<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140</id><updated>2011-08-25T00:06:34.736-07:00</updated><category term='so it begins'/><category term='Summer'/><category term='articles'/><category term='Fringe'/><category term='ARG'/><category term='afederation'/><category term='visual literacy'/><category term='Lost'/><category term='movies'/><category term='craziness'/><category term='interesting'/><category term='sketchup'/><category term='awesomeness'/><category term='DMI'/><category term='Blockbuster'/><category term='youtube'/><category term='Batman'/><category term='Advertising'/><category term='Test'/><category term='stupidity'/><category term='soundtracks'/><category term='don&apos;t let Frank Miller near comics again'/><category term='the blog'/><category term='Review-a-thon'/><category term='internet'/><category term='Olympics'/><category term='tilt-shift'/><category term='blair'/><category term='radio'/><category term='photography'/><category term='dharma'/><category term='awesome'/><category term='Watchmen'/><category term='program'/><category term='music'/><category term='break'/><category term='website'/><category term='J.J. Abrams'/><category term='school'/><category term='cool'/><category term='scrubs'/><category term='fun'/><category term='The Office'/><category term='Movie Reviews summer blockbusters The Great Summer Movie Blockbuster Review-a-thon Note Thingy'/><category term='Terminator: Salvation'/><category term='Bad Robot'/><category term='chuck'/><category term='Star Trek'/><category term='itunes'/><category term='google'/><category term='Take 2'/><title type='text'>Hello, Nice To Meet You</title><subtitle type='html'></subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>27</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-5514790373502296209</id><published>2009-09-21T05:31:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2009-09-21T05:31:40.209-07:00</updated><title type='text'>John Locke - Like A Boss</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;object height='350' width='425'&gt;&lt;param value='http://youtube.com/v/pHUmkcGLVwE' name='movie'/&gt;&lt;embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/pHUmkcGLVwE'/&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Awesome!!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-5514790373502296209?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/5514790373502296209/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=5514790373502296209' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/5514790373502296209'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/5514790373502296209'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/09/john-locke-like-boss.html' title='John Locke - Like A Boss'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-8569943046547470239</id><published>2009-08-15T16:55:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2009-08-15T16:55:39.377-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Adventures in the Multiverse: Episode 1</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;object height='350' width='425'&gt;&lt;param value='http://youtube.com/v/ky6DiDcFWtg' name='movie'/&gt;&lt;embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/ky6DiDcFWtg'/&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Two people find a portal to another universe, and mysterious events ensue.  Please note that this was just made for fun, improvised out of boredom, and shot/edited in about 5 hours total (which accounts for all the plotholes– where did Mark come from?  Why didn’t other metal things not go through the portal?).  I mainly did this just to learn a bit more about Premiere before I leave my other computer home, as well as try out using Garage Band for scoring.  Enjoy!&lt;br /&gt;Starring Mark Federman and Jake Lefler&lt;br /&gt;Directed, Edited, and Sound Effects by Alex Federman&lt;br /&gt;Credit music from Troll 2, a hilarious 80's movie: http://www.hulu.com/troll-2&lt;br /&gt;All other sound effects and music from Garage Band.&lt;br /&gt;JAM Productions 2009&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There probably won't be any more episodes, but you never know!!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-8569943046547470239?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/8569943046547470239/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=8569943046547470239' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/8569943046547470239'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/8569943046547470239'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/08/adventures-in-multiverse-episode-1.html' title='Adventures in the Multiverse: Episode 1'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-7662639780405720413</id><published>2009-05-24T16:53:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2009-05-24T17:07:22.388-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Terminator: Salvation'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='movies'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Review-a-thon'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='blair'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='so it begins'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Batman'/><title type='text'>Terminator: Salvation</title><content type='html'>&lt;strong&gt;Terminator: Salvation Pre-Watch Thoughts:&lt;/strong&gt; Since I started watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (I really hope it doesn't get cancelled next year, but it probably will-This is a great show!!), I have been really addicted to all things Terminator...I'm just rewatching all of the movies. What I like about them is the many issues (man vs. machine, fate vs. destiny, time travel-predestination paradox, what it means to be a hero, what the effects of fighting in a war against an unbeatable enemy are) that are brought up. Also, killer robots that are almost unstoppable. The trailers look awesome, Christian Bale is John Connor, the effects look really really amazing, and it looks like it's going to tie in with the whole mythology while adding a lot. Totally a must-see for me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Terminator: Salvation: Rating: 6.5/10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I would rate this better than Wolverine, though...I hadn’t really figured out my scale then.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Star Trek is a great example of how to relaunch/reboot a franchise. Terminator: Salvation is not. After just having rewatched Terminator 2, the new entry pales in comparison. It is slightly better than T3, though. There were many good ideas, but just as many missed opportunities or things that were handled poorly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Much of this lies with the script. The plot is pounded into our brains so many times, and it gets really repetitive. John Connor is a bad-ass. This is not the future his mother warned him about. Terminators are powerful and evil. All of these things could be shown through the action, but no, we just have "Those are mototerminators, there’s no way to beat them" and "You can’t stop them" "I have to try" and "I’m a bad person" "you deserve a second chance" (paraphrased from memory, but not far off). Also, people do things, but they really don’t have any effect. Set pieces just exist to be set pieces ("Oh, that looks cool!!!").&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By the way, I just want to rant about the title sequence for a second. Feel free to read ahead if you think this is spoilers. After the company logos, and the "A McG Film" type credits over a strange cgi background (doesn’t make much sense until later), we get something similar to the original Terminator main credits. But nowhere close. This kind of takes its inspiration from all the other movies that have credits over close-ups of iconic images (the original Batman, for example). BUT, the Terminator logo is not really that iconic or important to the franchise, and the way they did it just looks out of place. And nowhere to be found is the theme music, rather a forgettable summary of ideas by Danny Elfman (WTF??). Then our third credit sequence plays over a scene introducing Marcus Wright. Besides the dialogue being ridiculously cheesy, the titles take up almost as much room as the actors. It’s just big text in white and red that is&lt;br /&gt;almost as big as the character’s heads. So you end up reading "Music by Danny Elfman" instead of concentrating on what is going on in the scene. It’s just a pointless, stupid way to do opening credits, and you have to sit through it three times. RANT OVER.