| a modest proposal |
[Oct. 8th, 2009|12:43 pm] |
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It occurs to me that settling disputes by duels (or other life threatening means) would keep meetings considerably more civil. |
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| The Mind Boggles |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|10:44 pm] |
When you have eliminated the improbable, whatever remains, however impossible, must be the truth. I blame gremlins. |
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| That's not a good thing |
[Apr. 2nd, 2009|05:04 pm] |
The directory where I have my main analysis code (and data) has disappeared. I must have accidentally deleted it, though I don't remember doing anything like that, and I can't find such a command in my shell histories. That doesn't mean too much b/c I don't think those histories are perfect. But even so, it would be nice to point and say "that's what went wrong!!"
Actually, this is only a minor disaster. My code is mostly backed up in CVS, and the original data is still available on tape. It will probably take me of order a week or so to get back up to speed. And I was planning on rerunning most of my analysis jobs soon anyway. There are some scripts that took me a day or two to develop that are truly lost. And a handful of hacks that hadn't made it into CVS yet.
Oi! |
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| Watchmen Reveiwed |
[Feb. 24th, 2009|10:14 pm] |
Here it is, on Scifi-Wire. If you care, I think there's only one spoiler, and a rather vague one at that. In any case, based on this review (the only one I've seen so far), it's both better and worse than I feared/hoped. But it's sparked some larger ruminations on my part.
The basic problem with adapting many written stories to film is that books are long, but movies are short (I'm quoting someone here, but I don't remember who). Watchmen, for example, is an incredibly dense and layered story. There's a huge amount of material to pack into just two or three hours.
In a similar vein, I think that one of the major defects of the film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings is that they are too short, even clocking in at something like twelve hours altogether. Most of the major plot points were hit to be sure, but it felt like they were rushing through scene after scene. The Harry Potter films have the same pacing problems.
Which brings me to an interesting point: I think many of these stories could be better done as television miniseries. In the past, I've said this specifically about The Lord of the Rings, but I suspect that such an approach would address the essential problems raised in the review. After all, in the past decade or so, we've seen some truly excellent TV shows that told extended, complicated stories. I even have dim memories from childhood that this sort of thing has been done before (though I have no idea as to the quality of the work). |
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| weekends |
[Jan. 24th, 2009|01:32 pm] |
There's nothing like a weekend for getting your batch jobs to run right away. |
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| History in the making |
[Nov. 5th, 2008|08:48 pm] |
I was at the Grant Park rally for Obama last night.
I'd been thinking about going for a while, but didn't really make a serious attempt to make it happen until fairly late on election day. My initial web-searches had come up empty. Turns out that tickets were being offered to campaign donors on a more or less first-come first-serve basis. But each ticket was for the donor and one guest, and that fact let me make it.
I'd pretty much given up hope, but I was also feeling a lot of regret that I'd be missing the rally. I mean this is/was a once in a lifetime opportunity. To start with, how many chances would I get to attend a election night rally in the first place? But beyond that, this was a historic election no matter the outcome, but all the moreso if Obama won (as seemed very likely).
At lunch, I heard that my friend DD was going to the rally, so I decided to ask if I could tag along. But I had to attend a meeting right after lunch, and it dragged on till 3:30 or so. Finally I got to talk to DD. Turns out he was going as the guest on his roommate, M's, ticket. My hopes were dashed. But he thought he had line on another guest slot that he'd check out for me. I was cautiously hopeful, but didn't really expect it to pan out. But then success!! M's girlfriend also had a ticket.
I made plans to meet DD, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) madandrew and EC for a beer at Two Brothers Brewery for a beer before heading out to the city. They had NBC and Fox on w/o sound or close captioning, but we could at least read the stat boxes. By the time DD and I left, Kentucky had been called for McCain and Vermont of Obama. I'd heard on the radio news of record turnouts in Gary, and 80% turnout in Chicago. All good signs.
DD and I parked at the West Chicago train station and took the Metra into Chicago, grabbed a byte to eat at Subway, and set off for Grant Park. Along the way, I spent $20 on a tee-shirt to commemorate the night. We got there around 8:30, where we met M and his girlfriend, E near the park entrance. We went in, but soon split up, as DD and I wanted to get closer in to the stage than M and E. We were still pretty far off, however.
