Super fast broadband in 2006? thanks, Scott
July 20, 2005
July 19, 2005
Current Reading
Just finished: The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention that Changed the World.
Amir D. Aczel also wrote the intriguing book Probability, which I read several years ago. Compass is a historical look at the origins and history of the modern compass. Very interesting little book, especially when he relates stories of Magellan’s 1522 circumnavigation of the globe.
Video Killed the Audio Guy
It’s done! After who knows how many hours, I’ve finally completed the 12 minute film for Young Life! I’m thrilled with the results and hope the client is as well. They come to get it on Friday. *WHEW*
No Wineing When You Get There…
The dispute centres on whether the Koran justifies suicide bombers. Manji argues terrorists can find succour in the holy book: “It says anyone who kills a human being, except as punishment for murder or villainy in the land, shall be regarded as killing all mankind.” The caveat is crucial; Bin Laden invoked it when America imposed sanctions against Saddam, so after the war in Iraq “four young men could decide to punish British taxpayers for re-electing a government that went to war there” — endorsed by the Koran.
But could religion be an excuse? Might the gang of four have just been nihilist punks who, if raised in different cultures, might otherwise have railed against life through, say, hip-hop? “A hip-hopper will still wake up in the morning. That doesn’t explain a willingness to take your own life.” To do that you need belief in an afterlife, which means these men must have been devoutly religious. Waiting to be rewarded, I suggest, with their 72 virgins.
But Manji says recent research shows all that virgin stuff was based on an erroneous translation of the Koran: what awaits in heaven are 72 raisins. What? Could 54 people really have been blown up for a bag of raisins? “Well in 7th century Arabia raisins were so exalted as to be promoted to paradise.”
read more here.
July 18, 2005
Superdrived!
Thanks to a $30 rebate at Best Buy, I got a DVD burner today for only $59. Best thing about it: it’s the Panasonic 109- the exact same drive that Apple sells in its PowerMacs for $100. If I’d have added it in when I bought the computer a couple of years ago it would have cost me $250. So all in all, I’m pretty happy.
Thanks to Mark for offering use of his machine if this one didn’t work.
July 17, 2005
Harry Potter VI
[no spoilers]
I picked up the sixth Harry Potter book today at Best Buy (yes, Best Buy). Thinking that I’d get around to reading it next week. Well, I made the big mistake of getting home and cracking the book to see what the first chapter was like. I did that at 2:30 this afternoon. It is now 3:15 am and I’ve just finished the last page of this 652 page brick. I won’t say anything about it except, if you’ve enjoyed the first five books, you’ll like this one as well, but be careful of online spoilers. I happened across a few inadvertently (one of the reasons I decided, at page 10 or so, to just plow through it all).
Great book. I’m off to dream muggle dreams now…
July 16, 2005
Thank You Mr. Kevlar
This is an amazing video (.wmv) from the US Army of a soldier getting shot in the chest. His body armor protects him and, after getting knocked down, he jumps right back up and retreats. Reportedly, the soldier later treated the wounds of his attacker after the ensuing firefight.
Body armor is amazing stuff.
And while I’m thinking about it, what does an illegal foreign combatant, not in any UN recognized uniform and not operating under any type of Geneva rules of warfare- say when he takes a shot at a soldier? “god is good” apparently. Just what kind of twisted, sick god are they worshipping that they think this kind of thing is okay? geeze.
July 15, 2005
Optimus Prime
The Keyboard of Kings. If this thing ever goes into production, I will sell nine fingers to acquire one.
