Les Misérables Movie Review

They sing.  Through the entire movie.  I was unaware of this going in, but it turned out not to be that big of a deal.  It essentially became a pre-recorded musical with special effects.

Les Misérables takes place just after the French Revolution, and follows a variety of characters over a long period of time.

This is not a movie that you go to to laugh or to be entertained.  It is about the music and moral lessons that you can pull out.  Unlike The Hobbit, not everyone gets miraculously saved.  It revolves around people’s choices and their effects on others and themselves.

Nothing from a filmmaking perspective really bothered me, except for the scenes when someone needed immediate medical attention and they had to slowly sing their need for help.  The music that runs almost continuously is well done and connects back to previous songs, making the movie as a whole very congruent.

Les Misérables forces you to think.  In the first place, in order to understand what is going on, you have to pay attention to small details, mentioned through song.  In addition, everyone’s name is French, making character distinction more challenging than normal.  However, if you have any basic comprehension abilities the plot is no problem at all.  The majority of the thinking occurs when characters make decisions.  Why did he take the poor man into his house?  Why did he forgive him again after he blatantly stole from him?  As the story progresses, many of the answers become clear, even though the actions may not seem reasonable at first.

The movie covers a variety of themes, but it focuses particularly on redemption and forgiveness.  I don’t want to spoil the plot, as it takes many sharp turns, but at many times characters are given the opportunity for revenge or justice, and have to make hard, life-changing decisions.

Les Misérables is a good movie if you enjoy theater or music, and will certainly prompt a discussion about morals, righteousness, justice, forgiveness, and redemption.

Merry Christmas!

“Today is December 25th, so the post must be about Christmas!” you might foolishly have thought to yourself.  I am here to inform you that today’s post will not be about Christmas.  In fact, I won’t even mention Christmas at all.  Do you here that noise?  That was the sound of your mind being blown.

Hobbit Movie Review

The Hobbit wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.  Following in the footsteps of the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy, this movie fails to keep up.

Many of the scenes felt disconnected, like it was a collage of separate pieces of video footage.  Although this is necessary to understand the background and history of Middle Earth and how it all connects in the end, throughout much of the first half it felt like the story jumped around too much.  It made it seem like the movie was an attempt to extend a short plot line with filler background scenes.

This leads me to my next point that I find it disappointing that the movie was split into three parts.  Even though it ended with a conclusion to a minor internal conflict, it leaves more untied ends than it fulfills.  If I were to tell you the setup to a joke, but not follow through with the punch line, you probably would’ve wished that I never even started in the first place.  I hope that this “break the movie into parts” trend that started with Harry Potter doesn’t become a thing.  I would rather sit through a six hour movie that concludes a storyline than watch three two-hour movies years apart.

Lastly, the movie became repetitive.  The basic plot tool was that they were stuck in some seemingly impossible-to-escape scenario, only to be saved by some outside unexpected force.  It is an excellent way to construct a story, especially in a movie, but after a few times it became predictable.

Despite all of this, the movie was constructed and animated very well.  In particular, the movements and facial expressions of Gollum were extremely realistic, and helped communicate so much about his character.  (The one scene that looked extremely fake was when the bridge was falling in the underground goblin lair.  The animation was not clean and it looked embarrassingly awful.  Most people probably didn’t notice though.)

Overall, I would recommend not seeing the Hobbit, but rather wait for all of the movies to come out.  Then take an afternoon off, and watch all of the parts in a row.  It is a movie worth seeing, but in its current state – it loses much of its potential.

Christmas Lights

I like Christmas lights,
yes, I like them a lot,
but when putting them up,
oh how I like them not.
They get tangled and mangled
and all sorts of intertwined,
making them straight again
always boggles my mind.
I like seeing my neighbors’ lights,
the colors hanging on a tree,
I just don’t like putting them up,
does that make me lazy?
The lights shine bright
on cold, cold, dark days
and reflect off the snow
in ways that always amaze.
It’s like seeing the stars
floating up in the sky,
I’ve seen them before
but I stare every time, why?
Without these lights during
the darkest month of the year,
what else could provide
a similar holiday cheer?
As I look down at the box,
the whole tangled mess,
I decide I better get to work,
to help spread the Christmas-ness.

