The Bulletproof Heeb

Rooting For No One: Sports as Religion

2012-01-31T14:47:00.000-05:00

NOTE: This is not meant to be insulting to sports fans. This is just an explanation of my perspective. I've told plenty of people that I am not into sports and yet every now and then, when presented with a game or sports discussion, people often seem genuinely surprised when my reaction ranges from disinterested to incomprehension.

I don't get understand sports. OK, on a practical level I understand the games. I don't understand fandom. I've really tried. Many of my sports-inclined friends have tried to explain it to me, I've tried rooting for teams, I've tried caring about the camaraderie. I don't get it.

Not only do I not get it, I don't get it on the deepest of levels. Any reason I have been given for sports fandom doesn't stick. Liken it to something else and it comes across as a flawed metaphor. Show me a psychological paper on it and it becomes all the less appealing. It doesn't just not click with me, it sets off warning signals.

Part of the reason is that it fills a lot of roles that religion usually does but it does it far too close to religion for my comfort. At services and sporting events you have a large number of people come together to revel in the fact that their group is right regardless of statistical evidence. In both situations fellowship is conveyed through constant affirmations of being correct and unified clapping and sometimes chanting. The people espousing their belief in something larger usually come to their affiliation arbitrarily, by birth or geography, rather than through deep analysis of facts. I know this last one to be true because I asked for clarification when some of my friends complained that many recent fans of a team only rooted for them because they had been winning a lot in the bast couple of years. I asked them what the problem was, as I would assume one would want to support the best team. Apparently this is not so and I was told that loyalty (faith?) was valued more.

I listen to the Sklarboro Country podcast because I like their comedy, not for the sports. They sometimes try to sell the nerd aspect of fandom. I can see where they're coming from as far as statistics go but too much about fans seems completely arbitrary. While the mechanics of fantasy football mirror Dungeon's and Dragons I find sports nerds and any type of classic nerds aren't the same. A music, movie or comic book nerd is a fan of the content. A sports nerd seems more a fan of the medium.

The closest comparison I can think of to break down fandom into something I get still makes it come up wanting. So here I go.

Sports are kind of like movies. The players are the actors. The coach is the director. The teams are the production companies. On that level I can understand certain things. It's obvious why someone would be devoted to a player; they are the ones who are out there performing and if they're good then you can reasonably expect a good performance from them on a regular basis. I get respecting a coach. Their job, like a director, is to be able to teach meaning to the players and give them a big picture to play into. But what I'm left with is team fandom. Essentially a team is nothing more than a company. The players change, the coaches come and go. A team is a production company. And while there are fans of George Clooney and Steven Spielberg there are no fans of Universal Pictures. There is no reasonable person who says, "Oh, 20th Century Fox has a new movie coming out. I bet it's going to be good." I can't comprehend how a team represents a consistent enough set of variables to logically be a fan of it.

Unless you really like their colors.

Review of 11/22/63 by Stephen King

2012-01-21T13:11:00.000-05:00

11/22/63

by Stephen King

*possible spoilers*

I've recently read a string of mediocre novels and put out a call for something to really enjoy. I was recommended 11/22/63 bu Stephen King. I approached it with apprehension. There are a number of things about this book that would have stopped me from picking it up on my own. It's historical fiction, which I generally find dull. It's first person which I see as an over used style to let the author feign the depth of a main character by making everything seem more immediate and intense. And it's by Stephen King.

I don't think I've read king since I was maybe 14 at the latest and when I did it was to put me to sleep. I have always found him heavy handed, long winded, nostalgic to the point of laughable, and formulaic. I was willing to give him a second chance and was told that this was the novel to win me over.

It wasn't.

The basic story is that a man steps through a literal door in time that takes him back to the late 50s and he plans on using this to stop the Kennedy assassination. See the title? Good. And from that I was actually interested. I put aside my reservations and plowed through this thing. And I was surprised that the Kennedy story was actually pretty darned good. But there's a problem.

The problem is that Stephen King gets in the way of the story. Literally. The entire first act of this tome is a complete waste where King sets the main character up to be himself. He goes to a small town that has a general sense of foreboding, finds that something possible magical and definitely evil is driving people to victimize children. He encounters friends that have some sort of magical power. There are comments about a clown that lives in the sewers and kills the kids. It is literally all stuff that we've seen before.

This town becomes the cover story the time traveler uses. He presents himself as a writer who is penning IT. Then the book focuses on a romance starting with the next act. I suppose it's necessary as he has no actual motivation for going into the past other than a diner cook tells him that stopping the assassination would make the future a much nicer place. With the romance he now has a reason to spend years hiding out until the trip to Dallas. But this romance gets in the way of both his mission and the furthering of the story. He splits his time between his girlfriend and his mission and therefore the narrative gets watered down as well. He's not a compelling person (he's King's avatar) and spends more than half his time trying to make a life for himself in the past.

I got bored waiting for the author and the main character to get back to their mission. Eventually they do but, thanks to King's need to make his settings vaguely sinister, time itself sends car accidents and unfortunate minutiae to thwart his attempts to change things. Maybe it's because I've read science fiction before but I found this turn a trite one to add drama and conflict where there was none. I won't say what the outcome of his rescue attempt is but I will say this: after the climax there's a halfhearted attempt to show a bigger picture that fails terribly. It comes far to late and doesn't hold up without further explanation. Which never comes. Instead there's a wistful, and essentially pointless, denouement. Perhaps it would have been a more satisfying ending if I had picked up what I thought was to be a romance centered novel but I didn't. I was sold and signed up for a time travel/historical story. It's like going to see Back to the Future Part 2 and instead seeing a showing of Somewhere in Time.

On a scale of -5 to +5 stars 11/22/63 gets -2.

I would have given it a -1 but I was interested in the Kennedy plot so I was really bothered when King failed to deliver on it.

Time Travel Made Easy

2012-01-12T17:59:00.001-05:00

I recently started 11/22/63 byStephen King. The plot is a man is presented with a door that leadsback in time and he goes through it in order to stop JFK from beingassassinated. I’ll leave the critique of King for another time, butone thing that stood out to me was that he spends about 10-15 pagesexplaining the concept of “travel back in time to change thefuture” by way of "watershed event" and "butterfly effect". While the process of making those changes can becomplicated and convoluted the idea that things in the past willaffect the future is a pretty simple one. It’s no different thansomething in the present changing the future.

And then I realized that King actuallyputs a lot into this book to explain in unnecessarily long passagesthe most basic concepts of science fiction, concepts that shouldeasily be picked up through the story. The huge data dump in thebeginning of the novel shouldn’t be needed. And then I realizedthat King has made the same mistake that a lot of people make. Hethinks time travel is complicated.

Time travel is simple.

Oops. I’ve let out the secret. Buttruly, the basics of time travel really aren’t that difficult.Sure, you can wind the narrative around obfuscation and overlappingtrips, like in the wonderfully infuriating Primer, but the basics arealways easy to grasp. Any storyteller that pretends otherwise iseither trying to seem overly clever for dealing with it, doesn’tget it themselves, or thinks their audience is pretty dim. So here’sthe breakdown.

The bottom most level of time travel ismoving from one point in time to another but not in the usual way. Weall deal with regular time travel which is into the future at thespeed of one second every second. In H.G. Wells’ The Time Machinewe get a really nice visual of someone sitting in a chair andwatching time rewind as well as fast forward. The rate is changed.There are also instantaneous jumps in time travel fiction. That wouldbe like Doctor Who, Back to the Future, Time Bandits… the list goeson quite a bit. Even King’s 11/22/63 has this. Step through a door andyou’re decades in the past. Fast as that.

Where it gets a little more complicatedis what kind of time the character is travel through. But don’tworry, it’s still a much simpler concept than most people expect. Alot of time different versions of time are rationalized or justifiedwith technobable but that’s like putting fancy clothes on amannequin. The model underneath is almost always eerily simple andusually one of three choices. With mannequins it’s man, woman orchild. With time I’ve named the three fundamental forms solid,liquid and gas.

Solid – Time is completelyunchanging. If you go back in time and do something then you werethere before and that action has already happened. Time travel is aclosed loop. There is no free will, everything is predetermined. Orat least determined the first time events occur.

If you travel back and step on an earlyamphibian then that animal had already died in the past.
Examples

Time Traveler’s Wife
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure - Since they come back to the present and nothing noticeable has changed we know that it is either a solid or liquid timeline. Small details, like their time loop escape from the jail cell seems to suggest a solid timeline.

Liquid – Events can be changed butsmall changes will get passed over. You can visit and things won’tchange but if you make a large change then it will affect the future.

If you travel back and step on an earlyamphibian then another will end up evolving to eventually fill a similar role in history.
Examples

Quantum Leap
Back to the Future

Gas – Every little thing a futurevisitor does in the past will have consequences in the future. Thisis the scenario where the butterfly effect is often brought up.

If you travel back and step on an earlyamphibian then perhaps you will return to a future of intelligent sealife. Or there will be no life at all.
Examples

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
Time and Punishment, the Simpsons parody of the above short story

Uncertain

Doctor Who - The very definition of inconsistency for the sake of a story. This universe seems to vacillate between
Primer - Evidently a malleable timeline though the range is so short it's impossible to tell the extent of changes to the future.
Star Trek

Solid or liquid. The novelization of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (the one with the whales) suggests a solid universe as the employee Scott gives the formula for transparent aluminium to is the historically credited inventor.
HOWEVER! The new Star Trek begins with an event that branches the timeline so the new Trek movies take place in a changeable timeline. Since the crew still gets together I'm going to call it as liquid.

And that is the basic gist of timetravel. Once you figure out the material of time then the eventsshould just fit into the template. Of course, some fictional universewill change their physics. The Terminator universe is notorious forthis. The first movie is a solid (possibly). Kyle Reese seems toalways be John Connor’s father. His trip back and sleeping the SaraConnor is part of repeating events. Terminator 2 seems to be a liquiduniverse since large changes are made (blowing up Cyberdyne) andthat gets things changed in the future (avoiding the robot uprising).Terminator 3 tries to pretend they are the same form of time and endup with a soft solid, something like rubber. Events can be pulled andbent but the main points are always there. The war always starts, therobots always revolt. The TV series The Sarah Connor Chronicles canactually be somewhere along the liquid/gas rules. Small changes inthe past are seen to make small changes in the future. Since thetimeline isn’t very long long it’s impossible to tell how soft theirversion of time is, but changes can be made.

That's your time travel cheat sheet. The type of time that a story deals with is infinitely more important with the mechanism. Travel may be achieved by a magical trinket, a medical condition or a machine but as long as you know the timeline is solid then it's not that confusing. A writer can justify time travel with as convoluted a device as they want. Primer uses a mysterious effect of cold temperature physics. Planet of the Apes used relativistic effects in a fast moving space capsule. Back to the Future has a car with little to no technical explanation. And while each of those mechanisms helps with building atmosphere and style it's not necessary to understand the inventions to still understand the world. Do not let talk of quantum physics or dozens of pages detailing the definition of "watershed event" or "butterfly effect" scare you. Just see what time does and it'll all work out in the end.

Or go horribly wrong and destroy the world you know.

The "Not Actually Time Travel" bonus list

Terra Nova and Michael Crichton's Timeline - Both of these are actually alternate universes. While stories like Back to the Future play with branching timelines these two stories involve parallel earths that already exist and just run next to ours. Calling these time travel is like saying that going to Canada puts you 10 years in the USA's past. While it may look similar it's not true.
A Christmas Carol - This is more akin to astral viewing. The "travel" is hazy and even the future vision is yet to happen so it's not much of a trip.

Hugo: a review

2011-12-19T19:56:00.000-05:00

I just saw Hugo last night. All in all I enjoyed it. Martin Scorsese made a very pretty movie and it was really well acted. It has been receiving universally good reviews (93% on Rotten Tomatoes as of this moment) and I can understand why. For what is framed as a children's movie it comes across as a lovely period piece. Asa Butterfield was fantastic. Chloë Grace Moretz was also very good though I often felt she was sticking to the Wendy (of Peter Pan) school of acting: be wide-eyed and say "Adventure!" a lot with a British accent.

Yeah, a small thing I found very odd was that everyone has a British accent and this movie is supposed to drip with Paris. It often does but I do not understand why everyone either kept or put on a British accent to be French.

The real thesis of the movie isn't really about Hugo and his quest for familial fulfillment. It's about film preservation. I say that because the last act takes a narrative turn. It's been a while since I've read the novel but I think it balance both Hugo's and Georges Méliès' (Ben Kingsley) stories a bit better. The film seems to be about Hugo, then both and ends explicitly focusing on Georges and his life and career. The entire last act features the titular Hugo as a supporting character. While it didn't kill the movie for me it did feel like they partially abandoned Hugo's importance in the narrative, though thankfully still finishes his story. I know it's a delicate balance in the book, served by featuring the dénouement as a separate epilogue that places Georges story as a part of Hugo's life rather than tucking Hugo into Georges story and family. It's a subtle thing but makes all the difference.

The weaving of film history into the main plot is done, barring the end, well. Though slightly too on the nose in a few spots I found it a strong thread. There are side stories told in near pantomime, making the silent films experience by the characters also experienced, and relevant, to the audience. There's a romance between a couple of Harry Potter alumni and a romance for Sacha Baron Cohen's station inspector that takes him from a caricature to an absurd but full character.

Touching back on the film thesis there were two things that felt slightly off about it. The first is that it's in 3D. For something glorifying the days of simple stories and the most mechanical of practical effects this movie really delights in CG and 3D. I was thinking about that and realized that the only movie I have ever seen in 3D where the screen disappeared and I simply experienced the story in my head was Coraline. With good 3D the depth is usually rendered behind the screen. When things project it may be fine for a 3D gag but the audience doesn't actually believe that things are appearing in the theater with them. With depth it helps build the illusion of a window but still I always find myself aware that I'm not watching a play. With Coraline not only did they go for the recessed effect but they are stop-motion puppets. For that my brain allowed me to believe that perhaps I was watching puppets, I bought the illusion and at times the story took over. I've never experienced that with live action 3D the way that the best 2D films sometimes take me away from the theater or living room and put in inside of the story.

I found it a little strange and a little depressing that Scorsese felt this helped convey the magic of simpler films. Likely he became enamored with the concept of having an audience watch the silent footage of that early film of the train and feel at least a touch of belief that it would hurtle out at them. Perhaps it's because of a saturated 3D market or perhaps it's just an effect that is dated and impossible, but this movie did not deliver that. That's not to say that the 3D is bad. It adds a nice depth and there are times where it creates a very good sense of space. But I don't think that this movie would suffer if shown in 2D and the 3D never feels needed.

The other thing that popped into my mind was that it's odd that Scorsese chose this project to make a love letter to film restoration. Yes, that's really in the original book. It's just a little bizarre Scorsese's call comes in the form of a movie based on a novel. Really? From a writer's point of view that is discouraging. Something so personal as a love letter to the medium of film from a master director can't manage to be something on its own? The best way to pour this message onto the screen is from a book? I'm glad it was made and it's a fine adaptation; hopefully it will get Selznick's books out into more hands. But the fact that this billet doux to film was born from a novel takes at least a small amount of authenticity from it.

On a scale of -5 to +5
Hugo is a +4.

TV that I watch

2011-12-03T11:47:00.000-05:00

It seems a bit weird to start writingagain and make it all about television but since I haven't beenwriting I have been watching a lot of tv and reading a lot of books.That means I'm going to have reviews to toss out. And rather thangiving these my usual +5 to -5 rating I’ll be judging them bycurrent watchability:

LOVING IT

SOLID

GOOD ENOUGH

HANGING ON

NEARLY DONE WITH IT

QUIT

PS These are shows that are currentlyairing. I held back on things that are between seasons or betweenpartial season or whatever the hell the networks do with their shows.

Monday

How I Met Your Mother – NEARLY DONEWITH IT

Not happy with this once clever show.For the full story take a look here.

House - SOLID

Most of the peopleI know who used to watch this have given up. I am honestly enjoyingwhat they’ve done with the character of House recently. I thought that the stint inprison was really good and I like that one of the members of his newteam is pushing him right back. I’m a little confused as to whyChase is still around. He’s had the longest residency I’ve seenand after his divorce they really haven’t done anything with him.He’s just – there.

Adventure Time with Finn and Jake –LOVING IT

Adventure time! A post-apocalypticcartoon about the last human and his adopted brother, a shapeshifting dog.
This show is amazing. The music is great,the animation is adorable and the humor funny and bizarre. I’mpretty sure this is one of those shows where you immediately love itor hate it. So far I only know of people who love it or have not seenit. Check out an episode.

Terra Nova – GOOD ENOUGH

It’s OK. To be frank, it’s Avatarpainted with Jurassic Park. It’s derivative, the special effectsrange from passable to cringe inducing, and some of the charactersfeel like they are trying to fight against developing so they cancontinue playing generic tropes (all the kids come to mind). Why am Iwatching this? It’s fairly entertaining and it’s sciencefiction.

Tuesday
Wednesday

Todd and the Book of Pure Evil –LOVING IT

Ametal loving high school kid uses the Book of Pure Evil to becomemore metal and get the girl he lusts after. He nearly kills everyoneat his school. His plucky one-armed friend and the girl stop him butthe book flies away. It does that. They band together to find thebook. Oh, and did I mention that the girl’s father mysteriouslyvanished while investigating this book? Because he did and it’stotally mysterious. But I’m pretty sure the evil guidance councilorhad something to do with that. Because he’s evil.Iam so in love with this show, though I’m still just in season 1.It’s like Buffy and Evil Dead 2 and Middle Man had a beautiful,bloody, foul mouthed three way baby. The only thing I’m not crazyabout is that it’s a half hour show so each plot is wrapped after22 minutes instead of 40-something. I suppose that’s a trade off.While some episodes seem too short it also means I’ve made itthrough an entire season and not a single episode has dragged.

American Horror Story – SOLID

Re-titled Ghost Fucking
This show is socheese it’s wonderful. My wife flat out likes the show a lot. I don’t know if I can make that claim but I do find it highlyentertaining. The “name that horror reference”, which wasso distracting early on, has dropped to a much more tolerable level. A lot of camera angles and soundtrack cues are lifted directly fromhorror films so at the very least it’s an impressive meta-analysisof the horror genre.

More recently in this season it has comeinto its own as a standalone horror story. It took a while for themythology of the house to get rolling, and while there are still afew hiccups in their world building (what exactly is the rule aboutghosts leaving the property?) overall it is really rolling.

Thursday

Big Bang Theory – QUIT

Much like Leverage this isanother show I didn’t choose to stop watching. The references arenerd-catnip and some of the performances are really good (thoughHoward is beyond done). But when it comes down to it this show isbasic sitcom. The references usually don’t actually show much moreunderstanding of a geek subject than Wikipedia and the show nevertries to rise above the standard sitcom format. I guess I just feltlike it wasn’t offering anything more than what I get from my realfriends.

Bones – HANGING ON

It seems that wherever I tune inanother show has decided to infect the cast with a little bundle ofratings. I could be wrong but wasn’t the addition of a baby to ashow usually a kiss of death? Perhaps that was just for childrencharacters and baby’s don’t actually count. Whatever the old rulewas it is clear that babies are now in vogue. I was actuallyinterested to see what would happen with Angela and Hodgins' baby. It’s Bones’ pregnancy that I’m annoyed with. Her gimmickwas being so logical as to alienate people. Now it seems that they’rejust playing that against the “hormones hormones hormones” ofpregnancy to make Bones comedic and possibly insane. The writerscouldn’t find another way to get Bones and Booth together? I’mstill watching the show but I will admit that the episodes tend tosit unwatched for longer periods of time.

