Ugh. That about sums things up. UGH. For one, I wanted this entry out sooner. It went through two previous drafts over the past month+. But I wanted to wait- because I knew I’d have to cement my thoughts on something with this entry. And I wanted to do them right.

You’ll hunt me. You’ll condemn me, set the dogs on me. Because that’s what needs to happen. Because sometimes the truth isn’t good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.

The past six weeks I have been slowly gathering my thoughts on this film into a cohesive whole. Like the film itself, I had to take it all into consideration delicately. Today I finally overcame what kept this entry from being published- I saw The Dark Knight a second time. I can safely say I agree it is a masterpiece. It certainly has flaws, but it’s innovative and enthralling enough that they easily slip by. One of my only complaints is that, scene-to-scene, the films doesn’t flow very well. Overall however, the story moves at a fantastic pace and I left the theater with a half-drunken cup of soda and an untouched candy bar because I became so immersed in the film (and this was the second time I saw it!)

But is it good enough to topple my favorite film ever, Batman Begins? I recognize both films have flaws. Action scenes and Katie Holmes in the first, somewhat disjointed-ness in the second. I recognize the The Dark Knight is the better film overall, but… is that enough?

But speaking of Katie Holmes, I really wish she had kept the part. To put it into perspective I was one of the Maggie Gyllenhaal supporters who used her as a bulletpoint to convince myself/others The Dark Knight had to be better than Batman Begins. However, I think her death would have been much more moving if the same actress had played it in both films. It’s just a psychological thing; I spent the past three years with Holmes as Rachel in my head. And as it stands, Maggie isn’t as pretty as I’d convinced myself she’d be. She looks like a bass fish… Sure, Katie looked almost too young to be an assistant D.A., and sometimes her acting was in question, but she made the Rachel Dawes character, and I’ll probably defend that as long as there’s debate over Batman films.

On the topic of Rachel’s death, I was still pretty moved over it. Shocked even. While with Gordon’s “death” I just barely accepted, the finality of Rachel’s really had me going. I’m almost embarrassed to admit this, but in the early morning before I fall asleep, I go through some pretty… wacky hormone cycles. My mind is usually pretty irrational at this point. And it’s during the morning after seeing this film for the first time that it just hit me that Bruce’s only childhood friend had just died forever. She’s not coming back. He went through all the trouble of saving her in the first movie, and then… she’s gone. He (and she, at one point) were ready to settle down together. They loved eachother.

And then she dies. I’m surprised the realization of their childhood friendship moved me more than her “yes” to Harvey, but nevertheless, that morning I was actually tearing up. But what can I say? I love the movies and they speak to me.

Anyways, the ending itself is brilliant and shines the brightest of the entire film. Batman transcending mere heroism to become something more, as Alfred said, was simply and perfectly laid out yet a twist all its own. The film itself was perfectly constructed for this ending, which makes it all the more satisfying.

So my answer, like Rachel’s, is yes. This film, despite its flaws, supercedes Batman Begins in my list of favorites. I haven’t touched on the more earthly, nitty-gritty aspects of this film such as the cast, the plot itself, the action, etc., because I believe any points I could make about them have already been hammered home by 253 other professional critics. This “review” is merely how the film relates to me, as Batman Begins was incredibly important to me.

These aren’t even my complete thoughts on the movie though, but I’m sure as time goes on I’ll reveal more of them.

More currently, Android, the open-source cell phone operating system by Google, has had huge updates recently after a long drought of news. Foremost, leaked concept mockups are making the rounds.

