ZL's Blog

Sorry for cussing and when I mean bitchin', I mean it in a good way. It's nice that Blogging on Neo has finally been implemented. This opens new doors for people, specially the ones that feel like writing, either productively or not.

Unfortunately I have to keep this one short but I'd just like for you guys to know that there will be more coming from me once I figure all this out. Be on the lookout for something new tomorrow. :)

Cheers.
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We were all anticipating this movie since the minute we saw Gordon hand out a Joker card to our Dark Knight. Mostly all of us got online and started gossiping about the release of this movie as soon as we left the theaters from watching Batman Begins. It was a great movie and we couldn't wait to see what Nolan had in store for the next sequel. Well, finally my friends, that time has come.



We all shit our pants on July 18th, 2008. We couldn't believe it! Another masterpiece! It was 100 times better than The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and any other masterpiece put together (except Titanic, that wasn't a masterpiece just some soap in movie form). And like last time, we all got on the internet and bragged about how we saw it on it's opening day and we started talking about the sequel. Would they replace the Joker? Would Catwoman be introduced? What about Robin? Will Johnny Depp play the Riddler? Is Nolan even thinking about a sequel? Argh!

I mean, is he really thinking about a sequel? He already has this amazing masterpiece right? Wrong. As much as I love this movie, it's not quite the masterpiece we all thought it was. Better than it's predecessor, but if we didn't have the amazing hype we had before it's Theatrical Release, we would have noticed a lot of things wrong with this movie.

If you're like me and you need to have this movie as soon as possible then you're probably one of those people that decided to download one of the leaked versions of the movie. I'm sure some of you got the DVD version and are bragging about it at the moment, but really, that release sucks. The quality is horrible and probably doesn't even work on a DVD player, that's why I went with something bigger. The HD versions were leaked about a week ago and I got my hands on one of them. So yes, I'm bragging about me getting The Dark Knight in glorious HD. Suck on that bitches.

Whether you got this illegally or not (impossible, it's not Dec. 9 yet) you'll notice that this movie is ridiculously long. It is really long though? Of course not, it runs for about 145 minutes (that's 2 hours and 25 minutes for some of you) and it's nothing compared to great movies like Pulp Fiction or The Godfather, but why does this movie feel so ridiculously long? I can't honestly answer that though, but I'm thinking it's because there's a lot of *bleep*ing talking. Seriously, I thought that what prequels were for.

But to go around this unnoticed, Nolan used his secret weapon, The Joker. But even this amazing masterpiece has it's own flaws. The main one being that the great actor died. So there goes the secret weapon for the possible sequel to this. Let's not go there for now, let's explore this movie a little.



Unlike most Superhero sequels this one is different. It doesn't start off all boring recapping what happened in the last movie. I mean, who wants to see that shit? If the movie deserves a sequel, chances are it's that great and everyone remembers it the first one. And who else would be dumb enough to watch the sequel without watching its predecessor? So Nolan knowing this he skipped all that boring stuff and brought us pure action at the beginning to hook us under his masterpiece spell.

We see a bank robbery and in minutes we see the evil villain doing his work. This guy is crazy, he's immoral, violent. We love it. It's what any comic crazed person could dream of, a real life version of the Joker. This bastard cares nothing in this world but pure chaos.

After that, we get boring scenes here and there. The only thing that makes up for it are the Joker's amazing screen time. Which is weird, because we get good scenes here, and then we get boring scenes, then we get action again, and we're back to boring. Is this movie teasing us? I thought I already had a girlfriend for that.

But what's worse of this movie is this character here. Try to guess who it is.



No, that's not ET. That's Rachel Dawes played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Seriously, I don't know what happened, did they run out of makeup each day when they put it all over Ledger's face? They must have had some left overs. Seriously. In theaters I saw nothing wrong with her face, maybe it was because I'm blind and can't see too much details from far away or maybe my expectations were met and I was blinded on those scenes. Who knows, but when you finally get this thing for you to pause and zoom in on your own, you find out that this video was telling the truth. Thank god they kill her off in the end (Oops I gave the plot twist away).

Eventually into the amazingness of the movie you finally get to the part where they capture the Joker (Damn!). Don't worry, he gets away but here's the interesting part. They try to identify him. They tried to match finger prints, probably took some of his hair for DNA matches, everything. They even check his clothes for logos to see if they can find out where he bought them and interrogate those sellers. They do all that, but they don't think about taking his make-up off? Seriously, in the comics you can't do that because his face is literally white, doesn't matter how he got that, but it's not *bleep*ing make-up. In the movie version though, you get people saying how he wears make-up and what not to scare people of just because he's crazy. They even give you a scene and a slight shot of him not wearing make up!



Something tells me Gordan should have never became the Commissioner and therefore gives us another plot hole. I think I would have been a better Commissioner.



Let's try to ignore that small mistake though. As I mentioned earlier, the problem with this movie is that it's really long and the only reason it's like that is because of how slow pacing it is. Everyone is talking trying to explain what's going on like if we can't put the puzzle together, in the end you realize this movie is literally two in one. First you have the Joker terrorizing everyone to scare them, to make them go crazy, just for the hell of it. Then at the same time you have Harvey Dent trying to be the White Knight of Gotham. So, the Joker first tries to kill Harvey Dent, but after failing he decides to do something much more. This is where it brings us to part two of the movie, turning Gotham's White Knight to something evil like the Joker.

Knowing this, you should be aware that the first half is action packed, while the second half isn't quite there. It does have some good scenes like the Hospital explosion and such, but it's nothing compared to the first half like the chasing scene. What's worse is that Harvey's second half didn't have enough time to develop. This freak just goes on a killing spree over the death of his supposed girlfriend. Talk about being pussy whooped. Bruce Wayne didn't have that problem, so what's up with Dent?

