I have had a Flickr Pro account for a few years now but haven't really done much with it recently. I haven't taken many pictures recently so I guess that explains my lack of activity on Flickr. If anyone has any cool uses for Flickr or maybe some hidden functionality please let me know. I need some things to get excited about when it comes to web technology. Maybe something will motivate me to start taking pictures again. I need to learn so much but when I am sporadic with my practice I tend to forget everything I have learned. I hate that feeling of "starting over" every time I pick up the camera.
There was quite a bit of talk about the return of Sci-Fi to the Oscars this year. With both Avatar and District 9 receiving multiple nominations including best picture it is no wonder the film world turned its eyes to the genre. Of course box office performance is nothing to be overlooked either but Academy Award nominations certainly gave the films even more exposure. I felt the nominations were deserved, at least until Sunday when my mind changed. A bit anyway.
On Sunday I was getting ready to leave to attend an Oscar event (as part of the help but we won't talk about that too much) and noticed Children of Men was showing on one of the cable channels. Children of Men is a film I have a great fondness for even though it is difficult to watch in spots. The really amazing thing about the film though is that it manages to be Sci-Fi without looking like it. The film tells a human story about people struggling to survive in a world that no longer seems to make sense. There are just enough technological trappings to make the audience aware that it takes place in the near future but it doesn't waste time showing you why the technology is so cool. This is what all good Sci-Fi does. It creates worlds in which human stories can be told without all of the baggage that comes with telling the story in the present day. The Sci-Fi setting can also make tough moral and ethical stories easier to tell due to fantastic situations. Done properly, Sci-Fi tales that capture our interest can also teach and inspire and films like Children of Men are prime examples of such storytelling done well.
So what does this have to do with the Academy Awards and the films nominated for best picture. Well, my feeling today is that neither Avatar or District 9 are shining examples of Sci-Fi. Maybe they were nominated for their accomplishments as film. That is fine. Compared with other films in the genre, however, they fall flat. Children of Men did not garner a Best Picture nomination even though it is masterfully shot, well directed, well acted, and is a film that leaves the audience quiet and stunned even as the credits begin to roll. I think I realized this Sunday as I sat and watch truly expert film making and storytelling. A film might be pretty, use revolutionary technology, or be massively successful from a budget point of view but I think if it doesn't make you stop and think about life, the universe and everything then maybe it is not best picture material. That is exactly how I feel about Avatar and District 9. I enjoyed both films. Very much so in fact but in the end they were both simple action/adventure films that didn't really stick with me once the experience of the film was over. I suppose it is for that reason that I never thought they had a chance to win the award. Seems I might have been right.
On Sunday I was getting ready to leave to attend an Oscar event (as part of the help but we won't talk about that too much) and noticed Children of Men was showing on one of the cable channels. Children of Men is a film I have a great fondness for even though it is difficult to watch in spots. The really amazing thing about the film though is that it manages to be Sci-Fi without looking like it. The film tells a human story about people struggling to survive in a world that no longer seems to make sense. There are just enough technological trappings to make the audience aware that it takes place in the near future but it doesn't waste time showing you why the technology is so cool. This is what all good Sci-Fi does. It creates worlds in which human stories can be told without all of the baggage that comes with telling the story in the present day. The Sci-Fi setting can also make tough moral and ethical stories easier to tell due to fantastic situations. Done properly, Sci-Fi tales that capture our interest can also teach and inspire and films like Children of Men are prime examples of such storytelling done well.
So what does this have to do with the Academy Awards and the films nominated for best picture. Well, my feeling today is that neither Avatar or District 9 are shining examples of Sci-Fi. Maybe they were nominated for their accomplishments as film. That is fine. Compared with other films in the genre, however, they fall flat. Children of Men did not garner a Best Picture nomination even though it is masterfully shot, well directed, well acted, and is a film that leaves the audience quiet and stunned even as the credits begin to roll. I think I realized this Sunday as I sat and watch truly expert film making and storytelling. A film might be pretty, use revolutionary technology, or be massively successful from a budget point of view but I think if it doesn't make you stop and think about life, the universe and everything then maybe it is not best picture material. That is exactly how I feel about Avatar and District 9. I enjoyed both films. Very much so in fact but in the end they were both simple action/adventure films that didn't really stick with me once the experience of the film was over. I suppose it is for that reason that I never thought they had a chance to win the award. Seems I might have been right.
For some reason I found myself wanting to try MovableType 5. So, as I usually do, I took the READY-SHOOT-AIM approach and wiped out what little was still here and installed MT5 completely clean. This version takes what was new in the last big release and ads what I feel is just another level of complexity to the system without really changing too much under the hood. The first hurdle for me was understanding the concept of Websites versus Blogs as they relate to MT5. It seems that in this version everything has to be contained in a "Website" and a blog can not exist on its own but is rather part of a website. I am slowly starting to see how this can be advantageous and I suspect it is intended as a framework for building sites that include blog content but that are not strictly weblogs only. For me, however, it was and still is confusing on a technical level if not necessarily on a conceptual level.
I get the feeling that I really should be using WordPress for this personal blog. I don't really have any reason to say that other than MT seems to be more and more big website/corporate focused than personal user focused. Of course, if I had any real skill at design and layout I might be able to actually use the power of this software but I just don't have the experience. Still, I am used to MT's publishing interface and familiarity often breeds contentment...or something along those lines.
It looks like I have to rebuild my layout...again. I'll get around to it but really what is more important is giving this website a reason to exist. Such a thing has been hard to define over the last year or so but I still feel a certain pull to this medium even if I don't use it particularly well or for any lasting purpose. In the long run I suppose this site and anything associated with it continues to be my little playground. I guess every so often I just like refilling the sandbox with fresh, white sand.
I get the feeling that I really should be using WordPress for this personal blog. I don't really have any reason to say that other than MT seems to be more and more big website/corporate focused than personal user focused. Of course, if I had any real skill at design and layout I might be able to actually use the power of this software but I just don't have the experience. Still, I am used to MT's publishing interface and familiarity often breeds contentment...or something along those lines.
It looks like I have to rebuild my layout...again. I'll get around to it but really what is more important is giving this website a reason to exist. Such a thing has been hard to define over the last year or so but I still feel a certain pull to this medium even if I don't use it particularly well or for any lasting purpose. In the long run I suppose this site and anything associated with it continues to be my little playground. I guess every so often I just like refilling the sandbox with fresh, white sand.
