i’m not going to be speaking about monitor or television resolutions, but rather, the more popular type of resolution at this time of year, new year’s resolutions.

now normally people discuss this the day of new years, january first, however i have decided that today, sunday january fourth, would be an appropriate date.

so without any further delay, here we go:

• make cash money: school is soon over, which means that student loans are going to become payable soon. also, life has it’s expenses, which are not always cheap. there’s only so much free stuff you can get online or at the grocery store on the weekends. so i want to make sure i set myself up for the next year or few with a good job, preferably within my field of study, web and interactive media. this means working for another design firm, or possibly creating and establishing my own. but also, i’d like to research google ad-words and see what it can do for me. small, achievable goals.
• create beautiful things: i’m a designer. this shouldn’t be a surprise. i want to recreate my portfolio, which needs a major facelift. i also want to create an application. whether it be for the web or for mobile interface. i want my mark to be felt and i want to have people use my creation. i’ve got ideas, more so for the web, but i’ll start jotting down notes for an iPhone application of sorts and then possibly read up on how to create iPhone apps.
• read/listen more: recently for Christmas I got the Artie Lange book, Too Fat To Fish. A few weeks ago I downloaded the audiobook from iTunes which was great up until Artie Lange himself stopped reading, which happened around chapter six, so it’s a good thing i have this book in hand now. not only this book, i think there’s a lot of other books out there that might be worth looking at. i’m focused more on the web and design type books, but i wouldn’t be opposed to a good biography or comedy book. as for fiction, forget about it. i love movies too much… too much to even consider reading a book. i’ll say this as well, i want to keep reading the newspaper on a more frequent basis and maybe subscribe to a few magazines while i’m at it.
• watch more flicks: this past year i canceled my netflix account. i don’t feel bad about, considering i had the same movie for months at a time that i ended up never watching. whatever i’m over it. but i’m not over my fixation with cinema. i love it. so in 2009, i want to access the movie theatre more. but under a few conditions… 1)AMC brings back student rates 2)better movies are made 3)michael bay never makes another film that i successful. ok maybe not that last one, but i want better films and i want them to be cheaper. AMC you really suck for taking away student rates.
• make a film: also for Christmas, i received a camcorder from my girlfriend. it’s awesome. i love it. i took it with up to wisconsin for new years. i pulled so much footage on that trip…i couldn’t turn it off. this was the perfect gift for me though. i really have been wanting to get back into my old hobbies. one of them being radio/podcasting which i was able to do earlier in the year. but now i want to start creating mini films again. i’m thinking a documentary/podcast. something that is reoccurring but contains a story/purpose.
• graduate: that’s it. i finally feel ready and want to finish this stage of my life. school is amazing. i love it, and maybe i’ll end up going to graduate school to advance in my field even more, who knows. but i do know that i want this to be my final year of under-grad. it’s been long enough, i realize this, and i’ve really enjoyed it, but i think it’s time to continue moving forward. 

that’s my list so far. i don’t know that i’ll add to it. maybe offline. but i want to revisit this next year and see where i’m at. have a good year everybody.

Just a quick one right now. Tonight I went and watched Oliver Stone’s new film W. about President George W. Bush. I was really excited about this because I thought that the preview made this film look like it was going to be a home run. This film looked liked it was going to get in deep and be captivating and really engage the audience and have you wanting more…not four more years, but more of the film.

When the film ended, I wanted more. I wanted more substance. I wanted more a story. I wanted the movie to be more better than the 2 hour or so movie I just sat through. Really disappointing. I felt like Stone just whipped through different segments of Bush’s life without really getting too detailed or specific about anything. It was like a 2 hour long cliff notes film about George W. Bush’s life. One of the most memorable and important figures in our lives and this film was garbage. 

I couldn’t figure out what Stone was doing here. I didn’t read any of the reviews. All I saw was the preview a few weeks ago, a movie poster and I was sold on seeing this. Trust me here, if you’re still thinking about going to see this film, save your money, save your time, don’t even rent it. Just go see a different movie. Maybe Body of Lies with Leonardo DiCaprio, directed by Ridley Scott. That’s my next go to see film. 

Here’s my thing with cloverfield, it was damn intriguing to see how young successful people do their thing the most happening of towns, New York City. And then see how they react as they all face a monster that will undoubtedly kill them.

Much like you and I, they listen to lots of Kings of Leon, the Gorillaz, and they enjoy drinking, dancing and relationships. The point I’m trying to make is that the subjects of this film, the characters, seem like they could be you or me. They’re people you can relate to, or people you want to be able to relate to and for this type of film, that’s really important. Even more important is the casting of these characters. It’s not Toby McGwire or Colin Farrell or any other young hip actor of our time that you could easily see fill the rolls of these characters. Instead they use people that I don’t even care to look up the names of.

For the first twenty minutes you kind of get the feel for the film. A really shaky camera, and testimonials that are equivalent to documentary style film making…in a sense. If you’re having trouble picturing what this is like, think back to Blair Witch Project. Essentially, Cloverfield is much like Blair With Project, only the setting is Manhattan and not some forest. Oh and at the end of the film, you get to see the monster that is causing all this havoc.

Did I just ruin something for you by telling you that you get to see the monster at the end of the film? Well don’t worry I won’t be focusing on any other portions of the plot, as I feel it was not a great story.

Instead I want to focus on the technicals of the film. Now don’t worry, I’m not going to be going into the types of cameras or sound recording…I merely want to discuss what I found to be the most interesting and most relevant part of this piece.

In this blog filled, facebook & YouTube world we live in where we document everything, the choice to show the film through the footage which was shot by the characters was fantastic. Throughout the entire film you are witnessing only what the characters witnessed through the lens of their camcorder. This style of filmmaking isn’t original, it’s been done, like I said Blair Witch and a Greek film I saw at the Chicago Film Festival a couple years ago called CCTV have used this style, but it is interesting. Because it engages the viewer and creates a new dimension to the film. And because this style hasn’t been completely drawn out and exhausted; although, I will go on the record now and say that we better get use to seeing more and more films that use this technique, maybe not for the entirety of the film but for portions of it, in the near future.

Honestly though, this film is relevant to our times. We live in this voyeuristic culture where we spend half the day looking at what other people do on facebook.  Although like many films of this genre, sci-fi, thriller, I don’t expect it to age well and in a couple years this film will only be relevant for exposing and exploiting our voyeuristic tendencies.

so i’ve not been feeling well the last few days. as a result, there hasn’t been much going on down here. saw the doc today, told me that it’s just a cold, and gave me some meds, so i should be getting back to normal soon. a couple notes…

• Cloverfield has just opened up down here
• the iPhone has successfully been updated to firmware 1.1.1 (this means nothing to you but a lot to me. so suck it.)
• i am becoming addicted to using google reader on my iPhone
• finished my Audio class with a great big A
• beginning my physics class tomorrow morning and not looking forward to it at all.
• i tried watching Stranger than Fiction tonight but lost interest. 
• my blood pressure is very healthy. that’s the best news i’ve had in a while.

sidenote: back in the early, very early, days of bos-network.com, i use to have a weekly “quickie with the Bos” post.