5 - 2003 | ***Dave Does the Blog

Complexity

And when she’s not giving movie reviews, Katherine is telling us stories — usually the stories that she wants us to tell her at bed time, but then wants to…

And when she’s not giving movie reviews, Katherine is telling us stories — usually the stories that she wants us to tell her at bed time, but then wants to have a starring role in. “Jack and the Beanstalk” was the selection tonight, and when Jack got to the castle and found the singing harp, Katherine insisted on telling us the next part:

Thank you for rescuing me and she said you can go over there and get the goose that lays the golden eggs and my master is a cruel giant who makes me sing whenever he comes in the room, la-la-la-la.

Which is, frankly, an incredible sentence. And if you’re not impressed, I don’t want to hear it.

Speaking of bed time, we’ve thrown in the towel on afternoon naps. She simply wasn’t taking them, and it was becoming way more of a hassle to try and impose them than the ostensible convenience (for us) of her taking them. The amount of interference she causes when downstairs asking for your attention is not significantly greater than when she’s coming out of her room (or banging on the door) every ten minutes …

Watching Nemo

Major life event here: we went to a movie, with Katherine. And she sat through the whole thing (well, she got up a few times and peered over the…

Finding Nemo
Major life event here: we went to a movie, with Katherine.

And she sat through the whole thing (well, she got up a few times and peered over the stadium seats, or between them, or crawled into Mommy’s lap or mine, but, basically, she managed to watch the whole movie.

Okay, so Finding Nemo is only about 90 minutes long. There’s a charming five minute short from early in Pixar’s history in front of it. And fifteen minutes of previews (Spy Kids 3 = Tron 2003). But, damn, she watched the whole thing.

(By the way, watch the end titles. You won’t regret it.)

Katherine’s review is as follows:

“So, Katherine, did you enjoy the movie?”
“No. It was scary.”
“What was your favorite part?”
“When his daddy said no, and he went and touched the boat anyway.”

Yeah, there’s a surprise.

Let’s start out my review on the technical side. Pixar and Disney have done it again. The underwater (and, hell, abovewater) scenes in Finding Nemo are frelling spectacular. With the needful concessions to (a) cartoon character features and (b) blocking characters in three dimensions, it’s almost hyper-realistic in appearance. Textures, subtle movements with the currents, all of that, the technical side of Finding Nemo is as huge an advance over Pixar’s previous works as they were over — well, Tron (the original). Major kudos to all concerned.

Just one example. One of my favorite scenes, technically, from Monsters, Inc., is when Sully has fashioned a sled and is racing down the mountain to the village, the dark blizzard pieced only by the lantern he’s mounted. The wind is blow, his fur is rippling, there’s an amazing texture of snow lit up by the lantern — it’s just incredible. There’s substance and depth and thereness to everything in the shot.

Finding Nemo pulls off the same thing, underwater, for most of the movie. Amazing.

From a story perspective? Thereby hangs a tale … or two.

First off, Katherine’s observation that it was scary is spot on. Take Bambi, and pump up the volume. Hell, the closest in brutality to this film that I recall coming from Disney was The Lion King, and even that paled. Katherine (and some of the other kids asking questions aloud in the audience) didn’t fully understand what was going on at the very beginning of the film, and that’s probably just as well, because … well, damn.

Nature red in tooth and claw, indeed. Not to mention fin. Nemo makes it clear that there’s a distinct food chain in the ocean (even with a few notable exceptions along the way, for comedy relief). That’s probably a good lesson for kids — eventually. But for kids 4-7, be prepared to answer some plaintive questions afterward (and even during).

(And SPOILERS BELOW.)

Continue reading “Watching Nemo“

Because you never can tell about those Girl Scouts …

A long-standing Bay Area Girl Scout tradition had to be cancelled because of security concerns. The nation’s code orange terrorism alert bears the blame for the cancellation of the Girl…

A long-standing Bay Area Girl Scout tradition had to be cancelled because of security concerns.

The nation’s code orange terrorism alert bears the blame for the cancellation of the Girl Scouts annual walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.
More than 4,000 Girl Scouts were to have taken part in the trek over the famous span on Saturday. But bridge officials revoked the Scouts’ permit to hold the mass walk because the nation is at an orange security alert and the bridge has long been viewed by security experts as a prime target for would-be terrorists.