Person of Interest – HANGING ON

I officially dropped this show but thenwent back to it. Not because I read that it was doing something goodand I wanted to see. Only because it’s produced by JJ Abrams andevery time I give up on it out of boredom I get the sneakingsuspicion that, since it’s an Abrams show, it has some sort of bigpicture that it will get to. I have now admitted to myself that Iwill follow the first season but if no long term plot peeks its headout by then I’m probably going to call it quits.

Mentalist – between SOLID and HANGINGON. Hanging on and a half?

This show is definitely in the “OK,not great” zone. Last season: “Yay they took care of Red John.Boo, they didn’t solve anything with Red John.” The show hasbecome a string of competently written one-off crime stories. The badthing is that the series is now just treading water from week toweek. The good thing is at least it’s with characters I still like.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia –LOVING IT

If this show were simply a weeklymonologue of Danny Devito shouting the word “who-er” for half anhour I would recommend it. What’s even better is that this show isso much more than that. While things this season haven’t touched onthe greatness of The Nightman Cometh it has still been some ofthe best comedy on television.

Friday

QI – LOVING IT

Quite Interesting – a very funnytrivia panel discussion hosted by our lord and savior, StephenFry.
Delightful as always. I now am usually a week behindbecause I’ve since switched over to the QI XL format.

Supernatural – SOLID

This season hasn’t been great. Theywrote off Cas and I miss him in the show far more than I expected.Plot wise it felt like these villains had no aim and when it did comeout I immediately recognized it as the exact same idea that theAlliance used in the movie Serenity. Exactly the same. And some ofthe writing has come across as a little lazy.

Despite all ofthat this show is still good enough to get me watching each week. Thebrothers Winchester are still good enough characters to hold the showtogether on their relationship alone, which is what they’ve beendoing. Hopefully the writers will start to bring Dean to a boil, ashe’s been simmering all season and something needs to happen totrigger him.

Grimm – HANGING ON

This one is just hanging on. I’m notsure if it’s sticking around on its own merits or strictly becauseit is better than Once Upon A Time. That said, the maincharacter and his sidekick are boring. The sidekick isslightly comically slightly awkward. The main character, who’s nameI can’t even recall, is beyond bland. He came prepackaged with aninteresting lineage of creature hunters called Grimms but it seemsthat was enough for the writers. The touch on him trying to doresearch every so often but really he’s just there because there isa conspiracy that involves his somewhat more interesting family. The onlyreason to watch is the big bad wolf character. The show really shouldhave been about him, perhaps with a Grimm sidekick trying to find hisplace in the world. Now that I think about it, that would have been amuch better narrative frame.

And speaking of framing, it seemsodd that every police case this guy has investigated since he learnedmonsters exist has revolved around monsters. So how the hell did hesolve a single crime before? Did he just spend his career until nowputting innocent humans away? That’d be an interesting show.

Saturday

Would You Rather –

This show hasn’t actually premieredyet but I’m really looking forward to it. It’s the classic gamewhere you are presented with two unwanted options and need to chooseone. What looks really fun is that it’s hosted by Graham Norton andthe guests look really good. Examples? In the first two episodes theyhave Cyndi Lauper and Stanley Tucci.

Sunday

Misfits – LOVING IT

A crazy ice storm hits London andlots of people find they now have super powers. This show follows agroup of juvenile offenders so they aren’t exactly heroes.

Sowe’re now into the third season and this show is still brilliant.They’ve taken some risks, like switching out everyone’s powers,and they’ve hit some hurdles, such as fan favourite Nathan leavingthe show. It’s still good. Really good. The Hitler episode wasmiles above when Doctor Who pathetically tackled that gimmick andsome of the things they are doing with gender is really interesting.They handle pretty intense issues with thought rather than disgust andfear. And while it’s often funny and definitely British this showis not No Heroics. And it’s certainly not Heroes. Maybe ifyou took the quality of Heroes’ first season, removed a lotof the borrowed storylines from Marvel and DC and made the charactersless mopey. So not really Heroes at all I suppose.

Penn and Teller’s Fool Us – LOVINGIT

A number of magicians go on stage infront of Penn and Teller. They perform a single trick. If Penn andTeller cannot figure out how it’s done they win a slot opening forPenn and Teller in their Las Vegas show.EDIT Justnoticed that this show is between seasons so don't look for new onesjust yet.
This show might not have the gravitas ofBullshit! or even Tell a Lie but this show brings mejoy. Flat out joy.

They are going on stage to trick twoamazing magicians so you know that they are going to be bringingtheir best. Not only that but a lot of these tricks are differentenough that they contain an illusion or method Penn and Teller mightnot know. In addition to some jaw dropping skill you also get thewonderment of P&T when they don’t solve it. When they figure it out there’s acomfortable and friendly nod of understanding but what I love is a trick so good that not only do I not havethe slightest clue but neither do the experts. They are impressed.They are mystified. Sometimes it may be a trick I think I know and itturns out that it’s not done in the standard way. And it’samazing.

Magic tricks can fulfill on two levels: 1) a show ofskill and 2) mystery. Penn and Teller’s Fool Us usuallydelivers on one of these and sometimes both. It’s in those moments,when I can rewind, watch in slow motion and the only thing I candiscern is that I don’t know what’s right in front of me, thatthis show brings actual wonderment. And I love it for that.

Walking Dead – SOLID to LOVING IT

The end of this season was the kick inthe pants it needed. Recently things have slowed down and it hasn’tbeen great for the show. They’ve been staying at the same farm formost of the season, they’ve been looking for an unimportant stockcharacter for even longer than that, and the show has been light onzombie kills. Well, until the massacre for the mid season finale.Finally, the little girl search is over, Hershel’s farm has come tofruition, Shane has completely lost it. It’s fun again.

Iadmit, earlier on this season I was skeptical. I could feel the shiftin writing, the lack of Frank Darabont, and the lower budget. Themid-season finale was a killer and I hope it means they’ve foundtheir footing. At the very least they won’t be looking for Sophia anymore.

Once Upon A Time – QUIT

I just officially gave up on this one.I don’t buy Jennifer Morrison as a bounty hunter; she was tougher whenshe was a doctor on House. The kid that this whole concept hinges onis crap. He has no personality of his own and isn’t a terribly goodactor. The whole thing reeks of one of those ABC miniseries that hasbeen dragged out far past its welcome.

Leverage – between HANGING ON andQUIT. Quit and a half

I didn’t make a choice to stopwatching this, I simply stopped caring enough to catch missedepisodes sometime last season. Every now and then there will be astand out fantastic episode, and the guest stars are usually a treat,but the show itself just didn’t hold up enough to keep me engaged.This is towards the top of my “Frak, there’s nothing on. Whatshould I catch up on now that all TV is on mid-season hiatus?”list so I may come back to it. It never got bad while I was watching,just stopped being good enough.

How I left How I Met Your Mother

2011-12-01T19:28:00.000-05:00

I used to really enjoy How I Met Your Mother. The way my TV habits go I usually have one sitcom that I watch mixed in with the rest of my shows. It also seems to go that I just sort of let them go rather than riding them out until the end. I skipped the last two and half seasons of Scrubs, I stopped following Big Bang Theory about a halfway through last season and now I think How I Met Your Mother may be cut.

With Scrubs the format changed and it became pointless. There was nothing left to care about. Big Bang Theory stalled more than anything. Leaving that show wasn't a conscious choice so much as actually putting 24 minutes aside each week to catch up just seemed like more work than the show was worth. HIMYM is a different story. Recently I've just been finding the show downright offensive.

I will admit that over the years the show has taken some easy low brow jokes, mostly with gender. I usually consider that sort of broad writing as the sitcom version of suspension of disbelief. Overall it's been funny and smart, at times even clever, with an amazing eye for continuity in their timeline. Periodically the show has suffered from repeating plot lines but I suppose that happens when your show is centered around an event that keeps getting pushed further into the future with each new season ordered. And then Lily got pregnant. I know that Lily and Marshall have always planned to have a kid but I did groan when it first happened.

Adding a child to a sitcom is often a step away from demanding your show be cancelled. But I went with it. I've invested a lot of time in these characters and the writers have proved themselves so far. But they started to mangle that plot pretty early on. In The Slutty Pumpkin Returns we have half the episode devoted to demonstrating how being pregnant makes Lily too stupid to function. They have carefully shown that she and Marshall disagree with where the best place to raise children is, with Lily strongly in favor of urban rearing. Suddenly she is pregnant and a moron, handing out wine to trick or treaters and loving the suburbs. She's hormonal and therefore too stupid to function. Disaster Averted (the episode revolving around hurricane Irene) started to pull apart at their carefully constructed timeline. It also ends with a groan inducing moment putting Robin and Barney back together to an extent, a plot that's been thoroughly explored and completely closed off.

From this point on it seems like the writers wanted to see how far down they could bring the show down with each subsequent scene. The next episode treads water with the Barney/Robin storyline by not providing any sort of closure on a plot that shouldn't be happening. We've seen them together. We know it's terrible and they don't work. As for thinking that perhaps Barney has grown as a person in his efforts to establish a monogamous relationship it should be noted that he has now managed to completely destroy the integrity of his one monogamous relationship. Meanwhile, over with Lily, Marshall and Ted, we see that they are going to a concert. Their plot seems muddled. It starts with Lily insisting that Marshall can't do certain fun things anymore (like "eat a sandwich"\smoke pot) since he's a future parent. It ends with Marshall panicking because he doesn't have time for fun things anymore while stoned and then not wanting to do the things he used to enjoy (like the concert) once sober. When Lily finds out Marshall didn't listen to her about smoking weed she really doesn't seem to care. Her reaction is to demand nachos. At this point I'd prefer nachos to what's going on as well. There's a mixed message that doing fun things takes all your time away but being responsible removes your desire to do fun things, and as a parent one should not try to have fun to begin with, but really in the end no one cares.

The Rebound Girl is really the last straw. The short version is: Barney now claims to have been thinking about becoming a parent when this has never been true until this moment. Ted is now no longer interested in finding love but rather just wants a child. This seems antithetical to the entire point of the show. Lily was told that impulse moving to the suburbs was a symptom of pregnancy brain a few weeks ago but when she repeats the same idea this week it is now taken seriously even though this is contrary to her character up until the last few episodes. And Robin is pregnant. That plot should be really short as she is pregnant with someone she knows she is not compatible with as is also explicitly childfree. If she has changed her mind then what the hell was the point of not having her end up with Ted? Suddenly this show is making me A) feel like I've wasted my time and B) very angry.

The series now seems like an amalgam or rehashed plots, reversed character development and incredibly cheap jokes about gender in general and pregnant women in particular. I will be honest and admit that I'm not dropping the ax just yet. I'm annoyed and beyond disappointed but I've seen some interviews with the writers and show runners that say they have a specific set of developments they are working toward. I'll probably give them one or two weeks to get the show back on track before I take off for good. It's also worth noting that whenever a work needs to be explicitly explained by the writer in a way that is completely outside of the story it is a blaring alarm that the story is being told poorly.

Drsote Lantern

2011-07-10T14:59:00.001-04:00

Drsote Lantern
Originally uploaded by trickstertao

Posting on Flickr again. My first attempt at a droste effect.

E-Reading, or Nooky

2011-05-07T13:01:00.000-04:00

With the terrible move and everything it would be safe to say that life's been rough this past couple of months. So to cheer me up my parents bought me an e-reader. It's a black and white Nook which is just the reader I wanted. Natively handles more (and more common) formats than the Kindle, has the long life and daylight reading screen that I so desired and the page turns are quite fast with the most recent OS update. I'd say I've been enjoying it thoroughly for the past week or so.

And then I plugged it into Calibre. And now I'm in love. And now I shall count the ways.

First of all, there are the Calibre plugins. Floating out there are a set of plugins for Calibre that will remove the DRM from the following formats: epub, pdb, pdf, kindle. That means with Calibre I can buy books from damn near any book vendor and free it. I have finished a book that I originally bought from Amazon on my Nook and that is a beautiful thing. It means my e-books are as versatile as my paper ones. But I knew about that going in.

My pleasant surprise is that Calibre is damn good at converting a standard digital comic book (cbr/cbz) to a perfectly formatted epub. I can transfer my comics from my computer to my Nook in just a few clicks and the pages are sized down and converted to black and white. The pages are a bit small but the display is so sharp I can read the text fine on the comics I've tried so far.

And then there's just the simplicity of it all. It's like what iTunes should be doing for music (but doesn't); it easily takes my books and lets me do two way transfers between my laptop, desktop, phone and Nook.

This isn't a post pushing the Nook over other e-readers. Like all tech, each device has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. The Kindle is better for certain things, the iPad for others and an Android phone for other things. What is amazing is how some free software can make the e-book environment as convenient and open as it should be, despite the best attempts by book sellers at locking libraries to branded tools. Now, rather than lending a Barnes and Noble book to someone once for a week I can lend anyone an ebook until they finish it. That moves my ebooks from being a crippled digital gimmick into the realm of being a real alternative to a paper and glue edition. And it's great.

I've been a bit absent

2011-03-19T11:33:00.000-04:00

Usually I try to keep my blog posts more like essays and less like diary entries but I just wanted to check in online and give an excuse for my absence. It turns out that my place has bugs. Right now we're arguing with the building manager over what kind but they are hard to get rid of and are bitey. That said, it means I really haven't been able to live in my own home for about three weeks now. Huge pain in the ass. Things are progressing but oh so slowly. So I haven't had A) time and B) my computer. It's strange not being so wired. Sure I still have my Android phone (my main device these days) and a slow (slow) laptop but I don't have a dedicated, convenient box set up.

So that's where I'm at right now. I hope to have everything cleaned up and settled soon and then I can go back to my digital habits. For now I've been seeking out more analog forms of recreation. Do I mean hardcore drugs? I just might (I don't). Tonight, for example, I'm going to a friend's school production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. That's rights, my digital cutbacks have driven me completely mad. I have the arrow through my head, the Napoleon coat and everything. I'm a traditionalist at heart.

So I'm off to try to assemble some sort of shelter out of bamboo and then explore into the trees in search of berries. After all, it's only been three weeks. That means I'm still in hunter/gatherer mode. If I'm offline long enough to develop simple agriculture then I'm really in trouble.

Reclaiming Slurs: The Rules of Rude Language

2011-01-19T10:30:00.001-05:00

With the news that a version of Huckleberry Finn is being published with the redaction of the word "injun" and the replacement of "nigger" with "slave" there has been a lot of discussion regarding the contextual use of slurs and offensive language. Though not so much in the media, I have seen a number of conversations dealing with when or even if it's acceptable to use slurs in context. And one of the big topics is of groups "reclaiming" slurs; whether this is OK, when other people can use them and when other people can change the meaning of these words.

It took me a while to figure out exactly how to break down the subject. It's a sensitive topic with complicated and nuanced rules and layers. Luckily I was talking to a friend and had an "ah-ha" moment.

Slurs are like a kick me sign. This probably seems like a odd statement but I think it applies. Imagine a situation in high school. Someone is an outcast. A bully places a kick me sign on their back as an attack. That kick me sign is the slur. In this situation I'll use the term "heeb" as I feel comfortable with it but feel free to substitute fag or nigger. The thesis should remain the same. So this victim now technically owns the kick me sign. Many people would question whether this is a desirable item to own but it was given to them. They now own it.

The first step in reclaiming this word, this slur, this kick me sign, is to take away the power it gave the bully. So they use this sign among their friends. They put it on and some of their close friends, who have also had this sign or similar signs stuck to them, joke around and give light taps on the person's rear. At this point this group using the word within themselves takes meaning power away. They're no longer being victimized by it. They are using it to make fun of the bully.

So far in this example we have a group of Jews reclaiming the term heeb. They make fun of anti-Semites by using the word internally, perhaps even creating a magazine. So what are the implications at this point? That it's OK to use this among friends if you are part of the group. If that bully comes back and actually kicks the person in the ass (an anti-Semite calls a Jew a heeb) then that kick would be assault. Looking at it that way one would be hard pressed to misinterpret a bully hitting someone else. Let's find a greyer area. Let's say that someone the victim knows casually sees the kick me sign. They believe that they are close enough friends to give a light tap but the person with the sign doesn't feel that way. After getting kicked it's up to the kicker to explain his or herself and for the kicked to then choose whether that was really an assault or a misunderstanding.

I think this analogy holds pretty well and can serve as a general guide. Is it fair that certain groups will be able to claim more rights to words under this system? Not really but if things were fair in the first place then they wouldn't have been called those slurs at all. This unequal system is a result of unequal treatment. The bullies, racists, anti-Semites and homophobes introduce this uneven balance of power. Reclaiming words is simply a redistribution of the imbalance.

But this is only one step. It takes power away from the bully. What if the person with the kick me sign wants to gain power through this term. Essentially that would be like them getting a jacket that has "kick me" embroidered or silk screened onto the back. At this point it's part of their fashion, their outward identification. This is how they want to be seen. And it's not actually telling anyone to hit them. This is the step where "black" became the term of choice to identify African Americans rather than "negro". This is where "queer" became a movement rather than a slur. It doesn't happen with every term and it's up to the victimized group to take this step.

I recently saw an episode of South Park where the town ends up re-purposing the word "fag" to mean "a biker that makes a nuisance of theirself". I understand that the point South Park was trying to make is that words change meaning and that they are not permanent. That's true but their mistake is taking an active slur and having an outside group redefine it. That's not really acceptable. The term fag is still in use as a pejorative for homosexual. In continuing to use it as an insulting term but for another group that new definition incorporates the original meaning. It's an insult built on the foundation that "fag is bad", and since fag is still used for gay then it also means "gay is bad". It would be exactly the same for white people to suddenly claim the term "towel head" means bad driver. Since it's currently an insult any time it's used it still contains the implication that you're insulting Arabic people. It would be up to Arabs to first reclaim and then repurpose this term. In the kick me analogy this would be like the bully demanding that a nerd hand the sign back so they can put it on a gay person. The bully has already giving the sign to the nerd. It is now the nerd's property.

I hope that the above clears up a bit of the mystery that some people perceive around the complicated and sometimes controversial process of groups reclaiming or "owning" words that have been used against them. As with anything this complicated and has the possibility of cutting to the quick every case to to be looked at individually. It's worth noting that "taking back" a word or "owning" it does not mean actual ownership. After all, this whole thing was sparked by how stupid and wrong it is to remove the word nigger from a book written by a white man.

In The Gay Marriage Debate, Stop Playing The Bigot

2010-12-22T16:31:00.000-05:00

Many of the news blogs and podcasts I take in have been addressing the topic of gay marriage as the next step in the “gay agenda” now that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has been repealed. Beside the rather ominous use of “gay agenda” rather than “desegregation” I have seen a troubling trend: the complete lack of understanding of what marriage is. So let’s look at that.

Many of the people that argue against gay marriage make the same points. They say marriage is a religious contract and so the state should go no further than making civil unions, that marriage is between a man and a woman, that marriage is about procreation, that it’s not a civil rights issue. Some of these can be simply addressed with a look at basic facts. Others require a little bit of context and history.

In an op-ed in the Washington Post Matthew Franck tries to make a case that using the term “hate” (as in hate speech) against those who argue against gay marriage as w right. This isn’t inherently correct but it can be. Not everyone who stands against gay marriage is spouting hate speech. Not everyone who fights for a definition of marriage as “one man, one woman” is doing so out of hate. However, that is the kindest thing I can say because if they are not fueled by hate then they are fueled by ignorance, and in either case it is still bigotry.

