dark wings, dark words

“Bad Teacher”

Cameron Diaz plays Elizabeth Halsey, who’s a shallow, crass woman who’s put all her eggs so to speak in the basket of the plain but rich love interest that she’s engaged to at the beginning of the story.  So, as such, she’s kind of just skated by doing the bare minimum in the job she’s been doing which is a Junior High Teacher and in getting to know the rest of the faculty as she figures she’s not going to be doing this for very long.  So, little does she know as she saunters off of the faculty parking lot at the end of the school year but her would be fiance with the advice of his mother has caught onto her little gold digging scheme.

So, fast forward to the fall and lo and behold Diaz’s character sputters up in a ratty subcompact where before she’d driven off the same lot in a luxury car.  She lurches through another day in the grind of her life going through the motions again as before but with little of the motivation that carried her through that year where she carelessly slacked off as she counted the days until she could be rid of this humdrum existence.  So, if she was slacking off before, what she does now is even more in that direction.

She tolerates her coworkers, actually getting to know them this time but not by choice of course.  In particular, there’s the Gym Teacher, played by Jason Segel, who likes her but whom she barely paid attention to last year since he’s to her “merely” a gym teacher and so because of his lack of a large paycheck beneath her attention as compared to her rich fiance last year and the new rich substitute teacher that comes into the picture this year, played by Justin Timberlake; but with whom she flirts.  She gets it into her head that the new gold digging target for her, the new substitute teacher, has a hankering for big breasts (presumably by the picture he shows her of his ex girlfriend who herself has big breasts) and so now has a new goal for herself, that is, gathering enough money so she can pay for a boob job, so she can attract Timberlake’s character and get involved with him romantically and eventually have him marry her and not herself have to worry about working anymore.

There are two problems with this plan of course, one being it’s another marry for money scheme that would get her the money that she needs to live, but won’t necessarily get her the happiness that she’s convinced herself to give up in order to gain the money, that potential happiness being made increasingly clear to her as she finds herself more and more attracted to the poor gym teacher than the rich but scatterbrained substitute.  And the second is the other gold digging teacher across the hall from her, her chief rival for the heart of the substitute and all around pain in the butt goody-two shoes, a teacher named Amy Squirrel, played by Lucy Punch.

Diaz’s character decides to use her main assets, that is, her innate knowledge of how people think, combined with her sexy but fading charm and a little bit of manipulation on the side in order to finagle the funds to pay for the boob job, at the same time maneuvering to make sure her rival is unable to spend some key quality time with the substitute on a school trip but underestimates the guilt she feels when the gym teacher catches her in the act so to speak.  Who does she choose?  The man she loves?  Or the man who can give her the most financial comfort?

The structure of the set up is kind of like a typical teenager story in high school with the parallels between the machinations and interactions of the teachers matching up with the prototype of the teenage girl in high school trying to decide between the handsome but clueless and crass jock and the sensitive and smart and funny kid who may not be as classically good looking and successful as the jock but who actually loves her for who she is rather than what she represents as a symbol or as piece of property.  So, of course the whole idea is switched around with crass but now poor jock being the person who loves her and the sensitive and smart and rich but annoying nerd who she wants to get with but for all the wrong reasons.

There’s a fun-ness in the movie in the sheer crassness and laziness of Diaz’s character.  She’s not the typical idealized version of what a good teacher often is shown as, as exemplified by the teachers in the films that she shows everyday in the earlier part of the school year in class to the students instead of actually teaching them anything.  There’s also kind of an amusing quality to the way she’s constantly drinking and smoking pot and just completely ignoring all of the rules that normally characters in any movie or story are often tied down to as members of society.  She cheats on school board tests and gets away with it; she smokes pot and drinks alcohol in class and doesn’t do her job and she gets away with it; she does a car wash lap dance on all the fathers’ cars splashing herself down like she was in a music video and then she siphons funds away from the proceeds and gets away with it; she’s basically kind of like the character of Ferris Bueller in how he gets away practically with murder and nothing happens to him.  There’s just this kind of sick thrill that the audience gets I think with this sort of character set up where the audience surrogate, the main character, just goes through and breaks all the rules and there’s no story retribution that happens with the whole thing wrapped up in the bow of the framework of a love story.

