The Life of a 13 Year Old

Still Alive

2005-12-27T15:22:00.000-05:00

Just wanna tell you all that I'm still alive. I've been busy with my books, games, technology and more from Christmas lately which you'll learn ALL about soon.

I've also been working on the the new podcast website with Aaron. Here it is:
teentechbuzz.com

Also, I may change my blog to what was used to make that (word press) along with Netsua. Basically, they would merge into that type of thing. I would really like that, but I've got to do SOO many things before that. I'm also working on a cartoon movie that't SOOOO awesome. Can't write much now (I'm in a rush) but here's a screen from it:

OK, really gotta go. Bye!

Transit Strike: Day 2

2005-12-21T16:10:00.000-05:00

Walked to school again. 1.5 miles there, and 1.5 miles back.

I'm tired. I love the whole 2-hour late thing and all, but this had better stop soon. I mean - it's cold out!

Looks like they're going to arrest the guy who ordered the strike. I mean - I get that their jobs are more important and stuff, but really......... strikes shouldn't be illegal! Then what's the point?

Transit Strike: Day 1

2005-12-20T20:50:00.000-05:00

So there was a New York City transit strike today and school started 2 HOURS LATE!!! Cool, right?

Yeah, well I DO live a mile and a half from school so those two ours weren't wasted. I had to walk to school and I couldn't even bring MY IPOD! Because my mom is so mean and evil and stupid.

I took some pics. They'll probably be up tommorow. So a third of the class wasn't there and I walked 3 miles in all in one day. And it'll probably happen tommorow too so stay tuned.

War of the Worlds 2 Posters

2005-12-18T14:45:00.000-05:00

No, no it's not a real movie (not yet, at least) but I'm doing a short parody trailer of it, based off of the trailer for Steven Speilberg's summer film "War of the Worlds" which stars Tom Cruise.

For the backgrounds I just went to the official movie website where they had some cool hi-res pics from the movie and promotional special effect background-things.

Those are what I used for the backgrounds (notice the original "War of the Worlds" logo and stuff on the bottom of each one. I also changed the contrast quite a bit for each one to make the explosion seem brighter and more intense, etc.

The white text is mine using the "Edda" font which I think looks really good for the style.

Then the two in black with the same font only I bolded it. I then added the faint white glow behind all of the 2s because It was hard to see them in some places.

And that's how I did it. A few extra touches here and there, but that's mostly it.

Expect the movie soon.

Movie Review: Psycho (1998 Remake)

2005-12-12T21:09:00.000-05:00

Psycho is probably my favorite movie that was made before 1970, so naturally, I really liked it. Yes, I think that it would be cool if it were in color, but I don't really mind the black and white. So when Gus Van Sant came along and did this remake, I wasn't sure what to expect.

Well, here's the truth: Not much has been added/changed/improved. All of the shots in the important scenes (about half the movie) are set up exactly the same as in the original. The shower scene is the same and even the music sounds like it's taken DIRECTLY from the original 1960 Psycho soundtrack.

Most of the actors I recogized like Vince Vaughn, Viggo Mortensen and William H. Macey. Gus Van Sant seemed t be going for a more celebirty-like approach.

Still, not much is added, changed, or anything. I mean - it's still a great enjoyable movie, but it's really just in color, and it has some new faces. So I mean: what's the point?

8/10

Movie Review: Sin City

2005-12-11T19:48:00.000-05:00

From the director of "Spy Kids" the super-duper family fun, enjoyable lighthearted film comes another movie.......... Sin City! Only this time it's rated R! Director Robert Rodriguez created a VERY different movie than Spy Kid when he created Sin City, based of of Frank Miller's (who also co-directed the movie) comic book series. The movie is dark, violent, and VERY intense.

The movie is in black and white, but then again it's not. Important things are in color - like someone's lipstick or gun, or the important part of the shot. Sometimes scenes do have a color tint to it (like the poster on the left) but it's usually in black and white. The entire movie was filmed in front of bluescreen and/or greenscreens meaning that all of the backgrounds are entirely digitally created along with the shots of a car driving or other shots without any visible people in it.

It follows three subplots which are GENERALLY unrelated plot-wise. It goes back and forth between the different plots during the movie. It has a (very, VERY) violent (that's VERY) violent ending. Now don't think that this is some mindless fighting movie. It isn't. Well - it is... and them some. It's very well done and doesn't feel like a normal movie.

8.7/10

Movie Review: Hotel Rwanda

2005-12-05T20:32:00.000-05:00

I got this movie on DVD because I heard that it was good. It was. But it was also very, VERY sad! The movie is about a fairly high class hotel manager in Africa who lives a good life with his wife and children, and who deals with many people both black and white. Then (I haven't learned this in school yet, so it's only what I know) what sounds like the "tootsies" kill the leader of the country and try to kill all the other type of people. Anyway, everyone comes running for refuge in his hotel; Hotel Rwanda. The manager has to deal with many problems: first, the tootsie rebel guys, the united nations who come in but ONLY take the white people away and other sad things. The manager (forgot name) has to deal with his family and leaving them and choosing and so many other sad choices.

Some parts of this movie are pretty gruesome (hence the PG-13 rating) like the main character and his friend riding a car through super-dense fog and all of the sudden it gets really bumpy. Guess what they're riding over? Bodies. Thousands of dead bodies stretching down the road for miles. The movie is heartbreaking and horrible, and reminds me of Iraq. Just the current-event type of violence of small rebel groups and so much sadness.

The acting is great, it's edited great, and the soundtrack is beautiful. For one part when the good guys are unknowingly riding into and ambush the music is loud beating drums, and for the very end when the main character and his wife adopt more kids (orphans) right before the credits is a beautiful song sung by young 3 or 4 year olds in an African language. And boy does it get stuck in your head.

8/10

Movie Review: The Perfect Score

2005-12-04T21:04:00.000-05:00

This movie is basically about a group of kids that decide to break into the SAT (BIG college test) center place and steal the answers. It's a fun, light-hearted (though not at the end when someone gets arrested) movie that was fun to watch. All of the characters ar the type you can relate to (like different extremes clashing and things).

It's well edited, and the story goes along well. The acting is good, and the jokes are usually funny. I won't give to much away, but there is some of that "if we work together as a team we WILL PREVAIL!!!" stuff, but that has to be expected.

The music was mostly alternative rock stuff very similar to green day (which I'm a fan of) but not as recognizable. Still, it's a fun and funny comedy that was an enjoyable watch.

7.5/10

Movie Review: Flight of the Phoenix

2005-12-04T20:51:00.000-05:00

The movie is about a group of people crash in the desert on a cargo airplane. It's a very nitty gritty movie that includes very high tensions, sand storms, people fighting over water, exploding fuel, and a weird group of guys that are in the desert who look strangely like terrorists. After crashing the plane, the group tries to rebuild it led by a weird guy that no one really knows (far left on poster). Right before the plane is set to take off the group finds out that this guy didn't really build airplanes for a job like he said he did, but that he built model airplanes. High tensions all around.

The movie wasn't very thematic - It didn't go in the format of most movies with the climax at a certain point etc. Because of this, the plot was VERY unpredictable. This gave the illusion that it was poorly edited, though I think it was just the style.

The music ranged from classic soundtrack music to fast drum beats to what sounded like weird chinese women trying to imitate 5 birds at once (don't ask). Personally, I think that the movie would have done better as a mini-series. The unpredictable plot and style of filmaking really would have worked for that. Oh well.

6.9/10

CHRISTMAS LIST!!! (Updated)

2005-12-01T17:39:00.000-05:00

Many people have been wondering what I wanted. So (not to be rude, but I like presents) I guess here's some things I could use. I know that the things are a BIT on the really-expensive-technology-that-kids-shouldn't-play-with side, but TECHNICALLY I'm not a kid anymore being 13. Now I'm a teenager. Anyway, there are only a few so I guess it could be like my birthday where everyone chips in on the big expensive one. I link to where you can buy it online, give the price and WHY I want it. Enjoy my hours of laboring over the internet, not being able to choose WHAT I WANT!!!

