Honestly, Do You Like the New Design?

JUNE 9, 2004

I've had a couple of people (namely my sister and girlfriend) gripe about the new site design. Mostly, they don't like the stripes. I like them, but I'm definitely not in love.

So are you all staying silent because you like the design or because you don't want to upset me? You may also not care, and if that's the case that's fine, but if you have any input for me, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Posted in Site News at 2:28 pm.
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Donnie Darko: Director's Cut

JUNE 8, 2004

Thanks to a tip from List, I found out there is a director's cut of Donnie Darko arriving this summer. It was released in Seattle on June 2nd, but no official dates have been set for the rest of the summer. I've been doing a little bit of research, and Yahoo Movies claims a wide release on July 23rd, but no cities are specified. In regards to the purpose of the re-release, an article from CNN quotes Richard Kelly, the director, as saying:

This interview from Empire Online gives a few more details about the new cut. You can expect improved and updated sound as well as a wealth of new footage that didn't make the DVD. A couple sites said there is about twenty minutes of new footage. If you're dying to read a couple reviews and get some info from the fanboys, check out the IMDb message board for the film.

If anyone wants to go see this when it makes it to NYC, I will certainly be your movie buddy.

Posted in Music\TV\Film\Media at 4:42 pm.
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A Philly Trip Without Cheesesteaks

JUNE 7, 2004

I spent the weekend in Philly to see my cousin race in the IRA finals (she's on the UW-Wisconsin women's lightweight crew team). I hadn't seen her race yet, and I figured the finals would be a good time to go. I think it's safe to say that I was the reason the team kicked ass and won the national championship. You're welcome, UW-Madison. Seriously though, this post is mostly to give props to my Alma Mater and the girls of lightweight crew. So I say, "Way to go."

Aside from a brief visit to the outskirts of Philly last summer, this was my first time in the city since junior high. I didn't get to do too much exploring, but South St. is unlike anything available in NYC. I would liken it to a bigger version of Madison, Wisconsin's State St., which is a compliment. The one thing that didn't work out was the purchasing of a cheesesteak. It's okay though, as my uncle and I realized that the smell of a cheesesteak is at the same time delicious and nauseating, which is a turnoff (until you take your first bite).

At night my uncle and I killed time at Barnes and Nobles since the only good show in town was My Morning Jacket, and I didn't really feel like going since I don't know too much about them. It felt a lot like high school, when Borders or B&N was one of the destinations for a non-partying high schooler. My uncle quoted from a Bush-basing book and I read about all the ways you can use curves in Photoshop. Not exactly a huge night on the town, but it was entertaining nonetheless.

Based on this post, it should be clear that I didn't really do a whole lot in Philly. So, you can expect another trip down there sometime in the future. I will hopefully take a bunch of pictures at that point.

Posted in My Life at 4:09 pm.
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Harry Potter at Midnight

JUNE 4, 2004

Oh yes, I did go see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban last night and it was fantastic. I'm an unabashed Harry Potter fan and I think Alfonso Cuarón is pretty awesome, so the midnight showing was a no-brainer for me.

I had planned to arrive at 11pm, but I figured I'd show up 15 minutes early just to be safe. Thankfully, my friend Zack had arrived at 10:30 because the line was already stretched down the block (by the time they let people in it was easily around the corner, pictured below). Upon arrival, I was disappointed by the lack of costumes. The best I got was a couple girls covered in Harry Potter stickers and wearing scarves. That's kinda lame people. This is the midnight showing. Get with it. Anyway, to my surprise they let people in at 11, which seemed ridiculously early and meant that a run to Walgreens for Junior Mints was out of the question. It also meant I would go on to buy a jumbo tub of popcorn and a jumbo soda, finish the majority of it and wake up horribly nauseated.

Once we got inside, it was a lot of waiting but tame. The movie started on time and all was well. I won't go into details yet, but I'll say that I loved the film. It was definitely the best of the three. I do have to share one small bit that doesn't give much away, because it was hilarious. Early in the film, people find out that Sirius Black might be coming to Hogwarts (the school Harry Potter attends). The only African-American student whose had speaking role in any of the three films says, "You think Black could get in here?" The audience picked up on this and started cracking up. I so want to believe that Cuarón did it on purporse.

The movie let out around 2:30 and I quickly headed home. On the way out, and Andy wil appreciate this, some kid said "I'm gonna download this first thing tomorrow." Crazy.

I may have only gotten 5 hours of sleep and woke up with a belly full of semi-digested popcorn, but it was well worth it. Midnight movies are awesome.

Another thought: At work, we have deemed my current state a "movie hangover." When asked if I would be eating popcorn anytime soon I informed them that I wouldn't eat it again. It reminded me of the times when my friends would swear off alcohol after a serious bender. Oh, and people have been telling me to drink lots of water. The fact that I've had way more movie hangovers than alcohol hangovers is entertaining to me.

One more thing (6/7/04): I forgot to mention that Ned saw it ad midnight too.

Posted in Music\TV\Film\Media at 12:00 pm.
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Capn Design version 1000000.0

JUNE 3, 2004

Okay, I'm not sure how many revisions I've had for my personal page, but it probably isn't a million. Here are some details for the newest one.