RottenTomatoes gives this movie a 43% rating (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bad_teacher/) which is about right I’d say; the execution of this story set up is not perfect and that brings it down a little bit and there’s parts where they imply that Diaz’s character is a little bit on the racist side which doesn’t help; the guilty pleasure part of it I think balances the flaws out and the love story buoys it up even more.  I’d say rate it a little higher if you’re willing to forgive the flaws and about there or lower if you’re being picky.

Antonia is a free character figure that Odf has made over the last few years with the help of many members of the renderosity community.  It’s a figure intended to be used in Poser and offered to everybody under the Creative Commons Attribution license.

odf’s main site for Antonia - (http://sites.google.com/site/antoniapolygon/)

Antonia free stuff site - (http://www.bluecho4u3d.com/Antonia/start.htm)

Renderosity thread started by Odf about Antonia - (http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2753785)

Renderosity’s wiki on Antonia - (http://www.renderosity.com/mod/rrwiki/index.php/Antonia)

Cage’s Batgirl and Harley Quinn for Antonia - (http://www.the.cage.page.phantom3d.net/Antonia/Antonia_stuff.html)

If you’ve seen those animated gifs that look eerily like a moving photograph (as opposed to just merely taking frames out of a movie or video so it’s more like something out of Harry Potter like those magical moving photographs than video per se) and wondered how people made those then here are some links to several tutorials that people have made telling you how to do that:

1.  Christopher Mathew Burt - (http://anaestheticdiscourse.com/?p=1011)

2.  Ferbabdi J. Baez - (http://fernandojbaez.com/cinemagraph-tutorial/)

3.  Photojojo - (http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/how-to-make-cinemagraphs-photos-that-move/)

4. Digital inspiration/labnol.org - (http://www.labnol.org/software/cinemagraph-tutorial/19453/)

Basically as according to the people who are accredited as the creators of this technique (Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg) the Cinemagraph is a sort of an amalgamation of Still photography and Movies; more than a still photo but still keeping all the artsy stuff about taking a really good still photo without the drawbacks of the larger size and system requirements etc. of video.  It’s a capturing of the moments shortly before and after when a photo is taken.

Beck and Burg Interview in HuffingtonPost - (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/turnstyle/so-long-animated-gifs-hel_b_853450.html)

Beck Article in TheAtlantic - (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/how-jamie-beck-and-kevin-burg-create-their-animated-gifs/237404/)

Link to the cinemagraphs from their tumblr page - (http://fromme-toyou.tumblr.com/tagged/gif)

“Cars 2”

Cars 2 is the sequel to Cars “1” and they’re both done by Pixar.  Cars 1 is about how the main character in Cars 1, Lightning McQueen, voiced by Owen Wilson, gets stuck in a small town and learns to “slow down” so to speak and appreciate life as exemplified through the example of the small town inhabitants.  Cars 2 is partly about how that same character, McQueen, takes his best friend, Mater, voiced by Larry the Cable Guy, from that small town out onto the race circuit with him and in turn how on the one hand McQueen through his rivalry with a fellow racecar learns the value of friendly competition and sportsmanship and on the other learns how a true friend accepts their friends as they are warts and all; but it’s also how Mater breaks out of his formerly smaller role in the narrative and becomes a main character on the equivalent level as McQueen in the first movie as Mater explores the big wide world in sort of a fish out of water story mixed with an international spy story in the vein of a James Bond movie.

Mater really takes the spotlight in this movie as the main main character and although they play as if McQueen is still a main character in his own right, he really does sort of take a secondary role to Mater in this movie as if the story’s sort of told from the perspective of someone focusing more on Mater than on McQueen.  His character is sort of a hopeless bumbling fool type of character who’s at the same time wise in his own right and has a good heart.  So, as such, he kind of slips through the cracks unscathed through all the different factions warring against each other like the worldwide conspiracy of broken down lemon cars which are raging against the machine of normal car society represented narratively by the spy organizations of the world working for the car nation governments; and also the normalcy of everyday life in a place like a small town versus the perceived normalcy of life in a big city in the midst of big society where supposedly life in the big city is socially above life in a small town but in reality it’s all just the same as demonstrated by the way Mater skates through both just as easily without even worrying about whether he’s fitting in or not; that not even coming into the picture for him as he kind of marches to the beat of his own drum.