UPDATE: I added a game, magazine, and book. Any questions, email me at austensaltz@gmail.com or make a comment to this post. Everything is in the order of how much I want them. (in other words, I want that external hard drive more than the SW Visual Guide)

Gotta Have:

Present: Seagate Technology 200 GB External Hard Drive
Price: $175
Why I want it: I only have a 20 GB (gigabyte) hard drive on my computer. Now that's fine for someone like my mom who has word documents and a few family pictures. But for someone like me who saves high-quality movie files for the ultimate-looking movie and who has games like The Sims 2, Battlefront, and Podracer. Also, who has all of their schoolwork on their and pictures, AND 4 gigabyte iTunes library which includes long podcasts. Along with my movie editing programs and picture editing programs like photoshop and skype, and aim, and google talk, and google earth and many more things, I think that maybe I SHOULD get an external hard drive. IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES! I could get powerpoint (science teacher is offering it free) (memory-clogger which is why I don't have it now) and I could save my movies in the HIGHEST quality (DV-AVI which is 178 MB a minute) and so much more. So please, help my cause by giving to the poor. Thanks, and Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Present: USB 2.0 Hub
Price: $24
Why I want it: I only have two USB ports on my computer. (A USB port is one way for different devices to connect to a computer like a mouse, printer and other devices) One I use for the mouse and the other is optional for whatever I'm using. Sometimes it's my joystick, ipod, printer, dvd player/burner, an other things. So if I get this hub thing I will have 5 PORTS in all since it turns one of them into 4. This would enable me to plug most or almost all of my devices into the coputer at once so I don't have to continuously change it all the time. It's only $24 (ok, maybe not "only" but it's quite decent.) to buy and one of my few (though all expensive) presents.

Present: The World of Harry Potter
Price: $13
Why I want it: 4 GAMES for just $13!!! It's amazing! A cheaper game is usually about $15!!! But this has 4 GAMES all that I have always wanted! ESPECIALLY The Quidditch World Cup! ONLY 13 DOLLARS!!!
NOTE: Make sure that it is this exact thing, Because there are a lot of harry potter games, and they are all RIP-OFFS compared to this. So make sure you order it online if you could. (Click the title)

Present: War of the Worlds DVD
Price: $26
Why I want it: Another summer action movie that I really enjoyed. War of the Worlds was scary, thrilling, and action-packed perfectly. And it WAS Steven Spielberg. I also want to see the special features so make sure it's the 2-DISC edition.

If you still have some money left over:

Present: Batman Begins DVD
Price: $18
Why I want it: Well, all of the early summer action movies are now coming out on DVD, so I have my eye on them. Batman Begins was a pretty cool movie, and it has some special features which I really want to see, so make sure it's the 2-DISC edition.

Present: Mad Magazine Subscription
Price: $12 a year
Why I want it: On our trip to Florida last summer I picked this up at the airport. Very funny, I'd love to have it.

Present: Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide
Price: $16
Why I want it: I wouldn't ask for it normally, but because of the amazingly cheap price for this super-stuffed book, I really think that I want it.

Sudoku

2005-11-20T20:31:00.000-05:00

Sudoku - the new crossword puzzle.

It's addicting. It's basically the same type of thing as crossword puzzles, but completely different. You see, there are numbers. Here's how it works:

Basically, there are (in the end) supposed to be numbers one through nine in any given order in each coloumn, line, and box. They give you some, but you have to do the rest. It's SOOO much fun! (Well, at least the easy ones)

A great website is Sudoku-Puzzles.net which has (I think) daily puzzles. And you can choose the different levels of difficulty. You can either fill in the numbers online or print it out, and they give you the solutions and it's SOOOO much fun (when and if you finish it) So try it out!

NOTE: Soduku is very addictive and can lead to social problems, high tempers, social problems, and sometimes (although rare) suicide. If you do experience suicide for any reason related to sudoku we will give you your money back, no questions asked. (Or at least your family or closest relative)

One whole year of B-L-O-G-G-I-N-G-!-!-!

2005-11-19T19:53:00.000-05:00

Well, November 21st, 2004 was the day I made the first post on this blog. I don't care if it's still the night of the 19th, but It's almost a year, and I created the blog before I posted on it. And it's my blog anyway.

So it's been a whole year, and the name has changed from The Life of a 12 Year Old to The Life of a 13 Year Old, and I've had lots and lots of fun. I hope to continue this blog until I die at the ripe age of 100. (Now that's a funny site)

Still, "The Life of a 100 Year Old" is a bit of a stretch. But really, I hope to continue this for quite a while. But for now I've got my Beacon High School interview tommorow.

Wish me luck. (no need for flowers though)

TTB #03

2005-11-17T20:16:00.000-05:00

Our bi-weekly podcast has the 3rd episode up! Just letting you know. I AM going to edit the next one, so I won't feel guilty posting Aaron's work on my blog (I'm having deja vu)
YAY!!!! Not great, but it's ooookkkk.
Highlight below to read my secret message:
If you're reading this, then you can read! Congratulations! You know how to highlight also! Isn't this FUN???? Okay, getting off.

Netsua.com Head Replacement Section is up!

2005-11-17T20:08:00.000-05:00

Sorry 'bout not posting for a week, but my Beacon interview is this weekend and I have a huge project due monday, and there are other things popping up.

But anyway, I recently noticed that there was no place on Netsua.com to show off my photoshop skills. So I'm in the process of adding numerous new sections to the picture part of netsua, on the side of all of the pictures from trips. I have one up: Head Replacements. Most of them havev been posted on this blog before, but there's one new one which is funny. Other possible photoshop categories include:

Posters (for movies and essays and stuff)
Cartoons (the thing where I make someone in a cartoon version)
Other Stuff

I know that's not much for now, but I've gone brain dead temporarily. (sorry)

Gotta go now and burn cd for beacon interview (screaming parents make sure of that)

My Famous Quote!

2005-11-11T21:03:00.000-05:00

Austen's quote-that-will-be-on-calenders-once-he-becomes-famous:

"Why is it that you can trust your best friend with your life, but not with your iPod?"

Yes, I did make that up all by myself - that's why it's my quote. I love those types of things, they're so fun to read and make!

"The Birds" Posters

2005-11-09T15:33:00.000-05:00

I was bored, so I made a poster for Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds":
And I liked it so I made another version!

The Saga is Complete

2005-11-07T15:35:00.000-05:00

Yay! Here's my entire star wars dvd collection! It goes, episode 1, 2, 3, then the star wars clone wars animated tv series then 4, 5, 6 and orignal trilogy special features! (The only reason I wrote this is because I was bored and wanted to post something on my blog)

The Crayon of Amontillado

2005-11-03T17:07:00.000-05:00

By Austen Saltz

During my time in jail, many people have come and asked me... why did I kill Fortunato? What could be so horrible that he did to me? I'll tell you why. It was a horrible thing that he did, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, MANY years ago when we were still young.... In fact, it was in Kindergarten, and it was coloring time. Everyone was coloring their own pictures. Me, I was drawing someone being hanged. The detail was amazing, I even put glistening blood on that poor guy. When the teacher went by she thought that I had drawn such a beautiful red shiny plane.... anyway, Fortunato was sitting there drawing a sun that had a smiley face and lots of stick figures smiling beneath it. (So.... boring!) He was using a red crayon to color some happy-face person’s hat. I needed the red to add some blood to his leg, where I had drawn a bullet hole. (Perhaps where the cops had shot him when he was caught.) So I asked Fortunato oh so nicely for the red:

"Fortunato, if you don't give me the red I'll make this picture come true for you!"

"You mean you'll give me a nice, big, red, shiny airplane??? That's so nice of you! Thanks!"

Fortunato went back to work on his happy sunshine picture. And in all of his excitement he broke the red crayon! Now, there's nothing wrong with a broken crayon, it still works. But then the teacher came along and said:

"Oh my! Have you broken this crayon? Well, there's no use for that anymore!"

And she threw it out the window. I was devastated. But I didn't give up hope. I looked around for another red crayon, and found one in John's hands. I asked him politely for it:

"Gimme that!"

Then I took it and sat back down. But Fortunato thought that I had gotten it for him!

"Oh thank you Amontillado! I was just looking for that!"

And he snatched if from my hand. Then the exact same thing happened: Fortunato went back to work on his happy sunshine picture. And in all of his excitment he broke the red crayon! Now, there's nothing wrong with a broken crayon, it still works. But then the teacher came along and said:

"Oh my! Have you broken this crayon? Well, there's no use for that anymore!"

And she threw it out the window. I was devastated. But I didn't give up hope. I looked around for another red crayon, but this time there wasn't one! I just CAN'T STAND the fact that I never got to finish my picture! I never forgave Fortunato for that, and that is why I killed him, because he is mean, bad, a thief, not good, bad, not nice, unfair, over-excited, unfair, stupid, idiotic, and mean and a million other things!

Note: This is a prequel to The Cask of Amontillado

Episode III DVD and Widescreen of Fullscreen?

