First of all, I knew there was no way The Matrix Reloaded was going to live up to my expectations. In fact, I went in saying "this movie is going to suck, but there will be awesome fight scenes and explosions." But The Matrix Reloaded came in so far under the bar, it was amazing.

Now, let me set a few things straight. There were some _amazing_ scenes in this movie. Scenes which make the entire movie worth sitting through. Scenes which justify the eleven dollars I spent on my ticket. But, that said, the amount of utter _crap_ between said scenes was staggering.

I, for one, pride myself on being able to enjoy even the stupidest of movies. But I didn't enjoy whole sections of this movie. There were many points when the CGI was so horrible it was like watching a bad video game. The dialogue got so bad at times it felt like the powers that be forgot to put some of their 400 million dollars into a script.

Except for a few interesting plot twists, there was no plot. Now, you may ask me how there could be a plot twist without a plot. The answer is simple: it put some interesting twists on the plot of the _original_ Matrix - not The Matrix Reloaded.

What The Matrix Reloaded lacked was what made the original Matrix so fresh. The subtle "you think that's air you're breathing?". The slow motion fight scenes. The bullet casings dropping as Neo and Trinity fire their guns. What The Matrix Reloaded had which the original lacked was long, drawn out, stupid scenes. And way too much face sucking.

Don't get me wrong. There were parts of the movie I enjoyed thoroughly. And I'm not saying don't see the movie. SEE THE MOVIE. There are some spectacular scenes and sequences, but there is a lot of crap to wade through. It is certainly worth watching. The problem is, this isn't a movie I feel compelled to see again. Hell, I don't even feel compelled to watch its sequel, The Matrix Revolutions.

But, for a nice farewell gift -- if you wait through the ten minutes of credits -- there's a great trailer for The Matrix Revolutions at the end.

So there you have it, my exhausted rant / review of The Matrix Reloaded. Sorry if I've killed your expectations. Maybe it'll just make the movie that much more enjoyable for you than it was for me. Now go see it and prove my review incorrect.

Sorry, I was very bored and that made me laugh. Hard. That is all.

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The end. Now go post your guesses. Again if necessary.

It feels really weird approaching people on AIM. I've harvested a bunch of Screen Names from peoples' slashdot profiles, but am relatively unable to message any of you.

Why is this? Because it feels really awkward for me to say "Hey, this is AntiFreeze from /.", especially if there's nothing pointed I have to say.

So basically, this journal entry has three purposes:

1. Get screen names from those of you who don't have them easily accessible
2. To get you guys to message me
3. To warn you to expect messages from me =]

For your record keeping purposes:
AIM: AntiFreeze42
MSN: AntiFreeze42@hotmail.com
Yahoo: AntiFreeze42

That is all.

<EDIT> This poll is much much better than the original one I posted. It's just hard to post your results from it. Basically, I'm in the center of the lower left quadrant, a leftist libertarian. (And no, not libertarian in the sense of the Libertarian party of the US. Read the description at the end of the poll for clarification.) </EDIT>

Anyway, I scored a 15, the same as Bill Clinton. Well, what they say Bill Clinton would have scored. How about you?

Sorry for the lack of anything insightful to say, it's been a _long_ day so far, and the quiz was a stupid quick escape for me which I felt like sharing.

P.S. Why am I apologizing for this?

P.P.S. clan.nerdfarm.org has finally started resolving me today. Yay!

This is bad.

I have a ton of work to do and errands to run tomorrow. Today. Damnit.

And what is with this weather? Six to twelve inches of snow in New York City, followed the next day by a severe thunderstorm (well, at least the threat of one so far).

I am so tense and anxious right now. I've got a big business deal in the works, which could mean very substantial changes (in an extremely good way) in my life in the near future. I am so psyched about this deal, but I am so incredibly tense and anxious over it.

With regards to the business deal, once it's complete, I'll update everyone. Until then, I remain silent on the topic.

The situation in Iraq isn't lessening my tension by any stretch of the imagination. After Bush said he was ignoring the protesters, I realized we were going to war one way or another. At this point, I just want us to win and get out of there. I didn't want us in there to begin with, and I think the administration's reasons for this war are absurd (even though there are many legitimate reasons for this war, just take a look at Twirlip of the Mist's or GMontag's journals), but at this point, under these circumstances, I just want it over with.

I also find it funny that the administration keeps on saying "It is up to the Iraqi people what kind of government they will have once Saddam is ousted," and then mentioning the caveat that it must be "democratic and respectful of human rights." Well, damnit, I agree. But that's certainly not leaving the new form of government up to the Iraqi people. We're giving them a governmental rubrik, and telling them they can do what they want from there. They've still got tons of freedom in what the form of their government will be, but it certainly isn't "a government of thier chosing alone."

