Cabin in the Woods

Exam is this coming Tuesday, June 6. Regardless of what happens (pass, fail, defer), I'm free after that.

You do not get to <a>bort, <r>etry, <f>ail __ ?

Dammit! It would be nice to get it out of the way.

Speaking of movies, have you heard much about Amazing Spiderman? What are your thoughts?

Very, very undecided. There was no real need for a reboot, just less interference with Sam Raimi. But since they have decided to do it anyway, I like some aspects that I have read about, such as the fact that they want to correct the one major issue with the Raimi trilogy in that they did not play up the smartass aspect of the character. Spiderman was always making jokes and clearly loving the sense of power that he had been gifted with. Other than a whoop or two, the Raimi movies largely left that out.

But I will forever be disappointed that the studio would not allow Raimi to do The Lizard. He had that set up from the very first film, and Dylan Baker is a helluva actor. I would have loved to see how he played the dark side of Dr. Connors.

Why was Raimi not allowed to do the lizard?

I also thought it a tad early for a reboot, but I suppose Nolan rebooted Batman quite soon after the last wave of Batman films, and that worked.

I actually liked Maquire's character. Humble seemed fitting, but smartass works when done well (such as was done for Ironman).

Well, Spiderman making wisecracks as he goes about his business is an essential part of the character, but there really was little of that with Maguire. Do not misunderstand me, I thought he was excellent at the role; it was more of a question of how the character was written. Becoming Spiderman is (obviously) very empowering for a nerd, and in the comics he expressed that often. Not so much in the movies.

Raimi kept pushing for the "classic" villians like The Green Goblin, Sandman and The Lizard. (The rumours were that he was even pushing for The Vulture in Spiderman 4.) The studio wanting villians like Venom to appeal to the younger comic fans, and they forced Raimi to include him in the third one. That was part of the real rift between Raimi and Sony. The reality is, take Venom out of the third film, retool the script slightly and you would have had a pretty good film. (I have always suspected that the sillier elements of Spiderman 3, like the dancing, were Raimi's way of thumbing his nose at the studio.)

The first of the Batman films was in 1989, so there was a bit of a longer gap there before the reboot. That, and the last one (Batman and Robin came out in 1997, which gave an eight-year gap until Nolan's reboot. This reboot is much quicker.

Well, reboots, remakes and spinoffs seem to be the in-thing for studios these days, so I'm hardly surprised. And why not from the studio's perspective, as it almost guarantees a healthy profit.

Amazing Spiderman seems to be aimed at a younger crowd too, given the choice of actors (Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone) and high-school setting that will provide the backdrop for the story. I guess the studio gets what it wants.

The other, uglier rumor out there is that Sony rushed this movie into production because they have to keep making Spiderman movies or else they lose the rights to the character. Which would not necessarily bode well for the production.

No, not at all. Doesn't bode well for fans either, as we're the ones who ultimately lose.

Either way, Prometheus is this weekend, and you have still <f>ailed with Cabin and The Avengers! Don't <f>ail the exams, or it will all have been for naught!

Way to rub it in!

Not sure if you have any time for Mr. Bean, but I keep replaying this skit in my head (apologies for the advertisement at the beginning):

Nice. Have not watched that in a while.

My favorite was always what he does with the creche in the Christmas episode:

That one is awesome. When he meets the Queen is also a classic:

That one is definitely a classic. Slow connection right now, so I am going by memory, but the memories are good!


Just called up my father to see if he wanted to catch the 3D version of Prometheus on Friday on the Ultrascreen, so we are good to go. Knowing that you will not be seeing it, I will give a spoiler-free report!

Sigh.

I may just spoil Cabin in the Woods out of spite.

Took MagoJr, following tha Seamaster's lead, to see the Avengers last week and this recent weekend to MIB III. Enjoyed MIB more. My favorite comic heroes are in the DC universe, ranked 3 and 4, in one poll of favorite DC and Marvel characters: Green Lantern and Flash. Loved the GL movie, despite the poor reviews, but again it's the Lantern and glad it came to the screen.

I still have not seen Green Lantern, despite the fact that the character ranks pretty high in my personal DC canon, and despite the fact that I like director Martin Campbell. Too much negativity scared me off. Saw The Avengers twice now, and enjoyed it more on a second viewing; the narrative issues in the first half were less of a problem.

