If you haven’t seen the Ask a Ninja video podcast before, you should definitely check it out. The Ninja answers questions every week in true ninja fashion. He just reviewed Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and you can see the review here. It doesn’t put to rest the eternal question (Ninjas, duh) but the review is hilarious and definitely accurate. Some choice quotes:
Just take the general confusion of Pirates 2 and multiply that by a bucket of chicken…That doesn’t make any sense…Neither does this movie…
Everybody was a pirate. If you were in the first movie and you weren’t a pirate…you’re now a pirate in this movie…Fish pirates…Had always been pirates…Half Dead…Full Dead…Just pretending to be Pirates…
Ninjas of the Caribbean would be a GREAT movie.
Too funny. Go watch the rest. My opinion of Pirates 3 about the same but I enjoyed it a bit more. I didn’t enjoy Pirates 2 much at all and I didn’t go in expecting Spartacus. The movie started off really slow, built up something like fourteen plot lines and was really kind of confusing for the first hour or so. After that, all manner of crazy broke loose and the rest of the movie was very unconfusing and pretty much involved all manner of pirates fighting amongst themselves.
Characters. Jack Sparrow was a let-down in this one. Geoffrey Rush got all of the cool pirate lines instead. Chow Yun Fat was cool as the Pirate Lord of Singapore (which incidentally would make a great name for a band). Who doesn’t love the monkey and the pirate with the fake eye? Again, Geoffrey Rush is where it’s at. Captain Barbossa OWNS the good parts of Pirates 3.
So anyway, My crappy movie meter was going off watching the movie but I didn’t care because there was so much going on that I was still entertained. If I want substance, I’ll rent Braveheart. Pirates 3 isn’t going to win ANY awards (not even the critically acclaimed and largely un-patented Brian and Lee’s “I’d Watch It Again at the Dollar Theatre Award”) but it wasn’t bad for a one-time Sunday matinee.
P.S. Oh yeah, and the ending isn’t great…in fact, it’s kind of terrible…and by “kind of”…I mean “really”. Ouch.
What’s up? I wanted to post a quick update. I’m doing pretty well here. Things are kind of busy but that’s to be expected. I found a roommate in San Francisco who I think I’ll get along with well. The apartment where I’ll be living is in the Inner Sunset. The apartment looks great and I’m pretty excited. I’ve already booked the moving people to come get my stuff, as well as my car.
By the way, if you haven’t used professional movers lately, I have got to let in on this bunch of shenanigans. First of all, everyone has had a different person move them and the only thing they agree on is that “{insert mover name} is terrible. They broke my tv and then they hit my brother with the car and then stole the knobs from my faucets! Don’t use them whatever you do!” You’ll go through many iterations of this with different people that you know. After that the next step is to call every mover in the book and get their answering machines or a web page form. They will of course ignore you and eventually you’ll pick a mover based on the highly scientific method of picking the one that has the most modern looking trucks. I like Budget because their trucks are blue (I like blue), look new and have those jokes about not packing the cat on the side of the truck. Unfortunately, they don’t do nationwide so I had to go with my backup plan of randomly going with the first company that would call me back. I think I’m now being moved by the pizza guy.
So anyway, I got some good advice from friends and some of the people at my new company that had made the move before. I was planning on driving West but instead I’m having the stuff and car shipped. Both movers gave me windows of time during which they’ll pick up the stuff or the car, as well as windows of time when each will be delivered. It’s lots of fun trying to plan that. Imagine waiting for the cable guy, but instead of “We’ll be there between noon and five, just wait for us.” they say “We’ll be there between the day you specified and three weeks from then…Maybe. Just wait for us.” Good times.
I digress. My schedule is mostly worked out as well. Here’s what I have so far:
- My last day of work here will be the 24th or the 25th of May.
- I’ll be visiting friends and family out of town for the next few weeks and I’ll be back in Birmingham by June 5.
- The movers will pick up my car and stuff on June 5th and 6th.