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another big flaw of the movie is its characters. About half of them don’t do anything important at all and could be removed completely without changing the plot (little kid, Resistance generals, John Connor’s wife, Connor’s second in command Barnes, a female pilot who is sort of a love interest). Even Kyle Reese doesn’t have to be in it, as he is just an excuse to give the other characters something to do (and he’s one of the central people in the Terminator mythology). I don’t see why Kate Brewster had to be pregnant (she was an awesome character in T3 and was supposed to be a general in the future-war...is it so they can have a new protagonist for the sequels after these sequels??). Marcus Wright, the semi-main character, is well played, but there is nothing that makes the audience even remotely care about who he is or what happens to him. The actors aren’t terrible, it’s just they don’t have much to do and are really undeveloped.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This makes the rest of the movie drop significantly in quality, making the special effects look bad, even though they’re not. I mean, everything looks cool, but when you don’t care whether characters will survive or not, then the effects are just meaningless explosions. You are brought out of the moment because you are watching ACTORS being attacked by ROBOTS THAT AREN’T THERE. There was one scene where Connor was shooting at a Terminator, and I could almost envision the director saying "There’s a Terminator coming toward you, just shoot at it and we’ll add it in later." For a film dedicated to Stan Winston, who did the original practical Terminator effects in the other movies, this seems almost like an insult.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many reviewers have been saying that Christian Bale did a bad job, but I actually think he was one of the stronger parts of the movie. Despite having oversimplified dialogue and a bad script, Bale handles all the physical action while still showing emotion. In case you’re wondering, the Batman voice isn’t really present at all. I can see how the character changed from a young, naive&lt;br /&gt;boy to handling the responsibility of saving the human race, and Bale shows how Connor is both afraid of the future and ready to lead. For example, there’s one moment early on where Connor sees some information in a Skynet computer, and then realizes that this event will start the chain of events and time travel in the other movies. Anton Yelchin does a good job playing Kyle Reese, but he doesn’t really do that much in the end.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As for the other elements of the movie...I already commented on how forgettable the music was. The set design and stunts are really cool, and the ideas behind the ending fight sequence were solid and had some good, but foreseeable twists. I kept getting annoyed at how nobody was ever dirty, despite being in a war in a future full of rust and decay (you could tell they were actors). There were good action sequences, though many were revealed in the trailers. The ending was pretty stupid, though...you’ll see what I mean.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I think the director/screenwriters were trying to emulate the original movies while still creating a plot of their own, but the new story isn’t that great and the nods to previous installments are obvious and feel like they were stolen and sewn into a different movie. However, they ignored most of what made the franchise what it is: ordinary people being confronted by monsters, time travel (with all its confusion), examination of relationships under terrible circumstances, the question of free will (there is no fate but what we make). Here’s to hoping that if a sequel is made, it can improve on this movie. If you want good Terminator, see Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles (the first season is out on DVD).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-7662639780405720413?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/7662639780405720413/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=7662639780405720413' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/7662639780405720413'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/7662639780405720413'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/05/terminator-salvation.html' title='Terminator: Salvation'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-3608276100657974892</id><published>2009-05-15T17:51:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2009-05-15T17:53:07.706-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='cool'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='movies'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Take 2'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='awesome'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='J.J. Abrams'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Review-a-thon'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Star Trek'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='so it begins'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='articles'/><title type='text'>Star Trek Rewatch</title><content type='html'>&lt;strong&gt;Star Trek RE-Review&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, I saw it again, so I think I should re-evaluate what I wrote before. First of all, the soundtrack was awesome (I got it and just listening to it is really exciting and epic, maybe better than the movie itself). Second, the movie was a lot better the first time, maybe because of the audience I saw it with (I never really considered that this would make much of a difference). Because when I saw it the first time everyone knew more than me, I felt like certain things were more special, and when I looked them up on Wikipedia, and recognized them now, they weren’t as funny/layered. Third, I noticed a lot of things the actors did that were really subtle (can’t pinpoint anything exactly, but they were there). I said in my first review that I thought Chekov was sort of annoying, with the accent, but I was too caught up in just hearing the accent that I totally didn’t notice he pronounced V’s as W’s ("We are headed toward planet Wulcan"). It was hilarious. Finally, I didn’t really like the sequence on the ice planet in my first review, but it was much better on the rewatch, because I wasn’t sure when it was going to happen. It still didn’t fit in with the rest of the movie very well, though. So, I’ll keep review coming, hopefully better than this one. I’m kind of split about Angels and Demons right now, but I’ll try to see it. BTW, Leonard Nimoy is awesome.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!!!  \\ // /&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-3608276100657974892?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/3608276100657974892/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=3608276100657974892' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/3608276100657974892'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/3608276100657974892'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/05/star-trek-rewatch.html' title='Star Trek Rewatch'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-2768374054229394950</id><published>2009-05-12T15:15:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2009-05-12T15:19:12.699-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='awesomeness'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='fun'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='internet'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='J.J. Abrams'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='ARG'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Fringe'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Lost'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='awesome'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='google'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='so it begins'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Star Trek'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='interesting'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='itunes'/><title type='text'>Fringe!!</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://fringewiki.fox.com/"&gt;&lt;img alt="Fringe" src="http://image.wetpaint.com/image/1/XOpOrA8vRZ6QIJSMuKPHDw40446" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:-2;"&gt;Are you a &lt;a href="http://fringewiki.fox.com/"&gt;Fringe&lt;/a&gt; Fan?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Awesome show, finale tonight!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Stay tuned for more reviews!!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-2768374054229394950?