donath.org

Book: After America

2012-01-18T19:51:00.001-08:00

Mark Steyn captures, in one easy amusing tome, everything that Right-leaning pundits complain is wrong with this country. Great summary, great insights - read it, then put it down and decide how you're going to fight back against the insanity of the polypragmonocracy (government by busybodies). And fight you will, as the current trajectory has no pleasant ending, no matter your political persuasion. This insightful commentary either pulls together the thoughts you're trying to form, or pulls apart the delusions you hold.

Rant: "Bush's Fault!"

2011-10-07T19:21:00.001-07:00

The Democrat-dominated Congress inherited the situation in 2007, and continued the domination of Congress for 4 years – the first 2 under a compliant Republican[1] president, and next 2 under a sympathetic Democrat. During that short time, and in contrast to promises to end deficit spending (by whatever means), the debt increased nearly 60%[2]. AFAIK, no substantive spending cuts have been passed by either chamber during this period. To the contrary, the only recurring & earnest deficit-reduction suggestion is “end the Bush tax cuts for the rich”; eliminating the deficit thru tax increase would require a 100% rate on all income over $200,000.

At some point the steaming bag on the desk is the current occupant’s responsibility.
Especially when a second one appears during the occupancy.

1 – issued 12 vetos, half of which were resolved or overridden, the rest were not significant economic differences.
2 – that’s a 60% increase in 4 years over what debt had accumulated in more than 2 centuries.

Movie: The Expendables

2011-09-05T17:12:00.000-07:00

This...is the biggest B-movie action movie. Ever. It has no redeeming qualities, contains relentless action, and brings in near every top-billed A- and B-list action star of our time for the gratuitous purpose of doing so. Well that was fun; what's next on my queue?

Rant: Feds - cut spending NOW

2011-08-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

Federal revenue never exceeds 20% of GDP. We’re over 18% now. Doesn’t matter who you squeeze how, the feds aren’t getting more than about another 1% GDP - which is about $140B, nowhere near “enough”.

Given that, the next obvious thought is to raise GDP. Start with the fact that GDP fell for the first time in ‘09, then consider that for ~15 years before that it rose at $500B/yr. At this point, just getting back to normal growth would be a remarkable accomplishment - and would net another $100B/yr annual growth in revenue, again nowhere near enough. Outer-limits SWAG is doubling long-term GDP growth, growing revenue by a still-inadequate $200B instead.

So squeezing hard and stimulating fast, while munching skittles falling from rainbows whilst perched on a unicorn’s back, the best we could Hope(TM) for is $340B new revenue. Meh.

Washington is spending $1500B more of our money than they're getting. For the most optimistic schemes offered, they'll still spend over a trillion dollars more than there is to, putting us and our children on the hook for not just paying off tens (hundreds?) of trillions of dollars, but making our kids pay the interest bill as well with money they'll need for other things and no reason to pay for our folly.

That leaves...50% across-the-board spending cuts.

Stock up & hunker down, this ain’t gonna be pretty.

Movie: The Omega Man

2011-08-22T20:25:00.000-07:00

I'd like to say that this was - was - an intelligent well made movie befitting it's time, and that that time has passed and, alas, it has not aged well. I'd like to, but alas I snuck a peek just moments ago at Roger Ebert's then-current review, and find it is what it was: a well intentioned story bogged down in the ways of that age of storytelling, no less compelling today than it was then.

Of late, the then-uncredited novel "I Am Legend" has been remade into a telling a bit more believable. A bit. The core difficulty with this story, aside from creating a convincing world for the protagonist and all the technology and talent needed, is getting the zombies right. Heston's foes were too smart to be that stupid, and Smith's foes were too dumb to be that smart. The rest of the tale then struggles to cope with the resulting cognitive whiplash.

Given the intelligence and wit of "World War Z" (movie version pending with trepidation), I'm exploring the zombie genre in hopes of finding comparable competence. Some, like "The Omega Man", are obligatory viewing in this study. Obligatory, however, does not denote worthwhile.

Rant: A sponge only soaks up so much

2011-08-01T20:59:00.000-07:00

For 2011,
· Revenue: $2.17T
· Spending: $3.82T
· Debt: $14.56T

Assuming all else remains unchanged[1], we’d have to cut federal spending by $2.14T – that’s 56% – to eliminate the debt in 30 years.

What’s that? “Increase taxes on the rich!” I hear, over and over?

... if individuals earning more than $200,000 were taxed at a 100 percent marginal rate–and we confiscated their passports so they could not flee–the take would come to $1.27 trillion, or just 77 percent of this year’s deficit.
- Arthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute

Ok, for sake of argument, raise taxes on the “rich” to 100%[2]. Kicking ballpark numbers around, that leaves $0.41T in cuts – real cuts, not “rate of increase cuts” – in spending just to stop the deficit hemorrhaging. We need another $0.49T in cuts – real cuts – to pay off the debt in a very generous 30 years.

So, ball back to the Democrats' court: going whole-hog 100% “tax the rich” nets about $1.27T, and the deficit is still out of control. What $0.90T in spending cuts is the Left willing to offer? This amounts to the minimum amount of spending cuts[3] we need to make now just to clean up this mess[4] over the next generation.

Sure, it’s more complicated than that – but that’s the core framework to operate from. If we tax “the rich” (loosely defined) to the point of running out of other people’s money, we see the minimum steps required just to start moving in the right direction.

One alternative to cutting spending is, of course, to increase revenue. But how? Consider:

As a result of reducing taxes on the rich, the rich got much richer — so much so that they wound up paying nearly four times as much total tax (and nearly three times as much tax per rich person) as when taxes were higher.
- http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/271013/folly-soaking-rich-mario-loyola#

“It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now … Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus.”
– John F. Kennedy, Nov. 20, 1962

Your move.

1 - note that spending, in most cases, increases faster than revenue. Therein lies the core problem: political unwillingness to spend less than revenue.
2 - ignoring the agreed fact that increasing taxes on the rich slows the economy, and going to 100% would drive subsequent revenues to $0. This is reducto ad absurdum exercise in identifying how far each side is willing/capable to go.
3 - that’s real cuts, not “reductions in increase”. That’s next year and ongoing from that, not “over 10 years”.
4 - “this mess” is here, and continual pointing fingers years into the past at debatable causes doesn’t clean it up now.

Rant: Conspiracy of Oz

2011-08-01T08:17:00.000-07:00

Legend has this quote:

Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first woman she meets and then teams up with three complete strangers to kill again.
~ Rick Polito, Marin Independent Journal's TV listing for "The Wizard of Oz"

A co-worker's retort is too good to let fade:

I have always thought that Glinda was the real villain in the story. She could have sent Dorothy home right off the bat, but nooo- she was secretly plotting the demise of two of her world leaders- The Witch of the West and Oz. (She had already lived to see another foe destroyed, The Witch of the East.) I mean, the Witch of the West just wanted her now deceased sister’s magic shoes. Why wouldn’t she be angry when the person who just dropped a house on her sibling stole them from her? Dorothy was but an unwitting pawn in Glinda’s machinations to set up puppet governments (Scarecrow got Oz, The Tin Woodsman got Winkie Land in the east) all over the world and rule from on high in the North.

Movies: In Queue

2011-07-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

I've posted movies I've seen.
Occurs to me to post my queue of what I haven't but want to.

3:10 to Yuma
Cinema 16: European Short Films: Disc 2
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
High Noon
Scarface
The Snow Walker
Fires of Kuwait: IMAX
Apocalypto
Serial Experiments Lain: Vol.1-4
Pixar Short Films: Vol. 1
Samurai Jack: Season 1-4
Philip Glass: Looking Glass
Untraceable
Hidden Fortress
Throne of Blood
Live Free or Die Hard
Stomp: Stomp Out Loud
Great Expectations
Hulk
Constantine
Underworld
Apocalypse Now / Apocalypse Now Redux
Gods and Generals
Dog Whisperer: Season 3
Gangs of New York
Cold Mountain
Reformation Overview
MirrorMask
Dark City: Director's Cut
The Kingdom
Layer Cake
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Grindhouse: Death Proof
Speed Racer
Iron Man
Strangers on a Train
Chaos
Mongol
Déjà Vu
Revenge
Samurai Trilogy 1: Musashi Miyamoto
Samurai Trilogy 2: Duel at Ichijoji Temple
Samurai Trilogy 3: Duel at Ganryu Island
Aliens vs. Predator 2
The City of Lost Children
Lions for Lambs
Papillon
Red Dawn
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Cinema 16: European Short Films: Disc 1
Resident Evil: Degeneration
Cinema Paradiso
Dawn of the Dead
Inside the Actors Studio: Robin Williams
Don't Say a Word
Guns, Germs and Steel
The Andromeda Strain
Logan's Run
What Lies Beneath
The Others
Open Season 2
Glass: Portrait in Twelve Parts
Fraggle Rock: Season 1
The Spirit
The Postman
Moby Dick
The Leopard (English version)
Barry Lyndon
The Tale of Despereaux
The International
Tales of the Black Freighter / Under...
The Thief of Bagdad
The Thief of Bagdad: Bonus Material
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Horton Hears a Who!
Kiki's Delivery Service
Dinosaur
Brother Bear Widescreen Version
75th Annual Academy Awards Short Films
Pulse: Stomp Odyssey
Max Payne
Last Stand of the 300
Future Weapons: Season 1
The Ox-Bow Incident
Out of the Wild: The Alaska
Body of Lies
Hamlet
Public Enemies
Rebecca
My Dinner with Andre
True Romance
The White Countess
Sherlock Holmes
Snatch
Robin Hood
The Expendables
Inception
Salt
Star Trek
Up
Defiance
Red
The Secret of Kells
Wallace & Gromit: Loaf and Death
Wallace & Gromit: Three Amazing Adventures
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
The Tourist
The Illusionist
9
Sukiyaki Western Django
The King's Speech
13 Assassins
My Dog Tulip

(This is my current Netflix DVD list. Since Netflix is raising prices by a lot, and separating DVDs from streaming into a separate cost, and most DVDs sit around an average of a month before I get to 'em, I'm copying the list here partly for my own reminding as I'll drop DVD service soon. I hope the DVD industry is paying attention to how many people are doing this.)

Rant: "...but Democrats inherited this mess!"

2011-07-18T16:53:00.000-07:00

I keep hearing Leftists complain that the Democrats inherited this economic mess.

The Democrat-dominated Congress inherited the situation in 2007, and continued the domination of Congress for 4 years – the first 2 under a compliant Republican[1] president, and next 2 under a sympathetic Democrat. During that short time, and in contrast to promises to end deficit spending (by whatever means), the debt increased nearly 60%[2]. AFAIK, no substantive spending cuts have been passed by either chamber during this period. To the contrary, the only recurring & earnest deficit-reduction suggestion is “end the Bush tax cuts for the rich”; eliminating the deficit thru tax increase would require a 100% rate on all income over $200,000.

At some point the steaming bag on the desk is the current occupant’s responsibility.
Especially when a second one appears during the occupancy.

1 – issued 12 vetos, half of which were resolved or overridden, the rest were not significant economic differences.
2 – that’s a 60% increase in 4 years over what debt had accumulated in more than 2 centuries.

Movie: Just Go With It

2011-07-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

Better yet, don't.
The two things this romantic comedy lacks are, in large part, romance and comedy.

Enough is injected to attract the genre label and provide cuts for a convincing trailer. The remaining runtime is devoted to setting up embarrassing situations, earned or not, and attempting to laugh at the subjects thereof; for most movies I tend to wander off for the few awkward minutes this occurs, but by starting there and never letting up I'd have been rude to the audience and to my $5 expended for the iTunes rental.

Its hard to sympathize with the romantic leanings of a lecherous protagonist, a doctor whose patients would be wise to walk out upon his bedside manner. That the frumpy babe wants his hand may work out fine and special for her, but there are other romances for us to enjoy on screen. That the hot babe is hot guarantees she will not end this with the marital devotion her kind & patient heart deserves.

The remaining theatrical attributes worth considering evaluate in kind. The cinematography is perfunctory: correct, but not special. Music prolific, but borrowed. Acting, gratuitous. Cast, wasted despite laudable efforts by Jennifer Aniston and Brooklyn Decker.

It is, to wit, an Adam Sandler film.

Movie: Tron:Legacy

2011-06-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

A sequel embracing the true spirit of sequels:

bigger budget (by 10x: $170M vs. $17M)
better technology (by 10,000x: Moore's Law)
more hero (by 3x: not just one Jeff Bridges but three of 'em)
highlights redux bigger (disc battles, lightcycle races, honkin' big wierd machines)
awesome music (Walter Carlos, meet Daft Punk)
more overall spectacle (imparting "yeah, that's what I remember, but cooler!")
and...and...oh, what was that last thing...oh, right - plot (I guess that mangled heap in the corner is a plot).

For geeks remembering Atari 800s and PC-selling Charlie Chaplin, a must-see return to a historical milestone.
For anyone else, a high-tech fireworks show - no real meaning, but still really fun to watch.

Rant: "That's where I want to be"

2011-05-26T17:56:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

Hurricane Pass, Tetons, Wyoming.
One of my fondest late-childhood memories was hiking there.

Quote: Why Doesn't Microsoft Understand Tablets

2011-03-02T09:13:00.000-08:00

Awesome quote from http://www.quora.com/Microsoft/Why-doesnt-Microsoft-understand-tablets

So, in this dream, er, nightmare I have, I walk into Steve Ballmer’s Microsoft office back in 2006 and say:
“Hi Steve, I gotta talk to you about our tablet strategy.”
“Sure, Scoble, what you thinking about?”
“Well, it sucks. It just isn’t working. Customers aren’t delighted. The market isn’t afire. Our employees are even bored with it.”
“So, what should we do?” he asks.
“We should ship a device that doesn’t run Office. Indeed, doesn’t run any Microsoft application. Doesn’t do multitasking. Doesn’t run Flash. Doesn’t have a camera. Can’t print. Can’t use a Microsoft Mouse or Keyboard, either. Oh, and just to be really revolutionary, we can’t put any of our normal packaging or stickers on the device or around it. Finally, we can’t sell it at Best Buy, but we have to build a new series of stores to distribute it in.”
“What the f*** are you smoking, Scoble? Get the f*** out of here before I call security. That’s the stupidest idea I’ve heard. Ever.”
Then I wake up and realize, no, I’m not Steve Jobs.

Link: Borepatch: I am TJIC

2011-01-27T10:39:00.000-08:00

The center of reporting & pontificating on the TJIC incident is at Borepatch: I am TJIC

Rant: I am TJIC

2011-01-25T13:29:00.000-08:00

Tis unwise for a government to oppress those who fear being oppressed by their government and opine it unwise.

Rant: Sony BDP-S570 "Internet Connection Failed"

2011-01-12T20:15:00.000-08:00

For those struggling with that error on that Blu-ray player...

Select Custom wireless network configuration, with:
IP Address something which no other device on your wireless network will have, say 192.168.1.111 (fiddle with the last number; try a random number between 150 and 254).
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 192.168.1.1
Primary DNS: 8.8.8.8 (Google's)
Secondary DNS: 8.8.4.4

Apply those numbers. If it doesn't take, wait a couple minutes and try again.

Worked for me.

Rant: Not Being Poor

2010-09-21T11:18:00.000-07:00

Not Being Poor
A Rebuttal to a Whiny Screed by John Scalzi

To not be poor...

...know exactly how much everything costs.

...don't let your kids waste their lives being indoctrinated by watching TV.

...buy $800 cars because they’re cheaper than fixing a newer one.

...know regular dental care and insurance is cheaper than tooth-rotting sweets.

...take care of your home so your kid's friends will want to come over to yours.

...don't be ashamed of saving money or accepting handouts.

...move far away from the freeway.

...buy a month's worth of rice for the price of one short-lived box of Raisin Bran.

...take a well-off sibling at his word when he says he doesn’t mind when you ask for help.

...buy off-brand toys.

...run a heater in only one room of the house.

...don't have "friends" who would steal $5 off your coffee table.

...plan for your kids to have a growth spurt.

...teach your kids stealing meat from the store is wrong and unacceptable under all conditions.

...buy Goodwill underwear.

...everyone who lives with you earns their keep.

...know the difference between inexpensive shoes and cheap shoes is not price.

...teach your kids to learn despite 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.

...know $8 an hour is way more than most people on the planet live on.

...know most people don’t give a damn about you no matter how much you make.

...work an overnight shift under florescent lights if need be.

...don't give your body to a man who you would have to beg for child support.

...be grateful you have a toilet.

...stop the car to take a lamp from a stranger’s trash.

...keep your kitchen so clean you won't have to worry whether a cockroach will skitter over the bread.

...know a GED actually makes a goddamned difference.

...don't shop at the mall.

...marry someone whom you trust to watch your kids if you must take a job.

...call the police to bust into the apartment right next to yours if you know they are criminals.

...talk to that girl even if she’ll probably just laugh at your clothes; maybe she won't.

...invite others for dinner, however humble.

...sweep up a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it.

...improve your language, knowing others learn about you by the way you talk.

...earn that 35-cent raise.

...make sure library, free and cheap books fill your home.

...go find 120 soda cans to earn that last six dollars for the utility bill.

...pick up and eat that dropped mac and cheese on the floor.

...work as hard as anyone, anywhere - then leverage what you've earned.

...don't be stupid.

...don't be lazy.

...spend the six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap talking to the cashier about payment options and plans.

...never buy anything someone else hasn’t bought first.

...pick the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that’s two extra packages for every dollar.

...teach your 14 year old to live with choices s/he makes.

...make people tired of you being grateful.

...know you’re being judged.

...buy a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.

...check the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.

...know you can always find or make shelter.

...don't spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.

...don't hope the register lady will spot you the dime.

...if your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won’t listen to you beg them against doing so, let go.

...don't ignore a cough that doesn’t go away.

...don't lease a couch.

...failing any other options, collecting cans included, you can survive a few days without $200 waiting for your paycheck to come in.

...take four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.

...sleep on a lumpy futon bed.

...know where the shelter is.

...know that many people who were poor are now not because they chose not to be so.

...quit sniveling over how hard it is to stop being poor.

...use the options you have.

...at minimum, run in place.

...leave.

Rant: Social Security

2010-09-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

There’s two core issues with arguments over Social Security’s viability.

1.       The existence of the “trust fund”

A key premise of the “Social Security is broke” crowd is the line “there is no ‘trust fund’, it’s just a Ponzi scheme.”

One may contend that there will be trillions of dollars in the fund a la federal bonds, ready to carry it on for decades to come.
One may contend that those dollars are merely self-owed IOUs, with the money having already been spent.

Roughing the numbers...
You pay two dollars of FICA tax.
Those dollars go to the Social Security Administration.
One dollar, allocated to current costs, goes right back out to pay dad’s SSI check this month.
Other dollar, being surplus, buys a US Treasury Bond as long-term stable investing – to wit, the “trust fund”.
That bond purchase routes that other dollar right back out to facilitate deficit spending.
The only “investment” at that point is a promise by the left hand that it will pay back the right hand.
This can only happen if
-          there is sufficient revenue at the time payment by the left hand is demanded by the right
-          another dollar of debt is created
-          or another dollar is printed.
Notice there is no actual investment, to wit tangible or legal property, involved in this “trust fund”.
The only way money goes out is if there is enough money coming in, either directly from FICA taxes or from general revenue used to pay off the bonds involved.
The “trust fund” is just shuffling the books with “I O Me”s.
It’s a Ponzi scheme.

2.       Political axioms and their impact on solutions

The reason some of the “myth”s originally enumerated were phrased the way they were is that if one holds certain axioms, there is no other way to put them. This, of course, strikes as odd those who hold different/conflicting axioms. Example:

"Myth: Benefit cuts are the only way to fix Social Security."

If, for assorted legitimate reasons, one holds that tax increases are not a valid option, and that budget re-shuffling is unviable, the short way to put the point is that, indeed, the only way to fix the problem of long-term Social Security viability is to cut benefits. Hold that axiom, and there is no other realistic option.

This, of course, seems odd to someone who does not hold that axiom. The response advocates that which a large fraction of the population opposes:

"Reality: ... If the very rich paid taxes on all of their income, Social Security would be sustainable for decades to come.5 Right now, high earners only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,000 of their
income.6 ..."

Hence what is plainly reasonable to some is legitimately outrageous to others. Their differing opinions are the natural consequence of differing axioms.

There’s an old computer science joke: “two plus two equals five ... for very large values of two.” To call some of the points “myths” is to create straw-man arguments: remove the foundational principles and definitions creating the wording, and look surprised and delighted when the wording crumbles.

Rant: "Daddy, what's a newspaper?"

2010-09-17T12:05:00.001-07:00

"Daddy, what's a newspaper?"
"They're like websites printed on paper. They would have the day's news."
"That would be a lot of paper. How were they distributed before WiUltraMax/15G networking?"
"Each street corner had a box that would have some."
"Really ancient technology, huh?"
"Not really dear. Here's a photo of you next to a newspaper vending machine."

That future conversation is why I took the picture.

Rant: We Count Wrong

2010-09-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

We count wrong.

OK, so integral base-10 works pretty well for most human endeavors, and floating-point base-10 covers most of the rest.
Kinda like Newtonian physics: good enough for small orders of magnitude.

Then there’s π.

Here’s a fundamental mathematical constant which is simple and ... untidy.
For all practical purposes it’s a perfect random-number generator – it’s that untidy.
We are amazed at the “transcendental” nature of such a simple and fundamental ratio.
We pick some arbitrary number of digits and make do with that approximation.
We try calculating it, and are amazed at the elegance of the patterns within the equations.
We obsess over how “cool” π is.

We’ve got it backwards.
It’s not that π has an infinite number of digits seemingly random yet produced by elegant equations.
It’s that our number system is grossly inefficient.
It’s not that π is irrational.
It’s that we are irrational.
We count wrong.

Consider:
e = 2.71828182845904523536…. in base-10.
Like π, e is transcendental and fundamental, with many of the same characteristics.
Many years ago I stumbled across someone’s observation that e – akin to π – could be expressed in “base-factorial” notation in a very clean way. Rather than each digit being a simple order-of-magnitude multiplication, it represents a factorial multiplication. Follow the link for more confusionclarification.
e = 10.011111... in base-factorial.
Expressed in the right terminology, it’s very simple.
π exhibits much of the same behavior, lacking only suitable simple expression.

One of the great failings of humans is the insistence on forcing everything to fit within our prejudices.
Great success oft comes from getting over those prejudices and accepting what is as it is.
We have a profound ingrained prejudice born of our DNA-influenced number of extremities.
Methinks the great hindrance to human mathematical progress is our stubborn insistence on mapping the universe to our fingers.
This works fine for small orders of magnitude – just like Newtonian gravity works fine for falling apples.
This gets untenable for large orders of magnitude – just like Newtonian gravity doesn’t work for apples falling at speeds near that of light.
Approximations to a few decimal places work fine for most cases.
To be correct, however, we find the theory of base-10 counting just doesn’t work.
Computing π to any significant degree takes enormous amounts of effort; figuring any given digit requires figuring all the digits before it.
When we took a change in counting seriously, by embracing and following base-2, we changed the nature of human knowledge in a few years.
Computing π in base-2 is, in fact, easy; figuring any given bit can be calculated directly, independent of bits before and after.
Our counting, and by extension our math, is wrong.
We count wrong.
Computers demonstrate it.
π proves it.

I now return you to wondering what the he11 I just wrote and why.

Movie: The Book of Eli

2010-07-30T13:16:00.001-07:00

Blade meets The Road, minus the vampires.

Post-apocalyptic action thriller, featuring a supercool neo-samurai figure on a mission to deliver a book across a dry barren wasteland. Great action, great visuals, twist ending that doesn't trust the audience to step beyond an old cliche.

A point for discussion (not a spoiler; will make sense after watching): in the end, he doesn't have to be ___ for the rest to work.

Rant: Bandwidth

2010-06-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

Of late I’ve been mulling the “price per bit” over time (not in depth, nothing to show for the thoughts yet). The price has plummeted. Where we used to treasure every byte received, we now have a “cloud” serving vast piles of data which we give a scant glance then discard.

With this iPad thingie, I moved an average of 10kb/sec all last month – one bit every 0.0001 seconds. Small wonder AT&T is throttling users on the large-but-limited bandwidth 3G network. They’re getting $0.000001/bit (or less).

So...
-          The iPad is a hit, moving huge volumes of product. Apple sold 2 million in two months, and that was just to the “early adopters” in the USA. About half of those run 3G.
-          The iPhone 4 is due soon (today?). That front-facing camera will open the floodgates of videophone calls, magnifying the data demands of otherwise normal calls.
-          Google just announced GoogleTV – another huge draw on internet video. Expect a revamping & push of Apple TV in response.
-          4G wireless is gearing up, with Verizon about to throw the nationwide on switch, AT&T soon to follow, and Clear & Sprint already running it. Lots more bandwidth to cover the aforementioned load, once we consumers upgrade our hardware.

Tangent while I’m blathering:
The fight over Flash on the iP* makes me think we’re on the cusp of a “Tower of Babel” moment. So far all internet-connected devices speak pretty much the same language and follow the same technosocial protocols. There may be “dialects”, but everyone kinda gets along.
At some point some faction (*cough*Apple*cough) will choose to stop supporting some part of the “internet language” outright (*cough*Flash*cough*), causing a sharp separation of network participants, a separation which cannot be bridged without concerted effort. New cultural divides will form, defined by users’ inability to “just go there”; millions of iP* users won’t give up their uber-mobile life-changing devices, and TimeWarner/NBC/CBS/whaever won’t give up Flash just for a small fraction of their customers ... a division which just won’t be bridged.

Let the balkanization of the “exascale web” begin. There’s enough bandwidth & data out there to support it.

BTW: Google is about to introduce their outright replacement for Windows. They expect a million users on day one.

Rant: Rampage in Whitehaven

2010-06-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2996697/Shooting-horror-in-Whitehaven.htm

Somebody killed a bunch of people in England.

Dave writes "How? I thought the people were all disarmed in England to make it safer?"

I ... I don't understand. It can't be. It must be untrue. It's unpossible.
I mean ... there are words on paper somewhere that prohibit such things, right? Not that anyone but the elite keepers of the law have seen those words. I mean, really, there are WORDS ON PAPER! This can't happen! The evil nature of ... of ... I can't say the word* ... THOSE THINGS ... must be overwhelming and awful. That poor man ... somehow he ends up with ... one of those THINGS ... and he just couldn't help himself. Let's all pitch in ... I mean ALL, the police will encourage community cooperation ... to give this poor man a comfortable life to help him cope with such a dire experience. And where did that ... THING ... come from? We must scour every home to ensure there are none of those ... THINGS ... in our community. Oh, it's not a violation of "right to be secure in one's home and effects" to do such a search, it helps enhance that right by ensuring such ... THINGS ... do not threaten our community. So it's settled then? It should be unanimous, so it is. We raise taxes to pay for that poor man's retirement, and we send our kind SWAT team to search every home for those ... THINGS ... and everything will be much better. I'm feeling very sunny and cheerful now.

My word, I'm starting to understand how people end up thinking that way. I need to go shoot something and then have a stiff drink.

Rant: ultra-low-budget movies

2010-05-21T08:51:00.000-07:00

I have a fondness for ultra-low-budget movies.

Prime examples:
Blair Witch Project - Actors, with just camping equipment and mundane audio/video equipment (which was part of the story), were actually sent into the woods for 5 days, and were given cryptic directions they would find on scraps of paper lying in their path. They really did get tired, dirty, stressed & scared.
Cube - Aside from a handful of simple digital effects shots, the entire film was shot in a 10’ cube. Change of “location” was achieved by color filters on lights.
El Mariachi - Made for $7000, raised by the director/producer submitting to paid medical experimentation. Lighting was just two cheap lamps cleverly arranged. Extras included two local hostile-to-the-production talk-show hosts won over by giving them cameos. DVD includes fascinating 10-minute lesson on cutting corners.

Done right, the viewer has no clue there was practically no budget – because the story, directing and acting were right.

El Mariachi’s director, Robert Rodriguez, went on to become a major Hollywood player. He still does all post-production work in his garage.

All too often, when you pare a big-budget production down to the story and its truth, there’s nothing there to convey. If you don’t have a story to tell, but have to tell one, money can still buy fame.

Tangent:
I’d love to do a series of shorts that take the start of blockbuster movies, then apply a moment of realism which abruptly cuts the film short. There’s a 007 film that starts where Bond jumps off a cliff to freefall into an uncontrolled airplane, then a long blind pause reveals he has succeeded in catching up & taking control before it crashes; I’d edit in a fireball, then roll credits (backed by a slow zoom in on a dark smear on the canyon floor). Likewise a slasher movie where the first would-be victim grabs a 12-gauge, performs the indicated response, then resumes the night of fun & frolic with the others.
Edit: xkcd wins...

Tangent to the tangent:
The high point of Executive Decision was 20 minutes in, where a big-name actor abruptly falls out of a plane and is not seen again.

Blatant Plug: The Survivalist Blog

2010-05-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

M.D. Creekmore over at the The Survivalist Blog – a survival blog dedicated to helping others prepare for and survive disaster – with articles on bug out bag contents, survival knife choices and a wealth of other survival information is giving away a Go Berkey Water Filter System (a $139.00 value)! To enter, you just have to post about it on your blog. This is my entry. Visit The Survivalist Blog for the details.

Pun: 5th of May

2010-05-06T10:54:00.000-07:00

Nearly 100 years ago, Mexicans discovered a European condiment made of whipped oil & eggs. They went crazy over it, and would not be satisfied with homemade Central American versions of it – no, they demanded the real thing from Great Britain. Arrangements were made for a large shipment of this smooth, white delicacy via the Titanic.

Well, you know what happened to that shipment.

News of the loss of the huge and much-anticipated cargo reached Mexico on May 5. Enthusiastic expectation turned to horror and lament, so great that every year the nation remembers the loss with ... Sinko de Mayo.

Rant: Perception

2009-12-15T16:39:00.000-08:00

We sense an incredible amount of data, far beyond what gets filtered down to a tiny articulable amount. Sometimes some of that data bypasses some of those filters, or seeps thru anyway, and reaches conscious cognition anyway – kinda freaking us out in the process with the manifestation of the perception & interpretation. AFAIK the phenomenon of autism is the lack of certain mental filters, inundating the autistic’s cognition with huge amounts of raw data, allowing for the “savant” ability to perceive & recall intricate details, and as a consequence be unable to focus on particular details which are socially expected by “neurotypicals”.

For a more sane analysis of nuanced perception, read Tom Brown’s “Science and Art of Tracking”. Might help translate the weirdness of perceptive dreams and nutcase supernaturalism into the reality of better understanding what you do perceive.

Movie: Taken

2009-10-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

Teenage daughter vacations in Paris. Father has 96 hours to rescue her from kidnappers. Visceral, compelling tale - to parents, about what evils may befall their offspring; to older children, a reveal of how evil others can be and how playful ignorance can kill.

I put this with Braveheart as a story parents should share with their older (!) kids, a platform for frank discussion of how much of the world operates and how we should behave in response.

Well done as an entertaining thriller. Downfall is how so much of the story relies of nick-of-time coincidences; consider how different an end if only actions spanning days occurred a few seconds off. As a father of a playful little girl, I hoped for somewhat more applicable solutions to every parent's nightmare. Perhaps a trip to Storm Mountain's High Risk Personnel training (to wit: how to survive a kidnapping) is in order.

Movie: X-Men Origins Wolverine

2009-10-14T06:33:00.001-07:00

Teeth-grinding adrenaline-pumping low-cognition guy movie. The three prior X-Men movies alluded to the mysterious amnesic history of the unsophisticated yet compelling character Wolverine; this story at long last unfolds his 175-year lifespan - and why that one nasty badguy is so keen on almost but not quite killing him.

Understand that this movie is a tangent to the obsessively complex X-Men comic book series. Lots of characters are introduced, many with very brief involvements featuring unexplained extreme behavior which will leave fanboys smiling and nodding while their SOs tilt their heads wondering "what the heck was THAT all about?" Relax, enjoy, and recognize this is just a small part of a much bigger story.

Movie: The Woman in White

2009-10-14T06:28:00.000-07:00

Another nicely-done Victorian-era chick-flick about aristocrats jockeying for positions to marry up, access fortunes, and bump off anyone in their way. This one is a bit darker than usual, as we discover why the ghostly, disheveled & deranged woman in white is the key to the high-society combat that unfolds.

Surgery: complications and recovery

2009-10-01T07:29:00.000-07:00

Went home for a couple days, then had signs of internal bleeding so I went back to the hospital for another week.

Upshot for the whole affair:
- Lost one organ (gallbladder)
- Almost lost another organ (pancreas)
- Seriously annoyed another (liver)
- Got knocked out 4 times
- 4 CaT scans
- 1 radioactive injection
- Transfused 9 units of blood & plasma
- Starved for most of 2 weeks
- Lost 10 pounds
- Jabbed with needles maybe 100 times
...and thankful for all of it.

We have a wonderful health care system. Everything done was just between me and my 8+ doctors. Keep government bureaucrats out of it.

Recipe: No-fat Peach Cobbler

2009-09-20T18:12:00.000-07:00

No-fat Peach Cobbler

1 cup self-rising flour
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup dried milk powder
1 15-oz can sliced peaches “lite; no sugar added”

Reconstitute milk powder using 2/3 cup juice from can (which should contain right amount; add water if needed).
Mix flour, sugar, milk until smooth.
Pour into 8” non-stick baking pan.
Lay peach slices on top.
Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.

Convenient for camping! No refrigeration needed. Carry dry ingredients in zip-loc bag, mixing in bag when ready. Don’t forget a can opener. Heat Dutch oven in campfire coals, use 3 pebbles to raise baking pan from bottom of oven.

Surgery: success

2009-09-10T18:16:00.000-07:00

Seems all went well. Am very tired. More details later.

Surgery: Gallbladder

2009-09-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

Long story short, here I am in a hospital bed waiting for my anti-coagulation reversal so I can get my gallbladder yanked out torrow afternoon. Karen is napping, and Kirsten is figuring out how this bed works. I'm trying to ignore the pain in my upper abdomen caused by gallstones, an inflamed gallbladder, and possibly a plugged pancreatic duct. And I'm sharing it with you! Soon I get pumped with "fresh frozen plasma" to bring my blood clotting rates back to near (but not too near; see last year's heart surgery) normal.

Not sure what else to add. Next post may be after surgery, and I may be groggy/incoherent.

Movie: Bridget Jones - The Edge Of Reason

2009-08-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

This sequel to Bridget Jones' Diary is, as sequels are, a distillation and enhancement of the more memorable portions of the original. In this case, we get our heroine looking less fashionable, more unduly idiotic, and more pitiable, all garnering more affection from the audience. It's just one tantalizingly embarrassing moment after another, culminating (and wallowing) in sweetness. Likewise, we get our hero looking ever more cold, heartless, and misunderstood to conceal the sheer depths of his affection and devotion to her. And of course, we get our villain ever more cavalier, attractive, self-serving and heartless, so much that when he gets his due we don't really care - not for lack of making us care, but because he has so earned his complete lack thereof.

Let us hope there is a Celebrity Extreme Makeover show just so news-anchor Bridget can finally look the part for her man.

Rant: Minimum Wage Increase

2009-07-17T05:55:00.000-07:00

The dollar is about to be devalued again, as minimum wage will soon be increased to $7.25/hour. Remember the "gold standard"? now we have the "commodity labor" standard. ...and the standard is about to be adjusted downward.

$1 will now be worth 8 minutes and 17 seconds of commodity labor (mundane jobs like floor sweeping which virtually anyone can do).

This change will have a ripple effect whereby prices will adjust to reflect the new value. During this adjustment period those getting "minimum wage" will have a temporary advantage in the marketplace. Over time this ripple will settle out, and those making minimum wage will be back in the same position in the economy as before.

The value of commodity labor and the value of commodity goods will, on the whole, maintain their relative proportional balance. A gallon of gas will, after this economic ripple effect settles down, still cost 1/3rd hour of work - no matter the numeric declaration of the medium of economic exchange. Whatever a dollar is, and no matter how many of them you get for sweeping floors for an hour, you'll still have to sweep a floor for about 20 minutes to buy a gallon of gas.

Movie: Knowing

2009-07-16T07:42:00.000-07:00

Eeeexcellent.

Setting aside the obvious questions of "how could it be THAT precise?" and "why did they take THAT path instead of just grabbing 'em?", an amazing what-if tale of knowing exactly when, where, and how many a series of horrible events would take. Just one piece of paper with a series of numbers, leading to a discovery of meaning that destroys one's philosophy of cause, effect, and probability.

The intensity is sustained, believable, and fresh. Great drama, great horror, thought-provoking. The previews I expect you have seen show imagery hinting at what I can reveal is an absolutely spectacular sequence of total devestation, winning this stage of the ongoing struggle of filmmakers to evoke the most mind-blowing depiction of the destruction of a popular location.

Movie: 28 Weeks Later

2009-07-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

The first part of this instant franchise, 28 Days Later, told of the "Rage virus" outbreak in England, which killed nearly everyone by either becoming a zombie* or being eaten by one. The few who survive do so by their wits and risks, being picked off as the relentless packs cross their paths. A stronghold against the outbreak is found, but human nature being what it is even the safest place is not. Little of 28 Days Laater involves zombies, but that little more than makes up for the disparity via sheer frenetic intensity. Insofar as the ending manages to be happy, it is a happy ending (meh).

In typical sequel fasion, 28 Weeks Later takes the most memorable bits and spends most screen time addressing that material: lots of action, punctuated by intense social drama. This time, however, the standard degrading formula really works as the distilled essence pulls the material into a more powerful and accessable story. Having been revealed in the first story that England, being isolated, did not infect the rest of humanity, we learn some 28 weeks after the initial outbreak that the Rage virus has burned itself out and that London may be rebuilt and repopulated. ...at least until two children return from their well-timed trip abroad (having saved them from the outbreak) and, evading adult authority and containment as children tend to, they return home to find their treasured belongings - and their presumed-dead mother. The virus isn't gone, but there is, for a few, a natural resistance to the disease which must be preserved and exploited at all costs. The remaining tale follows the consequences of this discovery, which is simple and dramatic, and may not be predictable. Those of us who appreciate such horror films will, to be obtuse, look forward to 28 Months Later.

* - A trait of modern zombie movies is to never use the word "zombie".

Movie: Australia

2009-07-14T07:01:00.000-07:00

Good solid drama. Finding herself in charge of her late husband's cattle ranch with little advanced notice and little staff to manage it, finding herself unavoidably falling for a contractor thereof, and finding herself the virtual adoptive mother of a half-breed aboriginal boy, our heroine must save the Pacific cattle industry on behalf of the WWII US military and in defiance of an Australian robber baron. ...and this movie pulls it off!

Action, romance, capitalism, survival, and all the other elements of the classic popular American story - set, of course, in Australia.

Movie: Man On Fire

2009-07-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

Director Tony Scott has developed a unique style, featuring frenetic hand-cranked multi-shot saturated-color imagery (see the short "Agent Orange" for a PG introduction). This is often poured on thick during high-action, high-stress, and/or high-violence scenes. Know this before watching, as it may be too much for some viewers.

This is a revenge movie. It isn't happy, though characters grow, repent and redeem themselves. The story arc is dramatic as a haunted bodyguard learns to live & love again, only to fail his job, and in revenge proceed to eliminate everyone involved (how that ends may be predictable, but is dramatic).

In stark contrast to, say Shoot 'Em Up, the action herein is believable - perhaps too believable for some tastes. The hero is not impervious to temptation, frustration, nor bullets, and I don't mean idealized versions of any of them.

Well done for a visually stunning tragedy.

Movie: Punisher - War Zone

2009-06-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

The comic book series Punisher is a hyper-violent ongoing tale of a man wreaking havoc and hell upon the criminal underworld in retaliation for the wanton death of his family. This movie captures that world, persona, and consequences perfectly. If you know who The Punisher is and find the concept intriguing, see this; if not, don't.

Movie: Shoot 'Em Up

2009-06-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

Duh-YAM. Talk about over the top. As Ebert describes Shoot ‘Em Up: “This one goes so far, if you even want to get that far, you have to start half-way there, which means you have to be a connoisseur of the hard-boiled action genre and its serio-comic sub-basement.” Hard-boiled indeed. This is Woo’s Hard Boiled crossed with Children of Men.

Let me clarify that last comment. This movie is actually inspired by a scene from Hard Boiled, where the hero runs around with a newborn while being shot at (that being an enormous understatement). The actor for this movie did practically the same thing – i.e.: run around with a newborn while being shot at (that, also, being an understatement) – not long ago in Children of Men. Now, having identified the two grittiest movies regarding protecting a newborn whilst dodging pallets of high-velocity lead, we get two hours of that premise involving so much lead viewers should be greeted with an FDA health warning during the opening credits. This one goes so far … well, Ebert summed that up.

My rating? Maybe as low as 3/5. Intense visuals (mostly involving firefights), gratuitous copulation (during firefights), and ever-more-over-the-top situations (featuring firefights), you’d think that that many baddies with that much firepower directed at one person that exposed that long would somehow manage to get one little chunk of Pb on target. He, on the other hand, took out more people with carrots. Entertaining to be sure (at least until some needless politicking was injected), but not meaningful or life-enriching. The Matrix at least explored pop psychology.

Movie: I Am Legend

2009-06-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

Truly we are entering the golden age of zombie movies. The zombies themselves, meh, but the story of the survivors grows to great, if gory, depths.

In flashbacks we learn how our hero* experienced the traumatic fall of civilization, crashing into a few loners striving against the hordes of remaining zombies**. The story arc here is fine (if a bit flawed), from loss to survival to quest to success to final price paid. The zombies are a little too animated and a little too smart, but the rest of the movie makes that forgivable.

Between this and 28 Days Later, I'm impressed by the depth of the genre, and how major hyper-active cities can be filmed as dead.

* - I'm noticing how some movies have characters worthy of the moniker "hero", while others merely have "protagonists".

** - Zombie movies never use the term "zombie" anymore.

Movie: Hitman

2009-06-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

Exactly what older teen boys want to see, and exactly what their mothers don't want them to: violence and sex, both naively under- & over-portrayed at once. Hey, it's based on a video game - go figure.

Our protagonist is the viewer viscerally living thru the bald social misfit formed into the perfect assassin. He takes on one target after another in ... ya know, I don't quite remember and don't quite care. Suffice to say he takes on one target after another, and saves - or doesn't - the girl. Slick, cool, not the slightest consideration of real-world consequences (which, in stark juxtaposition, Munich does to a fault).

Ladies, you don't want to see this. You probably don't want your man seeing this either, but he very well may when given a chance to do so.

Movie: Renaissance

2009-06-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

A moderately interesting kidnapping mystery, presented in an incredible new visual style - with the latter overwhelming the former.

The visual style is what Sin City wanted to be but didn't quite achieve: live action in striking black-and-white - and I mean only black and only white, save for a slight use of flat single-tone gray and a tiny dash of color. All action was acquired with computerized motion-capture, down to the minute facial expressive details which The Polar Express, otherwise amazing, was derided for lacking. The captured motions then translated to detailed 3D graphics, in turn flattened to purely black and white. The result is amazing. The result is a live-action cartoon, a slick union of contradictory visual techniques.

The story, sorry to say, isn't as sharply stunning. In no way does the story lack, but neither does it triumph - serving more as a premise for applying the long desired and never achieved imagery.

Movie: London

2009-06-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

I picked up this movie because the soundtrack was done by The Crystal Method. The album is good, the movie ... well, it's another movie about losers.

Unable, for no good reason, to declare his love for his girlfriend (name: London) with a simple and unprompted "I love you", they part ways. Learning she is to enjoy a going-away party for her move to the other coast, he crashes the party, hides in the bathroom (sharing dope and engaging in impassioned and meaningless conversations with whoever wanders in), he eventually learns what is meant by "too little too late". Loser.

I'd like to know why some people enjoy such films. I guess they're uplifting for some; I can't imagine what life would see it as such.

Movie: Munich

2009-06-16T19:10:00.000-07:00

You MUST see One Day In September first. To understand Munich, you must watch the documentary of the hostage-taking in the Munich Olympics. This movie, being historical fiction, picks up where the documentary must leave off: Israel's covert, and still mostly secret, project to assassinate those responsible for killing the Jewish athletes. Without this background, one may fall into the common error of misunderstanding the process and reality of why & how this project was done. Yes, it's fiction - but sometimes fiction tells us the story of reality we cannot, for want of secrecy, be told. Well done, though not entertaining.

Movie: A Fistful of Dollars

2009-06-15T19:05:00.000-07:00

Now that's a western.

An older film, featuring younger rock-solid star Clint Eastwood, of a nobody wandering into the middle of a feud destroying a small nowhere town. With few words, subtle action, and intrigued by the money to be made in the process, our nameless hero destroys both gangs and saves the innocent, asking nothing else in return - even the money is ultimately nothing to him.

I'm usually not big on westerns, but this one works.

Book: On Writing (Stephen King)

2009-06-14T18:53:00.000-07:00

In one of the several forwards to this book, the author comments that a book about writing should be short. Indeed, the essence of the book is 29 pages - weighty enough that aspiring writers should read it, often. Another 100 pages or so gives useful insights on applying that core material. The rest of the book, which lists for $8, is autobiography which (A) while interesting would be difficult to publish in its own right, and (B) bulks out the text so you don't feel slighted by $4.

King is indeed a skillful writer, making the reader feel very comfortable (save for copious obscenities) and expresses his advice clearly and usefully. Being successful and talented, his advice is valuable being from one who has lived the reality of the industry, providing subtle suggestions and contradictions which add value far beyond what an academic portrayal of the craft would usually entail.

Thinking of writing? Get this book. The slim portion on "Toolbox" is more than worth the cover price.

Movie: .45

2009-06-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

Losers.

That really just sums it up nicely. The movie is well acted, and the story is strong as stories go, but it's about ... losers, being losers, losing. Meh. Actually took me three days to get through it because I couldn't watch it all in one stretch, but having paid for it and spent enough time watching what I did I just wanted to see which of several possible losing endings the losers would lose by. I want a story where, somehow, I can look up to the protagonist(s); for this, I had to squint to see that low.

Story? He's a jerk, she won't leave, and conspiracies form to, er, extricate one from the other. She could have just walked out, but then the movie would have been about 10 minutes long.

Movie: A Scanner Darkly

2009-05-28T06:48:00.000-07:00

A faithful, if abridged, adaptation of Philip K. Dick*’s novel. Undercover narcotics cop Fred is ordered to comprehensively investigate hardcore drug addict Bob; there’s just one problem ... Fred is Bob. Then comes the twist…
In a nearly inexplicable turn of movie production, the entire movie was filmed live, then hand-animated (rotoscoped) into stark, flat “posterized” coloring. Interesting result; save for one important visual effect I don’t see why they did it (“because it hadn’t been done” aside).
The book was significantly more depressing. The movie kinda hustles you thru the WTF elements, the book gives you full icky development thereof.
Upshot: a should-see for those fond of experimental mild-scifi tragedies; other people, not so much.

(* - PKD wrote the stories later turned into Blade Runner, Paycheck, Minority Report, and several other mind-benders.)

Movie: Rebecca

2009-04-06T08:39:00.001-07:00

In standard Masterpiece Theater style, we have another classic British aristocratic drama in the Jane Austin / Emily Bronte tradition. Lower-class girl finds herself romantically entangled with a fabulously wealthy man, and must endure fancy clothes, fancier accoutrements, palacial residence, formal balls, aristocratic snobs & twits, strange servants, and her man's dark secret which they together face, heroically overcome and humbly suffer the tragic consequences of, abiding in the deep love they share after all.