Yeah. I mean, don’t they take Demolitions and Holy War merit badge training or something? Or maybe I’m thinking about the Boy Scouts. Well, in either case, you can’t be too careful …

(via Mary)

Another good reason for marital fidelity

Because you do not want to come home to this. (via Tracy)…

Because you do not want to come home to this.

(via Tracy)

A man, a plan, a canal – Panama!

[ARGH. I foolishly clicked away from this input window and lost about half an hour of creative work on this post. RRRG.] Okay. I have a plan. Which won’t work….

[ARGH. I foolishly clicked away from this input window and lost about half an hour of creative work on this post. RRRG.]

Okay. I have a plan. Which won’t work.

I’ve bitched about my WIST database before. To make a long story short, I have a 5,000-quotation database in Access, but getting it published to an HTML page is like pulling teeth. Dinosaur teeth. Big dinosaur teeth. With tweezers. It easily takes a 3-4 days of dedicated free time, if not longer. So I don’t do it as often as I should — the online pages haven’t been updated in going on two years, even though the database continues to grow.

So, I thought to myself this morning, why not make it a blog. Export out of the existing database into MT’s import format, import the entries in, one entry to an author, cateogories being the alphabet. Then I can update this stuff on-line with no problem, and it’s all right there for folks to read as they like as soon as I’ve done it.

And MT can handle all the templating/appearance, and page generation, too, and its “convert breaks” function is just what I want. Cool.

Except I can’t do that, because then I couldn’t extract the stuff from the MT pages into my sig file program.

Okay, no prob. I can just continue to use the db as-is and periodically export into the MT import format and import the stuff into the blog, no prob.

Okay, prob.

I can’t use the easy, simple, quick sig file process I have, because that uses an Access query exported to a text file, plus a bit of editing on said file. But queries aren’t hierarchical — I can’t have all the quotes for one author lumped under that author’s name that way, only all the quotes repeating each author’s name and stats. I could do that, but it would be ugly. I could, maybe, get to just under the present functionality (all the “A” authors on one page), and simply rather than having big headings for each author have them in the citation of each quote — but that trades off exportability (up) for aesthetics and usability (down), and is still a pain — I’d really only have 26 (long) entries, one for each letter of the alphabet. I might play around with it, but I wouldn’t be happy.

And Access’ report function sucks chunks when it comes to outputting flat text, since it’s so “conveniently” WYSIWYG.

So I can’t really export from the db into the MT import format. Besides which, there isn’t an obvious function in MT to delete all entries and go back to scratch (short of checking off every entry for all 1600-plus authors), or import-and-overwrite. Which is probably the way I want it, normally, but is a pain in this case.

Rrg.

Of course, I’m about to become the Big Manager of Many Rogue Access Programmers. Surely I can pick one of their brains about this.

Okay, so I have a new plan …

Memes

Hey, yesterday was Thursday, wasn’t it?…

Hey, yesterday was Thursday, wasn’t it?

Continue reading “Memes”

MT Blogging for Dummies

Wondering about blogging, leery of using Blogger, unwilling to wait for TypePad, but daunted by Movable Type? Check out this tutorial, which goes through the whole process, step by step….

Wondering about blogging, leery of using Blogger, unwilling to wait for TypePad, but daunted by Movable Type? Check out this tutorial, which goes through the whole process, step by step. Sweet.

(via InstaPundit)

So uncool

Katherine insists that she is not cool. Boys are cool. Girls are pretty. Explanations that the two are not mutually exclusive, and that she can indeed be both cool and…

Katherine insists that she is not cool.

Boys are cool.

Girls are pretty.

Explanations that the two are not mutually exclusive, and that she can indeed be both cool and pretty are for nought. I have no idea what the word cool now means to her, except that it is an attribute of boys.

“Am I pretty?” Margie asks.

“No, you Mommy!” Katherine replies.

Katherine knows not whereof she speaks.

Evil! Evil! Evil!

