Dumbest Thing I've Ever Heard Of

Apparently, you can now have your blog broadcast into outer space in hopes of sending it to extraterrestrials. That's right, BlogInSpace.com "is the first entity to allow everyday bloggers to transmit the news and thoughts of an everyday person into space."

This has got to be one of the dumbest ideas ever. Nevermind the fact that aliens probably don't know english so they can't read you blog anyway, why would they want to? Very few humans even read blogs, and even those that do read, at the most, a couple dozen... maybe. Now, any potential extraterrestrials looking for communications from earth would have to filter through humdreds of inconsequential blogs (along with all our crappy TV) in order to find something actually of interest. (like, say, a NASA transmission)

You can count on me not signing up for this silly service.

I'm on Facebook

Yeah, I seriously doubt anyone reads this that doesn't know already, but I finally have a prolfile on TheFaceBook.com. If you don't know, the Facebook is a kind of online directory/social networking thingie for college students.

In other news, I'm having some serious problems getting PHP to work on the hanleyfilms.net server, so work in that department has ground to a screeching halt.

Coming Soon: HanleyFilms.net

I've just registered the domain HanleyFilms.net for hosting the movies I have made so far. It currently only redirects to a temporary page on the old foxostro.com server, but I hope to have actual site content up by next week. Until then the old Movies page will stay up with what limited selection it has. The new site will offer all my previously released films in 3 different sizes, as well as my most recent project, "Dead Line" which has never been released on the internet.

OMG! I Agree With Fox News?

I've kept this blog fairly non-political for a while now, but I just can't leave this one alone.

Alright, so I was against the current war when it was proposed (and still believe it was a mistake, but that we're far enough in now that a rapid pull-out now would do much more harm than good). But like many others, that in no way diminishes my deep respect, admiration, and gratefulness towards our troops abroad.

Some people have always been (and still are) staunch supporters of the war. I disagree with these people, but I respect their opinions.

Others want us to pull out of Iraq immediately. I also disagree with these people, but still respect their opinions.

Then there are people like Michael Crook. Actually, that may be a misstatement, as I'm unsure as to whether I would go so far as to classify Mr. Crook as a person. Anyway, he got quite the bashing on Fox News (as pointed out by Tim of CtrlAltDel), and I found myself, for the first time I can remember, wholeheartedly agreeing with the "Evil Network".

The website in question, forsakethetroops.info, has thankfully been shut down, although parts of it are archived at the Internet Wayback Machine. Many suspect the site may have been a hoax/prank/joke, but I think everyone who could possibly read this blog will agree that it goes several miles beyond the "in poor taste" marker. I mean, "The U.S. soldier is a poster-child for retroactive abortion."? That's not funny, it's appalling! (don't believe me? Go ahead, check the video)


The Bad news: apparently the guy lives in Syracuse, NY, where I will be going in about a month and a half.
The Good news: This may give me an opportunity to punch him in the face.

RIP, Mighty GeForce...

Looks like my old-but-trusty 128 meg Triplex GeForce 4 ti4200 has finally conked out. I went to run Counter-Strike: Source last night and all I got was video noise... ugly video noise. I'm talking nothing but black and white horizontal bars covered with static.

Not good.

So now I'm running on an old MX420 I found lying around (*shudder*...), looking for a new graphics card, and trying (as usual) to get the most of my money. Right now a couple 256 meg BFG 6800 GT OC's are going for $250 on ebay, which is a little more than I planned to spend, but not a bad deal at all. With the money from graduation ("college" stuff not included) I've got plenty, but there's other things I'd wanted to buy this summer, so I don't want to totally splurge.

*sigh* This would be so much easier if Blockbuster/Hollywood Video would just get their acts together and evaluate applications. That Boston Market job is looking awfully good...

UPDATE: Crap! Both of the $250 "Buy it now" GT OC's have been sold! Grr... time to keep looking.

I'm Back!

...and ready for an insanely long catch-up post! Hmmm, lots of things to cover tonight, so bear with me.