Marriage is a religious institution

It is not. At least, it is not exclusively. In fact, the United States won’t recognize a religious marriage. In most religious marriage the couple is actually getting two ceremonies performed at the same time. The clergy member who performs the marriage is creating the religious and civil marriage. If a clergy member is not registered as a state officiant with the United States then any marriage they perform will not be legally binding. Similarly, if a couple has a Jewish wedding and then a purely civil divorce they are still married under Jewish law. I had a purely civil marriage and that means I don’t need a Jewish divorce if my marriage ever fails since I don’t have a Jewish marriage.

So anyone who claims that the government should stop at civil unions for gay couples is in the wrong on this point. Heterosexuals can have state sanctioned marriages and so should homosexual couples. No clergy will have to perform them so keep your church out of my state.

Traditional marriage is between a man and a woman

Let’s talk about traditional marriage according to the bible. Because that’s the traditional marriage they are talking about.

A traditional marriage is an ownership contract that a man enters into regarding a woman. The class of property that the woman is is called “chattel”. It is a complicated status but can be boiled down to “property with rights”. In a traditional marriage a man signs documents that contractually obligate him to all of, but not limited to, the following:

provide food, shelter and other necessities
sexually pleasure her a on a schedule that is dictated according to his occupation

It is work noting that he is obligated to her. She is not obligated to have sex with him. It is strictly the wife’s right.
Another fun sex fact: sex was part of the engagement process in biblical times. There was no separate “engaged but not married” status for couples back then.
Christmas tie-in: That means that Joseph and Mary were having sex before Jesus was born since they are referred to as already married in the bible

A settled upon amount to be paid to the woman in the case of divorce. This was usually in the range of an amount that could be lived on for 5 years I believe

According to a biblical marriage there is no such thing as a valid prenuptial

This was all in exchange for obtaining land and estate rights from the wife’s keeper. This was usually her father, sometimes a brother.

It is worth noting that this was not looked at as an exclusive contract. A woman could only be owned by one man but as long as the man could fulfill the contractual obligations he could take as many wives as he wanted. That does mean sexually pleasuring them according to biblical law.

Marriage is about procreation

Go back to the section above. It was about tribal property. This could only be passed down through a male offspring. Really, this point only applies if you look at women as chattel, marriage as a property contract regarding the wife and her father’s lands. This hasn’t applied for a long time.

Also you would have to argue that infertile couples could not wed and that a married heterosexual couple that remained childless for a certain number of years would have to annul their union.

The bible is against gay marriage as well as homosexuality

Wrong wrong wrong. While the bible certainly doesn’t condone either the people that wrote it don’t think about sexuality in the same way you do. So this one needs to be put into historical context.

A lot of the bible laws regarding sexuality were written in response to contemporary Greek practices. You know how the Greeks are know for homosexuality? Well, they weren’t. Back then there was no concept of homosexuality. A man having sex with another man was, while obviously sexual to some degree, more about status. The sexual taking of a man back then was akin to calling him chattel, proving that he was in a class below you. It was strictly a gay thing.

To separate themselves from the heathen Greeks all status shifting sex between men was banned. This kept the levels of status set at men over women and elder over younger. One could not prove they were of a higher status than what the existing Jewish culture dictated by screwing your way up the ladder.

The same way that same sex intercourse was a status issue, so was marriage. How could a man own another man when men aren’t chattel? A similar idea would be to ban whites from owning white slaves but still allowing black slaves. Well, biblical Jews could own women but were banned from owning men. It wasn’t that the marriage would have been sick or wrong from a societal standpoint. It’s that a same sex marriage wasn’t legally conceivable from an ownership perspective. And women marrying women? Women weren’t at the status level where they could hold contractual obligations like that over someone else.

Biblical slaves were another story. Slaves in the bible are a level above objects but below women. In fact, biblical slaves hover around the same level as important farm animals. Women could own animals but certainly not other women and absolutely not men.

All of this may seem like a lot of information to take in. Their way of life in bible times were so different from ours. It’s almost like they were an entirely different civilization, right? Weird.

It’s not a civil right

Then what is it? Taking away biblical precedent (which are constitutionally invalid arguments) there’s really not a lot to point at as far as reasons to stop gay marriage. Both people entering into a same sex marriage have to be of a certain age and legally able to enter into a contract. Actually, that’s a lot like the method for entering into a “traditional” marriage. The biggest difference is now we don’t have a tribal antipathy for ancient Greek culture and accept that women are legally equal in status to men. With those issues already revised it seems that a traditional marriage is possible between two people of the same sex.

So what’s stopping it? Bigotry. It’s a (now we see baseless) hostility towards people with a different set of preferences than someone else. And since there’s no logical reason to ban same sex marriage (we’ve taken care of the bible, procreation and sacred institution arguments) it comes down to bigotry. Whether this bigotry is built on fear of change or “the other”, hatred or religion it is still bigotry. Even arguing up to, and stopping at, civil unions is a form of “Separate But Equal” legislation.

Feel free to leave an argument that I missed. I can’t conceive of a logical reason to stop same sex marriages. The best I’ve heard is to abolish all state marriages and establish hetero and homosexual civil unions as the only state sanctioned unions. I would vote for it but it’s an unfeasible goal. First of all, there is no way the government and citizens would agree to a social shift that huge. In addition, it would have to dissolve all existing marriages and I can’t see that happening either. So it’s really a pipe dream option.

Oh, and try to keep it to something that can be brought up in constitutionally abiding law. Say “God doesn’t like that” isn’t something that fits the criteria.

My Day. Every Day.

2010-12-13T19:21:00.000-05:00

This is my day. Every day. by bulletproofheeb

Writing about not writing. Because I'm writing.

2010-11-08T18:15:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to announce that October was busy and November is National Novel Writing Month. I am doing a lot of writing but none of it is blogging. I apologize for my silence and hope to be back in December.

The Un-Watchable

2010-10-19T10:30:00.006-04:00

Here's the concept: what movies would you go back in time to stop yourself from watching? It has to be a theater release because something you see on cable or rent or Netflix is still a pretty passive experience. When you go out to a movie there's traveling, usually a $40 bag of popcorn and a block of time set aside for the experience. And it can't be something terrible that at least you have fun with now. This is a movie so bad you actually regret the entire experience. There are two for me that come instantly to mind.

The first is Spider-man 3. Yeah, I regret spending money of the second one but number 3? I left that theater in a sort of shock. I was actually turned off from movies for a while. Something rekindled my interest (looking at 2007 releases it was probably The Lookout) and I like to think I made a full recovery but... I admit, I may have developed a Pavlovian mistrust of Tobey Maguire. If given the chance I would erase this from my personal history.

The second is What the Bleep Do We Know. It claims to be a science documentary but is actually groundless propaganda from a cult that believes their leaders are reincarnations of priests from Atlantis. Yeah, it's that bat-shit stupid. Like many new age cranks (*cough Deepak Chopra cough*) it's formed around the amazing science of quantum physics. And like many new age cranks they fail to grasp the actual concepts they build their belief system on. I left the theater feeling more than cheated. I felt insulted. With Spider-man 3 I assume that it was made to entertain. Sure, the target audience is probably coma patients and glue-huffing hobos but it works for them, I assume. What the Bleep Do We Know was a glossy ball of misinformation that was either made by actively scheming con-men or utter morons. Either way I was subjected to their "vision" for 109 minutes and I would love to have that time back to do something more productive. Like pass into a coma or huff glue. The worst part? I saw it on a recommendation. Some recommendations make you question someone's taste level. And some make you flat out question their sanity.

And now I open I open it up to you. What would you go back in time to stop yourself from going to a theater to see?

Windows Mobile 7

2010-10-11T18:35:00.000-04:00

Windows Mobile 7 is coming out soon and it looks to be a huge departure from all WM up through 6.5. Up until Android hit the market a few years ago Windows Mobile was the most open a phone could get other than an actual linux phone but name me one person who owned one of those. There was no unified place to buy or even brows apps (they were called applications back then). There were tons of different handsets running WM ranging from all screen to non-touch screens with hardware keyboards.

That's all changed. Now Microsoft is setting incredibly strict rules for the hardware. Standard buttons, in house testing, a hard set market for apps. You know what all this seems like? The iPhone.

While I saw this coming and have written about the coming of the iPhone-ish WiMo as a reason I jumped to the open Android I don't look down on Microsoft for this. It's obvious by now that they have been edged out of a market that they essentially ruled not too long ago: a professional smartphone that's not run through the Blackberry servers. As soon as there was competition Microsoft lost the battle. Their artillery was great as long as it was the only option.

I honestly think this is a positive change for Microsoft. I think they need something like this. I would have gone with a more radical change in strategy, not imitating an existing method but creating a complimentary modular system. But that's just me. Hopefully this works because the more options out there for smartphones the better the competition gets. Android wouldn't be what it is today without iOS and the 3rd party upgrades are standing on the shoulders of stock Android.

I'm eager to see where this goes even if I don't hitch my wagon to it.

Library Safety Tips

2010-10-04T18:21:00.002-04:00

Library Safety Tips by bulletproofheeb

Anne Rice renounces and reaffirms her faith

2010-07-29T19:14:00.001-04:00

Anne Rice, the writer of Interview With A Vampire and the 1,000s of pages that surround that book, has quit Christianity. Oddly enough, she also has reaffirmed her faith and love in Jesus as her Christ figure. One would conclude that this makes her a Christian but one would be... right.

Anne Rice For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being "Christian" or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to "belong" to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten ...years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.

Anne Rice My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become.

I get what she's trying to say. She's fed up with the church that she was a member of, which was the Catholic church. That's fine. Makes sense. Hating the Catholic church is a logical response to being exposed to it. What she doesn't seem to understand is that the Catholic church isn't Christianity. To be a Christian one does not need be Catholic. One simply needs to believe that Jesus is a Christ messiah. So while she might be sick of her church she hasn't rejected Christ. She explicitly still needs the concept of a messiah to comfort her (she went back to Catholicism after a number of severe medical incidents) and has settled on Jesus as her personal #1.

I don't know. Call me strange but if I had came to the conclusion that I actively knew how the universe operated and loudly proclaimed such I would at least be familiar with the word that I'm using to label myself. But that's just me. Choosing a world view based on fear, passing your own personal take on centuries old version (Catholic) of a multi-thousand year old tradition (Christianity) as the "true" version and then getting the name of your faith wrong; that all just seems sloppy and careless to me.

But following Christ does not mean following His followers.

That kind of makes you a Christian, Anne.

But following Christ does not mean following His followers.

Yeah, that's true but it's also not the definition of Christian. Crack open a dictionary before you pick up your bible again.

Christopher Nolan has an existential thesis, not a crisis

2010-07-24T10:35:00.001-04:00

I just finished a Christopher Nolan movie in which a man accidentally becomes responsible for his wife's suicide. To deal with the grief and guilt he builds a world made of real, false and modified memories. He then progressively falls deeper into this absolution fantasy until he can no longer tell reality from his personal fiction. This movie is called Memento.

There's been some writing on how Inception is similar to The Prestige in that the main characters act out various functions in a trick or con that closely parallel the creation of a film. While this is true, Inception is not really a spiritual twin to The Prestige. Rather, it is a philosophical continuation to Memento. Both Inception and Memento are existential exercises in what makes a person's perceptions real, how real are they and does fact matter as much as how we comprehend it. In both of these films the main character creates their own reality which is built upon a foundation of meaning rather than fact. What's interesting is that in both cases this is revealed to us. Granted, in Inception it is done in a much more circumspect way but both movies clearly state at the end (and in the case of Memento the beginning as well) choosing to live within a falsehood may distance one from reality but it will ground one in their own drive to survive. The character of Teddy in Memento says that everyone lies to themselves to be happy. Nolan's repeated thesis is one step further; that some people lie to themselves to survive, even if it takes one away from happiness.

What's really interesting is after paring Nolan's existential perspective down to this concept we see it manifested more in Dark Knight than we do in The Prestige. At the end of Dark Knight the audience sees that Batman is faced with a dilemma. After Harvey Dent turns to murder and then dies, Batman has to choose how to present this to the people of Gotham City. He can give them the truth, that their near saint of a DA has turned to murder and tried to kill children, or present them with a lie, that Batman is a killer and Harvey Dent died in the pursuit of justice. The truth would devastate the community while the lie would strengthen their convictions about good people in power and therefore add stability to a shaky metropolis. As Leonard does in Memento and Cobb in Inception, Batman chooses to preserve the lie that gives purpose over the truth that would destroy.

Taking this concept back to The Prestige we see a bit of this peeking out, but only in shards. Hugh Jackman's character is never able to figure out what is the truth (whether it was a difficult knot that led to his wife's death or simply her inability to perform the trick) and without truth he can never face the existential crisis of purpose or truth. It seems that it is this situation that makes Jackman's character turn outwardly destructive. In the other three films the characters choose lies and turn it into purpose but also self destruction. Their choices to build their world on falsehood adds fuel to their fire, making them burn stronger rather than sputtering out but also burn faster. The obsession that comes out of not being able to choose in The Prestige leads to an outward feud, to a life of external destruction. Both of these situations lead to erosive lives but only when faced with a choice to deal with the truth and make a voluntary choice to live within a lie does the character find any fulfillment in their existence.

The situation I'd like to see Nolan tackle next is making a character face the choice between truth or purpose and choose truth. Purpose over truth shows a materialist pragmatism but what would people inside of a world created by Nolan do if they took the philosophically ideal path?

A quick note on what INCEPTION is (SPOILER FREE)

2010-07-19T19:19:00.001-04:00

INCEPTION is not the best movie ever. Ebert's blog below is all about that. However, it is very good. It is Nolan's best; far more satisfying than The Prestige and far more refined and masterful than Memento.

INCEPTION is very good. It's not perfect but a lot of fun and you get to think.

INCEPTION is not incredibly smart. It is competently smart. It is not quite clever. It is complex. Christopher Nolan was smart and clever as a director. The construction of the film is brilliant. The actual movie is less so, though by no means dumb. You need to pay attention and think during the movie. You should leave being reasonably sure of what happened. Most of its secrets will clarify after some reflection.

INCEPTION will not change movie making or story telling. It probably won't change your life but it is still a very good film.

Recently there has been some confusion between complex and clever. And much like irony it is something that is much easier understood when witnessed than explained. The first season of LOST was clever. The later seasons were complex. Christopher Nolan shows himself to be a clever director while making this complex movie.

INCEPTION link - THESE DO CONTAIN SPOILERS
11 Points about Inception
Ebert's blog on Inception reviews
CHUD's "solution" to Inception
Salon.com All About Inception

Daily Status Report

2010-07-15T07:00:00.001-04:00

10:07 Who doesn't want to walk down the street and have people say "damn, there goes a REAL beard!"? - Will Riker

10:51 Win one of 20 iPhone 4's! Retweet this, retweet a dealspl.us deal / coupon, and follow @dealsplus dealspl.us/t/5rqdMh

11:08 RT @ScottBourne: Found a new site that lets people freely up/download Lightroom and Aperture presets - presetpond.com

13:12 Dear norse gods, your suits look stupid. That is all. bit.ly/chBANn

13:37 If Marvel changes the Norse gods to aliens I call bullshit. They are magic. If I wanted an alien named Thor I'd re-watch Stargate SG-1.

14:13 Kill it. Kill it with fire. RT @heroes: Save the Date: Heroes Season 4 i s coming to DVD on August 3rd! bit.ly/9ScBhn

14:19 .@JamesKysonLee Would rather watch 'How to Make Love to a Woman Instantly' on Netflix.

14:31 On page 200 of 416 of Boneshaker. Not tickling me as much as I thought it would but it's interesting enough. My big... bit.ly/cXAyrV

14:50 RT @Syfy: I'm giving away Syfy Comic-Con MEGA TOTES to 5 random people who RT this note by 5pmPT on 7/16 - twitpic.com/251t0t

17:58 #ebz Only two things are known to remain of the First City: the name, the Crossroads Shaded By Cedars,... fallenlondon.com/c/154506

19:37 Mel Gibson should start a line of greeting cards called Sugartits Greetings. Can't wait to see wh at he comes up with for bar mitzvah cards.

20:43 I cocking hate Nickelback. Pandora, how do they fit in my Flight Of The Conchords station?

21:21 For those that believe that everything happens for a reason: a bright side to the 9/11 plane crashes! nyti.ms/cneO3d

Daily Status Report

2010-07-14T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:29 Win one of 20 iPhone 4's! Retweet this, retweet a dealspl.us deal or coupon, and follow @dealsplus dealspl.us/t/5rqdMh

12:07 Abstinence only education should be expanded into other topics since it works so well with sex. Replace health class with "don't get sick"!

19:31 RT @Syfy: Farscape fans will appreciate this image I semi randomly found - bit.ly/dlTrio

20:54 Foursquare just got me free chips and salsa at Chili's. Neato!

20:58 I am present and I will disturb you as would inclement weather.

23:17 A real life Edward Cullen is essentially a current day Mel Gibson. Not so dreamy now, is he ladies?

Daily Status Report

2010-07-13T07:00:00.001-04:00

11:35 Sorry to hear Harvey Pekar died. Wasn't a big fan but he was groundbreaking and an innovator. I think I'll read his book of Genesis.

11:58 Dear NY Times front page podcast, fuck you for putting music from Grease into my ears.

12:43 Crumb did Genesis but everything else I said holds true.

14:11 Oh hey, my cart just lost the ability to shift into reverse. So I guess there goes parking.

17:22 And the air conditioning is out at my other job. It's a frak me kind of day.

18:15 Marked as to-read: Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher by Laurel Snyder bit.ly/bif5a1

18:15 Marked as to-read: The Quotable Atheist by Jack Huberman bit.ly/9G6Ahz

18:15 Marked as to-read: Librarians As Community Partners by Carol Smallwood bit.ly/9WsCXc

18:50 "Why's it so hot?" The air conditioner is broken. "The air condition is broke?" No. It is broken.

19:07 My older coworker actually told me, as a kid left, that he needs to "stop with that bebop walk or people are going to get the wrong idea".

19:43 I am in some kind of hell.

19:53 I think we're at the point when it's not necessary to qualify a discussion about a Jackie Gleason sketch with "you know, from a while back".

20:48 Could today get worse? I don't know but tomorrow may start sucking early. Going to escape in my sinister Lovercraft.

22:16 RT @duhism: No need to fear. Behind every cloud is the sun...which will eventually super-nova and destroy everything you were afraid of.

23:36 Win one of 20 iPhone 4's in 1 hour! Retweet this, retweet a dealspl.us deal or coupon, and follow dealspl.us/t/5rqdMh

23:38 I wasn't an app that just generates Rock Band band names.

00:27 #ebz The Starveling Cat! The Starveling Cat! Swims like a bloodfish! Tastes like a sprat! fallenlondon.com/c/152028

Daily Status Report

2010-07-12T07:01:00.001-04:00

16:07 I'm at Dominator (@ Dorney Park, Allentown). 4sq.com/cVxsUm

16:59 I'm at Ice Cream World (3512 Hamilton Blvd, Allentown). 4sq.com/cnH6DA

21:26 This could be pretty cool to go see. - NYTimes: Is Jousting the Next Extreme Sport? s.nyt.com/u/l83M

21:36 #ebz fallenlondon.com/c/150344

23:34 New photos: What I did this weekend: shooting sniper rifles and riding roller coasters - bit.ly/c9s7KE

Daily Status Report

2010-07-11T07:01:00.001-04:00

10:16 #ebz The Starveling Cat! The Starveling Cat! Swims like a bloodfish! Tastes like a sprat! fallenlondon.com/c/148178

15:16 At the range, decked out in my toaster Battlestar shirt. Yup, ready to shoot things.

