Kasperian Moving Parts

kinda like batman, but with a wife and 3 kids

RSS

Category Archives: Movies

Dear LazyWeb,
I have ripped/encoded a bunch of (my own) movies previously in order to watch them on my PSP. The command I’ve been using is a variation of this:
mencoder -sws 9 -af volume=10.1:0 \
-vf pullup,softskip,scale=320:240,harddup,unsharp=l3×3:0.7 \
-ofps 30000/1001 \
-oac faac -faacopts br=128:mpeg=4:object=2:raw -channels 2 -srate 48000 \
-ovc lavc -lavcopts aglobal=1:vglobal=1:vcodec=mpeg4:acodec=libfaac\
:abitrate=128:vbitrate=500 \
-of lavf -lavfopts format=psp \
-aid 128 [...]

Meaning no disrespect to whomever graphicked the original awesome logo, but I am totally jealous of all who can fly the original banner. Maybe next year? I needs to gets me a Visa or something first, tho. Durnit. Have fun guys!!

It started to hit me yesterday as I spent 3.5 hours in this year’s KDE Google Summer of Code mentor’s meeting (thanks again sebr!!). KDE4 just plain rocks, and it feels good to start getting excited about it again. And I don’t just mean KDE 4.0. Don’t get me wrong, KDE4.0 is a nice little [...]

Last in our series of “when will that Jason kid shut up?!?” is this short, little ditty wherein I extol the wonders of an ancient Linux file server in my basement with a 250GB drive, my shiny (SHINY!!!) new PS3, my PSP, and the nifty little Open Source project of MediaTomb.
Being out of the “being [...]

One of my favorite memories of all my growing-up years happened in my 7th grade. It centered around a very under-appreciated teacher of mine named Robin Avant who did something simple and inventive and refreshing and stirring with her class. I wish I knew how to contact her today because I can honestly say that [...]

I’m sorry, but 2 words: Don’t Bother.
You can say what you want about the ornate costumes, the beautiful colors, the amazing sets. Yeah, maybe. But the story? I’m sorry, but if I wanted to be depressed and bored and looking for the fast forward button for 2 hours, I could have watched the housing market [...]

I was going to update my previous post about the amazing movie, Copying Beethoven, with this, but I am sufficiently taken to generate a new post. Kerry Candaele commented on my last post with a link to his forthcoming movie called Following The Ninth, so I visited his site and I am very, very impressed. [...]

I just watched one of the most amazing movies that I have ever seen: the excellent Copying Beethoven.
I have always been deeply fascinated with the genius that is Ludwig van Beethoven. I grew up listening to my mom playing his pieces on our piano, and have enjoyed the complexity and overwhelming emotion found both in [...]

At least there’s always Monty Python when you’re having a rough day:
Son: Ah…ah know. But I want the girl that I marry to have… a
certain…*special*…something…
King: Cut that out!! Cut that out….
You’re marryin’ Princess Lucky, so you’d better get used to the idea!
GUARDS!!!
Make sure the prince doesn’t leave this room until I [...]

I SO want to see this movie!

I just got done watching this movie with my family and I can honestly say that this is one of the most amazing movies I have ever seen.
The cast is perfect. Will Ferrell is absolutely incredible. Dustin Hoffman is excellent. Maggie Gyllenhaal is superb!
The style of the film is just impeccable. [...]

Warning: a brain dump followeth:
Blockbuster has sweetened their deal by allowing in-store trade-ins of online-rented movies. This, to me, blows NetFlix out of the water, since NetFlix does not yet have a brick-and-mortar presence anywhere (?). And, because we signed up with Blockbuster a while ago, we still get to keep our 2 [...]

Just finally had the chance to see this tonight and I was very pleasantly surprised! I wasn’t honestly sure what to expect from the commercials, but it was much better-done and much less focused on over-the-top gore and violence than I had thought. Bravo to Kurt Wimmer for that!! And honestly, bravo [...]

Wow. Movies always affect me more than they probably should. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, necessarily, but it’s definitely a thing.
I just tonight had the chance to watch V for Vendetta. I’ve never read the graphic novel, and as such I came to [...]

I have had the pleasure(?) of living through the following:

Getting two problems (ABS light and Airbag light were both stuck on) with our new-to-us 2005 Town & Country fixed only to find another problem (2 radiator fans refused to turn off when car was turned off). Had to disconnect battery overnight to turn off [...]

My beautiful bride and I just finished watching Must Love Dogs. I am a huge John Cusack fan, as is Lynn. However, Must Love Dogs barely bubbled up above the “sure could have done something more enjoyable with the last two hours of my life” mark. It was a cute film, to [...]

I think I’ve mentioned before how much movies affect me. They really do. And the really thought-provoking ones affect me the most. Duh, I suppose.
I just saw K-PAX this evening. How I managed to miss this until just now is beyond me. Comes with the territory [...]

My good friend Mr. Schindler just let me borrow Batman Begins from him and I took the time to watch it this evening instead of patching, sanding, painting, cleaning, organizing, and stressing. All I can say is WOW.
Batman Begins is easily the best Batman movie ever. It is what Tim Burton [...]

How, exactly, did I manage to miss this amazing-looking series from the recent past?
And how did I manage to be completely oblivious about this equally-amazing-looking movie?
Egads.

I had this one sitting on my desk for 2 weeks at least from Blockbuster online rental. I had read somewhere that it was good, and I have always absolutely loved Bobby Darin’s voice and style. But I was not prepared for this amazing movie.
Beyond the Sea really affected me in [...]

So, my beautiful bride and I had an opportunity the other night to spend the evening without two of our children, which left just the two of us and our beautiful daughter (we’ll call her Kiwi here). We enjoyed a few serene and peaceful hours at the local Borders, looking through whatever books we [...]

I just got finished reading through the eReader version of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, The Illustrated Screenplay on my Clie.
I shall now make some observations and predictions about this movie and the future events in my life surrounding it.
So…
stand back.

I am going to hate this movie.
I am [...]

So, I just spent a good couple of hours with my lovely wifey watching Ocean’s Twelve, and I can recommend it for your viewing pleasure, and thanks for asking. I will say, however, that the first twelve minutes of the movie (pun intended) had me cringing. It sure seemed to me that the [...]

So, I finally rented and watched Signs, the uber-freaky, scary, funny, thoroughly enjoyable, “make my heart beat really really fast and make me keep looking behind me to make sure the door is closed and aliens aren’t going to grab me” movie.
Holy smokes. What a great movie.
First, I had gone into [...]

So, now I’m just depressed. Having never paid much attention to things political before a month ago, I was hoping to spend a solid month investigating said things, get a healthy bit of knowledge, and be well-armed with all the information necessary to vote responsibly in less than a month.
I believe that now [...]