Matt's Cool and Interesting Blog of The New Millennium 

I'd Totally Volunteer For This

500 days in a metal tube with a bunch of comrades? Sounds great.

Random Game I Like #39: Alien Hominid

Alien Hominid is a flash game where you play a cute alien with a penchant for mercilessly killing enemies. The graphics are really nice, and the gameplay oozes Contra. Best of all, they're making a full release out of it for consoles. Here is a link for the development site.

New Game

Sridhar and I are looking to start development of a new game (the last one no longer interests us). This time it's going to be a 2d platformer. If you're an decent artist that can make some sprites for us, let me know, we could really use some help!

I Hate Linux Boxes and Macs So Much

I went to the computer cluster today to print some test preparation materials. I first logged on to a mac, and tried to pull up the blackboard page in safari. Didn't work, I don't know why. It always doesn't work to put blackboard on internet explorer on a mac, so I moved to a Linux machine. After logging on, I successfully got blackboard to display on netscape. I downloaded the .pdf files and tried to view them. I got them to show up after learning the acroread command. So then I tried printing them by following the same set of instructions that told me how to view them. No good, some kind of error message about having no default printer. I put the files in my andrew web space, and went back to the mac to print it. It worked. Unfortunately the printer was out of toner. The worst part of this whole thing is that I just want to study! Ech.

That's All of Them

I finished off my collection of Douglas Adams' books today with the purchase of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Random book sale guy had a copy, in really good condition that he would part with for only $2.

I have so much stuff I want to do, but I have so much work. It's tragic.

Poker!

There is a free poker tournament tonight, and I'm going to win. Wish me luck! (Althought I don't need it cause I'm going to win.

Links?

I could always use some more traffic, anyone want to exchange links?

No More Moore?

Michael Moore got sick, so he won't be speaking here today. He might reschedule though, so I might still get a chance to see him.

I Heart Huckabees: Movie Revue

Let me begin by saying that I heart I Heart Huckabees. It was really the greatest existential-sports movie I have ever seen.

Huckabees casts Al Pacino into the role of Simon Montana, pitcher of the never winning minor-league baseball team, the Montana Huckabees. Fans come to every game waving banners with the titular I Heart logo, yet the team can never quite win a game. Enter Pedro Night, all-star sluggerk, deftly played by none other than Ricky Martin. Martin begins his "La Vida Movie Career" as a character that simultaneously intellectually foils Pacino, yet deepens the pretense of this heady film.

Other cast include Tim Meadows, playing his popular Lady Man character, and Kate Winslett, who gives her best performance since Titanic. Some may be shocked at the shallow yet tense "pseudo-relationship" that forms between Meadows and Pacino, yet I feel that it is a necessary plot device which allows the greatest moment of the film to occur.

What is that moment? Well, after Pacino loses his pitching arm feeding an out of control pitching machine, Meadows is frightened that his new found "friend" will lose his career, yet Ricky Martin, against all odds, chooses to give the ultimate sacrafice and save Pacino at the loss of his own life.

The film ends as existentially as it begins. The team is flying to what the viewer believes is going to be the first winning game. After the plane lands, another plane lands on top of them, killing the team. The narrator points out the meaninglessness of existence, and the credits roll.

I heart I Heart Huckabees, and any fans of existentialism or baseball should heart it too.

Michael Moore Tomorrow.

Michael Moore's speaking here tomorrow, and I'm excited. I'll tell you all about it tommorrow.