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/2768374054229394950/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=2768374054229394950' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/2768374054229394950'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/2768374054229394950'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/05/fringe.html' title='Fringe!!'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-2346129005669974655</id><published>2009-05-02T13:28:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2009-05-02T13:36:19.121-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='cool'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='soundtracks'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='awesome'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='J.J. Abrams'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Review-a-thon'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Star Trek'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Bad Robot'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Movie Reviews summer blockbusters The Great Summer Movie Blockbuster Review-a-thon Note Thingy'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Summer'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Blockbuster'/><title type='text'>Summer Movie Review 2: Star Trek</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;Star Trek &lt;strong&gt;Pre-Watch Thoughts&lt;/strong&gt;: SEEING THIS ON SATURDAY!! I've never really seen Star Trek (tv or movies) before, but I have a general idea what it's about...I guess I'm more of a Star Wars person. HOWEVER, I will watch anything that J.J. Abrams does, because I really like LOST and Fringe. Also, the special effects and cast look really good. And Michael Giacchino, who is brilliant, is doing the score.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Star Trek: Rating 9.5 out of 10&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;This is the first movie that I have seen in an advance screening, and it was a perfect way to start the summer. The Majestic didn’t open until ten, but my brother and I got there at 7:30-ish. Everyone else there seemed just as excited as we were, and I had a nice conversation about some other movies. When the lights finally went down, I was really hoping this movie would be good, and it totally beat my expectations.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;I didn’t know much about Star Trek in the first place, having just watched only one episode the day before ("The City on the Edge of Tomorrow", which was pretty interesting) and looked at Wikipedia. Needless to say, I didn’t feel lost at all. Despite the time travel and references to the original series, everything was clear and well-planned out. J.J. Abrams did an excellent job of directing and incorporating both the new and old ideas, and the script was funny (I don’t think there were any lame jokes), intense, and emotional while keeping the action going. All of the main characters had full arcs (especially Kirk and Spock), and you can see how everyone worked strongly as a team.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;The reason all this works is because of the excellent acting. I thought originally that this would be a weak point in the movie, that people wouldn’t accept a new cast, but the new cast ARE the same characters. They’re all instantly likable just because they are iconic figures, except for maybe Chekov and Sulu, who I don’t know much about. Chris Pine captured Kirk’s playful manner and strong leadership skills exactly, and Zachary Quinto was completely engulfed in Spock’s inner struggle between his two heritages. I didn’t really like Quinto on Heroes from what I’ve seen, but he was awesome here. The relationship between Kirk and Spock progressed very naturally and you can see how they become friends. Providing perfect comedy relief are Karl Urban as Bones McCoy (he looks and acts almost exactly like the guy in the original series) and the always hilarious Simon Pegg as Scotty. Leonard Nimoy was really good too, and he and Quinto were very similar. Uhura did a good job, but didn’t really have much to do the whole movie. Chekov and Sulu kind of got on my nerves a bit, but at least Sulu has awesome swordfighting skills (seriously, swordfighting in a sci-fi movie? Oh wait...lightsabers). Anton Yelchin, who plays Chekov, is supposed to be playing Kyle Reese in Terminator, and I hope he’s more likable in that. I think it was good that they didn’t cast incredibly famous people, because that would have been kind of distracting (the only person I felt that with was Simon Pegg).&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;Michael Giacchino’s score was fine, featuring some elements of the original series music. I didn’t think it was as strong as his Lost score or the music he did for Ratatouille and the Incredibles, but it did have some recognizable motifs that provided a backdrop for the action. One of the cool things was how the music changed when characters were in space rather than in a fight. The cinematography was very unique in that it used a lot of different lens flares and lighting effects (it made the action seem a lot more realistic). The special effects were also very good (the usual neat spaceships, explosions, and lasers), but I think the explosions could have been better and the teleportation effect was kind of corny. I guess if you want to see explosions, go see Transformers (they are doing a very good job marketing that, by the way...the trailers look really cool). However, the opening sequence was very awesome, and the effects and music make it very emotional. It was cool how they seamlessly incorporated CGI into making many different locations, but also used functional sets. You actually feel like you’re in space looking at different planets.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;So what didn’t I like? Well, as I said before, some of the minor characters aren’t developed that much. There is a sequence on a snow planet with some monsters that feels more like Star Wars than Star Trek. It was kind of pointless. Spock’s relationship with Uhura seemed to come out of nowhere and was not developed too much. Nero, the film’s villain, didn’t do much for most of the movie, usually commanding other people, and when he does fight, the sequence is kind of short. It’s actually kind of hard to come up with any more.&lt;/blockquote&gt;It’s been said that the second movie is already in production. If so, there are four things that I think they should do:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;No more Time Travel- It was an interesting plot device, but if they keep using it people will get tired of it and things can be too easily explained.&lt;br /&gt;More powerful enemies- I thought Nero was a good enemy in that the audience was somewhat sympathetic to him, but they really drove in the point that what he was doing he did for revenge. The next bad guy should be really truly evil, and maybe be from a group of evil aliens (that way, they don’t have to save the epic war for the third movie). The third movie could deal with some kind of cosmic power. I’m sure there’s lots of stuff from the show they can draw on.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Minor Characters developed more- I guess they weren’t as likable because we don’t know that much about them. If Kirk starts to grow into his role as Captain, I’d like to see him be more of the leader and the other characters change more also.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;It shouldn’t take place on Earth or Vulcan. This movie had a lot of scenes on these planets. Writers, go far away from this solar system. The Enterprise is supposed to be exploring far away universes, not exclusively dealing with threats to this one.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;I don’t want to poke at too many flaws, because this movie was very solid and probably the best movie I’ve seen in the past couple of months. Good writing, acting, directing, effects, basically just good overall. I’ll probably see it again, and I recommend it to everybody!!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-2346129005669974655?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/2346129005669974655/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=2346129005669974655' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/2346129005669974655'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/2346129005669974655'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/05/summer-movie-review-2-star-trek.html' title='Summer Movie Review 2: Star Trek'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-2797757346621167522</id><published>2009-05-02T13:23:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2009-05-02T13:28:00.278-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='cool'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Lost'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='awesomeness'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='soundtracks'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='movies'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='fun'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Movie Reviews summer blockbusters The Great Summer Movie Blockbuster Review-a-thon Note Thingy'/><title type='text'>The Great Summer Movie Blockbuster Review-a-thon Note Thingy</title><content type='html'>I started this on Facebook, I'll post all my reviews on here also!