drunkencomputing

It’s been months since I’ve posted here. It’s easy to explain why: blogs are all but defunct now. With Facebook and Twitter, there’s no real reason to maintain a blog. Except if you’re doing something over 140 characters (a la Twitter) or don’t want to make your Facebook wall all Myspace-y with quizzes and giant status updates. That’s where this post comes in: it’s a list of what movies and TV I liked for 2009. Mostly posted because it’s Sunday, I’m drinking coffee, sitting at my computer, listening to The Walkmen, and am bored. But also because I was inspired by Mr. Stephen King in the most recent issue of Entertainment Weekly. Stephen King is easily the best columnist in EW, with Doc Jensen’s annoying TV column being second. Normally I’d include music and books too, but I didn’t do a lot of new-music searching this year, and I certainly didn’t read nearly as much to warrant any feedback on books this year (it would be one book long: The Lost Symbol, which I’m only about 5 chapters into anyway). So in the spirit of Mr. King, here’s my top movies & TV of 2009:

District 9: This is the only thing that Twitter has inspired me to check out. Yes, I get a lot of info off of Twitter, but it was solely because of the buzz generated on Twitter that I checked out this flick. Yes, Peter Jackson produced it (I like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but I’m not so hooked to it that I’d follow the man blindly on anything he makes). So because of Twitter–and the numerous articles written about how popular the buzz was on Twitter–I actually got Rachael to go check out this movie with me. I was very, very surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. I loved the impromptu acting, the pace was perfect, the special effects were awesome, and the story was great, making District 9 a very well-rounded movie. There’s the obvious parallel drawn between Apartheid and this movie (fuck, it’s filmed *in* South America), and it’s very intriguing. But it’s the documentary-style film-making, the fantastic spur-of-the-moment dialog, and great special effects that drew me into the movie. On top of all this, this movie is reason one of three as to WHY YOU SHOULD BY A BLU-RAY PLAYER.

Inglorious Basterds: Everyone who knows me, knows that I love Quentin Tarantino. I can quote the entire Pulp Fiction movie, and most of Reservoir Dogs. I can even throw in an obscure reference to Jackie Brown at times (a good movie, in it’s own right). So it’s a no-brainer that when this movie came out, I was going to see it. It’s easy to compare it to Pulp Fiction, and seems to me that doing so would not only bore the one or two people who read this, but also cheapen my loyalty to Tarantino. So I’ll just stick with what I like about the movie (and, essentially, most Tarantino movies): the long shots, the dialog (of course), the ratcheting drama between two characters just with a conversation, and the bloody good violence.  Christopher Waltz as The Jew Hunter has a new special place in my heart as one of those bad guys who are so good you’re excited to see him on screen, regardless of what he stands for (you’ll find a lot of that in what I like, I guess). One of my favorite parts in the film is when–nevermind, I won’t ruin it for you, but let’s just say that when one of the protagonists is in France talking to Dr. Goebels (SP?) about a movie theater and when a special someone walks in, you’re heart will truly race for the next few minutes. This is my favorite film on the year, because I can watch it over and over again (I’ve watched it three times on BluRay already) without getting bored with it (kind of like Pulp Fiction, no?)

Public Enemies: I’ve always liked Michael Mann films for everything that’s said when there’s no dialog (come on, you can FEEL Tubb’s frustration on the way to the boat yard in the redo of Miami Vice, can’t you?). What he does with the camera is stupendous, and I always appreciate a good shot…similar to the opening scenes in the apple orchard of Public Enemies. I also like–suprise!–the high violence of a Michael Mann film. Probably the best since the street shoot-out of Heat is in this film, when the FBI raids a cabin in the Wisconsin woods, and Tommy guns run rampant. It’ll get your heart racing. Johnny Depp was also phenomenal–as he usually is–but Christian Bale is still only a “meh” actor in my book. Not sure why, but I can let it go, because he’s decent at his role. He just needs to decide on a dialect here.

Avatar: I really didn’t care for the story because it as way to predictable and only “meh,” but holy shit, the special effects. Skip this flick in 2D and prepare to have your mind blown in 3D. I kept taking off my 3D glasses just to see what real-life looked like again to prevent myself from letting the 3D world get “cheap.” The special effects along warrant a spot in my top flick of 2009, but acting and story line were only OK.

Terminator Salvation: In essence, a pretty bad movie. Special effects were awesome, but if you’re a Terminator franchise fan, then you’ll appreciate the flick as the first serious look into the world post-Judgement Day. Meh acting and a weak storyline, but very cool to see what’s going on with Skynet (our new robot overlords, for realsies) and how they are developed into what we saw in the first two Terminator movies. ANOTHER REASON TO OWN A BLURAY PLAYER. This flick’s sounds and special effects will rock your home theater.

I’ve always had animosity towards the iPhone, but never hated it per se.  I’ve always posted article on Twitter about how much the iPhone lacks or pales in comparison to the BlackBerry (which, of course, I love), but they’ve always been trivial because they are biased by the author (again, of course).  But today, a whole slew of iPhone versus BlackBerry topics came up.

