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    Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
    baxil
         		12:34p
    Zeroes, zeroes, zeroes mean so much
     The current playlist of the moment on my hyPod*:

    "One More Mile," Muddy Waters
    "10 Miles," Infernal
    "100 Miles," Bad Company
    "1,000 Miles," Vanessa Carlton
    "10,000 Miles," Mary Chapin Carpenter [or Juno Reactor]
    "100,000 Miles," Spearhead/Michael Franti
    "Million Miles," Bob Dylan [or Fuel]
    "10 Million Miles," Patty Griffin
    "93 Million Miles," 30 Seconds To Mars

    (Other notables: 8, 20, 25, 500)

    See also.

    --
    * Term via [info]momentrabbit, though I am really stretching its original usage: "a hyPo-thetical musical Device that plays songs that don't exist yet". (source) Here I'm speaking more in the sense of "my imaginary music player that has whatever arbitrary (albeit real) songs on it that I need to in order to make my current point."

    Current Mood: amused
    Current Music: "How Many Miles To Babylon," Yngwie Malmsteen
    Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
    kadyg
         		12:26p
    Social engineering through the mail
     I have a book chain letter from my dad (who seriously never does these things, so I want to keep it going for him if nothing else). You send a letter to six friends and a book of your choosing to the person in the letter you receive. Just toss it in a padded envelope and away it goes, nothing fancy.

    I need six people (or more!) to send the letter to. If you're interested in getting some books from people you've never met, this is your chance.

    I think this originated in the Midwest, so I'd like to get some Wild and Radical West Coasters into the mix. I can't carry the freak flag all by myself, it's too heavy.

    Leave your name and address in the (locked) comments section.
    jackkansas
         		12:25p
    Google Translate ...
     ... copes with Finnish. I love this century!

    "Give my regards to Finland!"
    — Earth Girls are Easy (1988)

    Current Mood: jubilant
    emberleo
         		3:53a
    Monday, January 4th, 2010
    emberleo
         		2:19p
    Sunday, January 3rd, 2010
    racerxmachina
         		11:22p
    jackkansas
         		12:30p
    Supernatural (tv series)?
     In her FaceBook profile photo, my fourteen-year-old grand niece in Finland is holding a DVD for a show named Supernatural. I've read the Wikipedia entry, checked IMDB, and watched a few clips on YouTube. If I had a clue, what would her interest in this show tell me about my niece? For extra credit: what do you think she thinks she's saying about herself?

    Current Mood: clueless
    Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
    racerxmachina
         		7:41p
    Friday, January 1st, 2010
    devonapple
         		12:10p
    palecur
         		10:53a
    Good Morning.
     It's 2010. Can't think of another New Year's Day where I felt the promise and opportunity quite this sharply. Yes, it's an arbitrary date in the middle of winter. But meaning is as meaning does, and right now it's psychologically valuable to me to be shut of some old business. An arbitrary transition will do nicely.

    I'll be in touch, folks. You're all very important to me.

    Current Mood: sleepy but excited
    Thursday, December 31st, 2009
    jackkansas
         		9:25p
    New Year Blue Moon
     Ordinarily, LCB and I like to stay in Walnut Creek on New Year's Eve, hunkered down in the safety of the condo with the kitties, watching fireworks on cable as we knosh pickles and olives and little delicacies that are a treat for LCB — quiet and coziness have take on primal values for us over the years. But this year we decided to head down to Sunnyvale so that LCB could play on "the big box" (my iMac with its Comcast hookup to the Internet) and watch YouTube videos of cute animals and whatnot. About once a year, LCB and I will indulge ourselves in red meat, so we drove up to Draeger's in Menlo Park, where I bought russet potatos and two huge cuts of filet mignon. I also bought red/green/orange peppers, tomato sauce, and some ground round so that we can make spaghetti sauce for New Year's Day dinner. The potatos are baking as I write this, and soon I'll put the steaks on to broil, cook some Green Giant Niblets, pour some Martinelli's sparkling cider, and we'll welcome 2010 in the door. Later I'll check and see if my grandnieces in Finland have updated their FaceBook pages, then we'll head back to Walnut Creek in the wee hours so that the kitties won't get lonely. It is quiet here tonight, and the lovely blue moon is playing hide and seek in the clouds. I tried to capture the moon with my camera phone, but the camera in the LG VX8360 is inferior to the one in my old LG VX89300, and the results were disappointing. If we both weren't still coughing up several ccs of phlegm an hour, life would be perfect.