Brought to you in Living Color, direct from the Pit of Hell!!! Periodically, I run across some news snippet about How Awfully Evil and Mind-Twisting Role Playing Games (such as…

Brought to you in Living Color, direct from the Pit of Hell!!!

Periodically, I run across some news snippet about How Awfully Evil and Mind-Twisting Role Playing Games (such as the evil “Dungeons & Masters” game) Are. These range from accusations that only reality-shunning emotionally disturbed teens play such games (and thus get confused over what is real and what is fantasy in their everyday life), to accusations that Satan is behind all of this, in an attempt to lure hapless souls into the occult.

To which I have to say “Poppycock.” (At least, that’s what I say when I’m in polite company.)

Continue reading “Evil! Evil! Evil!”

Onemoreword

Oneword is not only a keen daily writing exercise, but it’s one of the most clever uses of the Movable Type interface I’ve seen. Aside from the (Javascript?) timer, it…

Oneword is not only a keen daily writing exercise, but it’s one of the most clever uses of the Movable Type interface I’ve seen. Aside from the (Javascript?) timer, it looks like it’s all pure MT, just arranged in an unconventional fashion. Remarkably clever.

Fine Art

Part of the ongoing effort to move material from my stale regular web pages to my if-it’s-stale-it’s-because-it’s-a-blog blog pages. Despite (or perhaps because of) my comic book addiction, I have…

Part of the ongoing effort to move material from my stale regular web pages to my if-it’s-stale-it’s-because-it’s-a-blog blog pages.

Despite (or perhaps because of) my comic book addiction, I have a great appreciation for fine art — particularly art that is both realistic and just a scosh magical or fantastic. What follows are some of my favorite “real” artists.

Continue reading “Fine Art”

Have you got the brains?

Definitely a culinary inquiry you should consider….

Definitely a culinary inquiry you should consider.

Log

My latest Nobilis log is up. Woo-hoo. Not that it’s any great shakes, but, hey, when I actually have the discipline to do one of the things, it’s worth crowing…

My latest Nobilis log is up. Woo-hoo. Not that it’s any great shakes, but, hey, when I actually have the discipline to do one of the things, it’s worth crowing about.

For the man who has everything

Buy your own aircraft carrier. Aircraft not included. Only owned by two navies. Only $4.5MM. Please, no CODs. (via BoingBoing)…

Buy your own aircraft carrier. Aircraft not included. Only owned by two navies. Only $4.5MM. Please, no CODs.

(via BoingBoing)

We are experiencing technical difficulties

Hokey smoke. Indeed. At 10:20 am this morning, we [NAC] had a component failure in the UPS at our Site B co-location facility in Parsippany, NJ. We had no warning…

Hokey smoke. Indeed.

At 10:20 am this morning, we [NAC] had a component failure in the UPS at our Site B co-location facility in Parsippany, NJ. We had no warning of this failure, and we are currently investigating the cause. This failure triggered the fire alarms and the fire suppression system, and caused the UPS unit to drop all power to Site B. In addition, because this failure caused the fire alarms to be set off, the entire building had to be evacuated while the fire department investigated. NAC personnel worked with the fire department to ensure the building environment was safe to re-enter.
Some of the core switching equipment in Parsippany was affected by this UPS failure and power outage and had to be moved to a backup power system. At approximately 12:00pm the fire department allowed all personal to re-enter the building.
The power failure did not affect any customers located at our Newark, NJ site or any services in any other states.
We are currently assessing any on-going issues, but most services have been restored. We will post an additional update as more information becomes available.

“Most services” did not include, until a few minutes ago, all of Hosting Matters‘ servers. But now, obviously, it does.

Whew. Nice to be back on the air.

Super-Geek, Super-Geek

On the Geek Test, I score 48.71795% – a Super Geek. (Frankly, I thought there were too many calculator questions, too few gaming and comic book questions. But there’s no…

On the Geek Test, I score 48.71795% – a Super Geek.

(Frankly, I thought there were too many calculator questions, too few gaming and comic book questions. But there’s no accounting for Geekiness.)

(via Scott)

Good news, bad news

The good news is, I was invited to my New New Boss’s quarterly meeting with his directs. Which means, I guess, I’m going to be officially one of them, by…

The good news is, I was invited to my New New Boss’s quarterly meeting with his directs. Which means, I guess, I’m going to be officially one of them, by and by.