I hope we got Saddam and his sons in the strike which just occurred a few hours ago. Bunker busters into a residential area. Way to take a play from the Israeli military handbook. And I mean that in a good way. As much as I feel icky for saying this, there was a clear objective, and damnit, this is a war. Civilian casualties are fine. If we got Saddam, or took off an arm, or just hit his top advisors, I would consider the strike a success. Sometimes, it's not the body count that matters, but whose body was in that count. Minimizing civilian casualties is good, going too far out of your way to avoid them is a mistake in war.

All that I can say is, I hope the immense hatred towards America is shortlived once this war ends and its fog settles.

And to all those people pissed at the French, grow up. The French were protecting their national interests (their oil and arms deals with Iraq) when they tried to railroad the US and stop the war before it began. The US is in Iraq because we feel the regime is a threat to our national interest. It's hypocritical to blame the French for protecting their national interests when all we're doing is protecting ours. That said, the way the French proceeded was immensely stupid.

The thing about that, though, is that Russians are the ones getting away under this veil of disgust towards the French. They had larger oil deals with Iraq (I believe, but I'm dead tired, so I could be wrong), and they most certainly had extremely lucrative weapons deals (look at all the Russian weapons our troops have already seized) with the Iraqis. While all this French bashing is going on, the Russians are making out like bandits selling arms to both sides (the Kurds don't just get their weapons from the US). Now, I've got Russian blood flowing through my veins, and I've got plenty of Russian friends (I'm a Jew from Brooklyn, after all), but everyone realizes that Russia's much worse than the paltry French in this situation. I just find it humorous that there's all this animosity directed towards the French when a good deal of it should really be directed at Russia.

I mean, come on. The French were protecting their national interests, but the Russians were protecting their bottom line. We should be furious at the Russians, not the French. But maybe we're just happy because the Russians are finally showing that capitalistic spirit.

Well, that's it from me. I'm going to try and get some sleep again. I apologize for any spelling, gramattical, or nonsensical mistakes. I am dead tired and rambling you know.

Two important observations about Saddam:

1. Saddam only responds to the broad threat of force
2. Saddam will do anything to remain in power

These to me say one thing loud and clear: strong international resolutions are needed if we want to handle Saddam.

The only way to force Saddam to cooperate is a strong UN resolution with four components:

1. An ultimatum demanding what we must have from Iraq
2. A reasonable deadline for compliance with the ultimatum
3. A detailled guideline for what compliance is and is not
4. The serious and overwhelming threat of force if the ultimatum is not complied with

This, and only this, will elicit a reaction and hopeful compliance from Saddam.

However, France has said that it will veto _any_ UN resolution with a firm deadline. This makes any such resolution impossible to come by, backing the US into a corner. Iraq is notorious for using wiggle room, and with no firm deadline there will be no results. So, with no such avenue to provide a strong international ultimatum, there is little choice (some would say no choice) left for the United States to take but to issue an ultimatum on its own.

Issuing an ultimatum on its own is horrible for America, horrible for the UN, and horrible for the Iraqi people. France was probably betting this would be enough to deter the American government from issuing an ultimatum on its own. Their gamble failed. [As an aside: France has now said, in an attempt to save face, that they will commit troops if the Iraqis use WMDs against US forces during the war.]

The American ultimatum is flawed, for there is no way Saddam will abdicate power, and hence no way he would ever accept the terms of the ultimatum. In fact, he has already refused the ultimatum. All that the American ultimatum does is give time for friendlies to flee Iraq, American forces to prepare, and possibly kill time until the moon is right for war.

So I stand by the ultimatum. Something must be done about Iraq. The international community refuses to do the one thing which might have a chance of stopping Saddam -- adopting a strong UN resolution with an ultimatum and a hard deadline.

And yes, I believe this is a failure of the international community as a whole, not a fault of France alone. For the international community could have rallied behind the US or UK and demanded a vote on a strong second resolution. They could have told France that a veto itself were an act of terrorism, an act which would allow Saddam to continue in his evil ways. But they stood mute. I don't blame France. France stood up for its own national interests. That is, after all, what the US is doing.

I believe this war will be immoral and illegal and illogical. But it will be legitimate, and in our best national interest. The reasons immoral and illegal and illogical are irrelevant. A conservative member of the British House of Commons put it best: If we were waging war for moral reasons, there would be many countries higher on our list than Iraq to fight with. If we were waging war for legal reasons, there would be many countries higher on our list than Iraq to fight with. If we were waging war for logical reasons, there would be many countries higher on our list than Iraq to fight with. We are left only with reasons of national security and national interest. And in that respect, Iraq is highest on the list.

I agree with that view pretty much. It neglects that this war would be illegal under international law, but since when has that stopped America (or anyone else) from waging war before? I believe the actions in Kosovo and Bosnia were legitimate, even though illegal.