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Wolverine &lt;strong&gt;Pre-Watch thoughts&lt;/strong&gt;: I started watching this online, which kind of goes against my principles (I don't really like watching movies online, TV shows are ok), but I'm not a huge X_Men/Marvel fan. The workprint version is kind of cool in that you can see how they did some of the fx, but I don't think it's that good so far (I'm about half an hour in). I guess I'll do a Marvel vs. DC note soon, i've been thinking about it (DC wins, by the way).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wolverine: Rating 6.5 out of 10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;I didn’t think it was as terrible as many people have been saying. The directing and acting were very well done, but my main problem was with the plot. The dialogue and major plot points come off as very cliched (he asks for dog tags with the name "Wolverine" on them...I thought he was given that name by Weapon X), and most of the movie was already featured in the trailers. Wolverine himself is not that relatable, because we don’t know too much about him. It’s like the writer asks us to have sympathy with him just because he’s Wolverine and he’s a hero (a storyline with his wife drives his internal conflict, but it’s not very effective because we only know her for about two short scenes). SPOILER: There’s one part where Wolverine leaves a special team because he thinks what they do is immoral, but only a bit later he decides to take revenge (Spoiler End). Also, Stryker is a terrible villain and the way they dealt with him in the end was really stupid. The final resolution was very well done, except with a bit too much of Deus Ex Machina.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;The special effects really aren’t that great (I know I was watching the unfinished version, but a lot looked mostly done) (the first chase scene was boring, and the other fight scenes are too short). It was interesting to see the fight choreography though, how Wolverine and Sabertooth fight like animals and how the mutants use their powers. One issue I had was with the bad guys. If Wolverine is supposed to be so powerful, they would have to be really powerful also, but they continually seem to let him get away.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;I guess a lot of people went into this movie thinking it would be like Watchmen (the plot is somewhat reminiscent, one hero visits others) or The Dark Knight, a deconstruction of superheroes on a grand scale. It actually plays like a bit better than average summer popcorn movie, and there are so many opportunities that they could have tied in important themes or incredible moments, but missed. For example, the whole opening credits sequence with Wolverine fighting in many wars could be expanded, because it was actually really interesting.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;The other thing people seem to be complaining about was the use of the other X-Men as basically cameos. Seeing as I really haven’t read that many X-Men comic books, I don’t really know how bad they messed anyone up, but it was pretty annoying how characters just showed up and left. I mean, Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) only had about 10 minutes total screen time, and I feel really sorry for Kevin Durand. Gambit was incredibly cool, though, and I didn’t like him that much in the comics. Also, I expected Wolverine to be a lot darker and to make a lot of sarcastic quips. Jackman’s Wolverine was mostly serious the whole time, which I wasn’t really used to. Overall, I think this movie is a conglomeration of good ideas, bad choices and execution, too many Fox-mandated ideas, and not really being in touch with what the audience wanted to see . But mostly bad choices.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-2797757346621167522?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/2797757346621167522/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=2797757346621167522' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/2797757346621167522'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/2797757346621167522'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/05/great-summer-movie-blockbuster-review.html' title='The Great Summer Movie Blockbuster Review-a-thon Note Thingy'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-3849553726142328647</id><published>2009-04-21T13:35:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2009-04-21T13:40:41.962-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='chuck'/><title type='text'>Save Chuck!!</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://chucktv.net/images/Chuck_WatchBuyShareWrite_003.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://chucktv.net/images/Chuck_WatchBuyShareWrite_003.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Because TSCC will probably be cancelled and Pushing Daisies was already!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;We Need Good TV!!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-3849553726142328647?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/3849553726142328647/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=3849553726142328647' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/3849553726142328647'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/3849553726142328647'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/04/save-chuck.html' title='Save Chuck!!'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-7339906353354334720</id><published>2009-02-18T16:48:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2009-02-18T16:48:20.667-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Socktube Presents</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;object height='350' width='425'&gt;&lt;param value='http://youtube.com/v/LDadmsiv5T8' name='movie'/&gt;&lt;embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/LDadmsiv5T8'/&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These movie parodies are extremely hilarious and awesome.  Enjoy!!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-7339906353354334720?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/7339906353354334720/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=7339906353354334720' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/7339906353354334720'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/7339906353354334720'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/02/socktube-presents.html' title='Socktube Presents'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-3559460508721509210</id><published>2009-01-28T15:29:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-01-28T15:40:15.659-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Lost'/><title type='text'>I made this!!</title><content type='html'>&lt;p align="left"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RIcHVJNoosE/SYDrhHpbIgI/AAAAAAAAAAk/m6ugZJNSh60/s1600-h/It+points+north.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296492116008706562" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 333px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 184px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RIcHVJNoosE/SYDrhHpbIgI/AAAAAAAAAAk/m6ugZJNSh60/s320/It+points+north.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-3559460508721509210?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/3559460508721509210/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=3559460508721509210' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/3559460508721509210'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/3559460508721509210'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-made-this.html' title='I made this!!'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RIcHVJNoosE/SYDrhHpbIgI/AAAAAAAAAAk/m6ugZJNSh60/s72-c/It+points+north.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-6652913991366342291</id><published>2009-01-27T14:30:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-01-27T14:31:33.651-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Watchmen'/><title type='text'>Click this Link!!!!</title><content type='html'>To help me get free tickets to a Watchmen screening!