19:25 My first shooting target! twitpic.com/246xpm

23:20 Eureka is like the sci-fi version of Leverage. Sure, it may not be accurate or feasible but they sure are a lot of fun.

Daily Status Report

2010-07-10T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:59 #ebz The Neath's most mystical fortune-teller. You can tell this by the number of silk scarves she wea... fallenlondon.com/c/146855

11:24 I have no patience for work today.

12:39 How come you don't see more fat zombies?

13:45 Last night's Daily Show interview is the first time that I've been really shocked and disappointed with John Stewart in a while.

14:48 Another Disney death, this time at Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports in Florida. bit.ly/bsfIzF via @BreakingNews

17:28 New photos: Shots from Coney Island - bit.ly/ctAFsV

22:32 Started watching Imogen Heap at Glastonbury and what do I see? She's rocking a frakin' sweet keytar! twitpic.com/23wxs9

23:10 For someone of such deep socialist & communist heritage I've been sheltered from some revolutionary fundamentals. Tomorrow I learn to shoot.

00:59 RT @hijinksensue: just realized how much more ironic the film "What Women Want" is now.

Daily Status Report

2010-07-09T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:15 #ebz They say it's a series of confidential negotiations between the Masters and a devil of some note.... fallenlondon.com/c/145279

10:02 When is the last time you sought out and watched a Chris Farley movie? That's what I thought.

13:05 Dear atmosphere, you want to rain. I want you to rain. Let's make this work, ok?

13:45 Thorough article on children. Recommend for both pro-kids and childfree alike. bit.ly/aVEvjU

14:32 Sarah Silverman's book is pretty good, but points off for using "Judeo-Christian" in regard to a god. Sorry but I'm a sticker for accuracy.

15:12 Finished with The Bedwetter by Sarah Silverman bit.ly/cJb7Ss

19:27 Not a fan of this alt. Firefly opening but original credits & theme were a big turn off when I first tried to watch it. bit.ly/apEv6S

19:52 CALL FOR WRITING HELP: List me some famous American authors. Go!

01:21 Just saw Peter DeLuise on Supernatural and my first thought was "Wow, Dagwood lost a lot of weight".

Daily Status Report

2010-07-08T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:29 Can anyone tell me when the next series of Being Human comes to TV?

10:51 RT @ikepigott: The prototype of the iPhone 5 has already been seen in the wild | ike4.me/ipho5

11:32 RT @Syfy: I'm giving away my #Syfy Flip UltraHD camcorder to someone who RTs this note by 5pm PT on 7/9. G'luck! twitpic.com/22y6ls

14:45 OK foursquare, I'm in a building. Why am I being told I'm too far away to check in?

15:42 Another thing I hate about summer is feeling like a taxi service for water.

16:18 RT @EFF: Wired explains how New Jersey ticket scalpers could change the definition of cybercrime: eff.org/r.2nd

17:07 From now on I will make life easier by treating people with iPhones as if they don't have cell phones at all. ie not calling them.

Daily Status Report

2010-07-07T07:01:00.001-04:00

10:05 Breast pocket. #termsyoudontwanttomisinterpret

10:25 Sometimes I wonder who thought it would be a good idea to make a Clerks cartoon. I love it but it doesn't seem like a responsible decision.

10:47 Large endowment. #termsyoudontwanttomisinterpret

11:56 RT @jengrunwald: I feel bad for you son: bit.ly/aSBa9M GREATEST THING EVER (at least today)!

12:15 Who wants to meet me for lunch today?

13:40 There's just a whole bunch of things not right with that. twitpic.com/22zbwu #fortunecookie

14:24 Forwarded from my father who pointed out that this isn't new and I wrote about this when I was on high school. bit.ly/d44b5g

14:43 99 degrees: the temperature at which I consider cutting my hair.

16:55 It's wonderful when people trust science to run nearly everything in their lives but doubt it when it comes to raising their children.

19:49 Watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets... with @rifftrax! Haven't forced myself to watch a Columbus one in ages.

20:43 Ron's head is still shaped like a lemon, looks like the values of a TV movie & it's edited like a sit-com. Must be a Chris Columbus Potter!

00:21 Anyone else having issues using Lightroom 3 and Flickr? It keeps deleting my previous uploads.

02:01 #ebz The Exceptional Rose is a legendary member of the vegetable kingdom. Well, maybe the animal kingd... fallenlondon.com/c/143438

4th of July - 2010

2010-07-07T00:33:00.002-04:00

IMAG0500.jpg
Originally uploaded by trickstertao

Just finished cleaning up and posting all my fireworks shots from the 4th. Have a few more pictures of Coney Island to post but I'll do those in a day or so.

Check out the rest.

Daily Status Report

2010-07-06T07:00:00.001-04:00

08:40 I'm #reading Boneshaker by Cherie Priest bit.ly/afJcjV

09:01 I was not aware my office was going to be closed for the 5. Boy, is my face red.

10:00 Found a FAIL in NYC yesterday and thought I'd share. bit.ly/cXVTrD

12:39 Anyone know where matcha would be? (@ Hong Kong Asian Mkt) 4sq.com/dwuxG8

15:28 Wow. The content-aware healing tool in CS5 is... wow.

17:22 Net, phones and network down at my library so there's not a whole lot we can do with books, computers and whatnot. Enter the boredom.

18:07 I assure you we're open.

23:22 #ebz Death is not always permanent in Fallen London. Old age a nd disease still take their toll, but a ... fallenlondon.com/c/141890

23:43 Win Two (2) #Apple iPhones in 1 hour. Just retweet this & follow @dealsplus to win #iPhone4. bit.ly/9aq1Su

23:54 One of their most awkward parts of catching up on seasons of older TV shows is being subjected to Christmas episodes in the summer.

23:57 At least it's a krampus.

Daily Status Report

2010-07-05T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:06 New photos: 4th of July fireworks! And these were all done on my phone. bit.ly/aG2W9i

10:07 On my way to Coney Island! Happy 4th, you disrespectful colonists.

10:11 Say what you want about Tom Waits' voice. He still enunciates better than Bruce Springsteen.

10:35 Really strange recognizing posts of Brooklyn not from being there before by from GTA4.

10:41 Wooo! (@ Coney Island USA w/ 11 others) 4sq.com/aJp9kg

10:47 I just unlocked the "Superstar" badge on @foursquare! 4sq.com/duYVT5

12:20 Just got stuck on the Surf's Up and rode it a second time for free. Weeeee! twitpic.com/22 ew7m

14:28 Coney Island was awesome! But how did we spend a whole day last time when there were fewer rides?

14:29 I just unlocked the "Overshare" badge on @foursquare! 4sq.com/a3bAAm

17:46 Camped out got the Macy's fireworks. Next time I go somewhere and wonder if I should bring a book, the is yes. Always yes.

21:59 Mighty fine fireworks on the Hudson. twitpic.com/22jhfo

22:54 RT @mattfraction: AMERICA! FUCCCK YYYEEAHHHHH yfrog.com/0sdzhj

22:55 Stuck in dead traffic but at least the Springsteen stopped.

23:37 Glad to see cops aren't directing tragic out bring useful in any way around here. Over an hou r and we're still in the parking lot.

23:47 By the way, this driver is a douche. Jersey plate is ZEK66M. Grey Hyundai. twitpic.com/22kh4h

00:27 We're moving! In Google we trust.

00:51 Like the end of a Mario level we got fireworks for beating Hoboken!

Daily Status Report

2010-07-04T07:00:00.001-04:00

12:11 #ebz Halfway between being a leper and being bankrupt. They're difficult, these people. You never know... fallenlondon.com/c/139134

14:42 New blog post: Searching for a Cell Phone or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Open Markets - bit.ly/caidbw

16:39 A lot of people seem to think the Ferengi are the Jews of Star Trek. I actually see the Bajorans as filling that role.

18:05 My wife is bothered by the fact that I don't like the movie The Wizard of Oz. But I don't.

19:50 Summary of current conversation: Twilight is terrible, detrimental and flamingly Mormon. Can't wait for the Eclipse @rifftrax.

20:53 I am all ready for these fireworks. twitpic.com/227ke4

21:28 It has begun! twitpic.com/227vkk

22:40 Win Two #Apple iPhones in 2 days. Just retweet this & follow @dealsplus to win #iPhone4. bit.ly/9aq1Su

22:43 Forgot my camera when I went to see fireworks tonight. All I had was my new phone. Got some amazing shots.

23:42 Not saying fireworks shots are for lazy photogs, but if you get it in camera there's not a lot to fix in post other than noise reduction.

Searching for a Cell Phone or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Open Markets

2010-07-03T14:40:00.001-04:00

Sometimes being an educated consumer can be a pain in the ass. Here's my adventures in cell phone shopping.

Here's where I started: AT&T, 2.5 year old Windows Mobile HTC Tilt, known outside of AT&T as the Tytn II. My usage is probably around 90% data, 8% voice, 2% text. I'm tied onto a family plan with my father. In fact, we were originally on Sprint and signal strength at his house alone is what made us move to AT&T. It cost me my original Pittsburgh number but was better than going off on my own contract.

So that's what I had. Now let me tell you what I wanted. Smartphone. On AT&T that pretty much cut me down to WiMo again or the iPhone. This may come as a shock to those who know me but I latched on to the iPhone when it was first released. You see, I wasn't just looking for a good piece of hardware. While hardware is probably my number one priority, once you spend a couple of years with WiMo you realize that interface is a much closer second than you might have originally thought. And then the iPhone came out. It was shiny, it was usable out of the box (I run SPB shell on my Tilt) and it had what no one can deny Apple: a fantastic interface experience. I was sold.

But all techies know that there is a fundamental choice with new tech. Option one is to early adopt. That's when you get it as soon as it comes out and that comes with a big wow factor. Option two is the prudent revision two. That's when you wait for the early adopters to complain and for the company to release the second version, which is usually what the first version should have been. Essentially you let the early adopters test it for you. It means waiting anywhere from months to a year, which in terms of technology is an excruciatingly long time, but you'll most likely end up with a stable product. I wanted to jump right in but this was an entirely new platform. Would there be enough applications (now called “apps”) released? How was performance on these new handsets? And what's the deal with this new touch screen that can't do handwriting recognition? So I figured maybe waiting for a software update would be a nice compromise. But there was a problem. It wasn't a lack of apps. It was the process of getting apps.

With Windows Mobile there was no consolidated app store. You went around online to individual pages and found apps. You downloaded them and installed them. Microsoft had no hand at all in the process. Apple, in their ease of use and closed system style, made a walled garden of apps. And only the apps they liked made it in. Up until this point there wasn't a lot of restrictions on smartphones. WiMo handsets could be flashed with different OS updates by hand. You could install whatever you wanted. Apple changed that. It turns out that the wall around their garden was very high and the bouncer at the gate was very strict. And sometimes arbitrary. I did not like this. With WiMo I was the gatekeeper. With the iPhone one needed to hack their handset to become the keymaster. Suddenly the iPhone wasn't usable out of the box anymore.

The longer I waited the worse the iPhone looked. That's not strictly true. The iPhone still looked great. It was the Apple infrastructure/baggage that it came with. With each OS update gaining complete control of the iPhone seemed to become more of a hassle. I didn't want a phone where being up to date meant owning a crippled product. If I didn't care about complete freedom I would have taken the iPhone plunge then and there. For some people root access isn't an issue. For me that choice being taken away at the moment of purchase was a deal breaker.

So I waited. A few more WiMo phones came out but nothing all that impressive. It was just more of the same and all things shiny and new were frolicking in Apples fields. But every now and then came a whiff of hope. Palm, a player that had been essentially dead to me since high school, was coding a new phone OS from scratch. And there was talk of Google making a phone. Probably a pipe dream but who knew. And like behemoths of fantasy epics I bid my time and waited.

Suddenly things became exciting. The Palm OS, WebOS, garnered fantastic responses from tech testers. And the G1 came out. The G1 didn't impress me as a phone but as proof of concept it was downright thrilling. I'm a tech-head. It was thrilling. I managed to push down my excitement and recalled what happened last time I felt this way; Apple started to fight its own customers and they broke my heart. I didn't want that to happen again.

Palm kept looking good but it didn't seem for me. It was more interface than OS for my taste. I wanted something better than the the WiMo UI but I do like the option to get my hands dirty in the system when the mood strikes me. The WebOS simply felt... hollow to me. But Android... Android was wooing me with a vengeance. Open source, an app store with the option for 3^rd party installs. An interface worlds beyond Windows Mobile, though still no iPhoneOS. I was set. And then AT&T broke my heart.

The problem became my carrier. They have an exclusive deal with Apple to carry the iPhone. They don't want to introduce competition that would scare away their biggest cash cow. Suddenly people who had hated, and still hated, AT&T were flocking for contracts. Sure, the were carrying new WiMo phones but I didn't want more of the same. I had seen the future of user interaction and hardware. Windows Mobile was not part of that future. So my father and I considered shopping another carrier.

But like that traffic jam in Office Space, you can never be at the right place at the right time. Once we started to shop around two things happened.

Windows announced the next WiMo.
AT&T announced that they were getting a number of Android phones.

The next Windows Mobile was to be called Windows Phone 7. It was going to be coded from scratch. In fact the whole thing felt like a Sci-Fi channel original movie: assembled from the cast off gimmicks of a number of recent blockbusters. Like Palm, it was to be coded from scratch and focus on a fresh interface designed to stream data to your home screen. Like the iPhone it was to cut open system multitasking and be app store only for installs. In fact, it was pretty much the worst features of the iPhone without the benefit of Apple's wonderful interface or established market. Suddenly Windows went from my safety choice to a non-option. So my father and I looked at the AT&T Androids. And that's when AT&T broke my heart again.

Their first Android was the Motorola Backflip. It was, in essence, a Sidekick for the new generation of smartphones. Except that it started leaking clues. For instance, the search provider was locked into Yahoo. Odd. Also the option to install 3^rd party apps was permanently locked out. It was a highly customized, highly crippled Android phone. Then AT&T let out the specs for a couple more, the Dell Aero and the Samsung Galaxy. Neither blew competing Android sets out of the water and then the news broke about the OS. They would all be locked down. And the provider for search and mail would be locked to Yahoo.

What AT&T did here was to insist that all its smartphone customers be treated like children. Be it Android, iPhone or Windows the user was going to have to go through app store only on locked handsets. In order to get a phone that met my requirements I would have to hack any of these. Suddenly it became obvious what the problem was. AT&T no longer had a single smartphone that was not going to be a downgrade to the freedom I had on my 2.5 yer old Tilt. The only free option would be to buy an unlocked Nexus 1 at full price and even then we're locked into the carrier because of the operating bands on the phone. We'd be paying hundreds of dollars to keep the same service and contract we've had for years. That's not appealing.

That is the point when you know a market is so far from free that it's locked up in a tiny box. There is no good reason that my “ancient” hardware should offer me options that no current phone can. Where's the competition to insure innovation? With systems this closed your only option is to strap in and try to enjoy the ride. If these were airlines you would suddenly realize that you can't bring your own music or books on the plane and there will never be the option to walk about the cabin no matter how clear the weather.

So we worked out a similar contract on Verizon (they have the phones we want and a decent enough data network. Sprint is still out until they improve coverage in our area). It turns out to be a bit cheaper which is nice. We got the HTC Incredible which has specs that should last us a while. The OS is open to 3^rd party installs and ~~that means easily rooted once the Incredible ROM hits the net~~ has already been rooted to custom ROMs are now an option..

Verizon may turn out to be a pain but let's be honest, what cell phone company is pleasant to deal with? In this case we came to realize that in AT&Ts zeal to keep Apple happy as the only feasible smartphone the devil we knew became so clearly the greater of two evils that we couldn't stay with them. When you stick with a service for years and the only choices they provide are more restrictive each time a new option comes out then it's clear that their system is broken.

AT&T, I hope you're happy. It's clear you can only make one customer at a time happy. And that customer's name is Steve Jobs. I wish you two the best. You certainly deserve each other.

EDIT It's been a few weeks with Big Red and the Incredibles (band name?). I'm satisfied and it looks like the iPhone is coming to this network, too. I guess there's no escaping Apple's legion of fan-boys anymore. Of course, the iPhone 4 seems to have more than its fair share of problems...

Daily Status Report

2010-07-03T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:29 #ebz The Exceptional Rose is said to bloom once a year, around the time of the ancient festival of Lup... fallenlondon.com/c/138025

11:58 Little known fact: according to the ancient lion calendar the world will be destroyed in 2012 by a global wave of maulings.

13:51 All of the Terminator: TSCC are streaming on Netflix. You have no excuse not to watch it now! bit.ly/bVl3r8 bit.ly/bLEEdy

15:27 What should I read next?: Boneshaker, Her Fearful Symmetry, The Forever War, The Bedwetter

15:29 Finished with Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds bit.ly/cX4ume

16:01 Win Two #Apple iPhones July 4th Weekend. Just retweet this & amp; follow @dealsplus to win #iPhone4. bit.ly/9aq1Su

16:19 4:20! Know what that means? It means I'm still at work. Grumble grumble.

21:48 Watching Freddy's Dead. After this I will have seem the whole Freddy series. Yay for Breckin Meyer!

22:03 I know all the Freddy movies have different rules for what Freddy's abilities are but this one makes less sense than any of the others.

00:06 If I were to start a math rock band I'd call it The Damned Lies.

Daily Status Report

2010-07-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

08:36 #ebz Trade in anything drinkable comes under the jurisdiction of Mr Wines. Though it can't be bothered... fallenlondon.com/c/136877

09:53 When I put items on my desk specifically for a new project please don't act so shocked when you ask if I need them and I say yes.

11:19 I wasn't one of those "serves 12"coffee tanks from DD and I want it hooked up to a Camelback.

11:54 Heroditus #literary1hitwonders

15:15 RT @hijinksensue: ohholyshit www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/07/01/new-wonder-woman-loses-patriotic-costume/

15:47 Everyone who loves or hates the new Wonder Woman costume should check this out: bit.ly/afjIVv

17:29 Ma'am, it is rude to interrupt 2 people discussing Battlestar Galactica to make a face & tell us how all TV is boring except Bill O'Reilly.

18:14 Hey, @foxnews. How about you fuck off and try to ruin someone else's country? bit.ly/9R5sFO

20:24 New comic strip: Quiet in the library... - bit.ly/cBDQq9

22:08 Who would be stupid enough to cast Idina Menzel in a musical and not give her a song to perform? Disney!

23:10 Whooo! I'm getting 720p video recording on my phone soon! Whooooooo!

01:06 Win Two #Apple iPhones this July 4th Weekend. Just retweet this & follow @dealsplus to win #iPhone4. bit.ly/9aq1Su

Comic strip: Quiet in the library...

2010-07-01T20:25:00.000-04:00

Daily Status Report

2010-07-01T07:01:00.001-04:00

09:44 RT @monsieurlam: Twilight's like soccer. They run around for 2 hours, nobody scores, and its billion fans insist you just don't understand

12:34 RT @kpereira: Old Spice did it again... SWAN DIVE! www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLTIowBF0kE

13:26 Sharon Angle, you are a horrible person. You're also e shining example of why we keep religion out of government. bit.ly/dnwQz0

14:19 I have a Google phone and yet I constantly forget about the search button.