Unfortunately Nolan had some mental problems after the death of Ledger and he didn't know what to do with Two-Face. He couldn't compare to the Joker and he knew he was too pussy whooped to promise a sequel. He did what any emo boy would have done when his beloved girlfriend broke up with him, he killed him.



I'd love to go on about how The Dark Knight's flaws, but I don't want to ruin this great masterpiece for you. Maybe while you watch this movie you'll be able to find out why Nolan decided to kill half of his cast on-screen or off-screen, doesn't matter (Surprised Batman didn't die). Even though this movie has its slight flaws you gotta admit that it had you at the edge of your seat even though the characters talked a lot. The Joker is enough for you to watch this movie, and what's best is that you don't even have to watch Batman Begins to understand this movie.

That being said, I give this movie an 9 out of 10. Better than it's predecessor, but not quite there.
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So the NeoRaffles are looking good for me so far. I just won the logo contest and got 750 Points extra for me to use. I really feel like going for the Banner contest, but I feel it's unfair. Not because I think I'll win (I'm not much of a prick), but it's a dick thing to do if you end up winning the entire thing. It makes you look like a total ass and I don't feel liking sending out that message.

So, this is my firs time ever experiencing the Neo Raffles and I think they're great. So far I offered so much stuff. Haha. I can accomplish all of it, I'm sure, but it feels like it might take me a little while. Specially the digital downloads, but no one should complain since I'm doing this for free. But let's leave the anticipation till the 18th. I might offer some more stuff, so if you guys have ideas let me know. =P

Also, recently I noticed I've gotten quite popular over Neo for some odd reason. I have no clue what it is but a lot of people are noticing me a lot know which is kinda cool, but sort of a drag at the same time. I've gotten some people PM me here and there asking me to be my friend, but I don't mind really but it really feels like I'm not going to put up much effort in the friendship and then thought to be an ass of some sort. I always found it quite ludicrous to ask someone to be your friend and then after some fun PMs here and there completely forget about them.

Then there's the good thing about it because back when I first joined, I could never be recognized by the likes of people such as Yug and U_Turn. I've been knowing Yug for quite a while, not too long, but enough to know him well. U_Turn was the one that surprised me though. I never talked to him, never really knew him personally, but I still somehow managed to get on his "Cool" List haha. Which I thought he was just joking at first, but it turns out he thinks I'm a cool guy. I feel the same about him and always thought he was, but now I feel we're on the same level now. Haha.

Then there's Arc and Harvest. Turns out that I've been having their MSN's since the dawn of time, but I never realized it. That was some awkward stuff right there, but it's nice that I'm clearing out that 200 something list of people that I have no clue who they are.

Finally, there's my real life. I can't help but feel utterly depressed. Not the the point of committing suicide, but enough to keep the down during the day. It's getting harder and harder to find motivation throughout these tough days. My best friend and I are hardly hanging out, and it's really putting me down for some reason. I have no clue if it's because I might have feelings for her, but I doubt it. Of course, lately we have had an improvement for the past few days because we're talking more often which is good. Means my life is starting to turn around, but it's not enough. I can't really help that Neo is almost the only thing I do every day. I don't even know why I get on to be honest, I enjoy it and I enjoy talking to some of my close friends on MSN, but if it's starting to make me feel a little depressed, I think it's time to get off. Or least do something else, like playing sports. I need to work out, which is near impossible with the type of brothers I have.

All they do is snack on junk food and since my mother doesn't make to many big meals for me to get food, I end up wanting to snack later on. What's worse is that they end up eating half of the healthy stuff first. Like fruits. They should let me eat that shit, they can all the junk food they want and still be in shape. I know I was when I was a kid. Always running around like there's no tomorrow. Now that I'm older, my metabolism has slowed down a lot and I get lazy. I need that healthy food. I'm so ashamed of myself. I wish someone could tell me the right words to motivate me.
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So I've been sitting here, thinking and wondering, if it'd be a good idea to post up guides to stuff I know how to do. There are a buttload of things I can do, but mostly concern media files, specifically MP4 files that run on iTunes.

If anyone has been following the Loungin' Helpdesk since its creation, you'd know that I usually help with media file conversions or anything iTunes related. So, you'd get the idea that I love iTunes. No, I don't think it's the best Audio Program out there, but you gotta admit that it's one that most people use out there. The thing I love about iTunes is how it takes advantage of the MP4 file system, specially its tagging system. For a perfectionist like myself, it's definitely something I'm really into.

For example, since I bought some music on iTunes, I've been trying to find a way to add that damn Explicit Tag on some of my songs that I ripped either from my CDs or borrowed CDs from friends to make my library look like the real M4A files from iTunes. Finally, I did. It took me months to find. It's easy as hell on a Mac, but for Windows, you're usually out of luck.

Finally there are people that want to know how to make their DVDs into Digital Copies like the ones from iTunes. Sure, anyone can grab a converter and convert their DVD to some shitty MP4 file that will play on your iPod, but what if you could make one that's almost like the DVD? Chapters in it, maybe different audios (one for your Headphones and the other for that supreme Surround Sound System), and it fits on your little iPod. Pretty neat if you ask me, and usually you can do this for free because you shouldn't pay an extra $15 or so dollars to have a digital file on your computer from iTunes. Then there's also the fact that your favorite movies aren't on the iTunes catalog (Transformers). We can't just stop there either though, we can also tag them for perfect viewing and browsing on your iTunes, iPod or Apple TV (If you have one).

So I'm thinking this might be a good idea, writing guides for people that may not know this and want to know. Or maybe there are other things you're interested in and I could find out for you. I definitely feel like doing it, but not if there won't be any interest. So, what do you guys think?
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