If you are likely to get bored, I've split it up into sections so you can skip what you don't care about.

Graduation
Pretty nice ceremony, although it was threatening to really rain throughout most of it. Thankfully, the water held off until the moment we started crossing the field to throw our hats, leaving us with mostly a (very welcomed) cooling breeze. The speeches seemed interesting enough, when I wasn't being distracted by the weather. The whole thing was a little bittersweet though. Sure, graduating high school is an awesome feeling, but I was saying a lot of goodbyes to awesome people I might never see again. This is definitely a major change in my life.

I didn't have a graduation party like some of my friends, but I did have a bunch of relatives come visit. I got some money from everyone, but my grandparents on my mom's side really surprised me. The preface the card by saying "It's for college", then I open it to find $2000! I think... yeah... that's definitely the largest lump of money I've ever received at one time. Now maybe my savings account can actually earn interest at a level measured in dollars.

The Hunt for a Job
After a fruitless attempt at a Best Buy job in late April (I should've known), I also applied to Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. (Hey, I already pulled a "Spielberg" by getting rejected by USC's film school, I may as well pull a "Tarantino" as well.) That was about.... 3 weeks ago. Having not heard from them in awhile, I stopped in last week to see if Blockbuster had filled all their openings yet, and was told that they hadn't even started evaluating the applications yet! Jeez, if I had known that they'd take so long I would've waited until after graduation to apply so I could put down more available hours. The "Now Hiring" sign is still up, so obviously they haven't decided yet, but Boston Market is looking better and better...

"Vacation"
..or at least, the closest I'm coming to one this summer. This past weekend I went up to Michigan with my family to visit my dad's parents and see my aunt and uncle from California who didn't come to graduation. While there, I got to see the Nextel Cup Batman Begins 400. (it's a NASCAR race) I'm still not a racing "fan" by any means, but seeing dozens of cars whipping around a two-mile track in 15 seconds was a very different experience to say the least. (as was trying to get out of the parking lot with 100,000 other people...)

College Course Selection
Will already talked about this, so I might as well jump on the bandwagon. Syracuse does their course selection by mail, and I filled out the form before I left for Michigan because it was due while I was gone. As a first-year student in the Film/Drama program, four of my first-semester classes were already locked in; Practices of Academic Writing (meh), Survey of Film History (cool), Introduction to Acting for Non-Majors (ugh), and Introduction to Theater (why was a completed movie not a good enough portfolio for Film/Art, again?)

With those four already picked, I had two slots left for first semester. Unfortunately, even though I'm in the School of Visual and Performing Arts, I can't fill these with studio (art) electives, they have to be academic electives. At Syracuse, apparently academic electives basically means "languages or social sciences". (Or math, but having gotten a four on the AP Calc test I'd have to start at Calc 2, the highest course offered to first-year students. I think I'll pass for now.) I had to pick 3 choices (in order) for each slot. Nothing seemed to jump out at me, but this is what I finally came down to:

Elective A:
1) Logic (listed as a philosophy course - should be interesting)
2) Theories of Knowledge and Reality (possibly a class that gives serious discussion to some of the stuff brushed upon in The Matrix? Who knows?)
3) Political Theory (meh, a political course. I'm interested and opinionated, but not as confrontational as some of my friends... usually.)

Elective B:
1) Anthropology of American Life on Film (Intriguing. It looks at how national cultural values and moods are expressed in the movies it creates. Ties in well with my major. I hope I get this one!)
2) Introductory Music Theory (Eh, I agree music is an important part of filmmaking, so knowing more about it might be nice. Like I said, I really want to get "Anthropology of American Life on Film.)
3) Introduction to Shakespeare (I really hope I get into "Anthropology of American Life on Film!)

For the most part, I wasn't too blown away by the class offerings, so hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised in the fall.

Will's New Car
Will, I hate you...

