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Daily archives for January 1st, 2007

Favorite Sites: HowStuffWorks.com

Jan01
2007 Written by Editor

HowStuffWorks LogoI’m the kind of person who uses the Internet more for informational or practical purposes than for entertainment. In other words, I’m more likely to be checking news pages, shopping sites, or educational sites rather than playing games, chatting on MySpace, or looking up naked pictures of my favorite celebrities!

So it stands to reason that HowStuffWorks.com would rank pretty high up on my list of favorite websites. As the name implies, visitors can find out exactly how different things work by reading articles on the site. There are numerous categories (called “channels”), including Science, Health, Auto, Computer, Electronics, and more. The articles are written by experts, are in-depth when the subject warrants such treatment, and come with nice pictures or diagrams, plus both internal and external links for additional reference. Best of all, the articles are understandable and interesting.

I’ve made it a personal resolution to read at least one HowStuffWorks article per day in 2007 to improve my general knowledge. I started it off by reading how a counterfeit detector pen works. Check it out for yourself!

Posted in Websites

Robots — Ewan McGregor, Robin Williams, Halle Berry

Jan01
2007 Written by Editor

robots1.jpg I recently started allowing my four-year-old son to pick out his own movies from the children’s section at the video store. He judges everything by its cover, of course, and picked out the 2005 animated film because he liked the way the DVD looked. It was only after we got home that I looked the movie up on IMDB.com and discovered that it was rated PG. But since this was just for “brief language” and “suggestive humor,” I decided to just go ahead and let my son watch it anyway.

Robots features the voice of Ewan McGregor as Rodney Copperbottom, a young dreamer who wants to make it as an inventor in Robot City. He is lured there by the idea of working for a robot named Big Weld (voiced by Mel Brooks) who has a TV show through which he tells viewers, “You can shine no matter what you’re made of.”

Once Rodney gets inside Big Weld Corporation, however, he learns that Big Weld himself is nowhere to be found. Instead, a robot named Ratchet (Greg Kinnear) is now in charge and he tosses Big Weld’s old philosophy out the window. The new company motto is “Why be you when you can be new?” and Ratchet plans to increase profits by ceasing to produce spare parts so that all the old robots must upgrade instead.

Rodney soon meet a bunch of robots, including Fender (Robin Williams) and Cappy (Halle Berry) who help him find Big Weld and make things right in Robot City once again.

I thought this was a pretty enjoyable movie, but it didn’t hold my son’s interest at all. He liked the first 20 minutes of the film when he was seeing the robots and the city for the first time, but once the plot started to develop, he was lost. I think he was just too young to understand the movie, so you should bear this in mind if you want to rent this for your kids. Older kids and adults will find much more entertainment value in it. Yes, the storyline is recycled, but the presentation is brilliant and the animation is very cool.

Overall, I give Robots 4 stars out of 5 as an older children’s movie, and 3 stars from an adult point of view.

Posted in 3-Star Movies, Children/Family

Guess Who — Ashton Kutcher, Bernie Mac

Jan01
2007 Written by Editor

guesswho.jpg I rented Guess Who starring Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac without really knowing what it was about. I just saw that it was a comedy, which I was in the mood for, so I grabbed it. I’d seen a couple of Kutcher movies before (The Butterfly Effect, Just Married) and I’d seen Bernie Mac in Ocean’s 11 and Ocean’s 12, so I thought Guess Who had the potential to be good.

Unfortunately, the movie never quite lived up to that potential. Kutcher stars as a young man named Simon Green who is dating a black woman named Theresa Jones (played by Zoe Saldana). Theresa wants to introduce Simon to her family, so they’re going to spend the weekend with her father Percy (Mac) and her mother Marilyn (Judith Scott). The catch is that Theresa hasn’t told her parents that Simon is white.

As you can see from this setup, most of the jokes in this movie are about race and interracial dating. I didn’t find the jokes to be very funny, and I thought Kutcher turned in a very flat performance. Isn’t comedy supposed to be his thing??? Other reviewers have noted that this film is nothing more than a rip off of Meet the Parents and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. I’ve only seen the former, and can tell you that Ben Stiller completely outdid Kutcher as the Nervous Boyfriend Trying to Impress the Intimidating Father.

I only give this movie 2 stars out of 5, so there’s no need to rush out and see it!

Posted in 2-Star Movies, Comedy/Dark Comedy

Getting an Education Online

Jan01
2007 Written by Editor

A friend of mine is thinking of returning to school to complete her Bachelor’s degree, but she has neither the time nor the resources to sit in on traditional classes so she’s looking at online courses. I have some experience in this area, so I decided to to give her some pointers. Here’s what I would look for before enrolling in a college course online:

    Accreditation: Make sure the school is accredited with a recognized organization, such as the Higher Learning Commission. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your money.

    Tuition and Fees: Make sure you understand how the tuition schedule applies to your program. Be aware that tuition is often listed “per credit” and that each individual class is typically three credits or more.

    Timeline    : How long will you get to complete the course? Can you commit to submitting all your work on time?

    Delivery Method: Famliarize yourself with the delivery method of the course. Different institutions use different software to present the material to students. If this software is too complicated for you to use or if it’s not compatible with your home computer, then you’ll have problems down the road.

There are obviously a bunch of other factors to consider before getting an education online, but these should get you started. Good luck!

Posted in Check it out

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