2005-11-01T18:14:00.000-05:00

Well, after school and homework today I went (more like ran) to Circuit City and got Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith on DVD!!! I'm watching it now and it's SOOOO cool, and amazing and awesome and I'm going to get to the deleted scenes next, and then the special features, and the other millions of cool stuff on it!!!
Also, there was the question to get widescreen of fullscreen. Since movies are filmed with W I D E R frames than tv, there are two ways to watch it on a tv. One: Cutting off a little bit on each side and when neccessary moving or sometimes zooming the frame to focus on the imprortant part. Widescreen is just making the frame's width the same as the tv's width so that there are black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Below are pics of the two versions (thanks to starwars.com)
Personally, I currently prefer widescreen, especially for Star Wars, since there are many cameos or little things that are on the side of the screen that usually get cut off. BUT, for episodes 1 and 2 I had full screen, and for 4, 5, and 6 I had widescreen. So, which do I choose? Well, I chose widescreen just because... I don't know, because I like it better. I don't care if it really isn't consistent anyway. So that's that and it's cool!

TTB #02

2005-10-31T20:18:00.000-05:00

Well, the second episode of the Teen Tech Buzz Podcast is up (all thanks to Aaron who edited it and did all of the hard work) and it's actually been up for a while, I just haven't linked to it yet. Don't get the Enhanced AAC, but rather the normal one which is mp3. Most of you people SHOULD be able to play mp3 files unless you have Windows Media Player 0.1 (joke, just an exaggeration) and if you can't play it you should probably update Windows Media Player (or quicktime if you're on a mac) so that you CAN play it.

Aaron has done most of the work on the last two, but I finally convinced him to let me edit half of the shows, and he's said yes so that's cool, and I won't feel guilty posting his work on my blog.

Anyway, the counter on the site says that 348 INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE have visited the Teen Tech Buzz Podcast Blog! Of course, most of that traffic is thanks to Cyrus Farivar (I hope I spelled that right) who mentioned us on the MacWorld website (see previous post) Thanks again!

Also, just so you know, the podcast is now bi-weekly which means that there will be an episode every 2 weeks instead of every week which is cool.

Ellis Island Trip

2005-10-30T19:00:00.000-05:00

So we went to Ellis Island on Friday for a field trip and our class missed a whole day of school! To tell you the truth, Ellis Island was the most BORING part of the trip...

Well, the subway trip was scary. The train was SOOOO packed, I mean really, and the whole class was spread all over a bunch of different cars, and the teacher (ms. burnett, homeroom teacher) kept switching between the cars, and she was there, then she was gone, and the class was just like in packs of 4 or 5 scattered around the train. We weren't sure what stop to get off at so every stop we stuck our head out of the subway to see if the other kids were getting off...... that was crazy.

So then we finally got off the subway at South Ferry and walked until we got to the little park that's at the tip of Manhattan, which is where the ferry takes off from. And then we saw some people waiting on line. And then there was this tent that they were coming out of (which we later learned was for security. Then there was more of a line outside of the tent. Ok.... this was going to take a while. Then it went on even farther around a corner, around ANOTHER corner, and then a final stretch that went on for a while. Then we saw that buses were just pulling up and dropping people off onto the line! So the class got into the back of the line. We waited for about an hour before we got to security...... so I bought a hot dog and some water.... stuff like that.

Then when we FINALLY got to security we did the whole thing, just like an airport, with the thing you walk through and the thing for our bags. Also, people with Timberland and Sketchers shoes had to take them off to be searched. (I have no idea) So I walked through the thing, and waited for my backpack. They stopped the moving thing at my bag. Gulp. They kept it stopped. Now, lets get one thing straight - I did NOT intend to stab someone with those scissors. Seriously. They were in my pencil case which I brought because we needed to write something on the worksheet. But apparently they thought I intended to stab someone with them (they were blunt scissors anyway!!!) so I had to open my backpack and give it to them. And they still have them! My harmless blunt scissors have been stolen!!!!!! If for some reason my lack of scissors gets me a bad grade before I get new ones then I'm suing whoever the people are who run the ferry going to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

So anyway, luckily the boat was there and me and the class got on (me scissorless) and it started, and there was a consession stand there so there was lots of junkfood to eat and it was fun and all..... until the birds decided to start attacking us. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an overexageration, and some of the kids WERE feeding the birds. But still, they started flying alongside the boat and flying over us. Everybody pulled up their hoods afraid of being..... well, you get the point. Those who didn't have hoods just screamed. (Solon was the loudest) Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad. But they WERE swooping very close to us, and those sea gulls were scary. Boy, I should have brought my camera.

Anyway, we got to Ellis Island without any.... accidents and did the whole thing. I have to say it was cool and all, but I had gone in 5th grade, and we only had like an hour there (not 2 1/2 hours as planned) because of the super long line and super long subway ride. So that was that and that was the most boring part of the trip, actually.

Then it came time to get back onto the 1:30 ferry. About half of the class was there to get one and 1:20, and the other half was there by 1:25. And they wouldn't let us on. They said that there were to many of us. Ms. Burnett, well - she said something like this: "What are you talking about? The ferry we took here was 4 times as full as this one! Come one, these kids need to get home! Their parents are waiting for them!!! Just let us on, there's room! We were here on time!" The guys in charge of the ferry just said sorry can't do it kind of stuff and the ferry started to take off. Ms. Burnett went on: "Hey! This isn't right! These kid have to get home! We were here on time! There's plenty room! Don't ignore me! You just know that I'm right and your wrong!!!!!!" So the ferry took off and Ms. Burnett turned to the class, "I want all of you who have a cell phone to call your parents and tell them you'll be late, and that they should call the ferry service and complain! It's unlawful what they did!" So we just sat there talking, feeding the pidgeons, eating our lunch, etc. till 2:00 when the next ferry was supposed to leave. Marlin kept saying the the birds "Take me to your leader" and the birds opened there little disgusting mouths, and it was all red and they looked like they might bite him.

Then someone's cell phone rings. "Hey - Ms. Burnett, Felix and Lizzie were on that ferry!" Ms. Burnett takes the phone and give Felix and Lizzie directions about how to not talk to anyone and sit on a bench and WAIT FOR THEM and dont' do anything.

So the ferry came, no accidents happened including birds, Felix and Lizzie were sitting on the bench waiting for the ferry, and the train was pretty much empty on the way back, so we all could fit in one car on the way back. We got off the subway just as kids from school were gettting on to go home, so overall we weren't THAT late. So, quite and exciting day, especially for missing school. But I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to write an essay about Ellis Island because it really was pretty boring compared to Ms. Burnett screaming.

13th Birthday!

2005-10-24T16:49:00.000-04:00

Okay, Sunday afternoon after the SHSAT (Specialized High School Admissions Test) me and my parents got home and they gave me presents!!! Only two, but so far, here's the list. (Updated everytime I get a new present!)

Present: The iPod Nano
From: Mom, Dad, Elo, Andrew, Vance, Lulu, Warren, and Alex
About: It's ONLY like the smallest iPod EVER!!! It's SUPER thin, AMAZINGLY SMALL, 4GB (a gigabyte is 1,000 megabytes and one minute of a song takes about one megabyte) so that means that it's about 1,000 4-minute songs!!! I currently have a bit more than 500 in my iTunes library (but some are like 20 min. long - don't ask) and there are podcasts (online independent radio show things) and it's SOOO small, and unlike the previous iPod Mini that it replaced, it's literally like the size of a credit card, and so small, and full color screen, and the coolest cell phone looks HUGE compared to it, and it's SOOOOO cool, and it's even smaller than it looks like in the picture below and THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!

Present: Lost Season 1 on DVD
From: Grandma and Grandpa
About: It's ONLY like the best tv show ever - and it's the entire first season on DVD - 7 discs!!! All 25 episodes of the best tv show ever!!! What could be better??? It has 6 discs, about 4 episodes on each disc and then a bonus disc with bloopers, special features, making ofs and many other just plain awesome things about LOST!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!UPDATE: And now, on Monday, my actual birthday I just got 3 more presents!!!

Present: Star Wars: A New Hope Soundtrack (that's episode 4)
From: Mom and Dad
About: It's only, like the second highest grossing film of all time!!!! I've been wanting this for a while, and I'm uploading it to itunes now, and then to my iPod Nano!!! More music! It's great! It's a 2-disc set and awesome, and the music is classic! THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!

Present: Firefly TV Series Complete DVD
From: Mom and Dad
About: It's ONLY........ well, actually I never had really heard of it before today, but it looks kinda like Star Wars and Star Trek - at least that's what I hear. I have yet to watch it, but it looks pretty interesting! THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!
Present: Choice of iPod Nano case from Apple.com Store
From: Mom and Dad
About: It's ONLY that the iPod Nano gets scratched pretty easily, so a case could really help make sure that I don't get them! It's supposed to ship in 1-2 weeks, so it'll be a while, and I've already ordered it, so I'm trying not to get it to scratched, though there are a few, and you can barely touch it without fingerprinting it, so if you hodl it up to some bright light it's ugly, but there are a few things that you can fix it with if it gets too bad. Still, THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!! (Sorry about the pixelated picture, but I couldn't find anything better. And that's the iPod Nano with the case)

That's it! It's now 8:52 PM on Monday October 24th, 2005 and it's time to get off of the computer, so I guess that I'll have to go. See ya!

