Finals

Quick update. Finals are finally over! It's odd being done for the year. My roommate Grant moved out yesterday so the whole room feels empty. Now it's just a waiting game. Everything is wrapping itself up.

--Forrest

Movie Reviews : A Beautiful Mind *WARNING SPOILERS*

As a start off, I'm going to post some stuff I've been working on lately.
I've recently realized that I love film. So, without further ado:

**DISCLAIMER**
I do not claim to be an expert at film, I just enjoy looking at film from a slightly deeper viewpoint when possible, and doing criticism helps me delve to those depths.

A Beautiful Mind
Director: Ron Howard
Leads: Russell Crowe, Jenifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Christopher Plummer , and Paul Bettany

Basic Plot:
The plot follows the life of Economist Mathematition and Nobel Laureate John Nash.
John (Played by Russell Crow) begins the movie as a student at Princeton. He is working to find an “original” idea. While his classmates are publishing and producing ideas that are mere synthesis of others work, Jon wants to find an idea that is totally unique. He meets his roommate, one of his only ties to the human world. Charles is a great friend that helps John work out his “original” idea. While out with his friends, everything falls into place, and he comes to the realization of a lifetime. He finds what is later dubbed the “Nash Equilibrium,” and Idea that upsets 150 years of economic thinking. Things begin to fall into place . John gets a placement and along with two friends working on some theoretical and upper level math. He begins teaching a class, and meets a girl. One day after class one of his students comes into his office and asks him for a dinner date. As he begins his courtship and everything seems to be falling into place. Then John is asked to the pentagon to work on a top secret assignment. He ends up working almost full time deciphering a trail of codes that lie in common periodicals to attempt to find patterns that could lead to the tracking down of a nuclear weapon being smuggled into the country by the Russians. John asks Alicia to marry him, and soon after she gets pregnant. John talks to his contact at the government and asks to be reassigned. He is afraid for his wife and unborn child. Soon after John is giving a talk, when a “Psychiatrist.” John believes that Dr. Rosen is a soviet agent trying to capture him. It is at this point that the viewer begins to realize that not all is what it appears. We learn that John is a Schizophrenic, and a large part of his life is a hallucination. We learn that even people that are as close to him as his roommate Charles are merely figments of his imagination. We start to understand the depth of his condition. John goes under treatment to solve his condition. This causes him to go under drastic changes. He finds that it is more difficult to work, the medication dulls his creative outlook on the world. John then goes off of his medication again. This time it almost has dangerous consequences. Finally he goes back to Princeton, and decides to ignore the hallucinations even though they still haunt them. He begins taking classes and working in the library. Finally after an encounter with a bright student, he decides to begin teaching again. John is then told that he has been considered for the Nobel Prize for his original work on equilibrium and game theory. While sitting having tea with the representative from the Nobel Committee he is given the honor from his colleagues for the achievement of a lifetime. The film ends with an impassioned speech from John about the importance of his love for his wife.


Critical Review:
What starts out as a standard story arc matures into a look into life as a Schizophrenic. The film up until this point follows a fantastic, yet at the same time classic story. What begins as a simple story grows into something much more. We follow John through his early years, his marriage and his successes proffesionaly. Then the film reaches a turning point and all begins to become clear. Things that seemed harmless before suddenly take on sinister connotations. Departing from his more gritty roles in films such as Gladiator, Russell Crowe does an excellent job, truly convincing you of his love for Alicia and his genius, while simultaneously showing small tics and mannerisms that bring out his condition. The film was fascinating and though provoking, and was truly a great look at the fascinating life if John Nash. The small details start to become noticeable when it becomes apparent that all is not as it seems. For example his roommate Charles is always talking about a book by T E Lawrence, never changing his topic of study. You begin to realize that although John is changing, his hallucinations are static. These subtleties give the film a depth that is rarely seen. You feel for John in his darkest hours and rejoice when he triumphs.

Back to the grindstone

Why: Well, I never meant to stop posting here. I'm sure everyone understands, life just got in the way.

It's nice to have a place to post my musings etc.

When: As often as possible, I plan to post at least once a week.

What: Well, that depends on the week. I plan on doing everything from tutorials, webdesign, writing, or just thoughts on life. The possibilities are endless.

How: That's not really applicable. (A computer I guess)

Who: Me, Forrest.

Where: here!

So, I hope you enjoy, and I look forward to getting back into this blogging thing.

--Forrest

So, I got a great time...

So, I got a great gift form my "uncle" Bill today! It's realy awesome!!!! It's a lot of really great guitar lessons. You would be amazed at how hard it is to find good gutar lessons on the net! im pumped

screen cast

this was done with jing a screen cast video maker i learned about it on lifehacker!!! its realy cool...check it out!

here it is........ a video blog entry!

reverce graffiti

so, here is this really cool hting that i found today. this is a new style of graffiti were the artist scrubs away the grimes of the city and creates art... anyways check out this story.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3379017

cheers, Forrest

blogging

ahh has it realy been over a month since i posted anything to my blog???????????

i am so behind....well i just got done with spring break and now we are heading into another wasl week..luckly i only have to take the science wich mens a few extra hours in the day.

well anyways...ive been working on earth abunch lately and i might turn it into a book using blurb...then i can print it

