Hillariously funny

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix Trailer

Epic Movie

OMFG I just watched this trailer, and it's on my top 5 list to see when it comes out.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/epicmovie/medium.html

Holocaust Deniers

Iran--Hundreds of people gather to attend a conference on the Holocaust. Not your standard conference, with people talking about the monstrosity of the Holocaust, but a conference with it's sole reason being to discuss how the Holocaust never actually happened. Not only is this completly against the historical record, but what is truly scary is the people who are running this conference: the Iranian dictator and other Muslim terrorists who would love to see Isrial destroyed along with all jews. Everyone who cares about the world should join with me in affirming that these people who claim that the Holocaust never happened are the absolute scum of the earth and should be killed. Thank you for listening to my little rant.

State of the Union

This is quite funny, although old, and quite well done.

Superman Returns

OK, I was probably the last person on the planet to see this movie (I watched it last night), but what the hell, I can still write my own review of it. The new superman is very good, better even than Christopher Reeves IMHO. Other than a few small plot holes (most involving kryponite) the movie is great. In my opinion it is the best superman ever made, but that could simply be because I just watched it last night. It's superman, so don't expect any great story, but it is very moving, and lives up to the great name. I can safely recomend this movie to anyone, there is no vulgarity (half of the "s" word is all) and only a few sexual references that actually are funny.

Overall Impression: 9/10 (It was to short and didn't tie up well)
Graphics: 10/10 (only a few times where my well trained eye could see a computer's hand)
Story: 8/10 (It's superman)
Acting: 9/10
Ninjas: 0/10 (but superman is almost a ninja)

Terminator: 0000AD

Eragon Trailer

Star Wars: The Supertrailer

OK, I was watching the LOTR super trailer again and I realized that there is no trailer for star wars that covers all of the movies. This got me thinking and I finally decided to create on myself. So last night I started the long process of ripping the DVD's into a format I can use to edit. I'm shooting for a target length of about 6 minutes, and if the first one goes good I might make more focusing on different themes and characters.

"3" Supertrailer

Watch and see for yourself

A cool LotR trailer

I know it's just a trailer, but it's kinda cool, plus it tells the whole story of LotR in 8 minutes.

December

Well, today is the first day in December. Which means there are 25 more days until Christmas day. In honor of this big day I have decided to post a review of Economics Third Edition DVD series taught by Professor Timothy Taylor, available from the Teaching Company.

This may seem like a weird thing to write about, but it's part of what I use for Economics class, and I feel it's worth telling about.

Like many lectures it is boring. However, Professor Taylor infuses enough jokes and interesting tidbits of information to make it somewhat enjoyable. The concepts are presented clearly and concisely, and there are no quizzes, so that's a deffinate plus. Like all of TTC DVD's I've watched it has a nice companion booklet that hits the most important points of the lectures.

My final verdict: If you are looking for an economics lecture series, or just want to understand how the world works better, check it out, it is an interesting, and sometimes fun, ride.

The Last Samurai: Review

Well, I watched The Last Samurai for the third time last night, and I liked it, so I thought I would write up a short review.

The movie is great, it's not Tom Cruise's best job, but it still is one of his better films. It follows the story of a Civil War veteran who is recruited by the Japanese government to modernize the army and fight against the Samurai. After a poorly faught battle Tom Cruise's character is captured by the Samurai. Over the next 1.5 hours of the movie he is slowly transformed into a Samurai. The movie ends with a climactic battle and Cruise's character going off into the backlands of Japan.

Some of the highlights of the film include a 3 minute battle with ninjas, a huge, very moving, battle, sword fights and martial arts galore.

I can't recommend the movie to everyone because it has braveheart/gladiator levels of blood and gore in it (maybe a bit more). But other than that it is a good, clean movie that teaches a few good lessons about honor. If you can stomach a bit of violence, deffinatly watch this movie at least once.

