budget

Avatar

~ randyaa ~ 8 Comments

It’s not for everyone but Avatar might just be our favorite movie of all time.  It has a lot going for it and Rachel and I both agree: the estimated 500 million dollar budget was worth every penny.

After 2 hours and 40 minutes, I left the theater in panic mode because it was over and there isn’t yet a sequel.  In the 10 years it took him to make it, James Cameron created a world I don’t want to just visit every 5 years when they release a sequel, I want to live there, now.

To me, that’s a sign of a great movie.  Every movie I’ve ever truly loved has left me with some desire for a part of it to be real.  Everything about Avatar is completely different from the norm and that’s exactly the point.  It’s so unique and different that I wish I could experience it myself.  They even create a rational for how things work rooted in (a tiny bit of) science.  The characters quickly develop into emotional connections, to each other and the audience.  On top of that the effects, the animation, the scenery, everything about the movie was stellar.

We didn’t watch it in 3D, but I’m seeing the movie again with coworkers this Tuesday at the IMAX in 3D so we’ll see how that changes things.  From the first viewing I can only assume it makes it even better.  There wasn’t a ton of gimmicky things flying towards the screen, just a lot of really stunning scenery that would be all the more impressive in 3D.

Filled with even more anticipation than I was before. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer:

Please turn on javascript. Movies require javascript to play.
http://movies.apple.com/movies/fox/avatar/avatar-tlrf_h.480.mov

Although written sunday, this post isn’t going up until I’m sitting in the theater on Tuesday.  Wouldn’t want to spoil it for my coworkers by giving them expectations before they see it.

Mayor Duffy Drinks Beer!

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

Rohrbachs Downtown BreweryThursday RohrBachs opened their new brewery downtown with a bang. They had a grand opening that included free beer and free food! The food was great and I will definitely be picking up some pierogies from The Pierogie Guy. The beer was, of course, excellent. One of my favorites is always the RohrBachs Scotch Ale which is what we had on tap at our wedding but they had many other excellent choices available such as Nate’s Pale Ale and their Vanilla Porter.

Mayor Bob DuffyTo christen the new downtown brewery Mayor Bob Duffy spoke at the event. It was surprising to see him there as there is trouble with passing the New York Budget this year because of all the scandal surrounding the governor. However; Duffy is taking the renovation of Rochester seriously and he took the reopening of a downtown Rohrbachs brewery personal. That he’s neighbors with the owner of Rohrbachs obviously has nothing to do with it.

Contractors vs Content

~ randyaa ~ 3 Comments

A coworker recently told me a story about a previous project he was on. Quite typical of any Big Company.

I had a project manager that had some money in her project budget that needed to be spent…it’s around October time so she’s really starting to look for ways…the project is delayed because we can’t get content from the providers (we were converting from their format to ours). She says “I’ve got money in our project that we could use for contractors to help with development.” I said we don’t need developers, we need content. She says “well, we’ve got the money so why not hire some contractors?” I replied that I don’t have anything for contractors to do. she then asks “well, let’s say we get a contractor or 2…what would you have them do?” I’m sitting there looking at this woman thinking she’s either f-ed in the head or deaf and say “I’d buy them airline tickets to Australia and have them go get us the content”…the meeting ended shortly thereafter