Likes to Ramble | Author Archives

Why I Joined Twitter

Posted on 07. Jan, 2010 by Bran Rainey.

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I join all the social networks, but I do so gradually, with the knowledge that I’m never going to get what I expect out of the experience. Thus did I join Twitter. But to truly understand my experience with Twitter, you need to understand how I got to this situation…

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Top Five Reasons for the Popularity of Top Ten Lists

Posted on 05. Jan, 2010 by Bran Rainey.

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You can barely go two blogs into the blogosphere without tripping over a top x list nowadays, and that x is usually ten. The top ten trend has been widely criticized, but there’s no doubt that it’s addictive. Why is that?

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Doppelganger

Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by Bran Rainey.

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I don’t often post miscellaneous videos, but here’s an exception. This short film I found on YouTube is one of the most creative and hilarious amateur productions I’ve ever seen.

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How to Edit Video: Conversations

Posted on 08. Dec, 2009 by Bran Rainey.

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This tutorial will be about conversations, one of the most important elements in many movies. It might seem as simple as lining up the correct takes, but there’s a bit more to it than that. The audience will spot any slight timing mistakes, so you have to make sure everything is perfect. But what is “perfect” for a conversation?

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Why Five-Paragraph Essays are Bullshit

Posted on 06. Dec, 2009 by Bran Rainey.

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There’s nothing more classic than the five-paragraph essay. They’re what people think of when they hear the word: an introduction, a thesis, three body paragraphs, a conclusion, and a bibliography. Everyone has written some in school before, so they must be the pinnacle of academic achievement, right? Nope.

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Misfile

Posted on 25. Nov, 2009 by Bran Rainey.

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Misfile is the kind of webcomic I don’t want to read… or at least I thought so until I read it. Most transgender comics turn into a) sexist nonsense, b) fetish fuel, or c) both. In fact, I’d say the majority are both. Misfile, with very few exceptions, manages to avoid these pitfalls. It actually gives a fairly realistic portrayal of the situation, and uses it effectively to tell an interesting story.

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Your Life is a Plotline

Posted on 23. Nov, 2009 by Bran Rainey.

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I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the paths we take through life. I like to think of it in terms of movies: what would make for an interesting plotline? You’d be surprised how much life can mimic the story arc of a good movie…

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Scrobbling: a blessing and a curse

Posted on 29. Oct, 2009 by Bran Rainey.

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Last.fm is a lot of fun, but it might have some unexpected consequences. It’s actually pretty predictable if you think about it. Isn’t a large portion of the music industry funded by people’s egos? I do recommend that you join the site if you haven’t already, but I won’t hold it against you if you choose not to. Not everyone likes to be part of the high-horse circlejerk that Last.fm can easily become.

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by Bran Rainey.

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The new Potter film is as good to the story as it is to the eyes, adapting the core story elements of its novel into a form more suitable for a visual medium. The film feels like a perfect continuation from Order of the Phoenix, which is to be expected given the director, but also manages to come across as the logical maturation of Prisoner of Azkaban.

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Harry Potters 1 to 5

Posted on 27. Oct, 2009 by Bran Rainey.

3

Cuarón does a great job with immersion, but he leaves out far too many integral plot details. Harry Potter fans like to whine about every tiny little cut that the film adaptations make, which has always gotten on my nerves: this is one huge exception. There’s too much story cut out of this movie, and I really can’t think of a reason why. The book of this one was a bit longer than Chamber, but the movie is a bit shorter. Adding these details back in could have made the film the same length at most, and probably still a bit shorter. Why the cuts?

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