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://43kix.com/wap/generic.php?item=966&amp;amp;subRefId=662932"&gt;http://43kix.com/wap/generic.php?item=966&amp;amp;subRefId=662932&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-6652913991366342291?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/6652913991366342291/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=6652913991366342291' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/6652913991366342291'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/6652913991366342291'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/01/click-this-link.html' title='Click this Link!!!!'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-2266558613298123124</id><published>2009-01-18T11:36:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-01-18T11:58:50.456-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Lost'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='internet'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='visual literacy'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='articles'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='interesting'/><title type='text'>Interesting Articles 1/18/09-1/24/09</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/magazine/23wwln-future-t.html?pagewanted=all"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/magazine/23wwln-future-t.html?pagewanted=all&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/arts/television/18wyat.html?em"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/arts/television/18wyat.html?em&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-2266558613298123124?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/2266558613298123124/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=2266558613298123124' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/2266558613298123124'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/2266558613298123124'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/01/interesting-articles-11809-12409.html' title='Interesting Articles 1/18/09-1/24/09'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-6628778664047982427</id><published>2009-01-14T16:25:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2009-01-14T16:25:18.081-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Watchmen Widget</title><content type='html'>&lt;object width="375" height="375"&gt;&lt;param name="wmode" value="transparent" /&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.ppiwidget.com/campaigns/as3base.swf?inst_id=119128"/&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.ppiwidget.com/campaigns/as3base.swf?inst_id=119128" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="375" height="375" wmode="transparent" allowFullScreen="true"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-6628778664047982427?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/6628778664047982427/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=6628778664047982427' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/6628778664047982427'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/6628778664047982427'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/01/watchmen-widget.html' title='Watchmen Widget'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-710357136435819246</id><published>2009-01-13T16:30:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2009-01-13T16:31:30.686-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Dinosaur Head</title><content type='html'>&lt;div&gt;My contribution to the new Lost fad.&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290940395319118626" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 167px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 321px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RIcHVJNoosE/SW0yQcbCyyI/AAAAAAAAAAc/TBICjB-iJco/s320/dh+%231.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-710357136435819246?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/710357136435819246/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=710357136435819246' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/710357136435819246'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/710357136435819246'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/01/dinosaur-head.html' title='Dinosaur Head'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RIcHVJNoosE/SW0yQcbCyyI/AAAAAAAAAAc/TBICjB-iJco/s72-c/dh+%231.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-3824474682242394286</id><published>2009-01-13T14:35:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2009-01-13T14:46:15.148-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='cool'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='photography'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='website'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='tilt-shift'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='blair'/><title type='text'>Site of the Day</title><content type='html'>I don't know if I'll do this on a regular basis, maybe just when I find stuff. I always though blogs that had regular features were cool.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, today's site is &lt;a href="http://tiltshiftmaker.com/photo-processing.php"&gt;http://tiltshiftmaker.com/photo-processing.php&lt;/a&gt; . With it, you can make your own tilt-shift photographs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What is a tilt-shift photograph? Well, to get the answer, lets go to Wikipedia:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Tilt-shift photography refers to the use of &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a title="View camera" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_camera#Movements"&gt;&lt;em&gt;camera movements&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; on small- and medium format cameras. In many cases, it refers to tilting the &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a title="Lens (optics)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_(optics)"&gt;&lt;em&gt;lens&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; relative to the &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a title="Film plane" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_plane"&gt;&lt;em&gt;image plane&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; and using a large &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a title="Aperture" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture"&gt;&lt;em&gt;aperture&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; to achieve a very shallow &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a title="Depth of field" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field"&gt;&lt;em&gt;depth of field&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. The technique relies on the &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a title="Scheimpflug principle" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheimpflug_principle"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Scheimpflug principle&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; and usually requires the use of &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a class="mw-redirect" title="Tilt-and-shift lens" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt-and-shift_lens"&gt;&lt;em&gt;special lenses&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This concept can be duplicated by selectively making an image out of focus, which is called miniature faking. &lt;a href="http://tiltshiftmaker.com/photo-processing.php"&gt;http://tiltshiftmaker.com/photo-processing.php&lt;/a&gt; can help you do this to make pretty cool pictures of landscapes and environments.&lt;br /&gt;Here's Blair:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290912781998529602" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 261px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RIcHVJNoosE/SW0ZJIyYnEI/AAAAAAAAAAU/SjNJWuseFwg/s320/blairhs-tiltshift.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-3824474682242394286?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/3824474682242394286/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=3824474682242394286' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/3824474682242394286'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/3824474682242394286'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/01/site-of-day.html' title='Site of the Day'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RIcHVJNoosE/SW0ZJIyYnEI/AAAAAAAAAAU/SjNJWuseFwg/s72-c/blairhs-tiltshift.