Jason Murphy

Made the Jump (2.7)

Dec 14, 2008 Blog General Leave a comment

I had a little bit of downtime today so I made the jump and upgraded two of my major blogs to the latest WordPress release 2.7.

The new admin interface reminds me of the first time I installed WordPress. It’s all foreign, yet somehow familiar. Just like I did the first time I installed WP, I decided that I need to start posting to get used to it. I’m taking advantage of the new “QuickPress” feature that allows me to post to the blog directly from my admin panel and seeing what that is about. Umm… no categories? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Tags are here, but that doesn’t matter since my template doesn’t support them.

Next up, plugins.

Emotionless Thriller?

Dec 13, 2008 30 Days Blogging, Geeks and Gadgets Leave a comment

Tonight, my wife and I ended up watching The Invasion, the remake of a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

What a waste of my time.

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers story is about an alien virus that is easily communicable and turns the infected into an emotionless, almost mindless, collective. The goal of the infected is to seek out and hunt down those that aren’t infected and, well, infect them. Or give them death. Whichever is easier. They can tell you aren’t part of the collective if you show emotion, if your heartbeats faster, or if you sweat. Show anything more than a stoic look on your face and you are theirs.

I remember seeing the original when I was much younger. Even in this remake, I still love the story line, but man did they miss the mark on this one. Normally I don’t think you can go wrong casting Nicole Kidman for a part, but this may have been one time when she wasn’t the right fit. Or perhaps we could blame the direction. It’s gotta be damn near impossible to film something where you can’t express emotion.

But Joss Whedon came damn close. And he did it for TV.

I haven’t seen many Buffy episodes, but there is one that is so thrilling, so defiantly creepy, that it sticks out in my mind. The episode was “Hush” and I think it is Joss Whedon’s masterpiece. It revolves around a fairytale. And I think it is the best adaptation of a Nightmare being brought to life through the magic of film making.

The Gentlemen come to a town and steal the voices of all who live there. You can’t talk, you can’t cry, you can’t scream. They then hover, yes hover, around town and look for victims and cut out their hearts. No one hears them coming. No one can hear the screams of the victims.

I searched and searched for a good clip of the episode, but unfortunately Hulu doesn’t have this season of Buffy on their service yet (give it time though). In mean time, I found the original trailer for your entertainment. If you have the DVD’s, load up Hush and enjoy!

So where am I going with this? There are several parallels: Classic story vs. fairytale; missing elements that make us human (voice vs. emotion); innocent beings being hunted down like prey; and nightmares.

I think Joss Whedon wins!

BTW, don’t get me started on the whole “I am Legend” vs. Bodysnatchers meme. Which I also think did a MUCH better job than “The Invasion”, and it was pretty much the same movie except staring a dude.

Ok, you got me started… Let’s compare those two movies: Infection rips through society turning humans into more than humans vs. Infection ripping through society turning humans into aliens; a doctor plays the lead in both movies; both try to get to an outpost of immune survivors; both find ways of surviving among the infected; both find cures and start to rebuild society (oops, sorry, that was a spoiler).

In the case of The Invasion vs. I Am Legend, I have to give this win to Will Smith.

For the title match: Sarah Michelle Gellar vs. fresh prince dance-off to “Gettin Jiggy Wit It”.

Gotta Push When You Can’t Pull

Dec 13, 2008 Blog General 1 Comment

Man these past two days have been a train wreck of productivity. I choose train wreck because I accomplished a ton of stuff, but the minute I hit the door at home I was done, crashing on the couch and finding myself waking up hours later. If I hurry, I can get todays blogging done. That’s the beauty of running a server on the west coast and living on the east coast. I love the 3 hour delay! It’s perfect for procrastinators like myself!

This is one of those forced writing posts. No objective in mind. Just getting it done.

Which, if you think about it, isn’t that bad really. Sometimes you just need to push the creative process. You can’t draw from a resource if it isn’t there, and tonight, my creative tank is empty.

Hell, I don’t even have a last minute YouTube play to link to anyone. Maybe a game?