Box Alphabet

In one of my many attempts to improve upon the design of an already highly reformed creation, I decided to re-write the alphabet.  Not changing the letters or their order (although I do have strong feelings that certain letters are useless), I instead tried to reduce the overall numbers of lines needed to draw each letter.  

The thought process behind the design is to have paper already printed with a grid, appropriately sized for one letter in each box.  Then, with the border of the letter already done, all you would have to do is inscribe the inner parts of the letter, giving it distinction from every other letter.  Essentially it’s just taking bubble letters and squeezing them into rectangle shapes, like a cat stuffed into a small box.  Hopefully this will reduce the number of lines needed, and make writing quicker and more efficient.

In my design, seen below, some of the letters closely resemble the actual letter, while others are highly stylized.  Each letter is unique, and it actually works quite well.  I timed myself writing the alphabet twice as fast as I possibly could, normally and with the box alphabet method.  It took me 29.4 seconds for regular handwriting, and 31.9 seconds with the box method.  Given that I have been writing the alphabet for many years and just tried the new method as of today, those results show some potential.

As for pitfalls, there is a pretty steep learning curve, since writing letters in a different way than you’ve been taught all your life is difficult.  Also, if you get near the end of a line on the page and you are writing a long word, you can easily run out of spaces and you can’t squeeze it in like with normal writing.

I have come to the conclusion that this method is less efficient, although it does have two applications:  secret messages and a cool-looking font.  Write the letters without the boxes, and it looks like some crazy foreign language.

If you are interested in trying writing this alphabet yourself, I have graciously included a sheet of grid paper for you to use.

Christmas Gift Exchange Guide

The ultimate goal of the standard Christmas gift exchange is to end up with more money than when you started.  I am going to provide you with a few useful tips on how to do so.

1.  Having some of your value contained in cheesy holiday merchandise is worse than having nothing at all.  If you receive something that you otherwise would have bought or will make use of, then you are set.  On the other hand, if you get something useless, try to return it, or save it to be re-gifted later.  There isn’t much control over what you receive, which puts you at a severe disadvantage.

[In order to make a profit, you must increase income or reduce costs.  Since income is uncontrollable, reducing costs is the primary focus of the rest of the tips.]

2.  Try and make something yourself.  If you are a decent artist, sculptor, weaver, or snowglobe-maker, try to craft something homemade – not only does it save money, but it shows that you put some care into the gift-selection process.

3.  Buy something to do together.  This works best with a significant other or close family member.  Tickets to a movie theatre or a gift card to their favorite restaurant can get you something out of the deal as well.  

4.  Buy items that seem like they are worth more than they actually are.  If you are about to buy something at a store or online, imagine it unwrapped before you and try to guess its worth.  If you think it is worth significantly more (75-200%) than its price, it is probably a safe bet.

5.  Choose a hard ceiling for your gift prices.  Based on the type of gift exchange, limit yourself to buying gifts less than say ten or twenty dollars.  You want to avoid looking cheap, while still milking the system to your full benefit.

Soda Can Balancing Act

If you pour out or drink about 2/3 of a standard soda can, you can balance it on its edge.  Because of the shape of the can, it has two little ridges along the edge where it will balance if the center of mass is just right.  I recommend trying to balance it frequently as you consume the soda, because if you drink too much, it will not balance.  It’s a great party trick and confuses little kids, which is always entertaining.

HTGSC – Meaning

How the Grinch Stole Christmas is just like A Christmas Carol (the one with the three ghosts) in that the moral is painfully obvious.  The flawed main character is overdramatized, and at the end they have a distinct change of heart (in the Grinch’s case, literally).  It makes it easy for children to understand and appreciate the moral value of the film.

However, I think that if we look a little deeper we can extract another lesson.  How the Grinch Stole Christmas perhaps, is about a little bit more.