Visually, the film is spectacular.  The race scenes are beautifully lit and rendered and colorful and energetic and realistic and they remind the viewer of scenes from such spectacular movies as Speed Racer and other similar racing movies.  The way that the different societies from all over the world are depicted is also very nicely done with the experience of going to the different countries like Japan, France, Italy, England and the U.S. seamlessly shown as if not only were Mater and company actually going to and experiencing the different countries and societies but also that it were perfectly natural for a car to be in the same situation as a human would be getting suddenly being exposed to new things as Jacques Tati’s character often is shown doing in many of his films.

There are a couple of slower moving, narratively speaking, parts in the movie such as the elaborate introduction scene which sets up the entire spy movie framework and gives a bunch of exposition in the meanwhile and also the parts where they show the secondary story of McQueen’s rivalry and then epiphany about sportsmanship and struggles coming to terms with and then epiphany about accepting his friends, namely Mater as they are; but I think the main part of the narrative, that is the parts concerning Mater, are strong enough to overcome the “slowness” of those parts; and if you take it from the perspective of it being a “Mater” centered movie and not a McQueen centered movie then the way they’ve done the whole narrative set up and story makes a lot more sense and is in turn a lot funnier since you can settle back and appreciate the Wise Country Bumpkin type of humor that Larry the Cable Guy and the writers have settled into the character of Mater.  In my opinion he’s a pretty funny and cute tow truck, haha!

As an added bonus, Pixar includes at the beginning of this movie an animated short starring most of the main characters from their Toy Story series.  It’s a very funny skit about how all the toys get together and help Barbie create the illusion of a Hawaiian getaway vacation for her boyfriend Ken when he’s been hoping that the toys’ owner, a little girl, would take him and Barbie on her family vacation to Hawaii during Christmas Break presumably.  It’s very cleverly written and the voice actors and the characters are all very cute and funny and it’s like a pleasant and amusing glance into a short episode in the adventures of the toys from the famous series.  It’s a nice warm up for the movie to follow and a pleasant surprise also.

So, RottenTomatoes gives Cars 2 a very low 33% rating (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cars_2/) and in my opinion I’d say that the validity of that number really depends here on your perspective, i.e. if you’re a fan of Pixar or like the character of Mater then you’ll probably give it up to a 60 or 70 percent rating or higher and if you really hate Mater or just dislike that the movie’s not really centered around McQueen and in turn think that because McQueen’s not the center of attention so to speak that it’s kind of not really a Cars sequel then 33% percent is probably about right, but I’d have to say that it really is kind of an argumentative criticism to say that because it’s centered around Mater that it’s somehow inferior when looking at the Mater centered portions of the film that those Mater centric portions are really the superior parts of the film.  I mean, looking at the film objectively and not worrying about what McQueen is doing, the film as a Mater centric film is pretty good.  I mean, it’s not Citizen Kane, but as a family or children’s animated film it is cute, amusing, visually beautiful and funny.

“Beginners”

Ewan MacGregor plays the main character, Oliver, in Beginners and he’s sort of a man that’s always been afraid of commitment.  In the movie, three time periods are shown, interwoven with one another, as Oliver is dealing with falling in love with an actress, played by Melanie Laurent.  He’s been afraid of commitment because he’s grown up with his mother and father both of whom he’s suspected didn’t love each other and so because he’s perceived of this lack of love he in turn has seemingly come to not believe that love is possible and so in all his previous relationships he’s sabotaged them before they could move on to be too serious because it’s implied that he’s assumed that if they did move onto the serious portion of the relationship that, like the relationship between his father and his mother, it will be loveless and they’ll both be unhappy.

