Aah… the joys of leaving work a little early. I get to spend some more time with the girls, get to eat a leisurely dinner, time to read the paper, whatever. But, I have to rely on SEPTA to be on time. Ha! The 6:19 #57 bus this evening didn’t show and the next#57 bus (supposed to be at 6:35) was late, too. So the bus was jammed. And I got to listen to some crazy old guy complain to nobody in particular (meaning he was talking out loud to himself) about the lousy SEPTA service. <sarcasm> I’m so glad he was there to point that out </sarcasm> Which probably was a good thing, because some punks at 4th & Washington threw lit firecrackers in through the front door. Because the bus was so crowded, someone was standing right there and was able to kick the firecrackers out before they went off. It took just over an hour to go the three miles from my office to home. Almost ruined the evening. Spending time with Miss Caroline was more than worth it.
Another fun day on SEPTA
June 24th, 2009Twitter has nuked the fridge
April 18th, 2009Or jumped the shark, if you’re feeling a little old school.
I don’t even use Twitter. I thought about maybe, someday using it instead of tiny little blog posts.
But now that Oprah uses it (and that’s Twitter’s “big news”), and people seemed to be more focused on who has the most followers, I think it’s time has gone. Some people will disagree and think Twitter can be saved from itself, but I think I’m not the only one who is done with Twitter.
I passed the PA Bar Exam!!
April 6th, 2009Looks like the third time really is the charm!
Results were released online on Friday. Hard copy came in the mail today. I barely passed (by six points); I had thought that I had done better. The total score is not all that important, but I did feel pretty good coming out of the test. Karen jokingly mentioned that I should order a copy of my answers, to see what I did wrong. And maybe that would help her out if she decides to take it this summer.
On the Battlestar Galactica finale
March 30th, 2009The questions I would have liked answered did not get answered. Instead we got some silly quasi-religious themes, complete with angels. The show went out with a whimper instead of a bang. My take on the ending below.
[Spoiler alert]
Finding a habitable planet (a new Earth) with pre-technology natives, the people leave technology behind, fly all the technology into the sun, and help repopulate humanity by blending in with the locals (or not). We then flash-forward 150,000 years, and left with a prophetic warning (complete with a cameo by co-producer Ronald Moore) about the dangers of robots. Then exit with Jimi Hendrix doing “All Along the Watchtower.” 
Maybe more fully channeling the end of The Matrix by playing Rage Against the Machine would have been too much to ask. A little wink with someone keeping some advanced technology around would have been slighly more interesting.
March Badness
March 30th, 2009As I have done for about the last 20 years, I filled out a complete NCAA Tournament bracket. This year, in another attempt to win some money in the office pool. As typical of my picking, I did OK in the first round (24 correct), and turned in an impressive (for me) 14 of the Sweet Sixteen. I even managed to stay respectable with 6 of the last 8. Then the wheels fell off – I only got one of the Final Four entrants, and did not pick the national champion. Coupled with Duke’s embarassing loss (An aside: Karen didn’t stay up to watch that game. She asked me in the morning how it went. I said, “Villanova’s defense was incredible. Like gnats. Or piranhas. Or piranha-gnats.”), I’m not sure which is worse:
- Not winning the office pool, or
- The insufferably bad puns used as headlines in the Inquirer (can’t find links to the headlines).
What I’d like in the Battlestar Galactica finale
March 19th, 2009Tomorrow night is the series finale for Battlestar Galactica. I have watched the entire series, even suffering through some of the worst dialogue in the history of television. (I refer to the “frakking” episode, where about every 5th word was some variation of “frak”. I guess they were channeling Deadwood or something.)
There are a few open issues I would like to see resolved. In no particular order:
- Will Baltar’s treachery (deactivating the planetary defense shields from the miniseries) be revealed to everyone? He destroyed the only video evidence in Season One (I think it was then). But will Six rat him out?
- What happened to Baltar’s nuclear weapon? He got one to do some of his Cylon testing and it was last seen in the possession of one of the Sixes on a civilian ship.
- What exactly happened to Starbuck? Was that really her corpse she found?
- Will Roslin finally friggin’ die? Enough already. Can’t stand the character.