I find the characterization of the “whos” to be very important to the Grinch’s opinion of them.  The grinch looks nothing like the whos, and lives totally separate from them.  Who are they?  They’re just whos, unknowns, things without names (except Cindy-lou-who, who was no more than two).  Besides the gifting of presents at the end as well as the feast, the only encounter between the Grinch and the whos is the scene with Cindy-lou who.  Resembling a cross between an alien and a lightbulb, Cindy-lou acts completely out of childlike kindness.  The Grinch’s evil plot and maniacal actions turn to fear at the sight of this little girl.  Finding a compromise, he decides to lie to Cindy-lou and get her a glass of water before stealing the Christmas tree.  In his first real encounter with a who in some time, the Grinch is forced to re-assess his thinking, and justify stealing the holiday joy from a little girl.  When the Grinch learns the true identity of the whos instead of basing his opinion on what he hears (the awful noise and singing), he starts to sympathize with them.  Although the obvious moral is that Christmas isn’t about material possessions, the movie explores the concept of judging other people who you don’t even know.

To be fair, the noise that the whos create on Christmas morning is completely unjustifiable.  He should have replaced their drumsticks with padded ones and stuffed cotton in all their bells and instruments.

Zoozitacarzay

Described as a “roller-skate type of lacrosse and croquet,” the fictional sport of Zoozitacarzay seems like it could actually be successful.  I have the gift of making crazy ideas seem at least sort of realistic, and I hope at the end of my description, you will be able to see why the next trend sweeping the nation will undoubtedly be Zoozitacarzay.

If we briefly look at the main apparatus, pictured below, we immediately see some potential flaws.

First, the bells and chimes are unnecessary.  I realize it is supposed to be a noisy game, but we need to make sacrifices, since communities will ban it if it becomes too much of a racket.  Second, the red paper ring is unsustainable, as it does not return to its original unbroken position after a goal is scored.  In a high scoring game, the number of rings needed would be unreasonable.  Third, the design of the tube is flawed, as it easily allows balls to get stuck in the middle.  Even with a basketball hoop, balls occasionally manage to get stuck on the rim.  Lastly, the Who standing there could easily be replaced by a metal stand.  Obviously he is the little brother who tags along with the others, so he always gets the job of holding the ring while the other Whos have fun.

Next, if we look at the depiction of the participants, we notice a whole new set of problems.

The Who-stacking, however fun and entertaining to watch, would result in too many injuries for the game to have a solid player base.  Roller-skating is dangerous as it is, and attempting to carry another person is even worse.  From this picture, we can easily see the similarities to lacrosse, however the similarities to croquet are lacking.  Oh, so we added a mallet?  Congrats, but where are the hoops that must be skillfully played through in sequential order?  Croquet is boring because there is too much wait time in between shots, and like golf, one wrong shot can cost you the entire game.  On the other hand, lacrosse is boring because running around gets nowhere, and like soccer, the games often end in low-scoring stalemates.  However, combining these two concepts together would create an amazingly fun game, once the logistics are fully determined.  

As this post is already dragging on, and has become less and less about the actual How the Grinch Stole Christmas video, I will use this valuable virtual real estate to say that I have originally thought of the concept of a real life Zoozitacarzay game as of today, 12/12/12.  Or, for those of you in Europe, 12/12/12.

I plan to return to this topic once I create an official proposal for the details of the game.

HTGSC – Favorite Scenes

How The Grinch Stole Christmas is full of hilarious scenes, made possible by the random freedom of Dr. Seuss style storytelling.  Aside from the words themselves, which are so fantastic they make me smile every time, the images are so over-dramatized they become unmistakably wonderful.  The drawing of the characters manages to walk the fine line of the insane, without resulting to unnecessary over-dramatization.  Here are some of my favorite parts:

• The scene with the Whos carrying platters in the style of Russian nesting dolls, perfectly timed to the music.

• The Grinch’s fantastic billiard skills, where he manages to knock all of the ornaments into the drain and into the garbage bag laying outside of the house.

• All of Max’s emotions:

• And most importantly, this face: