begin rant

If you spend a lot of time at your job performing endlessly monotonous and dull things, like counting the number of flowers produced by a plant (or the population of thrips crawling inside those same flowers), you will often find yourself turning to some sort of interesting background distraction just to keep your mind awake and focused. The music served up by my iPod has always been great, but sometimes I need something a little different. Something to make that brain time that is spent hanging while counting a little more useful, more refreshing.

As such, one of my recent favorite distractions has been Steve Eley's Escape Pod. Graduate school has not left a lot of time or energy leftover for pleasure reading, and I miss my occasional dose of speculative fiction. Mr Eley's podcast gives me a chance to escape from my humdrum surroundings for a slightly longer than half an hour, and provides the perfect accompaniment to mindless labour or car rides into the distance.

The quality varies, and is mostly dependent upon your individual preferences, but I haven't found or heard anything that I really disliked, and thus far there has been much to enjoy. The tales range in nature from fantastic WWII adventures in (meta)physics to cynical comic books, traditional tales of Area 51 skunk-works, and the alien quest for identity and meaning. Santa might even be able save Christmas from the heat-death of the Universe.

And hey, my old friend Jeremy Tolbert might even have a story or two on there to listen to.

Check it out.

Posted by Derksen at 7:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, I've mentioned these guys before. It seems that since last we spoke, both Fanboys Productions and RvD have unleashed a sequel to their earlier projects upon the web. Both sequels would have been impossible without the community of support that they have developed since releasing their products out into the wild. The creative endeavors of these guys survive entirely upon the generosity of their fans.

Six in the Morning continues to emphasize both aspects of responsibility as well as unadulterated geekery as their tale stretches on. While not entirely sophisticated drama, it is a thoughtful analysis of what it means to have power - and to be legally liable for the use of that power. It also delights in toying around with whirling and glowing sticks. RvD2 does not bother with the pretense of story. This is solely a display of fight choreography distilled to its purest. Both pictures are strong at what they do best, and while both remain far less polished, they are also inarguably better and far less disappointing than any of the last three Star Wars films.

Kudos to the independent filmmaker.

I wish them well, wherever their respective futures carry them.

Posted by Derksen at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While I can not be one hundred percent certain, I suspect that if I were ever to get serious about my plans for world domination, a bowl of jellybeans would be sufficient to distract me and unravel all my evil plans.

All except the popcorn-flavored ones. Those have got to go.

Posted by Derksen at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Until a few minutes ago, I had only heard excerpts and soundbites from Mr. Obama's speech on race. The chattering classes had provided summaries and commentaries on the event, all of which completely failed to capture the power and intelligence behind the text of his announcement:

Whoever wrote this piece was brilliant, placing Mr. Obama's words within a compelling historical context. One way or another, I would like to believe that this man will change America - and for the better.

Posted by Derksen at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And sometime late last night as we pulled out of the parking lot, my car finally rolled past a hundred thousand miles. It took far less than the two to three weeks that I had expected. Congratulations: we're alive, but it was still quite an experience.

What does the future hold?

Time will tell.

Time always does.

Posted by Derksen at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For what little it is worth, I am much better with a sword.

Posted by Derksen at 8:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some time within the next two to three weeks, my car will turn one hundred thousand. So begins the end of the journey. My "new" 2002 racing stallion was purchased towards the end of 2001, which makes it almost seven years old. That is a little less than 15000 miles per year, which is a respectable bit of driving. We have come a long way together, and I would love to see it get another hundred thousand miles going forward. I have confidence in the engineers of Toyota, and some of my friends' old models lasted well over a hundred and fifty thousand miles before finally giving up their much beloved ghosts.

We shall see.

Posted by Derksen at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

compromise:

käm-prə-mīz, n. Middle English, mutual promise to abide by an arbiter's decision, from Anglo-French compromisse, from Latin compromissum, from neuter of compromissus, past participle of compromittere to promise mutually, from com- + promittere.

1. • A settlement of differences by arbitration or by consent reached by mutual concessions.
   • Something intermediate between or blending qualities of two different things.
2. A concession to something derogatory or prejudicial; a compromise of principles.

- from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

I am going to be charitable and assume that this billboard refers to the second definition of "compromise", but I suspect that they think that they are being clever by implying that the former is essentially the latter. If this is so, then I must admit that I find an inability to see alternative viewpoints dangerous in a world otherwise free of absolutes. The unwillingness to make some concessions to an opponent changes one from an individual who holds a contrary opinion that can be discussed or debated to an implacable foe.

If you wish such an enemy, then so be it - but I'd like to think that there is always room for an exchange of views, and to find common ground between disparate worlds so that everyone might live together in tolerance, if not acceptance.

Posted by Derksen at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know what hurts more than you think it would?

Imagine plucking a rosebud, and driving one of those small and needle-sharp thorns that hides just beneath the sepals into the soft and fleshy pad of your thumb, and another just beneath your nail. There is no blood, and at first there is no pain. Now imagine that you have been rinsing these roses in alcohol (you know: to get the thrips off?), and savor the sting for a little while.

Almost better than coffee when it comes to the mid-afternoon wakeup call.