    I don't know if it's an auspicious sign for the coming year, but searching through the fanny pocket of my parka in the Draeger's parking lot, I found the spare key to Mithril that's been missing for years. Both LCB and I thought that LCB had lost it long ago, and we were both astounded that it turned up. I feel better knowing that she has a key to the car — she can't drive standard transmission, but at least she can get inside. I hope you all get a peek at the moon tonight, and that the year ahead is happy and fulfilling. As Bob Dylan once sang, "I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours, I said that." Here's hoping that all your happy dreams come true next year.

    Current Mood: happy
    jackkansas
         		9:06p
    Sparkles in San Francisco
     Yesterday I drove LCB and her friend Margo over to the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco to view the Cartier Exhibit. My route to the museum is a little unorthodox — after crossing the Bay Bridge (as a bona fide carpool, we crossed for free), I like to take Hwy 101 down to I-280, head south to Monterey Blvd., take Monterey Blvd. to Sloat Blvd. (thereby giving LCB a view of the St. Francis Wood neighborhood), take Sloat past the Zoo to the Great Highway, head north past the Beach Chalet (formerly an American Legion bar with some great murals from the WPA era), past the Cliff House and Camera Obscura and Sutro Heights, then back east on Geary to 34th Street, which runs over to the Palace and its surrounding golf course. This is obviously not the direct route, but its more scenic and less stressful than the direct route, and it has nostalgic value for me as well.

    The exhibit was marvelous, with magnificent jewelry dating back before 1900 up to the present. Amazing that some of the most beautiful works would never have been seen by anyone but a billionaire before now. The diamond-pearl-platinum tiaras were breathtaking, as were the "mystery clocks," whose hands appear suspended in rock crystal with no visible gears or other mechanism to move them. My personal taste ran to the uncut emeralds that were larger than dominos, or the uncut rubies and sapphires the size of robin's eggs. As always, the museum provides plenty of historical and social context, and the overall experience was just fabulous. The [imaginary creatures] are easily mesmerized by shiny artifacts, and their eyes were big as saucers for most of the day.

    We had a delightful lunch in the museum cafe — Margo is wonderful company, and brings a unique perspective to these adventures. We had originally planned to spend some time in the Rodin exhibit on the first floor after lunch, but we were all worn out by this time, so we headed back to the East Bay and drove Margo home to Concord. I ended up napping for most of the rest of the evening, then watched CSI: New York with LCB, who is a big fan.

    Current Mood: peaceful
    racerxmachina
         		6:37p
    devonapple
         		1:17p
    Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
    slothman
         		11:59p
    Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

    The creative minds at Insomniac Games are keeping up the quality in the Rachet & Clank series with A Crack in Time. They have plenty of over-the-top ultra-tech action with a variety of weapons: the basic pistol/bomb/shotgun set are heavily customizable (and, like all the weapons, evolve with experience); the sniper rifle is very satisfying for my own play style; and, of course, there are utterly gonzo weapons like the Chimp-o-matic (like the original Morph-O-Ray, but turns opponents into chimpanzees), the psychopathic killbot Mr. Zurkon (“Ha-ha! Mr. Zurkon does not need nanotech to survive. Mr. Zurkon lives on fear!”), and my personal favorite, the Rift Inducer 5000 (which causes an interdimensional rift to open and green tentacles, belonging to an entity named “Fred”, to emerge looking for snacks). As always, they provide an over-the-top RYNO weapon; the RYNO V shows gratifying levels of overkill, shooting hundreds of rockets at the enemy while shooting off gratuitous fireworks and playing the 1812 Overture. The plot is entertaining, though straightforward— the big twist was apparent early on— but morally wholesome without being oppressive.