Movie
Bacheloring it for the weekend, which is good because I’m still editing. Took most of today off since I just reached capacity after 4 days of 12-hour editing sessions. Sat at the computer early this morning and went meh. No creative juices flowing. Still crosseyed. I’ve let the early-to-bed-and-up-by-8am schedule I’ve loved so much go by the wayside. Now I’m back among the vampires and morlocks. At least there’s no TV to distract. I can’t tell you how nice the solitude and quiet has been the last month. Wonder why we didn’t do it earlier? Oh yeah, this. Sorry I’ll miss it tomorrow night, but such is the price of freedom. So anyway, today I played hooky and read Hugh Hewitt’s new book Blog. Good read. Especially liked the part about Gutenberg and Luther and how it led to Calvin and western democracy. Death to Kings! Why couldn’t I have had a history teacher like that in school? So much tuition lost…
Good news on the video: they decided to go with the longer version, which will really help the story develop. We’re up from 5 minutes to 8 minutes to 12 now. Coming soon to a theater near you: extended director’s cut. I know, I know, 12 minutes of film sounds like something you can push through the tube in a day, but this stuff is hard to get perfect, and perfection is my bar since it’s a Paying Gig. I lost track of the number of hours I put in it back around 100 or so. A lot like a woodworking project: (yodaspeak) “Once down the path of minute details you stray, forever will it dominate your destiny” (/yodaspeak). It’s turning into Zeno’s Project, I swear, but I defy you to stay dry-eyed by the end.
I’m muy happy with the way it’s shaping up so far. Did an informal outline of what I still have to do before the finish. Bottom line: 25 hours, which means 50 after my bloody-minded perfectionism creeps in. But it isn’t due in Colorado until next Saturday. Which only means I’ll be cursing and tweaking until 6:59pm on friday night, thank Fedex.
In the words of Yosemite Sam, barring accidents…
July 13, 2005
Go AAPL
Apple said it shipped 6.16 million iPods during the quarter, an eye-popping 616% increase from a year ago. Sales of the pioneering consumer music product totaled $1.1 billion – a more-than-fourfold rise – and contributed nearly a third of the company’s total revenue.
You can bet the stock price will spike tomorrow. Read more good news here.
July 12, 2005
Printer Rage
A few years ago I made the huge mistake of getting an Epson ink jet printer. I compounded my mistake by making a trade-off with a friend who wanted to get a newer, more expensive printer. He paid me for the upgrade and I took over his slightly used Epson Photo 820.
Since then, I have had nothing but problems with this stupid printer. From mis-fed sheets to really poor printing quality, to just outright non-functioning, this color printer has been an exercise in russian-printing-roulette. I never know if it’s going to work or not. I’ve replaced the print cartridges at great expense twice and I still cannot get reliable quality from it. I usually spend half an hour tweaking the stupid thing and begging it to work before I ever does. Today I tried to print a very simple sheet of letterhead and the new black ink cartridge (only 50 pages on it) refused to print altogether. The color cartridges have spotty performance, and the color is terrible. My greens are dark aqua and my purples are greyish-blue. Again, these printer carts are only a month old and have only printed 50 pages of letterhead.
I broke my rule and decided to go cheap when I should have paid more for quality.
I hate you Epson. I hate your crummy printers, your lousy tech support, and your unstable drivers. If I could do it over, I would spend hundreds of dollars to buy a model from your competitor. I’ll probably do that anyway now just to get my life back.
I will never buy another Epson printer again.
July 11, 2005
In Praise of Videogames
Part of what makes us human is that we take pleasure in learning and overcoming challenges. So if you have a game that consists of learning and overcoming challenges, it’s going to make you feel good. That’s a good thing.
What should make us sad are the people who have stopped feeling the pleasures of learning and problem-solving.
Quoth
“There is still an overwhelming social compulsion — an insanity of consensus, if you will — to get rich from life rather than live richly, to “do well” in the world instead of living well. And, in spite of the fact that America is famous for its unhappy rich people, most of us remain convinced that just a little more money will set life right. In this way, the messianic metaphor of modern life becomes the lottery — that outside chance that the right odds will come together to liberate us from financial worries once and for all. Fortunately, we were all born with winning tickets — and cashing them in is a simple matter of altering our cadence as we walk through the world.”
Rolf Potts, Vagabonding (2003)
July 9, 2005
Production Sound
Spent all day today doing audio for a short film in Austin. I’ve graduated from the scut-work of driving the boom, with the accompanying aching arms, to running the mixer. It’s a much better job. Luckily, they were able to get TWO guys for audio so we could share duties. More shooting tomorrow.
July 8, 2005
Quoth
“Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on earth to do. with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling”
Vincent van Gogh