Interpersonal Decency FAIL

I would like to propose a hypothesis: Anyone who needs advice on whether to remain friends with people who mistreat them as horribly as this, has irredeemable self-worth issues. I'm not talking modern wishy-washy self-esteem issues but a complete blindness to the idea that your person has a worth and that your person is worth the effort to defend, comfort, and preserve.

That's totally aside from the complete failure of human decency exemplified by the deceptively-title "advice columnist". Many people around the web have commented on that perspective. However, I'd rather just note that to me friendship means you find a person worthy in some way of your time, companionship and private emotional life. And, presumably, they reciprocate. That's what makes people friends.

This woman, in needing to ask if she should remain friends with two women who obviously don't think she's worth the least inconvenience, expresses uncertainty herself as to whether she's worth getting up out of bed in the wee hours of the morning and being comforted. Think about that. I don't know this woman's history or any facts which would explain how she believes her friendship, those unique aspects of herself that only certain people know, is worth so little. I fear that her suspicions of her low-worth were so heartily confirmed by the columnist, who is irrevocably on my list of "Indecent Losers". Because it is fundamentally indecent to treat people like they are worthless, like no trauma or strain in their lives could possibly trump a broken fingernail in yours. And I mean "indecent" in the old-fashioned sense of the word. While I generally prefer our more informal free-wheeling times, when it comes to respecting the value of the person you're with (or at least showing respect), a little bit of propriety does a lot of good.

Maybe my opinion is influenced by the fact that I'm such an extremely introverted person. When socializing at all is so high stress, than you only choose to do it when it's really worth it to you. That's how I view my friendships. These are people who are worth my time and my private thoughts, whose companionship offers something unique that trumps the stress I sometimes feels when I am around others. From this introvert's point of view, why would I bother to befriend someone if I don't think they are worth doing inconvenient stuff for occasionally? Why would I befriend someone who doesn't think I'm worth driving to a hospital after I've been roofied?

From this comment on a blogpost about the column, here's another pertinent thought:

what to make of Rosenfeld’s comment that late-night help is only expected of husbands or boyfriends, not mere girlfriends? Lovely thought, that: “Unless someone’s having sex with you, don’t expect them to give the slightest damn about your well-being.”

My inner feminist weeps angrily.

Just thoughts, somewhat unfocused...

Link to full post.

We're Linux (and we're crazy)

Been watching the "We're Linux" ads posted by The Linux Foundation over on YouTube. Some very good stuff. Although it appears a great many Linux users have no problem being just a tiny bit creepy.

Example 1 - For those who always wanted a stalker OS:


Example 2- For the booming super-villain market:


Some more-encouraging videos:

A la TV infomercial of awesomeness


Obscure French Film awesomeness (this is HILARIOUS!)


Aren't these all so much better than trite corporate commercials?

Link to full post.

Bibliophilia - Holiday Edition!

While I was too busy to blog for the entire holiday season, I was of course not too busy to read. Full post has my opinions and links. Note: Some reviews include spoilers....

Summary:
Comic Books - 8
Young Adult - 1
(Historical) Romance - 3
Historical Adventure - 2
Sci-Fi - 9
Fantasy / Satire / Pratchettesque - 1
History - 1
Psychology - 1
Memoir - 1
Education / Politics - 1

"Steampunk" by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer. (Anthology) This is creepy unsettling science fiction. The only problem is that ALL the stories involved some really dismal alternative possibilities. Why is it that people equal dismal dystopian pointless surreallism with literary quality story-telling? Because if you don’t get that, you will NOT enjoy this book a bit. The depressing & macabre tone made it really hard to keep coming back to read another story. Also, I did NOT appreciate the story regarding what happened to the guy from the HG Wells “The Time Machine”. That was perverted, gross and pretty damn useless. So, a lot of potential here but ultimately, I couldn’t finish this and it’s going straight into my sell-back pile. Steampunk gone wildly astray.

“Girl Genius volumes 1 through 6” by Kaja & Phil Foglio. (comic books) Great neoVictorian technological fun. No that’s not right. More like: OMG THIS IS AWESOME!!!! Female heroine with a strange past, steampunk universe on crack, lots of awesome supporting characters and an artistic aesthetic to die for. Not to mention the whole idea that super-geniuses/heroes might be a profound danger to society and therefore are usually regulated, contained, controlled or killed is a really intriguing idea, especially when the universe makes very clear that these people have caused untold death and destruction in the past even when they were “good” guys. For such a depressing premise, the authors create a wonderfully amusing, thought-provoking and (for a comic book) logically consistent story. That alone makes LXG (see below) look like total amateur hour by comparison. Steampunk done right in every way imaginable.

“Me & Mr. Darcy” by Alexandra Potter. Ok, you know what’s going to happen here. The art is in the “How” not the “What”. This modern retelling is surprisingly good considering it’s predictable as hell. Plus, I have to love a book where the main character is a bookstore-managing bibliophile. I think I prefer the “Darcy” novels by Elizabeth Aston to this one but, if you’re in an airport and see this, it’s definitely worth picking up to pass the time.