Although in all fairness, the Powerbook my parents got me for Christmas/Birthday/Graduation cost about as much as a good used car, so it works out. Besides, Syracuse doesn't allow freshmen to keep cars on campus, so I'd have to give it up in two and a half months anyway.


...but I still hate you. ;)

Analysis of Apple's Move to Intel

At the risk of further convincing my friends that I am not only a quasi-hippy liberal but also a quasi-hippy Macolyte, I'll just say that Dan Knight of LowEndMac.com has summed the whole situation up far better than I could in this humble little blog, and I agree with most of his predictions (except for the whole "#2 behind Dell" thing. That's just plain wishful thinking.) It's a pretty good read, and it does a good job explaining the pros and cons of the two architectures.

Bottom line: it's a risky move, but if Apple doesn't botch it, you can expect them to become a lot more "relevant" in the computer industry in the next decade.


In other news, my commencement ceremony is tonight. I guess this is It - high school is receding back into the distance, and Life looms large ahead. The next journey begins...

Side Note: What is this? Blogger's spell checker doesn't include the word "blog"? That's just plain stupid!

High School:The End

Well, here I am; The last period of the last day of the last year of my high school career. I've been saying goodbye to a ton of people, some of whom I haven't even talked to in a few years. A lot of people took pictures, but I was too dumb to bring a camera. There was a Senior Tailgate thing this morning before school, but I couldn't make myself get up that early.

It's a weird feeling, kind of surreal. School has been such a part of my life for the last, well, 12 years that it's hard to imagine it not being there. Not that I want it to continue or anything, it's just sort of a strange feeling, y'know? Three things I will definitely not miss are: 1) our school's cafeteria "lunches", 2) The utterly stupid web filter on the internet, and 3) The near-total lack of air conditioning (except in a few computer labs). That last point was really hammered home the last 3 days - it's been hot!

In any case, the commencement ceremony is on Friday (weather permitting) and I don't get my diploma until Monday. But for all intents and purposes, today is The End.

Apple Moving To Intel!

Hell has frozen over.

Just minutes after my earlier post, I'm killing time browsing around the internet, and I find this!

http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/06/06/liveupdate/index.php

Woah. Just woah. This is one of those things in the tech world you'd bet your retirement on not happening (akin to Microsoft deciding to base the next version of Windows on Linux). I don't really have anything to say about this yet, I'm still trying to digest it!

2 Days Left To School!

That's right, just two more days of high school - ever! Well, plus the 20 minutes or so of study hall left today... Can't beat having your study hall teacher say "it's too hot today, let's all go over to that empty computer lab." Computers + air conditioning = heaven!

There's really not much of anything left to do this year. I already presented my big AP CompSci final today, as well as writing the first part of my English final (which is actually pretty funny, so I may post it later if my teacher gives it back). All that's really left is the second half of my English final, which is supposed to be one of those "you can't study for it just sit down and write" deals. Other than that, it's pretty much just yearbook signing and movie watching, and that's about it.

My feelings on graduation are sort of mixed. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait for school to be over. However, like most of my friends have noted, the prospect of being in charge of one's own life, totally, is pretty damn intimidating! I mean, here I am, legal adult and all; do I really feel, as we used to say as little kids, "All grown-up"? *sigh* It'll all come together in the end, I suppose. It always does. All I know is that once I lose the momentum of school/graduation, I'm gonna be pretty relieved... and more than a little "lost".

Half-Life 2 Domino

Just a random thing I found. If anyone had any doubts as to what the HL2 physics engine could do... well, just take a look at this:

MilkandCookies - Half-Life 2 Domino

More meaningful post later... when I feel like it.

Overheating Batteries and Overseas Politics

Wonderful, my PowerBook battery has been recalled. At least it's being handled sensibly: They send me a new one, and then I return my old one in a prepaid shipping box. Although, they only say "please" return the old one. They don't ask for a credit card number or anything, so I'm curious as to whether they actually do anything if you don't return the old battery. There are definite advantages to having a spare laptop battery, albeit one that poses a risk of overheating and blowing up in your face!

