Michael's Rad Blog

2008 Summer Olympics · Monday August 11, 2008 by Michael Caldwell

I always remember when the Olympics were on as a child. It was a fun time when as a family we would watch people we don’t know do things we can’t do. I don’t know what makes it so fun, but it is.

I’m really enjoying the Olympics this year. More than usual, I would say. Maybe it’s because I’m older and I can appreciate the difficulty of each of the Olympic feats, or maybe it’s just the time I enjoy to sit down with the family. Since Meghan and I are here for the summer, it’s nice to spend this time with our families since we never get that opportunity during the school semesters.

Another thing I like about the Olympics which I never really appreciated when I was younger is the tolerance that is displayed between countries. I don’t pretend to understand global affairs in their entirety, but I certainly understood less when younger. There is something that makes me feel good just to see these representatives from numerous nations coming together in peace for sport and ignoring the tensions which would otherwise arise between their respective countries. This peace that is felt is one of the things I love about the Olympic season.

Shakey Tuesday · Thursday July 31, 2008 by Michael Caldwell

Well, Tuesday was a rather unusual day. For those not living in Southern California, you may not know that there was a slight earthquake. It was actually a 5.4 on the richter scale, and the epicenter was near Chino Hills, about a 45 minute drive from here. I didn’t notice it at first, and mistook it for a semi-truck driving by, however it lasted longer and a co-worker started saying “earthquake,” so I went outside. It only lasted for 10 seconds maybe? It seems to have been dampened where I was. I was at work at ground level and I postulate that the large foundation kept it from seeming more severe. My family said that the whole house was shaking at home. I had one picture fall over in my room. So, it’s been a while since I had felt an earthquake. It was fun. I do like earthquakes (as long as no-one gets hurt)

In addition, a crazy drug addict came to our work parking lot and started threatening to shoot things with a slingshot. He escalated to a pellet gun shooting metallic ball-bearings when the police came. He damaged two vehicles, but managed to miss everyone he targeted. He was subdued by the cops after firing beanbags at him, and he was taken into custody. He appears to have wanted to be shot by the cops to be killed. So, that was weird.

So, that was my amazing Tuesday.

Iron Man · Thursday July 31, 2008 by Michael Caldwell

I finally got around to seeing Iron Man at the 3 Dollar theater. I wanted to see it before it came out on DVD, and I do think that It was worth it.

I am not as familiar with the origins of Iron Man as I am with other comics, but fortunately the movie did not require any fore-knowledge to be enjoyable. I’m sure die-hard fans caught things which I did not, but that’s to be expected. The visual effects were pretty dang good, and it had some good one liners. I also thought that the casting was well done.

The story built from Iron Man’s beginnings and continued to build through the end. After all the build up of how he becomes Iron Man, there wasn’t much time in the movie where he was Iron Man. He fights the Iron Monger, which is a good action sequence, but not too long. I’m looking forward to a movie where we get to see him in action for a longer amount of time.

Overall, it was a good movie, and I was entertained. I can’t wait to see the sequel.

The Dark Knight · Thursday July 31, 2008 by Michael Caldwell

Well, I managed to wait two weeks before seeing this movie in theaters. I liked it a lot, but it still could have been better.

The reason I say that this film could have been better is because I didn’t care for the story as much as I did for Batman Begins. In Batman Begins, I enjoyed how they showed his becoming Batman. The technology was somewhat explained and made it feel plausible. Now, he just has new toys and technology without any real explanation. For example, he has the new echo-location system which seemed to far-fetched for my taste. The change of environment also bothered me a little. In Batman Begins, Gotham is a dark city with many high rise buildings, and the giant train infrastructure etc. It felt foreign and different, and dirty. In the Dark Knight the same city felt more familiar, almost like Chicago; Big, but generally clean. The big train infrastructure and thousands of giant high rise buildings from the first film were all gone.

I thought that the performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker lived to the hype. He wasn’t a crazy Jack Nickleson type Joker, but rather and anarchist Joker who wasn’t doing it for the money, just for the kicks. Heath Ledger delivered big time. Over-all, i really think the casting in both this and Batman Begins is fantastic. The visual effect were amazing, the sound and music and also the timing of scenes were all to perfection. Overall, this was an amazing movie.

Wall•E · Sunday July 20, 2008 by Michael Caldwell

Wow. Can I just say wow? This movie was right up my alley.

One of the things I have always loved about Pixar movies/shorts is the ability to exude humanistic qualities from very non-human objects. (ie: Luxo) Most of their shorts are able to do this without even any dialogue, which is one of the things I really liked about Wall•E. The first portion of the movie was sans-dialogue, or at least very minimalistic dialogue. The humor was accessible to people of all ages, ranging from physical humor, to niche humor especially for the nerds (like me). the movie was a little preachy about saving the planet, but I think it wasn’t too over-the-top.

I liked this movie absolutely. It was amazing, and I can’t wait to go see it again!

Summer Job at Emulex · Tuesday July 15, 2008 by Michael Caldwell

So, Meghan and I came down to California for the Summer. She has an internship at Newport Nursing Facility working with the Speech Therapist there. I am working at a place called Emulex. It’s not exactly an internship… It’s more of a summer job. It doesn’t directly relate to my field of study, but it is informative none-the-less. (and pays double my wage in Utah. Ha!)

