森の木琴 Touch Wood - Frakin' Amazing!

An end of an era .....

I have been in post secondary education three times. Three times!

I never realized how intense and yet rewarding the Creative Communications program is at Red River College until the end is neigh, but it has been quite a ride and I would have preferred to have done this program ten years ago to negate a three ring run in post secondary education.

Now comes the ever so awesome adjustment to life after school period. Typically you go through some of the stages of death and dying when something you have become attached to comes to an end.

DENIAL

Well, denial is probably not a stage anyone finishing Creative Communications goes through, unless you want to do the program again .... I didn't think so!

BARGAINING

You might find yourself negotiating with your instructors to get you a good job or give you a good reference, and bargaining with classmates to not apply for that awesome job posting you came across. Oh, negotiating with instructors about assignments and grade distribution might work ..... If you like punching Jello.

ANGER

Yes, stress levels hit record highs during Creative Communications and there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth, and though we may have wanted to choke fellow students metaphorically, it was NEVER literally. Kenton Larson can restore order with his Ninja skills if fights break out between students.

DEPRESSION

Sometimes during the program you wanted to off yourself. OK, maybe not off yourself but magically teleport yourself to a land of gum drops and fairies which would make your instructors think WTF is going on with this student!

FEAR

Oh those dreaded auto fails. I had as many of those as the fingers on my hands. You fear instructors pen marks and criticism though it is only to make you better. It's OK, they aren't the boss of you anymore after you graduate and they aren't watching you at home .... with the exception of haunting your academic dreams like Freddy Krueger.

ACCEPTANCE

Accept the amazement of all the work you did. Even the assignments with auto fails where you put hours of effort in should not be diminished. Because at the end of it all if you make the effort, you will learn something and that is what ultimately matters and have a career waiting for you in the future.

The Matrix: Blu-Ray Disc Review

Keanu Reeves says "Whoa!"

Ok, the Matrix series was and still is without a doubt one of the redefining sci-fi movie trilogies of all time. Say what you will about the second and third movies in the trilogy, but I think the overall package is still pretty good because the original Matrix is a testament to fantastic film making and screenwriting.

I won't bore anyone rehashing the story line for the purposes of this review. I happened upon a previously viewed copy of The Matrix on Blu-Ray and couldn't say no.

I had the VHS and original DVD release versions and have weighted patiently for the Blu-Ray price to become reasonable.

This particular version of The Matrix is part of Warner Bros. Signature Series, so you get some extra features which include some of the standard behind the scenes that existed on the DVD, as well as some newer features, and the case has a book built into it with a synopsis, cast and crew bios, and facts. It is interesting though a little hard to read given the size and it is not a separate supplement you can take out of the case because it is a part of the case.

But the real meat and potatoes for me is how will it look and sound and I have previously posted that many Warner Bros. Blu-Rays don't disappoint and The Matrix on Blu-Ray is a shining light in the Blu-Ray firmament.

Picture:

An amazing transfer. The original DVD was decent enough though some scenes were a little grainy and washed out. What stands out the most is the difference between scenes in the Matrix and in the real world. The Matrix is a little greenish and the real world a little bluish and the contrast in the Blu-Ray version is spectacular as compared to the DVD.

Black levels are stellar and the details in the background to nuances on the individual characters faces are immaculate.

Sound:

You get Dolby TrueHD 5.1 playback. And unlike the DVD, the dialogue is at a level where between the jaw dropping visual action scenes and the more quiet philosophical moments, you wont be pulling out your hair adjusting the volume. Explosions and gunfire aren't to overbearing, and in scenes where the action is coming from left, right, and behind, the presence is pretty darn good.

Overall I would say if you love The Matrix and have a Blu-Ray player with surround sound, pick it up!

Picture: 5 out of 5

Sound: 5 out of 5

Story: 5 out of 5

Clean up after your dog!

So spring is here and on one stretch of street as my wife and I were taking our baby girl for a walk in the stroller we encountered a mine field of dog droppings.

I don't know if the dog owners thought no one would notice as this particular sidewalk had a large border fence on one side but seriously!

In Paris they have people on patrol fining people who don't pick up after their dogs.

Don't make Winnipeg have to adopt similar tactics, clean up after your dog!

End Communication .....

More Election Stuff ....

Ok, apparently in my last post I made it sound like less then half of all eligible voters voted in the last federal elections but the rate was just over %58, which is still the lowest on record and apparently has been declining since peaking in the 80's.

What could account for this? Fragmentation via too many federal candidates to vote for? Shifts in demographics such as age and ethnicity?

Well, I did hear one younger female on CBC Newsworld indicate she doesn't follow nor understand politics. I thought two things: One, you can't not not know something about politics. And two, it seems that many of our elected officials don't know politics that well either.

Apathy and 'I don't have time' seem to rule the non-voting roost. Maybe we need to make voting mandatory, but if we are going to police voting then we need to make it as easy as possible as we say in PR, set up a secure website were people can vote online 24-7. How about something in the form of a computer kiosk touch screen setup in malls that people can vote at?

The last municipal election, My wife and waited in line for a ridiculous amount of time. So, take a lesson politicians, advanced polls are fine, but enough information can be fed into a computer with the right precautions to allow people to vote from home if they so wish.

Dude, where's my coalition?

Ahh, spring is here. Flowers are going to be a blooming and a federal election is upon us.

Well, at least the weather should be stable ... or not.

I love the rhetoric that is being tossed around. Harper's Conservatives are all about a Liberal, NDP, and Bloc coalition, coalition, coalition! Forgetting that back in 2004 Harper spearheaded his on little coalition which helped propel him to where he is now.

The bigger issue for me personally is that voter turnout was less then %50 the last federal election.

If citizens are a little fed up about having an election every three years and a minority government, then get out and vote.

The old saying there is power in numbers could never be more true and more needed for the future of democracy in Canada at this point. So if you don't like the terms prorogue, coalition, and minority government, do something about it.

Twister Blu-Ray Disc Review

Oh yeah the 90's. Vanilla Ice, spandex shorts, scrunches, and the movie Twister from 1994. Oh dear, I just dated myself nicely.

My darling wife bought me Twister on Blu-Ray and after watching it I was thoroughly impressed.

I remember having a copy on VHS and then the original DVD release and I will say that the VHS version was great, while the DVD version wasn't that much an improvement overall (see one of my previous posts) but the Blu-Ray is great.

Picture: Very clear with very little grain or issues associated with the analog source material. Colors are very good throughout for the most part. For example, because a majority of the film takes place outside, there is a lot of green which is quite vibrant. There were a few times though where I felt some colors were just a little bit on the flat side, but gorgeous black levels help make up for that.

Sound: A DolbyTrueHD 5.1 track will wow you. In the first act, where Joe's dad gets pulled out of the tornado shelter, the sound of wind howling and pounding fills the surround channels nicely and this holds true for all the scenes where the cast is chasing twisters. The soundtrack comes through nicely whether it is the orchestral score or songs from the 90's (pick it up, it's great!) and dialogue is crisp and clear with no need to do to much cranking between Bill Paxton yelling 'hold on' several times or quieter conversations between a few characters.

There are a lot of bonus features to choose form which round the disc out nicely if you are into that sort of thing.

Picture: 4 out of 5

Sound: 4.5 out of 5