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Go See the Transformers

Go now. Quit reading shit online and go see the movie. Except for Laura, who apparently does not like Sci-Fi. I give it seven monkeys (out of a possible 7 or so).

Joe Would Go to the Movies

That’s what Joe would do. I’m sure of it. Now that Joe has a shiny new web presence, complete with pictures, Joe should take me to the movies.

This is a good year for movies, at least in theory. We’re only barely through the first rush and I’m already behind a few flicks. The list, as I see it, is as follows:

• *Transformers
• *Pirates of the Carribean 3
• *Shrek 3
• *Oceans 13
• *Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
• *Die Hard 4
• Harry Potter 5
• *Ratatouille
• The Simpson’s Movie
• Knocked Up

* Asterisks next to movies I’ve already seen, BTW. We’ll be seeing Transformers on Monday. Boo-yah.

Special mention for Knocked Up, which is the only movie to have made the list AFTER coming out. The Simpson’s Movie (or any of the others for that matter) might suck, but at least they earn a list due to their pedigree. Knocked Up is getting good reviews on its own merits. I’m still curious about other movies… 1408, Evan Almighty, Nancy Drew, and a half-dozen previews that I can’t name for the November rush. But there’s only so much time (and movie-budget) in a year.

Shrek 3 and Pirates 3 were both a bit disappointing in my mind. Not terrible or anything, just not quite living up to their potential. In stark contrast, Oceans 13 was a huge revival from Oceans 12, and a good follow up to Oceans 11. Can we just act like Oceans 12 didn’t happen? That’d be great.

Everything else should speak for itself but, as usual, feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.

Update: We pulled a double feature Friday night and saw “Die Hard 4” and “Ratatouille”. Both excellent movies. Pixar has, as usual, done everything they can to raise the price of the Disney stock they sold out to, and Bruce Willis managed to completely fail to disappoint, even though (or perhaps because) the movie bore quite a resemblance to “True Lies” (another personal favorite) at some points. More after we’ve seen the Transformers Monday night.

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Brain Damage and Realism

Sometimes I read a couple of articles and just wonder if they’re more closely related than they seem to be. This happened last year about this time related to speedy house building. As Kory is quick to point out, this sort of thing falls into the Synchronicity category. Maybe it’s the weather.

In any case, there are two interesting articles out lately in the brain-science department. The first article [originally published in Nature] talks about damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex reducing emotional responses to ethical decision making. For example people with such damage were three times more likely to recommend pushing someone in front of a train in order to save a others’ lives. I always figured myself for a pusher, just for the record, which is why it strikes me as interesting. (Lesson learned: don’t stand in front of Chip at a train station).

The second article deals with depression and self-image. Some studies apparently measured people’s perception of the world and compared it to “reality”. One generally expects depressed people, or people with other mental disorders to have an unrealistic view of the world, but the results of the studies indicated the exact opposite. “Normal” people have an unrealistically positive view of themselves and the world around them. Troubled people seemed to think of the world more in line with the way it actually is. For example, people with an eating disorder felt they were less attractive than people without a disorder, even when both people were rated as equally attractive (by some blinded study method). More to the point, the troubled group rated themselves closer to the rating they were given by the third-party ratings than the “normal” group.

Go read the articles, of course — my synopses were both pretty severe oversimplified and selectly emphasized versions of the full articles.

Still, my point is that I wonder if there’s any relationship between the parts of the brain that cause these behavior. It seems like both problems relate to outlook and the ability to view and form opinions about the world and react to those opinions. Are people with ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage more or less likely to have realistic opinions of themselves? Does that translate to a likelyhood to be depressed? And in contrast, are people with depression more or less likely to make the same ethical/emotional decisions as people with ventromedial prefrontal cortex brain damage? Or do they just push people in front of trains for completely different reasons?

Moved, back up, all that jazz

Well, the server (and a good percentage of the rest of our boxes) are moved up to Good Ole Dayton, OH. I’ve re-hosted the e-mail, so the @chiplynch.com addresses are up again. We’ve got a plethora of pictures either up now or needing to be put up. Still, progress is progress.

Someday, I’ll post something interesting again!

Spring Break: 4300 Miles in 9 Days

Ang has summed up our spring break trip in such a way that I don’t actually have to do any work. Good Fiance. Oh, and thanks to Sarah, Dave, Mike, Sally, Gavan (and G2), Stacey, John, and Laura for the accommodations!