Q&A With Austen!!!

2005-10-22T19:23:00.000-04:00

This was actually created for Netsua, but I thought that I'd post it anyway:

What's your name?
Well, for one thing my name is Austen S. No, I'm not going to tell you my last name because you could be a hacker, and you could find my social security number, pretend to be me, hack into this website and completely mess up my life.

What's your FULL name?
I already told you that I'm not telling you. Why are you people so persistent? Just leave me alone.

Why did you make this website?
As I said on the main page, I made it so I could show the world my photography, filmaking, computer, and just plain funny talents. READ THE WHOLE SITE!

What's your favorite movie?
Definitely not Star Wars.... Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was probably the most awesome and just plain cool movie ever!!! I don't care if you don't agree with me!!! I don't care if you think I'm a Star Wars geek and that I don't have a life!!!

Good point, you don't have a life
Oh yeah - it's not like you have a life - you sit saying people are stupid all day!

What's wrong with that? People ARE stupid.
Yeah, but you even think that the people who didn't vote for Bush are stupid!

Okay, forget that. Which do you prefer, Macs or PCs?
God, I HATE that question. I think Macs are cool - the newer ones have nice designs. NO I don't have one, I have a Windows XP, and if you want to buy me a new computer that's a Mac, then go ahead, but I don't need one, PCs are fine.

You didn't answer my question.
To tell you the truth, I don't care.

I can't believe you DON'T HAVE A MAC!!! Next you're going to tell me that you don't even have an iPod!
Um.... sorry dude, not yet, though my birthday is in two days, and that Nano looks pretty nice.

YOU DON'T HAVE AN IPOD??? What DO you spend your money on?
Um...... Well, I sometimes get a pack of Skittles after school when I'm waiting for the bus, and I buy songs on iTunes sometimes...

Wait - let me get this straight, you have iTunes, but not an iPod???
Um, yeah. Is something wrong with that?

ITUNES WAS CREATED FOR THE IPOD!!!
So? Rubberbands were created for keeping things together. I use them for flicking bullies in the nose.

How old ARE you anyway?
I'm 13. And how old are you? 6?

Just add on about 10 years.
So, you're 3 years older than me. I'll live 3 years longer than you, which means 3 more years of technolodgy and cool stuff. (That is, if Osama and his friends don't drop a bomb on NYC and miscalculate so that they blow up the entire world by then.)

Actually, 3 years is so small it won't make a diff-
SHUT UP!!!! I hear that enough from my parents! Now, do you have any other RELEVANT questions to ask me?

Yeah, what's your report card average?
90.5 for your info.... oh, and it's an honors program that I go to, by the way. Where do you go? School of the Idiots?

Actually, it's the "School of Idiotic People"
Um..... okay.... SECURITY!!!! SECURITY!!! Get this Idiotic Person outa here.

You can't drag me out, it's cyberspace!
Oh, you just wait...... I have my ways.....

THE END

High Scool Tours!!!

2005-10-20T20:59:00.000-04:00

Well, I've been to many high schools over the past few weeks including:
Brooklyn Tech
Bronx Science
Beacon
Millenium

Sooooooo sorry I haven't been posting! More coming soon though! I've been busy! My birthday is MONDAY!!!! YAY!!! Only 4 M O R E D A Y S ! ! ! And there's the one-man star wars show with Aaron on saturday to celebrate my birthday! And then the Specialized High School test Sunday. (Bad)

Oh, and a french test on tuesday. (Can't wait!)

France Pictures on Netsua

2005-10-14T16:53:00.000-04:00

I just finished adding them.

Um... yeah that's all. bye. (for now... sorry but I'm busy!)

I'm sick and missing school

2005-10-12T11:47:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I woke up tuesday morning - well - I was sick. I just couldn't get comfortable, and my whole body felt "achy" if that's even a word. (I seriously don't care if it's not) So I had a fever at about 101 degrees. YES!!!!!! No school!

So I sat around all day, watched I, Robot on tv, great movie actually. The robots look amazing for being all-digital. Then at the end of the day I was feeling okay, so I went to the Beacon High School Tour. I REALLY wanna go there, it really seems perfect for me. Just like Mr. Barton's Film class did, and I'm enjoying it! Oh, and I did do some homework, I called up Ryan and he told me that for humanities (that's English and History combined) we had to copy the entire Gettysburg Address. In script. Oh boy, what fun.

So my fever was a bit below 100 degrees today, but I'm still not going to school so I'm just sitting around. I watched Men in Black this morning. Not bad, but kinda weird. (A lot of Will Smith these past two days)

Actually, because of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kipur, Columbus Day, and me being sick (as long as I got to school on friday) I've only gone to school 4 of the past 14 days!!! Awesome!

I'll post tommorow, hopefully with Lulu's birthday party pics.

Famous!

2005-10-10T16:11:00.000-04:00

For our (That's Aaron too) first episode of The Teen Tech Buzz Podcast we interviewed Cyrus Farivar who's the assitant editor of Macworld Magazine and who does most of the internet stuff. Lots of fun. You can download the episode here. He wrote an article about podcasting on MacWorld.com and here's the last paragraph:

This weekend I was interviewed for a new podcast called the Teen Tech Buzz, produced by a couple of 13-year-olds from New York City. They produced a trailer with GarageBand and quickly set up their accompanying blog and RSS feed very easily. Will they become the next Dawn and Drew? Who knows, but they’re having fun, and that’s all that really matters.

Read to full article here.
Yipee!!! Publicity..... MONEY..... FAME...... COOL STUFF...... okay, maybe that's a bit overboard but I'm glad that he mentioned us.

And one note: Aaron actually edited the trailer (and first episode) in GarageBand, not me. Just gotta give credit where it's due.

Aboard Air Force One...

2005-10-10T14:11:00.000-04:00

The President, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney are flying onboard Air Force One.

George looks at Rumsfeld, chuckles, and says, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out the window right now and make somebody very happy."

Rumsfeld shrugs his shoulders and says, "Well, I could throw ten $100 bills out the window and make 10 people very happy."

Cheney says, "Of course, then I could throw one hundred $10 bills out the window and make a hundred people very happy."

The pilot rolls his eyes, looks at all of them, and says to his co-pilot, "Such big shots back there . . . I could throw all three of them out the window and make six billion people very, VERY happy."

Lulu's Birthday

2005-10-09T09:00:00.000-04:00

Lulu was born one year ago today! And at 1:00 we're all going to Patsy's (great pizza place) to celebrate! Pictures coming tonight or tommorow morning.

New Cell Phone!

2005-10-09T08:26:00.000-04:00

Well... kind of.... new.... okay FINE! Mom got a new phone (at left) and said "Hey Austen, since you dropped your phone last week and it hasn't been working at all since, I'll give you my old one!" I was fine with that because it was a pretty nice color phone (at right) but of course it has no camera.

Oh well, it's still really awesome that it's color, and I'm downloading pictures I took (for money) onto it and making them my desktop and it's alot of fun.

P.S. Aaorn reads this blog, so just so you know Aaron - I HAVE A BETTER PHONE THAN YOU!!! I know that was really really mean but hey I'm sorry, but I do. But I don't think you even care - I doubt you still haven't got that message that I left you in Six Flags last year....

Movie Review: Little Manhattan

2005-10-09T08:13:00.000-04:00

Little Manhattan is a little movie that takes place in Manhattan (Big surprise!) It's ONLY playing in New York City as of now - so HA!

Anyway, it literally takes place on our front corner. The kids in the movie go to P.S. 87 Elementary School (5th Grade) which is right across the street from my house and where I used to go to school. It's about the little boy's (okay fine, he's only 12 days older than me right now, but in the movie he was young) first love and all of that stuff. It's really fun to watch because it takes place in MY neighborhood, in MY (old) school, in MY MOM'S Central Park.

If you're in New York City you should really see it. It's funny, but not over the top, and it has some nice music and occasional funny special effects like.... well I can't explain it. But it got some pretty good reviews, so it'll probably be coming out in the rest of the country sometimes soon.

Oh, and on a side note - the theater we were watching the movie in was shown IN the movie for a split second. AND the restraunt they go to in the end was 2 blocks from the theater. It's really cool that it was all so close.

Overall rating:
8.8/10

Template Change

2005-10-09T08:10:00.000-04:00

I've changed the template because on the last one no one cold post comments.

I mean, what's the point of the a blog if you don't get any feedback?

That's all for now. Let me know if you have any other problems.