It's All About Me

In this revision, I've decided to make this site better suited to my needs. In the past year I've noticed that the posts and features have started to cater more to my audience than to my own needs, and that's no good. So, expect more posts about potentionally benign goings-on and a less features that will be intentionally helpful to you. Don't worry, I do have ideas for sites that could be very helpful to you that are lodged in my brain. One day.

Lots of new colors

More than anything else, I was a little sick of my color scheme. It was time for something fresher and brighter. It may not be all that masculine, but I'm comfortable with my pastel-y color palette.

Back to Two Columns

I've decided to move away from the three column layout. First, I really didn't need all three columns. It worked visually, but there was no functional purpose for it. Second, I wanted to have more room in my main entry side for graphics and photos. I've only added about 60 pixels, but that's helpeful.

The Photograph Style Header Remains

A couple people got to see my original redesign and a couple mentioned how they liked it, but they'll miss the header. After some thinking, I agreed. So, the photography header remains. It's also worth noting that the last word in the tagline rotates thanks to the Image Rotator from Automatic Labs. There are eight right now, and I'll add more as they come to mind. If you want to see all of them, you can keep refreshing or check the source code for their location.

Mini Reviews are Improved

If you head to the Mini Reviews page, you'll see that it exists. This has never been true before. It's a one stop shop for all my little reviews, which I hope to make more regular. The information design isn't totally perfect (archives aren't clear), but I'm working on that.

Photo is Redesigned

I have moved to a black background for the photo section. Personally, I think it looks a lot better. I'm most excited about this section. This is the section I hope to put the most energy into over the coming months. Summer is good for photography.

Remainders

There is a new about page. The archives are now better organized. I have set up an automatic redirect in my .htaccess file so that no one will get lost, hopefully. There are no more comment pop-ups, except in photo (btw, I still need to redesign the comment template). The RSS feeds will soon be simplified, with the addition of an Atom feed, which hasn't been created yet. I'm also shifting the focus of the calendar, which should pop up next week, and I'm bringing in a new section called lists. More about that later.

That should cover just about everything. If you have any questions or notice any bugs on any platforms, please let me know.

Posted in Site News at 10:10 pm.
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New Design is Up

JUNE 3, 2004

As you see, the new design is up. Some stuff is missing (photo section is done, but not up yet and there are two features not done yet), but most everything should be working. If you see something is amiss, email me on the right.

There will be another post tomorrow (Thursday) with a lot more information.

Night night.

Posted in Site News at 2:19 am.
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Second Run Theaters

JUNE 2, 2004

Prices for movies are getting out of hand. If you live in a major city then you're paying at least $8 for a movie and as much as $10.25 if you live in New York. According to these statistics from NATO (no, not that NATO), the avergae ticket price has been going up steadily for the last few years. Currently, the U.S. average is $6.03, and the average increase over the last four years was a little less than a quarter.

I don't mind paying $10 for a new movie that I'm really excited about, but I'd rather not pay that much for Walking Tall, not that I'm planning to see that. This is why I love second run theaters. You can see a movie in a theater for less than $4, even if you have to wait a month or two longer than the eager beavers.

Unfortunately, not a single second run theater exists in New York City, and I think that makes no sense. These days, I rarely see more than two movies a month in the theaters because I subscribe to Netflix and I don't feel like tacking on another $20 for movie viewing a month. If I could see movies for $4 a pop, I would see a movie a week. The theaters would definitely lose out on ticket sales, but one of the first things I learned as a film major was that theaters make their money on concessions, not tickets. If you don't trust the UW-Madison film department, check out this CNN Money article.

So, if you're getting me through the door a couple more times a month, then you're going to start selling a whole lote more packages of Junior Mints, especially if I'm only paying $4 for the movie.

I'm sure I'm not the first one to think about this, which makes me wonder why there aren't any in NYC. It just doesn't make any sense. I've done a little googling to find an answer, but I've had no luck. Unless one of my fine readers can help, I might turn to Ask Metafilter. We shall see.

Posted in Music\TV\Film\Media at 5:32 pm.
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Uh, Hi.

JUNE 1, 2004

Hello everyone. I forgot to mention that I would be in Tucson, AZ from Wednesday, May 26th and Monday, May 31st. I was going to post from Tucson, but I never really had time to get on the internet. Oh well.

Anyway, the trip was great and I have a few photos to post. I'm also planning on launching a facelift of Capn Design this week, possibly tomorrow.

Now, it's time to try and do my work while going through a few dozen sites I haven't checked since I left. It was both disorienting and refreshing to unplug for a week. I'm sure you know what I mean.

Posted in My Life at 10:52 am.
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It Must Be Summer

MAY 18, 2004

Last week at some point I took the subway to the Union Square stop. When I left the station it smelled like a combination of B.O. and garbage. It must be summer.

Over the weekend I went to Central Park to play frisbee with a few friends. There were probably a thousand people in Sheep Meadow. Most of them were half naked. It must be summer.

Every single corner in my neighborhood has been ripped apart and repaved. The jackhammers are really loud. It must be summer.

I'm sure that more of these will come to me as we get deeper into the summer months. Add your own in the comments.

Posted in New York at 5:19 pm.
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