14:57 Unless otherwise noted it is safe to assume Tim Minchin's "Storm" is rocking my world every day.

15:51 So @wilw & I have the same cell. This brings me one step closer to "accidentally" switching our phon es which will lead us to become friends.

20:49 RT @peeweeherman: IT'S TRUE! I'm working with Judd Apatow on the next Pee-wee Herman movie! bit.ly/aAzdnb

21:10 Not only was I not aware Craig Kilborn still had a show, I forgot that he was alive.

23:55 In case anyone is interested, if you have the Dr. Who games you can find the TARDIS sounds in the common audio folder. Ringtones!

Toy Story 3 - Both Dynamic and Flat

2010-06-30T19:33:00.000-04:00

The other day I was thinking about Toy Story 3 and the Toy Story series in general. I'm not a huge fan of them, though I did enjoy the 3rd one. I tried to figure out what about the movies didn't really work for me and it occurred to me that while (some of) the characters are three dimensional their world view is too flat for me.

What do I mean by that? Well, we see how the toys grow and learn from each other. Buzz goes from a tool to one of the gang. Yay. What we don't see is any of the toys actually thinking beyond the set of roles they are presented with. They are told that they are supposed to function as entertainment for children and they follow this role with dogmatic adherence. Even in the 3rd film, in the midst their fears of being rejected possibly coming to fruition they stick to that same role in all their choices: stick with Andy or move on to other children. At no time to they think that after being thrown out the then have complete control over their lives and movement. They are free not only to entertain other children but they can also venture out on their own. While they do derive pleasure from making kids happy we know that they can find emotional fulfillment in other ways. Just look at the happily married Potato Heads.

The only character to question this role is Lotso, the sinister and unredeemed bastard bear who rejects children. But putting this up as the alternative lifestyle against the forever devoted Woody is a bit of a thin and pathetic dichotomy. If children are seen as gods then this is the equivalent of portraying all people as devout fundamentalists or self-assigned anti-Christs. Woody has pure and ultimate faith in Andy and any child who he serves. Bringing them joy, no matter how neglected he becomes, is his only purpose in life. Lotso, alternatively, actively distrusts and hates the capricious children and essentially makes his goal in life to live a completely hedonistic lifestyle while punishing believers.

I understand that this is ostensibly a children's series but it's Pixar. We're allowed to expect more from them. That combined with the fact that this is the third installment means that there's a reasonable expectation that these characters could grow to question the world they've inhabited since 1995.

To be fair, Pixar still brings the Toy Story characters to a level above that of most kid's movies. But they rarely do sequels to by installment number three I'm going to expect new levels of the story and the world to be exposed and played with. With Up we have a relationship blossom in just a few minutes and it's strong enough to fuel the whole movie. In The Incredibles we see a family fighting against society, their nature and see that sometimes not all people are equal. Ratatouille essentially took a bunch of things that should have bored the pants of kids and made them enticing and joyfully appealing. WALL-E was... well, it was WALL-E. That movie was constructed not as a children's film but as an experiment in classical direction but with robots in a post-apocalyptic landscape.

With all that under their belt it's not beyond reason to expect Pixar to push out a bit in the third Toy Story movie and make the characters think beyond raging fundamentalism by both sides of the plot. What was there was good. Don't get me wrong. I liked it. But the series falls flat for me because I expect the world to be a bit deeper. Instead they stop short of any sort of breakthrough. They may push the edges of their roles but they never quite become as self aware as an autonomous, growing character should.

Daily Status Report

2010-06-30T07:00:00.000-04:00

00:45 #ebz These two gangs of futureless urchins have been waging their ritual war over the territory betwee... fallenlondon.com/c/135493

Daily Status Report

2010-06-29T07:00:00.001-04:00

12:39 And just like that, a thousand fanboys cried out at once: Summer Glau is animated Supergirl. bit.ly/baYjAQ (via whedonesque)

14:03 Dear summer, you are a terrible season and I hope you die.

18:32 Doctor Who game #2: Blood of the Cybermen is released and tweaked for non-UK use! Huzzah!

19:15 Any science book that puts the word "science" in quotes is a "science book".

19:30 If that Edward Scissorhands rumor is true I will go Sweeney Todd on someone's ass.

19:36 Since @GwenArtax asked for it... If this doesn't terrify and disgust you then I'm at a loss for what will. tinyurl.com/25uhmfh

20:06 The Kindle app for Anrdoid makes books look nice. So I set Aldiko to look the same and I can keep my library and get tons more settings.

Daily Status Report

2010-06-28T07:00:00.001-04:00

16:50 Tim Minchin just made the whole room cry. Score.

17:04 Watching the @rifftrax version of The Happening. The regular version is so intellectually offensive but this version is hilarious.

19:22 During down to watch Back to the Future 3 in a theater. No spoilers please. ;-)

19:25 Just saw a hoverboard. No awesome shoes or almanacs yet. Nor inside out pockets.

22:13 #ebz the Starveling Cat! louder than a dog! taller than a rat! fallenlondon.com/c/132922

Daily Status Report

2010-06-27T07:01:00.001-04:00

12:14 Taking our canvas bags, our canvas bags, our canvas bags to the supermarket.

17:30 Huzzah! (@ Medieval Times) 4sq.com/2kDrYN

19:27 The green knight is supposed to be Slytherin, right?

Daily Status Report

2010-06-26T07:00:00.001-04:00

12:01 RT @BadAstronomer: ATTENTION: Real solar eclipses sparkle. Vampires do not. This has been a Public Service Announcement by astronomy.

18:39 That's like saying "the best kidney stone you'll pass all year!" twitpic.com/1zxiks

19:02 My humor? Too dry? Well, I suppose even some people prefer Manischewitz.

21:44 Watching season 2 of Supernatural & it looks like they collected all the extras & gave them their own show. And that show is called Eureka.

21:55 #ebz In a city where death can be temporary, lunatic murderers are not treated with especial respect. ... fallenlondon.com/c/130679

22:10 Sam and Dean, she's not a ghost! She's a Cylon!

23:26 Had my first dropped call on Verizon today. Esprit d'escalier: you dropped my cherry.

00:06 Tomorrow is Medieval Times and a big Doctor Who finale. Maybe I'll go to Medieval Times as a Time Lord...

00:36 RT @rodmccullom: TAKE ACTION: Contact "The View" Over Dangerous HIV/AIDS Myths bit.ly/9WaIqq

Daily Status Report

2010-06-25T07:00:00.001-04:00

14:17 RT @wilw: Geeks are good at taking something we love & turning it into something to argue about w/ other geeks who love it as much as we do

14:38 I love how the emails from Medieval Times begins with the anachronistic "Lord or Lady".

15:35 In music, movies, tv and books I find the breakup infinitely more interesting than the happy relationship.

17:13 New blog post: Dining at the chef's table At The London - bit.ly/aQwjyi

17:56 No. RT @Newsweek: Is Chris Christie the Best Governor in America? bit.ly/b4Q1fl

20:28 #ebz fallenlondon.com/c/129430

00:21 Why, hello working Doctor Who game. Yes, I think I will play you.

Dining at the chef's table At The London

2010-06-24T17:11:00.000-04:00

I'll start by saying that beyond the meal, which was incredible, this was a fantastic experience. Dining at the chef's table is something completely different than just eating a restaurant. Beyond the food and the wine there is the kitchen and the chefs. For each course the chef that prepared it came out to explain what went into that specific dish. The attention to detail regarding both the food and the group I was with was astounding. So now, onto the food.

Amuse bouche

Olive paste on celery

melon soup shot with crème fraîche

Selection of canapés

I suppose that after this it's safe to say that I'm not a fan of olives. It's obviously not the preparation but the actual flavor. I did not care for the olive paste. The shot of melon soup not only cleared the olive from my tongue but was delicious. It wasn't sweet but rather creamy. Perfectly set up my palette for the canapés. For the life of me I cannot remember what went into them by they were light and delicious.

Seared hamachi and uni with squid vinaigrette

The hamachi was great. Just fatty enough, soft texture, not fishy at all. This was offset by the fishiness of the uni. The hamachi faded a bit while the uni lingered but not in an unpleasant way. Just strong.

Sautéed Hudson Valley foie gra, cippolini artichoke, foie gras ice cream with shaved truffle served with toast

This was a bit of a shock. The ice cream on the left was very salty on its own while the artichoke and foie gra was much more mild. It seemed overpowering and an odd choice until combined together and eaten on the toast. The salty from the truffles mixed with the butter foie gras. My only complaint is that I think there was too much truffle in the mix. At times it was a little overpowering.

paired with Riesling Spaetlese, Schloss Vollrads, Rheingau 2005

One of the smoothest sweet wines I have ever had. It wasn't mouth puckering sweet but was still a very strong fruit bouquet. The finish was smooth beyond measure. Highly recommended.

Maine diver scallops, pressed octopus, white asparagus, crispy potatoes, grilled watermelon

On the way over the the London we were discussing what foods we didn't like, though agreed to try everything served. My named food was scallops. I have never liked scallops. Well, they served scallops and this is up with the beef course as one of my two favourite dishes of the night. It tasted as scallops have never tasted to me before and the watermelon complimented it. The octopus was dense but not chewy. Each part of this dish was great and together was amazing.

paired with Viognier, Triennes, Sainte Fleur 2008

I believe that this is the wine that tasted strongly of apricot. The crispness of it went very well with the seafood.

Caramelized veal sweetbreads, lemon poached endive, marinated spring onions, English peas

Well, I've tried sweetbreads. The onions lent an nice edge to the soft flavor of the sweetbreads. The taste was actually tasty. The soft texture is what took me out of completely loosing myself in this one. More interesting than great but still damn good.

paired with Weingut Knoll, Loibner, Federspiel, Wachau 2007

Mediterranean sea bass wrapped in eggplant and stuffed with ratatouille, crème fraîche gnocchi, Meyer lemon and crispy garlic, tomato and gin consommé

This was the other surprise for me that night. Normally I don't like cooked fish because it becomes flaky and sometimes fishy tasting. This had a mild sea flavor which was perfectly augmented by the tomato and gin consommé, which was the secret heart of this course. The eggplant had a great texture to it that really pulled the fish together and the ratatouille in the center made for a perfect finish to each bite.

paired with Jean-Noël Gagnard, Les Masures 2007

Triple seared dry aged NY strip loin, smoked beef tongue and broccoli, romanesco, tamarind sauce

The cube of tongue is hidden between the broccoli and the strip. It was great. Incredibly smoky and verged on too much but since it was just one small cube it was just enough. The aged strip loin was essentially a perfect piece of beef. It tasted like meat rather than spices. It was tender. It was cooked just enough to be considered cooked all the way through. Wonderful.

paired with Bodegas Mas Alta, Artigas 2005

Brillat-Savarin, truffle honey, candied almonds

The almonds went wonderfully with this butter-like cheese. My one complaint is that, once again, it tasted as if there was just a bit too much truffle in the honey. I know, to complain about too much truffle, right?

White chocolate with lime, mango and coconut

A number of people thought this was the dessert. The coconut crème fraîche on top was fantastic. It didn't have that dry element that a lot of coconut tends to. The mangos and lime were fantastic, and the white chocolate on the bottom was so creamy and delicious that I didn't mind it being (falsely) called chocolate. That means it was really good.

Vanilla parfait with passion fruit curd, young coconut water and sorbet, coriander

It's hard to see but they poured coconut water into the bottom of the bowl so it soaked up. This was delicate and delicious and the passion fruit curd is wrapped up in extremely thin sliced mango. Eating those pouches put a fantastic closing fruit flavor to a soft pelleted dish.

Single-origin Venezuelan chocolate mousse, passion fruit, balsamic reduction and crème fraîche sorbet

My favourite dessert of the two. The chocolate mousse was slightly on the dark and bitter side, exactly how I like my chocolate. The passion fruit matched that perfectly and, like a negative of the previous dessert, the crème fraîche was a smooth and light finish to an incredibly rich and striking chocolate dessert.

Daily Status Report

2010-06-24T07:00:00.001-04:00

08:49 I guess I'm impressed at Alicia Keys for the courage to show how much talent she has & then dedicate herself to making shit music by choice.

09:11 Of all the Pixar movies, A Bug's Life is the only one I have not seen and Cars is the only one I regret seeing.

10:17 I am really enjoying the Scott Free podcast. Thank you, Scott Thompson.

11:27 Mythbusters doin a "lets redo some old experiments" episode. Again. If they are that low on ideas maybe they should downgrade to specials.

11:47 I usually enjoy reading @ebertchicago but one gets the feeling that he regards video games as the creative & artistic equal to ameture porn

12:02 Rdio had the worst closed beta I've ever tried: 3 days to demo the service. Didn't even bother taking advantage of it.< /p>

13:14 #ebz The Starveling Cat! The Starveling Cat! Wraps round your throat like a cheap cravat! fallenlondon.com/c/127734

15:29 Aww. Happy birthday Joss Whedon! RT @feliciaday: Happy birthday Joss Whedon, one of my personal heroes and wonderful person too!! :)

15:37 If vaccines really caused autism you would find computer science and engineering students trafficking in MMR and flu shots.

16:16 RT @rob_sheridan: Hilarious liveblog of Wimbledon's current tennis match, stuck at a tie in its 9TH HOUR (longest ever): is.gd/d0YKm

16:23 Well, it took a book and a half but I am now officially a fan of Alastair Reynolds. An excellent fount of hard science fiction.

16:52 Just heard Lazy Sunday for the first time. Better than SNL but I can think of half a dozen better funny musical acts.

19:56 #USA won #ALG in #worldcup. So, we give away #iPhone4. Just retweet this & follow @dealsplus to win. Details bit.ly/9aq1Su

20:15 RT @GerryDuggan: If only there was a damn vaccine for this! RT @laweekly Whooping Cough Now A Epidemic In California bit.ly/aQmFYp

23:25 The Snoop Dogg video for True Blood is both one of the most embarrassing and entertaining things I've seen in a while.

Daily Status Report

2010-06-23T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:32 RT @ebertchicago: When all else is equal, the number of books in the home predicts a child's educational future. j.mp/aEfM8y

09:39 .@ebertchicago: "Movies don't yet (and maybe never will) replicate the experience of eating a fine meal."

14:02 I just became the mayor of Brunswick Square Shopping Center on @foursquare! 4sq.com/bdbTVU

17:58 Buffy the Vampire Slayer remake news: there has been no accurate news so far! Shocking! bit.ly/aYoXZf

18:48 My new phone has two point multi-touch. Today I touched it for the second time. So I guess it's time to get a new phone.

20:08 OK, let's try this whole Toy Story 3 thing again.

22:56 Toy Story 3 accomplished! Best of the 3 by far but I am a heartless demon as I did not cry.

23:42 Oh, hey. "Persons Unknown" premiered. Oh, hey. "Persons Unknown" has already aired 3 episodes.

Daily Status Report

2010-06-22T07:00:00.001-04:00

10:13 Is anyone else really excited for Epic Mickey?

14:04 RT @hijinksensue: I know the Wizarding World Park lets you drink Butter Beer and Pumpkin Juice but what about Unicorn Blood?

14:14 True tech fact: Apple's trademark "i" was started as an inside joke to parody the "e" trend but chose "i" to represent a penis.

17:17 #ebz The most delightful secret of Fallen London: a substance which physically transports you to a dre... fallenlondon.com/c/125249

18:29 Yay! Someone had a virus installed on one of our work computers waiting for me! Scanners now say it's clean but browse stillredirects. Bah!

18:37 Someone needs travel books; I can show you where those are. Going to Disney World? I can jus t tell you what you ned to know. :-)

18:47 Adventure time! #acceptabletimes

18:58 4:30 # acceptabletimes

Daily Status Report

2010-06-21T07:00:00.000-04:00

09:51 #ebz How does one manage a thing that is so patently not snow, and yet so resembles it? Does one leave... fallenlondon.com/c/123582

11:06 I think Mel Brooks should make History of the World: Part 2 as a broadway musical and skip the film step.

15:02 Going to see Toy Story in 3D. Nothing says "not quite the future" like having to wear 2 pairs of glasses at the same time.

16:46 No Toy Story 3. Crippling power outage. These things happen.

22:33 Re-watching Sarah Connor Chronicles and just got to the final episode. This is one of the best tv shows ever made.

23:09 Great things about the Sarah Connor finale: Danny Dyson, the "sex" scene, the John Henry hardware connection, "20!", the last sc ene!

01:27 Jaw dropping, beautiful, amazing photo of 'The Southern Lights' from @Astro_Wheels twitpic.com/1yh9e9

Daily Status Report

2010-06-20T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:00 #ebz They say it's the language the bats speak. They say the Snuffer wrote it on the outside walls of ... fallenlondon.com/c/122427

10:46 Um, major spoiler alert if you go to the episode guide for this season of Doctor Who. Just saying.

11:30 RT @ebertchicago: Judging from the feedback I'm receiving, "Toy Story 3" has people in tears. If anything, they like it more than "Up."

15:23 Holy Jeebus! RT @donttrythis: Umm... I think we can park here. twitpic.com/1y7fsi

15:27 Yay! Sneak peak of the new season of IT Crowd is online! I know what I'm up to tonight. bit.ly/bTokyY

19:04 Whew, that was a fun bike ride.

19:33 I just unlocked the "Crunked" badge on @foursquare! 4sq.com/cxj4Ul

20:56 I just unlocked the "Explorer" badge on @foursquare! 4sq.com/ctQNrs

20:56 I just unlocked the "Super User" badge on @foursquare! 4sq.com/bfH25J

00:20 IT Crowd was fantastic. Now for the new Doctor Who. Thank you, beeb.

01:02 Hahaha! The end of this Doctor Who was essentially a season finale of Lost. The slow motion, the music, all of it. I LOLed.

01:15 Seriously though, I'm excited for the next Doctor Who. This Doctor is serviceable but Amy Pond is where the real story is this series.

02:02 RT @steveholz: I've just been re-watching series 1. This Doctor IS good, but oh what I wouldn't give for more Ninth Doctor shows.

02:08 Now I know what movies the Scott Pilgrim trailers remind me of! Night Watch and Day Watch!

Daily Status Report

2010-06-19T07:00:00.001-04:00

08:37 Like True Blood? Like being confused? bit.ly/a8HafQ

10:24 RT @stevesilberman: Vaccine rejectionists falsely believe that no others will be harmed by their refusal bit.ly/cmV0Yd via @doctorow

11:48 I like VV Brown but all I can think of when she's on is Janelle Monae.

12:23 RT @GeorgeHrab: Not knowing what time it is should be called "being retardis."

15:56 RT @kwago: Ok Bookclub, here we go! Vote for the book! www.goodreads.com/poll/show/35385-vote-for-the-next-book

16:01 I'll be live tweeting my dinner from the chef's table at Gordon Ramsay at the London. Prepare yourself to see gorgeous food later tonight .

17:32 How does the world love this sport? bit.ly/cj0G5n

17:41 And so the evening begins. twitpic.com/1xwu2p

19:46 I have arrived. (@ Gordon Ramsay at The London) 4sq.com/9TWRMu

19:50 Our table. twitpic.com/1xxr63

22:49 OK, the food and wine is coming fast and furious. I'll put off posts until I can blog this all. But so far... wow. twitpic.com/1xz6ch

23:31 Well, when they bring out a different bottle of wine for each course of an 8 course meal you end up drinking more than you think.