Around then, I called my sister, A, and gloated about being at the rally. My mobile was low on charge, and there was a lot of background noise -- so it was sometimes hard to hear her. But the news was very good. Obama was just over 200 electoral votes, and the polls hadn't even closed on the West Coast.
Over the next couple hours we watched the votes come in on a Jumbotron showing CNN. I didn't hear anything that was really disappointing -- well I had been hoping that Georgia might go blue, but it was not much of a surprise when CNN called it for McCain.
And then they called Ohio for Obama. The crowd cheered. It was a terrific energy. I think we all knew how it was going to turn out, certainly by now, but damn, really? Was it actually going to happen? The news from Virginia came in. Good news. And that was one of the biggies. Now we were coming up on 10pm, closing time on the West Coast. CNN but up a countdown, and the crowd chanted out the numbers.
Three!
Two!
One!
And then the splash:
"Obama Elected President"
Massive roars from the crowd. I could scarcely believe it myself. I knew this one was in the cards. I'd seen the polls. I'd discussed the to no end over lunch with my fellow political junkie, madandrew. But even so, it seemed impossible. Four years ago, after all, I had thought Kerry was going to win. The early results coming in over the radio had been very good. But then, the good news had evaporated. Now it was solid.
A black kid next to me (he must have been about college age, and we'd been chatting throughout the night) kept saying "I never thought this would happen.!" Hands were slapped. Hugs were exchanged with complete strangers.
Soon McCain came on to give his concession speech. It was gracious, but it seemed to just go on and on (much like this post). People in the crowd started singing the chorus of Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye. I joined in halfheartedly. There was some mean-spiritedness at this point. That sort of thing always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I more or less respect McCain, even though I disagree with him on many issues. If part of the appeal of Obama is the civility he promises to restore, then we ought to honor that promise ourselves.
If the concession speech took a long time, the wait for Obama to finally show up was even longer. First there was a prayer, then the Pledge of Allegiance, the the National Anthem, then a number of pop songs. Finally, Obama came out to give his victory speech. When he told Ann Nixon Cooper's story, my eyes got moist. I'm sure there will be much to criticize about Obama in the years ahead. However that may be, history was made yesterday, a fact that should not be diminished. |
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| coding |
[Oct. 23rd, 2008|11:16 am] |
It has come to my attention (again) that I am a coding snob. I do not know if this is good or bad. |
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| Finally |
[Oct. 15th, 2008|05:29 pm] |
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It is accomplished. |
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| Yet another health care article |
[Oct. 6th, 2008|10:01 am] |
This one is a column (does that term really apply anymore?) by Paul Krugman.
ETA: Another article from Newsweek. Unlike Krugman, Jane Bryant Quinn is not, as far as I know, a liberal partisan. So it seems she's less likely to take unfair shots at McCain's plan. |
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| my bedroom smells like garlic |
[Sep. 24th, 2008|08:40 pm] |
Last weekend I pulled up a couple of bulbs of garlic from the garden. You're supposed to hang them up to dry for a few weeks before using them, or even cutting off the stems and roots. It also turns out that garlic (and onions) are not healthy for cats, so I didn't want to hang up the garlic anywhere the cats could get to it.
My bedroom is a cat-free zone, b/c of my allergies. Also there are some convenient hooks on the ceiling. So my bedroom it is. When I got home this evening and went into my bedroom, well, the garlic smell was pretty strong. Nice for now, but I expect I'll get tired of it.
In the meantime, I'm safe from vampires. |
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| public service announcement |
[Sep. 10th, 2008|04:26 pm] |
To see whether the LHC has destroyed the earth yet, you may check this website. Should the LHC destroy the earth, this site will have the news first. |
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| Another health care article |
[Sep. 9th, 2008|02:39 pm] |
Another article, this one a column from Newsweek. I don't agree with the general philosophy behind it, but it does raise some interesting points. |
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| what war crimes? |
[Aug. 30th, 2008|12:56 am] |
Came across this which was posted before Obama's speech. There's a powerful case to be made against the Republican shredding of the constitution and rule of law these past 8 years. We heard a little about that, but only a little. |
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