Yesterday was another three movie day for me.  I started the day watching Diggnation, then I watched Freedom Downtime.

I have been itchin to see Freedom Downtime for about a year, but I never got around to it.  It’s a documentary about Kevin Mitnick and the Free Kevin movement.  Mitnick was a computer cracker/hacker and social engineer who was on the run from the FBI in the 90’s and then spent five years in a maximum security federal prison without bail and he never was convicted of a crime or saw a trial.  Freedom Downtime is a bunch of hackers who drove all over the country trying disprove the myths surrounding Mitnick (like the myth that he could whistle into a phone and launch a nuclear missile).  The documentary doesn’t resolve anything, but I think it’s a pretty honest look at the controversy surrounding Mitnick and how computer crimes are prosecuted in the court room. 

The documentary Freedom Downtime also tried to shut down a Miramax film about Kevin Mitnick called Takedown.  So after I watched Freedom Downtime I decided to watch Takedown.  It wasn’t a bad little action technology movie!  Skeet Ulrich plays Kevin Mitnick who is on the run from the FBI.  Technology was portrayed fairly accurately.  But with typical Hollywood fashion the story is highly fictionalized.  Oh well, it was still fun to watch.

The third move that I watched was Flirting with Disaster.  It’s a 1996 comedy from director David O. Russell who also made the Gulf War movie Three Kings and the brilliant existential comedy I ♥ Huckabees.  I really enjoy the films by Russell who not only directs but also writes the films making him one of the only modern day auteur’s.  But the real reason I wanted to see Flirting with Disaster was because Lily Tomlin and Alan Alda play characters with the last name “Schlichting”!  How cool is that?  The only other movie that I have seen that used my last name was Matchstick Men and was only one line.  Flirting with Disaster constantly mispronounces the name Schlichting, just like people do in real life.  My favorite one was “Shitkings”, which people have said to me before.  The strange thing is that even Tomlin and Alda pronounced it wrong!  They pronounced it “Schleekting” and it should be “Schlickting”.  Flirting with Disaster ended up being a really good movie too, I’d recommend it.

I also broke out the ole coffee roaster yesterday.  After a little websearching I found a good article on Sweet Maria’s about programming the iRoast 2 for different types of beans.  The article contains better documentation about the iRoast 2 than actually came with the product.  I roasted up a good half pound of coffee and I can’t wait to try it.  The last two successful roasts that I have done resulted in a great smelling coffee, but burnt and weak tasting.

Then last night we went to a party at Doug’s house.  There were a lot of people there and both Lindsay and I are wallflowers, so we left early.  But I’m glad that we went out.

Today we have a new realtor and five more houses to look at.  I’ll tell you how it goes when I get back.

-Josh

Posted on March 25th, 2007 by schalicto
Filed under: Josh Rants