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Monthly Archive for February, 2004
Sat
Feb
28
2004
Fascist Mel 1 cmts
Ya know what’s amazing? I always thought Holocaust deniers were in the lunatic fringe. I always just kinda figured with so much work to spread the history, with so many utterances of “we must never forget,” it would kinda…you know, mean something. And then Mel Gibson started giving interviews about his new pornographic bloodfest.
Mel can go on TV and say the Holocaust never happened, and Diane Sawyer, or whomever, will just nod and smile.
Shit. Guess we have a little more work ahead of us.
Addition: Roger Ebert offers a fairly good review of the movie itself, seperate from the “artist”.
Fri
Feb
27
2004
Childhood movies 0 cmts
I was looking through shared movies on the Brandeis network and I stumbled upon one that was instantly familiar to me — Flight of the Navigator. Re-watching this film, the favorite movie of my youth, caused me to reflect on the other movies I most enjoyed as a kid. They fit a theme. See if you can guess it:
These are four movies that I remember making an impact on me. I know that we discovered Flight of the Navigator at the small video store we used to frequent in Lake Arrowhead, and I recall renting it several times over the years. Perhaps my parents can shed some light on this, or on other movies that captivated me.
Long ago I made myself the promise that I would do everything in my power to leave Earth, if only so briefly. Visit the moon, maybe, or at least reach out to touch the stars. I think at some point in my young mind I decided that the only way to do this with any certainty was to become fabulously wealthy, as an organization like NASA is just not reliable (and, as depicted in Flight of the Navigator, it’s kinda evil). I’m not sure what I’ve done with that dream, perhaps hid it away in the recesses of my mind, hoping to one day dust it off and achieve it.
I know it’s still there somewhere, just waiting for it’s time. Man, do I hope that time comes.
Sat
Feb
21
2004
- Profile: Teresa Heinz Kerry – I like her better then the candidate.
- Dean Post-Mortem – Not the first, not the last. The dust still hasn’t cleared.
- The Tragedy of Colin Powell – How the Bush presidency destroyed him.
Pictures! 0 cmts
After a hiatus, my photo galleries are back online! Yay! I have a few sets of pictures here that need to go online, including some of the construction at home, the family’s visit to Waltham last week, and some older things. I have put up several “new” albums for your amusement, but none of them are new in the temporal sense:
Fri
Feb
20
2004
Dry Wit 1 cmts
You ever have that problem where people don’t know if you’re joking or serious? I have that problem every day. It’s kinda cool. Keeps people off balance. I like to think I have a dry wit, although I’m sure other people have less pleasant names for it. My favorite TV shows — Buffy, Angel, Farscape — somewhat share this characteristic. Characters are constantly reflecting on the world around them with a healty dose of cynicism. Jokes, rather then overblown and obvious, are quietly snuck in where you least expect them. Every line has untapped potential.
I think my favorite professors are the ones who use the approach, who kind of question everything just through their tone and their word choice, who constantly keep you atuned to sheer strangeness of the world. I think that this approach is what draws me to Discordianism, a worldview (or is it a religion?) then emphasises the sheer strangeness, unpredictibility, and randomness of the world around us.
And I find my approach to speaking helpful in that so many times I am ambivalent about things and, instead of needed to take a strong stand through my speaking, I am able to talk and act in a way that portrays, I think, my ambivalence, so that even as I say one thing it can be seen that I may not quite believe it.
This whole thing is very difficult to describe, I’m not sure I’m doing a very good job. I keep re-writing sentences, and I’m not sure I’m making them any clearer. But then again, this meta-commentary is probably even less helpful. And this meta-meta commentary can’t be much better. And this meta-meta-meta…
Anyway, I noticed the other day in the game room that Dave W kinda acts the same way as I do, and that’s what prompted me to try to get this into words. He said something and I stopped and thought, wow, I have no idea if he is serious or not. Now I know how so many people feel about me!
Ya know, it’s hard to talk through text the same way as I do in person. I guess that’s why I use smilies so much. 
And it probably explains why I hate personal confrontations, and much prefer to have them in textual form…because I’m probably not very good at reading what people are thinking, unless they express themselves the same way I do. Sometimes text can make things much more clear. Sometimes, quite the opposite. I’m not really sure what I’m saying, or what conclusions I can draw from all of this.
Stuff to ponder.
Thu
Feb
19
2004
Learn or Log Off 3 cmts
This NYTimes story really struck a chord with me. It suggests that the geeks of the world are getting sick of providing so much free tech support, and that we are expecting people who enjoy the fruits of computers and the net to also take on the respoinsbility of learning about how things work enough that they behave correctly. Some disagree. I don’t think they get the point.
Yes, yes, you’re all upset that you can’t understand these incomprehensible computers, and it’s not your fault that they are difficult and new, and techies can’t treat you like second-class citizens. In much the same way that we can’t all be lawyers, or doctors, but that doesn’t mean that doctors or lawyers treat the rest of us with disdain because we don’t know how to perform open-heart surgery or get a million dollar settlement.
No, you’re wrong. It’s not that at all.
We expect people who operate cars to know enough about how to do it that they do it correctly. We actually make them take tests! Penalize them for doing things that are hazardous. We don’t expect people to be lawyers, but we expect them to obey laws. We don’t expect them to be doctors, but we expect them to know the basics of healthy living, and when to get their shots, and the like.
We don’t expect everyone to be a computer expert. But we expect that, if they decide they are goint to use a computer, that they take a little bit of time to learn how computers work — read a manual, take a class, buy a book, whatever — and take the necessary steps so that they can safely and conscientiously operate their computers.
I don’t do tech support any more. I get ill every time I hear someone say, “I don’t understand computers!” If you don’t understand them, don’t use them. We’re not forcing you to. And if you want to use them, learn the basics of understanding them. You don’t have to understand how the circuits pass electrical signals. You don’t have to know what a compiler is. But come ON. If you go into the kitchen with no experience, no training, and no recipe book, what you get out of the oven for dinner will more likely then not taste terrible. Is your excuse that you don’t understand how this strange cooking thing works?
With an excuse like that, no one will want to come over to your house for dinner. Same in this case — no one wants you on the internet.
Mon
Feb
16
2004
Family time 0 cmts
Well, less then half an hour ago I dropped off Dad, Mom, and Shaina at Logan Airport. They arrived on Friday evening and we had a near-perfect four days. It was really nice because we didn’t have any concrete plans and everything was very flexible. On Friday Shaina and I went to the women’s basketball game and saw them beat U. Rochester and move on to the semi-finals. Shaina got to meet all of my Students & Enrollment administrative buddies — Alwina, Brian, Rick, and Jean, because they were having a department party at the game. Then we went to New Mother India, which everyone loved. Yay, now when I go out to California my family will want to go to Indian food with me!
On Saturday we went into the city to do some shopping and see some friends. We had dinner at Legal Sea Foods and got tickets to see Blue Man Group on Sunday. On Sunday we did some checking out of Brandeis, went to dinner with Alwina at Porcini’s, and then saw Blue Man Group, which rocked. And finally today we did some more shopping, ate Lizzy’s ice cream, and then went to the airport. Every day we did something special, and the whole experience was fairly relaxed and easy.
I liked it. Tomorrow we start work on the gameroom. Stay tuned!
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