The 2 funniest pictures EVER!

2005-10-05T18:21:00.000-04:00

A picture is worth a thousand words - but these are worth 2000 each!!!!!!!!

The Teen Tech Buzz Teaser

2005-09-27T20:51:00.000-04:00

The teaser is up! Just go to http://teentechbuzz.blogspot.com/ to download it. We got it hosted on Aaron's idisk account, it's just a teaser for the podcast.

The first episode will be up sometime next weekend. That's about all for now, except for the fact that life has been pretty busy with school, homework, test prep etc. (gee........ notice how all 3 are SOMEHOW related to school?) but I'm trying to post every day!!!

422 songs on itunes and counting - YAY!!!

New template

2005-09-26T18:45:00.000-04:00

You may have noticed the new template. If you have, good job - you win a prize! If you haven't, open your eyes and actually care about life!

With that said, yes, I got a new template for the blog. I also added links to:

So yeah, I made some changes, and it looks pretty cool. And of course I also changed my picture. The last one was boring, but I think that this one (to the right, see the watermelon?) really.......um........ EXPRESSES me. Hey - I like watermelon!

Movie Review: Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window"

2005-09-24T18:15:00.000-04:00

I saw "Rear Window" about a week after I saw "The Birds". It wasn't as exciting as the birds, but still a good movie.

I think that it was great how you followed each of the neighbors along with the main character. The set was GREAT, although it was quite a bit boring at times staying in the same room for the whole entire movie. Still, the ending was suspenseful, exciting, and fun though it took a while to get there for the begginning.
I mean, like half the movie happened before they got to the plot. So it wasn't exactly as exciting as the other Hitchcock films, but it was still a great film that kept you guessing what would happen next.

Overall, it wasn't as exciting as some of the other Hitchcock films, it was a very interesting piece of work and a great accomplishment in set design:
8.2/10

Podcast!

2005-09-23T20:13:00.000-04:00

Aaron and I are setting up a podcast that is called "Teen Tech Buzz"
The first episode SHOULD be up by next sunday or so. It stars me and aaron and we talk about - well - iPods, computers, cellphones, gadgets... all of those fancy things.

Here's the logo/album art thingy that I made for it:

Each episode should be about 20 min. long (it has to be pretty long if your reading this aaron) and it will come out weekly. You can get it on itunes OR this blog:

http://teentechbuzz.blogspot.com

It's going to be fun! That's all for now. I saw "Rear Window" by Alfred Hitchcock the other day. I'll post a review soon.

Movie Review: Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds"

2005-09-23T17:48:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'm going to make up for my week or two of not posting, so here goes:

About two weeks ago I saw "The Birds"! Great movie, my favorite Hitchcock yet. Many people say that the birds looked fake, but I think that they looked great. Especially for back then. It was really well done, how the attacks just got worse and worse. And the sound effects were great. The way it sounded when the birds were attacking the house........ GREAT scene.

What I did miss was the absense of music. It was just so........ quiet. Even when they showed a dead man and did the zoom all choppy... like closer each shot - there was no MUSIC! It was seriously weird.

But besides that it was great, and the way the bird attack led to the chaos in the town with all of the fire and everything was great. Still, then ending really wasn't that great..... I mean I know there couldn't be much of an ending, but still - all they did was leave the house to go to San Francisco. I mean - big deal.

Overall, I loved this movie, except for its few flaws:
8.7/10

School!!!

2005-09-16T07:12:00.000-04:00

It has now officially been 6 full days of school!

But there's one thing that is better than all othters......

You see, the BEST teacher in the school, Mr. Barton is doing a film class to replace the drama class. Of course everyone wanted to do it JUST because of Mr. Barton not the film part. Well I got in!!!

But...... Aaron didn't get in. I wish he had.
Still, in the class we're basically going to watch movies and then make them! Cool!!!!!!!!!

Also, I have Stuyvesant (best school in the city) and other specialized high school test prep. It's a BIG test, and although I would rather go to Beacon (not a speacilized high school) but just in case I'm taking the test (like aaron) just because everyone else is........ BUT:
It's the same day as the weekend before my birthday..... the day that I'm seeing the ONE MAN STAR WARS SHOW with aaron! But it's in the morning luckily. And the good thing is there probably won't be much hw that weekend at all!!!!!!!!!

I can't wait till monday for the next film class!!!

I also can't wait for Lulu's birthday on October 9th!
I also can't wait for my birthday on October 24th!
I also can't wait for Christmas!!!!!

But I can wait for the rest of the school year.......

Updated Netsua

2005-09-12T21:00:00.000-04:00

I've been updating Netsua over the past few days. Instead of linking to my blog now there's a game section. It's still under construction and many of the links just take you back home but I'm working on it daily. I've also been updating the news and have been doing a lot of new things. Just to tell you.

I saw "The Birds" last night by Hitchcock. I'll probably talk about it more tommorow. I've got to watch the special features now!

First 2 days of school

2005-09-10T20:38:00.000-04:00

Okay, here's the long, in-depth post that you've been waiting for. School has been pretty good so far!
That is, there hasn't been any homework yet.
When we came in for homeroom/humanities for the first day with Ms. Burnett all of the chairs and tables were piled upside down and crazy with different-colored strings tied all around them. Apparently we had to break up into groups and get one color string of as fast as we could without breaking it. It was pretty fun for doing teamwork and everything.

When we went in for Math Mr. Gotel (the math teacher) he gave a sort of speech of what he expects from us and that if we do the work then the Math A Regions big huge test thing at the end of 8th grade would be easy. Then he remarked that he had took the bus last year and "knew the deal" and that what many kids did started with a "C". It just so happens that I take that bus and you might say that some kids ask for help from other kids with their math homework on the way to school. At the end of his speech a few kids clapped and said that it was a very good speech.

Then there was Science with Ms. Nowak. The first thing we did was learn all about the nature of hurricanes. All about them from drafts of cool air in Africa the devestating the United States. Apparently Hurricane Katrina had an eye that was about 40 miles in diameter........................ ANYWAY...............

Next we had health and guess what we talke about? Hurricane Katrina and the diseases that spread through the water and all of that bad stuff. My brain is hurting now...... lets talk about something more interesting:

Well..... I finally convinced my Mom to create and account on iTunes. Now I can download songs from the biggest music store on the internet. Pretty cool if you think about it. There are also podcasts which are awesome. Grandma and Grandpa, click on the word "podcasts" to find out what it means.

And last but not least....... An incredibly addictive yet stupid game:
XWAP
Mom is ADDICTED to it. I mean seriously... half the time she's doing this instead of work..... and it is fun, so give it a try!

Battle of the Heroes and more Bush

2005-09-07T20:41:00.000-04:00

Okay, first off for today I want to show you all a really great theme by John Williams from the Star Wars Episode III soundtrack. It's called "Battle of the Heroes". Great song - John Williams is a genious. You can listen to it here. I don't know about you but I really love it.

Anyway, I've done another one of the bush face-morphing things, this time it's lord of the rings instead of star wars. I'm thinking of doing Harry Potter soon..... Anyway, here's both of them:

(Click on them for larger versions)

Anyway, (Third time I've said that in the post) I know have 240 songs. YAY!!!

School's tommorow. can't wait. no really I can't wait. It's going to be exciting the first day...... we probably won't get any homework. And it all goes downhill after that. And then it goes uphill - BIRTHDAY!!!!

BIRTHDAY LIST UPDATE

2005-09-07T17:16:00.000-04:00

The iPod Mini seems to have been replaced or something like that with the iPod NANO!!!

So THAT'S what I want instead of an ipod mini - oh and the 4GB, NOT the 2GB. And it should probably be in white, not black

not that any of you HAVE to get this for me but just so people know for the birthday list

Birthday list and new pics I created

2005-09-06T21:05:00.000-04:00

Alright, first off here it is.......... the thing you've all been waiting for................................
BIRTHDAY LIST!!!!
Must get:
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith DVD (widescreen version) (speak with Mom and Dad first)
Lost: The Complete First Season on DVD (It's ONLY my favorite tv show!!! (And it has deleted scenes!!!)
iPod Mini (should probably share between many people) (silver color)
Star Wars Battlefront II (The original was great......... this looks even better!)

Should have:
Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope Soundtrack (Don't get the episodes confused!!!)
Star Wars: Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back Soundtrack (If I get both episodes 4 and 5 I have every movie soundtrack!!!)
Headphones (Not the big fancy kind, but the simple kind that isn't too expensive but not to cheap either)

Wouldn't mind:
Oh, I don't know......... talk to Mom and Dad they'll have some ideas.

You see? Not too much. Yeah they're big presents...... but hey.

ANYWAY........... I just did this picture. It's really bad but I'll post it anyway:

Yeah, originally it was supposed to look cool...... the flowers getting smaller and everything but it didn't turn out too good. I need practice.