Posted by Derksen at 1:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have long believed that one of the major advantages of being a geek is that it is much easier to come into contact with your heroes. As an example, this Monday, I drove off to Mote Marine to listen to science writer Carl Zimmer speak on recent developments in cetacean evolution. The talk itself was a quick layperson's review of thirty or forty years of work on the evolution of whales. Much of it focused on the developments of the last ten years, and it was well-expressed for a non-technical audience.

Of course, that wasn't really the point.

The point was getting to meet an author whose works I've been reading for a great many years, and who is good at getting his own point across. In this, the talk was another expression of his writing: to take sometimes complex and arcane science, and to boil it down to its most interesting and exciting elements. It has been fun to follow his keystrokes as he moves from subject to subject in science, first exploring evolution at the water's edge, moving on to parasites, then exploring the social history behind the discovery of the brain, and most recently, our relationship with the ubiquitous E. coli. His blog and his science columns and commentary for the New York Times and Wired Magazine are even more diverse summaries describing the state of the art in a number of different fields.

Science needs more folks like this who are capable of expressing such discoveries in a manner that is at once both entertaining and informative. The entertainment is important, for while the thrill of discovery or the intuitive leap that results in new understanding is the real joy of science, much of the everyday work is like any job: dull, repetitive - full of endless monotony as you grind towards results and conclusions that you hope will be revolutionary and new... but will probably do nothing more than continue to support existing data. Science can also be intimidating, with the primary literature full of needlessly specific technical jargon, sometimes requiring much reading through diverse and obscure papers and journals to understand a single subject.

His writing keeps science fresh, cutting through all of the hard work to the conclusions at the end of a long day (or decade) that are what really inspire scientists to keep moving. This kind of writing may go on to inspire another generation of scientists, and to develop an appreciation for and an understanding of science outside of the technical community in the same way that folks appreciate the work of a farmer, or a mechanic, a dot-com tycoon, or even a lowly politician.

That, and as a lark, he now keeps track of all of the really cool science tattoos. How can you get any more awesome than that?

Posted by Derksen at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,
when we are sick in fortune, - often the surfeit
of our own behavior, - we make guilty of our
disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as
if we were villains by necessity; fools by
heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,
liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of
planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,
by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion
of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish
disposition to the charge of a star!"

- King Lear: Act I, Scene II

Posted by Derksen at 8:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Other Boleyn Girl is disappointing in spite of an excellent cast. Instead of stressing or straining the actors' abilities, it seems to rely upon costume and lighting to define their characters. Mr. Bana storms about as a bombastic and smouldering Young Harry - and resembles nothing more than a budget Russel Crowe. Ms. Johansson glimmers in her soft lighting, and bright colors - as precisely beatific or maternal as her role seems to require. Ms. Portman is all sharp lines and hard lighting, and is then forced to run through some very stilted expositional dialogue. Perhaps the producers chose to rely upon color and symbol to demonstrate the emotion of a moment, because the novel upon which the film is based is a far more complex analysis of human emotion and how people can grow and change in reaction to one another. It also comes from a particularly dramatic period of history where the desires of a few individuals' hearts really did shape the path of nations in a far-reaching fashion.

Perhaps the producers felt that this was too sophisticated a realm for most viewers to abstract the broader consequences of a few wandering hearts, and the film relies shamefully and heavily upon straightforward, dull, and repetitive exposition to tell its tale. This ascends to ludicrous peaks from time to time, with scenes being introduced through a character's pronouncement that, "I am going to seduce the king now, but I won't give it up to him so that he is driven mad by lust and desire, and a side-effect will be to change the entire church of England, freeing us from the influence of Spain and the rest of Europe to develop our own destinies". This is then followed by a series of scenes where the characters do just this - but accompanied by their careful insistence that they are completing each phase of their plan. It feels almost like sportscasters announcing calls from a classical playbook, and if it were not so disappointing, it would be almost amusing in parody:

AB: "I am seducing you now!"
H8: "I am wracked by lust and desire! I crush letters and maps in my hands! I must have you!"
AB: "You can not have me without first divorcing your wife, the most powerful woman in the world!"
CA: "I am the Queen, and the most powerful woman in the world, but I cannot control my husband!"
H8: "You cannot control me! I am the King! Yet, I am controlled by my lusts, and you hold the reins!"
AB: "I would laugh about how I control you, but it is a bit like riding a bull in a China shop! I am surprised and frightened to learn that I do not control you!"
H8: "No one controls me! I am the King! Off with her head!"

Unfortunately the movie really does flow like this. Good ideas, excellent premise - but with all of these finely machined parts, the whole affair fails to come together and falls short of greatness.

In other news, I had not realized how overexposed and grainy the lighting in England was during the 1500's. This film was shot in digital, and there has been considerable post-production work placed on modifying lighting or enhancing the hard or soft lines of a subject. These modifications are not always successful, but it is interesting to see more and more film shot in digital. I have a number of interesting opinions about film-preservation and posterity when it comes to working in and with digital when compared to traditional celluloid, but we'll leave those complaints about bit-rot for another day.

My overall recommendation is that you save this for rental on a boring day, or maybe for a drinking game: take a sip every time you see soft lighting or a blurry filter! take a shot every time Russel Crowe (I mean Eric Bana!) smoulders in frustrated manly rage! In the meantime, I must instead suggest that you set your NetFlix account to watching the first season of Showtime's the Tudors, or even the BBC's recent documentary which covers the same period of history with far more grace and excitement.

Posted by Derksen at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)