RouseWorld | Wayward Packet

For the Week of 9/4/00

Redecorating:
RouseWorld style

(Goldsboro) — My sister is moving to California, leaving me the guardian of some 140 year-old furniture and giving back to me a LC 475 pizza-box Macintosh that only seems 140 years old. This makes the actual total of computers in the RouseHouse about ten, not counting the Palm Pilot. I used to be able to recite the reason I had for having each one, but I think reason has finally left the building.

Shown below is the very Victorian bed that I've slapped a sleeping bag on, until I can get some sheets. Yes, I do have a Mac SE-30 beside my bed, but I don't turn it on much.

Along with the bed I got a brooding mirrored bureau, here it is with my Mac PowerBook perched on top. Thanks to wireless networking, it is still connected to the Internet.

I haven't chosen Victorian as the primary style of the RouseHouse, my main desk is still pretty modern looking, even if most of the computers here are several years old.

While we are at it, here is the RouseHouse server stack, with an Apple ANS 700/150 and a Sun IPX. Note shown is LaserBoy — my printer — an Apple 4/600 PS.

Of course anything that looks like dirt is just JPEG artifacts, right?

For the Week of 9/11/00

Highlander: Endgame
A review for those
Who have already seen
The Movie

(Goldsboro) — For a long time I've been waiting to see a decent sequel to the cult classic Highlander, a film about a 'game' between immortal beings. It was a neatly bent love story with great fight scenes and mannered, yet oddly appealing, transitions. People have attempted to continue the story through two really bad films and a pretty good TV series, but there was never anything that seemed to capture the essence of the first film.

The most recent work, Highlander: Endgame, was also a disappointment for me. What follows is my top three complaints. There are others, but I find myself getting too wrapped up with issues of style that are probably due to my liking the first movie so much and having not seen too much of the TV series.

Firstly, the title. 'Endgame' has the connotation of a final confrontation, which doesn't seem to happen here (or did I miss the Roman guy getting killed?). It would have been interesting to see a movie that showed what the game was all about, and who the game masters were — a friend of mine has done a good job at a story line that makes sense given the first movie and the TV series. Instead the movie goes for the old fight-the-powerful-evil-immortal storyline that was handled already in the first movie.

Secondly, I would have preferred that the TV series and the first movie be treated as separate universes. Duncan MacLeod from the TV series is too obviously a Conner MacLeod replacement for it to make sense to have both of them. There is also the matter of the Watchers, a shadowy group of mortals who record the struggle of the immortals, which doesn't seem to fit in the original movie. Endgame tries to tie the TV series and first movie together and the movie ends up introducing too many characters. The flow of faces involves re-introductions that were tedious when I knew the characters and baffling when I didn't.

Thirdly, the movie should have been a bit more focused. There were three storylines: Faith, Sanctuary and Kell. A good movie could have been made from any one of the storylines — trying for all three was a mistake. I keep thinking that a movie with one main immortal and two groups of watchers (one good, one evil) who are both trying to influence the game could have been really good and not have interfered with the original movie's timeline. But, I don't own a movie studio.

Lastly, I agree with the special effect dude from The Matrix — morphs are lame.

Probably there shouldn't have been an attempt at a third movie. There really isn't any good way to come back from the first movie's timeline (I never really bought into the TV series' explanation) and the horrible results from the first two sequel movies should have been warning that the fates don't want us to try. I'm going to buy the DVD of the original Highlander, but I can't see adding Endgame to my collection. But, I'd still recommend the film to fans of the first movie and the TV series — I'm not a critic of movies, but a fan of them.