Story: 9/10
Acting: 10/10
Special Effects: 11/10
Ninjas: 10/10
Reviewers Tilt: 9/10
Overall Score: 9/10

The only reason why I didn't give this movie a perfect 10 is because it drags in a couple of parts, and because the ninja's lost a battle with the samurai (j/k).

This guy is crazy good

Matrix - For Real...joe Eigo - video powered by Metacafe

Superman Spoof

Superman Vs. Batman - video powered by Metacafe

Ties

Well, if you are like me than you have trouble tieing a tie. Or perhaps you just want to learn more about the different types of knots there are. Either way this site will be of interest to you. It includes step-by-step directions to tie the major knots, advice on which knot to use, and links to other sites of similar type.

Link:
http://www.tie-a-tie.net/

National Anthems

Today I was scanning the internet and I came across a cool site where you can listen to just about any national anthem in the world, and see what the words are in both the original language and in English. You guys should check it out if you ever need to look up a national anthem
Site:
http://www.national-anthems.net/

2000 year old computer reveiled

This is an interesting article that I found earlier today, perhaps ancient people were smarter than we give them credit for.

"An Anglo-Greek team of scientists has revealed what they consider the true workings of the Antikythera mechanism, a 2,000 year-old analog computer recovered from a Mediterranean shipwreck over a century ago."

Full article: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2006/11/2000_year_old_c.html

NATO summit

You know, most teenage boys are watching the latest sports scores, watching what movies are coming out, and other such things. I do all of those, but there is one thing I have been doing in the past few days that I can be sure hardly any other teenager is doing. I have been checking the NATO website several times a day to get the latest transcripts from the summit that is going on. If you are wondering why I am doing this I will tell you. It is because the NCFCA (debate) resolution this year is about NATO, and this summit will change alot with NATO.

Here is a link to the NATO summit:
http://www.nato.int/docu/comm/2006/0611-riga/index.htm

Utah vs. BYU game

No, I didn't go to it, and yes I watched some of it. It's a shame that BYU won, Utah played better, had better players, and was alot cooler, if it hadn't been for that stupid pass....

Call of Duty

OK, it is now time for another review, this time of a video game. I recently started playing Call of Duty (yea, I know, it's been out for a while, but I never claimed to provide the latest breaking games) and can say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Although it is several years old, it is quite fun, and has aged gracefully. It basically follows the exploits of several common soldiers from several different allied nations during World War 2 (America, Russia, England). The game is billed as having 3 separate campaigns, but I have found this not to be the case. Rather there is one campaign, separated into chapters, some chapters being with different nations. However, I can find very few real differences between the nations and the different chapters besides getting to use differ ant guns (just a few, but they are still fun)and having different locals. The only chapter that really stood out to me was the Stalingrad chapter, where you play as a Russian recruit during the recapture of Red Square. The sight of hundreds of other recruits just like yourself, only a few armed with anything more than their fists, charging up the beach and straight into machein gun fire, accompanied by the swelling Russian national anthem is a sight to behold.

The graphics of the game are only slightly outdated, and the animations look great, except for a few that look clunky and hand-animated. Sound is great, and a lot of work was put into making each of the guns look (and feel in a virtual sense) unique.

Overall I would say that this game is great, play it if you have it, buy it if you have money to spend, and try Call of Duty 2 because that takes the same concept and updates it.

Overall Score: 8.5/10
Tilt: 9/10

My course load

OK, everyone knows that homeschoolers are smart, right? Well, I don't 100% agree with you. Some of the homeschoolers I know are the dumbest, thickest blocks of wood you will ever meet. On the other hand, many homeschoolers are very smart, there is a reason why homeschoolers have one the national spelling bee the last 5 or so years. Anyway, I'm not saying I'm smart, or I'm not, that's for you to decide, but what I am trying to do is show that the stereotype of being a smart nerd is not what all homeschoolers are.

Anyway, I'm sure you are wondering why on earth I entitled this post "my course load." Well, there is a good reason: I'm going to break my own rules and gripe about my life. I have so many commitments, and being a junior in high school is hard enough as it is, that I find myself falling farther and farther behind in my school. Without further ado, I present to you a full (as full as I can remember right now) list of all my courses and other activities.