"The Time Axis" by Henry Kuttner. Yet another download find. An excellent, mind-bending read. The premise is straightforward but what sells it is the author’s presentation. Told from a single perspective, the main characters journalistic style combined with his confusion about what is actually happening makes for a wonderfully enjoyable tale.

“1215: The Year Of The Magna Carta” by Danny Danziger & John Gillingham. Rather intriguing summary of life in England the year of the signing of the Magna Carta. It includes some information on the historical significance and actual intent of the Magna Carta as well as background on the conflict between King John and the barons that lead to Runnymeade. Quite a nice weekend read.

“Odyssey”, “Cauldron” & “Polaris” by Jack McDevitt. All three solid sci-fi stories. The first two are continuations of the “Priscilla Hutchins” series. And they are both compelling additions to a fantastic future history. "Cauldron" is especially good. I love the super-villian character introduced in the end - creepy, amusing and effective. Lastly, we have a novel in the “Alex Benedict” series which although good was my least favorite of the three. For reasons I can’t quite pin down the Alex Benedict novels are less satisfactory for me than McDevitt’s other works; there’s an underlying cynicism to those stories that puts me off. "Polaris" especially was ultimately about a bunch of scientists screwing everyone over because people weren't ready for "the truth". YAWN of an ending.

“True Darcy Spirit” & “The Second Mrs. Darcy” by Elizabeth Aston. Thank God Austen is in the public domain. So we can get authors like Aston writing such wonderful continuations of the story. Two wonderful historical romances involving Anne de Bourgh's daughter and a Darcy widow. Very enjoyable and left me craving for more (so much so that I asked for yet two more P&P continuations for Christmas).

“Genius Squad” by Catherine Jinks. Sequel to “Evil Genius” (which was brilliant). This book covers the aftermath of the fall of the Axis Institute and how Cadel Piggot deals with being outed as the child of an evil genius. The rag-tag band of maybe-not-quite-good super-genius kids who may-or-may-not fight evil was exceptionally well written. At no time do you forget that for the most part, these are children or teenagers with some severe emotional problems. Great kids adventure that never forgets even geniuses kids are ultimately kids.

“A Slave Is A Slave” By H. Bean Piper. (short story) Got this little gem off ManyBooks.net after realizing one of my favorite sci-fi quotes originates from the work. An excellent (if somewhat depressing) story on human nature, slavery and the dangers of “fixing” other people’s societies.

“Rebels of the Red Planet” by Charles Louis Fontenay. (novella/short story/I don’t know) From the golden age of sci-fi comes what would be a really good novella, if it wasn’t so horribly dated in places. The heroine is cool as a super-spy underestimated even by Martian government officials (one in particular who is very keen on marrying her). However, the second she interacts with the hero character, she throws all that out the window and turns into the typical 50's sci-fi damsel in distress. Lots of good twists and plot beats about evil manipulations of settling Mars but overall underwhelming because if you’re going to have a female character that cool, you need to have a equally cool male character to pair her off with and the “hero” didn’t cut it. It’s never a good sign when you’re rooting more for the crazy old guy in the secret government hydroponics facility than the supposed hero.

“The Laughing Cavalier” & “The First Sir Percy” by Baroness Orczy. Two great novellas about the equally audacious ancestor of “The Scarlet Pimpernel”. Just lovely, old-fashioned swashbuckling reads. Great fun, good suspense and surprisingly packed with great one-liners.

“Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir In Books” by Azar Nafisi. A simultaneously depressing & uplifting book. In addition to the women’s pov on living in The Islamic Republic of Iran, the author’s background as someone who had previously supported revolution made for very interesting reading. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it; this isn’t a book anybody enjoys (in some respects I get the feeling the author didn’t enjoy writing it so much as needed the release). But definitely a thought provoking work.

“Omega, The Man” by Lowell Howard Morrow (short story) BLAH & YUCK. A completely unnecessary and depressing story about the end of the human race in some far, very dismal future. Not to ruin the end for you, but we don’t come out too well. I’m good with dystopian futures but this one didn’t have any purpose to it at all!