And they look awesome. I admit I’ve never been a fan of Apple, and the iPhone wasn’t anything particularly exciting for me at the time of its launch, though I did follow it. But then Android came last November. I had been closely following the rumors of a “GPhone” for a while, and Android’s announcement was practically everything I’d hope for, sans actual hardware from Google. It was based on Java, the language of my Computer Science class; it supported a powerful development environment in Eclipse; and the SDK came loaded with everything needed to build an app runnable on a cell phone. My mind was blown at this concept- that anyone can (easily) create an application on their desktop computer, then run that program on their phones, anywhere. I admit, had Android not been announced, I may be strongly eyeing the new $200 iPhone 3G (with App Store and SDK) right now. But while the initial release of Android was modest, I liked it. Then in February they released a new version that I didn’t really like.

But this new version is practically perfect in my eyes. The desktop is so… beautiful, mainly because I love the idea of a Windows-like desktop for a phone. It even has a “start button” for every application, like Windows. And on the desktop, you can create shortcuts to applications, music playlists, phone contacts, and even web addresses. This simplicity with power is unparalleled on phones, iPhone included. (And as the release of the first Android phone, the G1 by T-Mobile, nears, you’ll probably read more about my thoughts of why Android > iPhone.) I hope to start making a game for the new version soon (something along the lines of a 2D Ouran RPG), but I have to finish my other projects.

One of those projects being the Project Gforum Forum, currently in beta. While I could have installed PHPbb or vBulletin and called it a day, I was more interested in testing my coding skills- it has been, after all, almost six months (!) since I first released Project Gforum itself, and I don’t want to get rusty. With any release, I usually undershoot the amount of time it will take, and this is no different. Specifically, adding in all the features that I liked about the Fusetalk-era G4 Forums is taking its toll, and I’ve been working on my other ongoing project, the Gforum Epic.

The same reason work on the Forum is slowing down and the reason I’m suddenly re-interested in the Epic is because of one thing: I have a job. A job that tires me out and makes me go to bed at 10:00. This severely hampers my coding time as I do most of my coding from 2-6:00 in the morning. And I do hate this job. It has extremely dampened what could and should have been another great Summer- seems like I may have only Summer 2009 left before I go off to college-land to enjoy myself. My parents, specifically my mother, pushed me so hard for a job. But it’s not that I’m lazy I didn’t and don’t want it, it’s more because I didn’t see the use. Even now, I’m “burning” all the cash I get from it on the Epic. I do just fine hopping from holidays and birthdays for my gifts, and I’ve never needed more than that before.

But I can objectively say this job is terrible. My boss is a crummy boss- quick to anger, short on temper, overly demanding; anything you wouldn’t want your boss to be, mine is. Also, work in a restaurant is not a good job to start off with- everything’s on a timer. You can say this applies to every job, but there’s a big difference between a one-week deadline and tiny five-minute cycles repeated for six hours. Did I mention I got burned? Not burned out or chewed out by my boss, literally burned. It was a pretty bad second degree burn caused by me sweeping and my boss opening an oven behind me. I actually don’t know where the fault lies on that one, but it’s just one more thing on the long list. Ironically, because of this my mom thinks I should quit now. Her, the one who pushed me into this.

Unfortunately, I don’t want to quit this job. I feel indebted to these people who’ve trained me and gotten to know me. And I need just a little bit more money to ensure the Epic’s success. So I’ll tough it out for a few more weeks and see if I can take it while school is happening.

All this Summer, I’ve been sneaking to the first floor of my house during the night to gaze out the windows into the forest, just beyond which is a road leading to the highway. I put my hand to the glass and try to grasp something on it. I think this represents the point in my life I am at right now. I’m separated by such a thin pane of glass from “real” life. Life on my own. Only one year left. I suppose I’m somewhat of a contradiction right now. I feel I’ve changed and grown so much since I started this blog over three years ago, but at the same time I feel I have the same outlooks, tendencies, and thinking as I did back then. Obviously, I’ve calmed down a bit and have definitely matured, but I also think maybe I wasn’t as dumb as I thought I was back then.

But if you read my entries from back then, you’d think I was pretty dumb too.
-Andrew

PS- And yes my Photobucket ran out of bandwidth for the first time ever this month. This should be fixed in a few days as the counter is reset with September.