Blog Archives - August 2007

Monday, August 27, 2007 - New photos and stuff...

On Thursday, August 23rd DeKalb and the entire Chicagoland area was hit by a series of major thunder storms. After a week of heavy rain, the severe storms caused widespread flooding and storm damage. We were lucky and didn't have any problems, but neighbors had flooded basements, the exits of our subdivision were under water, and there was a lot of flooding throughout DeKalb and Sycamore. Most of northeast Illinois, including DeKalb County has been declared a disaster area because of the flooding and other storm damage. I've added a few pictures and videos of the flooding around the neighborhood to my Weather Pics photo album.

I've also added some new pictures of Michael to his photo album, including his first trip to the zoo and some pictures of him looking at antique cars at Corn Fest.
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Wednesday, August 15, 2007 - New Security Key Code

I've had a few complaints about my Security Code (See This Post) that I have in my Guestbook (and Blog Comments, etc.). Some people have said that the graphics I use are too difficult to read. So I've come up with some new code to create a Security Key. It's currently active in my Guestbook Page and in my Blog Comments. So far it seems to be working just as good at keeping out SPAM as my old code, plus it can be configured for different looks using simple CSS.

If you want to download the code and use it in your own site you can find it in my Coldfusion Page.

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Monday, August 13, 2007 - Harry Potter vs The Simpsons

Well, last week I saw both the new Harry Potter movie and The Simpsons Movie. Both were excellent, but I think I actually liked The Simpsons better, despite a lack of any speaking lines for Jasper. Oh well.

Anyway, the new Harry Potter movie had great visuals, lots of action, and was just as fun as all the other movies and books. But there were two big disappointments:

1. The movie left a lot unexplained. If you hadn't read the books I think you would be pretty lost watching this movie. All the previous movies stood pretty well on their own, but there was so much cut out of Order of the Phoenix that I think it would have been confusing and overwhelming for anyone who hadn't read the book. There were even a bunch of characters that weren't even named, e.g. Tonks (her first name is mentioned briefly), Percy Weasley, etc.
2. Character Casting I'm not sure what it was, but the new characters were not how I had pictured them. Up to this point characters in the movies were almost exactly how I had pictured them in my mind's eye, but the new characters in Phoenix were not what I had pictured. That's not to say they weren't portrayed well, just not how I expected them to look. And Julie felt the same way. When we started talking about it we realized that we both had the same (or at least very close) mental pictures of the characters, but not what the movie characters looked like.

But despite those two minor disappointments, I thought the movie was excellent. I'd give it a 4 out of 5 rating, or an A- grade. The visual effects were very impressive, especially the battle between Dumbledore and Voldemort.

Now, The Simpsons Movie... I laughed constantly. Despite being longer than three back-to-back episodes, it never felt long or stretched out. The plot kept moving and the jokes kept rolling. The animation was excellent, lots of extra touches, like shadows and reflections, that there isn't time for in the TV show. The story and jokes were a flash back to classic Simpsons episodes - just enough zanieness and plenty of clever subtleties. And there was a bunch of stuff that they just can't do on TV. Nothing horrible, but they definitely pushed beyond the line of what is acceptable for television.

So overall, I think I liked The Simpsons Movie best. I would recommend that anyone and everyone go out and see it, or at least promise to rent it when it is available on DVD. Harry Potter fans will love the new movie, but if you aren't familiar with the books you might be a bit confused.

Have fun!

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