So, the crux of what changes this pattern of thinking comes when his mother dies five years before the present point in the movie and after which his father, played by Christopher Plummer, then proceeds to come out of the closet and reveal to Oliver that he’s always been gay, all throughout his entire life and all throughout the entire marriage.  So, his dad proceeds to live the life that he’s always wanted to live but did not think that was possible to live until now (that is “modern” times) and he joins a bunch of gay groups and puts out a personal ad and finds a boyfriend with whom he falls in love and for the first time in his life, Oliver sees that his dad is really happy!

So, like many narratives where a character achieves happiness, there’s not a lot for him to do but die, so the filmmakers proceed to give Oliver’s father terminal lung cancer implying that it was caused by his smoking earlier in his life.  So, the portion from when his dad reveals his true nature to him to the point where he dies of lung cancer affects him in two ways: one in helping him realize that happiness can indeed be achieved in life and two in dropping him into a period of grief where he seems to forget that first lesson and fall into old patterns again as he tries to pull his life together as he tries to deal with his dad’s death.

So, that takes us to the present point in the movie where his friends encourage him to get out there and go to a party and meet some people, after they’ve determined that he’s grieved and brooded long enough.  So, he reluctantly acquiesces and comes to the party and it’s pretty uneventful until he meets this beautiful woman, played by Melanie Laurent, who strangely doesn’t talk to him out loud but communicates with him through writing her responses to what he says on a pad of paper and reacting normally with pantomime in a pretty clever “meet cute” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_cute).

So, considering his hang ups and from where he’s coming, you can kind guess where the story is going with him at first, as said before, defensively falling into old patterns but coming to realize because of the things that he’s learned through the last few years with his father, that he really can be happy and follow his heart and have everything be okay because of that.  So, the title beginners kind of refers to both his dad beginning his life as a gay man and himself beginning his life as a person happily in love.

RottenTomatoes gives this movie an 83% rating (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beginners/) and I’d say that’s pretty accurate but I’d go higher because I liked it and thought the love story was well done and the rest of the story was interesting and poignant and sad and happy at the same time and the acting was very good and the dog was pretty cute, haha!  Pretty damn good movie in general and worth seeing.

If you’ve been seeing a lot of CGI pictures that people make floating around on the internet and wondered how they did that, then here’s one explanation:

On the low end (and here we’ll only consider the low end since CGI software can go into the multiple thousands in cost as you get more modern and sophisticated), i.e. the Beginner end, of 3D CGI is this program called Poser that’s currently owned and being updated by this company called Smith Micro.  Smith Micro sells it directly to people via download through their website and at this point in time is currently on its 8th iteration on the regular consumer version (Poser 8) and on its “2010” version for its Pro edition (Poser Pro 2010).  The main difference between the two is Poser 8 is a lot more buggy and you can probably do a lot more stuff with Poser Pro, but if just rendering 3D pictures is all that you want and want to save some money then the consumer version might be the way to go.

Poser 8 - (http://store.smithmicro.com/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=10430)

Poser Pro 2010 - (http://store.smithmicro.com/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=12462)

So, if you buy and download Poser (either version) Smithmicro includes a lot of content that their artists have already made so you can get started right away if really wanted to using any of SmithMicro’s Characters that they include and many basic items and scenes etc. right out of the box so to speak (and I say so to speak here since there isn’t a literal box with the download).

But of course the out of the box Poser stuff is usually kind of basic and perhaps a little on the bland side and it doesn’t get a lot of Artist support since to get the models that the supporting items would be compatible with you have to either get the latest version of Poser or buy that character directly from Smith Micro’s content website (http://www.contentparadise.com); and in reality users of previous versions of Poser or the main competing and analogous program to Poser, Daz Studio, would have to spend a minimum of around 20 to 30 dollars in order to get that character to start with so because of the initial comparatively large buy-in cost most of the 3D artists for this market make their items for another company’s character which they give out for free.  That company is Smith Micro’s main competitor in the market, Daz3D.

