best migration to ubuntu ever

Regular schalicto.com readers will know the complete frusteration I feel about linux and yet you might have noticed my constant desire to use it. Well here we are again. I got my m1330 and I was in love with Vista now a couple of months later I am out of love with that fat cow and I thought I would give ubuntu another shot.

My first plan was to use Gutsy64, but for some reason that wouldn’t load on my core2duo… anyone know why? So I settled for Gutsy32 and the installation was brilliant. I used Feisty on a few different boxes and I was never as impressed as I am right now with Gutsy.

However, I am looking for a nice blog editor to use in Linux. I’ve tried Drivel and it’s crap and I’m fighting with BloGTK. Are there any good options that rivel Windows Live Writer?

More discussion of the Academy Award Nominations later this week.

-Josh

2007 Best Director Opinions

These are my thoughts on the directors who are nominated for an academy awards this year.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – Julian Schnabel

What’s the deal with French directors having girls names?  I am, of course ,referring to Michele Gondry and Julian Schnabel exclusively.  The direction Schnabel provides in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is entirely what makes the movie work.  The script had great adaptation from the book, the actors were fantastic but without appropriate directing the movie could have very easily been terrible.  That being said I don’t think his directing and this movie is the right pick for best director.

Juno – Jason Reitman

Jason Reitman is becoming a seasoned director and Juno is his second feature film to date (the first being the 2005 film Thank You for Smoking).  I have a severe problem with this particular nomination, and that is the film Juno could have been directed by anyone and it would have been basically the same except it would have probably been better because a good director would have seen the flaws in the film and he would have fixed them.  It was a mistake for the Academy to nominate him for this film and there is something about the film that is making critics blind to it’s faults.  I think Reitman will be good enough to get an Oscar some day, but now is not his time.

Michael Clayton – Tony Gilroy

This film is interesting because if George Clooney was not in it and if Steven Soderberg didn’t producer then nobody would have seen it or liked it.  I thought the direction for this film was second rate and not conducive to the flow (or lack of flow) for the film.  Tony Gilroy is a first time director who, IMO, sucks.  In a year with so many good films I am disappointed with so many crappy nominations.

No Country for Old Men – Joel and Ethan Coen

Joel and Ethan Coen are a tour de force of writing, producing and directing and they re-proved their worth with No Country for Old Men.  Amazingly they have only been nominated for directing one other time (Fargo) and they have never won.  The directing in No Country for Old Men is top shelf and they deserve a Oscar for this category if not simply for this film but for all of their films.

There Will Be Blood – P.T. Anderson

Much like The Coen Brothers, P.T. Anderson has a library of films that are celebrated by film lovers but he has never won and Oscar for his directing (or at all, for that matter).  There Will Be Blood is a return to form for Anderson (again, much like The Coen Brothers) and he deserves this nomination (his first for directing) but I don’t think he deserves to win this year.

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In the sewer of nominations this year there are two that are clear front runners in my mind and between the front runners there is an obvious winner.  You can mark my words on this category.

-Josh

I wrote my first website

I’m five weeks into my HTML class and I’m so very smart now.  Last Saturday I wasn’t doing anything so I sat down and spent all day building a website for the Minnesota State Yo-Yo Contest.  The site is now live so check it out, the two things that I am most proud of are the registration form and the fact that the entire site is xhtml 1.0 transitional compliant.  Let me know what you think, if you love it or hate it.  I’m not much of a designer so I’m pretty open to suggestion.

In similar news, Aptana Studio is pretty cool.

And in completely unrelated news Martin Sargent has a new show called Internet Superstar, I love it.

-Josh

Taxes suck, we aren’t having a very good day

Turns out that owning a house doesn’t get you the huge tax rebate that I thought it would.  We put another five bills into the maxima.  Still working on the house and my back is killing me.

It’s not a good day.

Ron Paul in Saint Paul

That’s right, Presidential Candidate Ron Paul will be at the Northrup Auditorium tonight. You should totally be there because if he is spending the night before super tuesday in Minnesota, then he must have some high hopes for this state. Pretty exciting huh? Event starts at 7 and is free to the public.