I saw a couple of interesting movies lately. They were:

Battle Royale

This film is about a time when students are out of control. So the government passes an act. A class of students is taken to a remote island and forced to fight their classmates. They have an explosive collar placed around their neck, are given some supplies, and are given a random weapon (sometimes good like a gun or sometimes useless like a pair of binoculars). They are told that the last person standing will be rescued from the island.

Kontroll

This movie is about the Budapest subway system and the workers who check for train tickets. It has good music, a cute furry chick, and a strange killer.

Primer

This is a science fiction story about a group of inventors who discover that the machine that they created can allow them to travel back in time. It is a story about trust and how that is affected when a friend can essentially change history. What was interesting about this movie was the fact that it was filmed for a very cheap amount ($7,000). And yet the movie doesn’t seem to suffer for it. The director acted in the movie, produced the movie, did the music, and also edited the movie. It was filmed mostly in the director’s parent’s garage. And this philosophy is also carried into the movie. The scientists take copper tubing and freon from a refrigerator and palladium from a catalytic converter. Another unusual thing about this film was that each take was filmed once.

As far as the story goes, there is a detailed timeline here, an interview here, and the movie’s website here (with a bulliten board).

So here I am sitting on McNeil and waiting for the light at Parmer to change. I am deep in my own little world; so much so, that I am not even looking at the red light and waiting for it to change into green. Then I hear a dull bang and I look up to see two cars spinning out of control.

The first thing that I do is get my phone out and start to dial 911. But as I am about to hit send, I look up and see many people outside of their cars and on cell phones. I figure the odds are good that one of them is already handling it. So I turn off the engine and go out side. One vehicle has flipped over and is on Parmer south of McNeil. The other has actually driven up a guy wire for a telephone pole and is dangling on it. I go to that vehicle to see if I can help but there are already people there. Two people are in the vehicle and both are unconscious and leaning on the dashboard. The police arrive immediately (in less than a minute).

I am not in the mood to stand and gawk and I didn’t see the start of the accident so I get back in my truck and carefully drive through the glass and car parts.

This was obviously a T-bone collision where one car was at least travelling 55 MPH (people normally drive at least 65).

This just screams out to the mortality of life, how instantaneously it can end, and how freaking unsafe my vehicle can be…

I hope everyone was alright. Thank god for helpful bystanders.

Dan must have a secret job in advertising. No one else would dare to use minatures… They are just not mainstream… You should have included the tooth-pick trebuchet! Five guys are not enough to cut it!

If a woman is going to drive a Hummer, then it should be painted pink and have Barbie painted on it. “My Barbie can roll over your car…”

I went to Rudy’s for lunch today. On my way out, I saw this propane truck getting gas and thought to myself what a convienient terrorist bomb.

This is one of those times when the numbers align. Watch out for five year olds!

Here are some videos that I took at the races with my phone:

• Movie #1
• Movie #2
• Movie #3

Well, I finally completed one of my todos. When I purchased my beast, I started keeping the gas station receipts. And, today, I completed entering the data into XML format. After that was accomplished, I wrote a Python program to perform some rudimentary data analysis. And this is what I found:

Total Mileage Driven : 15712.7
Total Gallons Consumed : 1178.019
Total Cost : $2162.67

Cheapest Price per Gallon : $1.399 on 12/03/2003
Most Expensive Price per Gallon : $2.349 on 04/06/2005

Best Miles per Gallon : 15.362
Average Miles per Gallon : 13.338
Worst Miles per Gallon : 11.605

Lowest Total Paid At The Pump : $18.59 on 06/02/2004
Most Expensive Total Paid At The Pump : $43.22 on 03/10/2005

I have always suspected that the beast guzzles fuel and 13.338 Miles/Gallon confirms it. What was surprising was that fuel prices have risen one dollar in 16 months! Now that’s inflation!

Mike and I went to the races yesterday! It was pretty cool. I took some pictures. I learned that you should bring a portable seat, a jacket, and possibly some earplugs.

I went to see Foleyvision: Turkish Star Wars at the The Alamo Drafthouse with Mike and William and loved it. Foley Vision definitely made this movie into a fun experience. If I had watched this movie on its own, I would not have spent 10 minutes on it. However, there were three foley artists which provided the voices and sound effects for the movie. They did a great job and gave the film a touch of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 to go with the weird Turkish/Muslim propaganda.

Fortunately, I had already made plans with Mike before posting on a mailing list asking if anyone was interested. Out of the three that replied that they were, only one showed up.

Update:

With the growing popularity of Pod casting, It would have been neat if the Alamo Drafthouse would have recorded the performance. I would have bought that mp3 for a dollar or two! Then, all I would have needed to do would be to buy a copy of the video and burn a new DVD…