“The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (vol 1 & 2)” by Alan Moore (& Kevin O'Neill, vol.2) (comic book) It’s very rare that I have such wildly variable responses to two different books in a series but that’s exactly what happened here. Volume One was excellent. Volume Two was complete & utter dreck. So I’m dividing up the review:
Volume 1 - Solid and enjoyable but not a story for kids. I especially loved all the little details like the incorporation of the Sherlock Holmes mythos, nod to ‘Mysterious Island’ and my favorite, hints that a previous league existed earlier in British history including (SPOILER) The Scarlet Pimpernel himself! My only negative is how they keep hitting you over the head with the Mina/Quartermain relationship. Given Mina’s past, I can understand why she would be attracted to an older man but the way they are going about it is very, very junior high school. Aside from that, definitely good stuff.
Volume 2 – UGH. A comic book involving a “War Of The Worlds” scenario should be excellent. The premise is yours to screw up. And boy, did they! Let’s just say that after reading this comic, I’m remembering the LXG movie a LOT more fondly than I did previously. The actual invasion parts were cool. The actions and thought processes of the League characters were a DISASTER. For one thing, there were 2 sex scenes that (I thought) were totally out of character for the Mina Murrary of Volume One. Also, the Invisible Man’s betrayal was so predictable, its aftermath didn’t engage me at all. And while Dr. Hyde died well, he didn’t really have much to do but avenge the Invisible Man’s betrayal in a completely disgusting manner and die well. Also, while I agree that the British Empire had its bad points, the constant harping on how terrible it was really annoys me. We are talking about the only empire in history to outlaw slavery, right? The same one that managed to leave behind more productive, relatively stable societies when it collapsed than most, right? The same one that exported the Industrial Revolution and all of its technological wonders around the world, right? Sure it wasn’t all roses but dude, the downside of the Victorian/Empire Period has been so DONE that the clicheness of those plot twists took an already mediocre story and made it terrible. Needless to say, I'm skipping volume 3.

“Ivory Towers On Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies In America” by Martin Kramer. Got this as a .pdf from the author’s website A little bit of a dry read (but if you really like reading tales of academic infighting, this is for you!) but an interesting summary of both why Middle Eastern Studies in the US is so incredibly biased and how it got that way. Seriously, even knowing the book has its biases, Edward Said sounds like a complete tool!

“Kris Longknife: Audacious” by Mike Shephard. Yet another awesome addition to the equally awesome Kris Longknife series. This is how you write a sci-fi heroine. Plus, I’ve got to love a book that opens in the middle of an assassination attempt on the main character, is focused on causing/preventing/it-depends-on-the-chapter a coup, and has some of the best wacky space politics & how they got that way future history I’ve read in a long while. Seriously, New Eden politics was wonderfully complicated and believable.

“Making Money” by SIR Terry Pratchett. Of course this doesn’t suck! There are very few surer bets in modern fiction than a DiscWorld novel. Still, this was really good even for Terry Pratchett. Several Laugh-out-loud moments, excellent wry commentary on fiscal policy and just a wonderful plot. Also, Lord Vetinari is one of those characters who started out awesome and continues to out-awesome everyone around him on every single page. Pratchett deserved to be knighted just for creating HIM.

“Games People Play: The Basic Handbook Transactional Analysis” by Eric Berne. An interesting if difficult read. I think it says something about the state of modern psychology that they take such a cool topic and then spend 100+ pages sucking the cool from it one dry academic pronouncement at a time. If the topic weren’t something that deeply interested me, I’d have stopped after the first chapter. Also after reading, I am left with a lingering but distinct desire to play “Now I’ve Got You, You Son Of A Bitch” (which will forever be on my list of Best Game Names EVAH).

Link to full post.

I Need To Clean But....

Instead I'm staring in awe at these awesome vintage space travel posters by Steve Thomas. I've been dying to replace one of the pictures in my dining area so out with the dorky castle/dragon fantasy poster! In 2-7 days this will be what I see at breakfast everyday:

Travel to Jupiter
by

stevethomas

See the other posters prints On www.zazzle.com
View more Digital Art Posters

Link to full post.

YouTube Is Changing The World, pt 2 Trillion

I know, I'm blogging like a fiend today compared to my usual rate. But this is probably the most concise summary of what caused the current economic meltdown I have seen yet!

Link to full post.

I'm Not Dead...I've Just Been Reading

To make up for my slacking off earlier in the year, I have been reading books at a breakneck pace. Everything from comics to literary nonfiction. Thanks to this aggressive reading schedule, my “To Read” pile of books has been reduced from almost 40 titles to 17.

See full post for review of 23 works. The breakdown:
2 Comic books
3 Historical Romance Fiction
7 Science Fiction Novels
2 Science Fiction Short Stories
3 Young Adult Novels
1 Mystery/Crime Fiction
1 Autobiography
1 History
2 Science & Technology Nonfiction
1 Opinion/Current Events

“Barnum! IN Secret Service To The USA” by Howard Chaykin & David Tischman. (Comic) What do you get when PT Barnum & his gang of sideshow freaks teemed up with the US Secret Service to save the US from the nefarious schemes of the evil Dr. Nikola Tesla? You’d get this fun and engaging comic book. Great premise, good story and just very amusing.

“From the Hands of Hostile Gods” by Darren R. Hawkins. What a strange wonderful read. A mind bending mystery tale wrapped up in a love story. Set in an isolated outpost on a world being terraformed, the author does a brilliant job conveying the isolation and little social quirks that come with such locations. And when the mystery ramps up into disaster, Hawkins is equally up to the task of writing suspense. This is a good creepy book at a time when I read several bad to so-so creepy books (see below). Definitely worth downloading.

