Words Without Explanations

5 Film you have probably never seen but should watch

David — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 05:15:26 +0000

Just a sample of films most North Americans should watch but probably haven’t. All of which are not too obscure and can be rented from their local video store.

1. A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) South Korea

Part thriller, part psychological horror and part something entirely new, either way A Tale of Two Sisters is a must watch for any fan of asian horror, because it is entirely different. A Tale of Two Sisters is a finely woven story about two sisters (obviously) and their secret dark past. Even if you do not like horror, this film’s strengths are it’s deeply layered story and it’s story telling devices. Saying that A Tale of Two Sisters is a horror film is a grave injustice, and it should be taken on it’s own without the preconceived notion that it will be like the Grudge or the Ring. This is not a cheap thrill, this is filmmaking at it’s finest.

2. Primer (2004) USA

Made for around $7000, this remarkable work of indie filmmaking tells a story of two engineers that build a machine based on super conductors and later find out that what they made is so much more. This sci-fi drama may go over the heads of viewers during the first few minutes, but I encourage you to sit through it, and even watch it multiple times. This is a sci-fi film which doesn’t dumb things down like so many do, but is done in a way that almost anyone can understand it, if they put in the effort.

3. Last Life in The Universe (2003) Thailand

Pretentious filmmaking?or just simply brilliant? Kenji is an obsessive compulsive Japanese librarian in Thailand who wants to commit suicide, not because of love or money, but because he’s read that it is peaceful, and simply bliss. One day he meets a woman and everything changes. One of my personal favourite films of all time, this film is beautifully shot, acted superbly, and some would say the perfect film. It’s almost disheartening to hear that people haven’t seen this little gem.

4. Survive Style 5+ (2004) Japan

Survive Style 5+ is a quirky Japanese film that tells the stories of 5 lives which are interwoven with each other. A man who tries over and over to kill his wife, three small time thugs, an advertising director who’s mind is full of ideas, a seemingly normal middle class Japanese family, and a hit man and his manager who photographs the victims as they die. The filming style if very rhythmic, and sensibilities truly Japanese. That’s not to say you will be lost in the cultural divide. This film has style coming out of it’s ass. If you don’t know what to watch and have 2 hours to burn, pick this up and it will change the way you watch films.

5. Oldboy (2003) South Korea

The second installment in the Revenge Trilogy by Park Chan-Wook. This is NOT a sequel of any sort. Oh Dae-Su is kidnapped one stormy evening and imprisoned for 15 years to be released with a suit full of money, a cell phone, and one questions on his mind. Who did this to him? Not for the faint of heart. Oldboy is simply a must watch for anyone who can stomach it. A raw and gritty revenge story blows every other film of it’s kind out of the water.

And so ends the 5 films you have probably never seen but should watch. These are some of my favourite films, however there are many more that I did not mention since they might have been a little too obscure. These films should be easy to film at your local video store, or if not amazon.com. I encourage everyone to view at least 1 film on the list, I realize my taste may be very different from a lot people’s however these films are the most accessible to get people to discover and watch films they would have never seen before otherwise.

Question of the day: What were you thinking!?

David — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 23:52:43 +0000

If you are ever asked “What were you thinking!?” the answer is always ALWAYS “I wasn’t thinking”.

Robot’s night out

David — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:23:11 +0000

The night was quiet, the only thing that could be heard was the smooth joint movements of steel. Steel of awesomeness!

Robot was ready, Robot was eager to party down!

There was a party, a birthday party and Hallowe’en party all in one. It would be a magical, whimsical, and fulfilling night. Only one problem, Robot had no way to get there… or did he?

Robot thought of the polar ice caps, and global warming so he took public transportation. Robot bumped his head quite a few times on the way because the bus was not fully equipped to handle so much radness in one place. However there was one such place that could handle Robot’s radness.

And it was party time for Robot and his friends.

The End.

Death Proof and why it sucks

David — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:59:18 +0000

1. Too long
This film drags on! It’s about an hour in before anything happens, then it just starts over again from boring, to slightly entertaining. The characters aren’t compelling to say the least, so you pray, and pray for their death scenes, which isn’t worth it in the end.

2. Quentin Tarantino Dialogue
Quentin Tarantino dialogue is fast, witty, character driven, and memorable. This film didn’t have that, it had Quentin Tarantino writing half assed dialogue while jerking himself off. None of it was memorable, nor witty. It was character driven, but I couldn’t care less for the characters, it was just fast and annoying. Imagine hearing the road runner noise for 2 hours and you’ll get the gist of this film.

3. Quentin Tarantino’s Acting
He should not be in his own films. It completely takes you out of it, and makes you cringe at every moment he opens his mouth. It’s just painful to watch. Alfred Hitchcock was subtle, Tarantino is just about as subtle as a penis being shoved into your face, which is basically what this film amounts to.

4. Quentin Tarantino
This film is just a Tarantino jerkoff-fest. Pretentious? very. The entire time I can hear Tarantino say “Hey look at how awesome I am, look at all these homages to grindhouse films! This film wasn’t made for anybody but Quentin Tarantino himself.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a lot of his other films, but he hasn’t made a distinctively great film since Pulp Fiction.

Public urinal etiquette

David — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 02:13:48 +0000

1. If there are enough urinals, please do not pee beside me. This is not “male bonding” time, nor should it ever be considered that way.