Movie: War

2009-03-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

Modern "Dirty Harry" cop vs perfect Japanese intra-gang asassin. Cool guy-movie mindless violent action gets too clever for it's own good at the end. I hate such endings.

Movie: Only You

2009-03-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

Cheesy romantic comedy. If you'd say yes to a guy like this then you'd get what you deserve. Oh sure it's funny, but really...

Movie: 88 Minutes

2009-03-22T18:52:00.001-07:00

Al Pachino's invariable character sets the tone for a psychological thriller where a psychologist has 88 minutes to realize an incarcerated serial killer is out to get him, and how. Exactly what such a description sounds like it will get you if you're in the mood for such a story.

Movies: Top Ten

2009-03-05T10:18:00.000-08:00

I'm occasionally asked for my top ten movies. Here's a whack at it:

1. Koyaanisqatsi
"Life out of balance": a two-hour minimalist music video, no actors, no script, just the mesmerizing arpeggios of Philip Glass bolstering a portrayal of city life on a scale you rarely perceive - and how, someday, it must tragically collapse. I just can't see this one enough, and have done so at least 8 time (once with live introduction by Glass).

2. Being Human
A forgotten film, portraying Robin Williams as Everyman across the ages. Set in four eras, we see different parts of the same life (as most lives are mostly the same) played out in vastly different eras. Moving, capturing love lost, gained, and all in between - including the eternal quest for shoes that fit.

3. Braveheart
Powerful portrayal of manliness: total devotion to family and country at the cost of total personal sacrifice. FREEEEDOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!

4. The Truman Show
Good stories depict the arc of personal discovery and change; what could be more so than discovering one's entire life is the set and subject of a TV series, recorded and broadcast by thousands of cameras, and everyone around is a hired extra? Moody music by Philip Glass as a bonus.

5. Ghost Dog
A loser in the 'hood is, by momentary shoulder-shrugging whim, saved from death by a mobster. Thereafter said loser reads the ancient samurai text Hagakuri, and immediately devotes himself fully to the samurai way - and the perplexed thug who saved him. Leveraging this resource, this mid-level mobster uses him as an assassin ... and when the hits make things too complicated, the mob tries to take him out. Unusually, the script brings out the mobsters as the dingy losers they are, and portrays the tragedy of a devotee of a Way without any teacher to guide him.

6. Blade Runner
Gritty, messy, intense thriller that asks what it means to be human. "Time to die" ends one of the great on-screen pontifications. Subject to inappropriate editing in earlier releases, find the "Final Cut" version, done as the director intended.

7. Babette's Feast
A lovely, gentle tale (yes, I have a soft side) of secluded life in a religious commune, and the effect that good food can have on lives.

8. La Femme Nikita
Lost to society and subject to the death penalty, our dysfunctional heroine is trained to be a dark betrayer and agent of society: a spy. Particularly striking, among the gritty setting and tragic consequences, is how we the audience are _not_ privy to the whys and wherefores of her assignments. (The American remake of this French film fails precisely because we _do_ get answers and see consequences.)

9. The Lord of the Rings
A grand portrayal of the fantasy epic. Abridged (focusing on the high action, neglecting the art and scenery along the way), and flawed (director Peter Jackson should stick to filming stories, not altering them), but otherwise captures the vast scale and grandeur of the tale.

10. The Matrix
Whoa. Fantastic kick-butt sci-fi heady action. Not insightful, just way cool.

Honorable mentions:

Equilibrium
The Matrix meets Farenheit 451 meets 1984 in this stylized future of governmental eradication of anything emotionally stimulating. Preposterous, but very cool. In the commentary track, the director observes "action is how men express romance on film. Whether it be romance for family, wives, children, king, country, it doesn't matter. They express their love by whipping ass in the name of one or the other of the above."

Pi
Cube
The Blair Witch Project
El Mariachi
I have a fondness for ultra-low-budget movies: given very little to work with, and forced into thinking way outside the box (or, in the case of Cube, being stuck inside a very small box), capturing the essence of a _good_ story is a remarkable achievement.

Romeo and Juliet
Hamlet
The MTV-modern depictions of these classics show how well Shakespeare captured the essence of timeless human existence. Transplanted into modern-time alternate-universe settings of Verona Beach CA and Denmark Corp. respectively (where much is as life is now save for everyone speaking Elizabethan English, and Post Haste Delivery & Elsinore Castle Apartments are socially well-known), the essence of the Bard's works still shines.

Movie: Playtime

2009-03-04T10:17:00.000-08:00

Tour-de-force bad, on par with Russian Ark. We’re talking grand unique concept, huge execution, laudable acting & cinematography, worthy of adulation in all things – and it is unbelievably boring. Filmed in large-frame 70mm to capture all the detail, it indeed captures all the detail as intended ... so very much detail that, in a possible and unintended view thru an autistic’s eyes, anything akin to story and social interaction is almost completely lost amidst the surrounding activity.

Movie: How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days

2009-03-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

a decent date movie that no guy would want to see with his date. I only consented to see it long after I married her. Very predictable, occasionally embarrassing, generally an amusing chick flick. Next movie?

Movie: WALL-E

2009-03-02T10:16:00.000-08:00

Another win from Pixar, marred only by the slightly heavy-handed moralizing about environmentalism. A long-awaited attempt at a pop animation with minimal dialog. Cute, clever, insightful ... but I just can’t quite think of much to add here.

Movie: The Phantom of the Opera

2009-03-01T10:15:00.000-08:00

Not the high-budget drama-laden tear-jerking love-story version. This is the same story, but shows that one story viewed slightly askance becomes sheer horror.

Movie: Corpse Bride

2009-02-28T10:13:00.000-08:00

Another nifty over-the-top physical animation by Tim Burton et al, following the feel of The Nightmare Before Christmas without being a sequel. Pretty good if you like that kind of thing.

Movie: Pitch Black

2009-02-27T10:15:00.001-08:00

Over-the-top yet uber-cool bad-ass guy movie. Ok, so it’s about escaping a crash-landing on a planet that rarely sees night, which of course our heros & anti-heros arrive just in time for, only to watch the crew picked off by light-fearing hungry alien beasts.

Movie: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

2009-02-27T10:15:00.000-08:00

TV adaptations of stories rarely live up to the depth & edge we hope for. Too much time building up the lanky, irritating character of Ichabod Crane, too much time on the obligatory and non-canonical love triangle, and far too little time on the encounter with the real-after-all Headless Horseman.

Movie: Resident Evil

2009-02-27T10:13:00.001-08:00

Mila Jojovich killing zombies. ‘nuff said. Don’t expect more. Get the popcorn, guys.

Movie: The Fall of the House of Usher

2009-02-27T10:12:00.001-08:00

A great movie – insofar as the silent-movie era goes. Unlikely to interest modern generations save for historical value. It was the best of its time, portraying depth despite technical & artistic limitations; we've moved on to another millenium now.

Movie: The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns

2009-02-27T10:11:00.003-08:00

A full-length young children’s movie, with just enough grown-up material thrown in to keep Mom & Dad interested. The two plot lines hardly intersect. Good for your 3-year-old when you have to watch too.

Movie: Sweeney Todd

2009-02-27T10:11:00.001-08:00

High comic musical about cannibalism. Pulls you past the sheer gore into grand humor, then smacks you over the head with the reality that wanton murder isn’t funny. Incredibly gory.

Movie: Princess of Thieves

2009-02-27T10:10:00.000-08:00

OK tale of Robin Hood’s teen daughter. Made for your teen daughter.

Movie: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2009-02-27T10:09:00.000-08:00

Same actors, same directors & producers, bigger budget, shouldn’t have bothered. Kinda betrayed the original with over-the-top here-we-go-again action-for-action's-sake kitch. On the documentary track, Spielberg & Lucas comment that an “Indy vs. aliens” story would just be wrong – and they were right.

Movie: Return to Me

2009-02-27T10:08:00.004-08:00

A touching tale of love lost, love found, and the painful connection therebetween. His wife dies, and his new girlfriend ends up with – literally – her heart. How he discovers & copes with this is tactfully done. Yours truly saw it a little too soon after open-heart surgery, and found other things to do in the kitchen during some scenes.

Movie: Cube 2: Hypercube

2009-02-27T10:08:00.003-08:00

Over-talky under-informed mutation of its solid (and brutal) predecessor. Several seemingly unrelated people cope – and eventually don’t – with suddenly finding themselves in a four-dimensional maze. Unfortunately, the scriptwriter had a weak grasp of what multi-dimensional space would actually behave like, and we are subject to lots of non-sequitor bizarreness. The ending is needlessly nasty.

Movie: Jane Eyre

2009-02-27T10:08:00.001-08:00

Grand portrayal of the classic story. Well done if you like Jane Austin / Emily Bronte sort of things.

Movie: The Count of Monte Cristo

2009-02-27T10:07:00.004-08:00

A really good swashbuckling tale of righting wrongs.

Movie: Eragon

2009-02-27T10:07:00.003-08:00

Entertaining adventure about a boy and his dragon vs. hordes of evil minions. First of a trilogy. Read the book instead.

Movie: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

2009-02-27T10:07:00.001-08:00

Slightly more grown-up Disney fare, recounting the survival and rediscovery of Atlantis. Nicely done if you can follow the somewhat hyperactive pacing, and can deal with the new-ageism.

Movie: The Spiderwick Chronicles

2009-02-27T10:06:00.000-08:00

Engaging tale of the fantasy world that lives just outside our view, and what happens when you start meddling with it. Cute, for older kids.

Movie: Phantom of the Opera (1989)

2008-11-24T18:28:00.000-08:00

The famed story, without the lush music, without the stylized idealism, and with all the horror it can muster. Fall for the other version before letting this (albeit good) one terrorize you.

