maybe a “twist” movie. It could still be considered a “twist” movie, but it is laid out in a way that doesn’t maximize a twist reveal. I knew this was going to be an interesting take on a scary movie… and it was. Instead of trying to figure out who the killer is you are posed with a much different mystery that is more intriguing. However, everything that happened in the film felt pointless until we get to see what is actually going on. Luckily the entire film is only 90 minutes long, but the first 50 of that felt wasted. I didn’t care about the characters, but I don’t think I was supposed to. By the end you are left feeling like they are the most selfish people in the world. Definitely an interesting turn as they are the “victims” the entire film.

Cabin In The Woods offers more to the avid horror fans than it does to casual viewers like me. The more cliche scary movies you’ve watched, the more you will be able to appreciate what this film is doing. Ultimately, I just wanted to know how the story would end, and I’m not sure I’m satisfied with what I got. The horror fan will take more joy in going through the paces of the first hour. For me, I couldn't get to the end soon enough, and when it arrived it was a "hmmm" more than a "wow". People who love Cabin In The Woods will undoubtedly say I totally didn't get it... and I wouldn't argue with them.

American Idol is Uninteresting Again

2013-02-08T15:30:00.000-06:00

I am almost ashamed to admit that I watched the first few weeks of American Idol this year. Back in the fall I said I wasn't going to watch any reality tv. I made it up to the point where we cancelled our cable. When that happened we got in the habit of turning on the antenna and flipping through the local channels at night. It is difficult to avoid watching reality tv when you do that. I've seen a little bit of The Biggest Loser, and the new cooking show The Taste, and I was too intrigued by the audition episodes of American Idol to look away.

I couldn't keep myself from watching Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey display their expertise is judging singers. There was too much potential for comedy. I was also curious to see if there was a tiny glimmer of life behind the dead eyes of Nicki Minaj.

I got hooked into the audition shows. I was worried I was going to get hooked into the whole thing and I'd be stuck watching it the entire season. I turned it on the other night to see Hollywood week and I was happy to find that I once again had zero interest in the show. I don't plan on tuning in anymore this year. I dodged a bullet for sure.

The Indie Time-Travel Movie Paradox

2013-01-29T08:57:00.001-06:00

Looper is a time travel movie that really isn't about time travel. It is a sci-fi film that probably won't please hardcore sci-fi fans. It is marketed as an action film, but plays more like a drama. It is an in-between type movie with an interesting concept at its core but an execution that will struggle to please.

I am a fan of director Rian Johnson. I have been on board since Brick. The marketing for Looper told you there was something to do with time travel, but you couldn't figure out if it was a true sci-fi, or an all-out action movie. With Johnson I knew to expect something different, and I think he delivered on that.

There were interesting ideas in Looper, but they didn't come together for me. A man travels back in time and literally confronts his younger self… that is interesting stuff. However, old Joe didn't care about young Joe. He had to keep him alive so he would still have a future, but his primary goal was to eliminate a threat. But didn't traveling back in time take the risk of him changing the timeline so he would never even get to the future he was so desperately trying to save? The film introduces the time travelers paradox and then asks that you not think about it too much. Let it slide. The convoluted nature of it was distracting during the film, but not so much so that I couldn't enjoy what I was watching. But after it was over it left me wondering if it even made sense.

The best thing about Looper is that I legitimately had no clue how this film was going to turn out. I stopped even trying to figure it out, I just went along for the ride. It has been a while that a film had me completely stumped. I didn't even have an inkling of what was going to happen next.

The worst thing about Looper has nothing to do with the film itself¹. It was the sound. The dialog was so quiet that I had to have it turned up kinda loud. When an action scene came along it blasted my eardrums. This makes it especially problematic when you are trying to watch the movie with a sleeping toddler in the house.

More than anything Looper caught me off-guard. It was a good film, but it wasn't what I was hoping for. I'm not even sure what that means, or if is a fair thing to say. There is a solid character arc in the film that for me got over-shadowed by time-travel mechanics. I think if I watched it again I would enjoy it more. My expectations would be set, and I might have a better shot at making sense of it all.

The Joseph Gordon Levitt face prostheses were pretty bad, but not the worst. ↩

My Analog Tools

2013-01-23T09:24:00.002-06:00

I spend a lot of time staring at a computer screen. Sometimes it is nice to bust out a pen and a pad of paper and do some writing the old-fashioned way. Here is a rundown of my favorite analog tools. My next step is to get a feather quill.

