Azerbaijan

I recently took a job in Azerbaijan. Yeah, I hadn't heard of it either. The trip over was long and in total I stayed up for almost 30 hours straight. Now that I'm here and have had a few days and nights to adjust, I can finally sit down and post a new blog. Azerbaijan as a country is pretty cool. Their isn't a lot in the way of national history that is important in a global sense or that I would have heard of in school, but the city is old. There is a temple here that is among the oldest religious structures in the world (they worshiped fire back then in case you were wondering). The people seem to be polite if somewhat apprehensive about interacting with Americans, definitely not the same as the more western European countries. The food, oh the food is outstanding. All the produce is very fresh and they love simple meat and bread dishes with a side of veggies. I threw together a short video of my first few days here. Hope you enjoy. There will definitely be more frequent updates from here on.

DIY: Paperback Book

A couple of weeks ago a fellow blogger, that just so happens to be related to me, told me about a website that will take your blogs over a period of time and compile them into book form. I'm not quite sure how the transition happened(it may have something to do with her email or watching too much "How It's Made" on Discovery Channel), but I started to research how involved it would be to make my own paperback book. Turns out it's pretty easy.

Just like in Mcgyver episodes the first thing you need to do is figure out what you'll need to build your book:

Glue (preferably flexible, but must be strong, so hot glue is out)
Paper
Exacto knife
Clamps
Card Stock

For this project I wanted to make a pocket design booklet out of graph paper. Cut the graph paper down to size and tap it on a table like a stack of cards to line everything up, then clamp it together using binder clips.



To get the pages to hold to each other as well as the binding you need to get glue between the pages. To do this simply fan the pages out by folding the free edge over like so:


Once you have done this simply apply glue(I like to use Gorilla Glue which requires you to dampen the surface before applying the glue) along the exposed areas and repeat in the opposite direction.

Next just press the stack with some weight for an hour or so to let the glue dry. Once that is done it's time to attach the binding/cover. Place the free edge of the paper stack along the edge of your card stock and crease and fold the card stock along the glued edge with backside of the exacto knife.


I like to add a extra crease about a quarter of an inch from the first crease for mark the edge of where the glue will go on either side of the cover.You're going to want to measure the thickness of your insert here and make another crease and fold where the back will line up. Once you have made all your creases just apply glue to this center portion and press it once again. When finished it should look like this:

Finally all you have to do is cut the card stock down to the appropriate size. A nice little notebook that's much cheaper than store bought you can personalize it all you like.

I also printed and made a full size screenplay. I won't say which movie I picked, but it was easily the best movie I saw this year.


I had to apply the colored band on the edge because I couldn't find card stock that was big enough for printer paper. Oh and by the way the website that my fellow blogger pointed me to was blurb.com if you're interested, but I might just try and make my own.

Watchmen

It finally happened yesterday. I made the trip over to the local cineplex with much anticipation to see Watchmen. The commercials have looked incredible and Warner Bros. certainly upped the advertising budget, perhaps hoping for another The Dark Knight. It just so happened that I saw the movie with two friends that hadn't read the book and one friend that had, so I was very interested to hear the perspectives of those that came into the movie knowing nothing about the story.
Spoilers Follow:
As far as a movie goes I would give it a B+, 3 out of 4 stars, whatever rating system you prefer. The visual pop of the film really sets it apart from previous comic book adaptations or even surrealist sci-fi films. Say what you want about Zack Snyder, the man knows how to work a camera. I guess that is what they mean by "visionary". Unfortunately, some of the special effects and make up completely fall flat. At several points during the film the actors appear obviously before a green screen, and I won't even get into the portrayal of Richard Nixon. It was sad to see them handle his character, even though he is a minor one, with so little care.
Which brings me to the music. Wow did Mr. Snyder drop the ball here. Some moments work extremely well, Bob Dylan in the opening credits, and others sound like a bad mix tape, "Sounds of Silence" at the Comedian's funeral. He gives snippets of familiar songs but only just enough for you to get a chuckle out of it or to say, "Oh, I love this song!" The original music is exciting and works great in the action sequences and I wish that he had done something similar to what he did in 300 and used more orchestration with and used familiar songs more sparingly.
The actors do a decent job of playing their perspective roles, especially Jackie Earle Haley and Billy Crudup. The only problems with the characters arise form the changes to the original story with regards to the nature of the characters. Dr. Manhattan is made into a redemptive character through a convenient plot device that prevents him of having knowledge of Ozymandias's plan. In the novel he is completely detached from world and even though he knows what Ozymandias will eventually do, he does nothing, he sees the logic of it. A logic the movie completely disregards. Another small nitpick is the way the movie spends too much time building up an energy crisis (a plot point I could clearly see a studio executives fighting for thinking people will be able to relate to without having read the source material or understanding the extent of Dr. Manhattan's power) and not enough time on the finer aspects of the character development. It skims over the reasons that people would fight for justice in the first place and that prevents the characters from having any inherent nobility later in the film.
End Spoilers
Overall the film was enjoyable for myself and the people I saw it with. It should be noted that the two people that hadn't read the novel left the theater slightly overwhelmed by the complexity, weight, and bleak nature of the story. These are certainly not the same kind of super heros that have 12 year old kids lining up to see it. When all the hype has settled the film will leave studio executives disappointed, audiences confused, and long time fans ultimately pleased. Strangely enough I think that this fits the nature of the comic better than it had been a monumental block buster. Those involved in the production that truly understand the source novel, I think, realize that this isn't for everyone and those that allow themselves to get involved in philosophical discussions about human nature and Machiavellianism will find a movie that will really get there blood red juices flowing.

Baby Bro

This past weekend my Baby Bro won the State Championship in basketball. It was awesome to see the seniors on his team reach the level that they did. This year will only be the second graduating class from their high school and most of the seniors were on the very first basketball team at the school. Congrats guys on a great year and an impressive win in the Finals. I threw this video together using footage I shot from the stands, unfortunately YouTube is having a copyright dispute with the record label that owns the rights to T.I.'s "Slide Show" which is the song that I used, so they deleted all of the audio. I'll work at is and hopefully I'll follow this up with an update with the audio fixed.



Update: I fixed the audio and swapped it out for Outkast's "So Fresh, So Clean". Also tweaked some of the title cards.