Daz3D’s bread and butter character is Victoria 4 at the moment.  They’ve gained popularity in the marketplace because they gave this character away for free and also because the character itself is kind of pretty in general and is compatible with Poser.  As they’ve gained popularity, Daz3D has developed its own competitor to Poser called Daz Studio.  The current version of Daz Studio at this moment in time is Daz Studio 4 which at this current moment in time they are give away for free.

Victoria 4.2 (http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d-models/-/victoria-4-2?item=4783)

Daz Studio 4 (http://www.daz3d.com/i/shop/itemdetails/?item=12194)

So, with Daz Studio 4 they include a newer generation character based on relatively newer technology to Victoria 4.  That newer generation character is called Genesis, but at the moment since it does use new technology it is not currently compatible with the current version of Poser at this moment in time.  As to future compatibility, Daz3D has said that they’ve spoken with SmithMicro as to what this new character needs for it to run in Poser, so apparently SmithMicro is working on sticking that technology in the next version of Poser, but they’ve been tight lipped about it, so whether they are or are not going to include Genesis figure compatibility in the next version of Poser at this moment in time is unclear.  So, basically what this comes down to is currently Genesis is Daz Studio only, but also currently since it’s just come out there’s not a lot of products that are compatible right out of the box with it.  Daz3D has put out a converter program plug-in that you can buy from them to convert older generation items and products to that new Genesis character, but you have to pay around 50 Bucks for that and you’re forced to use Daz Studio 4 to use the character, so if you’re currently a Poser user then that could be a big pain in the ass; and also, if Poser doesn’t choose to support it then the market will be split with Daz3D using a proprietary character and Smith Micro another proprietary character.  Daz3D has in turn approached the creation of the Genesis figure backwards from how they’ve developed the Victoria characters in that they’ve always created a character that you can use on Poser and in turn were always sort of beholdened to Poser but here with the Genesis figure are apparently attempting to “take the reins” up and guide the market in the direction in which they want it to go, but who knows, maybe that will backfire on them and they’ll only succeed in splitting the market and in turn fall backwards in market share or of course it could pay off and give them a leg up.  We’ll have to wait and see.

Daz Studio 4 Auto-Fit Tool - (http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d-models/0/daz-studio-4?item=12666)

There’s a third program that can load and use all of the items that are compatible in Poser and Daz Studio 3 and that’s another program that Daz3D currently owns and it’s called Carrara.  Currently Carrara’s on it’s 8th version (Carrara 8) and it can do the basic Poser type stuff and it can do a little bit more sophisticated things like UV mesh manipulation and other good stuff; but it’s not as popular as the other two even though it’s just as good pretty much.

Carrara 8 - (http://www.daz3d.com/i/shop/itemdetails/?item=10607)

Carrara 8 Pro - (http://www.daz3d.com/i/shop/itemdetails/?item=10608)

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So, there you have the programs, but now that you have the programs, whichever one you pick, what can you do with them?

Well, of course you’ll need content to play around with in the programs.  So, people being frugal have embraced Daz3D’s free Victoria 4 character with gusto and the 3D artists have in turn followed the marketplace and have made a ton of stuff for Victoria 4 and other similarly related Daz3D products and characters.  So, basically, it’s a big extremely lifelike and realistic three dimensional Barbie doll or G.I. Joe action figure that you can play around with and make pictures of and animate if you’d like to also; and all these accompanying products are things that the 3D artists have made that are basically like accessories to these dolls or action figures (things like clothes, character morphs (changes to the basic character to create a new character or to give a different shape to the character of any part of the character, like boobs for instance), skin textures (colors and shapes), props (like any object you can think of someone’s probably already made), facial expressions, poses, lighting, different materials for different surfaces and objects, tons of alternate characters like elves and fairies and animals and numerous others and almost anything you can think of).

