Okay, here's a good one....

Take a look at this Associated Press release.

To sum it up for you, the House just confirmed a bill from the Senate that will require all TV broadcasters to switch all of their analog broadcast signals to digital signals by Dec 31, 2008 (basically before 2009). The bill also sets aside $830 million ($830,000,000) to help underprivileged Americans pay for the $50-$60 converters that would be needed for those who do not have "cable" TV, but still rely on over-the-air signals. Yes, I know, my gut reaction was at first "WHY IS THE HOUSE OF CONGRESS VOTING ON TV?!?!?!?!" as well as asking "WHY ARE WE PAYING FOR THEIR TV?!?!?!?!?" Please try to imagine the level of indignation that cannot be expressed by all-caps and grammatically incorrect punctuation.

However, the "purpose" (sideaffect?) of mandating this move to digital is to free up more radio spectrum which will help to improve the radio communication of civil servants like the police and fire departments. That is only some of the spectrum, though. The rest is supposed to be auctioned off by the government to various radio broadcasters for an estimated $10 billion ($10,000,000,000), which would theoretically pay for the program.

So, the question that I have for you is "Is this the best use of your Representative's time and your tax dollars?

The Democtrats are, as usual, complaining that the bill does not set aside enough money. They argue that $830 million ($830,000,000) will not pay for the converters of all the people who are going to need them.

The Republicans counter this argument by anticipating that not everyone will need the gonvernment's help to buy the $50-$60 converter. They do not expect the more wealthy Americans to ask for a coupon. What's that? The rich aren't getting a break?

Lemme know what you think...

Alright, guys...

I've finally finished one of the essays that I'm writing for my novel. It probably won't appear in the novel, except for small quotes. It is just so that I can get my head wrapped around the ideas that I'm going to be using and so that I can have some real background to the story. Even though they are about Quantum Physics and theoretical science, please take a look at this one and let me know what you think; it's not very long. I need to know what the layman who reads this thinks, as well as the Theoretical Physics professor ;-) You can find it here.

Well, well, well...

It has been a long time, hasn't it? Very little of import has happened in the intermediate time period so there remains little to tell. Perhaps the most notable things have occurred in only the past couple of days.

I had a flat tire. That problem was solved in less than 30 minutes, once I got to the tire place. I finally got my oil, spark-plugs, and air-filter changed. Now for the brakes. Exciting stuff, eh? Well, I do have a little more than that:

I know that I said I didn't want to go spend $7.50 to see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in the theaters, but it finally come out on DVD so I was obliged by social affiliation (geek = sci-fi) to rent it so that I could at least remain socially educated. As disappointing as Episodes I and II were, I should have guessed that Ep. III would live up to it's predecessors. I did hope, however, that as this movie began to force Lucas to tie into his original movies and story line, he would return to the skill and directing that made the first 3 movies as classic as they have remained. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Let's start with the positive part. ILM, THX, and Lucas Film Ltd. have once again proven that they are one of the premier special effects developers in the world, especially when it comes to CG. The special effects were one of the only things that was consistent with the Star Wars legacy. The original 3 movies were revolutionary in the way that they used special effects, and Ep III proved that they could stay on the cutting edge, even if there's nothing revolutionary left to do. This, however, was also the most ironic of the disappointments that I felt about this movie. Despite the fact that the CG was dazzlingly realistic and aesthetically dramatic, it was also unintelligent and simplistic. Every scene in the movie, but especially the CG scenes, were designed like a computer desktop. Something that you could frame and hang on your wall. Each scene was visually stunning and dramatic, but this very fact diluted its effectiveness. The example that I have used to explain this to some friends is that of slo-mo. You have seen when a movie uses slo-mo to make a scene more dramatic, and when it is used artistically it can be incredibly effective and is often hardly noticeable. If, however, you were to try and make the entire movie more dramatic by playing the whole thing in slo-mo, it wouldn't work, would it? Also, the drama of the shots was based on a simple and somewhat rigid formula. For each new planet there was a landing sequence that looked like a cut scene right out of a computer game. There was a plethora of skyline shots with the typical high-rise building, no ground, and a spider's web of space vehicles chasing eachother across the screen. Then there were the hero shots and the villain shots and the romantic shots and the cockpit shots and the really-big-space-ship-flying-into-view shots and the "oh no he's gonna die" shots and they were all very cliche and expected. I think the only CG thing that surprised me was a shot of a fighter ship exploding and they did a very good job of showing the pieces going every which way, and I think I even saw the pilot go spinning off into space. To me it seemed like a very expensive demo-reel for ILM and Lucas Film Ltd. The other disappointment that was perhaps more striking was the script. Every single line was nearly (if not totally) meaningless. There was a painful amount of "Oh! Look out!" "Get him!" "Look over there!" "Better get the door!" "The ship is going down!" "You look tired." "Is there anything I can do to help?" "I'm so hopeless." "No, it's because I love you so much." "But you can't do that!" "I don't trust him." "They don't trust me." "You're my friend." ...ad nauseam. The script was obscenely amateurish and cliche. I even caught a recycled line. Of all the lines that he could have recycled from the old movies, Lucas had to pick the cheesiest line out of all three of them: "Hold me." The acting was equally atrocious. Ewan McGregor was the only member of the cast to present a passable performance. Hayden Christensen was never emotional enough and when he finally did get emotional, it was hardly believable. Both Samuel L. Jackson and Christohper Lee were poorly cast, in my opinion, and neither of them were able to perform to the caliber that they usually do. They were limited by the script as well as by the characters that they played to. One other disappointment was the profusion of clever devices. There were such things as a missile that (instead of exploding) released droids to tear the ship apart; a mining facility built on a lava flow; a one wheeled motorcycle with four legs; and others. It seemed to be a venue for intriguing but poorly thought out designs. Things that were clever and nothing more, neither efficient, nor effective, not reasonable, or realistic.

The greatest disappointment, however, deserves its own paragraph. The "most anticipated sequel of the year," perhaps even of the decade, was everything that was expected of it and incredibly adequate. While Lucas started with a solid story 30 years ago, and the story for Ep.s I and II weren't a total flop, his fans expected him to link the two trillogies. The original movies demanded an explanation and Ep.s I & II began that, but Ep. III linked the two stories, and nothing more. In fact, Lucas set himself up for a profound and dramatic revelation of the motivations of Anakin/Vader and failed to deliver. The fans expected to see Anakin turn bad, they saw it. They expected to see Obi-Wan fight Vader and they did. The fans expected to see Yoda get beat by a Sith Lord and they did. They expected to see Padme have twins and they did. They expected Padme to die and she did. They expected to find out how Leiah got to the Outer Rim, they found out. They expected to see Luke go to his Uncle and Aunt, and he sure did, and you saw all of 30 seconds of it. They got to see all the explanations that they have been waiting for. The greatest disappointment in this category was the motivations of Anakin. Everyone was expecting Anakin to turn to the Dark Side for some benevolent reason, and he did!! How much more powerful and surprising would it have been to learn that Anakin was really plotting this all along! That it was the only reason that he defeated Darth Maul (Anakin was in league with Maul and Maul didn't expect Anakin to kill him). Or perhaps the visions that Anakin saw told him that the only way to bring balance to the Force was to turn to the Dark Side so that his son, Luke, could balance him out later. Something! Please! Give us something that we didn't see coming 30 years ago.

Anyhow, look for my review of Serenity in the future. It was very good, but I need to watch both of these again before I write real reviews of them. More later...