➔ My Analog Tools | timidbear.com

Guerrilla Filmmaking at Disney

2013-01-22T12:59:00.001-06:00

From the LA Times…

About three years ago, Randy Moore, a struggling screenwriter living in Burbank, had an out-there idea: What if he took a tiny camera and, without asking permission, began shooting a narrative movie at Disney theme parks?

This sounds like an extremely interesting film that we will probably never get to watch. Worth reading the piece from the LA Times for sure.

➔ Indie Film Shot Guerrilla-Style Within Disney Theme Parks | via Daring Fireball

Pitch Perfect

2013-01-22T08:55:00.000-06:00

There is a lot to be said for a film that can take a tired premise and make it feel fresh again. Pitch Perfect is the same plot we have seen many times before, only this time glee club is the in-vogue plot device. i.e. not cheer-leading, or football, or marching band.

The new girl goes to college and seems like an outsider. She wants to sit in her room and mix beats on her Apple-branded computational device. Conveniently, her father (who also happens to work at the college) dangles a carrot that prompts her to join one extra-curricular group.

Capitalizing on the popularity of the television show Glee, Pitch Perfect tries to walk the line of pleasing fans of the genre as an entry on its own, and pleasing us naysayers by gently poking fun at how preposterous it is. For the most part it succeeds. It is funny from beginning to end. Definitely something Glee cannot claim. Pitch Perfect does venture into the melodrama a little too much for my taste, but doesn’t get awkward.

I found the musical numbers surprisingly good. Towards the end they really took it up a notch. If you are only watching the movie to listen to the music, you probably will be satisfied. If you are watching the film for a solid character arc or heartfelt love story, then you probably won’t be satisfied.

All-in-all Pitch Perfect is a fun movie. It doesn’t ask anything of you, and most people will be thoroughly entertained by the music and comedy as I was. There really isn’t much else to say about it. It is worth watching for sure.

Netflix lands TV deal

2013-01-14T12:49:00.001-06:00

Netfilx is getting quite a few more options as far as television series go. The finalized a deal with Warner Bros. and Turner Broadcasting. I am extremely happy to see Adult Swim coming to the Netflix library. There are a lot of animated shows that I've been out of the loop on. This will give me a chance to join in the fun.

I’ve never thought the streaming offerings were lacking, and additions like this make me feel even better about spending that $8 per month.

➡ Netflix lands tv deal | Engadget

What I've Been Watching

2013-01-12T09:00:00.000-06:00

We are going on a month without cable and so far I don’t miss it much. College football bowl week made me feel like I was missing out, but other than that I’ve been fine.

So now that I can’t waste my time with Sportscenter and Honey Boo Boo… what have I been watching…

Both my wife and I sort of wanted to watch Parenthood, but we never bothered to jump in on regular tv. We figured it would be better to start from the beginning. Both Hulu+ and Netflix have the back-catalog, but we opted to go with Netflix because it doesn’t have the the commercials.

I’ve heard a lot of praise for Parenthood so I might have had too high of expectations, but from the first episode didn’t impress me. I’m not a huge Dax Sheppard fan, but he delivers the best acting in the pilot. Not that the rest of them are bad actors, but it is written in such a way that makes it difficult for them not look awkward. If we know a character - what they have been though and how they have responded in the past - it is mostly okay to show a closeup of their face as they emote and expect that to convey what they’re feeling. In the pilot episode of Parenthood they were pulling that stunt constantly and it felt really awkward to me. In the dinner scene they cast a knowing glances at one another after sister made a comment… things like that. It just struck me as a weird and inelegant way to set the stage for the characters.

So far I am not a fan. I’m sure it will get better over time as the actors get a chance to settle into the characters and as I begin to learn more about them. I would expect the writing to get better as well the further along they go in the storylines.

We (or I) opted to not watch another episode of Parenthood. I needed a break. Instead we jumped over to The Wonder Years and watched its pilot. I can remember watching The Wonder Years when I was little, and I undoubtedly saw reruns from time to time. I knew the characterizations of Kevin, Wayne, and the rest of the crew, but I didn’t remember any specifics. Watching the pilot I was blown away. It is amazing. We got through just 2 episodes, but I plan on watching all the seasons. It is better than most of the stuff on tv today for sure. I’m looking forward to being able to experience it for the first time as my 30-something self with a kid of my own.

