Chez Nerd

Adriana Lima: Habitual Cat Strangler

2009-05-11T21:08:00.007-04:00

Someone ought to alert PETA.

Hulu, Harry & Twitter

2009-04-16T22:11:00.006-04:00

So, being the Uber Nerd that I am, I was testing out new social media applications while awaiting the countdown on Hulu for the new Harry Potter trailer. We were running late this evening getting the kids in bed anyway, so I figured why not let them stay up a bit later and we can all watch the preview together. The countdown was on and my nerds-in-training were huddled around the glow of the LCD with me when it reads "Sorry. We are unable to stream this video. Please check your Internet connection and try again". Oy. I imagined that there were too many other nerds trying to simultaneously access the HP6 trailer with me.

Got the disappointed kids in bed. On a whim, I checked Hulu's Twitter account to see if there were others to commiserate with in my disappointment. Instead, I saw updates from Hulu regarding the fact that there was a technical issue and that they would update as they had info. By a little over an hour later, the trailer was up and announced on the Hulu Twitter site.

Nice use of Twitter.

Meg's Monkey Musing - Japanese Monkey Waiters

2009-01-08T23:07:00.002-05:00

Meg, I know you're out there. This one's for you: Japanese Monkey Waiters. Just make sure you tip well and there'll be no feces thrown.

CSS Rounded Corners

2009-01-07T00:57:00.002-05:00

If you code for the web and you've never visited dhtmloodies.com, you're missing out. I used the Rounded Corners technique today and it worked like a charm.

Interview with Melissa Anelli

2007-09-17T21:54:00.002-04:00

This is a watershed moment here on Chez Nerd... the first Chez Nerd interview! In keeping with the spirit of this site, I plan on reaching out to those who will answer my burning nerd questions.

And now, I present my Q&A with Melissa Anelli. Melissa is a journalist for the Staten Island Advance and is also widely know to Potter-philes as a Host, Producer and Editor for The Leaky Cauldron Harry Potter fan site. If you're a fan of Harry Potter and haven't yet found The Leaky Cauldron website, do yourself a favor and visit! Melissa and all of the folks there have done an amazing job through the series and continue to post news and information on the forthcoming films.

Chez Nerd: I saw on your blog that your 'hates' include 'Yankees'. Any love for the Red Sox?

Melissa: Every time they beat the Yankees, my love for them grows. I'm a Mets fan, though; I loved the Red Sox the most when the ball went through Buckner's legs.

Chez Nerd: I realize that it's got to be difficult for a screenwriter to transition a novel to a film, but were you disappointed in the OotP film? (If it were up to me, every one of the films would be 10 or so hours long and would have included SPEW)

Melissa: I thought the OotP film was the best of the bunch, largely because the script so often trusted the stellar dialogue from the books. Every time they did that, the script worked; when they veered, it was often for the best. I hope that carries into six. These movies have a habit of building on each other and getting better each time. Number seven is going to blow all our minds. I hope.

Chez Nerd: I felt that there were many parallels in Deathly Hallows to Christianity (sacrificing one's self for the better good, the resurrection). Do think that based upon some of the negativity JK received through the years from Christian groups she steered the story this way a bit? Almost as a 'touché' to these people?

Melissa: I think her story has always been planned the way it played out in book seven. I also think that those who criticized her for not being Christian enough look really silly right now.

Chez Nerd: The LAST thing I want to do is be critical of JK Rowling. But what about the the talking patronus? I really liked that concept of a means of communication, but it kind of came out left field for me. What's your take on that?

Melissa: If nothing came out of left field in book seven, it would have been boring. :) Honestly I love that she finds ways to build upon her previous innovations, to show powerful magic and things that are simply cool. I mean, a talking Patronus. How cool is that? Previously we hadn't really seen a very powerful person use a Patronus for communication, so it makes sense that it showed up in book seven. And if she just had the thought, between books six and seven, that it might be cool if a Patronus talked? Hey, all the better, that's why she's a writer.