“The Remarkable Worlds of Professor Phineas B. Fuddle” by Boaz & Erek Yakin. (Comic) A lost-in-time absent-minded professor, Victorian London being overwhelmed in temporal paradoxes and two wayward adventurers. Again, ridiculous but wonderful fun.

“The Ghost Map” by Steven Johnson. An account of an 1850s cholera outbreak in London, the investigative aftermath and the historical consequences. A completely riveting book that ties together sociology, epistemology, globalization, urbanization, paradigm shifts in science and other awesome topics. Although I wouldn’t recommend reading it on a sick day (total mistake), it was an excellent book.

“The Sea of Monsters: Percy Jackson & The Olympians – Book 2” by Rick Riordan. The second book in this series is just as good as the first with some emotionally interesting plot twists on the inherent evilness of Cyclops and the Olympian gods’ opinions on redemption for their fallen children. Actually, pretty interesting in that the larger conflict of the series steps up a bit and the book-specific adventure has a really, really great payoff at the end. I will definitely be continuing this series.

“Fairest” by Gail Carson Levine. A fairy tale with a twist. While there are curses & such as expected, this isn't a predictable tale. For all it's fairy-taleness, it is really a story about a young girl coming into her own. Pretty interesting. My only complaint is that after making you hate a character for most of the book, she ends up being a non-entity in the end.

“Life At The Bottom” by Theodore Dalrymple. Dear God what a depressing book! Basically, the book is a bunch of anecdotes and opinions based on years of serving as a medical practitioner in some of Britain’s rougher neighborhoods. If you ever had any doubt that people could do self-destructive and stupid things, this book will cure of that doubt quickly. Sociologically interesting but not exactly enjoyable just for the unrelenting negativity of the subject.

"Mr. Darcy's Daughters", "The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy", & "The Darcy Connection" by Elizabeth Aston. Basically this is published fanfiction set in Austen's “Pride & Prejudice” universe. It follows the daughters of Mr. Darcy & Elizabeth Bennett and their assorted cousins. Definitely quick enjoyable reads if you like Austen.

“Into the Looking Glass” by John Ringo. WHA-HOO. That’s the only fitting description for a book that opens with a 60KT explosion in modern day Florida….and then gets worse (or more exciting depending on your point of view). Very good pulpy military sci-fi with an interesting premise and a breakneck pace. I’m seriously looking forward to the other two books in this series.

“The Creature From Beyond Infinity”, “The Dark World” by Henry Kuttner. The titles aren’t related, just two works by the same author. “Creature” is a typical golden-age sci-fi work with a lot of optimism hiding under its dismal premise. The back & forward story structure is also quite engrossing. Overall, “Creature” was surprisingly enjoyable for a book I read because of its amusing title. “Dark World” is a good deal stranger. It does have a unique approach in that the main character is (one of) the antagonist(s); past a certain point you don’t really feel sorry for what happens to him. I give “Dark” points for being creepy and disorienting, but I still don’t know if I liked it.

“A Strange Manuscript Found In The Copper Cylinder” by James De Mille. Ugh. This is what happens when you combine Jules Verne, a talky-preachy frame story and lots & lots of cannibalism. Based on this book, the reader might develop the mistaken belief that people in the mid-nineteenth century were greatly obsessed with cannibalism and death cults. Seriously, WHAT THE HELL? This is just a weird, gross story that never really became a good story. The mentality of the death cult was academically interesting but that’s really the only good thing I can think of at this point. Yuck.

“Evil Genius” by Catherine Jinks. What would you do if you discovered your psychiatrist was the head henchman for your super-villain-in-jail biological dad? That’s the premise of this wildly entertaining read. Initially, it seems more like a comedy but as the plot progresses, things that were hinted at for laughs now become deadly serious as the main character realizes that maybe, he isn’t really cut out to be a super-villain. Very good read which also has a sequel that sounds interesting.

“The Cosmic Expense Account” by CM Kornbluth. (Short Story) Well, this was different. Sorta a zombie story that combines rational empiricism and questionable publishing ethics (really). It’s amusing but not very engrossing. The best parts are the complete antipathy between the two main characters and the fact that the super-villain is a little old spinster lady.

“The Crystal Egg” by HG Wells. (Short Story) Ever wonder how the aliens in “War of the Worlds” gathered intelligence on humanity before they invaded. This story is your answer. The concept is good but none of the characters really gelled into actual people for me. And the ending is a bit unsatisfying.

“Japan’s Longest Day” by The Pacific War Research Society. This is an absolutely riveting account of the last day before Emperor Hirohito’s announcement to the Japanese people that Japan was surrendering. What’s most amazing by the tale isn’t how close Japan came to fighting on at the behest of their military officers but how many of the officers and other government officials were genuinely offended by the very idea of a coup d’etat. Excellent book for anyone interested in the final days of WWII.