23:48 The Gorillaz would be perfect for covering " You're Unbelievable". Someone make this happen.

Daily Status Report

2010-06-18T07:01:00.001-04:00

16:17 Forgot to mention: Met other watchers of Smallville at Wizard. They hate it too. I have never met a watcher of that show who enjoys it.

18:19 This is currently my favorite thing. bit.ly/bjYGbT

19:09 So does the movie Scott Pilgrim establish "Emo Expressionism" as a film style now?

19:46 I just remembered I have this. Ask me questions because there's nothing going on over here right now. bit.ly/b2LT7D

20:06 Q:What would your last meal be? A:Thinking about that it seems to me that the whole "last meal" is a strange concept... 4ms.me/bFBaLR

20:28 These ended up together on the reshelve cart. Yeah, I think they're about equal on an intellectu al scale. twitpic.com/1xo2bw

00:16 .@hijinksensue You need to make an "I Cocking Hate Coldplay" t-shirt. Damn you, Pandora!

00:39 #ebz The Starveling Cat! The Starveling Cat! Why does it look at us like that? fallenlondon.com/c/120876

Daily Status Report

2010-06-17T07:00:00.001-04:00

10:29 This friday I'm going to be dining at the chef's table at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant at the London. So incredibly excited. Will stream pics.

13:18 Seesmic really needs to add auto-complete for twitter names.

15:35 Pandora, if I wanted to listen to Jack Johnson I would put on Dave Matthews. I didn't so stop.

16:06 Anyone have experience switching back and forth between phones on Verizon? Instructions, hints, advice?

22:47 #ebz Churches still hold services, London still has its bishops, the Traitor Empress is still the head... fallenlondon.com/c/119349

00:13 Great LOST links: A professionally made map of the island - bit.ly/dqeyC0. Lost re-enacted by cats in 1 minute - bit.ly/biAJJt

01:37 Glad Swype opened up a public beta. I'm very nearly sold on it.

Daily Status Report

2010-06-16T07:00:00.001-04:00

11:13 Wow. I think @tankriot just mentioned a comixed strip I did!

14:37 Note to self: play Wii games again. Your Wii does more than just Netflix and did you ever finish Twilight Princess?...

17:24 So if the iPad is not a secure environment then what's the point of Jobs' morality police and lockdown on iOS? bit.ly/arDIUR

19:08 #ebz Death is not always permanent in Fallen London. This permits the practice of the violent but stra... fallenlondon.com/c/117617

20:15 Must... resist... urge to destroy screaming child. Must... control... the rage...

21:39 RT @rob_sheridan: 1000s of geeks leaving @e3expo crossing 1000s of jocks arriving for @Lakers game. Like a colossal wedgie waiting 2 happen.< /p>

22:09 RT @wilw: I think it's awesome that Andy Garcia is cosplaying as Groucho Marx at the basketball game. twitpic.com/1x50oz

23:14 "I heard the same song in my childhood dreams, played by a man named Kristopher Kross. You must take that name and sing to the world."

23:24 Step 3 of any plan should be "Loggins". This is brilliant!

Daily Status Report

2010-06-15T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:14 RT @GailSimone: 20 Questions as played on LOST. Q: Animal, vegetable, or mineral? A: My god! My childhood tricycle!

09:47 "Starting the virtual machine" has a nice Metropolis/Dark City ring to it.

11:34 I don't think the pope is unholy, just not holy. I would describe him as A-holy.

11:39 #ebz Death is not always permanent in Fallen London. This gives rise to a peculiar overlap between th... fallenlondon.com/c/115437

11:45 Breaking New: AT&T starting to suck less when releasing Android phones! Public shocked! bit.ly/bca61Q

15:24 RT @ITCrowdSupport: Let's try that again... j.mp/bYkcGk

16:19 Damn you, GIMP, for not having a proper batch mode!

17:12 Thank you, Starbucks. bit.ly/cTcveO

18:43 How is it that it's still surprising to some people when I inform them that their phones must be on silent... in a library.

18:51 I just unlocked the "Bender" badge on @foursquare! 4sq.com/9xM1kW

19:05 Was I aware that Piers Anthony wrote porn? I wasn't aware he wrote anything other than smut. bit.ly/9AGz1V

20:17 This truly is an unholy alliance between man (Nicholas Cage) and machine (Netflix)! bit.ly/Cageflix via @netflix

20:31 So THAT'S what is inside the Pandorica...

21:18 Has anyone seen Rubicon? Comments?

00:04 Just saw video of @secupp for the first time and I'm worse off for it. She's either a tool or a moron and definitely frustrating.

Daily Status Report

2010-06-14T07:01:00.001-04:00

10:48 #ebz fallenlondon.com/c/114064

17:33 Calling for movie suggestions. What should I Netflix next?

18:38 I just unlocked the "Adventurer" badge on @foursquare! 4sq.com/96mmmE

19:00 Steve Jobs is proving to be less a new Bill Gates and more a new Pope. tinyurl.com/34v7rbh via @toplibrarian

20:48 RT @ebertchicago: You can't really write at Starbucks, but you can look intriguing and way cool. Like reading Sartre in the old days.

00:25 You know you've made it as a punk band when you can make a Tony nominated musical with no original songs or choreography to speak of.

Daily Status Report

2010-06-13T07:00:00.001-04:00

10:51 I'm at Pennsylvania Convention Center (1101 Arch St, Philadelphia) w/ 8 others. 4sq.com/243VZR

11:05 If you're going to be Green Arrow why pick the Smallville version? twitpic.com/1w5ytj

11:12 Also, the "pre-sale" line is an epic fail. This is half the line to get to the rest of the line. twitpic.com/1w611m

12:18 Want! twitpic.com/1w6mv4

13:04 Wearing any shirt from @hijinksensue to a con will get you compliments.

14:16 Linda Hamilton just touched me. In my heart and physically.

14:59 Very cool Altair costume but he was awkwardly in character. twitpic.com/1w820j

15:28 Listening to @brentspiner talk about twitter in person. Usually people talk about the real world on twitter.

15:54 And there is someone in that Dale suit. twitpic.com/1w8ja2

16:48 RT @BPGlobalPR: England vs. USA recap: "Football": England 1 - USA 1 : "Crapping in the other's Gulf": England 54 - USA 0 ^Tony

17:27 Linda Hamilton: nicest person ever. Complimented my @hijinksensue shirt and gave my wife a kiss on the cheek. Made my day.

17:43 Also, zombie Phoenix. twitpic.com/1w9dk9

23:41 RT @dealsplus: Win #Apple Product in 30 mins. Just retweet this & follow @dealsplus to win. Details bit .ly/9aq1Su

Daily Status Report

2010-06-12T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:05 Wow. Know what's faster than iTunes for changing audio properties of files on an iPod? Every other iPod program I've tried.

11:55 RT @BillCorbett: People who brag "I don't like kids:" you have no soul. Less spit-up on your clothing, admittedly... but no soul.

12:44 That's a start. Now let's seem some follow through. Fast reactions to complaints & turn over evidence and records. bit.ly/bjcZkG

15:36 Finished with Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris bit.ly/dBpSDC

16:07 That's telling. RT @pewresearch More Repubs (50%) trust BP than trust the fed gov (45%) for info on Gulf oil spill. pewrsr.ch/dB4T11

22:12 RT @dealsplus: Win #Apple #iPhone 4 T oday. Just retweet this & follow @dealsplus to win #iPhone4. Details: bit.ly/9aq1Su

22:16 Headed to Wizard World tomorrow. Anyone else going? Linda Hamilton, sigh.

01:31 #ebz They say it's a gate that opens in the stalactites behind Wolfstack Docks. They say you can see i... fallenlondon.com/c/112380

Daily Status Report

2010-06-11T07:00:00.001-04:00

08:46 Are straight parents destroying our chldrens' future? (study may have slight bias) bit.ly/bUk20W

08:52 This comic is depressing because it's 100% true. And guess which side won. bit.ly/d8tWwc

13:50 Are you frakking kidding me?! Just needed to get that out there. That is all.

14:49 RT @dealsplus: Win #Apple #iPhone 4 Today. Just retweet this & follow @dealsplus to win #iPhone4. Details: bit.ly/9aq1Su

17:42 I just became the mayor of Milltown Public Library on @foursquare! 4sq.com/brRLta

18:53 The guy that did Cube is doing a movie of Neuromancer. Suddenly Johnny Mnemonic doesn't look so bad anymore. bit.ly/beBqSG

01:00 Rock Band 3 justifies those who said "You should just learn the real instrument instead". What's the point now? bit.ly/aTHmtt

Daily Status Report

2010-06-10T07:01:00.001-04:00

12:37 RT @steveholz OMG...can't breathe...too awesome...NEED THIS NOW!!! bit.ly/bSKaWh

13:34 To think is easy; to act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult of all. #myfortunecookiesays

15:55 RT @BoingBoing: Glee vs copyright: do as I say, not as I do bit.ly/crzkCm

20:13 I don't think making Sarah Jessica Parker/horse jokes will ever get old.

20:32 Anyone going to Wizard World Philly?

21:04 RT @dealsplus: Win #Apple #iPhone 4 in 3 hours. Just retweet this & follow @dealsplus to win #iPhone4. Details: bit.ly/9aq1Su

21:21 RT @jamesforeman: ATTN Dune nerds: Baron Harkonnen reference in Goblet of Fire #rifftrax - and it's pretty funny, too

22:12 The quackalicious Age of Autism used a necklace from @SurlyAmy on their site. bit.ly/9tnm37 (via @BadAstronomer)

23:51 Quidditch: the pod-racing of the Harry Potter universe.

Daily Status Report

2010-06-09T07:00:00.001-04:00

08:43 RT @Glinner: To those asking, IT Crowd S4 will be with you 25th of June.

08:57 Coworkers is lending me a T-Mobile SIN so I can unlock my phones today. Just realized I am carrying around 3 smart phones. Luxury.

09:44 I now have three unlocked phones and at least two are ready for Europe!

13:20 Man, Google Latitude would be awesome... if anyone used it.

13:42 Curiosity poll: How many shy away from the word "Jew" (opposed to Jewish) because it seems rude, negative, etc? Are you Jewish or gentile?

18:23 Not only did Stew make a movie, not only was it released on dvd, not only does Netflix have it but it's also streaming! bit.ly/b1IY0k

23:30 Win #Apple #iPhone 4 in 30 mins. Just retweet this & follow @dealsplus to win #iPhone4. Details: bit.ly/9aq1Su

Daily Status Report

2010-06-08T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:10 My wife was great in her show yesterday. I was a minimalist performance of a few O. Henry shorts.

13:08 Android people, do you prefer Seesmic or the official Twitter app?

14:21 RT @apelad: The new iphone contains a tiny beating heart, so at last it can love you back.

15:09 Anyone claiming the new iPhone blows away Android is pushing a false dichotomy. Android can be dropped on any hardware. iPhone IS hardware.

15:35 Remember when the Evo came out & Qik gave it video chat because Android let's programmers do what they want with the hardware? Good times.

17:10 Ugh. Turns out that it wasn't just a coolant leak in my car. My bank account will be bruised and in tears soon.

17:57 Pic a more advanced subject and this is essential ly my issue with Ubuntu. bit.ly/9tWhFY

18:41 You got Gaga in my TARDIS. You got... actually the TARDIS is its own universe so it doesn't "really" go in anything. bit.ly/czzE8D

18:50 Marked as to-read: Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks bit.ly/98jA4z

19:19 Servers 1,000. RT @wilw: Holy. Crap. We have been given a Tardis cake. I hear there is a giant cake inside it. twitpic.com/1uvpgo

20:20 Alan Moore doing a Cthulhu comic? Heart explodes in joy and terror. tinyurl.com/2fgp79q

Daily Status Report

2010-06-07T07:00:00.001-04:00

11:50 The Doctor Who: City of the Daleks game came out yesterday! I know what I'm doing tonight.

13:23 Yesterday's Doctor Who kinda sucked.

14:22 I'm at Six Flags Great Adventure (1 Six Flags Boulevard, Jackson). 4sq.com/5anViq

14:22 I just unlocked the "TLC Summer" badge on @foursquare! 4sq.com/cVWvpU

21:45 It's a special level of nerdiness when you see someone in a restaurant and notice he looks like your favorite, moderately obscure, author.

01:59 #ebz The Bazaar is traditionally spoken of as if it's a single living thing. Women call it 'he'; men c... fallenlondon.com/c/104148

Daily Status Report

2010-06-06T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:18 Hrmm. Alarms didn't go off and got a call without a ring. And no, my phone wasn't on silent.

10:57 I keep turning my phone the wrong way for landscape but I blame that on my last phone which was a left device.

11:15 So wouldn't this make them "fantasy" universes? bit.ly/d2iHiW

16:02 Just got another unlock code from AT&T, this time with no run-around. I feel so accomplished.

23:18 #ebz The Exceptional Rose is said to bloom once a year, around the time of the ancient festival of Lup... fallenlondon.com/c/102563

Daily Status Report

2010-06-05T07:00:00.001-04:00

10:53 Someone must have set us up you because you're the bomb! #howtostayavirgin

11:51 IT HAS ARRIVED! I'll be converting to Verizon and Android at lunch. One of us. One of us...

14:31 Hello world. :-)

23:07 Android is so great... wait, what's that? Oh no. Oh no! It's... PORNOGRAPHY! Steve Jobs, save me! Save me! Why hast I forsaken thee!

23:10 #ebz The second of Feducci's illegal fighting rings is the Ring of Roses. The loser is the first to ma... fallenlondon.com/c/101299

Daily Status Report

2010-06-04T07:00:00.001-04:00

08:50 #ebz This is where the trading steamer fleets come in from the lands across the Unterzee, the sunless ... fallenlondon.com/c/99003

09:04 One week!!!!

11:50 Goodbye Rue McClanahan. Truly, the real life Golden Girls is the best Highlander spin-off ever. bit.ly/9ruvk9

12:50 I was wrong. Not one week. ONE DAY! I'm positively giddy!

18:05 Today's word of the day is "hypocrisy". Whenever you see this in action, scream as loud as you can. Prepare to have a sore throat.

20:13 .@substitute ... but continues to claim number of Orion slave girls he's knocked phasers with is accurate.

22:13 Just got the unlock code for one of my AT&T phones. Won 't give me the code for an "active" phone. I'll call back tomorrow after I quit them.

22:37 Almond Espresso Ice Cream. Wife's verdict? Super creamy, very almond-y & maybe not sweet enough. Perfect for me, needs tweaking for masses.

01:44 I find it amusing that when phones were big the goal was to shrink them. Now phones are bragging about becoming large again.

Daily Status Report

2010-06-03T07:00:00.001-04:00

08:34 #ebz Unfinished Men are Clay Men who lack something - sight, a voice, a hand, conscience, obedience. Y... fallenlondon.com/c/97591

10:17 I would watch any Jane Austin adaptation... if the male lead were Gary Busey.

12:13 Is this a polka by way of They Might Be Giants cover of 99 Luftballons I hear? Indeed!

14:20 Thinking about giving the Lost finale another shot by starting the show over & seeing how well it fits. Yea or nay?

14:29 @baronetss You went back to see if it works together?

16:28 Happy B-day, Tricia. RT @BreakingNews Weapons charges filed against MI militia group accused of plotting to kill police bit.ly/91DAkk

17:15 Adobe AIR SDK i s out for Android 2.2. This is going to be cool. bit.ly/9lWQ5z

17:50 Catching up on True Blood mini-episodes and news. Yay for summer seasons of TV.

19:59 Just made the base for Espresso Almond Ice Cream. Can't wait to freeze it up tomorrow.

Daily Status Report

2010-06-02T07:00:00.001-04:00

10:46 Had so much red meat this weekend. So glorious.

13:11 Ah! RT @Beschizza: RT @Frauenfelder: Animated GIF reveals all the secrets of LOST bit.ly/9E5g8H

13:21 All these Android phones headed for AT&T! Ah, but they'll all be crippled and tied to Yahoo so I don't regret jumping ship at all.

14:29 How long do you wait between writing a draft and revising a personal project? Deciding whether to revise play or start cyberpunk novel.

21:30 Is the dolphin's name Darwin? bit.ly/dzto8p

00:55 I'm #reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson bit.ly/aXng7E

00:56 On page 74 of 367 of Pattern Recognition by William Gibson bit.ly/9aSOWy

Daily Status Report

2010-06-01T07:00:00.001-04:00

22:58 In honor of Dennis Hopper I say we should all watch Super Mario Bros. and My Science Project.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-31T07:01:00.001-04:00

21:10 Exhausted after this weekend. Shudder for furries but yay for Flavor Fest and Hershey. Now to the Clinton Station Diner.

23:54 #ebz More Mictlan than Milan. Travellers do go to see the sights, but the sights are mostly dark half-... fallenlondon.com/c/98012

Daily Status Report

2010-05-30T07:00:00.001-04:00

11:41 On my way to Flavor Fest. Iminent noms.

13:43 I always felt Lady Gaga would sound better with mandolin and banjo. I was correct.

13:52 Let's be honest. Dennis Hopper probably isn't dead. He's just really, really fucking high. is.gd/cuBpx

Daily Status Report

2010-05-29T07:00:00.001-04:00

10:35 Finished with Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds bit.ly/d6v2Jy

14:07 Crap. Just found out I'm getting dragged to a Furry con tonight. Feel free to kill me first. Will not be any followup w/ photos or evidence.

15:07 RT @BreakingNews: Update: Gary Coleman, 42, died of an intracranial hemorrhage [...], surrounded by family & friends bit.ly/9tffVg"

15:18 It wasn't ischemic. You'd have to say he died of... a different stroke. (Waaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!) RIP Gary Coleman.

18:34 Furry: a spectrum disorder.

19:25 Congress, stop lobbying the FCC to not enforce net neutrality. I promise you do not understand what net neutrality means. (via @steveholz)

20:15 App arently it is Hammer time. Is there no line these people will not cross?

23:08 #ebz The Starveling Cat! The Starveling Cat! Wraps round your throat like a cheap cravat! fallenlondon.com/c/95614

Daily Status Report

2010-05-28T07:01:00.001-04:00

09:30 RT @BestChurchofGod: 29 dimensions of compatibility, eHarmony? Wrong. There is only one: God's Will.

13:36 #ebz Never mention the Second City to the Masters of the Bazaar. Mr Wines will look at you narrowly an... fallenlondon.com/c/93798

19:28 2 people just took out Lost S3. Asked if they wanted me to tell them how it ends. How do they expect to stay spoiler free before finishing?

23:29 AAP: Just kidding, female genital mutilation really is bad. bit.ly/beuSXI Wouldn't have to make a retraction if you didn't fuck up.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-27T07:00:00.001-04:00

11:46 According to traditional Judaism my #giftfromgod is that I am not a woman. Yay!

13:28 Just tried my ice cream base. Bad: I think it curdled a bit. Good: Tastes like delicious yogurt! I think it'll turn out OK, just different.

13:40 This man is NOT infected with a computer virus. He's carrying data storage that he put a virus on. Big difference. FAIL bit.ly/afR3p2

14:05 RT @baronetess As if I need more encouragement to say the Keillor is a sack of wind. su.pr/2AHj8F (via @flavorpill)

19:53 Want to be reminded of why Lost was great and how none of it was touched in the finale? bit.ly/ajsq38 #lost

00:06 Settling in with Daybreakers before bed.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-26T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:46 Happy Towel Day. Adams will be missed. Humorist, environmentalist, skeptic. What's not to love?