Some of the stores where you can buy this content are as follows (using their New Releases links):

Daz3D’s Content Store - (http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d-models/all-products-promotions?cat=1068)

Smith Micro’s Content Store - (http://www.contentparadise.com/searchimageviewdetail.aspx?type=new)

Renderosity’s Marketplace - (http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?WhatsNew=Y)

RuntimeDNA’s Store - (http://www.runtimedna.com/NewProducts/)

Poseraddicts’ Store - (http://shop.poseraddicts.com/index.php)

And these following two are Adult Stores and in turn Not Safe For Work (NSFW) or not safe if you are a minor or not safe if you are around Children:

Renderotica’s Store (NSFW) - (https://www.renderotica.com/xcart/home.php?cat=312)

SynfulMindz’s Store (NSFW) - (http://www.synfulmindz.com/catalog/products_new.php)

Obviously, there are tons more stores especially by the individual artists, but there’s too many to name.  Definitely, do a search for your favorite artist and seek out their stores, there’s a lot out there and more than likely you’ll find something.

Besides buyable content there’s a lot of free stuff out there on multitudes of websites. 

ShareCG - (http://www.sharecg.com/b/5/3D%20Models?)

Renderosity’s Freebie page - (http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?page=1)

Daz3D’s Freepository - (http://forum.daz3d.com/viewforum.php?f=41)

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For additional discounts you can also check Daz3D’s Facebook page which they’ve recently taken to posting Vouchers on and also sent vouchers to fans of this page, so if you’re interested in some free vouchers from Daz3D log onto Facebook and “like” Daz3d.

Daz3D’s Facebook Page - (http://www.facebook.com/DAZ3D.FanPage?sk=wall&filter=1)

Also, multiple websites have different competing “budget” programs.  For Daz3D it’s the “Platinum Club” or PC and it costs around 8 bucks per month with a 30 dollar initial buy-in, but you get a 6 buck voucher back and also get heavy discounts on almost everything in the store plus three or more budget item releases per week on Thursday usually at $1.99 or less each plus a freebie each Tuesday; plus it’s a lot of fun and there’s lots of little goodies that Daz releases to its members like sneak previews and lots of inside information etc.

Daz3D Platinum Club Monthly Subscription - (http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d-models/-/platinum-club-monthly?item=1)

All the other stores have kind of followed Daz3D’s lead so every week on Wednesday for instance RuntimeDNA releases $2.50 items and a freebie and there are numerous other programs also similar to that.

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Daz3D has a pretty active forum and 3D hobbyist community so if you’re interested in that here are some forum links to check out:

Daz3D’s Commons Forum - (http://forum.daz3d.com/viewforum.php?f=4&flatnum=1)

Daz3D’s Platinum Club Forum - (http://forum.daz3d.com/viewforum.php?f=3&flatnum=1)

Obviously, Daz3D isn’t the only place to check out, also try Renderosity’s forums, Deviantart and many other places, you’ll have to do some digging.

Deviantart - (http://www.deviantart.com/)

Renderosity’s Forums - (http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/index.php)

Renderosity’s Gallery What’s New Page - (http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/browse.php?section_id=&genre_id=)

Recently had a windows computer basically give up the ghost so to speak because of malware and viruses etc.  A cousin came over who had the same thing happen to him and he paid an Information Technician around 1000 bucks to help him clean his computer of viruses on the condition that he teach him how to do that; so, he passed the savings onto me and gave me a bunch of free files you can use to fix your computer of most any current virus, malware etc. infestation as of today (who knows what the viruses and companies creating the anti-virus stuff will be like in the future?).

So, as your infected computer is booting hold F8 or continually tap F8 until the log-on menu comes up then select Last Known Successful boot or safemode if that doesn’t work.

Next, from an uninfected computer, download the following free programs:

So, the main the programs you’ll want to start with are:

1.  MBAM - (http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free)

2.  SpyBot Search & Destroy - (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html)

3.  Combofix - (http://www.combofix.org/)

There are others obviously but these are a good place to start.  Copy these programs onto a CD, then load them to the infected computer in the CD rom drive.  Don’t use flash drives or thumb drives to transfer files to or from the infected computer because it’ll just copy a virus upon it.  Install all three programs then start one of them up.  Make sure the infected computer is connected to the internet and make sure you update the program, that you choose to run, to the latest version (there’s a button or it’s automatic usually).  Sit back, wait for it to finish.  When you’re done with one of the programs move to the next one then install, update and run that one, then move onto the third program and do the same thing.  It should clean up almost any bad current infection.