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-3242098672243143169</id><published>2009-01-10T11:58:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-01-10T12:11:18.381-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='craziness'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='don&apos;t let Frank Miller near comics again'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='stupidity'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Batman'/><title type='text'>"I'm the Goddamn Batman"</title><content type='html'>&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;You may have heard about how bad the The Spirit movie is. I was really excited at first, but little did I know how bad it could be ruined by Frank Miller. I had read some of the old Will Eisner comics, which, even though they were somewhat outdated (LOTS of stereotypes), were really iconic and visionary (in the sense that he tried a lot of new things and conventions).&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;A couple years ago, I read The Dark Knight Returns. While it was much darker than any other Batman story to date, I thought it was interesting and worth reading (The Dark Knight Strikes Again not as much).&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Then I got a copy of All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder from the library. I don't know if I can even start to explain how bad this comic is. It's almost so terribly bad it's good. I guess the best way to describe it would be if Batman went insane and became a psychotic vigilante who loves beating up/killing criminals. As every character in the book says at least once, he's "The Goddamn Batman"&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 262px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.i-mockery.com/comics/longbox7/pics/goddamn.jpg" border="0" /&gt;These hilarious articles really show what I mean:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.i-mockery.com/comics/longbox7/"&gt;http://www.i-mockery.com/comics/longbox7/&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.i-mockery.com/comics/longbox20/"&gt;http://www.i-mockery.com/comics/longbox20/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.i-mockery.com/comics/longbox30/"&gt;http://www.i-mockery.com/comics/longbox30/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Enjoy!!!&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 450px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 287px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.i-mockery.com/comics/longbox7/pics/fierce.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-3242098672243143169?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/3242098672243143169/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=3242098672243143169' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/3242098672243143169'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/3242098672243143169'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/01/im-goddamn-batman.html' title='&quot;I&apos;m the Goddamn Batman&quot;'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-1175093682787734498</id><published>2009-01-07T17:18:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-01-07T17:33:13.969-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='cool'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Lost'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Advertising'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='internet'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='scrubs'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='itunes'/><title type='text'>Thoughts</title><content type='html'>Well, it's 8:15, and I've been thinking I should do a blog post...maybe every week I'll do at least one.  The topic of the day: Apple&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I just downloaded the keynote address from Macworld 2009, and there's one thing that's bugging me.  It's the overriding sense that you can tell what Apple's trying to do (their marketing strategy).  It's just been more noticeable lately.&lt;br /&gt;If you look at the language that the speaker uses, several words pop up very frequently:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It's very COOL, EASY, BEAUTIFUL, SIMPLE, Just Great, AMAZING!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It's like anytime they needed an adjective, they chose one off a list of company approved words.  Now, I'm not saying this is bad...any company tries to get people to buy into their own reality, it's advertising.  Apple's target audience is young to middle age people who are obviously tech-savy, as well as new consumers looking for something EASIER than regular systems.  However, you should be aware that they're trying to get you to buy into their fantasy world of perfect, slick, innovation.  It's almost like Disney in a way.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm not trying to bash Apple products (I am a ipod lover, and I'm looking forward to getting a macbook and an ipod touch, hopefully), which most of the time do what they say.  Maybe I'm just trying to caution myself from becoming an Apple fanboy, spending loads of money on each new thing that comes out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Someone should do a study on how technology is affecting how we think...it would show some interesting information.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In other news, Scrubs was back yesterday.  It was pretty good, and people I know who have followed it for a long time said it was a return to form.  By the way, it's exactly 2 weeks til LOST comes back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!&lt;br /&gt;Maybe I should start doing TV reviews?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If anyone is reading this, what do you think about Apple's marketing strategy?&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-1175093682787734498?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/1175093682787734498/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=1175093682787734498' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/1175093682787734498'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/1175093682787734498'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/01/thoughts.html' title='Thoughts'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-8520528582203162639</id><published>2009-01-02T10:29:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-01-02T10:39:57.312-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Lost'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='break'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Watchmen'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Fringe'/><title type='text'>Update</title><content type='html'>Hello, anyone who is coming to this blog from anywhere.&lt;br /&gt;I haven't updated for a very long time, now...I plan to start doing this more often once school ends and I know what college I'm going to next year.  So here are some random thoughts on what I'm looking forward to this year:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;LOST!!!!! Jan 21st on ABC at 8:00.  I've been keeping busy by following along with the Dharma/Ajira Airways ARG, reading fanfiction (JWLost !!) and rewatching episodes.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Watchmen:  I just reread this, and it reminded me how awesome it is.  Bad news about the Fox lawsuit, though.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I've been seeing lots of movies lately-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, and Valkyrie were my holiday movies of choice, and they were all pretty good in their own ways.  I just saw Deja Vu on DVD, as well as about 5 James Bond movies.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why are there so many movies that are 3 hours long nowadays?  Very rarely do any of them keep my full attention the whole time.  If you want to make a movie that long, it should have enought action to involve the viewer, or else it ultimately drags (I'm saying this in reference to Benjamin Button, which, though very good, was too damn long).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;This is the first Winter break where I've had no homework, so I'm pretty happy about that.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Alan Moore comics have been getting progressively weirder chronologically (I just read The Black Dossier).&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Fringe is back January 20, which is also Inauguration Day.  And Lost is the next day. And then I get to go on vacation!!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Scrubs will hopefully be better this season.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;That's all for now!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Have a great new year!!!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-8520528582203162639?