Maybe it will lose some of the luster as we get further into it, but seems like such a well put-together show - great writing and great acting. I will definitely be choosing The Wonder Years over Parenthood any day.

Over a year ago I heard about a British tv series that sounded like something I’d enjoy. However, I wasn’t able to figure out a way to watch it. I was happy to see the entire back catalog of Misfits is available on Hulu+. Misfits is like the American series Heroes in that it centers around a group of young adults that inexplicably get super powers. That is pretty much where the comparisons end.

When I first watched Heroes I was absolutely enthralled with the first season. I loved it. The subsequent seasons were pretty horrible, but I cannot deny that the first season was great tv - with a really bad climax.

I am only 2.5 episodes into Misfits, but I could tell I was going to like it from the very beginning. It is funnier than Heroes, and better acted from what I can remember. It is also a British show, so it is able to do some things that wouldn’t fly here in the states. Heroes had better cliff hangers, but Misfits hasn’t struggled to hold my attention.

I’m so early in the series that I still have no clue what exactly is going on. There are some goofy things that could turn out to be lame depending on how it gets explained - but I will reserve judgement until I am at least done with the first season.

That is pretty much all I have been watching. We’ve been splitting our time pretty equally between the over-the-air antenna, Hulu+, and Netflix. I’ve also rented a couple blurays from Redbox. Once we get through some of the series we want to watch, I am thinking about buying Game Of Thrones or maybe Justified. But we have plenty to keep us busy for a while.

Oh, and I’ve been reading a lot more since we cancelled cable. I’ve gotten through 1.5 books for fun, and I’m reading Getting Things Done to become a more productive person. I’ve got a bunch of classics on my kindle that I hope to get though as well. I’m kind of liking this whole “no cable” lifestyle.

2013-01-03T21:51:00.000-06:00

Did I say we ain't wearing bags? It's a raid! Who cares if you can see! Can the Horses see!? That's all that matters!

- Big Daddy

Initial Thoughts on Django Unchained

2013-01-02T12:10:00.000-06:00

I decided to start out the new year with some Tarantino. I had tried to go on saturday but it didn’t really work. This time I gave myself more time, and the mall wasn’t nearly as busy. I found my seat in the center of the theater and settled in for some QT.

Going into the film I had conflicting sources of expectation. I loved Inglourious Basterds so I was excited to see whatever Tarantino came out with next. However, initial reviewers didn’t seem to be loving the movie. They might have set the bar way too high. I don’t know. Those reviews did temper my excitement a bit.

Django Unchained delivered. In every respect it exceeded my somewhat lowered expectations. It was a ton of fun. I still think Inglourious Basterds is a better movie. Django wasn’t able to create the tension like the great scenes in Basterds . Django also isn’t nearly as complex. It is Tarantino doing a western, and it was awesome.

Once again Christoph Waltz steals the show. The movie is titled Django Unchained but Waltz’s character is by far the most interesting. In the second half Leo DiCaprio joins them. He is so good as the villian. Jamie Foxx does fine as Django, but it is actually a pretty flat character. I am sure that is by design.

I really enjoyed the first hour of the film. As soon as the movie was over I wanted to watch that part over again. The beginning was more of a traditional western with the Tarantino flare. The rest is good too, but that first hour was pretty brilliant.

If you love Tarantino I don’t see how you could fail to like Django. However, it is not a perfect movie, and I do understand some of the criticism. I’m not going to go into any of that here, but I will save it for another spoiler edition post. Go see Django Unchained, and make sure you cut the eye-holes big enough to receive maximum enjoyment.

Giving up on the Theater

2012-12-29T16:22:00.001-06:00

Today I planned to go see Django Unchained at the local theater at our mall. I got in the long line of cars and started looking for a parking space. There were none. As I circled the lot a couple times I thought about how it was actually kind of nice outside and there were 30 other things I could be doing besides sitting in a theater.

By the second loop I had talked myself out of it. If I drove to the back of the lot I could get a spot, but by the time I walked in and got my ticket the movie would almost be started. I left.

