The Blog-Files

Shrek 2

A little while ago Shrek 2 was released on DVD. Instead of renting it, we purchased it, with the understanding that it was the "#1 comedy of all time". We own the original Shrek, and have watched it many times as it was at one time the boy's favorite. (He had a thing for red heads and loved the part where Princess Fiona sang and made the bird blow up). Anyway, we figured that it would be cheaper in the long run to just buy it than to have to rent it several times.

Well, I can't understand why that movie was so popular. The constant referencing other movies seemed to fragment the movie, the silly puns with the "Burger Prince" and "Versarchery" signs, and the original characters were too set. My favorite character, "Donkey", voiced by Eddie Murphy, was hilarious in the first movie but just kind of tepid in the second. Perhaps the producers didn't want to offend anyone so they couldn't take the characters anywhere near danger. The part of the movie that most people seemed to really enjoy was the "Mission Impossible" scene where Pinnochio is attempting to rescue Shrek, Donkey, and the not so lovable Puss in Boots. In attempting to make him lie to have his nose grows, we discover that he wears women's underpants. I don't know, but I just don't find that particularly funny.

It seems to me that in an effort to take jabs at Disney, Shrek 2 lost much of the humour that the original movie did so well. If formulaic ever described a movie, this is the one. No big surprises, just a bunch of characters going through the motions, earning $800 million dollars worldwide. It's not surprising that the studio has already "green lighted" Shrek 3 and 4, any savvy business person would. I just hope they take some of those millions earned and invest them in a good story, with a good script. Because, at the end of the day, the animation alone doesn't make the movie.

The expression "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me" certainly applies here. I'm not saying I won't see Shrek 3 when it comes out on video, I just won't be buying it, sight unseen.

RATING : 2 out of 5

P.S. The weirdest thing just happened as I was attempting to type in my rating. Suddenly, letters started disappearing from my posting, as if someone was hitting the backspace key. I panicked and managed to hit the escape key before I'd lost too much. Perhaps this is a bug of MarsEdit.

It's Not Only Computer Viruses That Suck

I'm not feeling too hot these days. It all started with Alexei getting a cold, which then spread to Anika (who is now 5 months old!) and now to me. Each one of us had different symptoms, which leads me to believe that what we are really dealing with is three different viruses. Anika is by far the worst off. We had to take her into Emergency last night at 3:00 AM because her breathing sounded very liquidy and she couldn't sleep. Every time she was placed on her back she would start choking and wake herself up, then the unstoppable crying of an overtired infant took over. There wasn't much they could do at the hospital, they just said to wait it out and try to get her "unclogged", they gave Rosie some saline solution to squirt in her nose to make her sneeze. Rosie finally managed to get the baby to sleep at 6:00 AM.

I won't be going to work tomorrow. I didn't go on Wednesday either, Thursday and Friday are my "days off" but I didn't get to much relaxation in. I'm so very tired, but someone has to keep an eye on Alexei. If I turn my back for too long he pees in his pants and I don't like to have to clean that up.

Well, I am too tired to eat. So very lethargic. I don't even think I can finish this...

MarsEdit 1.0

Mars Edit 1.0 is supposed to make blogging as easy as writing email. Well, we'll see about that. Had a little trouble getting images to upload but I think that's all worked out now. If I get a chance I'll play with it a little more later.

It's Finally Here

To a muted fanfare reserved only for third rate "B" Movie stars arriving late for a premiere the iTunes Music Store - Canadian Edition arrived earlier this week. There wasn't much buzz or hoopla about it, just kind of a relief that, after waiting for what seemed like forever, we would now be able to legally download music that would work on a Mac or for that matter an iPod.

The funny thing is, I was chomping at the bit for the store to show up. I checked daily just to see if it came online while I wasn't looking, not trusting the various news sites that would no doubt announce its arrival. Now that it's here, however, I find myself scared to start buying music. I've got a $10 gift certificate that I redeemed just sitting there, staring at me, begging me to buy something. I can't do it, though. I guess now that it is possible for me to spend a small fortune on digital music, I've lost the desire to part with that money. Maybe when there is something I really want I'll dive in but for now I'm pretty happy not cluttering my computer with songs from the 80's.

As far as the service is concerned, I'm quite impressed. A very seamless and cool user experience. Downloads are fast (my wife downloaded a song, she has no problem finding stuff she likes), and the quality of the songs is definitely adequate. The iTMS, like the iPod, is yet another display of how Apple manages to do things the right way.