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/8520528582203162639/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=8520528582203162639' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/8520528582203162639'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/8520528582203162639'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2009/01/update.html' title='Update'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-922254467205046311</id><published>2008-11-16T12:56:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-11-16T12:58:00.674-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Cool Website/TV Show</title><content type='html'>www.indymogul.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-922254467205046311?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/922254467205046311/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=922254467205046311' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/922254467205046311'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/922254467205046311'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2008/11/cool-websitetv-show.html' title='Cool Website/TV Show'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-8160449915592114919</id><published>2008-10-21T16:13:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2008-10-21T16:13:26.820-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Mega Man 3 Title Theme WITH LYRICS</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;object height='350' width='425'&gt;&lt;param value='http://youtube.com/v/dL30lU26egw' name='movie'/&gt;&lt;embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/dL30lU26egw'/&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is such a great music video, and I haven't even played a real megaman game before.&lt;br /&gt;megamegamegamega MEGAMAN!!!!!!!!!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-8160449915592114919?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/8160449915592114919/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=8160449915592114919' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/8160449915592114919'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/8160449915592114919'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2008/10/mega-man-3-title-theme-with-lyrics.html' title='Mega Man 3 Title Theme WITH LYRICS'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-3197695040673916581</id><published>2008-10-12T17:57:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-10-12T18:00:59.257-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='program'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='awesomeness'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='movies'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='fun'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='afederation'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='google'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='sketchup'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='youtube'/><title type='text'>Google Sketchup is awesome!</title><content type='html'>&lt;div&gt;Yes, Google Sketchup is an awesome program. I started by making some simple models (see my youtube efforts &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/theafederation"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;I have started on an incredibly cool project, so stay tuned....&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Hint:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RIcHVJNoosE/SPKdmRBlJzI/AAAAAAAAAAM/XF-FqUlxsKQ/s1600-h/walle+side.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256436995825411890" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 219px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 165px" height="148" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RIcHVJNoosE/SPKdmRBlJzI/AAAAAAAAAAM/XF-FqUlxsKQ/s320/walle+side.jpg" width="86" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-3197695040673916581?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/3197695040673916581/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=3197695040673916581' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/3197695040673916581'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/3197695040673916581'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2008/10/google-sketchup-is-awesome.html' title='Google Sketchup is awesome!'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RIcHVJNoosE/SPKdmRBlJzI/AAAAAAAAAAM/XF-FqUlxsKQ/s72-c/walle+side.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-6341179666456686925</id><published>2008-10-05T16:35:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-10-05T16:41:56.012-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='radio'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='soundtracks'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='music'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='internet'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='itunes'/><title type='text'>Radio in Itunes</title><content type='html'>I didn't know that you can listen to audio/radio feeds through itunes...it's pretty cool.&lt;br /&gt;Here are some stations that I like that I found through the website live365&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A Fistful of Soundtracks - Assorted Fistful: Music from movies and TV, in shuffle mode.&lt;br /&gt;Muppet Central Radio&lt;br /&gt;TheatricallyChallenged&lt;br /&gt;ThemeSongChannel.com - TV theme songs from the '50s til today -- everyday is different!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Radio is a pretty good way to find songs that you might like. I wish I had an ipod touch so I could use &lt;a href="http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/browserRedirect?url=itms%253A%252F%252Fax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net%252FWebObjects%252FMZStore.woa%252Fwa%252FviewSoftware%253Fid%253D284972998%2526mt%253D8"&gt;this app&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-6341179666456686925?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/6341179666456686925/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=6341179666456686925' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/6341179666456686925'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/6341179666456686925'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2008/10/radio-in-itunes.html' title='Radio in Itunes'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-6480094565975329179</id><published>2008-09-15T18:38:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-09-15T18:49:42.385-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Who am I?</title><content type='html'>&lt;div align="left"&gt;In the abscence of anything going on right now, I present to you who I am in fictional characters!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.buddytv.com/closedquiz/closed-quiz.aspx?quiz=53"&gt;Which Terminator Character Are You?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.buddytv.com/closedquiz/images/results/tscc-john.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;Which Lost Character are you?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.buddytv.com/closedquiz/images/results/lost-charlie.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;which src="http://www.buddytv.com/closedquiz/images/results/lost-charlie.jpg"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;Which Batman Villain Are You?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.buddytv.com/closedquiz/images/results/batman-riddler.jpg" /&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-6480094565975329179?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/6480094565975329179/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=6480094565975329179' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/6480094565975329179'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/6480094565975329179'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2008/09/who-am-i.html' title='Who am I?'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-2184207253580698069</id><published>2008-09-10T11:02:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-09-10T11:05:45.042-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Test'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='fun'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='dharma'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Fringe'/><title type='text'>Dharma Wants you to take a test about animals!!</title><content type='html'>Hey everyone, come take my test at DharmaWantsYou.com&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.dharmawantsyou.com/site/?utid=297963334242744333573261222190#/qp"&gt;Here's the link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Thanks!!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Also, Fringe premiered yesterday.  