This came out a bit better though:

It took a while to do this. It's based off of Obi-Wan's "Only a Sith deals in absolutes" in Star Wars Episode III. And George does and all... so I put Cheney inside Darth Vader's helmet and combined George W. Bush's face with palpatine's (he has a BIG chin!) and then I put in the second death star and the background!!! And yeah sure OF COURSE they're there to help you..... help you kill yourself.

That's all for now... Mom's screaming at me!

Pictures from Maine!

2005-09-06T11:04:00.000-04:00

I've put up 12 pictures from our trip to Maine on Netsua here.which I must say was a great trip. The food was great...... the weather was great for the second part of the week - I had a great time!

There is one picture...... of Mom when she's combing her hair...... it sticks up everywhere and her face is SOOO funny.

Too bad that I can't show it to you guys because she FORBIDS IT. But I think that the description will do!

Maine

2005-09-04T19:23:00.000-04:00

We have just returned! I'll have some pictures up on Netsua as soon as I can.

It was a GREAT trip!! That's all for now!

Sleepy Vance and the birthday party!

2005-08-24T18:28:00.000-04:00

Okay, first off so I don't get anyone confused:
I DID NOT TAKE THESE PICTURES. WARREN SALTZ TOOK THEM.
But they are the most CUTEST pictures. Vance and me took a few rests during Warren, Alex, and Elo's birthday party last weekend, and these pictures are SOOOO cute! (Oh, and mom is in one of them too)
Click on the pictures for larger versions.

But anyway it was a great party! I should have a movie up soon along with pictures on Netsua. There was food, fruit, food, cheese and so much good stuff! Okay, I'll stop now.

Balloon Popping Movie!

2005-08-23T20:50:00.000-04:00

Here's a really short and stupid movie that I made tonight. (With Mom's most HELPFUL and also UNHELPFUL help)

It's really short and stupid so don't bother downloading it, but what else do you have to do, sit listening to your boss saying that your company WILL become the best in the industry for the umpteenth time? So I guess that it wouldn't really matter if you downloaded it because of that and you want to do it before you die don't you? I mean - it's a big thing!

Oh whatever, here's the link:
Click on me!!!

iTunes, Podcasting, and Maine!

2005-08-21T20:36:00.000-04:00

I just got iTunes for windows today! It's really awesome and I've gotten a lot of podcasts including TheForce.net podcast (star wars), ABC News (news), Ebert and Roeper (movies), and MuggleCast (Harry Potter) and they're all great!

Just so you know, podcast is a method of publishing audio broadcasts via the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed of new files (usually MP3s). It became popular in late 2004, largely due to automatic downloading of audio onto portable players or personal computers. (Wikipedia)

So it's very fun and cool and Aaron and I may make a podcast soon!

Also, we go to Maine on friday! YAY!

Google Earth

2005-08-15T18:09:00.000-04:00

Google Earth is perhaps one of the most coolest, funnest, awesomest, hi-qualitiest programs EVER!!! It's basically the entire world inside your computer. You can zoom in and out, change the angle for a 3D view... find all of the restraunts, hospitals, schools.... EVERYTHING in a 3D world!

everest, see the grand canyon, your aunt and uncle's house, yourIt is SOOO awesome! You can go and see your house, see mount grandparent's house...... and bookmark all of these places!! Take a look at the screenshots, and click on them for a larger view.

It's just...... so cool. And it's from google. It's about a 200 mb download and you need a 3d graphics card.... and it has to be WINDOWS xp or 2000 - no macs. (poooooor aaron)

Oh yeah.... the link:
http://earth.google.com/

Download it! It is SOOO worth it!

148 Songs!

2005-08-15T18:03:00.000-04:00

I now have 148 songs in my windows media player library. Many of them I have taken from CDs that I have, and some of them I downloaded from Microsoft's online store.

You can buy one song for 99 cents there, and an album for about the same price as you would buy it in stores. It's kind of like the new generation of buying CDs, but you can buy individual songs and make as many copies as you want. Oh - yes it IS legal. I'm afraid I only have 148 songs though. You think that's a lot? Take a look at Aaron's library - 720 songs. But that's on itunes, which is the mac version.... I won't get into it.

Anyway, it's on windows media player 10 and I'm having fun downloading and listening to songs.

Oh, and grandpa.... Who's the silliest?

Movie business

2005-08-15T09:05:00.000-04:00

Aaron and I have decided to halt the airplane movie TEMPORARILY. We started filiming it and got a bit through, but now we have decided to re-do Crusader into one big film, new scenes, slightly different story and so on and so forth. Aaron and I have just finished the script, and we will soon start filming. That's all for now!

Netsua.com movies

2005-08-08T20:35:00.000-04:00

I've now pointed the domain name netsua.com to the new website. So far it has 3 picture galleries, two stories a bunch of links and 20 movies to download including Crusader, Die-Hard Matt, The Gates, 5 lightsaber movies, Aaron's Bar Mitzvah, and Vance's second birthday party!
And each file dowload is below 10 MB!!!

Sorry, it's .wmv (windows media player required)

Remember, Netsua.com

Flash animation I did

2005-08-08T16:43:00.000-04:00

Watch my flash animation from camp!

that's all for now! Bye!

Peter Jennings Died

2005-08-08T08:40:00.000-04:00

Peter Jennings died last night! It's really sad, and I'll really miss him every night at 6:30. 3 months ago he announced that he had lung cancer, and now he's died from it.

He smoked for a while and over september 11th, so I know that I'm NEVER going to smoke!

Monty Python's the Search for the Holy Grail

2005-08-08T07:13:00.000-04:00

I just saw it last night and it was GREAT! Better than the Life of Brian although I have to say that the ending of Life of Brian was a bit funnier than the ending of the Holy Grail. Like the Monty Python tv series, it was completely random. How they think up of those things I have no idea. But they are hilarious.

I think that the movies are WAY better than the skits. Not that the skits are bad, but the movie is just more outrageously funny. My favorite scene from the Holy Grail is the black night scene where King Arthur fights the Black Night where King Arthur cut off both of his arms and legs, and then he threatened to bite Arthur.

Still, you can't beat the ending of Life of Brian when the main character is about to be crucified and he's sitting on a cross waiting to starve to death. Then you see Eric Idol behind him and he says. "Look, on the bright side pal. It's not that bad. Because you know what they say...... Always look on the bright side of life do du do du du du do du du! Always look on the bright side of life do du do du du du do du du!
If life seems jolly rotten,
There's something you've forgotten...............
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.

Crusader on Netsua!

2005-08-07T18:09:00.000-04:00

I've put all 5 Crusader movies along with the star wars-like intro on Netsua! Take a look here.

Florida pictures and new website

2005-08-06T08:35:00.000-04:00

Check out the Florida pictures here.

And check out the rest of the site here.

Going to Florida!

2005-07-29T14:08:00.000-04:00

Well, we need to leave for the airport in about 20 minutes!

I'll try to post a few times when I'm there, but I'm going and bringing my video camera and I'll make a great movie!

See you!

Funny pic

2005-07-23T20:12:00.000-04:00

Click on it to see a larger version!

Summer fun!

2005-07-22T20:53:00.000-04:00

Wow! It's been a long time since I've posted! I've just been SOOOOO busy with camp and all.

So Creative Arts (my new camp that Aaron recomended) has been SOOOO much fun! I take two movie classes and we are making great movies! And yes it IS advanced enough. Also, I'm taking an animated cartoons class, fencing, and a british acting class! It's SOOOO much fun!

Anyway, one more week and it's over but I'm going to Florida to see Uncle Bob, Aunt Linda, Gina, Grandma, Grandpa (basically, YOU) and I'm (of course) bringing my video camera along!

That's it for now! Bye!

Movie Review: War of the Worlds

2005-07-11T06:56:00.000-04:00

War of the Worlds is not a kids movie (OOOOPPPPSSS!!!!) but it is very well done. It is by Steven Spielberg who, as far as I know, has never gone wrong in making a movie. Anyway, the story starts out with Ray, the main character (Tom Cruise) living his normal life in a suburban New Jersey under a highway. It's that time when the sun is about to set, and he's playing baseball with his son. He and his wife are divorced, and he has to take care of the kids.
Then theres a lightning storm and lightning hits in the same place a few blocks away dozens of times. People from around the area go to see what had happened, Ray also. A huge spider-robot monster thingy comes out and starts zapping people. Okay, okay - this sounds a little babyish, so I'll just tell you that this is on the higher side of PG-13, meaning that it is closer to R than to PG.
The movie is scary, but dazzling, and the special effects are awesome. Just go and see it if you think you can handle it!