In the news: Looks like France has turned down the proposed EU constitution. I'm not sure what exactly I think about this one: there are both good and bad things about European unification. It is good that France realized it's traditionally strong welfare system wouldn't mesh well with what some saw as enforced continent-wide capitalism, but as I see it this is just delaying the inevitable... which can be good in it's own right. Although prolonged bickering and deliberation can be frustrating, it generally results in widely "acceptable" results, and Europe generally works better going slowly than the U.S. (did a loose confederation work here? No....). Meh, it's Europe. They generally figure out what they want... eventually.

The Overly Long Catch-Up Post

Ok, it's been awhile, so long post today.

Senior Prom
I had a lot of fun, though dinner was a little more eventful than planned. Apparantly some people don't understand that when you put several people's stuff on two tables, that means you're reserving both tables. After getting the professional photo taken Diana and I discovered that we had nowhere to sit! I went to find some of my friends to sit with, but the only table we found with halfway normal people at it had only one open seat. It took awhile, but after enough complaining (and some help from the student council vice president) we were able to get a second seat and table setting. The rest of the evening went pretty much as expected: dancing to way too loud music, more dancing, even more dancing, and then some guy performing "Good Riddance". I think he was someone from our school, but i didn't recognize him. Then there was the school-sponsored After Prom which was okay... alright so it was boring, but whatever.

Eagle Board of Review
I passed! This one has been a long time coming. Technically, I'm not actually an Eagle Scout yet, the board just gives a "yes" recommendation to the national headquarters in Texas, where they then make it official. However, once I get my confirmation/acceptance/"yes" letter, then I will have been an Eagle Scout as of monday. It's time-travel via paperwork!

Star Wars Episode III
Saw it. Liked it. It was without a doubt the best of the prequels, although with me the jury's still out on whether it stacks up to the originals. I'll need a second viewing, not least of which due to theater problems. You see, halfway into the opening "crawl," the center sound channels cut out. They just died completely. Of course, complaining did nothing. I went through the whole movie with front and rear audio, but nothing to the sides. I cringe at how much of John Williams' score I probably missed entirely. Honestly, with all the rampant piracy these days, all traditional theaters have left to tout is the "experience" they offer. If they can't be bothered to do that right, then they deserve the declining ticket sales that will inevitably come (though obviously not with Star Wars!)
The worst part about the whole Episode III leak is that it really was a leaked workprint. Someone "inside" the production of the movie, presumably someone working on it, leaked it out. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that seems similar to grabbing a loaded gun, jamming the barrel against your foot, and pulling the trigger with a mad grin on your face.

Ok, enough catch-up. Sleep time...

Macs impersonate X-Box 360

OK, so I should go to bed now, but this is just too funny.

At E3, Microsoft was showing off a bunch of X-Box 360 game demos. The kiosks looked simple enough; a big screen showed the game, and the controller wires went into a box containing an X-box 360, clearly visible through a little window.

A view of one of the kiosks

However, the X-box wasn't running the demos. In fact, it wasn't even turned on! Peering into the mesh on the kiosk's side, what do we see?

A pair of Apple Power Macintosh G5's!

Granted, this isn't surprising. Both systems are based off of the IBM PowerPC architecture, and Microsoft is still probably hammering out the details on the new X-Box's innards. But it's still funny!

Frivolous Fine Print and Temporary Tuxedos

Federal Stafford loans require altogether too much reading of fine print, not to mention legwork! Go get your FASFA PIN, go get your driver's license number, go get two references... and here I thought it would just be a quick form to fill out!

So the Prom's tomorrow, I picked up my tux today. Rental tuxedos are funny things: practically everything is adjustable, and everything else is fake - even the tie! I think I had more trouble getting into a plain old suit for the NHEA (teacher's union) award presentation tonight than I will tomorrow. Where's the sense in that?

Anyway, this Stafford Loan app has kept me up too late, so it's now... high time... for... s l e e p...

