bryguy

Robert Jordan Fans - New Chapter Available

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:38:31 GMT

The sample chapter for the new Wheel of Time book is available on tor.com but you have to endure an annoying registration process first. It's not bad. It was written by Brandon Sanderson from RJ's notes about how the series ought to be finished. It's not bad, but not much happens (which makes it a lot like RJ's work honestly). The first couple paragraphs feel a bit off, for instance I don't think RJ would ever have used the word metaphor. It gets better though. Despite my twitch-inducing hatred of what Brian Herbert did to the Dune universe, I'm going to give this a shot and maybe check out a couple of Sanderson's other books too while I wait for the release.

Ted

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:14:34 GMT

I am trying to be even-handed. I think about how I felt when Reagan died. It's politically correct to say that your thoughts (and usually your prayers too) are with the family, but to me that always felt trite, I mean, unless you know the celebrity's family firsthand or at least feel some sort of connection with them. Well, when Reagan died, it's true; my thoughts were not of Nancy's well-being but of Iran-Contra and how this man was somehow being sainted despite what he did.

Now it's Ted's turn, and it doesn't matter if you write a thousand lines praising him and one mentioning Chappaquiddick, Chappaquiddick is what people are thinking about. Some are remembering his 1980 speech at the DNC, some are mourning the apparent end of the legacy that his brothers started. But it's especially tragic that a man who embodied the best of Christian ideals, who lived his life a true public servant and champion of the poor and powerless, will always be remembered by, in his words, his "indefensible" behavior the night Mary Jo Kopechne died.

Now all these years later, we can finally move on from that. In my life, I think the only speakers who I have ever heard who could hold a candle to Ted Kennedy were Jerry Falwell and Bill Clinton, and honestly I don't think either were his match. He was brilliant, eloquent, and he exuded a charisma that would have made him a celebrity no matter who his people were. As a long standing member of the Senate from Massachussetts he had the freedom to espouse the sort of ideals that politicians from, shall we say, less enlightened states are compelled to water down.

You'll hear people lionizing his life but harping, with differing degrees of regret, on that one black mark on his record. As I think back to Reagan I am reminded that this is the narrative with all liberal tragic figures; great personal failings that manage to detract from their tremendous public accomplishments. Clinton. Kennedy. Edwards. The conservative tragedy narrative is the reverse, a man of great personal virtue who falls from grace through the abuse of power. Reagan. Bush. Nixon. I know which of the two affects me most directly. We will miss Ted Kennedy, Lion of the Senate.

Post Office

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:49:24 GMT

I send and receive a lot of mail since I buy and sell trading cards over the internet, and I have to say that after hundreds of transactions, I have had virtually no problems at all with the Post Office. The USPS does a great job with residential service and I just think that people take it completely for granted.

So anyway, yesterday I was at the Post Office and I asked the lady at the counter for a coil of Forever stamps. She tells me "Forever Stamps don't come in coils", which seemed strange to me since I had just pulled such a stamp from a coil not more than 15 minutes prior to mail out a card order. She was insistent, and while I knew my eyes did not deceive me, I saw no profit in arguing philately with a pro so I just asked for the equivalent number of stamps on sheets.

So today I go to Google to be proven right as usual but in a stunning turn of events, I was wrong!

I bought a roll of these:

a few years ago and the cats somehow managed to lose them behind our stove; a spring cleaning revealed the $30 or so worth of stamps that still remained on the roll. I've been using them to send regular first-class letters for some time now, and they've been delivered without any trouble according to the feedback I continue to receive for card sales.

However, according to to this chart, what I thought were forever stamps are actually nondenominated transitional first class stamps, and they're actually only worth 41 cents. I am glad they haven't all been returned to me for insufficient postage, and I wonder if there's an official policy on how long these stamps are honored for first class postage or if I've just somehow gotten lucky.

The moral of the story is that actual forever stamps that can be bought in bulk without fear of postage increases actually say the word "Forever" on them. Accept no substitutes.

The Very Definition of Irony

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:01:51 GMT

Amazon deletes George Orwell books from users' Kindles. Down the memory hole!

Harry Potter and the 0.5 Blood Prince

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:56:36 GMT

Saw the new Harry Potter last night. I'll try to keep this spoiler free.

I liked it, despite some flaws. I think I felt the same way about this that everyone else felt about the wretched Star Trek reboot a few months ago. It was a well executed genre flick, not changing my life in any way but entertaining me more than competently for a few hours. Let's do top 5 best and worst list, shall we?