“Hard Corps” by Marco Martinez. The autobiography of how a guy from New Mexico went from gansta teen to Iraq War hero and winner of the Navy Cross. The Marine training was actually harder for me to read than the combat scenes, which seems weird but maybe all those military sci-fi stories have desensitized me or something. Still, very good read even if Martinez comes across a bit too strong sometimes (but honestly, what else am I to expect from a Marine?).

"Magyk: Septimus Heap Book One" by Angie Sage. Sorta like “Harry Potter” lite. A fun read but it dragged a bit in the middle. I did like how it kept you guessing about a couple of plot points while revealing others almost right off. I'll probably check out the others in this series.

“Agent to the Stars” by John Scalzi. Instead of evil insect invaders, Earth gets contacted by very polite aliens who knowing their slime-like forms aren’t appealing to humans decide to hire a Hollywood agent to introduce them to the world. Comedic premise with emotional payoff = Writing gold. Great read with the physical nature and capabilities of the aliens integrating into the story in a hundreds wonderful ways.

“Edison Conquers Mars” by Garrett P. Serviss. Written as a response to HG Wells “War of the Worlds”, it starts just after the great Martian invasion has failed. Thomas Edison & other great scientists of the day reverse engineer & improve the Martian's machines of war and take the battle to Mars. Very engaging and delightfully quaint sci-fi written by someone who apparently accomplished a great many sci-fi firsts even though I'd never heard of him before. A surprisingly fun download.

“Bones to Ashes” by Kathy Reichs. Another great book in the “Temperance Brennan” series that spawned the TV show “Bones” (which I love). The books are very different in tone and set-up but are quite enjoyable in their own right. Reichs has a real talent for creating mysteries with “expected” outcomes that don't payoff in expected ways. Great weekend or travel book (it's no wonder I always find her books in airport bookshops, they make long journeys feel short).

“Breakthrough: From The Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility” by Ted Nordhaus & Michael Shellenberger. Absolutely excellent book on the environmental movement, right & wrong. Although the authors liberal bias is very prevalent, they do present a fair portrayal of both parties’ stances. Their prescriptions for reforming our energy situation are thought-provoking. I found this a hugely interesting read.

Link to full post.

The Dark Knight

I'm not going to equivocate or explain my opinion. It's very simple really.

WOW.

If you don't see this movie you are depriving yourself of an absolutely stunning piece of film.

Link to full post.

CD Baby Strikes Again!!

Aka - How I spent my Stimulus check, part the first

Once again, I wandered into the online music store CD Baby and have now purchased an insanely eclectic bunch of music. Also, I discovered their $5 sale (buy any 3 CDs on the sale list and they are all $5 instead of their list price). Reasons for my depleted bank account:

Vibeke "The World Famous Hat Trick" - Described as "Norway's answer to early Blondie", this is rousing album of jamming music. I particularly like track 6, "Meant To Be With You".

The Frolics "The Frolics" - Like kinda dirty punk-country with a wonderful sense of humor. I can easily imagine myself humming "Crackhead Fred". Besides, you've got to admire a even tangentially country band who includes "A Ballad to Eazy-E" on their CD.

Devotchka "How It Ends" - "European influenced sad bastard music"....And what music! Although only four tracks are available for previewing, they are a varied and interesting group of songs. If I had to pick a favorite, I'd got with "The Enemy Guns" for being the coolest song I've heard in months. I really can't wait to listen to the rest.

Kagero "Kagero" & "Red & Black" - A Half-Japanese Gypsy-Punk Group whose lead singer channels Simon Le Bon. The self-titled album is more punk with songs like "Samba Au Lait". The second album, "Red & Black", with only three songs makes a surprisingly huge impression based on pure gypsy awesomeness, especially the title song.

Devil Doll "The Return of Eve" - HOLY MOLY. A rockabilly/jazz/punk singer with an out-of-this-world fantastic voice. Just absolutely blew me away with every single track. Not to mention, there's a huge variety in the song styling, from the punky "The Curse" to the more contemplative "Tortured".

Next up, buying CDs that I actually have planned to buy for a while but put off for reasons that escape me now.

Link to full post.

Boom De Yada = Love

So, I crossed 20 posts this month. Something I haven't done in a while....But looking back at the posts, man, have I gotten grumbly about things! This is not to say there aren't things to grumble about.....Just, it's such a cool world full of things worth geeking out over. How cool you ask?

Discovery Channel Cool.


I solemnly swear that unless aliens invade the planet or something equally OMG!, my posts for the upcoming weekend will be hopeful and enlightening (after a fashion).

Link to full post.

Thanks Best Buy!

With the opening of a “Best Buy” near work, I’ve been on a bit of a movie watching kick.

Prince Caspian: OK, I actually saw this in the theaters. I’m surprised this isn’t doing better because it was an excellent film. Not quite as good as “Iron Man” but still far, far better than what I fear for the new Indiana Jones flick. Good family fun with lasting emotional oomph.