I am unimportant, Darth Vader is not

It's a little depressing to google your name, only to find that the first occurance that actually refers to you isn't until page four. On the other hand, I am no longer surprised that the first subdomain I tried registering, mikehanley.blogspot.com, is registered to some random guy who hasn't updated in 2 years.

In other news, in case you haven't seen it, check out Darth Vader's Blog. Someone wrote a weblog in the persona of the infamous Dark Lord of the Sith. Not only is it very entertaining, ("I'll admit it, I cut off the kid's hand. Things went downhill from there.") it also provides a clever and different way to look at the character prior to the now-imminent release of Episode 3.

Oh, and the SlashDot post about this is the fourth result in a Google search for "Darth Vader"...

Quake 4 E3 trailer looks great

The standard "censored" version can be found just about anywhere, but if you dislike the idea of having all the blood (and most people's faces) tinted a disturbing shade of blue, then I highly recommend you check out the home-made "Blood version". I understand that the MPAA makes movie trailers not contain red blood anymore, but since when does this sort of thing apply to internet-distributed videos of video games? At least they do it artfully in movie trailers (Remember the "brown stains" in the Kill Bill trailer?) but this video they just switched the red & blue channels! Yeah, like nobody's going to be able to tell the difference - teal faces are normal, normal I say! Anyway, it looks like Raven got the tone and mood from Quake 2 down pretty faithfully, while still putting there own distinctive touch on it. Quake II was the best in the series, and I love the games Raven has done in the past (Heretic and Hexen primarily), so I'm really looking forward to this game. Now I just need to settle down a bit - no need getting into rabid fanboy mode before release like I did with Doom 3. And Half-Life 2. And the Matrix sequels. But mostly Doom 3.

Returning to the "beauty contest" of the next-gen consoles, Nintendo also unveiled the Revolution. I'm not too interested in the system personally, but I have to admit it wins hands-down in the looks department. Odd, since it's styling almost seems more Sony-esque than Sony's offering. Seriously, how can you not love that blue-glowing, slot-loading DVD drive?

PS3 Official

No sooner do I post about the X-Box 360's complete and utter lack of style, Sony decides to show off the PlayStation 3. Lookin' good, Sony! Minimalism is always a good decision (anyone familiar with my affinity for Macintosh computers will know that) and the choice of colors is a definite plus. The PS3 is also more powerful than the 360, but that's not the reason I think it will "win" this round of the console wars. It will do well for the same reason the PS2 did well: backward compatibility. While people are out wondering whether or not the 360 will still play old X-Box games, the specs for the PS3 show that it will still even play ancient PS1 games! That made my decision right there. Shame we have to wait a year for this beautiful console. The only thing about it that seems iffy to me is the new controller. The old dual-shock design was good - why go for something so radically different? We'll see, maybe it's comfortable or something.

Oh, and if anyone has doubts as to the graphical prowess of the PS3, check out this footage from EA's upcoming "Fight Night Round 3."

Out of boredom, this blog cometh...

Most new blogs start with a sort of statement of purpose, and who am I to question tradition? The stated purpose for this blog is simple: it has none. Some days I might want to rant about some inconsequential thing in my life, others I may have found something cool online that I want to show the world (or, at least, the small subset of the world that happens to, well, care.)

Anyway, I've been looking at some pre-release information on the upcoming X-Box 360. I can't be the only one that thinks this thing looks downright ugly. Sure, Apple and Sony have always been the leaders as far as elegant industrial design, but I thought even Microsoft had a good enough merketing department to not let something like that out. The worst part has to be the odd protrusion on the top for the "removeable" 20 gig hard drive.

On a "personal" note (aka, people who don't know me are extremely unlikely to care), I ordered my tux for the Senior Prom today. The ability to order a good-looking tuxedo a scant 4 days away from the date of the event most definitely does not send the right signals to a chronic procrastinater like myself. Not that I'm complaining, of course.

Well, that's all for now. Eventually I'll decide where I'm going with this blog.

Eventually...