AP Economics (macro)
AP Economics (micro)
AP Music Theory
AP US history
Calculus
Physics
World History
US Government
Spanish
German
English (writing, etc)
Karate
Boy Scouts
Church Stuff
Debate
My Viola
My Guitar

As you can see I have a lot more things to do than I have hours in a day. Now ending complaining session.

Blender 3D

If you are even slightly interested in delving into the land of 3d modeling and animation, but don't have several hundred dollars to spend on pro software like 3ds max and Maya, you should download and install Blender 3D (www.blender3d.org). Although it tends to have a fairly long learning curve (slightly longer than other programs of the same type), it is free which makes up for it. Blender has some very good points when it comes to the way it handles mesh modeling, unlike 3ds max you do not have to convert your meshes to editable polys, they are already ready to be edited in blender.

There are many good features about blender, including hotkeys for just about every function you would need to use on a regular basis, and a robust materials editor. It does, however, lack much of the advanced functionality of cloth, water, hair, and physics simulations that other packages offer, but it's free price easily makes it the best choice for the aspiring 3d animator on a budget.

Overall score: 9/10

RSF

Today I decided to put my computer skills to good use and make a computer animated series set in everyone's favorite universe: Star Wars. The idea I had behind the series is this: A small group of elite special forces work to complete mission's across the galaxy. This might sound clichéd, but I thought it would be quite cool. Many people have played Republic Commando, well this is very similar to what I was thinking about, except that RSF is set about 500 years before RC, and instead of clones, there are real people, and not a full war against the battle droids and the separatists, but just a series of small conflicts with random stuff like crime bosses, rouge starship captains, etc.

I am currently getting together a rough script for a pilot episode, and than I will be drawing concept art. If you would like to help, just leave a comment.

Hello World

Hello everyone. I should probably start with a short introduction of myself. My name is Jason, I live in Salt Lake City Utah, I like long walks on the beach.... Just Kidding. My name is indeed Jason, and I do live in Salt Lake City, but I don't care much for long walks on the beach. I am, as you can probably tell by the title of this blog, a home-schooled teenager, a junior in high school to be exact, which puts me at 16 years of age. Some of my many interests include Debate, 3D animation and Visual Effects (the sort of stuff you see in movies, TV shows, and Commercials), Karate, Eating (who doesn't), playing the viola and guitar, Hanging out with my friends, and so many other things that I couldn't even begin to name them.

Now, first I am going to dispel some of the myths surounding home-schoolers like myself.

Myth 1:We are nerdy) I am not nerdy at all (although at one time I was just a bit, but that was about 5 years ago). Many of my home-schooled friends are so anti what the stereotypical home-schooled image is that that many people wouldn't even think of them as home-schooled. One of my friends is the captain of the swimming team at one of our local high schools, another: a relatively famous local actor. I play basketball for one of the local high schools from time to time, hold first chair in the Utah Youth Symphony Orchestra with my Viola, and have done a lot of other non-nerdy things.

Myth 2: We are anti-socialized) I hope you can see by my very creation of this blog that I am 100% not anti-socialized. I have as many friends as my regular high-schoolers, pick up girls just as well as anybody else, and make new friends faster than many of my high-schooled friends.

As I continue with this blog I will dispel more myths, but for now two is enough.

Next I will outline what this blog will do. First, it will not be a whiny chronicling of my life. It will, instead, provide insight into what goes on inside a teenage home-schooler's mind and will try to be informative on things going on around us. I will be giving my reviews on such things as the current movie I watched, the latest book I read, or the latest video game I played. I will also throw in a bit of politics, mainly because it's something that I enjoy, and I think more high schoolers should be more involved with. I will also share my own advice to problems that people send in. If you would like me to answer you question, or give you any advice in my blog, just shoot me an e-mail to jmkosloski@gmail.com

Goodnight everyone