Emulex is a company that creates fibre optic network solutions for large servers and fun stuff like that. If only it was economically feasible to have fibre channel at home… Anyways… I am working in the Test Engineering lab and dealing with quality control. Currently I am building test fixtures which will go out to production plants in various parts of the world which will test circuit boards within an inch of their lives to make sure they are ready for public consumption. Isn’t that exciting? I rather like it, really. It’s a really nice corporate environment with lots of nice people and nice perks. Well, I guess that’s about it for now. Thanks for listening!

Skeet Shooting · Sunday July 6, 2008 by Michael Caldwell

Have you ever been skeet shooting? It’s fun. Maybe it’s a guy thing, but having a gun and being able to blow up a little clay disc hurling through the air is just cool. It’s been at least 4 years since I have been skeet shooting. Needless to say, I was out of practice. My first round I only scored an 11 out of 25, and my second was 14.

For those of you who don’t know, in skeet shooting, the shooters take aim at small frisbieish clay things called pigeons, which are fired from the left and right. We take shots from different stations in a semi circular layout. We get 24 different shots, and one extra shot in case we miss one, totalling a perfect score of 25.

I went again the following weekend, and my score jumped from 14 to 17. So, I’m making improvements. Yay!. Well, if you ever get the chance, I recommend trying it out.

Bugs Bunny on Broadway · Sunday July 6, 2008 by Michael Caldwell

My family and I went to see Bugs Bunny on Broadway at the Hollywood Bowl, and I have to say, that was the most entertaining show I have been to in a long time!

I have grown up with Looney Toons. I have probably seen most, if not all, of the Looney Tunes cartoons with Bugs, Daffy, Wile E. Coyote, or the Road Runner. The Looney Toons cartoons have always brilliantly combined classical music with whimsical and funny cartoon scenes. I have always appreciated the ability to envision a piece of music and choreograph a chartoon story to the melody. I think that is what sets the Looney Toons cartoons apart from the rest. I also think it’s a good way to make classical music a part of a child’s life in a way that won’t be boring.

It was amazing to watch these cartoons on the big screen and to hear the live orchestra play. (Without any amplification! Acoustically poifect!) Many times, I even forgot that the music was not prerecorded because it lined up so well with the cartoons. It was just awesome. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.

Plus, we got to hear pieces by Rossini, Wagner, and many others. I had a great time, and Highly recommend it to anyone who gets a chance!

Crowd Control · Friday June 27, 2008 by Michael Caldwell

You know what really just bugs me?! A lot of things. It’s true. I’m easily annoyed. However, in this particular case, I am speaking of overly excited supporters of varying sport oriented teams and players. Yes. Those “fans” as we call them. They annoy me. They make sporting events nearly un-enjoyable, as they are constantly yelling things out.

Many of the things they yell are not constructive. Lets be honest. The athletes are professionals. They practice for hours a day, and get paid a lot. (Probably more then I’ll ever see in my lifetime…) Do you really think little Mr. sports fan’s advice to fake left is really going to make them win the championship game? No. Little Mr. Sports fan is just trying to look cool by “knowing” what he is talking about… It might even make him feel like he’s part of the team. In either event, it’s a selfish thing to do, and benefits no-one. Please don’t do that.

This brings me to the next point; The anger and competition that so often goes along with team sports’ spectators. So often people will root for their team and shun the other, even ridicule them and their fans. And for what? When the team wins, all of the respective fans celebrate as though they have accomplished some great feat! It’s really amazing that they were able to sit on those stands for a whole hour and watch professional athletes work very hard. Those spectators really earned that victory and the bragging rights to go with it. No.

Even the really notable feats of athletic ability are lost by competitive fan bases. A person rooting for one team is not inclined to acknowledge the accomplishments of athletes from the opposing team. I think that a lot of sports (thinking to the Olympics) were to showcase the physical abilities of athletes and teams. By so single-sightedly focusing on and rooting for one team, a lot of the admiration for perseverance and ability is lost, in my opinion. The team you may not be rooting for can be good, and can be respected and acknowledged by you. Is this not so?

So, this is why I don’t like watching sports. Honestly. It’s annoying. Thanks for listening to my rant.

I Am Legend · Friday June 27, 2008 by Michael Caldwell

I liked this movie in some ways, but in others it just didn’t quite do it for me. The overall storyline was good for me. It did what any good movie does. It made me sympathize with the protagonist, it made me contemplate living in that reality, it made me think. It also was scary when appropriate and wasn’t too lame.

The problem I had was that the infected humans didn’t look real enough to take seriously. In scenes where they swarmed, or were in the dark, it looked good. Or at least unnoticeable. In the ending scene however, the graphics kept me from being able to believe the story.

There are two different endings on the DVD. The original ending, which is more of a crowd-pleaser, and the alternate ending, which was more of a contemplative ending which caused me to think and rehash the contents of the movie. I must admit that psychologically, I preferred the alternate ending, and all of its implications. It was much harder to take seriously though because there was more screen time with the infected humans, and it just didn’t look realistic.

Over-all, it was a really good film, and pretty well done. I was thoroughly entertained.

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