Story: 9/10
Acting/Dialogue: 8.8/10
Visual Effects (If any): 9/10
Overall: 8.93/10

Movie Review: The Fantastic Four

2005-07-11T06:47:00.000-04:00

Unlike Spiderman and the other superhero movies, The Fantastic Four main plot isn't about saving the city, but trying to get back to their normal selves. The beginning of the movie is fast paced, and aobut 10-15 minutes in they have already been exposed to the storm. The movie is more about how "The Thing" or Ben can handle his power; he is a huge monster, and he can't even pick up a ring from the ground because his fingers are too big.
But Johnny Storm, who got the best can catch on fire and fly. He's kind of the guy who gets all the publicity - he likes it. Most of the movie is about inner conflicts and conflicts BETWEEN the fantastic four.
But then there was another man on the craft who's company was ruined by accident by the Fantastic Four. So he's basically the bad guy and theres a huge fight in the end and then it's over.
The movie isn't great, but it's worth seeing.

Story: 7.5/10
Acting/Dialogue: 8.2/10
Visual Effects (If any): 7.8/10
Overall:7.83/10

The Trip Upstate

2005-07-04T20:29:00.000-04:00

We just took a trip upstate this weekend! I'm currently working on the movie that I took with my BRAND NEW VIDEO CAMERA (!!!!!!!!!!) that is really cool! Meanwhile, here are some pictures that (okay, okay) my mom took:

Me and Mr. Vancy Pants (I DON'T CARE ABOUT GRAMMAR ANY MORE!!! IT'S SUMMER!!!) ride on the spinny thingy that makes you dizzy whizzy.

Here's a picture of Lulu and Andrews face from the nose down. Lulu pulled my hair today, and it REALLY hurt!!!

And on the way home we ate at no other than McDonalds with the world-wide infamous Ronald McDonald!!! (Just saying his name makes me feel dizzy!)

Yawning

2005-06-30T08:43:00.000-04:00

Yawn...... Yawn...... Yawn......

Guess what? It's contagous?
Just think about yawning and you'll start yawning. Then yawn near someone else and soon they'll start yawning too!!! It's contagous!!!

YYYYYAAAAAWWWWNNNNNN................

Video Camera!!!!!!!

2005-06-29T07:51:00.000-04:00

Schools out!
And we got our report cards! And guess who got a 90.5 average??? ME!!!
90 in English
90 in History
90 in Science
92 in Math

And since my parents and I made a deal that if I got a 90 average or above, I get a video camera........ I'm going to get one!!!!

So I've been searching around. I want a camcorder that's about $400 and is small, with a fairly large optical zoom, good quality video, you can take like 1 megapixel pictures with it.... kind of like my friend Aaron's, but newer and better. Preferably by Sony. I think that Uncle Bob is the only one that has read this far :-)

So I have kind of narrowed it down to two cameras: The Sony Handycam DCR-HC32 and the Sony DCR-HC21.
There's a page that compares them HERE.
I hope that I can choose, but I'm DEFINITELY leaning toward the HC21 mostly because it's cheaper, and the HC32 produces noise in the pictures. But then again, the reviews for the HC21 say that it's hard to transfer the video to the computer which is what I want to do. So........

Uncle Bob, I guess that this is mostly directed at you, but if anyone else wants to help, they are free to.

2005-06-25T16:43:00.000-04:00

Cool! Now I can call from my cell phone!

2005-06-24T20:37:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Uncle Bob for telling me about audioblogger.com!

Oh yeah, what it is: It's a really cool thing where you can post messages on your phone on your blog! Cool, huh? Well click the button below to here me talking and rambling!

Did I mention that it's free?

No school, Yes movies

2005-06-22T20:38:00.000-04:00

I know that I haven't been posting much lately, but I've had some unexpected homework in the past week. But after tommorow's Civil War test I'll post some more and then school will be over and I'll post A LOT!!! And maybe finish up some old projects including finishing the script for Plane Crash and MAYBE (Aaron's words. I need to get him to sign something saying that he won't lose intrest in the middle of making the movie.......) start filming this weekend!

I only have one more

2005-06-21T07:59:00.000-04:00

I only have one more week of school left. And then it's summer! yaaaaay!!!

Alien Takeover - My game!

2005-06-18T09:40:00.000-04:00

Click Here to download it!

It's about 4.4 MB, and a game that I made with the program Game Maker

The username is "swruler" and the password is "rulersw"

HE DIDN'T KNOW???

2005-06-15T07:33:00.000-04:00

I saw episode 3 for the 4th time this weekend with alex and warren. And when palpatine first called Anakin Darth Vader, Warren was like "WHAT???" And I was like "You didn't know that he became darth vader???"

I know the the grandparents probably don't know either (I doubt they know who anakin skywalker is) but with WARREN, who was the PERFECT age for the original star wars movies!!!!

AHHHHH!!!!!! Oh well. He knows now.

Lego Movie

2005-06-12T18:11:00.000-04:00

As the title says:
Clicky, clicky, not a tricky

It's .wmv format, so you need windows media player to download it, which most macs don't have. :-(

It's 3.37 megs AND great quality!

Enjoy!

Alexander Hamilton Essay

2005-06-08T19:49:00.000-04:00

I don't think that I ever posted this one.
I know that I posted the Navidad one, and just recently the Mary Todd Lincoln one, but not this one.

So here it is:
Clicky, clicky, not a tricky

Oh, and to Mr. X: Thank you very much! I hope that you like this essay too.

The Answer

2005-06-08T17:53:00.000-04:00

Okay, for those who didn't get the link thing yesterday:
Go to the page and press ctrl A.

There it is! All I did was put the text in white!

Look for more secret messages like that in the future, only I won't tell you about them! They may be in a bit of text that doesn't look like a link or something or whatever.... I may even put secret images on my blog anyway, so look all of the time!

No, there isn't one now though

Wanna read my research paper?

2005-06-07T18:29:00.000-04:00

You can!
It's supposed to be a Civil War paper, and I did mine about Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of a man that you probably never heard of, so I won't say his name.

Anyway, I'll tell you the grade that I get when I get it back (IF I ever get it back)

Okay, here's the link:
Clicky, clicky, not a tricky
(Seriously)

So yeah, when you first get there you'll see my title page and then scroll down, read the paper, read my little note at the end, and marvel that my digital signature that I made all by myself!

Oh, and go to this link to see a message I have for some of you smart people. Can't see it? Oh..... look harder!

Six Flags Trip!

2005-06-06T20:42:00.000-04:00

We had an end of the year trip at Six Flags amusement park (yes, I can't spell) today!

No, I didn't go on the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world.
But I went on a bunch of other cool ones - okay, I forgot to put on sunblock (he he he) so I'm just a LITTLE sunburned, but it was fun and cool!

Oh yeah, aaron lost the key to the locker where all of our stuff were, so um........... at least it wasn't my fault. Oh yeah - and that was 5 min. before we left to go home, and I sat right next to the bathroom on the bus.......... and it took up the whole day, and there was no school and I won two stuffed animal tigers!!!
YAY!!!

My new site

2005-06-04T11:51:00.000-04:00

Basically I put up top five lists all the time based off of the results - so please vote in the polls whenever there's a new one! Thanks!

http://www.freewebs.com/topfivelists/

Mom's new blog!

2005-06-01T21:12:00.000-04:00

I set up the blog for her, and she took care of some other stuff;
WITH MY HELP

it's not really ready yet, but here it is:

http://deriblog.blogspot.com/

Grandpa has become a Jedi

2005-05-31T18:57:00.000-04:00

I got a black and white picture of grandpa from presby-book.net and colored it (I know that everyone HATES coloring in movies SO much) and added in a lightsaber. Here's the orginal and the photoshopped version:

SW Crossword Puzzle

2005-05-30T06:59:00.000-04:00

Here's my FIRST crossword puzzle!
(Except for that one that I tried when I was like 4 and a half)
Yeah, click on it and print the page.

I hope that you like it!

Jabba the Hutt eats a lot (No REALLY?)

2005-05-29T17:45:00.000-04:00

LOL, I always wondered why he was so fat...

Funny Picture

2005-05-27T19:56:00.000-04:00

I actually took this a long time ago, but - here it is:

Also, I'm SOOOO sorry that I haven't been posting! I am now! It was just that I had a lot of homework this week! SORRY!

Mom saw episode 3

2005-05-21T20:06:00.000-04:00

I FINALLY convinced my mom to take me to see episode 3 again - but she went in not expecting to like it.

And she came out liking it! I was surprised she liked at as she is normally the one who points out "It's all fake!" and "He's such a bad actor!"

Next weekend Dad is probably going to take me and Aaron to see it again!

