As various of you may or may not know, I moved into the dorms at Oregon State 3 days ago. Seemed like a good topic for a rant, especially since I haven't been here for 3 days (this gets better). Moving in was surpsingly easy. I was the first person in the checkout line, and it was vastly simple to get all the cards and things, which it most certainly wasn't last year. Moving myself in was semi-easy. One of these days Callahan Hall is going to get 2 elevators, and then watch out world... Only problem: Some
Now for the REALLY fun part. I walked down to RCN (the residential computer network) place to get myself hooked up to the campus network. Sit down, the whole process takes maybe 5 minutes, and when I ask the guy when I'll be up, he says it should be on when I get back. Last year they said two days, so I had a large amount of hope. You will notice that I'm at home on my mom's comp typing this. I have an appointment for some guy to come out tuesday. Two more days with no internet. Will I survive? Having beat Baldur's Gate for the 3rd time, halfway through my book, and having watched TONS of movies? We can only hope.
Which brings us to the movie review section of this rant (getting bored yet?). I mean, when you have friends with apartments, jobs at pizza places, and a massive entertainment system complete with a huge TV, surround sound, a DVD player, and 200+ DVDs, you have to take advantage, right? Thus I've watched a bunch of movies in the past few days. The short reviews:
Boyz N the Hood: Whatever I expected out of this movie, I'm not sure that I got it. I think what I was going to find was random acts of gang violence in a somewhat comedic (is that a word?) way. What I actually got was still random acts of gang violence, but in a very, very serious sort of way. Really disturbing. Totally worth seeing, but make sure you've got some comedy around somewhere.
The Thin Red Line: I wanted to like this movie. I really did. Unfortunately, the movie had no action at all, the characters were impossible to tell apart, and 9/10s of the movie was filled with moralizing. Now don't get me wrong, moralizing in war films is a good and necessary thing, but not to the exclusion of an actual movie. Cut out about half the moralizing, insert a bit more action, and it would have been a really good movie. I was bored by the end though.
Eraser: This was either the post-Boyz N the Hood movie or the post-Thin Red Line movie. Either way, it was good mindless Arnold gunfights. Dumb (but isn't all Arnold?), but just what we needed after the massive stress of the more serious movies.
Primary Colors: It calls itself a comedy, but it isn't really. A detailed look into running for offic in the American political system? Yes. Serious? Yes. Somewhat depressing? Yes. Worth watching? Definitely.
There's at least another movie that I watched in here, but I can't quite remember what it was. Something remotely comic after the vast seriousness that was Boyz N the Hood. I'm certain it was good, but it got overshadowed by the first movie. Oh well.
And for a final bit of ranting, I hate Mom's computer. 800x600 (as compared to 1024x76 res sucks. Having the Windows menu bar thing on the bottom sucks (it belongs on the top). The speakers suck (currently playing a very static-filled Radiohead). The keyboard deserves to be attacked by nuclear weapons (don't buy an MS Natural keyboard, they suck). It's semi-fast, at least, and it runs AoK...
Whew. And on a side note (do I get to have side notes in this ramble?), Andy, I'll get to the unit stuff when I have a real internet link, which at this point is prolly tuesday.
Actually read this till the end? Congratulations. I'll rant some more at you on Tuesday. I'm sure classes will provide me ample opportunity.
Posted by Dwip at September 23, 2000 10:13 PM