Worst things about the new HP movie:

5. There were a few slow moments. I'm at a loss now to remember them precisely but those are the moments when you realize you have to pee and it might be a good time to sprint to the restroom.
4. The characters most definitely do not look like they are only 6 years older than they were in the first movie. Draco has some serious crow's feet. It's not horribly bad and I know movies take time to produce, but you can't ignore it.
3. Helena Bonham Carter's teeth were made up to look bad, presumably because she's evil and evil=bad teeth. Or something.
2. The major secret of the movie is revealed in an off-hand way and we have no idea what it means or why it's important. Oh how I wish good writing and consistent plots were correlated with the financial success of movies.
1. Sir Ian McKellan called. He wants his Gandalf wig back.

Best things about the new HP movie:

5. Harry's adoptive parents do not appear. This is the first time that's happened I think, and it really helps to cement the idea that we've moved from the whimsy of childhood to the serious struggles that the characters have to face.
4. The Hermione/Ron relationship. I really liked what they did in this movie. In a way it was all over the top, but for a sublplot in a movie that's the only way to do what they wanted to do. These characters feel very, very real to me, in fact everyone in this movie felt that way to me, even Harry Potter himself for the first time in all the movies (even if his only thing is the difficulty he has dealing with his fame).
3. Special effects. They were not overstated, silly, or fake looking. I thought this movie, visually, was simply amazing. I'd like to identify my favorite moments but I'm afraid I'd give things away if I did.
2. Helena Bonham Carter. She doesn't get a lot of screen time, but for some reason when she plays a character like this I find her irresistibly (yes that's spelled right :) ) attractive. What I like about her character here is the same thing that I like about Tatiana del Toro, guess that says more about me than the movie. Anyway she gets one really tremendous special effects scene where she's on a rampage in Hogwarts that was just about worth the price of admission all on its own for me.
1. Dumbledore (played by Michael Gambon). The first actor who played him put me to sleep. This guy is great though. He keeps reminding me of Kevin Spacey minus the smugness. His character got a lot of screen time this time around.

Palin

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:50:28 GMT

Possibly the only person capable of breaking the Michael Jackson news cycle. I can only hope that this resignation signals her intention to seek higher office. As long as the Republican '12 Presidential primary process eliminates her that is; is it reasonable to count on that? Reckless?

Perquisites

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 04:03:54 GMT

Apparently perk is an acceptable short form of perquisite, but perq ain't a word at all. Passing strange, that.

Trek: At A Loss

Mon, 11 May 2009 19:25:44 GMT

What I find most infuriating about the new Star Trek movie is not that it was bad or a waste of my 2 hours 6 minutes. No, what drives me nuts is that so many other people liked it, which means that I'm horribly out of touch. See, for me, this wasn't a close thing and hardly even a matter of taste. The writing was bad, the plot was neither interesting nor internally consistent, and while there were bright spots in the acting the bad far outweighed the good.

So, I am in one of the situations I fear most in life; what is obvious to me is completely imperceptible to almost everyone else, meaning either my ego has run away with me or I am wrong.

Trek Review

Sat, 09 May 2009 03:50:33 GMT

I wanted so much to like this movie. Maybe I wanted it too much. I have to spoil a major plot element to tell you why I didn't like it unfortunately.

Seriously, don't read anymore if you don't want to know stuff. There actually are a few surprises in this film.

The casting was good. The sets and costumes were good. The special effects were... different; not especially better so I don't know why they needed an update for things like beaming, but it was different.

The dialogue was ok, better in the first third of the movie than in the remainder. They kept trying to cram all the familiar characters' catch-phrases in, and it was... indulgent. I suppose they had to do it, I guess I wish I didn't feel so patronized by it.

Oh, and they managed to do product-placement. In a Star Trek movie. Seriously.

At least it wasn't as bad as Phantom Menace. Instead of Jar Jar we got... the old man. It was almost as bad as watching Dick Clark at New Years. Things were going fine until he showed up. Well, not fine exactly, there were massive plot holes explained away by the effects of black holes on space-time, but that's kinda par for the course with Trek I guess.

The villain was lame. Khan was a great villain, hence Wrath of Khan is widely regarded as the best Trek movie. Christopher Lloyd played an amazing Klingon captain. This villain's role was counter to the old saying that there are no small parts only small actors. There was just nothing to him, the flimsiest of pretexts for his murderous ways.

I would give the movie, as viewed, 1 out of 5 stars. If you cut out every scene with the old man, the movie wouldn't make much less sense and it would be way more fun to watch. I'd give it probably 2.5 out of 5 in that case.

Oh, and Scottie's little alien buddy, wth?

