f l o o d

Mmmm...Bullets

matrix:revolutions today. i must say, i was pleasantly surprised. the reviews were not good, but i thoroughly enjoyed the movie. the sequels have had a lot to live up to. the first matrix was a revolutionary action film that blew us all away. i knew that reloaded and revolutions wouldn't have the same innovative pop as the originals, and wasn't expecting them to completely revamp the genre again. revolutions did a good job of completing the storyline established by reloaded. if you didn't like reloaded, think of it as a setup film for revolutions. it all flows together. and there's less philosophy in this one, though i didn't think the notions of causality and free will were all that complicated in reloaded. i don't know why people got their knickers all in a twist over the philosophical concepts.

i thought the action sequences in revolutions were pretty swell too. this movie went beyond the in-matrix bullet time, turning camera gimmicks (which were cool thew first time around) and had a lot of action based in the "real" world. big robot exoskeletons and bullets. lots of bullets. the big fight between neo and agent smith was fun, but a little heavy on the special effects, to the point of looking rather fake at times. i'm trying not to give too much away for those of you who haven't seen the movie yet, but i enjoyed how they ended the movie. i think they deliberately left it open-ended (is that saying too much?) in order to allow for future creative continutation of the matrix universe. i'm not saying that there are gonna be more movies, but i can see the matrix becoming sort of like star wars, with future stories and such coming in the form of books, comics, etc. i think it all makes sense when you take a look at the wachoski brothers and their influences. they are complete sci-fi/anime/comic book geeks. the story, design, and overall feel of the matrix trilogy is derived from those sources.

after the movie we went to denny's for dinner. it was odd and fun, as our food outings usually are. somehow i managed to bring up the topic of the united states' food wasting practices during dinner (always gotta get my rants in their somehow). by food wasting practices i don't mean the food that we as individuals throw away and don't eat. the U.S. itself actually throws away tons of food every year. it's because we have a huge surplus of corn, thanks to the nixon administration's reversal of previous corn production and purchasing policies. so now the U.S. buys all the corn farmers produce instead of limiting the purchases by year, so we have huge surpluses. the corn goes to feeding cows, so we have beef surpluses too. this is how we're able to superdupersize our cokes (which is all CORN syrup) and get mondo burgers for mere pennies, which is making the united states a grossly overweight nation (read fast food nation if you get a chance). so next time someone tells you there aren't enough resources to feed the poor all over the world, tell them that the U.S. alone produces enough food to feed every person on earth. we'd just rather throw it away then give it away.

i took this test which i found on jon's blog, which he got from howard's blog. this is what it told me about myself based on the dewey color system:

You're a Pioneer
You think about why people do what they do. By understanding the motivation of others, you seek to create a better world. Changing the world around you through personal achievements is your everyday challenge.

The emotional you avoids asking what's missing. Novel adventures seem to appear. Honor your forbidden thoughts. They are merely signposts to exciting new paths you need to follow.

hmm...nah.