This was an excellent movie! Robert Downey, Jr. was perfect for the role of Tony Stark. Who better to play a rich alcoholic then someone who’s been there? The rest of the cast was equally good.

The movie keeps true to its comic origins and tells a compelling story. I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, so I’ll save the rest for you to see.

By the way, stay for the credits. There is an extra bit at the end that I think makes it worth it.

so everything is looking a bit wonky right now. Should be fixed soon!

So, I bought an iPod Touch this week. “Why the Touch and not an iPhone?”, you might ask.

A couple of reasons, the main one being that I don’t like the idea of being locked to AT&T forever. Others have mentioned that I’m locked to Sprint now. Only to a minor extent. When my 2 year contract ends, I can move to anyone I like. If I have a an iPhone, I still have to stay with AT&T because their exclusive contract runs until 2012. (Unless they renew with Apple in which case it runs longer.) My iPod Touch is provider independent; at least as far as my phone service is concerned. ;)

For all else it is a great platform! I got the software upgrade which gives me the mail, notes and calendar apps. Wow! I now can check everything without having my laptop around. It plays all my media as well as I expected it to. Movies look great in all directions but especially nice rotated. The out-of-box user experience is first rate as one would expect from Apple.

The best news came a couple of weeks ago when apple released the iPhone Software Development Kit. Now people can create their own apps for release on the iPhone and iPod Touch. A couple of the apps I’m looking forward to are the AIM client and the Things app. Everything will be delivered the soon to be released App Store. This will allow download direct wirelessly or added via iTunes.

All in all, the iPod Touch is a great device. For all intents and purposes, as the iPhone is the first OS X based smart-phone, the iPod Touch is the first OS X based PDA. This is what I was hoping for in this device.

Gary Gygax, ‘Father of D&D,’ Dies at 69: “The co-creator of legendary role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons succumbs after years of health problems.

(Via Wired News.)

Crazy! As many others have noted, this is a man whose work partially defined my adolescence and early adulthood. In fact, it is one of the key things that put me on the path to where I am today.

I started playing in 1982. I played all through high school. I was also geeky enough to go to GenCon 18 where I actually met Gary. I still have some autographed 1st edition books.

In 1986 D&D, and other role-playing and table-top miniatures games, were far more interesting than the electrical engineering classes I was taking in college. So interesting in fact that I was rarely, if ever, actually attending the classes. As, you can probably guess, this did not please my dad. (The dad who was paying for those classes, and is reading this. Sorry, pop!) My school money was cut off, for which I can blame no one but myself, and I had to find some other way to finance my college education.

I ended up joining the Army for 3 years (which is a different set of stories), got out in 1990, and went back to school. I was then called back briefly for Desert Storm. This pattern of interruptions continued until, thanks to the Dot-Com boom, I got a job as the IT guy for a small company. In fact, I’m still there having successfully transitioned into the video area where I work happily today!

So, thanks to D&D and PCs (which, again is another story) , I’m where I am today!

Goodbye Gary! Thanks for making high school suck less. You will be missed.

I stumbled across some beautiful pieces of concept art for WALL•E Today. These were taking from the upcoming issue of Total Film which will feature an interview with Director Andrew Stanton. Don’t miss it!

-Matt
via: Upcoming Pixar

I was invited to join James Wadsworth and Andrew Becraft on this weeks episode of LAML radio. The topic of discussion was “Why we love the minifig.” James did an amazing job editing out all of my incoherent ramblings and making me sound like an intelligent adult. Not an easy task.

In other LEGO news, The LEGO Factory has announced a new fan-designed space line. “Help the Star Justice or Space Skulls crews gear up for battle!”

Hmm…Now why on earth does that sound so familar to me…

-Matt

I don’t have time to post much but I did want to share this:

Basset Hound Beat Box

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There is nothing more adorable than a basset hound…Except maybe a basset with some rythmn. Nice animation too.

-Matt

(I am re-posting a great audio interview with Don Hertzfeldt. The original post appeared on 9/27/07.)

Scene Unsceen Podcast has an interview with Don Hertzfeldt; one of the funniest animators around.

The first film of his I had seen was called Billy’s Balloon. I absolutely died laughing. It was at a Spike and Mike film festival that came to my college and the theater was packed. That short helped solidify my decision to major in animation.

Check out the interview here.

You can also see more of Don’s work on his website: www.bitterfilms.com

-Matt