Let’s see, over the last couple of months, L went to the Frankfurt conference without me; at the same time M came and passed through Vegas for a few days; I got sick with some kind of viral nasty; and we saw the Narnia film intentionally and King Kong by mistake. Oh, and I bought a new keyboard, and used it to polish up one of my songs. I also finished the 2005 version of Abstracts. A productive time, generally.
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One of the wrongly convicted people whose stories are told in the film After Innocence bears a striking resemblance to Doonesbury’s Zonker Harris, don’t you agree?
We paid our Serenity Tax again this weekend. What a great movie. It just gets better and better, and I leave the theater wanting to see it all over again. This is a great film to see with fans. The cynics among you will say that, at this point, the hard core fans are the only people still going to see the film.
Well, Serenity is down to showing in just two or three theaters in our small, out-of-the-way home town, but the showing we went to (4:20 pm on Sunday) was about half full, and maybe a third of those attending and not already seen the film. I know this because I asked them before the movie started.
Also, right at the end of the credits, you can hear a version of the original “FireFly” series theme that is really good, played mostly on solo guitar. A nice bonus for the fans.
I didn’t expect to hear anything from the Lab processing my blood panel, but today I received a letter from them with the results. Everything is normal, except apparently my levels of “good” cholesterol are down a bit. Recommendation: I should exercise more.
Dang. I thought I was doing really well with 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer 4 times a week. I have to do more? Dang.
Like all sensible adults, I made a pact with my wife that I would go to the Doctors and get a physical exam when I turned 40. Well it’s a month later and my appointment is now over.
The prostate exam is no big deal. Get over it already, guys, and get it checked out.
This evening we saw Toxic Audio at the Luxor Hotel. They are an acapella group who augment their voices with electronic effects to fill an auditorium with a rocking good concert. They also prove they can sing without the augmentation, but although they are each wonderful singers that’s not really their point. The show that Toxic Audio present is also very funny although there is a tiny bit of audience participation, you really shouldn’t let that put you off. We had a blast, right down to the Toxic’s rendition of Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science” from one of their CD compilations over the sound system as we filed out of the theater.
I’m a fan so unfortunately you can’t take this review at its face value. Serenity rocks! Go see it. You’ll enjoy it. We saw it this evening at the Crossroads Cinema in Redmond with Walt, Sherri, Richard and (absent) Tracy. I’m sure Richard will take Tracy to see it later on in the week.
You want more information? Ok. It’s a character-driven space western. With flawed heroes, and bad guys with one or two admirable qualities. It has funny and witty dialog, and assumes you don’t need everything explained for you. It’s detailed.
It’s not high drama, it’s good fun. It’s really better if you don’t know more than that, going in, I think. Of course if you’re a fan and know its heritage then, like me, you already saw it this weekend.
I first saw this on DailyKos:
Yup, no more words needed.
Editor’s Note, August 2020: Yeah, well. That was then. Good times.
If there is anything – anything at all – that could be said to be positive about Hurricane Katrina and the devastation of New Orleans, it is that it might drive home to people that actual terrorist attacks are really way down on the prioritized list of things that can impact the safety and security of American citizens.
Here’s another thought: the fluctuations in supply and price of gas and diesel over the next month that will be a consequence of the disruption to the refineries in the gulf coastal regions will be a preview of what things will be like when the oil starts to run out. Maybe the right people will take notice and direct more funds towards preparing for this.
It’s really better to be a pessimist than an optimist. I think pessimists get a bad rap. Sure, everyone likes the idea of being upbeat and happy. But it’s not a good survival perspective. Problems only get solved because people worry about them.
David Brin answered the critics of the pre-millennium Y2K disaster theorists by saying that it was a classic case of a self-defeating prophesy. I agree with him. If everyone had just said, “She’ll be right, mate” and done nothing at all about the problem, then almost certainly IT departments everywhere would have been extremely busy and stressed come Jan 1, 2000. (You just know that’s an understatement.)
Good programmers are pessimists. They have to be – they learn to be very early in their career.
“That will never work, you know.”
“Why not? I’ve debugged it, it runs fine. I’ve tested it. I’m a good programmer…”
“What about more than one user running that screen at a time? What about a user who stays in that screen overnight while your midnight triggers are running? What about machines with no audio card? No installed printer? You’re doomed.”
“Why, I’ll show you, you… you… big fat pessimist, you.”
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