www.evanheisler.com

So it has been awhile since I have posted. Not for lack of ideas, but lack of gusto to sit down and assemble my thoughts. But with the advent of this thing called spring that is finally upon us after what I would consider 6 and a half months of winter, I am rejuvenated. Frustrated that it has taken so long, but I tell myself I might take it for granted if I lived anywhere else (except maybe Siberia). And I am not the only one. On a 40 mile bike ride on Sunday, I was amazed at the number of people out pedaling themselves around. I also saw a number of people paddling kayaks on a few rivers, and people flying kites. I think that is one of the great things about this state is that on the rare occasion that we have agreeable weather, people come out of the woodwork to enjoy it.

Some might be saying, “Evan, if you haven’t been blogging, what have you been up to in the last few months?” I plan on having a new version of this site launched in the next week or two, which will have a few new projects up, so keep an eye out for that.

Other than that, here are a few quick reviews/opinions of some media I have spent time with recently:

Baby Mama

Tina Fey and Amy Pohler movie. Figured it would be good for a laugh, and it was, but only a few. Wouldn’t say I disliked it, but I won’t be avidly promoting it…except maybe just to see Steve Martin in it.

Bee Movie

Yeah, I know, old news. Again, it was good, but not great. With the fire power of Jerry Seinfelds writing, DreamWorks Animation, and so many $10+ million celebs doing voice work, I had high hopes, and rightfully so I would say. In short, I don’t regret seeing it, but I probably won’t watch it again.

Ratatouille

This on the other hand, I liked a lot. Original story, great animation work, well written characters. Everything a movie geared towards 9 year olds should have.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma

i got this book for Gretchen shortly after it was released but never got around to reading it until a little while ago. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I think most people would, except for those who still feel that “ignorance is bliss”. Michael Pollan writes in a style that is informative, yet casual, so even the most scientifically illiterate wouldn’t be too turned off by the information portrayed. Although, with that being said, at the end I came to the conclusion that the book reported on many facts of the food infrastructure in this country, but didn’t provide all that much insight. That is just my opinion of course and I don’t know if it was Pollan’s intention to “convince” people of anything. I will also be reading In Defense of Food so I am curious to see how Pollan’s writing comes across in that. I will say this though from the meals that he prepares in the book—I know nothing about cooking.

Hey Whipple, Squeeze This

Unless you work in design or marketing you probably have never heard of this book. Even if you do, maybe you still aren’t familiar with it. While there is a ton of good information in this book about marketing, it definitely is starting to feel a little dated. The writing is excellent, its a quick page-turner, and the case-study-type anecdotes are pretty amusing and insightful. I am just waiting for someone to come out with something similar geared more towards digital media.

No Country for Old Men

I heard a lot of hype around this movie, so I was pretty excited to watch it. I heard many-a-review say that they had a problem with the ending. I thought it was a great ending for the story that was told. But after reaching this conclusion and then discussing the movie with a few friends, I realized that the ending I had “seen” was completely different than the ending of others. Which in itself usually means a well written script in my opinion, but I can see how some would not appreciate this. Also the lack of any soundtrack— a tough thing to get away with but the Coen Brothers were really smart about this as well.

That is everything I could think of for the moment, besides things like Learning ActionScript 3.0 and JQuery in Action which I will spare the gory details on at this juncture. Thanks for tuning in, I hope to have some more thoughts to add shortly.