    The game’s platformer aspects are challenging to my 38-year-old reflexes, particularly early in the game when Ratchet has neither Clank to provide gliding capability nor hoverboots to slow his descent. The hoverboot racecourses were frustrating, as they require both the timing of the grindrail and keeping the character on track with the joystick; the final combat in the game involves hoverboot segments and took me quite a while to get through.



    Current Mood: pleased
    racerxmachina
         		7:17p
    devonapple
         		11:20a
    Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
    racerxmachina
         		10:04p
    slothman
         		12:11a
    The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, by Lewis Carroll and Martin Gardner ★★★★

    An omnibus of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, with combined annotations from the Martin Gardner’s original Annotated Alice and the followup More Annotated Alice. The annotations give a lot of interesting depth to the works; they explain everything from Victorian cultural references (even giving the complete poems Carroll parodies) to the then-current issues in mathematics that Dodgson dealt with professionally. It added an enjoyable depth to revisiting a classic I haven’t read in decades.



    Current Mood: curiouser
    Monday, December 28th, 2009
    kadyg
         		5:51p
    A rare movie post
     Bax and I went to a sold-out showing of Sherlock Holmes yesterday. Due to sliding in under the wire, we ended up seated in the very front row faaaaaaaar right, to the point that I suspect we were behind the speakers. I plan to see the movie again from more optimal seating in the near future. Bax does not.

    On the main, I enjoyed the movie. Bax makes some points about Holmes being an "action hero" that I would like to respectfully disagree with - having had a day to mull over what I saw.

    1. The Holmes and Watson of the books were both older men with very full careers behind them. They both had their physical skills (Watson was known to box and Holmes was a fencer), but for the most part they didn't go diving head first into fisticuffs. The Holmes and Watson of this movie are both younger men, we meet them as Watson is becoming engaged, so it would make sense that they are both actively involved in their sports at that time.

    2. We see Holmes in an underground prize fight. While I'm not going to get into the accuracy of such an activity at that time, in the scene previously Holmes had done something fairly shitty to someone he cared about. I read this as him wanting his outside to hurt as much as his inside. Holmes also has a pretty serious self-destructive streak throughout his character. He was known to chase away women who loved him, treat his friends fairly crappily, indulged in illicit substances and generally ran himself into the ground. Seeing his younger self doing this to a much greater degree seemed to make sense to the character.