Secondarily you can also download these programs to use if you’re still having problems:

Ad-aware - (http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php)

Autoruns - (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902)

HijackThis - (http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/)

Killbox - (http://killbox.net/)

Kaspersky Internet Security - (http://www.kaspersky.com/kis_latest_versions)

LSPFix - (http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm)

Rootkit Revealer - (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897445)

OTCleanit - (http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/files/file/403-otc-oldtimers-clean-it/)

Process Explorer - (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653)

RootRepeal - (http://sites.google.com/site/rootrepeal/)

McAfee Labs Stinger - (http://www.mcafee.com/us/downloads/free-tools/how-to-use-stinger.aspx)

Kaspersky TDSSkiller - (http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208283363)

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Alternatively, if you don’t even want to deal with virus removal or just need to get the information off of the harddrive and don’t care as much about saving the computer or restoring it after getting the information off you can always try an USB External Harddrive Case with correct connector to the harddrive in question that you’re trying to get the information off of.  Just make sure you know what you’re doing and make sure you get the right case for the right harddrive and how to set everything up etc.

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Please note that this information is only valid as of around this time period, not reliably so after, so if you’re reading this ten years in the future this information can possibly be completely wrong or Windows has by then become completely obsolete and you’re just laughing at us right now, haha!

Hello, World!  (<——Obligatory Programing introduction)

First Tumblr Post

Okay, yeah, late to the “party” but anyway…

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“Mr. Popper’s Penguins”

Unless you’re a Jim Carey fanatic or a Mr. Popper’s Penguins Children’s book fan I’d recommend avoiding Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  It’s just cringe-inducingly sentimental and treacly sweet and it takes a kind of white-washed disney-esque tack towards what the filmmakers seem to think is what a “family” movie is supposed to be like, i.e. with a nuclear family (mother, father, children) who magically come back together after a divorce and they live in a theme park-like home and skate around on a homemade indoor ice skating rink.  It’s just so ridiculous and unrealistic that even allowing for a normal suspension of disbelief with the way that Carey’s character is living with a bunch of penguins, the whole thing just kind of tries a little too hard to appear to be family friendly and pander to kids’ tastes (or what they think of as kids’ tastes) that it just ends up giving you an ice cream headache and making your teeth hurt.  I mean, there’s a fine line between being family friendly and whimsical with your material and just outright lying to kids about life and existence.

There’s some good parts in it like the idea of sliding down the swirling ramp of the Guggenheim Museum as if it were a big waterslide (I mean, who’s never thought of doing that after seeing how that museum’s made? - http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/about) and also Carey is great, he’s funny; granted, the material he’s provided with isn’t very well written, but hey, Ace Ventura Pet Detective and The Mask weren’t exactly Citizen Kane or Casablanca either but he made the most of his roles in them also and the entire “cartoonish” acting schtick seems to work pretty well in roles where the role and the situation is itself very cartoonish in nature; I mean, what else can you call living with a bunch of penguins but cartoonish?

How are the penguins in the film?  They’re pretty realistic looking, though of course there’s probably a plethora of CGI interwoven into the live action, especially the ending in Antarctica, which is a spoiler but at the same time, come on!  You knew they were going to go there.  And that part just looks like it’s done in a green screen room.  I mean, obviously you can’t keep live penguins as pets since they’re wild animals so pretty much all of the penguins are CGI, so it’s really Carey standing there pretending that it’s a bunch of penguins that he’s standing around with and dancing with etc.  Also, I remember seeing a documentary recently about penguins and the antarctic and it’s a pretty harsh life for these birds so sending them back there after having coddled them is pretty much a death sentence I’m thinking so they really aren’t presenting a realistic view of penguins to their target audience which is of course little kids but hey, as along as you can pander to their whims I guess the filmmakers really don’t care about realism.

Tomato-meter gives it around a 44% rating (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mr_poppers_penguins_2010/) which is fairly accurate.  I would say push the rating lower if you’re looking for realism and higher if you’re a Carey fan, like whimsical fairytale lands and like the original book.