News: doing great

2008-11-22T16:11:00.000-08:00

Just to allay any concerns (which have been expressed): I feel great! Recovery went very well, and aside from a mild bout of periocarditis and distinct over-doing-it limits, I could not ask for better. We are blessed to have such a GOOD health care system in this country.

Movie: Pitch Black

2008-11-22T16:01:00.000-08:00

This Chronicles of Riddick tale is surprisingly restrained for our über-cool sci-fi action anti-hero. As dazzling daylight fades to indefinite night, the story just can't quite pull off the terrors of the dark, or even quite the totality of the dark itself. An entertaining, if shallow, story.

Rant: Palin vs. Obama

2008-08-29T20:44:00.000-07:00

Dems can't complain about Sarah Palin's experience because Barack Obama has less time in office than she does, and she actually has executive experience.

Dems can't complain about her gender because he's playing the race card with only half a deck.

Dems can't complain about her debating skills (as some are claiming Biden will trounce her) because he can't function without a script.

Dems can't complain about her staunch views because his VP is a hardcore long-term DC insider.

Dems can't complain about her hotness because his charisma is about all he's got.

Dems can't complain about her position on guns & abortion because he doesn't have any position (meaningless waffling & "that's above my pay grade").

Dems can't complain about her getting the single-issue female vote because his biggest appeal is the single-issue black vote.

Dems can't complain about her coming from an obscure state because he doesn't seem to think there's life outside Chicago.

Dems can't complain about her coming from an obscure state (twice over) because it's not even clear he's from this country.

Dems can't complain she's too weak to be VP because every complaint squarely reflects back on Obama running for POTUS.

Sarah Palin: McCain's knockout Judo move.

News: Home

2008-08-14T15:28:00.000-07:00

They finally kicked me out of the hospital! Everything is progressing very well. Karen brought me home this afternoon. So good to be home...

You don't realize how much effort it takes just to be a passenger in a car. Trying to stay centered in that seat takes a surprising amount of muscle activity!

We are amazingly blessed to live in a society where someone can literally put a hand through my chest and stop my heart, and just a week later I'm casually having dinner with my wife at home. Thank God!

In a twist, you might want to look at Labor Day's copy of the AJC newspaper. In a confluence of events:
- one of my nurses had quad-bypass surgery in the same facility 8 years ago, and the experience so moved him he changed careers from journalism to nursing and is now working at the same floor
- the AJC is doing a story on his heartwarming tale
- the AJC wanted a picture of him with a patient, and happened to arrive when it was time for him to do my discharge processing
- baby Kirsten had arrived, and was sitting on my lap while all this came together.
Ergo, the pictures must have been wonderful, and may very well accompany a section lead story in the area paper! (And quite possibly the only picture ever of me with a beard.)

News: The cyborg is in

2008-08-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

My pacemaker was installed around noon today. Having just completed a walk around the recovery room block, my heart rate is about 100 - a wonderful sign. The natural pacemaker had been running the upper part of the heart, but the lower half was not getting the signal and was making things up to continue (usually running about 45bpm). Now the artificial pacemaker takes the natural signal from the upper part, delays it slightly, and tells the lower half to pump.

Between properly-coordinated beats, and functional one-way valve, I can tell things have improved greatly. For now, though, that energy is being sapped by great efforts of healing, draining, and pain management.

At some point when all this has largely passed, I will have write at length about the incredible process of waking up from various kinds of sedation and anesthesia.

It's so good to see people visit. Karen and Bonnie are at dinner now. Karen is good to me for having been here so much despite many difficulties.

I miss my little girl! Hopefully she can come here tomorrow, and then I will go home. I don't know how long I will be in recovery. Kirsten needs her daddy...

Awright, that's enough activity (walk, dinner, writing, visits, medical tasks, relocating). Time to distract myself with a movie and then go to bed. Sleeping is hard here; maybe they won't wake me up every hour now. Good night ... call me!

News: ICU

2008-08-09T14:53:00.001-07:00

Surgery went well. I went in, talked, blinked, and then woke up (which I won't describe right now -

yeech). I now have an artificial valve implanted in my heart. I can hear it ticking! And I think I can

already feel the increased energy; it's just hiding being chest pain.

I am scheduled to have the pacemaker installed on Monday. They could have implanted it on Friday; I'm

glad they're giving me the weekend to recover first. Normally I would be in the Intensive Care Unit for

one or two days, but since I now have an external pacemaker hanging on a pole next to me, it's better

that greater care be taken. I am breaking records as the healtiest person ever in the ICU.

There is pain, but it is usually managed pretty well. Morphine is lousy; it works fast, but has really

boring hallucinations. Percocet takes a little longer, but works well with no wierd effects.

Thank you all for your support, visits, and prayers.

More later...

- Carl

News: Surgery

2008-07-31T08:57:00.000-07:00

Word seems to be getting around!

On August 7 I will be undergoing open-heart surgery to correct a congenital heart defect. After 40 years of natural compensation, it is time to replace my bicuspid aortic valve with an artificial "ball-and-cage" valve. Due to a side effect of this flaw, a pacemaker will also be installed.

The story...

Where this natural valve typically has 3 flaps to control blood flow from one heart chamber to another, mine has always had 2. This defect allows backwash from the second to the first chamber, causing inefficient pumping. To compensate, the second chamber has significantly expanded, and the valve flaps have stiffened. While a sufficient solution for four decades, this can only work so long before the expansion interferes with itself, most blood simply gets washed back and forth between chambers instead of pumped to the body, and congestive heart failure follows if left uncorrected; that time is looming, and once reached is irreversible. When discovered some 24 years ago, I was told the defective valve would need replacing in about 20 years.

To complicate matters, the stiffening of the valve has diffused thru heart muscle and has caused an electrical blockage. The upper chambers naturally pulse, and this pulse is electrically relayed to the lower chamber for a subsequent delayed pulse. The blockage is preventing the signal from reaching the lower chambers. Demonstrating the human body is wonderfully made, a secondary natural pacemaker has, to the delight of my cardiologists, developed and is functioning well. Unfortunately, the two halves are now operating independently! The upper chambers run about 80 beats per minute, and the lower chambers about 40. While this is keeping me in relatively good health (relative to what is commonly a terminal disconnect), the situation is seriously inefficient and unreliable. Ergo, an artificial pacemaker must be implanted.

Fortunately, God's providence and manipulation of my human fallibility has led to both situations being timely presented to some of the best cardiologists and heart surgeons in the country. I have recently been subjected to EKGs, echocardiograms, MRI, cold stethoscopes, and much poking & prodding. Several more tests are scheduled to assure safe surgery. My boss has assured me that personal health is far more important than project delivery dates. The implanted medical technology involved is designed to outlast a full life.

August 7 I will check in to Emory Crawford Long Hospital in downtown Atlanta at 5:30AM. I don't yet know the exact procedure and duration. Hospital recovery time will be 5-7 days, with another week or two at home. Diagnosis is "bicuspid aortic valve with severe aortic insufficiency" coupled with "complete heart [electrical] block". The corrective actions for both issues are well understood, with recovery rates exceeding 98%.

Let me assure everyone:
- I feel fine. I have long gotten used to my decreased energy levels, and short of vigorous exercise can do what I like. The only concern is that the future drop-off in health will be abrupt and likely terminal if left uncorrected. For now and in the uncorrected near future my health remains normal.
- I am calm and confident of the near future. God has blessed our culture with medical wisdom and the wealth to implement it; I am additionally blessed to be so near such advanced doctors and facilities. Success rates for this operation exceed 98%, improved by my being in relatively excellent health. I find myself spending time calming _others_ about the situation.

Requests:
- We will need support of friends for about 2 weeks starting August 7. Please coordinate support via Barry Hasenkopf, Carrie Clement, and Cindy McBrayer.
- Karen & Kirsten will especially need companionship at the hospital on the 7th. Carolyn will start things off early, and Cindy & family will pitch in later; subsequent support may need arranging.
- While I will certainly welcome visitors, understand I will also need rest and quiet during the first week. Drop in if you like, but don't feel compelled to battle Atlanta traffic to do so.
- Meals will be appreciated, especially if leftovers can be frozen. Coordinate this with Carrie.
- Stay calm. I realize news of "open-heart surgery" is a shock to most, I assure you little about it is a surprise to me, and all indications are everything will turn out fine.
- Prayer is needed above all else. God has certainly and clearly guided my long path in this issue; this time is the culmination thereof.

Pardon the length of this email; I've tried to cover everything people tend to want to know. I certainly have not managed to include everyone who should get this; if you know someone you think should know, please forward this email.

Thank you for your care in this matter. Thought you might want to know the details.

- Carl, future cyborg

Rant: $1 = 9.16 minutes of sweeping

2008-07-31T08:56:00.000-07:00

I just had an epiphany:

Lacking the “gold standard” – or any other official connection between the value of a dollar and a stable physical commodity – the government needs to fix the value of a dollar to something to have any sort of “value”. Thus, thru the march of greed & idiocy, the US Government has fixed the value of a dollar to the value of someone sweeping floors. This fiat value is commonly called “minimum wage”.

Every company needs someone to sweep the floors. The inherent, ethereal value of this is largely consistent across economy, geography, and time – it simply needs doing, takes about the same effort regardless of who is doing it and who it is done for, and thus is the “gold standard” for paid labor insofar as the value is universal, uniform and unavoidable. Interestingly for this discussion, it is also among the cheapest labors for which companies will hire.

Our government, in (or despite) its infinite lack of wisdom, has declared that this unavoidable – yet minimally valuable – activity shall be paid a minimum amount ($6.55 starting this Thursday). Thus, a dollar is officially worth the effort of sweeping a floor for 9 minutes 9.6 seconds.