11:53 It's hot. I want to make ice cream. Flavor suggestions? Go crazy.

13:24 Oh. My. Gods. I never knew how truly terrible the Green Arrow costume from Smallville is until now. bit.ly/aVM3F8

13:36 I'd like a restaurant that makes the normal "too much" food for an American eatery, serves half & gives the rest as take-away when you go.

15:05 Does anyone have the means to accelerate me to relativistic speeds so I can get to the 10th sooner?

15:20 Finished with Time Travelers Never Die. The least hard scifi and most character based work from McDevitt that I've r... bit.ly/a2p5EB

15:38 On page 450 of 585 of Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds bit.ly/bfxQDg

15:45 It's really happening! RT @whedonesque: [ Post ] (SPOILER) Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale cover art bit.ly/dBXXN9

15:49 Too funny. RT @JoshDressel: @lessig Unable to complete the pledge on a Linux system. The age field is empty in both Firefox and Chrome.

17:52 "Super Hero Term Papers" This is pretty hilarious. I LOLed at the last two. bit.ly/cZl1zC

20:30 So the trailer for "Grown Ups" says to me "please pay to see these actors/comedians have their mid-life crisis". No thank you.

23:57 #ebz The Fisher Kings are a gang of urchins who keep to the roofs and g utters. They specialise in a pa... fallenlondon.com/c/91894

00:05 I guess they did a good job w/ the Potter makeup... if Harry and Ginny got and kicked a drug habit before the epilogue. bit.ly/cGiQ62

00:16 Made base for blueberry raspberry ice cream which I will churn tomorrow. Hoping the raspberries don't do anything too funky to the cream.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-25T07:01:00.001-04:00

11:28 BBC Radio 4's Film Programme has a great bit deconstructing Danny Elfman's themes for anyone interested. Also there for those who are not.

13:20 New blog post: "Lost, what a long, strange trip it's been. Too bad the destination was a bust." - bit.ly/aQlNCj

17:50 Wow! In other news the Earth is round, bears shit in the woods and the pope is a douche bag. What else is new? bit.ly/9Yj2P5

18:24 Marked to read: Horton Hears the Beating of His Hideous Heart!

Lost, what a long, strange trip it's been. Too bad the destination was a bust.

2010-05-24T13:19:00.000-04:00

I can only assume that the writers worked themselves into a corner that they ultimately couldn't get out of and did what Sawyer would do: con their way out. The whole “Lost is a metaphor for purgatory” was postulated by the fans back in the first season and was explicitly denied by the writers. So what happens? They half get off the island and then that half turns out to be purgatory. So in essence the island doesn't matter.

OK, it matters a little but in a show that features its location as a character the island should matter more than just a little. Let's get some things out there.

The sideways flashes during last season take place far down the line when everyone is dead.
We know this because Jack's dad, Christian Shepard (frakking really?) knows all and tells us so. We also know that Hurley becomes the new Jacob and has since died so this could actually be taking place thousands of years after the crash of flight 815.

The island is not part of the afterlife.
Once again, we know this because our good Christian Shepard tells us so. He tells Jack that the reason these people have to meet again in death is that the most important part of their lives are with each other. Since it's impossible to have the most important part of your life occur after your death....

What's wrong with all of this? Let's just agree to accept the Christian/Mormon afterlife that Lost throws at us in the final moments of the series. The first thing that struck me is that there are a good number of characters who Desmond didn't even bother “activating” with their memories. Where's Miles? Captain Frank Lapidus? I understand why Richard Alpert isn't there, as his afterlife is probably with the others, but this core cast is the only set of people who deserve to move on? And how can people like Ana Lucia not be ready when the mechanics of their afterlife bar them from growing through self awareness unless specifically activated by someone else? If Ana Lucia isn't ready then Desmond needed to help her become ready. And is Lost saying that without romantic love your life is incomplete and you can't move on? It also bothers me that Jack spent years of his life trying to be a good father, loving his son, and finds out at the end of the show that his son isn't real and doesn't have a soul and will never meet him in heaven. And speaking of rejection, wasn't Sayid in love with someone else when the show started and wasn't he desperate to get her back even though she was dead and wasn't she NOT Shannon? Why isn't she the one Sayid finds in purgatory and who is she going to love for all eternity? Pretty callous, god.

Those are just nitpicks about the way the Lost afterlife works and aren't the crux of why this finale fails. The big issue is that the sideways flashes were death. Why is that a problem? Lost established itself with odd storytelling about this mysterious island. It was partially character based but since so many of those characters come and go (I read that over 75% of the cast died within the show) the series is anchored in this island. It really was the unspoken character. Then this last episode comes along and explains in soft-focus, drawn out detail what happens to some of the characters and ignores the island completely. It is the same as publishing a book that is a murder mystery up until the last chapter and tacking on the final chapter of a romance novel for “closure”; it doesn't work for either part of the story. What the writers of Lost have done was slowly get the viewers emotionally involved in the mysteries of this strange tropical location and then tell everyone “But that's really not the point. Love is”. While love played an important factor in many of the character relationships we already knew that because we saw that love develop on the island. Love and the island aren't mutually exclusive so whay was any explanation about the island cut in order to show viewers the same romances blossom once more in yellow tinted montage bursts?

All of this goes beyond the science-fiction to fantasy problem that I've written about before. The island never stopped being science-fiction and the purgatory epilogue that was fantasy. That's fine. What is problematic is that nothing pertaining to understanding the island really mattered. That's 5 years out of a 6 year show wasted. The Dharma experiments? Doesn't matter. Whidmore and his life long quest? Frak it. Whidmore and his last minute experiments with Desmond and electromagnetism? Forget about that. Anything about the time traveling? Doesn't make any difference later so don't worry about it. The subplot about babies not being able to be birthed on the island, Walt's mystical powers, Charlie's psychotic episodes like when he kidnapped and baptized Aaron? There are countless little questions that we're left with. I'm not saying everything needed to be spelled out in the end but beyond that we're all told that none of it makes any difference. Those problems, those mysteries, those first 5 seasons of the show aren't important.

I don't mind not having everything spelled out in the end. I'd rather a show err on the side of unexplained rather than giving half-assed excuses. I think lack of explanation is the one smart thing about the end of Battlestar Galactica. My favorite show is The Prisoner. Lost, especially early Lost, borrowed a lot from The Prisoner like setting as extension of identity, knowing one's self as dramatic conflict, subjective versus objective narrative to blur the reality of a show. I don't mind not knowing everything. I don't mind when characters lie if it's part of their character. Obfuscation in a show can be very rewarding. But with Lost the entire concept turned out to be a lie. And not in the manner of a twist. A twist is an exercise in irony where the assumed subject specifically turns out to not be the true subject of interest. With Lost's limbo ending, well, that could be tacked on to literally any show at any moment. It's a completely stand alone idea and negates all earlier elements of a story. Really. Take any TV show that you've been interested in. Then replace the finale and any closure it established with “then they all died and fell in love and went to heaven”. It's such a self contained concept that it really can be tacked on as a preassembled ending to any story.

I don't even think it's worth the effort of analyzing the show now that it's over. Play back the finale without the side-flashes and it's pretty straight forward. Watch all the side-flashes in a row after that and even the afterlife twist is easy to understand. Other than the unanswered island mysteries there isn't much about the finale that is unclear. The mysteries of the island, well, you just have to let those go. We know that everyone (eventually) dies. We know that the afterlife is fundamentally in line with Christian mythology, with a heaven, hell and purgatory. More specifically we know that it's pretty close to Mormon where you take the knowledge you gained in life and use it to build your own afterlife world which you share with the soul mate that is meant for you. We know that the island isn't part of the afterlife because of the reason addressed in the above bullet points. On a technical level it is true that “then they all died and fell in love and went to heaven” is an ending. What's left to discus? From the characters' perspective I suppose that once their soul passes to heaven with their soul mate, all those pesky questions about science and time travel and free will (Faraday and his mother show us that there is no free will anyway) don't really matter much anymore.

Lost has always been, foremost, an experiment in storytelling. With Lost, the way the story was told was always more important than the story. Were there good parts to it? Absolutely. It had enough good parts to keep people watching for 6 seasons and the first season is flat out brilliant. It's just disappointing to complete this show's run only to find out that the entire plot wasn't just secondary but arbitrary. So in the end Lost was interesting storytelling, a mediocre story. But I think “interesting” is the biggest compliment that I can give the show.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-24T07:01:00.001-04:00

14:46 #ebz The streets of London were bent into a labyrinth with the Bazaar at the labyrinth's heart. Findin... fallenlondon.com/c/88452

18:11 I just made up Oceanic tickets for me and my friends for tonight's Lost finale. I sat them next to specific characters. Too dorky?

19:00 Frak yeah! A new Mark Twain book... and it's an autobiography! bit.ly/cwSIOC

20:43 I've got it! The island is actually inside the TARDIS. Doctor Who pops out of the glow cave and tells them to pipe down. #lostspoiler

20:53 Ah! #Lost starts in 10 minutes and my peeps aren't here to let me in!

23:44 RT @jengrunwald: FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU. FUCK. YOU. #Lost

23:46 #Lost finale was heavy handed and too inconsistent. Were those mistakes with those who didn't show up at the end?

23:49 Also, the writers of #Lost seemed to have forgotten that the island was a character as well. Why didn't they bother with closure for that?

23:56 RT @thecultureofme #lost is a terrible show if you're a jew & don't believe in heaven/hell/purgatory. just paradise #anyhebrewsonoceanic815?

00:17 If I made a list of finales better than #Lost, BSG would scratch its way in to the bottom. Want to think up a list of well done finales.

00:33 If every scene from the flash-sideways were cut from this last season of #Lost the finale would be so much better and make a lot more sense.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-23T07:00:00.001-04:00

08:57 #ebz The second of Feducci's illegal fighting rings is the Ring of Roses. The loser is the first to ma... fallenlondon.com/c/86981

09:49 Remember when I said Arizona was the new Texas? Well Texas wants their douchbag title back! bit.ly/aA9g9g and bit.ly/bdP7yw

11:04 Wearing my Dr. Who/Back to the Future shirt. English patron saw it & we talked BBC (shows and getting them in the US) for half an hour. IMMD

11:49 Mixed feelings on Lost ending. 1 thing they never explained: why anything happening in the current story matters. Seemed to show it doesn't.

12:00 She should get together with Jenny McCarthy and have a baby-killing party! Is killing children the new McCarthyism? nyti.ms/aD7Diq

13:22 Does anyone want to come over for Lost tomorrow night?

14:07 ::crash:: The sound of all my weekend plans falling through at the same time. Balls.

14:59 Anyone have a crapy Verizon phone I can buy for around $30? Only requirements are sending and receiving calls.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-22T07:01:00.001-04:00

09:36 I hate when my nose starts to run when I'm somewhere I can't immediately use a tissue. Like on the moon. Damn helmet.

11:00 BREAKING: Surveyed Brits think Facebook, hair dye more important than plumbing, irrigation and preserved food. is.gd/cj65r via my dad

01:02 Stargate Universe finale and then sleep. Oh hey! I completely forgot Lou Diamond Phillips was in this show. Thanks, recap!

Daily Status Report

2010-05-21T07:00:00.001-04:00

13:33 Here's my contribution to #drawmohammedday o<-< Guess what his name is!

13:41 Don't even have my 2.1 android phone yet and I'm already excited about 2.2.

20:31 So this was just donated to the library. How awesome is that? twitpic.com/1pirtu

22:37 #ebz Like all great cities, Fallen London has its ladies of negotiable virtue. The wiser ones work for... fallenlondon.com/c/85745

22:47 #ebz They built the Fifth City's prison in a stalactite the size of a fair-sized village. Food an... fallenlondon.com/c/85762

Daily Status Report

2010-05-20T07:00:00.001-04:00

08:41 Hey @netflix, what's up with bit.ly/948Sez and bit.ly/bh5k7c?

12:58 Things like this really test my anti-death penalty conviction. bit.ly/achJH4 via @Frauenfelder

13:20 New blog post: "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" is nearly upon us! - bit.ly/9w4zQ3 Because it's not freedom if there's no choice.

15:33 My Droid Incredible has been ordered! I should not be this excited for a phone!

15:51 Send me your best Android app recommendations! What's indispensable? What's cutting edge? What's fun? #android

19:23 YES! YES! YES! I CAN SEE FREEDOM! bit.ly/anVZs1

19 :33 1) I believe this is exactly what Disney and Burton would do. 2) It would be worse than the Fox tv movie bit.ly/9qX2Q7

22:52 "White Wine In The Sun" is the best Christmas song I've heard and one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

23:42 Reading the manual in anticipation of my new phone. This is what I used to do when I was a kid getting a big present: read about it. Dork.

23:45 Love how it doesn't mention making phone calls until page 40 . Let's face it, the primary function of a phone is no longer to be a phone.

"Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" is nearly upon us!

2010-05-19T10:20:00.000-04:00

It's May 20th for those who want to participate. I know I will and I'll probably be posting my amateur art.

I'd like to address is some negative reaction that this has received. I found a well written response by Ann Althouse, a law blogger. She argues that while anyone is well within their rights to draw Mohammed but that doesn't make it a good idea. I agree that not everything legal is a good idea. She claims that it will do nothing but incite anger by being disrespectful and this is where I part company with her.

While it may not be respectful of Islamic law that is the very point. Anyone who is not Muslim should not be expected to follow Islamic law. Althouse then likens the act of drawing Mohammed to the art piece entitled "Piss Christ" in which a crucifix was photographed submerged in a jar of urine. These are not comparable acts, though both are legal and valid. With "Piss Christ" the artist did something that was not specifically breaking a religious law but was intended to be controversial by going against social graces. Submerging any symbol in urine shows disrespect to the subject. A drawing of Mohammed is almost the opposite. It breaks a specific religious decree but does not violate social graces. Simply drawing a symbol or person is not normally a sign of disrespect.

It is this point that "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" is supposed to express. Doing something that is not normally rude and is not forbidden by someone's beliefs shouldn't be a problem simply because someone else doesn't want to do it. A much more applicable comparison would be how Jews should react to the crucifix itself.

Assuming that Jesus is actually god then it counts as a a graven image of god, which is forbidden. If Jesus is not god then it's idolatry which is forbidden. Simply from a historical perspective Jews see people hanging up and wearing crucifixes as a group of non-Jews parading around the image of a murdered Jew. That's pretty tasteless and cruel from a non-Christian perspective.

And yet when is the last time you heard of a group of Jews protesting the very existence of the crucifix. I can't think of an instance. Why? Because the people that wear this symbol are not Jews. They are not bound by Jewish law. If a Jew were to start wearing a crucifix they would surely be confronted about it. If a Muslim were to being drawing images of Mohammed I would assume that their community would confront them. But I would not expect a rabbi to give a Catholic a stern talking to nor do I expect an Imam to tell me that I'm breaking a law that binds me.

To be fair there are portions of every religious population that will turn to violence to get their point across. Fundamentalism from any source will act violently to opposition. Orthodox Jews in Israel (and New York or really anywhere for that matter) have been known to stone cars and people for violating the Sabbath. Christians have been killing others for not being Christian or Christian enough since there was such a thing as Christians; from the inquisition to George Tiller. Even some Buddhist monks have led mobs to destroy property and attack people. In general if you piss off Jews you'd expect letters and protests. Piss off Christians and you expect sponsorships pulled and protests and bitching on Fox news. Piss off Buddhists and, well, no one really worries about that much. Piss of Muslims and people get scared. And attacked.

There was just a post on American Atheists that makes this point. In the same South Park episode they portray Jesus watching porn and Buddha snorting cocaine. And yet there's been no Christian or Buddhist backlash. The only response that's feared is an Islamic one. I know, there are violent Christian groups that aim to hurt and kill. I also know that not all Muslims are violent. It's not even a majority. What I am getting at is that people keep fighting back when Christians kill doctors or counter-protest when the Phelps folks show up somewhere but there's a pre-emptive censorship when dealing with Mohammed and other Islamic content. That is what needs to stop. It's not the people making commentary and criticism that should be curbed. It's the violent reactionaries who push their holy symbols as universally untouchable.

Which brings it all back to "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day". I've personally done a web comic where "Christ-ee the cross" was a reoccurring minor character. So I'm following, well... That is interesting as well. Molly Norris drew the original cartoon that's over at The Stranger's page but has since gotten cold feet and has pulled her cartoon from her own site. So now it's really just rolling on its own. I completely understand why she would get scared. After all, if there ends up being some sort of response it's easier to attack one woman that the internet. The ironic (real irony!) thing is that she's scared over her own protestation of the media being scared.

Rebecca Watson puts it very nicely in video form over here.

My perspective is that people should gauge how they control their speech based on respect, not by fear or force. You can't make a decision to be respectful until you have the freedom to choose your actions. So who's in on this?

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day
Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Daily Status Report

2010-05-19T07:00:00.001-04:00

11:56 RT @URJCampHarlam: You know you went to Camp Harlam if you randomly play spin cup when out to dinner.

13:13 New blog post: Movie Review of Kick Ass - bit.ly/bZ5WE2

Movie Review: Kick Ass

2010-05-18T13:13:00.000-04:00

First of all, it wasn't. When you have a property named “Kick Ass” then it better come across pretty damn strong. Instead this movie was just a moderately weak addition to the current trend of “gritty and realistic” super hero movies. I put that in quotes because anything actually realistic can't also be about super heroes. That's like having a non-fiction book on leprechauns.

I held off on watching this because it's based on a Mark Millar comic. I haven't read his Kick Ass but I have read enough of his other books to know his standard notes: glorified brute force as character development, all women as whores or mouthy vaginas, rape as more character development, lots of guns, obnoxious 4^th wall breaking narrative. I only saw the movie after being told that some things that a friend objected to in the comic were supposedly absent from the movie.

The film does have a strong Millar feel to it so I don't know how much was taken out. Not enough, in my opinion. And yet it's too soft to function as the testosterone-loving Millar vehicle it wants to be. The story is bland, the directing adds nothing and there are too many genres being dropped on a weak foundation. The result is a film that is less than the sum of its parts.

There is action and blood and guns. That cannot be denied. However, this is all placed on the framework of a teen sex comedy and that chassis is not strong enough to support everything that is piled on top of it. We have a young, whiney teen who takes up the role of Kick Ass, a super hero. But he has real world problems. Eventually he becomes the “gay best friend” of the girl he likes. Oh, that's so hilarious. Except that there's not enough character to go around and really it's just something he's doing because that's the situation that's been placed in front of him. And that's really his special ability. He simply does whatever is in front of him. He buys a costume and then fights people that he literally falls on top of. At one point he gets taken to the hospital after a fight and this results in him being full of nerve damage and metal plates. Of course the “gritty and realistic” drops completely as he has entire bones and joints replaced but is walking again in what appears to be a week or less. He then is confronted with other heroes (Big Daddy and Hit Girl) and pretty much does whatever they say.

One would think that this could lead to him growing into his role. But the journey of the hero is twisted to useless steps in a loveless dance. His “rejection of the call” stage lasts for all of three lines until Hit Girl tells him to essentially man up and get back to work. So how does he come into his role as a full fledged super hero? It's not by inner strength. It's because someone buys him a large gun. That is probably the essence of any Mark Millar property. Can't be a man? Get a gun.