So there are only two options left. Stand by the American ultimatum or back out. It is too late to back out, for doing so would only condone Saddam's actions and encourage him to keep up his games of deceit and his funding of terrorist activites. So as much as I wish to avoid war, as much as I protest war, I see no reasonable action other than following through completely with our ultimatum.

EDIT (5:20pm, 3/18/2003): Apparently I misquoted the British conservative from the House of Commons. What he said was that you cannot make a moral or legal case for war. If you were to make a moral case for war, there would be others higher on the list than Iraq to attack, and the same hold true with a legal argument. The only case you can make is the one concerning national interest or national security.

-----

Quick Political Scholastic Aptitude Test:

This test consists of one (1) multiple-choice question (so you better get it right!) based on the following list of countries that the U.S. has bombed since the end of World War II, compiled by historian William Blum:

China 1945-46,
Korea 1950-53,
China 1950-53,
Guatemala 1954,
Indonesia 1958,
Cuba 1959-60,
Guatemala 1960,
Congo 1964,
Peru 1965,
Laos 1964-73,
Vietnam 1961-73,
Cambodia 1969-70,
Guatemala 1967-69,
Grenada 1983,
Libya 1986,
El Salvador 1980,
Nicaragua 1980,
Panama 1989,
Iraq 1991-99,
Sudan 1998,
Afghanistan 1998 & 2001-2002,
Yugoslavia 1999

In how many of these instances did a democratic government, respectful of human rights, occur as a direct result?

Choose one of the following:
(a) 0
(b) zero
(c) none
(d) not a one
(e) a whole number between -1 and +1

This quiz compliments of Vietnam Veterans Against the War

So, in the tradition of red5, Em Emalb, and Interrobang, I announce my birthday to the slashdot crowd in hopes of furthering my ego, er... getting good birthday cheer.

At 1:43am, I hit the ripe old age of... 21. Younger than you thought, huh? Or not.

Happy birthday to me!

#!/bin/bash

if [ x$1 != x ]; then
echo -n "$1's Slashdot Fans:"
lynx -dump http://slashdot.org/~$1/fans/ | grep friends\ | wc -l
else
echo -n "AntiFreeze's Slashdot Fans:"
lynx -dump http://slashdot.org/~AntiFreeze/fans/ | awk ' /\].*\(.*friends.*fans/ { gsub(/\[[^\]]*\]/, "") ; gsub(/\(.*/, "") ; print }' > fans.tmp
wc -l fans.tmp
diff fans.lst fans.tmp
mv fans.lst fans.old
mv fans.tmp fans.lst
fi

Now just edit to your heart's content to keep track of your friends or foes or freaks.

Self explanatory, but what the hell? It'll print out the number of fans, and alert you to any new fans or people who removed themselves from your fans list (as both Claudia and LadyGuardian just did to me :[ ). If you call it with a name (./slashfans.sh gmhowell) it'll tell you how many fans George has. Perfect for tracking and comparing your status to that of others.

Happy egoing.

---

P.S. Sorry if it's a little hard to read, I couldn't get the spacing right.

P.P.S. In line 4 (the lynx -dump line), friends\ is the same as "friends ", namely, the word friends with a space after it. That space is _important_.

P.P.P.S. The second lynx -dump line goes _all_ the way until "> fans.tmp", do not truncate it like slashdot has.

I am now getting moderator points every 2-3 days. Like clockwork.

Jamie McCarthy (in a response to an email from me) writes:

Doing good modding today makes you more likely to get mod points in the short term (the coming week). Being a good moderator in the past makes you more likely to get mod points in the long term (the coming months).

The system does aggressively give mod points to people who have a proven track record of spending them the most wisely.

That's me. I have modded tons, and to the extent of my knowledge, only been meta-modded unfair twice (both unfairly, in my opinion, but that's another story).

So, my problem: modding is getting boring. I'm not browsing at -1, Nested anymore. I've even started pimping out mod points to friends on EFnet #slashdot (points to legitimate comments _only_). Modding used to be a privilege, something infrequent and fun. Hell, even when I was getting mod points every few weeks, there was still the "Cool! I've got more mod points!" phenomenon. Now there's an "again?" sentiment.

And if I can get mod points so often, so can others. I think this is a _bad_ thing. I do not think people should be able to get so many mod points, even with a proven track record. Modding once a week is fine, thrice a week is silly. Points should be spread around, people like EnlightenmenFan should have the ability to build their own track records.

But then, I'm just a crazy with mod points =]

So, skimming through a few of them (and deleting the bulk of them, sorry guys and gals) I came upon a few posts I need to reply to, when I hopefully get some time towards the end of the weekend.

• This reply to one of my comments.
• This journal entry
• And many posts in my previous journal entry.

So, um, this journal entry is really just a reminder to myself of what I need to reply to when I finally get some free time.