It started with this morning, when on CNN they talked about “feature envy” that regular cell phone users suffer when they see users with smartphones.  They said that a Gartner review listed the iPhone as the #1 consumer smartphone, with LG and BlackBerry tied for second.  I completely believe in this survey: the iPhone is an extremely popular and sought-after phone, and it is a “smartphone”.  Unfortunately for the iPhone, it’s not the smartest smartphone…it’s just generic consumerism that make it the most popular.  What a BlackBerry power user–or even someone with a half a brain–can do with a BlackBerry blows the iPhone out of the water.  Sure, the iPhone has 75,000 applications, but are they useful?  Can they exchange data seamlessly with each other?  Or are they in there very own little universe–an “app-verse”–all by themselves, only sporting info and pretty, sleek graphics to itself?  This is generally in the case.  I’d love to see an iPhone–NOT jail-broken–be able to do what I do on my personal BlackBerry, not even on my work BlackBerry.  The iPhone can’t hold a candle to the multi-tasking, multi-data-flow BlackBerry.  It can’t efficiently manage four work email addresses, four calendars, and countless workflow management applications…all of which seamlessly exchange data with each other without so much as a single skip.  I can literally manage the ski shop, the golf course, and my home computers and networks from my BlackBerry.  On top of that, I can regulate all the data and business transactions for each one of those functions from my BlackBerry in real-time.  That’s something the iPhone can’t do.  Oh yeah, then all that personal junk too, from that device (which the iPhone does very well).

Shortly after that, I read a Boy Genius report and Lifehacker article about how AT&T and Apple were going to put the hammer down again on iPhone users.  AT&T is talking about data rate caps, and how the latest OS update for the iPhone further restricts a bunch of things we BlackBerry users take for granted.  I’ve been in these shoes before, however, and can relate to iPhone users…but I can’t justify their existence.  When I first got my BlackBerry, Verizon crippled the damn thing.  No GPS, no fun applications like Pandora.  But consumer actions do have consequences, and after numerous emails (from myself as well) and some FCC complaints, Verizon smarted up and let BlackBerry users go hog-wild with their devices.  There’s now NOTHING we can’t do on them.  The world is our oyster.  So nowadays, I can’t stand to see what AT&T does to it’s premier customers…the iPhone users.  The restrictions that they as a company perform and would like to perform is unholy, but not new.  And the fact that Apple maintains such a strict, communist-style control over a device that the consumer owns seems completely shady.  Having to hack your phone to free yourself partially from these restrictions is silly.

Lastly, a friend at work asked me about the iPhone.  I told him pretty much the same thing as what I mentioned above.  I added on to that with some personal quips about the iPhone.  For one, it’s completely trendy.  Now many may think that me saying that is hypocritical (and you may be right), but it’s completely true.  Look at how much the media mocks the iPhone, such as in SNL or Leno.  And how many complete toolkits and douchebags do you see sporting the iPhone as a status symbol and not as a powerful hand-held computing device?  A lot is the answer.  On the flip side of this, the iPhone has also undeniably had an effect on our culture, but my shared view is that it’s mostly negative (iPhone users == douchebags).

Would I ever talk anyone out of an iPhone?  Only if they needed something more for the multi-tasking, tech-saavy people.  For moms, dads, douchebags, I-like-pretty-pictures, and high-performance texters/Facebokers, this device is nuts-on what you need.  It’s an amazing device with media capabilities that simply crush even the best BlackBerry.  But it’s not a tool.  It’s a toy.  If you want a phone that’s a toy with lots of games, multimedia capabilities, and tons of useless apps (like to find an apartment?!  How many fucking times are you going to use that thing?  Once maybe?!  Come the fuck on), then get an iPhone.  You won’t be upset.  But if you want a device that can completely keep you connected with everything in your life–personal and business–in real time, you need a BlackBerry (maybe an Android phone, soon!).  There’s little valid comparison between the two on that level.

Oh yeah, and when have I had to update my BlackBerry for a security issue?  Fucking never, that’s when.

I’ve pulled another one of those spans of time where I’ve managed to neglect this blog; allowing it to become extra clutter on the internet.  I’m more sorry to everyone else for adding junk to the Googles.

I’ve been busy, and I know I’ve said that every time after a long span of non-blogging.  Rach and I sold our old house (we miss you, 1929), moved into a new place a few miles away (still in Superior), I had the biggest work event of my life occur (an inspection) around the same time, and then some personal travel.  If that wasn’t enough, it seemed like every other weekend was Guard drill.

Now to all the fucking haters out there, I know, I know, “I don’t know what busy is until I have kids and blah blah blah.”  Fuck that, everyone can still be busy.  I have a friend who lives by himself and works full-time and goes to school full-time.  He’s fuckin busy.  He doesn’t have kids.  So shut the fuck up.  And you try moving out one household by yourself and then moving in another household by yourself (unless you have a wookie to help, thanks Hodge!).  So eat my ass.  Besides, blogging would be the nearest thing from my mind when I did have downtime anyway.