I thought it was very weird, but I liked the music, lighting, 3D text titles, and weirdness.  I'll try to post more...&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-2184207253580698069?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/2184207253580698069/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=2184207253580698069' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/2184207253580698069'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/2184207253580698069'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2008/09/dharma-wants-you-to-take-test-about.html' title='Dharma Wants you to take a test about animals!!'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-782882123015057020</id><published>2008-08-28T13:17:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-08-28T13:34:12.148-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Lost'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='DMI'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Watchmen'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='fun'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='dharma'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='school'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='The Office'/><title type='text'>School's not Out</title><content type='html'>This post's mostly for people who know me&lt;br /&gt;Well, I'm finally a senior!!!&lt;br /&gt;Nevertheless, I'm not that excited about school. I have a much easier schedule (2 music classes, BNC!, AP Calc, etc.) so this year should be fine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you're not keeping up with LOST, you should be. Dharma Wants You is finally working, and if you want to join, leave me your email address so that I can send you a registration link. Also, Lostpedia, one of the best Lost sites in my opinion, Blog is holding a contest to win different prizes like the videogame. Check it out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I said I would be talking about Watchmen, so here we go. I know a lot of people who have gotten the graphic novel, most likely because of the trailer on The Dark Knight. This book is great and I consider it the definitive good example of a comic book. Also, in preparation for the movie, Warner Brothers is releasing a series of somewhat-animated "motion comics" on itunes, with narration, music, and some cool effects. The first episode costs 1.99 right now, but they are free when they are released (for about three weeks...I think). It's pretty cool, except for the falsetto on the Silk Spectre.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Speaking of The Office, if you didn't do it last season, &lt;a href="http://www.dundermifflininfinity.com/"&gt;Dunder Mifflin Infinity&lt;/a&gt; is starting soon. It's an online community/game type thing, where you earn Schutebucks by completing tasks so you can rise in the Dunder Mifflin staff. I'm in the Gaithersburg branch under the alias alex123456. Join and help our branch win!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you live in the Silver Spring, Maryland area, there will be a 5k race to support victims of Hurricane Katrina that my class organized. It'll be held in Sligo Creek Park on Saturday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.signmeup.com/61540"&gt;Sign up and learn more here!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That's all for today, folks. I'll try and do some feature-type posts soon, like what I'm listening to, playing online, and watching. If you're reading this, thanks for reading, and make sure to leave comments!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-782882123015057020?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/782882123015057020/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=782882123015057020' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/782882123015057020'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/782882123015057020'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2008/08/schools-not-out.html' title='School&apos;s not Out'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-8945825368963072393</id><published>2008-08-21T16:15:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2008-08-21T16:22:52.265-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Lost'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Advertising'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='dharma'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Olympics'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='ARG'/><title type='text'>I'm Back!</title><content type='html'>Well, I had a really good post written up about the over-sweetened language NBC is using in their Olympic coverage, but it got deleted. Go check out the Sap-O-Meter on Slate.com, which tallies the use of 36 words they identified as being overused.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/08/21/the-new-burger-king-commercial-really-baffles-me-video/"&gt;This article&lt;/a&gt; makes a really good point about the new Burger King advertising. Why would a cow be angry at someone for not eating beef? It's the exact opposite of Chick-Fil-A 's "Eat More Chikin."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I've spent the whole day doing Test 1 on &lt;a href="http://www.dharmawantsyou.com/"&gt;Dharma Wants You&lt;/a&gt; , the new LOST ARG (or alternate reality game, for those of you who don't know). I really like this kind of marketing, and the ARGs for the Dark Knight and past seasons of Lost were really good. If you haven't signed up yet, send me your email so I can "recruit" you to get "Dharma Points." The Lostpedia Blog also has a pretty cool contest going.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That's all for now folks!&lt;br /&gt;Adios&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-8945825368963072393?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/8945825368963072393/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=8945825368963072393' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/8945825368963072393'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/8945825368963072393'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2008/08/im-back.html' title='I&apos;m Back!'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115792674097187140.post-115464786354073733</id><published>2008-08-19T10:31:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2008-08-19T10:38:05.015-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='cool'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Lost'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='awesomeness'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='movies'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='so it begins'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='the blog'/><title type='text'>Welcome!</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://www.worth1000.com/view.asp?entry=479149&amp;amp;display=photoshop"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Don't know if I'll get around to actually using this blog, but if I do, expect to find the following:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;My thoughts on life&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;LOST awesomeness&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Watchmen awesomeness&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;The pitfalls of the college application process&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Good Movies&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Random reflections on life&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sorry for the weird title, I had to pick something.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I was going to insert a cool picture of a lemur doing karate here, but alas, I can't find the link.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Have a Good Day!!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.worth1000.com/view.asp?entry=479149&amp;amp;display=photoshop"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8115792674097187140-115464786354073733?l=afederation.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/feeds/115464786354073733/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8115792674097187140&amp;postID=115464786354073733' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/115464786354073733'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8115792674097187140/posts/default/115464786354073733'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://afederation.blogspot.com/2008/08/welcome.html' title='Welcome!'/><author><name>Alex</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12709195610763752639</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry></feed>