Episode III - A review by me

2005-05-20T16:33:00.000-04:00

Instead of talking about how this is the end of the great saga and how it completes the circle I’m just going to get to the point: Episode III is the best.

I will try not to give away much of the movie, as not to ruin it so I will be vague.

The movie starts out like any Star Wars movie, with the yellow text crawl star wars logo, then it pans down to a beautiful shot of a Venator (don’t ask) class star destroyer with a beautiful lens flare. Then our heroes appear; Anakin and Obi-Wan flying their Jedi Starfighters followed by ARC-170 starfighters. (I know these names are confusing, but just bear with me.) They are entering the battle of Coruscant, an amazing battle. Of course, the entire space battle is digital, and amazing – it looks SOOO real. Soon they enter the bad guy’s ship and do some fighting with droid. R2-D2 does some heroic things during this scene, beating the battle droids… just being plane funny. Anakin and Obi-Wan make some funny remarks along the way. It’s basically a fun opening sequence with spaceships, lightsaber fights and an evil cyborg.

So they return to Coruscant, and Anakin finds out that Padme (his secret wife) is pregnant. But soon Palpatine, who’s basically the president of the galaxy who is good friends with Anakin reveals that he is a sith lord. (the really evil guys that want to take over the universe – yeah, them.) So Anakin tells Mace Windu, another jedi. And mace windu goes to get palpatine………………… In the end Anakin kills a certain jedi, and Anakin says that he’ll be palpatine’s apprentice – so Anakin has turned bad. The whole fight is amazing.

Now, as not to give away anymore of the movie, I won’t give any spoilers, just how good it was.

So the rest of the movie is SOOOO cool!!! Yoda fights, there’s really sad things……. Obi-Wan and Anakin fight, ah – here’s what I rate each film.

All Star Wars films:

Episode 4 – 8.5/10

Episode 5 – 9/10

Episode 6 – 9.5/10

Episode 1 – 8.5/10

Episode 2 – 9/10

Episode 3 – 10/10

So, it’s really great. And I HHIIGGHHLLYY recommend that you see it.

Most people think that episodes 1 and 2 are bad, not like the original trilogy; well – episode 3 is more like the original trilogy – it’s perfect.

Oh, and here are some pictures from the movie:

1 and a half hours till Episode 3!!!

2005-05-19T16:24:00.000-04:00

Well, this is it. I'm sitting here on my computer with nothing to do. So I'm writing in my blog. I'm waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more. I'll leave in about 30 minutes - I'm getting there an hour early for the DIGITAL screening at 6 - hopefully in the big theater. Aaron and I are seeing it together. I just can't WAIT. It is going to ROCK!!!

If anyone here is interested in seeing star wars: episode 3, I think that I wouldn't mind seeing it more than once!

Well my next entry on this blog will be me going C-R-A-Z-Y about episode 3 - well - it'll be here soon.

1 hour and 25 minutes.... it's already been 5 minutes??? Wow. So if I I make 25 more posts here of this same length then by the time I'm done the movie will be starting! COOL!!!

Okay, my mom says that I need to eat something now, so:

May the Force be with you.

Pictures of a 12 Year Old

2005-05-17T07:05:00.000-04:00

Okay, here's the new website where I'm going to post numerous photo albums!

Pictures of a 12 Year Old

Enjoy!

It's all about Mom and Dad

2005-05-12T20:49:00.000-04:00

Let's see.... Sunday was Mothers Day, yesterday was Dad's birthday, and today is their Aniversary. Yipee. No one is celebrating ME. And since I'm the only one of the three of us that has a blog, TECHNICALLY shouldn't I be the one that gets all the attention and presents????

Oh well. Episode III is coming in exactly 1 week, so that'll be fun.

Dad's Birthday!

2005-05-11T20:17:00.000-04:00

Today was Dad's birthday!

Unfortuanally, I don't have any pictures to show, but there's a birthday party this weekend, so I'll have pictures then!

Happy birthday Dad!

It's a Muuuurderur

2005-05-11T19:51:00.000-04:00

That's my shadow on the right, holding a stick over an unfortunate kid. I took this picture during the camera club afterschool thingy that I do on Wednsdays. This picture was take in Central Park.

And look what that kid can do to his ear!!! EEEEEWW!!!!!!

And with a bit of quick photo-editing - Brand New! Movie-Keys! Play your favorite movies wherever you are!

Psycho

2005-05-11T19:47:00.000-04:00

I saw the classic movie "Pyscho" the other night by Alfred Hitchcock! I really LOVED it! I plan to see other movies by him as time goes by, like North by Northwest.

Yeah, that's all that I really had to say

9 More Days!!!

2005-05-09T20:25:00.000-04:00

Only 9 more days until Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith!
It's rated PG-13, the first star wars movie not to be rated PG which means that it has a lot of very emotional and ACTION-PACKED scenes!

Here are some of the trailers:
Theatrical Trailer
TV Spot 1
TV Spot 2 - Best one!

I can't wait!

Dad when he was young

2005-05-09T17:05:00.000-04:00

I always wondered what Dad looked like when he was younger....

I did it by putting a transparent picture of Warren's face over Dad's... and there you go!

Return to Paris - Part 1

2005-05-08T20:00:00.000-04:00

Here it is! Part 1 of this years paris movie, Return to Paris. Its not much, just footage from the airport and on the airplane... but its the beginning.
CLICK HERE to download it!

More to come!

Hi there! i am writing

2005-05-07T06:54:00.000-04:00

Hi there! i am writing from my cell phone! blogger just got a new way that i can post on my blog! by cellphone! so whenever im on the go i can still post! sure the capitals dont work and it takes a looooong time to post something its worth it!

Paris Journal - so far

2005-05-03T20:44:00.000-04:00

CLICK HERE to view it so far!
Enjoy!

Netsua's Future

2005-05-03T06:11:00.000-04:00

Many of you are aware of my website, Netsua.com Recently, since I have been posting in my blog so much, I haven't had any time or need to update it. I don't want to dispense with it completely though.

Here's the solution:
I will use Netsua.com as a picture website. For instance, pictures from Paris - other things. With different photo galleries. I will link to it on my blog.

Sound like a good idea?

Pictures from Paris!!!

2005-05-02T07:01:00.000-04:00

Unless you've been living under a (REALLY, REALLY BIG) rock for the past week or two. You should know me and my parents (I know, I'm spoiling them bringing them along, right?) went to Paris on a vacation for a week! Now, did I have fun....? Well, first of all you would have to define the word "fun" It could be a shorter name for "funny" or it could be..... alright, alright; here's the link!

CLICK HERE for a page with a bunch of pictures from the trip. I will try to update the page with more pictures as often as possible, so check back for more when you can!

Also, please be aware that these are just pictures. I actually took about as many videos as pictures in Paris, so this really isn't that much. Also, this is not NEARLY all of the pictures that I took. This is just a tiny peak at them. When I finish the movie (Return to Paris is the current name) it will have most of the pictures and videos.

And besides that I'm ALSO doing a 3-6 page report on our trip to Paris about EVERYTHING we did, EVERYWHERE we went, EVE- you get the point. It will all take time though, so hold tight.

Okay, I guess that I've done enough talking now, so just enjoy the pictures, and keep checking as I put more in.

Paris is tommorow...... and I'm Darth Maul!

2005-04-22T20:41:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'll get to Darth Maul at the end;
WE'RE GOING TO PARIS TOMMOROW!!!!!!!!!!
That's really all that I had to say. Oh - and the Darth Maul picture:

Okay, so it's not darth maul, but it's me acting like a monkey with some weird editing on some of my face.

For some refrence, here's darth maul: (A star wars BAD guy)

Raise your hand if you think...

2005-04-18T20:15:00.000-04:00

Raise your hand if you think that this looks like me:


Yeah - it's funny, isn't it? Actually, it's supposed to be Luke from star wars.
Anyway.

The Citywide MATH test is tommorow so tonight we had NOOOOOOO homework again! Yes!!! I practiced a little bit with my mom this afternoon for it on the things that I got wrong last time. I did pretty good, so I'll probably do pretty good on the test.

Oh yeah! And next week we go to PARIS!!! I can't wait! I just got a 256MB card for my camera (I used to have a 128MB card) so I can get more videos and pictures of our exciting trip there! And of course, once I get back I'll make a 10-part movie about it and make a DVD with it on it and you'll ALL see it!

Also, Warren and Alex came over for dinner last night. I showed them Crusader (Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Bob: I will send you the DVD tommorow morning!) and they loved it! Then Warren showed us a video from the seat of a racecar going.... well....... at about 200 mph. Well, I sped that up to about 400mph on the computer, put Warren's voice-over, added some special effects and - well I won't give it away - but it's really funny!

Okay, mom! I'm getting off! So until next time......


Bye!