- Lee and Tara’s wedding activities begin June 13th and the wedding is on June 16th, so I’ll be in Birmingham then.
- I will either be in Birmingham or doing some other traveling between June 5 and June 11th. I’m still working on that since I won’t have a car during that time period.
- Either way, I’m flying out to San Francisco on June 17th
- I think that I am starting work on June 18th.
So, that’s about it. Most of my plans are coming together well. I want to thank everyone for all of your kind words and comments. Everyone has rushed to offer support and encouragement and I’m perpetually thankful for my great friends and co-workers. Thanks again.
I hope everyone is doing well. I have some news to share with everyone. I know that I’ve seemed very busy lately and I appreciate everyone’s support in the last month or so. So, I’ll just get to it. I took a new job in San Francisco and I am moving in a few weeks. I have been very happy with CTS and Birmingham but I got a very good offer and I am looking forward to a new place and company.
I started tentatively looking for a job a little while ago and I was contacted by Vertigo software. They are a small software company that does project-based consulting for a number of great companies. I went out to interview with them about a week ago and I was very impressed. The people seem friendly and smart and I think I’m going to learn a lot and enjoy working with them. They also showed me around the bay area a little and that pretty much seals the deal. The area is beautiful and has a ridiculous amount to offer.
So, what are the next steps for me? I’m working out my notice for CTS here in Birmingham and tying up loose ends. I am going to sell my place so let me know if you know anyone that wants a great condo near English Village. I am also looking for a place to live in “The City”. My new company is located in Point Richmond, across the bay from San Francisco. I’m going to live in San Francisco and commute over. Craigslist has been my stomping ground for the last week or so. It’s amazing how great that site is in a major metropolitan area. I’m probably getting a roommate since the bay area is famous for it’s housing costs.
Anyway, that’s about the long and short of it. I may provide a little more detail on the company later and I am going to send out an email in a while but I thought I’d provide a little more detail here at the site. I’ve had a great run at CTS and in Birmingham. I attribute both of those to the people that have enriched my life and I’m very thankful for them all. I know that California is far away and people are busy so I don’t expect everyone to visit, however know that if you do, you are welcome to call me up. Thanks and wish me luck!
The whole Web 2.0, social community thing just hit a big reality check over at Digg.com. If you don’ t know digg, it’s a social website that allows users to vote content up and down. Only stuff way up shows up on the front page. Even comments from users can be voted up and down. Well, a little while ago, someone got hold of the HD-DVD key (the digital key that allows decryption of HD-DVD movies and posted it. Shortly after that, the site descended into anarchy. Digg has always been a haven because they don’t censor their users (though a story appears every few days claiming differently.) In this case, they pulled the HD-DVD key story. HD-DVD sponsors the digg podcast and digg was afraid of what would happen. The users went NUTS. Digg apparently starting banning users and removing stories as fast as they could. It looks like they even shut down story submission at one point. The result is that just about every story in the last 18 hours has something random title and the HD-DVD key in it. People whipped out every phrase from DMCA to free speech to sold out. It even spilled over onto other sites like Reddit , TechCrunch and TechPwn. The CEO issued a statement that basically said get over it (I’m paraphrasing) and just made things worse. Eventually, the whole frontpage of the site was nothing but crazy stories with the key in them.
Anyway, at the end of the day, it looks like they are sorting everything out. Kevin Rose (I don’t envy the last 24 hours of his life) has issued a statement on the digg blog:
But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.
If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.
Things are already returning to normal over there. All the HD-DVD stories are being voted down and they’re already beginning to forgive Kevin. However, you have to wonder if this apparent win for user-generated content is in anyone’s best interest. The users now know they may not be able to trust Digg completely. They’ll have that tiny doubt next time, wondering whether Digg will stand up for them. On the other hand, Digg has taken up a sword in what has so far been a very mess fight with a large, sue-happy media company. I’m not sure who ranks higher on the “my life is not as great as it was 24 hours ago” scale.
