Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
The 2007 season officially ended a couple days ago with no signs of any late brewing storms (yet) like in 2005.
The synopsis from NHC:
THE 2007 HURRICANE SEASON PRODUCED FOURTEEN NAMED STORMS…OF WHICH SIX BECAME HURRICANES…WITH TWO OF THE HURRICANES ATTAINING MAJOR HURRICANE (CATEGORY THREE OR HIGHER ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE) STATUS. IN ADDITION…TWO OTHER TROPICAL DEPRESSIONS FORMED DURING THE YEAR. THE NUMBERS OF HURRICANES AND MAJOR HURRICANES WERE NEAR THE LONG-TERM AVERAGES FOR A SEASON BUT THE NUMBER OF NAMED STORMS WAS SLIGHTLY ABOVE AVERAGE. IN TERMS OF THE NOAA ACCUMULATED CYCLONE ENERGY (ACE) INDEX…WHICH MEASURES THE COLLECTIVE STRENGTH AND DURATION OF NAMED STORMS AND HURRICANES… THE SEASON HAD ABOUT 82 PERCENT OF THE 1951-2000 MEDIAN ACTIVITY… THE LOWEST OBSERVED SINCE 2002. DESPITE THE NEAR-AVERAGE OVERALL ACTIVITY…TWO CATEGORY 5 HURRICANES…DEAN AND FELIX…MADE LANDFALL DURING THIS SEASON FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE RECORDS BEGAN IN 1851.
The NOAA summary contains some interesting info too.
So. Very. Cool.
The Cole’s Notes version of the Reader’s Digest edition of Beowulf (aka the movie) that is. Just think of how cool it would have been on IMAX.
Oh, right, the IMAX theater shut down. Damn.
The movie itself is a condensed version of an epic tale, but enough to bump it up on my Things To Read List.
The CG is pretty cool using the same technique used for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Movement is still a little artificial looking, but the detail is very good. Skin is still very hard to make look right in animation.
Grendel was pretty ugly, not entirely what I was expecting though. The dragon was very cool though. And ouch, the arm! The things a hero does to live up to his reputation. As to how faithful this movie adaptation is to the original epic, I don’t know, but I’ll find out soon.
If you’re going to see it, make sure to see the 3D version. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
The general concensus seems to be for next weekend without any date preference so I’ll pick Saturday Dec 8, say around 6:30?
Leave a comment if you prefer another time.