Chez Nerd: Are you happy with the closure? Did the Epilogue satisfy you?

Melissa: Very much. I'm much happier knowing that Harry is a semi-boring middle-aged man whose biggest worry is whether his kid will be OK in school. This means we aren't missing grand adventures in his life; his life isn't something we need to read about anymore. Most of all, Harry's journey has always been one of finding family, normalcy, domesticity. And he found it. And that's all we've ever wanted for him. (Besides Voldemort biting the big AK.)

Chez Nerd: This is probably an unfair question, but what was your best experience while traveling for Pottercast?

Melissa: It's a TOTALLY unfair question! The whole trip was amazing, and each day I was so thankful that I got to meet so many wonderful fans in so many places. Spending more time with John and Sue made me a very happy panda. We also had a hilarious whiffleball game with Harry and the Potters, in which we all demonstrated why they are the rock stars and we are the geeks. In other words, we lost. Very badly. But laughed the whole way.

Chez Nerd: What's to be the fate of The Leaky Cauldron now?

Melissa: We're having a close-out sale and then boarding up. No, no, no, we're still going, reporting on the movies and the upcoming theme park and the potential eventual encyclopedia that Jo writes. There's still a lot more Harry Potter in the world.

Chez Nerd: Did you have an opportunity to correspond or talk with JK about the book you are working on?

Melissa: I wrote her a letter before the public announcement was made. I wanted her to know before she read about it. :) She knows this isn't a companion book or a book containing her creations; I'm writing about a pop culture phenomenon, as relevant as (as a friend once said to me) the Rise and Fall of Britney Spears or How MySpace Conquered the World. :) It's not an infringement on her work, which is very, very, very important to me.

Chez Nerd: For those of us 'jonesing' for Harry Potter, what else do you recommend reading?

Melissa: You should get up from the computer right now and buy the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman. In fact, go to Amazon.com, you don't even have to get up from the computer. They're marvelous, fascinating, glorious books. Just a really huge story told in marvelous ways - read it now, it rewards you!

I want to thank Melissa for taking the time to answer my questions. I also want to publicly reaffirm my own Supreme Level of Neridness. In one of Melissa's answers above she writes, "Besides Voldemort biting the big AK". Without flinching, I knew she was referring to Avada Kedavra aka The Killing Curse.

George Lucas is God

2007-08-26T08:36:00.002-04:00

Okay, okay. I may be a bit overboard with that one. But just you silly non-believers wait! Nerd retribution is at hand!

Well, besides brilliantly pandering to legions of Star Wars fans in 1983 and putting Princess Leia in that metal bikini, he continues to be a spring of creativity.

If you haven't been to StarWars.com recently, go. Go now! In particular, check out this sequence of videos (http://www.starwars.com/video/view/000519.html) regarding a new game that LucasArts has developed called Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. The game trailer looks almost better than a movie, (I'm looking at you Phanton Menace).

But honestly, there are two videos here besides the trailer which are just mind blowing. These two videos are entitled 'Euphoria' and 'DMM'. Each discuss how the game developers have made the game more realistic by accounting for the physics in which elements and characters react to one another in the game environement. For example, a piece of wood breaks differently depending upon the pressure applied to it and at varying angles of impact. These folks have accounted for all of that.

Even if you're not a gamer, watch these videos and wonder why you didn't pay more attention in school. Then go force your unrealized dreams of working at Skywalker Ranch upon your children.

Welcome to ChezNerd

2007-08-21T13:31:00.002-04:00

Well, I was honestly trying for something more robust for this first post, but the online English to Klingon translator kept on crashing my browser. What the Frell! Oh well. Stay tuned for some pithy comments on all things nerdy. Hope you enjoy.

BTW- Don't take any of this too seriously, because I don't. These are the ravings of nerd/mad man. I don't want to necessarily hear why FireFox is better than Explorer or why Star Trek is better than Star Wars, etc.

For the record, I liked 'Next Generation' better than the original, and of course TESB trumps everything. So there.