Yes, I know it's really a bad comparrison. It just captures the mood pretty well.

That is all.

It is practically impossible to browse at -1 Nested or even 2 Nested and moderate in a decent manner, so I'm turning to you guys and gals to help me out.

So if people could point out comments they think should be moderated, I'll get right on it. Oh, and I only mod up, unless there's an obvious troll marked as a high scoring insightful or informative.

P.S. If you need to recover karma, point me to the offending post and I'll take care of it =]

UPDATES:

• +1 (Funny) Re:A Top 10 list with 12 items? (49646-5008676, 4 points left)
• +1 (Interesting) Re:Cargo? (49660-5009080, 3 points left)
• +1 (Insightful) Maybe we're not all nuts here (49556-5001999, 2 points left)

Sorry for bombarding you all with this, I'm just upset, unable to sleep, and not entirely sure how to proceed.

The University I previously attended is attempting to extort money from me. Below is the letter I am about to send to the Office of Student Financial Operations. What I would like is feedback from you guys and gals before I send the letter (which will probably happen Monday).

Don't be gentle. Tell me if I'm being brain-dead, too belligerent, not belligerent enough, etc.

Any thoughts on how to rearrange the letter (if necessary) or merge any of the information would be greatly appreciated.

Page 1

Dear Office of Student Financial Operations,

I have recently received a letter claiming to be a "final notice" of money due to the university. The letter states that I, $(MY_NAME), owe $(SUM_TOTAL), and that if not paid by $(DUE_DATE) you will contact the three major credit services and ruin my credit rating.

I owe no such money.

I have attempted numerous times to clear up this "debt," but no one on your staff or the housing staff has been willing to listen to me. They have refused to listen to me or to aid me in any way. Therefore, I have refused to pay a single cent, even in good will.

This is not a matter of money.

If there were an assurance that if the full amount due was paid, there would be an avenue for complaint and the ability to receive a full refund, I would pay the full amount due immediately and file said formal complaint and request for a full refund.

Claiming that I owe money -- which I can prove that I do not owe -- and threatening to ruin my credit rating if I do not pay, is extortion. I will not stand for this.

Attached is a list of the circumstances of the date in question and the accompanying proof that everything was returned properly, that I owe no money.

You can reasonably charge me $100 for my late move out, so enclosed is a check for that amount.

If you want a cent more, you will need to speak with my lawyer.

If you touch my credit rating, you will be speaking to my lawyer.

If you wish to speak with me, I can be reached at $(CELL_NUMBER).

Thank you very much,
$(SIG)

Page 2

What follows are the circumstances of the date in question:

The bill claims that on the date of $(MOVE_OUT_DATE), I did not return the key to my dorm room. The charge for changing a lock due to a missing key was $30. Because the lock had to be changed, the room was not ready in time for cleaning, so I was charged a late move-out fee of $100. The total bill was for $130 plus late fees of $30 per month.

I returned my key. I have a signed and dated sign-out sheet from housing stating that everything was properly returned. This sheet is also attached.

That said, there were two things for which I could validly be charged:

• I moved out late. I was not out of the dorm until 6:15pm. I was told that this would not be an issue, for late fees weren't actually incurred until 8pm. This would have cost me $100. I am more than willing to pay for this. [The reason I moved out late was due to logistics getting a U-Haul.]
• My room wasn't thoroughly cleaned. This could have cost anything. Once I had the U-Haul, I moved out as quickly as possible and accepted the room as it was, deciding to accept any charges for clean-up.

Neither of these was a stated factor in the bill I received from housing, and neither was mentioned at any point during my attempted conversations with housing. Therefore, it stands to reason that neither were issues (i.e. would have incurred charges) with my move out.

In addition, I should point out that I had no roommate that semester. It might be possible that housing only had one key returned and thought that there was still a key missing.

Problem:

There is one key component missing from this letter. When I returned my key, it was in an envelope with my forwarding address on it. None of my mail ever got forwarded. To me, this means that they lost my key, along with my forwarding address. This is a serious problem, for now the burden of proof is on me. I cannot prove that I returned my key. The signed and dated sheet that says everything was returned does not explicitly state that my key was returned as well. As it stands now, the above letter leaves the burden of proof with the university -- if they're willing to listen to me at all -- they would need to make a case to deny my request. With this new information, the burden of proof shifts, and I am left struggling, holding onto the phrase "but I *did* return my key!"

So, any thoughts?

UPDATE (12/28/2002, 1:27am): I am aware that I'm pretty much destined to pay the entire bill (the sum total is around $500 after all the late fees). I guess what I'm really trying to do is force them to give me some sort of recourse. In other words, they can extort me this once, but I'm damn well going to fight it until the second before they hit my credit rating or they decide to negotiate with me. Gah.