All that? That's the whole movie. Sorry if I spoiled it. Sure, he gets the girl. She has some ridiculous social associations that act as ridiculous plot devices. She goes from being a sweet girl who does charity work (and dates pimps/drug dealers?) to a mini-skirt wearing nympho who has to have sex against dumpsters in trash filled alleys. This too has a very Millar feel.

There are also action sequences. Sometimes they are flat out fun but they are never really fun in the context of the movie. There are some nice stunts but often this is knocked flat by bad narration or the injection of awkward sentimentality or out of place pop-culture references in order to keep the teen sex comedy aspect in there. The parts that do work revolve around Hit Girl and Big Daddy. Why? Because they really don't have anything to do with Kick Ass' male sexual fantasy and fetish fulfillment.

Unlike Millar's stock “boy becomes man by way of a gun and dirty sex” story they are interesting and fun, if not all that three dimensional. Nicholas Cage is the best I've seen him in a long time as Big Daddy. He plays his out of costume persona as a father well. In costume he's not channeling but imitating Adam West as Batman and it works. Do realize that his cheese factor works in a “gritty” movie so often it's the world around him that fails to add to the story and that is a shame. Hit girl is great. Some of her scenes are bordering on “look, it's an 11 year old cursing and killing” but for the most part watching an 11 year old cursing and killing is disturbingly entertaining. Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl gives a solid performance. She's not courting any awards with her role but the actress, much like the character, gets the job done and does it well.

A Hit Girl movie is what this should have been. She has a story arc. She has an interesting back story. She's funnier, more shocking and a better fighter. She's the perfect subject for a twisted super hero story. Hit Girl, to put it plainly, kicks ass. Kick Ass does not.

On a scale of -5 to +5

Kick Ass is a +1.5

Daily Status Report

2010-05-18T07:00:00.001-04:00

10:36 Dear religion commentators, using "Judeo-Christian" regarding religion shows you don't understand the concepts of Judaism or Christianity.

13:39 Sex and the City 2: A stable of privileged sluts travel to the Middle East to get drunk, complain about the heat and find white men. Right?

18:52 New blog post: Freedom From Porn - bit.ly/9v8QLG

20:20 Jews being silly: bit.ly/diEeVU This is like saying peek-a-boo counts as a cloaking device... BEST STAR TREK PREMISE EVER!

22:34 Finished with Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke bit.ly/cCqqDw

00:09 I'd like to know, what do people who generally hate Mark Millar think of the Kick Ass movie?

Freedom from Porn?

2010-05-17T18:51:00.000-04:00

Over at Gawker there's an email exchange between a blogger and Steve Jobs. It's a bit heated, there were things misspoken bits on both sides and it doesn't change anything.

What it does do is clarify Steve Jobs' comfort level about pushing his close-fist agenda. When I buy a computer product I like to think I own it. That entails being able to do what I want with it. That doesn't include accepting the manufacturer as a morality firewall.

Jobs said that "some traditional PC folks feel like their world is slipping away. It is." Why on earth he would brag about an open system being converted to a closed system is beyond me. Yes, Apple puts out very nice hardware. Yes, Apple is currently the pinnacle of user interface design (though Android with SenseUI reviews put it anywhere from close to better then iPhoneOS). Yes, Jobs is making computers into easily used appliances. That's all great. What I can't get behind is that they are appliances linked directly to Apple. Your washing machine can clean clothes from any store. Your oven cooks food from all groceries. Your car will drive on anyone's gas on any pavement. Why should your computer not run apps that Apple hasn't personally approved?

I get why he wants total control. Who wouldn't? Plus it guarantees that the user get the simple interface he produces. An iPhone running tons of 3rd party software can get bogged down in bugs. What I don't accept is that he refuses to offer the option of making your own choices. I'm an adult. Perhaps I want porn on my phone's screen.

By the end of the exchange Jobs gets downright nasty and asks, in a sinister parody of "Where do you want to go today?", what the blogger has accomplished with his life. My guess would be writing. And if this email conversation is any indication I'd also guess that it'll be done on less Apple hardware in the future.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-17T07:00:00.001-04:00

14:41 About 12 pages from the end of my first draft and I'm starting to sink. FSM, give me strength!

16:24 First draft complete! Yay!

17:38 "You did have a beard when you went in there, right?" "Yeah. It's still in the sink, if you want to glue it."

23:10 Just realized I've never even tried to pronounce that volcano's name. Let's see what all the fuss is about.

23:11 Pronounced pretty much the way it's spelled. So as long as you can spell it then it should be easy...

01:20 V is the most boring media about malevolent space-lizards ever produced.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-16T07:00:00.001-04:00

12:19 Weekend plans: Today - some sort of walk. Tommorow - lock myself alone in the apartment to write.

00:49 So very happy that the wife enjoys Tim Minchin as much as I do. Otherwise it would make TV time awkward when I keep putting on his standup.

01:16 Well, now I have to hate Amy Pond's husband. He has a super-douche mullet. Is the Doctor's mission to cut his hair?

01:20 One reality has mullets and babies. In the other you have a time machine/space ship. That's a difficult choice to make...

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2010-05-15T07:04:00.001-04:00

20:04 Paramount issues DMCA claim on video bystanders shot of "Transformers 3" shoot outside their office bit.ly/blLXKM

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2010-05-14T07:00:00.001-04:00

13:26 I'm calling it. Arizona is the new Texas. bit.ly/cr9Amq #morons #mandatedstupidity #fuckarizona

18:02 Oh gods, I HATE baby-talk. There is no appropriate time for it. Ever. ESPECIALLY to adults.

18:30 Another behavior I hate: bragging about how dumb and/or lazy you are.

18:59 Slow as molasses at the library. Ask me questions to help pull me from my boredom-coma. formspring.me/bulletproofheeb

19:06 Studio Ghibli put out a "Tales From Earthsea" movie? I'm so grabbing this tonight. www.youtube.com/watch?v=05sCTxnEs9Y

23:41 Shit. Have to watch Glee in May for the Joss Whedon and @ActuallyNPH episode. I am not pleased about giving another hour of my life to Glee.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-13T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:17 The more I think about it the more I think I hated last night's Lost.

10:04 Win an #Apple #iPad today! Retweet this & follow @dealsplus to win. Details: bit.ly/9aq1Su Another iPad w/ 80k followers!

11:12 Mens XL and hope! #threadless12

13:17 New blog post: Did "Lost" just jump the shark? - bit.ly/cqcjnF

13:21 I'm #reading Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke bit.ly/cjmFJQ

14:22 I want a t-shirt that says "Chuck Palahniuk: So Clever When You're In High School".

17:53 Mythbusters giveaway: pic, bag, & shirt signed by Jamie & Adam! Retweet to enter. Rules: is.gd/ c63E9 #BAMyth

17:55 Also, Alabama Republicans are terrible people who compete to see who can be the stupidest. bit.ly/aIPS9U

Did "Lost" just jump the shark?

2010-05-12T13:16:00.000-04:00

So last night's episode of Lost... It was interesting. Well, was. The more I think about it the more it simply doesn't work. I understand that when you have a show with devoted fans and years of build up to a finale you're going to run into problems pleasing people with your story. Look at Battlestar Galactica. But Lost is different. It is its own special case in a lot of ways. The manner in which the world-building was done is, well, unique. Lost spent seasons building up mysteries with barely any reveals. And that's why this episode doesn't work.

The fans came to Lost for the mysteries. It was a puzzle and really drew the viewer in. You'd watch and try to work out what the hidden black light map meant in the hatch. You'd wonder about the polar bear. You'd try to figure out why Walt had magic powers or Locke couldn't die. But then they announced the final season and things started to get answered. And the answers were mundane. I don't think Walt was ever really explained. The polar bear was part of an experiment. Alpert didn't know as much as people thought. The mysteries of the show turned out not to be that interesting. Instead, the focus went from “what's going on with the island” to “we have to protect/leave the island”. No one cared about the why and because of that gave up a lot of motivation.

So in last night's episode we get a whole lot of back story on Jacob and The Man In Black (the baby that no one bothered to name). They're brothers. New information but not shocking. Same age, same period of time on the island... and it's simply not a big deal. Their mother? Some random woman. We learn that they were raised by a white woman (good thing they don't look remotely like their mother of darker coloring). The immortality thing? She did “something”. And apparently that “something” was a lot more effective than the “thing” she did so they couldn't hurt each other. Something else we learned is that this whole struggle to keep safe/escape the island is really nothing more than Jacob having nothing else to do and The Man In Black having a desire to go “home”, somewhere he's never been or heard of. That seems like pretty weak motivation on both their parts to keep pushing them for centuries. In fact, the thing that Jacob is protecting has been changed from “the island” to “the special light in the island”. While this may have some metaphysical value it has no story value as of yet. That's not a reveal or an explanation; it's just a diversion. “You were looking here. Now look here!” and nothing is told to us about it. The only thing of any consequence that was show was Jacob killed TMIB. Great! We see how he used to be angry and violent while TMIB was impetuous but more even tempered. Other than that one fact this episode was weak reveals and constant runaround. At the very end we see that the non-mother and TMIB are Adam and Eve. At this point is it even important to know that? We have multiple universes, a time traveling island and immortals locked in an eternal struggle. We need to have every small mystery explained? We don't need to know everything so make sure what we do learn is important!

I was also a little put off that the flashback pointed to a lot of things being magic. The island has the spark of life within it. TMIB was suddenly turned into the smoke monster after his death by floating through this spark. Up until now we've had a the strangeness based on science-fiction: Desmond has some effect when it comes to electromagnetic fields, the core of the island was held in check with computers and magnetic machinery, Faraday worked out the mathematics of the time travel effect for frak's sake! Hell, even the smoke monster is held at bay with electronic pylons. Suddenly we have sparks of life, “things” done to create immortality, bodily transformations. The most science-fiction consistent point in the episode was when TMIB explained he was going to install a wheel inside the spark of life “with a system” he and his people worked out. A system? We get magnetic fields, quantum theory, branching universes, genetic research and suddenly it comes down to the spark of life and a wooden “system”? I always say it's important to know which side of the sci-fi/fantasy line you're on. Lost started out in a place where it could have been anything. Science-fiction, fantasy, religious afterlife, mental psychosis. I do realize that recently there have been a number of characters using fantasy buzzwords but these people were mainly getting it from Jacob and TMIB. If they want to turn on some fantasy aspects then at least weave it into the established sci-fi. Battlestar Galactica had mythology and gods from the get-go. Star Wars is based on the Force. 9 (with Elijah wood) starts with machines that can transfers parts of the soul. Focusing on time travel and quantum physics has, over the seasons, dug Lost itself deeper and deeper into science-fiction territory. It's too late to switch sides without loosing a lot of good will from followers.

So, what wasn't explained? How the two are immortal, exactly what's important about this life light, why does the spark of life make time travel possible... It's not that these weren't really touched on but rather that they were poorly explained elements in the story. Lost used to be impressive because, even if they were making it up as they were going along the details of different stories weaving together into something larger was impressive and fulfilling. This felt like filler and that's a problem since it was most of the origin story of the two eternal characters who seem to be the point of the show. If TMIB is immortal, invulnerable and can fly why doesn't he swim/fly from the island? He has the time. Is Jacob really destroying hundreds of lives just because the woman that killed his mother told him that this light was important? If the spark of life is extinguished everywhere if something happens to that cave of light then why is everyone fine in the alternate world where the island sank? I could understand it if the writers created a world that was falling apart due to issues brought about on the island but it just seems like the script is what's crumbling. If this whole thing has just been a Cain and Abel/Jacob and Esau retelling with the island used as a MacGuffin I will be royally pissed.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-12T07:01:00.001-04:00

11:29 I swear I'm not seeking out history about religious hypocrisy today. All I did was download an NPR podcast on prohibition. It's hilarious!

11:32 An aside: I've always wanted to design and built a still. I blame my twin loves of science experiments and M.A.S.H.

15:38 New IQ2 US debate on organic food. Pro organic side better bring some good science to the floor. I'd like to learn something.

16:02 Hrm. Debate is about whether organic food is marketing hype. Would rather hear a discussion regarding its costs and benefits. Oh well.

18:33 The Humble Indie Bundle. 6 games, name your own price & 100% of the money goes to the developers & charity. I recommend. j.mp/9WtdAm

20:02 Chunky peanut butter is superior to creamy peanut bu tter. #peanutbutter

20:40 And so it begins? bit.ly/95g4uf

Daily Status Report

2010-05-11T07:00:00.000-04:00

13:15 This makes me joyful! bit.ly/af9WOW

18:27 If my co-worker blames my desire for accurate English usage on me "being" a Virgo I will ask her if Virgos are prone to violent outbursts.

20:31 I'm bored and opinionated. Any questions? formspring.me/bulletproofheeb

21:34 Catching up on Flashforward. I think I like science too much for this to be enjoyable.

00:27 Time for House.

00:38 For anyone who saw tonight's House: was amnesiac also evil girl Quin from Sliders? Asking before I hit IMDB.

00:57 What the frak! I recognize Zoe McLellan (Logan St. Claire, ha!) from 30 seconds on House but not from Voyager, Nowhere Man or Invisible Man?

Daily Status Report

2010-05-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

12:54 Taking my mom out to get her first tattoo. Happy mother's day!

13:38 And my mom has a tattoo. Looks great!

14:57 Here's my mum's sick ink. twitpic.com/1mho1y

17:24 Win an #Apple #iPad today! Just retweet this and follow @dealsplus to be entered. Details here: bit.ly/9aq1Su

22:56 Just finished "Julie & Julia". Loved the Julia Child portions.

00:00 Tip on not being stupid. If you are in an argument and are faced with a fact, if you respond "Yes, but what if..." then you have failed.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-09T07:00:00.001-04:00

08:59 This is going to be such a pointless, ineffective mess. And remember kids, you can't spell MPAA without FAIL. bit.ly/cSOiFz

11:13 Forgot to mention: one of the best parts of Iron Man 2 is DURING the credits. It's a parody of the Carousel of Progress song at Disney.

11:28 Transhumanism and Superheroes - bit.ly/azpMH2 Great article! The part on Superman is just one of the reasons I love that character.

12:34 Don't know what's going on with my @woot order but the FedEx page says the estimated ship date is last Tuesday.

13:50 Your sarcasm would be more appreciated if you weren't completely wrong in your reasoning.

14:07 Ah, and my ever favourite "I don't hand things to people, I wave them spa stically in your face". Yeah, that's not annoying and rude.

18:29 Did some biking. Now to relax with my first episode of classic Doctor Who.

19:43 Wow, and I thought some of the new Doctor Who was a bit silly. Did a robot just faint?

20:02 First classic Doctor Who was fun but I don't know if I'll continue. I have trouble with most sci-fi TV from the 60s & 70s.

22:04 Smallville is simultaneously destroying style tropes, characters and also insulting Barbara Gordon. It's getting... mean.

22:17 Since new Doctor Who is taking ages to arrive I'm resigned to bad sci-fi TV: Smallville and Flashforward. TV you can sleep to!

22:21 My media center seems to have developed a content-aware immune system. It rejected my attempt to watch Flashforward. I'm so proud! ::t ear::

01:46 Of all 3 new Doctors I do believe this one would make the worst stripper. I suspect Eccleston has a few tricks up his blazer.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-08T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:04 If you ask "Is it safe to assume ____?" then you are not making an assumption. You're seeking some sort of verification.

10:21 Co-workers started singing all the children's tv theme songs they can remember. Just got to "Song That Never Ends". Come here and kill me.

10:57 For any electronica fans I highly recommend Old Bear. Listening to the album Nine Cities and really enjoying it.

11:01 If you enjoy music then I hope you've heard "I Love Leonard Cohen" by Robin Grey. If not you're missing out.

15:19 enWii: the state of no longer being impressed with video game technology.

19:35 Yay, Iron Man 2. Hope it's gonna be good.

22:40 I understand why Iron Man 2 reviews are so-so. Bit messy, not enough ban ter or Iron Man. Quality wise Iron Man = X2, Iron Man 2 = X-Men 1.

00:17 Blast & double blast! I have my Check.in beta invite & no Android phone to activate it on yet. Can't wait for my AT&T billing cycle to end.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-07T07:00:00.001-04:00

09:46 Obama endorses today's National Day of Christian Prayer. That makes me uncomfortable for many reasons.

10:05 In other news I recently tried out the latest Ubuntu. Nice resolution on the loading screen. Awww yeah.

11:29 If when something break you regard it as parts and not junk you might be a #techneck.

13:31 American Academy of Pediatrics now permits female genital mutilation. Yes, that's this country. I shit you not. bit.ly/bhDzho

18:24 Anyone have good news for me? Today was pretty much crap so far.

18:52 And mega-doses of antioxidants can cause cancer. Good to know. bit.ly/cMlUeE

19:37 I already had 3 "apps" installed when I checked. bit.ly/dgWKhc - Facebook: New "social" features secretly install malware

00:18 Have I mentioned lately how kick-ass Thomas Paine is? If not, consider it reiterated.

Daily Status Report

2010-05-06T07:00:00.001-04:00

08:48 Two brilliant (and unrelated) Star Wars edits. bit.ly/9mZZnn bit.ly/bHYmPl

09:53 Read Obama's "Day Of Prayer" proclamation. Crosses the line, contains lies and cheapens any legitimate sentiment mentioned. So disappointed.

12:34 Best advice I can give on insomnia: if someone says they know how to deal with your insomnia they are probably a liar.

14:27 I wonder if Cinco de Mayo will become a whites only holiday in Arizona.

15:27 Is this a joke? Mascot is named Georgie O'Well! RT @rushkoff: This is the end: crowdsourced american youth gestapo at snapscouts.org

15:42 Anyone with Android checked out snapscouts.org? S eems like satire (run by MiniTru LLC) but there is an app to download...

21:24 Gaga's on American Idol and she seems to have a stone angel from Doctor Who with her.

22:17 I'm confused. The TV says that "Killers" isn't "True Lies" but there doesn't seem to be any evidence to back this claim up.

22:34 Happy Town seems to have a real hard-on for Carly Simon.

22:55 Someone NEEDS to use "Seasons of Love" from Rent in a cell phone commercial. Am I right? Eh?

23:07 Linux vs. genome, design vs. random mutations. Fascinating! bit.ly/bCHRSz

01:00 .@ebertchicago doesn't give "The Human Centipede" any stars. Makes sense if you know the plot. More mission than movie. j.mp/d f5ITG

01:16 Just a heads up. On tomorrow's Bones Ellen Tigh shows up as a witch. But we really know she's a Cylon.

The Bulletproof Heeb

Rooting For No One: Sports as Religion

Review of 11/22/63 by Stephen King

11/22/63

Time Travel Made Easy

Hugo: a review

TV that I watch

How I left How I Met Your Mother

Drsote Lantern

E-Reading, or Nooky

I've been a bit absent

Reclaiming Slurs: The Rules of Rude Language

In The Gay Marriage Debate, Stop Playing The Bigot

My Day. Every Day.

This is my day. Every day.

Writing about not writing. Because I'm writing.

The Un-Watchable

Windows Mobile 7

Library Safety Tips

Library Safety Tips

Anne Rice renounces and reaffirms her faith

But following Christ does not mean following His followers.

But following Christ does not mean following His followers.

Christopher Nolan has an existential thesis, not a crisis

A quick note on what INCEPTION is (SPOILER FREE)

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4th of July - 2010

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Searching for a Cell Phone or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Open Markets

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Comic strip: Quiet in the library...

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Toy Story 3 - Both Dynamic and Flat

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Dining at the chef's table At The London

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