I’ve managed to make commenting on my blog a bit more easier…you can now log into my blog with your Facebook account and comment, so since everyone and their mom literally has Facebook, it should be no problem to provide me some feed back.  So fire away.

And yes, I’ve finally embraced the words “blog” and “blogging.”  “Posting on my website” has finally been an assimilated phrase.  I guess I’m weak.  At least I don’t own a fucking iPhone.

Everyone knows I’m addicted to my damn Blackberry.  Most people are, although some are less inclined to admit it (I’m looking at you, Rachael).  I use my Blackberry so much, that sometimes my computer goes untouched for days.  This is because I can essentially do everything I needed my computer to do from my Blackberry…I can pay bills, read and send emails, check Facebook, etc. etc.  Shit, I’ve even bought shit on my Blackberry (damn you Amazon application!), and checked in for a flight on it.  Computers are depreciated, I reckon.  As a matter of fact, it had been so long since I last actually used my computer that I didn’t even know that I had some virus or spyware action on it from some torrent I must of downloaded way back when.  Whoops.

So to find out just *exactly* how much I used my Blackberry, I downloaded an app from Early Sail called “I Love Blackberry”  It’s available for an OTA install here: http://download.earlysail.com/i_love_blackberry/ It runs in the background and tracks how much you use your Blackberry.  I ran it for exactly 7 days to see what happened.  Here’s the results:

Daily Average

Total: 72 Times for 2h 44m 8s
Work Hours: 34 Times for 52m 0s
Nights and Weekends: 38 Times for 1h 52m 8s

Weekly Average

Total: 246 Times for 8h 4m 17s
Work Hours: 170 Times for 4h 20m 2s
Nights and Weekends: 76 Times for 3h 44m 15s

Monthly Average

Total: 1051 Times for 34h 35m 31s
Work Hours: 727 Times for 18h 34m 26s
Nights and Weekends: 324 Times for 16h 1m 5s

A few things to note is that “work hours” are considered from 0700 to 1600 monday through friday.  Nights and weekends are from 1600 on Friday to 0000 on Monday.  Additionally, since I only ran the application for a full week, the monthly average is an estimate based on the daily & weekly average usage.  Lastly, of special concern, is the fact that I’m not allowed to have a Blackberry or cell phone with me in the area that I work, so the usage during “work hours” is very interesting.

I wanted to draw a comparison between my personal Blackberry usage and my work Blackberry usage, but our corporate IT policy on the device (who woulda set that shit up??!) doesn’t allow the application to be installed.  But I’ll fill it in for you: it’s probably only a third as much usage.

This should be rock-solid proof that I’m addicted, and should sober me up a bit.  I remember telling someone that “I can’t live without my Blackberry,” in which he responded that “that is sad.”  I agreed with him, but that exchange still didn’t make me change my habits.  This is for a multitude of reasons.  For one, as mentioned above, my Blackberry *is my fucking computer*.  I use it in place of everything on do on my desktop computer.  And this is of importance, since everything I do–from managing finances, to shopping, to reading news, and to communicating with friends and family–is accomplished on the computer.  Next, there’s the simple fact that a Blackberry is still a goddamn cell phone. Although my minute usage since getting Rach and I a Blackberry is astronomically lower (by at least half), I still use it to–gasp!–talk to people.  Then there’s the fact that I’m much more active the average cell phone user is.  I have my job job, my ski shop job, my golf course “job”, and then my personal life.  All are managed from the Blackberry.  This obviously adds a lot of time to the device’s usage.  Finally, the Blackberry is a toy.  Once you have it, you’re going to use it, just like anything else fun and dynamic.  The Blackberry can be anything you want it to be.  Just a phone?  Done.  Phone and email machine?  Done.  Super ultra mega social networking machine?  Done.  Your life on the go?  Fucking done.

So looking back on the conversation with that person, and the numbers above, I’m not really turned off from using my Blackberry any less.  There are times, in fact, that I could curb my usage (like in a wedding ceremony, but it’s not every day Tiger Woods comes from behind to win the Buick Open), but for the most part, it’s all reasonable usage.  So thinking about how I said “I can’t live without it,” I stand by that statement, and take solace in the fact that I really, truly can live without it, just as I have done when I go backpacking, camping, and skiing.  I can live without, although life is just a bit harder to manage then.  Oh, and then there’s the whole “it’s the fucking 21st century, move out of the goddamn sticks and ditch the flip phone” mentality.  We’re about to colonize Mars, being reliant on a cell phone is no different than being reliant upon a radio 50 years ago.

While I’m not going to wear my Blackberry usage as a badge of honor (although this post would seem to indicate that I’m doing just that), I’m not going to deny that I’m a power user.  And I’m OK with that.  I’ve turned many people on to Blackberry since I’ve had one.  Most of them admit that their lives are easier, that they couldn’t live without the device (in a manner of speaking), and some of them flat-out are power users, like me.  That only further validates me shameless usage.  So yeah, I’m a crackberry addict.  As if I didn’t already know that.