I am finding it difficult to find the time or motivation to go to the theater anymore, and this makes me sad. I'll just wait for it to come out on DVD. It is just easier... and cheaper... and cleaner... and more comfortable. I am one of those people now. The cinema is dying and I am not willing to do anything about it.

Cutting the Cable

2012-12-17T08:40:00.000-06:00

I've been a subscriber of AT&T's Uverse service for the last 3 years. Back when I signed up, it was an upgrade from Dish Network. It seemed like a good deal at first. We didn't have anything better to do, and we watched a lot of television.

Over the last year we have been watching less and less tv. I turned on the dvr the other day and we had a ton of stuff built up that we had to catch up on. It was starting to feel more like a to-do list than a form of entertainment.

When I looked at our Uverse bill it made me sick. We were paying a lot and not using much of anything the services provided. I decided to cancel. The process was simple. I had our service turned off in a matter of minutes. Instantaneously our dvr was inoperable. All the shows we had built up on there were unwatchable. It was a clean break; a great way to end it.

We have Netflix streaming service which we use a ton for our daughter to watch cartoons. We watch movies on there sometimes too. We still wanted to be able to watch network tv shows. My wife enjoys Glee and Grey's Anatomy, and we both like Modern Family and a couple others. I dug out our over the air antenna and hooked it up. We have a great signal for all the local channels in HD.

The day I cancelled Uverse I also ordered an Apple TV. We had used a PS3 to stream Netflix, but if we were going to use it a lot more I wanted something else. The PS3 is fine for occasionally watching, but it is clunky. The Apple TV is fast and well… still sort of clunky to use the interface.

We also decided to sign up for Hulu+ and try it out for a little while. Our dvr had half a season of the shows we like to watch and we wanted access to those shows so we could catch up. Hulu+ offers a week free trial which expires for us tomorrow. We will try it out for a couple months and see how much we use it. In the first week we used it a ton.

So far I really like the new setup. I haven't missed cable at all. So often we just turned on Food Network, ESPN, or one of the thousand other channels to provide moving pictures in the background while we played with our daughter. I didn't want to pay as much as we were for that.

We are keeping our AT&T internet service. I am curious to see how much we will use now that all our entertainment has to come over the internet. There are caps on monthly usage. I wonder how close we will get. I doubt it will be a problem.

A couple days after I had initially cancelled, I called AT&T to get some clarification on sending back my hardware. They immediately offered me half off for 6 months if I signed back up for the services I had. I wish I would have done that 6 months ago. I was tempted for 1/10th of a second. A few more months would mean I'd have NFL Network to the end of football season. And I'd have ESPN for college basketball. However, I stood strong and declined their offer. I am glad I did.

When I first turned our OTA antenna I was amazed to see how great the HD looked. It is noticeably more “HD-ier” than the Uverse was. Better quality picture on a free service! Crazy huh?

So far most of our tv watching is between Netflix and Hulu. Between those two services there is plenty to keep us entertained for a long time. We watch the news and some sporting events on the antenna. There are a few tv series that I am planning to either buy on iTunes, or just go get the Blu-rays. It just depends on what is cheaper. Once I watch them I will have no use for keeping them, so with the Blu-rays I could at least sell them when I am done.

I'm so glad we cut the cable. I wish I would have done it a few months ago. There is this feeling I was going to “miss out” on stuff, and it kept me from pulling the trigger on canceling. The truth is I'm going to miss out on stuff whether I have cable or not, and I'd rather keep my money. I'm sure something is going to come along that I want to watch and I won't be able to.¹ I'll just have to deal with that when it gets here.

There are some rumors floating around that Apple might open up the Apple TV to apps. This might allow for some ala carte type programming options. I'm definitely excited to see what they announce there.

If you are thinking about doing it… just do it. Snip. Snip. Cut the cable.

I'm going to go crazy when Breaking Bad comes back on in the summer. ↩

High Frame Rates and The Hobbit

2012-12-14T13:31:00.000-06:00

I haven’t been all that excited for The Hobbit to come out, but as we get closer to release date I am starting to. I had totally forgotten that Jackson shot it in 48 frames per second. Regardless of whether the content of this film is any good or not, I am looking forward to seeing how it looks on the big screen.

Here is a good article on /Film that talks about what 48fps really means, and what we can expect to see from it.

➡ High Frame Rate and ‘The Hobbit’ | /Film