…which explains the current price of gas. Gasoline is a universal commodity: nobody really cares where it comes from, it comes from basically anywhere and is used everywhere in roughly equal amounts, the price is universally uniform (local taxes aside), and its use/replacement cycle is fast enough that prices fluxuate (sp?) daily to reflect not so much the “price” of a gallon, but the value of a currency in terms of units of product. To wit: $4/gallon doesn’t mean so much that gasoline is worth $4 for a gallon, but that $1 is worth ¼ gallon of gas; thus, the fluxuation in price reflects not the price of gas, but the value of the currency.

A dollar, being no longer based on physical commodity (silver per the original Constitution, gold by practical value-per-density efficiency, and ultimately nothing at all under Nixon), is now fixed by fiat to the value of someone sweeping a floor for 9.16 minutes. Given the inherent ratio of the value of 1 hour of floor-sweeping naturally to an inherent value of 1 gallon of gasoline will not change, and the newly-Congressionally-mandated equation of 9.16 minutes of floor-sweeping to $1, that leaves the only unknown in this equation being the number of dollars required to buy one gallon of gasoline … which, due to the Law of Supply and Demand, will work out to something approaching $5/gallon.

I predict that if one runs historical statistics involving “minimum wage” and gas prices, you’ll find that the cost of 1 gallon of gasoline has always equated to about 40 minutes of floor-sweeping. As the government-mandated wage for floor-sweeping (aka “minimum wage”) increased, the international value of the dollar has decreased accordingly, as reflected in the price at the pump. Short of rare and extraordinary and narrow social variations, floors must be swept, and cars must be refilled with gas, and economic laws mandate the relative value of the two remain largely constant … the currency used to transfer value from one to the other, however, is subject to change depending on what silly mandates people subject the currency to.

The epiphany: $1 is worth, by law, 9.16 minutes of floor-sweeping; the price of gas reflects this.

Trip: Myrtle Beach

2008-06-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

For our fifth anniversary, Karen & I went to Myrtle Beach. Friend Bonnie was profoundly generous in offering us use of her oceanfront condo!

(Moonlit scenes)

...and it was baby Kirsten's first time at the ocean!

Movie: Over The Hedge

2008-06-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

The comic strip comes to life in a slapstick tale of forest critters encountering the sudden onslaught of suburbia. If the thought of a squirrel blowing canned spray cheese out his nose makes you laugh, this is for you ... and if it doesn't, it's not.

Movie: The Wedding Date

2008-06-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

Well done insofar as standard chick-flicks go.

Watching people deal with the embarassingly painful consequences of mundane stupidities just doesn't work for me. In this case: on the verge of a wedding, we are to be entertained by the assorted clashing permutations of a failed engagement, a gigolo hired to make an ex-fiance jealous, who had what now-defunct relationships with whom, who finds out about those relationships when, who wants what relationship de-defunctified, etc. and somehow it all just works out into a happy ending.

Mead: a bubbly first batch

2008-05-03T19:52:00.000-07:00

After the first bottle, I found I had overlooked what was really the first bottle! Made with common honey from Sam's Club, and fermented using Lalvin EC-1118 yeast, the result was shared with visitors in a progressive dinner. Rather bubbly, the cork needed almost no assistance in opening, and the result was more champagne-like than akin to a sweet white wine. Those partaking seemed to rather like it, being bold & peppy.

Today I opened another bottle made the same but fermented longer (6 months). Fortunately the opening had been wrapped, as when unwrapped the cork popped on its own (to the surprise of guests). Still a bit yeasty, samplers liked the bold bubbly taste. This was sampled alongside a professionally produced mead, very clear and likable and flat. Obviously the home brew requires considerably longer fermentation time, and filtration would be wise. Remaining bottles must be stored so they won't make a mess if the cork (or, moreso, glass) blows.

I'M A DADDY!

2008-05-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

Kirsten Alexandra Emily Donath was born on 4/28/2008 at 9:30PM, measuring 7lbs 2oz and 20.5". YAY!

Mead

2008-03-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

My first bottle of aged mead finally got uncorked - and it was worth the work & wait.

Made from "Mountain Gold Wildflower Honey" purchased in Dahlonega, and fermented with "White Labs Sweet Mead Yeast WLP720", I mixed 1 part honey with 3 parts boiling water, cooled, then add yeast, pour in glass jug with airlock (gasses escape, nothing gets in), let sit at room temperature for a month, then rack to wine bottles (siphon off clear fluids from settled sediments), cork, and let sit. Total cost was somewhere around $2/bottle.

First bottle sat 6 months. Opened and served a the first meeting of the Grove Park Wine Club, it went over surprisingly well. The clear, slightly golden liquid had a pleasant, slightly sweet taste with a mild bite. Certainly worth the effort, which was wasn't much considering the very simple recipe - it was just a matter of spending a little time actually doing it.

Movie: Rambo III

2008-03-25T19:00:00.001-07:00

By this point they've figured out that in the audiences' mind, the name of the series is "Rambo", not "First Blood".

Having made a pile of money off the first two movies, a third was created. The result was something halfway between its predecessors: less story and more action than the first, but without the extreme disparity in the second. Still, the point is to build on the enduring memory of the first movie: strong action hero takes on enemy forces, practically single-handedly, and wins. That the final enemy is what seems the whole Russian army is, indeed, going a bit far.

Here's hoping that the fourth installment, recently released, manages to get the high action and meaningful story due a big-budget movie descended from the first Rambo.

Movie: Rambo - First Blood Part II

2008-03-25T18:54:00.000-07:00

OK, so the first one was a hit for good reason. Decent story, acting, etc. Appealing to the visceral nature of men.

Given that success, they had to do a second one. They shouldn't have.

While the first Rambo movie had a sane, consistent emotional arc which made for a good story, this second one was just a bunch of action scenes stuck together - and not particularly well done ones at that. I'd suggest they fire the continuity director, except there obviously wasn't one.

Movie: Rambo - First Blood

2008-03-25T18:48:00.000-07:00

A pretty good guy movie from its time, capturing the visceral essence of men standing their ground - right or wrong.

Simple premise: walking north along the west coast, John Rambo is just passing thru town and wants a bite to eat ... but the local sheriff escorts the apparent drifter to beyond the city limits, not wanting "his kind" around, and subsequently applies strong-arm measures when our hero doesn't take the hint. The situation escalates into a mental & physical battle of the will.

FWIW: I watched the first 3 Rambo movies back-to-back. They shoulda stopped here.

Wine: Almaden Blush Chablis

2008-02-11T09:24:00.000-08:00

It will do as a cheap table wine, but simply does not live up to the almost disturbingly drinkable Almaden Mountain Rose. A bit watery and slightly sour. Better options are available.

Movie: Bourne Ultimatum

2008-02-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

Not necessarily following on the previous, and apparently unnecessary, installment of the Bourne series, this episode sees David go home to where "Jason Bourne" began. Frenetic filming & action drills home the skill, strength, and relentlessness of this super-agent while seeking what created him. Good solid pop action.

I just wish they'd stop with the sound of cocking guns every single time one gets pointed at someone - especially with the guns that cannot be cocked. Glocks just don't make that sound.

Movie: True Lies

2008-02-11T08:55:00.000-08:00

Schwarzenegger as James Bond ... married ... working for the USA ... and she finds out ... while falling for a James Bond wannabe ... when terrorists kidnap both as part of a plot to nuke several US cities. Whee! Great date movie: she gets romantic intrigue, he gets a shoot-em-up. One of the few easy-watching movies worth seeing again.

Movie: Beowulf

2008-01-24T19:33:00.001-08:00

Finally, a fairly faithful cinematic take on the ancient English poem. ...yet even this version should have been titled "Beowulf: Wiglaf's Secret", for the scriptwriter & director could not restrain from adding to the classic tale a non-classic subplot, which with a few overt tweaks changes much. Fans of the old tale will be thrilled at the detailed depiction, and dismayed at the added twist - at least until the end, where the "Wiglaf's Secret" comment makes sense.

3D. You gotta see this in 3D. Oh ... you do realize that the classic story of Beowulf is mostly about three very graphically violent fights, right? Not for the squeamish.

Politics: The Farce of Demanding Free Health Care

2007-11-27T19:27:00.000-08:00

Much is being made, and has been for years now, of demands for a government-run free health care system. You're familiar with it: among others, Hillary Clinton tried to get it enacted some years ago, and is trying for it again. News outlets and left-leaning politicians frequently offer up sob stories about the un- and under-insured not getting treatment they need.

It's a farce.

I mean, ignorance run amok, inmates running the asylum.

WE ALREADY HAVE IT.

Enter the ER doors of any hospital in this country, and you'll see a little plaque on the wall stating that nobody will be turned away for any reason, including inability to pay. Anyone who walks thru those doors will get the basic treatment they need, on demand. Payment, if a problem, will be worked out according to the individual's circumstances and ability. At any hospital, at anytime, anywhere.

Oh, it might not be free. Few people are truly destitute. Most people can pay something, even if it's just, say, $5 per month for life for, say, emergency quadruple-bypass surgery. If the patient will just take a little time to talk with the billing department, something can be worked out which is fair and favorable to both.

Oh, it's not widely known - at least to those who do have some ability to pay. The welfare class does seem to know about this, as emergency personnel are inundated with requests for what is really routine medical care ... and thing is, the treatment is given at little or no cost.

Free health care? Government health care? Universal health insurance? Calls demanding it are a farce, as we already have it.

Movie: Miami Vice

2007-11-17T19:18:00.000-08:00

Perfect.

I'd like to stop there, but that's not particularly helpful to you.
Grand sweeping vistas. Powerful, subliminally elegant vehicles. A story that cuts deep, with just enough anesthesia to know what's happening. A game played well, won at great price.

This isn't the TV series, it's the distilled liqueur thereof.