WASL

So... I took a third of the writing WASL (our states mandatory standardized test) today. It wasn't so bad...although I did feel like I was in a prison camp. First of all you had to place all backpacks and coats against one wall. If you were found with any electronic device, even a soldering iron, you were dragged away and thrown in the commons, not to be able to finish your test. Then you could only use the pencil that they gave you....I guess so you wouldn't hide an essay on your pencil lead =/. Anyways, my essay prompt wasn't so bad....I had to come up with a new holiday..."what was it?” you ask. It was "I hate holidays day" there was a bah humbug contest and a re gifting marathon!!! it was quite fun to write and I am interested to see what I will get tomorrow...

anyways that's it for now, I’ll keep you updated...

drivers Education

If you live near me, then watch out... because I'm now licensed to drive (with a parent). I am taking a drivers education class taught By "Rocky" the wrestling coach at the school... it seems like a lot of book work, but the reward of driving is worth it. I am just putting this out as a warning...don’t drive for the next 6 months. =] anyways I think it will be lots of fun
here is a picture of "rocky" =]


cheers, forrest ;-)

Guitar

Last weekend I built an electric guitar!!!! It is really cool! It is made of a piece of PVC and some plywood... also I used a single guitar string and a machine tuner. I can plug it into my computer and record what I am playing with Audacity (an open source audio editing program). I can make really cool tunes and export them as mp3's. At the moment the guitar isn’t working...but when it is, I will make and mp3 or to and post them for others to see! also i am making an amp.

Hope this inspires people, Forrest

outward bound

I might get to go to outward bound this summer!!! it would be really fun if i could get to do this... i have a favorate book (thats not about magic) called bushcraft right now...that is really cool. it is a really cool experience and i hope that i will work out


cheers, forrest

instructables

lately i made a few more instructables, i thought i would share them here since not every one i know checks insructables every day like i do. I just posted an instructable on making "K-NEX" DNA, and one on how to beat minesweeper. (my i do bounce around).

anyways i just thought i would throw that out there to the world,

cheers, Forrest

new years resolution

my new newyears resolution is to be a better blogger, during the past moth blogging has fell by the wayside i hope to renew my bloggin strength by posting a few things today. expect to see a few more posts coming hot off the e-press. i hope to be able to do more soon but as it is it is getting late and i need to catch up on my sleep. so ill post more soon.

cheers, Forrest

weekend

So it’s finally the weekend *sigh of content* the week is over and the homework is not too unbearable. Since it is near the end of semester, and finals are coming, the teachers are laying on the homework =[ as a result the time I would normally used to write on the blog has been taken away. I will try to work on it as much as I can over the weekend but then it’s back to slogging thorough piles of work. well bye for now.

cheers Forrest

Meebo...

Well a while back I gave a link to www.meebo.com well unluckily I gave the wrong link. But now that’s fixed and I added a thing so that you can chat with me!!! Unfortunately you can’t chat with anyone else unless you sign up with meebo. But it is pretty cool so if you do just add magicfap to you buddies list. I’ll talk to you soon if you try it out.

Cheers, Forrest

PS if you want a better name than just meeboguest38123394 then just type it in where it say nickname!

Chrismahaunakwanzica and beyond

Since before chrismahaunakwanzica I have had lots of fun. As a present, I got a new cellular...=] yay! Now I can spend money on lots of useless things like games. Another thing I got was a subscription to a magazine called "MAKE: technology on your time" it is a really cool magazine that is kind of like a magazine of instructables projects. It is really fun and I'm looking forward to building that ornithopter! Anyways I hope that everyone celebrating this holiday season had a good holiday and was satisfied.

cheers, forrest

Hair cut.. this time its for real

So, I finally cut my hair. and i photo documented the whole thing.. so here they are.. in time order... THE PICTURES!!!!




ahh the hair is eating my face



i just found a new recipe for Jello salad!



mullet...need i say more



before the shower



and after the shower!

hope you like it =]

Free Geek

Yesterday I walked downtown with a friend. We went to free geek (a local company) to volunteer. The company is built around the idea that anyone without the money to buy a computer should get one for free. I really like computers so when I learned about the place I was thrilled. Yesterday I spent my day doing "triage". Triage is basically taking apart CPUs and replacing the parts that don't function with parts that do. For instance when I was there I replaced a CD drive in one computer that would not eject. After I had replaced it I tested the computer by hooking up a monitor a keyboard and a mouse. Also I got to help set up the company's router. All I did was installed a few network cards and hooked up a hard drive. I am lucky because I am coming in at the start of the Olympia branch. I hope that that means that I will be able to learn early and teach others that come to the business how to do some of the things that I have learned to do. If you live in Olympia or in Portland then you should check it out.

cheers, Forrest

Ebooks

Lately (for the past 2 days or so) I have been enthralled by a book... Ender's game... I have spent most of the past few days listening to this book on my Mobiblu cube (the world’s smallest mp3 player). I am able to do this because I learned from my mom that the library offers mp3 sound books which can be found for anyone living near me here). I learned that with a click of a button and not much time at all I can download up to 4 books from the online catalog. There are some pretty good titles. If you don't live near me you should check out your library website or tell your library about the program...the one downfall of it is that it doesn't play on iPods. Anyway that’s what I've been doing lately... It is very interesting to listen to a book on tape again (I used to do it all the time). Check to see if your library has something like this... It’s great because you can check things out without going all the way to the library.