Go ahead and spoil. I deserve it. I dropped a bollock during the exam and pretty much fucked it good style. Even worse is when I checked my notes afterward: I knew the material and a suitable solution to one of the case studies, but I didn't know that I knew it, if that makes any sort of sense. Time pressure is a bitch. Ah well, lesson learned, and there is no point in worrying about stuff that can't be changed. I'll deal with the results when I get them in six weeks.

I pretty much stick with instincts when it comes to exams and it rarely lets me down. In fact, I generally have a speed process that I follow to get through tests and I never let it get to the point of over-thinking anything. But I have always had a knack for test taking. That does not necessarily make me particularly intelligent (I leave that to your own judgment,) just an expert test-taker. I scored in the top 97% of the country on my standardized testing back in high school (and that was prior to the last three decades of dumbing-down) but I have never put much stock in that number. Colleges did, though!

No, I will not spoil Cabin. I want you to watch it as much of a virgin as you can be. But dammit, I want to talk to you about it!

My problem with the last case study was that I didn't even let instinct kick in. I just started answering, rather than taking a moment to think. Amateur mistake, especially since this was a not an essay-based case study, in which case I can usually dig myself out of the shit, even if I go off on a wrong tangent. That said, I have no one to blame but myself.

You have me curious, though: What is your speed process? I've never heard of such a thing.

A few principles:

* At least where tests are concerned, I am a firm believer in going with first impressions. Usually if I give myself time to think about it, I end up changing to the wrong answer.

* When tests are timed, people make the mistake of letting themselves get hung up on questions that they are struggling with, and may not even get to later questions that they could have easily answered.

* Unless it is a type of test where you are specifically penalized for an incorrect answer, there is no reason to leave something blank. (Tests that do penalize you are a bugger.) With multiple choice questions, if there are five options you have a 20% chance of guessing correctly, and 20% is much higher than 0% if it is blank.


Put it all together, and this is what I do: I start answering questions and only answer the ones for which I immediately know the answer. If I have to think at all, I move on to the next question. That way I make sure that I answer all of the questions that I know with certainty. Then I go back to the beginning and start working on the ones that I do not know. But even for those, I do not give myself more than a minute or two (depending on the time frame.) If I need to think longer than that, I just go back to whatever my first impression was. I still skip the ones for which I draw a complete blank and come back to those at the end. (Again, to answer as much as I can.) Finally, if there is no penalty, I go back and guess at the rest. If it is a multiple choice question, since most test writers do a very poor job of writing questions, you can generally cross off at least two possibilities that are clearly wrong, raising your chances at guessing correctly to 33%. (Of course, a well-written test will force you to choose the most correct answer out of options that are all correct, and with that kind of test you are on your own!)

When I took my ACTs during high school, I scored in the aforementioned 97th percentile, and in a group of a thousand children I was the first person to finish each section. Once again, none of this proves that I am particularly smart, but it does prove that I know how to take tests.

I generally take the same approach. However, my exams are well written and there are no easy or obvious questions. For example, if there are four choices, the three wrong answers will be the results of the most common conceptual or operational errors. It is easy to think you have the right answer, when, in fact, you have made a very simple error and arrived at the wrong conclusion. This actually makes the multiple choice portion of the exam worse than the case studies and essays. On a case study, for example, such an error would only result in losing some marks, and you can still score part marks for being part right.

In all of the courses I have taken in this program, I have never once known for sure that I have done well. Never in my life have I felt that way after an exam. Incidentally, the program has a bit of a reputation for tough exams. People often refer to them as brutal. I wouldn't go that far. Rather, they are fair and rigorous, but expect you to have mastery over all of the material and be able to recall and apply it cold. In short, it's as it should be for a graduate program. Unfortunately, I may very well have blown it this time. The hardest part is accepting that I might have failed (that's embarrassing). But, even Rocky failed, I suppose, and he bounced back. So, I will keep my chin up regardless of the result.

You will bounce back, asssuming that you really blew it -- which you still may not have!

Apparently I'm having trouble posting too. My blew should have been a blown!

At any rate, thanks for the words of support.