    On the main, I thought Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law did just fine. Rachel McAdams had the good sense to not try to pull off a British actress against those two and she's always lovely. (Netflix the first season of Slings and Arrows if you've only ever seen her in The Notebook.) The character of Moriarity is hinted at near the end, so I suspect the PTB are hoping to make this into a franchise, which will be interesting since RDJ seems to pulling that way with Iron Man. This is also Guy Ritchie's first post-Madonna movie and I hope for his sake that it does well. He's an interesting director and I'm curious to see what he can do with a Very Large Budget. Actors seem to enjoy working with him and he tells stories in an unusual way. (Look for Snatch to see a nearly unrecognizable Brad Pitt in a rather different con man movie.)
    racerxmachina
         		4:39p
    Sunday, December 27th, 2009
    baxil
         		6:46p
    "Sherlock Holmes" in 30 seconds
     Robert Downey Jr.: Hey Watson, check me out. I'm House!
    Jude Law: No you're not.
    Robert Downey Jr.: I totally am. I'm an irascible slovenly guy that mistreats his closest friends. I even gave myself his five-o'clock-shadow beard and rumpled hair.
    Jude Law: Stop that. Hugh Laurie is House. You're Sherlock Holmes.
    Robert Downey Jr.: Okay okay okay. Fine. I'll find another shtick.
    Jude Law: You don't need a shtick. You're Sherlock Holmes.
    Robert Downey Jr.: Wait, I've got it. Watson, check me out. I'm Batman!
    Jude Law: *sigh*
    Robert Downey Jr.: Master of disguise! Best bare-knuckled fighter in the world! Singlehandedly defeating crazy occult supervillains with my superpowers of kicking ass! And being smart.
    Jude Law: Christian Bale is Batman. You're Iron Man -- I mean, Sherlock Holmes.
    Robert Downey Jr.: No, I'm serious, I'm totally the mutherf--king Batman.
    Jude Law: This movie is set in Victorian England. You are not the Batman.
    Robert Downey Jr.: Three words. "Gotham By Gaslight."
    Jude Law: *sigh* Just play your role already, Holmes.
    Robert Downey Jr.: I am!
    Jude Law: Your Sherlock Holmes role. You are Sherlock Holmes.
    Robert Downey Jr.: *mumble* You should talk, Mr. Taller-And-Skinnier-Than-Me. "Oh, look at me, I'm Dr. Watson, I have perfect vision and I never got shot in Afghanistan --"
    Jude Law: What's that? I didn't quite hear you over the sound of the giant explosions.
    Robert Downey Jr.: Oh, nothing, nothing.

    ... So, yeah, meh. [info]kadyg liked it -- or at least wants to see it again from not in the very front corner of the theater. Me? Something about the way that they cherrypicked the source material and booted everything that they didn't like just hit me like a slap in the face. (All set to the strains of annoying plinky plunky music that sounded like it wanted to be ragtime.)

    It was an action movie. You can't turn Sherlock Holmes into an action movie!

    Or, well, maybe you can. Rotten Tomatoes is currently giving it a 69%, so the public seems to think the film's getting more right than wrong. Personally, let's call it a C-; I want to call it a D+ but I think part of that opinion is due to poor theater placement.
    emberleo
         		4:17p
    devonapple
         		11:41a
    jackkansas
         		10:27a
    Holiday Ups and Downs
     Well, it was a pretty good holiday until I knocked my LG VX8300 into a dishpan full of soapy water last night. The good news seems to be that all the local data (list of contacts, calendar, PIX and FLIX) seems to have survived. The bad news is that the phone no longer can send or receive calls or TXT messages. It's off to the Verizon store in downtown Walnut Creek later today to see if they can replace it — I ain't lookin' for no upgrade, since I have a lot of ancillary equipment that's still working fine, and I'm not interested in spending a week learning a new cell phone. Stay tuned.

    LCB's last day of work until Jan. 4 was last Wednesday. She's still quite sick with the same cold that I've been battling for nearly a month, so between coughing spells I'm trying to make her comfortable and attend to her whims (which is the best medicine for LCB). Thursday morning the Biscuit Fairy made her drop biscuits (a favorite), and Christmas Eve I made pancakes for dinner, which with real maple syrup, sour cream, or applesauce and cinnamon, is one of the best treats ever. Christmas Day we baked a chicken with lemon and garlic, which was damn good if I do say so myself. Last night LCB made chocolate chip cookies that were quite tasty. Apart from the coughing spells and the ruined cell phone, life is good.

    UPDATE: After a considerable wait at the Verizon store, I now have a new LG VX8360. I naively assumed that because the model number was close to that of my original phone that the quality and feature set would be roughly comparable, but the new phone obviously incorporates new economies of manufacture and feature set to successfully compete in today's market. On the other hand, my old phone still functions as a good camera — it just doesn't work as a phone. In any case, I now have a working phone and TXT device. It bothers me a bit how dependent I've become on the cell phone — in my youth, I often travelled in areas where there wasn't a phone within a hundred miles. Different responsibilities then, I guess.

    Current Mood: replete
    Current Music: Jingle Cats
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