The bad news is, he seems to have scheduled it smack-dab up in front of our KOA trip in June, which means:

If they hold it in California, I’ll have to fly out there early, leaving Margie to pack for the camping trip and deal with Katherine. Or, alternately, Margie and Katherine might fly out early with me and lounge about the pool, eating bon-bons, while I slave in the office.
If they hold it in Denver (which, remarkably, someone suggested independently of me), then I’ll be bailing out of the last meeting early to race home to race to the airport, Margie having had to do the bulk of the packing already. Which she usually does, but at least I’m usually there, hovering around, making useless suggestions, shouting at Katherine, and offering repeated references to our Packing Checklist on my Palm.
If they hold it someplace else (least likely at the moment, but …), then I’ll be traveling independently of M&K, Margie will have to do the packing and care for the bambina for the week before the trip, and it’s going to be a not-very-relaxing weekend following.

In any case, I’ll be immediately squandering my initiative and momentum from the trip by taking a vacation, which is not good in and of itself, and also doesn’t look really good, even though the New New Boss already knew I had the trip coming up then.

On the bright side, after suffering from only mid-60s to -70s weather last week, this week we’re being rewarded with nice mid-80s-plus sun-sun-sun. And the sprinkler zone by the sidewalk still doesn’t work. Feh.

And, on a brighter side, after having Heroically and Remarkly Remembered to Bring Down the Laundry this morning, and patting myself on the back repeatedly for doing so, I just realized I forgot to go across the street and let the vacationing neighbor’s dog out like Margie asked me to.

It’s going to be a long day.

With the intensity of a thousand pulsing love pods …

… we present the winners of Nerve.com’s Bad Erotica Contest. It is exactly as advertised (and probably not job-web-filter-friendly). You have been warned. Though, speaking of advertising, I’m not sure…

… we present the winners of Nerve.com’s Bad Erotica Contest.

It is exactly as advertised (and probably not job-web-filter-friendly). You have been warned.

Though, speaking of advertising, I’m not sure the producers of The Sea and Love the Hard Way would be particularly thrilled to see their ads on the same page …

(via BoingBoing)

Axis to grind

Scott reminds me of this test to chart out your “political compass” — where you lie on the economic left/right and the authoritarian/libertarian scale. It’s an interesting test, but for…

Scott reminds me of this test to chart out your “political compass” — where you lie on the economic left/right and the authoritarian/libertarian scale. It’s an interesting test, but for me it’s more interesting to see if I’ve “drifted” any.

I last took the test in 12/2001, at which time I was

Economic Left/Right: -1.13 (slight economic liberal)
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -3.13 (distinctly, but not radically, libertarian)

Which made me something of a libertarian leftist.

Taking the test again today, I came up with.

Economic Left/Right: -2.13 (slight economic liberal)
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -3.54 (distinctly, but not radically, libertarian)

Which makes me a bit more of a libertarian leftist, somewhere around Jean Chretien (ahem). Which surprises me a bit, since I thought I’d probably drifted a bit right, economically — but, then, again, it’s difficult to say how much “margin for error” the test has. I mean, even though it seems to ask a lot of questions, there were still a number of them that felt a bit forced in terms of selecting a binary choice when in fact they could be made into multiple axes of ideology themselves. And it would be kind of interesting to see how they fit some of the answers onto those two axes.

And, for that matter, I can’t say that any of the writers identified in my quadrant seem particularly attractive. (Noam Chomsky?!)

Hmmm. Thinking of how a certain amount of politics has played recently, I wonder if there’s a nationalist/transnationalist axis that would be of value here? That doesn’t necessarily map onto economic left/right, or authoritarian/libertarian.

Still, interesting.

Eddie

I’ve been told that Eddie Izzard is a comedian that I should get to know better. Having just found out that he’s doing a show in September here in Denver,…

I’ve been told that Eddie Izzard is a comedian that I should get to know better. Having just found out that he’s doing a show in September here in Denver, I suppose I should consider whether that’s a good opportunity.

(via SfAD)