2. No eye contact period! There should be no reason to, even if you are talking to me stare at the wall or your junk.

3. No Talking. Only under extreme circumstances are you allowed to talk to me, what could you possibly say that is so important while I urinate that couldn’t wait till I zip up and wash my hands?

4. Stand close to your urinal. I know you don’t want splash backs, but no one wants to see your junk excreting urine at a high velocity. Cover up, save the bragging for the gym locker room.

Annoying facets of blogs pt. 2

David — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 05:38:56 +0000

when I really want

When I’m using an online editor to write, when I press return I want
not

. I hate the format of

. If I wanted to start a new paragraph I would just use two line breaks, I don’t need a totally different line break.

2. Ads in the middle of articles
You know when you are reading an interesting article and there’s an ad right in the middle of it? doesn’t that piss you off!? I don’t mind ads when they are unintrusive, but right in the middle of an article? If I want to support your site I will click on your ads, but if they are in the way and hinder the design of your site, I simple will just stop going to your site.

3. Multiple page articles
Are you kidding me? I realize there is usually a single page or print page view, but why isn’t that the default? There should be no reason that I have to click on a link to read the rest of the article when it could have just been loaded at that time. Multiple page articles are banned from my online reading unless deemed absolutely necessary. In a world where scroll wheels and scrolling mechanisms are abundant and clicking getting more tedious, websites should never implement clicks to lessen scrolling.

Email meaningful again

David — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 21:46:34 +0000

Email used to be spamming holes, but now people communicate online via instant messaging clients, MySpace messages and Facebook wall posts. I don’t know if it’s just me, but now more than before when I receive an email from someone I know it seems more meaningful. Emails are very personal, only I can see them (most of the time). Emails are usually longer, more personal and spell checked.

Receiving an email as opposed to a message on a social networking site is like, receiving a letter in the mail as opposed to an e-card, or text messaging as opposed to actually calling someone.

Email is more of a novelty and usually takes more time to write than a Facebook wall post. Which makes emails significantly more meaningful to receive. Now if only that assistant to the deceased diamond miner in south Africa would transfer that 2.5 million into my bank account.

Why the world should hate Facebook

David — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 04:52:06 +0000

1. Status updates have “User Name is…” prepended to it
Why is this limited to the present tense? Simply put, it’s stupid. I am not always doing something, I should be able to just post my thoughts up in a very simple manner like Twitter, Jaiku, and to a lesser degree Pownce. I know there is a note feature, but nobody reads each other’s notes. Blogs fail on social networking sites.

2. Application Overload
I like the fact that you can add apps. I hate the fact that people moronically clutter up their Facebook page to resemble Joan Rivers’ face on crack. I just don’t visit their pages anymore, but the thing is they just add more crap because some other moron keeps sending application invitation, and the first person blindly accepts it. Facebook used to be very clean, enable a feature to view friends pages without loading their apps. I only want to see the essentials, their wall, and contact info. I don’t care if they got bit by a zombie.

3. Intuitiveness
Simply, it’s not very intuitive at all. Everything is in the wrong place and Facebook forces you to abide by their poorly designed website. No wonder people accept pointless application requests, they don’t know what the fuck is going on because of a poor GUI interface.

4. Rejecting stupidity
I have heard a few people complain about not having the ability to decline picture tags. If someone you know tags you, you should be able to decline the tag. I guess privacy doesn’t really exist on facebook. And for everyone else they could have an auto accept tag function if you don’t want to be bothered by accepting tags all day long. I’d like an auto delete friend function for who ever sends me another pointless application request.

Those are just a few things wrong with Facebook. Each one is a good enough reason to delete your account right now, however you can’t because everyone you know is on Facebook. However I see the frequency of updates dwindling, especially since school is in right now and is prime Facebook season. I predict Facebook will be dead in a few months and another social networking site will come along to piss me off once again.

Jaiku

David — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:39:23 +0000

Jaiku is a micro blog of sorts, think of sort posts (140 characters or less). You really have to try it to get what it’s all about. If you used the Facebook status feeds a lot that is what Jaiku is essentially, without the annoying “username is” before each status update, which limits the coherency of what you can write.

The Good:
-Simple and clean interface
-Laid back feel
-Groups
-Image preview in post
-Custom background colour/image

The Bad:
-Limited features (no file sharing)
-No easy way to find groups other than you browse randomly or search for the name
-Small user network (your friends probably won’t be on it)
-User “Abe Vigoda” stating every few hours that he is alive

I like using Jaiku, however I really use it as a micro blogging tool that I embed on a few blogs. I could see a service such as this really taking off if they add more of a social network and more useful features, however that might clutter things up and make it unusable like MySpace and Facebook.

Blogging tools

David — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:39:46 +0000

Links: tinyurl.com Shortens urls. Especially useful if you are micro blogging and only allowed to input x many characters before a url cuts off.

Media: tinypic.com Upload video and photos (no need to create a profile). Supplies you with embed code to post to a page.

divshare.com Share your media files online (you must create a profile to upload). Supplies embed code to post not just video files but also audio files aswell.

Files: senduit.com Simply way to share any type of file. Upload a file (no need to create a profile) and you get a download link. the link will bring you to a page in which you can download the file. You can set when a file expires.