I would have preferred to have seen what happened if the mutiny on Galactica had succeeded. I think it would have been interesting to watch Zarek and Gaeda try to lead while everything is crashing down around them. It likely would have meant the end of the human race, but what the heck.
Lastly, I hope there will be some finality. I don’t want loose ends, with the possibility of a follow-up movie or something. Just end it.
What I want in an electronic reader
March 14th, 2009Now that Amazon’s Kindle 2 (electric boogaloo) is out, I’ve decided that I don’t like it. It’s not what I would consider to be an ideal electronic reader. I’m looking for the following features, and I’m not buying one until somebody meets these criteria.
- Color screen. This is a must. Why? See #2 below.
- Standard magazine-size. I read more magazines than books of late, and it would be far easier to carry around a single device that had all my magazines on there. Magazine publishers should be jumping at the idea (like Hearst is; see this Fortune story).
Read the rest of this entry »
Why I think the Watchmen movie will suck
March 4th, 2009First, some preliminaries:
- Did I read the graphic novel? Yes, first in early 1991 and re-read it in late December 2008. So the story is fresh in my mind.
- Did I like the graphic novel? Heck, yes. It is truly a monumental work, both in terms of graphic novels and “regular” novels.
So what’s the problem?
I see a few:
- The story itself. It is a very complicated story, on several levels. First, the non-linear nature of the storytelling. It jumps back and forth through time, with little or no explanation of what time period you’re in. It’s not too difficult to figure out while reading it, but may be more difficult on screen. Second, the story is heavy on character development. Their motivations, neuroses, psychoses, etc. are all on display. Character development doesn’t translate well onto screen; at least, not with a $150 million budget and an audience expecting lots of things to blow up (it’s a superhero movie, and that’s what they do: blow stuff up). Third, one storytelling technique used in the graphic novel was a character talking about something while we’re looking at the action happening somewhere else; yet the two relate well (like a third party narrator). Not sure how effective that would be on screen without being confusing.
- The characters are unknown. The average person on the street has heard of Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, etc. Not so with these characters. This movie has an appeal to the fan-geek base. Beyond that, it will be a big stretch. I predict a large opening weekend and then a significant drop-off (at least 40%) heading out of weekend #2.
- Story changes to suit the screen. The big story change (and I’m trying not to give anything away here) is that the giant squid has been cut out. For the ending of the story, getting rid of the squid isn’t that big of a deal. The problem comes up with the other plot threads around the squid, which are very relevant to the overall story, will also have to be changed. That’s where the problem could come in. Also, the Black Freighter comic within the comic has been left out and is to be added as a special feature on the DVD.
- No big-name stars. At least that might draw some casual viewers in.
- The director. Zack Snyder is not “visionary”. 300 was a piece of crap.
All that aside, I would still like to see the movie. But my expectations are very low. I hope I’m wrong, and I do hope that it’s good.
Bad weather + bar exam studying = no running
January 26th, 2009I have run exactly once in the last 15 days. This is the longest I’ve gone since I re-started running almost 10 years ago. Combine the too cold for me weather (anything below 20 degrees F, with or without wind chill) and exhaustion from studying for the PA bar exam (class at 9:00am, then work for a few hours, then home to study some more), and that leaves precious little time for running. OK, I may have wimped out a little on the weather – some days it might have been 21 or 22 degrees – but I’m not going to split hairs. I’m hoping to get out tomorrow morning, since we’re supposed to get some wintry mix Tuesday night into Wednesday. For those in warmer climes, that means snow followed by ice and/or rain, which means a colossal frickin’ mess on the streets and sidewalks. Fun!
Getting thrown off my mid-week holidays
January 3rd, 2009My brain is all screwed up. (OK, more screwed up than usual.) Thanks to two consecutive weeks of mid-week holidays. It’s tough to keep the days straight – drinking mid-week, sleeping in, working on a Saturday (oh, wait, that’s “normal”).
To help you readjust, if you need any help, I offer the comedy stylings of the Apocatips blog, from ex-Crazy Apple Rumors Site creator John Moltz. I say “ex” since that site is mostly dead, save for the comments on the Giga-Post.