Afghanistan's Only Pig

Wed, 06 May 2009 17:11:03 GMT

Kabul's zoo quarantines its only pig for fear of swine flu. Well worth a read, especially the part about the lion.

Deadwood

Wed, 06 May 2009 04:59:06 GMT

I've been watching Deadwood and I was skeptical at first since western isn't usually my bag, but wow. The characters are really deep and halfway through season 2 I haven't seen a disappointing episode yet. The dialogue is smartly written, and the tie-in to historical events makes me feel like I'm almost learning something. My suspension of disbelief is complete, even during the occasional extended monologue that goes a little over the top.

Highly recommended. I guess the show ran for 3 seasons, if it starts to suck I'll be sure to report back here.

Spokesmodel

Wed, 06 May 2009 03:58:45 GMT

I think the world will be well served by Miss California as spokesmodel for traditional marriage. Oh I'm sorry, "opposite marriage". Catchy!

Weight Loss: What Worked For Me

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:55:41 GMT

I have lost a significant amount of weight the last couple years, on the order of about 40 pounds (I'm now just a bit under 200 pounds at 5'11"). I started writing this as an email to a friend but then I decided that others might find what I have to say useful so "chmod a+r" as we unix-geeks say. I'm not looking for any kind of congratulations or anything else like that, but any constructive advice you have to add would be most welcome.

The most important thing is motivation. You can't just willpower your way through it. You just can't. Instead you have to create motivation. You have to create habits and passive curbs on your behavior that make it so that even if you do everything else wrong you at least don't make it worse, and so that it's easier to do the things that help. Again, forgive me if this seems patronizingly obvious but I see so many people try so hard to stick to something unsustainable rather than changing their habits forever.

Here's the list of things I did that worked:

1. Eat a salad every day. Every single day. This is probably the easiest since you're actually adding food, but tricking your body into eating better food by slipping a proportion of fresh veggies into the mix.
2. Make fresh fruit more easily obtainable than other snacks. Personally I like oranges, so I try to make sure there's a bowl right in the kitchen with 3 or 4 of them. I also always keep some raisins around for when I am out of fresh fruit. I try not to keep chocolate or ice cream in the house at all. Create a habit of snacking on the good stuff.
3. Don't eat after 9pm. At all. Ever. Watch Gremlins, watch what happens when you feed them after midnight :) Seriously, from all that I've read it seems your body takes late night food and converts it into fat all night long, which has the unfortunate side effect of also messing up your sleep cycle. If you don't get to bed around midnight pick a time 3 hours before bedtime, but stick to it even when you need/plan to stay up later. I'm not perfect about this but it's gotten to the point where if I'm looking for a snack at night, I look at the clock and at least second guess myself. They say if you do something for 3 weeks straight it becomes a habit, and I've found that to be true in this case.
4. Skip a snack and feel good about yourself. Don't take reduced portions and don't make up for it later- just take a time when you wanted food but didn't eat it and tell yourself what a moral giant you are.
5. Exercise 30 minutes every other day at minimum, and at least once a week in the winter when it's super inconvenient (as it usually is). I have found that there is no solo exercise in the world that can compete with jogging, and for me doing it on a treadmill isn't the same as doing it outside. sonbanon and I have actually talked about moving to a warmer climate for this sole reason, so that it will be easier to get convenient exercise all year and hopefully I won't need bypass surgery in my 50's like my dad did.

The last thing, and I'm afraid I might not be able to help you with this one, is that you should have a lovely spouse who will replace some of your habitual evening restaurant meals with healthy and interesting home-cooked ones that have not been test-marketed to the customer base of TGIFriday's. If you don't have a lovely spouse to help you out with this then you may have to make other arrangements or even begin cooking yourself.

I won't wish you good luck because luck ain't got no say.

Ol' Arlen

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:14:29 GMT

So Arlen Specter has now aligned his interests with the good guys. This gives the democrats, once Franken is seated, a filibuster-proof majority. I'm hoping this means we'll finally get health care reform.

Look You've Had 32 Years to Get the Damned Shot

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:24:52 GMT

This *is* your father's swine flu scare.

Peeps

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:31:18 GMT

You like stale peeps, right?

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:38:28 GMT

The prosecution screwed up in Senator Ted Stevens corruption trial, and the Times article asserts that the prosecutors cut corners in order to cheat and get a high profile conviction. The exact opposite seems likely to me- that a Republican justice department would cheat in hopes of getting caught and eliminating the conviction (which is what happened). Obama's Atty. General Holder replaced the prosecutors when he took over but it was too late.

Am I crazy for thinking this?

Too busy for April Fool's

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:59:00 GMT

I was up late last night making some last minute tweaks to a presentation I'm giving today. I was having trouble staying awake and I've spent the last 15 years developing an immunity to ~~Iocaine Powder~~ coffee so the 3 cups I had weren't really doing it for me. So I decided to take it to the next level.

Battlestar Galactica: Spoiler-Heavy Complaints

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 21:12:27 GMT

The finale was fun to watch, but my inner logician is still shivering in a dark corner of my mind, refusing to come out and muttering something about "they earned it!"

Don't click if you don't want spoilers.

Kara just disappeared. Has there ever been a keener expression of authorial cowardice?

Toss the fleet into the sun. Uh, why? (and when did hybrid-man become communicative enough to do the right stuff anyway?)

Let the centurions fly away and hope they don't come crush our nascent defenseless civilization on a whim. It's self-parody really.

Head 6 and Head Gaius give us 30 seconds of dialog about god who hates that name. Deus ex Machina baby, you got plot holes? We've got deities! I could have gone to church if I wanted that.

Cavil shoots himself when the jig is up? Actually, I applaud that move, I thought it fit his character perfectly; we learned in an earlier episode that he really dreads the slow process of death and he's a sharp guy who knows the score. Yay writers. Except... it was actually Dean Stockwell's idea. Lol!

They did tease us with the "Plan" one-off and the Caprica miniseries where presumably we'll learn more about whatever comes to the top of Moore and Eick's heads next time around.

so much potential, wasted.

Wheatus

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:44:54 GMT

Zildjian K Ride

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:01:44 GMT

Expensive. Perhaps I will get Guitar Center gift certs for my birthday and buy one. Every time I play my kit I frown when I hit my Sabian B8. It's warm enough to play in the garage again so it's time to tune up the heads and start getting back into the swing.

Weekend Consumption

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:09:23 GMT

Friday night beer was consumed in honor of D's birthday, and though my stay was short it was nice to be out and about. My first visit to Carson City Saloon and they had some good beer on tap, attentive waitstaff and thankfully, good music that wasn't so loud that I couldn't hear the conversation.

Saturday we had dinner with lilostitch and her fiance at The Library. The company was much better than the food in my opinion, but the space was neat, the beer selection was great, and the novelty children's book menus were really cool. I didn't recognize the place at first since they changed their sign, it used to look an awful lot like the Carnegie Library System's logo but the consensus at the table was that they probably had some sort of legal trouble with that. The menus still had the old logo though, which made me believe that I'm actually not crazy.

Sunday I made General Tso's Tofu. I use a bottled sauce so I can't take too much credit, but it's still a chore to make- I have to bread the tofu, fry it until it tastes enough like something other than tofu that the ladies in the house will eat it, then mix it together with some veggies in a wok to cook while I fret over timing the rice perfectly. Someday perhaps I'll try to make my own sauce, but I like the Iron Chef stuff and so do my "customers" so I'm in no hurry. For dessert sonbanon and T made some Banana Nut Muffin/Bread stuff which I enjoyed with some coffee as I settled in for a mindless night of video gaming.

Ugh

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:15:32 GMT

Power outages and the screaming wind you can only experience when you sleep in an attic bedroom atop a Pittsburgh hill make for a rough morning. The sound effects up there are staggering.

Steelers

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:25:01 GMT

Go Steelers. It's like "May the Force be with you" or "God bless" or any other religious invocation that can be used in place of a standard greeting. Being a Steelers fan is not a choice for me; I was raised a Steeler fan and my formative years were the heyday of the 70's Steelers dominance. I've never wanted to stray and while I don't always show up for services (indeed I only watched a couple games this year), Black and Gold is my religion and I associate strongly with my tribe.

How are those other religions working out? Kurt Warner tried the whole Jesus thing and it didn't really work out.

The game was very exciting. I kind of agree with John Madden that James Harrison shoving the Cardinals player when he was down was uncalled for, and it's too bad that image sticks with me rather than his historic 100 yard interception return or Santonio's ballerina catches.

Best stat of the game though: 1 safety! That's got to make some unlikely football pool winners. I guess you could get to 23 with a field goal, 3 touchdowns and one missed PAT though so maybe it's not that uncommon.

I'm a little surprised we only beat them 33-27 on time of possession since their entire offense was basically quick passing drives. I guess we don't have the running game we used to have.

Ah well, as I drove home from my sister's place last night people were outside of their houses dancing, people were waving terrible towels out of their windows honking, and there was generally just a festival atmosphere in the whole city and it's hard not to smile when you see people so happy. Go Steelers!

Parker is a Jedi

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:27:41 GMT

Did you see how Parker just waited for that guy to fall at his feet before he started running? Amazing!