August Rush: Warning! This movie is sappy to the extreme. Also, do not watch unless you really like music and/or Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Still, I enjoyed it and found the music fairly well-done. Robin Williams plays an interesting role as a slightly villainous character.

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets: Bought the DVD. I saw this in theaters but it was equally enjoyable at home. The jokes and suspense both held up and I love these characters! I really hope this franchise continues for a long while. It’s so refreshing to see a bunch of really smart history-geeks as the heroes.

Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow: I loved this when it came out in the theaters so I snapped it up quick from the bargain bin. However, after having seen “Iron Man” recently, it falls a little flat by comparison. Especially the chemistry between Paltrow & Jude Law as its infinitesimal compared to her and Robert Downey Jr.

28 Weeks Later: Very good suspenseful movie. More suspenseful and intense than the original. If the film has any flaws, it's that the entire plot revolves around TwoStupidKids who destroy everything they touch and always make the worst decision possible for the future of the planet. The fact that everyone is trying to save TwoStupidKids instead of shooting them dead greatly confused me.

Link to full post.

Movie Review: “Iron Man”

Go see “Iron Man”.

Because it’s just about the most perfectly made action / superhero movie in a LONG time. Robert Downey Jr. is so utterly fantastic in the role that I can’t comprehend how no one thought to cast him as an action hero before. I absolutely adore the fact this movie is first and foremost about a creator taking both responsibility and control of his creations. Some of the best lines in the film revolve around this idea. Gwyneth Paltrow is also quite good as Pepper Potts, a female sidekick who while dedicated isn’t a doormat.

Not to mention the shockingly (and sadly) refreshing fact that the evil terrorists in this movie were actual realistic terrorists. I feel Jon Favearu used a very even hand in directing this movie. It doesn’t try to tell you what to think about certain things. He apparently trusts his audience to both accept his vision and to use their own judgment as to its meaning. In addition to all these obvious points, there were awesome touches sprinkled throughout the film. If I have to pick out the best things:
(1) Stark’s “test videos” for his suit are hilarious
(2) The fact that you’re able to follow the fast-paced battle scenes (good editing)
(3) The homeland security agent and agency name. Mr. Coulson with three scenes managed to be competent, low-key and likable. And the agency itself hints at certain great things to come.

Click on full post for my favorite lines (since these are slightly spoilerish, I’m putting them below the cut):

Engineer: Yes, see to power the suit... sir, the technology doesn't actually exist. So it...
Obadiah Stane: Wait, wait, the technology? Here is the technology. I've asked you to simply make it smaller.
Engineer: Okay, sir, that's what we've been trying to do but honestly, it's impossible.
Obadiah Stane: [yelling] Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave! With a box of scraps!
Engineer: Well, I'm sorry. I'm not Tony Stark.

(Pointing to a robot assigned with firefighting duties)
Stark: If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college.

Obadiah: You really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you?

I didn't discuss this in the main article because it has to do with the scene after the credits. Whosoever got Samuel L. Jackson to play Nick Fury deserves a bonus. Considering what I've managed to dig up on the character, well, I'm deeply excited for "Iron Man 2".

Link to full post.

Steampunk Zen Moment

Isn't this completely gorgeous?


A guy named Von Slatt made this Victorian-style desktop and posted some pictures from the process. There is some incredible detail....


*sigh* I have a distinct urge to go visit a metal-working shop instead of work...

Link to full post.

CD Baby = Sonic Brilliance!

It all started with a music post over at Sepia Mutiny. After clicking several links, I ended up at music site CD Baby, which is an absolutely fantastic place to discover musicians you didn't know existed. I've spend the last two hours listening to and purchasing music there.

The best (IMHO):
Raghu Dixit's self-titled album - Give tracks 2, 5 and 7 a listen. This is the reason I found the site and was my first purchase.

Children of Agape - A deservedly sold-out album of Zulu tribal music and traditional spirituals. Gorgeous music from an orphanage's children's choir. I'm buying as soon as it's available.

"Blondfire" by My Someday - A wonderful britpop duo. "Oxygen" and "Lovesick" are particularly good tracks. I also bought this one.

"Unearthed" by E.S. Posthumus - Blending electronic, classical and world music, just a fantastic album of good, chilling music. Also purchased today.

"Huria" by Sanna Kurki-Suonio - Finnish folk music! Very sparse arrangements but excellent. I highly recommend the jazzy "Tytto Kulkija" and the very catchy "Matkalla".

(sigh) At the rate I'm going, my entire day will be spent with one ear on this website....

Link to full post.

Movie (and Commentary) Review “Amazing Grace”

A friend loaned me “Amazing Grace” over the weekend. To me the abolition of slavery is one of the most important historical achievements of Western civilization. Having said that, I didn’t expect to be as affected by this movie as I was. I knew most of the major plot points and was familiar with most of the major characters through Adam Hochschild’s fabulous “Bury the Chains”). However, my familiarity didn’t reduce my enjoyment one iota. The movie managed to be an utterly thrilling and moving experience. All involved should be commended for not just telling this story but telling it well.

Ioan Gruffudd gave an amazing performance as William Wilberforce. Also impressive were Michael Gambon and Benedict Cumberbatch as Lord Fox and William Pitt respectively. And I’m exceedingly happy to report Rufus Sewell do NOT play a bad guy. It’s been so long since I’ve seen him be anything but a villain that I found his performance as Clarkson quite refreshing. In some respects, the structure, tone and characters in this film hearken back to an earlier era in movies (and I mean that in the most complimentary manner possible). The film ended with a surprisingly powerful rendition of the title song “Amazing Grace”. All in all, this is a must-see for both the quality of the product and the historical value of the story itself.

On a related topic, I also highly recommend the commentary track for this film. I was, for the most part, quite impressed with director Michael Apted’s approach to this film. He repeatedly emphasized that he wanted to make a film about politics and the good that could be done through the political process. He discussed how cynical modern audiences are of the politics but that, especially for this period in British history, the political process resulted in “a British revolution without blood in the streets.” This informed a great deal of the film’s focus on the parliamentary history of abolitionist movement as opposed to the facts of slavery. He also mentioned that they included a couple dream sequences with slaves to demonstrate Wilberforce (and many others) didn’t have much direct experience with slavery. Both he and lead Ioan Gruffudd emphasized showing a balance between Wilberforce's political and religious lives. They both appeared to have gone to great effort to demonstrate the genuine faith of the persons involved. Regarding how to show prayer in film, Apted even states at one point “Don’t make them look buffoons. Just get to the moment”.

My favorite portion of the commentary was Apted’s mention that the anti-slave arguments were not crack-pot ravings but actual valid economic and political arguments. He mentions in several places he didn’t want to minimize either the complexity or the historical context (French Revolution & Napoleonic Wars) of the anti-slavery movement in England. This is particularly interesting to me because I had an experience in my high school US history class where we initially were quite scornful of the compromises on slavery that lead to the ratification of the US Constitution. Our history teacher got revenge by re-creating the Constitutional Convention as a graded class debate and assigning the most scornful students the position of pro-slavery delegates. By recreating those debates, we were forced to ask the question “If not compromising on slavery prevented the Constitution for being ratified, would it be worth it? Or would we rather found the country and then, address this issue later?”. In the context of the film, it was a debate between “an imperfect order” (Wilberforce) and a perfect order (Clarkson). Needless to say, I immensely enjoyed listening to the commentary. Though I didn’t agree with everything said, it is clear a great deal of care was taken in presenting this film in an interesting and historically accurate manner.

Link to full post.

Book Review: The Archimedes Codex

Back in October, I first came across a news story about the Archimedes Codex. Very cool and interesting to be sure. At the time, there was mention of a book detailing the project to read the Codex.

Now that I’ve read the book based on the research performed so far in recovering and translating the text, WOW. "The Archimedes Codex" by Reviel Netz and William Noel is by far the most interesting work of non-fiction I have read in a long time. Part history, part mathematics, part imaging science, part travel diary, the work is an enjoyable, almost conversational review of the history of a medieval prayer book, its contents and the project to read it.

Despite the valid excuse of being busy with work, I did put off this review to give my impressions time to settle. I have a feeling this is a work that will improve with additional reads. While conversational in tone, it is a very dense work (but not in a hard to read way).

In full post are my thoughts on the book and Greek-style versus modern-style math.

The authors alternate chapters with one covering the history of the book and the project to read it (Mr. Noel) and another covering a history of Greek mathematics and providing context for the discoveries thus far (Dr. Netz). The context chapters led to a highly interesting discussion of how Greek science and math is different from our own.

Knowledge of this difference was critical during the chapters explaining the various propositions from The Method which led to the revelation that Archimedes had begun developing calculus two thousand years before Newton. The only part of the book I had difficulty with were these reviews, mainly because I am very much a creature of modern mathematical thought in that I prefer to think in terms of equations as opposed to raw text. When going over the math, it struck me how incredibly visual modern science & math are.

In some respects, it makes a great deal of sense that Greek scientific thought was not. A high-technology society like ours places large value on high familiarity with things like Cartesian coordinates and reading graphs as well as ease of transmission of data. For the Ancient Greeks, the opposite was true: low familiarity with mathematical concepts* and difficulty transmitting data. This means there was a real need to both retain everything inside your own head and when you are communicating to refrain from any form of symbol-system (like equations) that is dependent on a great deal of familiarity with that particular system.

This is particularly important when you realize how small and varied Archimedes audience was. One of my favorite portions of the book speaks about how alone in their genius those first discoverers must have been. Archimedes works aren’t formal papers at all but letters to competitors or like-minded individuals. And these letters were probably read by audiences less than twenty. These people were NOT all Greek but from and spread around the Mediterranean. This international scope in combination with the small audience works against having a more universal system of symbol-reference.

Modern communication of scientific and mathematical ideas is based on a universally (for the most part) agreed upon system of symbols, abbreviations and jargon. This system is so huge that it has long since subdivided based on the focus of your study (engineers speak a different dialect than astrophysicists; programmers speak a different dialect than chemists). We only developed this system in the last 200 yrs or so. This coincides with scientific study becoming less the work of the occasional polymath and instead a profession for large numbers of people. Not to mention, we do have a bit of a mania for remembering and keeping records of things. While some in the past were also focused on this (Library of Alexandria, Copying Greek Texts in the Dark Ages), it was usually the work of a small segment of the population. So we increased not just the people engaged in mathematical & scientific thought, but also we increased the numbers of people charged with recording and transmitting that thought. When you combine that with modern society's ideas about efficiency (ie - "laziness in action" or "shortcuts for a better world"), our usage of complicated symbol-systems and jargon make a good deal more sense.

At the end of the day, it’s hard to believe that there was a time when we didn't know the center-of-gravity of a triangle, the area of a parabola or the volume of a cylindrical cut. Again, I’m a creature of the modern era. The formulas for CG of a triangle and other shapes are available in any “Mechanics of Materials” textbook. Areas of parabolas are covered in any Calculus course as are volumes of complicated curvilinear objects such as cylindrical cuts. But these are the results of two millennia of effort, not the self-evident theorems and solutions they are presented as.

When you combine these thoughts with the quite excellent historical chapters discussing the long, strange trip that resulted in these works being rediscovered by the modern world, “The Archimedes Codex” makes for fascinating and thought-provoking reading.

Another wonderful aspect of “The Archimedes Codex” project is that the participants have placed a great deal of information on-line for others to share or to track the progress of the project. The raw images of the prayer book in different types of light are particularly stunning.

* I mean "low" as in a low percent of the population as a whole. Obviously, there were some individuals who had quite high familiarity with mathematical concepts.

Link to full post.

Hollywood Rumble

Link to full post.

Movie - "Dear Frankie"

I watched “Dear Frankie” last night. What a wonderful film! It’s very quiet and restrained in that British character-study way. All the actors were fantastic and the little boy did a stellar job portraying “Frankie”. On another casting note, I love British cinema because they more frequently include people who actually look real instead of like supermodels. There were several things that struck me as awesome: Gerard Butler was mesmerizing (just as good looking fully clothed as half-naked and slaughtering Persians); the motivations of the Mom were superbly revealed and consistent; they didn’t include a lot of crowds and background characters, this gave the whole movie a very intimate focus; and the ending which was neither saccharine-happily-ever-after nor depressing but bittersweet in a way that made you believe these people were one day going to be happy but not quite yet. It felt very real and earned. Needless to say, go see this film. You won’t be disappointed.

Link to full post.

The Ten Tenors!

I just got back from seeing "The Ten Tenors" LIVE at the Majestic Theater. FANTASTIC!!!!

They did several songs that I'd seen on YouTube when looking into them for my original post. They also included a nice blend of Christmas music. But the best song of the night was "Bohemian Rhapsody"....Most of the theater stood up after that one.

In addition to a great show and two encore songs, the guys were nice enough to come out in the lobby after to sign programs. My friend and I got 9 out of 10. We couldn't get the last guy because of the crowd. If these guys come to your town, you have to go check them out!

My signed program:

Link to full post.

*Is Impressed* Eon MC

Whoa. Via Smallest Minority, I was reading the commentary here. There's a lot of talk about blaming hip-hop music for the state of the black community. BUT there's also talk about blaming a lack of parenting. It's kinda a "Which came first?" argument to me. However, I'm a white woman from the Houston suburbs so what do I know, right? Anyway, someone linked this artist's MySpace.....

WOW. I've never been a huge fan of hip-hop or rap. I believe it can be a really interesting and exciting form of music because when certain artists have stopped singing about beating women and killing each other, their work can be really, really good. Unfortunately, those instances are few and far between. This artist, Eon MC, he is a revelation.

From "Chip on My Shoulder" to "Under Pressure", his lyrics are just wonderful. Please go and listen...

Link to full post.

Percussion Ensembles ROCK

This all started when a blogger at Reason linked this video of the Poteet High School Precussion Ensemble. Intrigued, I clicked the "Related Videos" tab.

HOLY MOLY! My high school only had lame-o Orchestra and the fruity jazz people. Nothing this cool. Check out full post for videos of precussion ensembles rocking out.

Teaser: SUPER MARIO!



The Exam


Ill Rosauro's Concerto


Portsmouth HS


The Shadow Precussion Project


Sinister Minister (WOW)


Ok, this isn't a Precussion Ensemble but it's AMAZING. There's trumpets & flag dancing!
DCI Blast's Malaguena

Link to full post.