![[icon]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/32575855/3755494) |
Destroying thought in order to save it
|
| PPS Also on the way in to work I saw a guy run a red light just to curse at another guy.
I fear death every time I drive. | comments: Leave a comment   |
| I am a convert.
Following yet another painful plaque-scraping session at the dentist, I have been diligently flossing for the last six months. Today I was rewarded with an easy visit and no brutal gum torture.
Floss, kids.
PS. Unlike last time, the dentist did not mention that I have razor teeth and ought to get some kind of night-time retainer. I did not bring it up because I don't want a retainer and I think razor teeth may be awesome. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| An addendum to the list of types of bad reviews I wrote up a few weeks back: I just read several reviews of The Watchmen novel where someone gave the book one star because the movie version was bad.
Guilt by association? Abetting a known felon? | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I find the Beastie Boys highly irritating...
...except for "Gratitude". I just listened to it four times in a row. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| CANADA DAY!
Today is the day I temporarily suspend my quest to become the owner of the Seattle Mariners and instead look into obtaining the Toronto Blue Jays. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I'm currently reading both David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest and William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I didn't really mean to engage two separate 1000 page books with notorious reputations at the same time. Nevertheless, it has happened, and I am proceeding.
Infinite Jest was something I bought in college, for some reason getting sucked into the hype of its publication. It's not like I got suckered into all hyped books. This was, in fact, probably the only one. I guess the idea of the book and my frame of mind at the time conspired to make me think I would definitely have the time and the wherewithal to read an incredibly complex book while a full time student and working and being mostly the opposite of a lit major. The attempt was doomed from the start and I probably got less than 100 pages in.
Now I'm reading it as a part of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) infsum. This time, I love it. I've had a good twelve years to read a lot of other stuff, so I'm much more prepared for it now, and I also live the cushy life of the childless employed. (Cushy, compared to the student life. For example, I have functional weekends.) I've only ever read some of DFW's essays before, and I actually can't say I liked them a lot. Some were great, others extremely trying, like he's seeing just how far he can expect you to follow his digressions and obsessions. But so far, IJ works for me. It reminds me of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon: brilliant (the brilliance emerging in the incredible length and detail), funny, dark.
Even though the infsum project inspired me to finally tackle it, I'm ignoring the 75 pages a week prescribed by the project parameters. I'm actually trying to finish before a two-week long beach trip at the end of July, and am currently on pace to do so. There's no prayer of being able to follow it while reading on the beach anyway. And if I put it down for two weeks I may lose it forever.
As to The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, this is more of a long-term project. Non-fiction can be read in doses. It can be paused for stretches and resumed without too much loss of clarity. But actually I've had a hard time putting this down. Shirer has a crisp style and does an excellent job weaving together a complex story. I'm mostly reading it in small bursts for now, in favor of IJ. Or when I need a break from the computer at work I wander up to the stacks to read a few pages, too. Because work is so trying that I must occasionally relax by reading about Nazis. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Oh, Ray Bradbury. I'm not sure which quote in this article I like best.
“I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries.”
or
“Yahoo called me eight weeks ago,” he said, voice rising. “They wanted to put a book of mine on Yahoo! You know what I told them? ‘To hell with you. To hell with you and to hell with the Internet.’" | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Some engineering students just threw a 50-lb ball of Silly Putty off the roof of the library (nine stories).
I thought maybe it would deform and bounce awkwardly, but actually it mostly blew up, shattering into hundreds of chunks.
I'll post a video when one is available. A bunch of people were recording it. Sadly, this is not the kind of thing that frequently happens on Thursday afternoons. | | comments: 9 comments or Leave a comment |
| There are but two sheets of paper left on the 400-sheet memo cube I acquired days after starting this job nearly four years ago.
I find it incredibly satisfying to have worked my way through the whole thing without losing or damaging it.
I will let you know when the cube is entirely spent.
Then I will obtain a new cube.
Life trudges on. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | I was wondering about the phrase "the attention span of a cocker spaniel" that I'd used on the last post. I think it's a funny phrase, but I knew I'd heard it somewhere else. Google tells me it was one of at least 217 instances in use on the web. Now I'm sad I used it. How did cocker spaniels develop this terrible reputation? | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I've long been very fond of reading 1-star reviews in Amazon (and Goodreads, Netflix, etc.). It's satisfying for classics especially, because it's terribly interesting to know what makes someone trash an otherwise universally lauded book (or film, video game, or what-have-you). Pretty much, if I'm going to read or watch something notoriously good, I eagerly check the 1-star reviews first.
I would break down insane 1-star reviews into these categories:
*I have already decided how this better turn out. It seems that many people decide what a story is going to be about before they start. Naturally this could happen any time you read something, but some reviewers seem to take it personally. To them, if it fails to be that hoped-for story, hoo-boy, do those responsible have some bad news coming to them. Further, sometimes the expectations are wildly far from what the work is actually about, and the reviewer is so shocked by what they've uncovered that they completely miss the point of the actual work. So the review ends up something like: "I thought this book was going to be a sweeping historical drama with battles and political intrigue, but it turned out to be about some family. Huh?"
*I have the attention span of a cocker spaniel. "Maybe the book was good, but who has a million years to find out? If the first twenty pages were any indication, this was the worst thing ever."
*Everyone is wrong but me. It's one thing to simply not like something, even if it's generally considered a classic. Ratings are personal choices: if you don't connect with it, you can express this opinion with one star or an explanatory review. But I love when a reviewer is actively hostile in the face of all contrary evidence: "People think this is a classic but I thought it was agony to read. Really stupid and boring. Dostoyevsky is a terrible writer!" A subcategory here is people ripping on stuff people they were forced to read in high school.
*My buddy said it sucked, that's good enough for me. Review consists entirely of legends and hearsay about how bad it's supposed to be. Sometimes review lacks even this circumstantial evidence as reviewer openly admits to never actually having read it.
*I am taking my bad service experience out on the producers of this film. Probably my favorite 1-star rating. This is frequent Netflix phenomenon so I'll use that example. Guy's disc arrives a few days late and turns out to be scratched. Guy is understandably annoyed but has no real recourse. So he projects his powerlessness and displeasure by giving the movie one star. THIS will force you to face the grief you've caused me, Netflix!
Of course there are plenty of legitimate one-star reviews. It wasn't interesting to me, I didn't connect with it, I thought it was genuinely bad. But those are no fun. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| 622: Suspicions. Pretty good standard-issue mystery episode. Dr. Crusher spends most of the time trying to solve a murder, and there's a bunch of technobabble, and I mostly don't remember much of it already. The most interesting aspect was the conflict between Crusher's medical need to perform an autopsy versus the Ferengi custom to not allow the practice. Sci-fi can get into territory like this, where human customs and logic go up against another race, and there's no clear solution. This was only part of the overall story, unfortunately. 3 out of 5.
623: Rightful Heir. Excellent episode about faith. A legendary Klingon religious figure, dead for centuries, returns to guide the race back to its former glory. But wait--what? How could it actually be the same guy? Of course it can't, but religious fervor takes hold anyway and there's an instant divide between Klingons who believe and those who don't. I thought this one was terrific, even though it was pretty talky for an episode entirely about Klingon conflict. Some good background on Klingons, too. 5 out of 5.
624: Second Chances. Riker and crew return to a planet he'd been stationed on eight years earlier to retrieve some data that they'd been forced to leave behind. There, they find duplicate Riker! We find out there was a weird mishap related to the funky atmosphere bouncing transporter signals back to the planet, resulting in one Riker signal getting beamed out safely, and one getting stuck on the planet. Now they meet up, and Lieutenant Riker (still stuck at Lieutenant since there aren't really opportunities for promotion when you're stranded and forgotten) instantly dislikes how Commander Riker has messed up his life. This is really why I love sci-fi. Obviously the premise is ridiculous, but you accept it and then get to explore the consequences. If you were frozen in stasis eight years ago, then got out, how would you view your future self? The people and problems you were concerned about then may be forgotten. In this case, the budding relationship Lieutenant Riker had with Troi is long over, and Commander Riker has grown personally and professionally. The two Rikers can't get along at all. I was wondering if I'd get along with duplicate me. Probably. But maybe not, if I had to give orders to myself. Anyway, it ends with Lieutenant Riker heading off to another assignment, so I guess we'll see if he comes back later. 5 out of 5.
625: Timescape. Occasionally TNG episodes have a great premise but get lost trying to explain everything. It's a delicate balance between making something outrageous plausible without going overboard on technobabble. Sometimes the effort to justify scientific oddities outstrips the initial situation, and I spend so much time learning about everything that's going on that I never really connect with the story. This episode is a good example. Fascinating build up, but constant new engineering solutions were introduced to keep it all chugging along. I don't even know if I can sum it all up neatly, so I won't bother. I did like the episode--pretty much anything with a time problem (in this case, random jumps and fluctuations creating mayhem) ends up being interesting and well thought out. In this case, just a little boring. 4 out of 5. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Probably going to buy this Guitar Hero bundle. I've been longing for World Tour and the drum peripherals, and this is the same price plus they throw in the Metallica and Aerosmith games (and a tee shirt! which I will probably use as a dust rag).
I could take or leave the Metallica game. I'm not into them at all but there are a few fun tracks on the disc. I wouldn't consider spending the money for it, but if they'll give it to me for free, well sure.
But Aerosmith? I don't even know if I can have that in the house. I could buy everything else in the bundle a la carte for $200. So, I could instead pay an extra $50 JUST TO PREVENT the Aerosmith game from being in my house. This is almost worth it to me. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| 618: Starship Mine. Star Trek-type science fiction requires a fair amount of viewer buy-in: warp drive is possible, transporters work, computers are magic, etc. Occasionally, for whatever reason, buy-in fails. When it fails a little, I just don't get into the flow of the story and it won't make an impression. When it fails a lot, I begin to argue with the television about the sheer ridiculousness of what I am seeing. Here is the territory in which we find "Starship Mine." I can summarize the episode pretty easily: Die Hard on the Enterprise. Through a painstakingly convoluted series of events, Picard ends up being the only one on the ship during a baryon sweep, a process in which the entire ship is decontaminated (I'm with you). He finds that a group of terrorists have also managed to get aboard to steal some kind of particles from the warp reactor (um...okay). So he has to thwart their sinister plot while evading the ever-progressing deadly baryon field (oh, come on). It's all too much. It's a total rip-off of Die Hard. The acting from the guest stars is absolutely terrible--wooden and amateur. And I never say this about TNG: I think the acting is usually excellent. And if you can imagine the most cliched, sneering-est, inexplicably over-the-top movie villain you've ever seen you've got the lead terrorist's character down pretty well. (John Lithgow's amazingly terrible Ciffhanger villain seems rational by comparison.) All this AND rampant implausibility. How could the ship's captain ever get onto a ship just about to undergo a staggeringly dangerous radiation sweep? No one says, "Oh, I'm sorry sir, if I let you beam up you'll die"? But then they do anyway, and power down the ship without bothering to check to see if he came back? It also all hinges on Picard simply not having his communicator with him. Anyway, I'm surprised to see that this episode is viewed mostly positively in reviews, but this must just be fanboys excited over Picard being an action hero for an hour. 1 out of 5.
619: Lessons. This is much more what TNG is all about. The episode is slow and intellectual and I loved it. Not that the show never works when it veers into action/adventure, but it has to be the right characters in the right situation. (I am still bashing "Starship Mine" and I'm not even talking about it anymore.) Anyway, like "Starship Mine", "Lessons" is not really a Star Trek episode at all. It's actually more about romance with the boss. And the boss is actually more like your commanding officer. Occasionally your commanding officer has to send you into dangerous situations. It turns out that partners cannot send each other to their doom and expect the relationship won't take a hit. This is a good character story and really well done all around. We learn a lot about Picard seeing him fall in love with someone even though we know that it's going to end. Either she's going to die or have to leave the ship, because this show very rarely lets anything become any kind of long-term arc. It's just not that kind of show. But when it happens it still manages to be a bummer. Also nice callback to "The Inner Light". 5 out of 5.
620: The Chase. I really dug this one as well. "The Chase" is a great example of a science mystery that plays to the strengths of the series. We meet Picard's old archaeology professor, who offers him a chance to accompany him on the final portion of an expedition that could take as long as a year. Apparently it's not the first time the Professor has made such an offer to Picard. In his younger days he had the same chance to leave Starfleet for archaeology. Of course, he passes on the chance once again (an interesting enough discussion) but is drawn into the mystery anyway as the Professor is attacked and killed after leaving the Enterprise. The data he's carrying is being pursued by at least three other races, and they all think it's some kind of major secret. The secret turns out, in fact, to be a major revelation on the shared ancestry of humans, Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, and perhaps many other races. I'm curious whether this is going to come up again in later episodes. My guess is no: it's the kind of thing that's plausible provided you don't ask too many questions. Overall, an interesting and satisfying episode. 5 out of 5.
621: Frame of Mind. Riker has grown on me through the course of the series. Early on he was definitely cut in the mold of James Kirk: an intellectual who commands on instinct and just can't help being a swashbuckling adventurer. The character has rounded out a lot throughout the series and I generally end up liking episodes that feature him. This is a decent example with an interesting plot structure. He's supposed to infiltrate a hostile planet, and as he prepares for that mission, he's also preparing to be in a play in which he portrays a mental patient. At some point things get confused and we're not sure if he's still in the play or kidnapped on the planet. My only criticism here is that after an hour of confusion the explanation is some combination of drugs and dreams, so all the weird stuff is considered plausible. Normally I would pick on this, since it's an old plot device, but the overall effect is well done. It IS confusing and disorienting and you're never sure exactly what's going on. 4 out of 5. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| 613: Aquiel. Geordi is probably the most disrespected main character in the series. We don't know much about his background, but he's pivotal to saving the ship about every other episode. The dude ought to be scoring engineering grants or be tenured faculty somewhere for his genius at coming up with radical solutions to impending disasters on the fly. Perhaps even more impressive is his uncanny ability to estimate the exact amount of time he needs to complete any task. "Geordi, how long will it take to re-polarize the magnetic flux inducers?" "Even though I've never done it before, I can confidently assert that it'll take me 1.4 hours, Captain." "Make it so." I guess in the future, engineers will have advanced knowledge of project management that they don't have today. Anyway, this episode finally untracks Geordi a bit as he falls in love with an officer on a relay station. But, she might be a murderer. Overall it ends up being a pretty nicely-developed mystery story, although it does hinge on a plot element that drives me a little crazy in this series. Sometimes the only reason they can't solve a mystery is because they haven't finished analyzing something yet. Then, at some convenient point nearing the end of the hour, they do. And that solves it. I guess mysteries all kind of have to work out this trick of revealing the right amount of information at the right time, such that (1) you can't figure it out immediately, and (2) it makes sense with the plot development. 3 out of 5.
614: Face of the Enemy. Starts out great as Troi wakes up to find herself kidnapped and disguised as a Romulan, and is forced to assist her kidnappers in a negotiation. It works while we don't know what's going on, but at some point this one got really convoluted for me and it stopped making sense. I don't know if I just lost track of it or the episode itself is just weird. It all relies on the idea that the Romulan Troi is impersonating carries some authority. So how is it a good idea to kidnap a stranger to the part and make her do it? The suspense elements are still effective, but I think maybe the idea needed to be fleshed out more. 2 out of 5.
615: Tapestry. Really strong episode in the vein of It's a Wonderful Life. As Picard lays dying after a blast disrupts his artificial heart, Q visits and offers him a chance to re-live the events that led to the initial heart replacement. It happened when Picard was in a brawl in his youth in which he was stabbed in the back, so he has the chance to go back and avoid the fight. It turns out that steering events differently results in a number of other changes in the direction of his life. While he doesn't die in the present day, his life is radically different. We see an old Picard that never made any impression on anyone and lived out his days shuttling memos around the ship. (Picard considers this a fate worse than death, by the way.) There's a lot to like in this one. Good story, interesting development of Picard, and some well-explored themes of the consequences of one's actions. Also, it teaches you that if you can get into a fight in which you will get knifed in the heart, you should do it. 5 out of 5.
616/617: Birthright, parts 1 & 2. I always like Worf episodes. They really bring out the best in the series because they get at some of the core ideas that you can explore in this universe. Namely, how someone adapts to a very different culture (in Worf's case, being a Klingon immersed in human culture). This one also effectively gets into some Klingon mythology and ethics. There's a subplot about Data having a dream that didn't add much to the A story, it kind of felt tacked on, like it wasn't enough to make its own episode and the Worf story really only needed an episode and a half. 4 out of 5. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| Turning off my automatic Twitter posting for a while. Probably the only people who subscribe to this blog also subscribe to my Twitter feed anyway, and both are scanty enough without duplication.
Items:
*I'm going to Jamaica next week for my sister's wedding. I have never been out of the country before so it'll be a first, although the chances of me leaving the resort are pretty small, given that I'll only have about four days and IT'S A RESORT. So it's not like I'm really going to experience any other cultures.
*Three friends from grad school have been through town in the last few months, and I finally got to see one of them after two previous misses. With all the e-mailin', Facebookin', Tweetin', bloggin' what-have-yous out there, it's still remarkably difficult to keep in touch with people in any non-superficial way and I'm trying not to get down about it. It's possible I'm just socially deficient.
*Recent video games completed: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Metroid, River City Ransom. Starting Metroid Prime 3: Corruption now, and will get to my replay of Zelda: Wind Waker soon to wrap up the Zelda retrospective.
*I learned to play Bridge! It took weeks and weeks. It probably should take somewhat less time--our instructor was nice enough and knows a lot about bridge, but I can't say his instruction methodology was all that great. Anyway, yeah, Bridge. We figure that by the time we're old enough to be in the normal Bridge age range we'll have 20 or 30 years of experience and will be awesome at it. Or the game will have been dead for decades.
*K thinks I should adopt the short sleeve buttoned shirt with tie look for work during the summer. I...dunno. | | comments: Leave a comment |
|
Destroying thought in order to save it
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
blue_straggler's journal