Podcasts Rule

I’ve never said out loud… I love podcasts. I still haven’t really said it out loud since I wrote it, but that doesn’t make it any less of a sincere statement…

I wouldn’t say I was a late-comer to the podcast party… But I wasn’t an early adopter. Sure, I’ve been watching and listening a few specific programs for years, but lately it’s become a bigger portion of my life that I take with me daily thanks to the wondrous iPhone.

Kinda like having the radio on on the background, but it keeps my mind turning a little better than music at times…  It’s especially more effective during longer work outs because they keep my mind on something else and not the fact that I’m trying to do something for an extended period of time.  Music is better for shorter workouts.  At work I go back and fourth depending on what I have available and what I’m doing.

I don’t actually have enough podcasts to fill the time… So I’m constantly looking for new ones while weeding out the ones that don’t live up to my needs.

Let’s see what’s on the list right now:

• Boagworld
• Diggnation
• Double Feature
• Epic FU
• The /Filmcast
• Know Your Meme
• MacBreak Weekly
• The Nation: The Breakdown
• NSFW
• The Official Lost Podcast
• Pixel Perfect
• PTI
• Science… sort of
• Sitepoint Podcast
• SModcast
• TEDTalks
• Tekzilla
• This Week in Computer Hardware
• This Week in Media
• This Week in Tech

Podcasts that are still on a trial basis:  Curiouslty Aroused, Mock the Weak, The Nerdist…

I haven’t found any good local podcasts, but I haven’t been searching that much…  should I look hard, or should I not have to look hard?

But let me know if you have any suggestions for podcasts.

Mad Men Theme

Mad Men is easily in my top 5 of television shows currently in production. It’s no Lost, and I’m not sure where it stack up against Big Bang Theory or How I Met Your Mother.  Definitely top five for me though…

Something has bugged the he’ll outta me since I first saw the show… I recognized the drum loop used in the theme song, and I couldn’t identify where. It bugged the hell outta me every time we saw the intro…  Until a few days ago when my iTunes on shuffle hit something…

The drum loop that had been in the back of my head was right there…  It’s the same as part of the song Poison from The Prodigy.

Hell, I’ve only found one minor reference to it with a very specific search. Muteboy72 on tumblr posted about it a few weeks ago (here and here).

It had really been gnawing at me for awhile, and now I’m glad I’ve got it figured out.

Since that’s now solved, I guess I can tackle that room-temperature super conductor problem. It’s that or perpetual motion.

New Link – Black and WTF

To the few of you, I’ve got a links section that I use as my personal home page as the links comprise a large portion of where I go as my staples online.

So I’m gonna post anytime I make an addition to that page, because it’s gotta be pretty good for me to put it there.

What got me consider a new link today?  A Tumblr photography blog called Black and WTF.

I’m a photographer that likes the weird and funny from time to time as I like things that make me laugh or think WTF for a second…

Book Review: A Dangerous Man by Charlie Huston

So this was the first book I read 100% on my iPhone. Kinda interesting experience… I’m not sure how much of the formatting was changed to suit the delivery mechanism. I’ll have to give the book a look to see next time I’m at a book store.

So apparently, this is the third book in a series by Huston. Oops…  That explains the numerous references to backstory that seemed oddly brief.

I read it anyway. I needed something to wash the taste of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road out of my mind.

Good? Sometimes. It’s never bad, but not great either.

It’s a work of fiction that is in the crime drama realm that is entertaining, but not astounding.  It’s all first person, and sometimes there’s a little jumping around in time to add an interesting effect to the reader.  I can’t quite tell if you were supposed to like the main character or not.  There are allusions to some things that make it so you’re supposed to be able to go either way as the reader.

If there was a problem with the book, it’s that I didn’t feel terribly invested in it.  I didn’t really care what happened.  There was no character that I rooted for.  Most of the way through the book, I didn’t feel like I cared in any way how it ended – and the story wasn’t good enough to pull me back in.

As far as reading it on the iPhone, I found that to be fine.  It didn’t hurt my eyes, and it was very easy to leave and come back to any point in the book.  I’ll really like the iPad if it has the same app (it was recently acquired by Amazon, so we’ll see if they do anything to it).

So, I know that’s not much of a review.  I’ve downloaded the other two books from this series (they’re all available for free download right now on the Stanza iPhone app).  I love free, but I wonder if it’s a “you get what you pay for” kinda deal.  I’m not sure if I’m gonna read them now or if I’m gonna go dig around and do something like re-read the Jack Ryan books or some other good standby that I know I’ll like and enjoy.

That’s what I want right now in my free time. Not the annoyance of The Road, and not the antipathy of A Dangerous Man.  I need something that can engage me in those rare times I have to read a few pages.

Initials are so BS

You know what really put me over the edge? Driving to work, I’m on the not so nice side of town.  One morning I had to stop and get some coffee at a Starbucks along the way, and across the street there’s a McDonalds.  I looked over at just the right time to see this guy getting into his rusted, dented, minivan…  He looked like a strung out Chris Elliot wearing sweat shorts, a zip up hoodie not zipped…  And…  A CK shirt.

It’s been something that’s been growing for awhile, but it really came out in the recent trip to Vegas when seeing everyone and their supposed fashion accessories.  CK – LV – MK – D & G

You know what I’m talking about?  You may not care, and it’s not that big a deal.  I would just think that after a point someone would figure out that these fashion designers are relying too heavily on unoriginal things.

I’ve tried to think about where this may have come from, and I guess Chanel – but that was more of a logotype and not a literal initial since one of the C’s is a horizontal reflection.  But after that? I can’t think of another major fashion initial coming along until CK…  Then recently it’s just gotten out of freakin’ control.

I’m not sure who was next…  Louis Vuitton…  Dolce & Gabbana…  Some other fashion people…  I don’t really care.

While the CK incident may have pushed me over the blogging edge, it was Michael Kors that pushed me over the initial edge.  I’ve only seen a few things here and there, and i never thought much about them.  But when I went into the Kors store in Vegas, so much had this really bad MK logo that really, really annoyed me.  It rubbed me in completely the wrong way.  Now when I hear his name, I have an initial bad thought because of poor style choice and unoriginality.

Having a logo consisting of initials is one thing, but overusing it on many products not only devalues your brand, but your long term name in a field that is supposed to value innovation, quality, and originality.

So yeah.  Yet another post that really has no audience and is quite inconsequential…  So be it.

Book Review: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I don’t remember the when or who, but I remember hearing good things about The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I saw it on the Costco book tables and decided to give it a shot since I was in need of something to read.

I’d seem the movie trailers, but knew nothing more about the plot than it was a post apocalyptic story about a man and a boy.

Now that I read it cover to cover I’m going to make a proclamation about this book… Don’t bother with the book because watching a few minute trailer is more fulfilling than reading these pages.

So with that out of the way, what’s good with the book? Only a few things that come to mind.

The best is the dreary picture painted of the now deserted American landscape. It sticks in your mind.

The best thing for me is what others wouldn’t consider a major thing: as a reader you never really know what the circumstances of the apocalypse really are. My imagination seems to think that there’s a good chance of not knowing the big WHY, and I can’t recall a similar piece to a post apocalypse book or film that I’ve put to memory. McCarthy resisted using that as a politicized plot device that most others can’t resist using to make a statement.

The Road mostly disappointed on two areas: the characters and the writing.  Aren’t those kinda important when writing a book?

The characters were bad in my opinion because an elimination of society would produce a different kind of person. The father or man (no names were used in the writing of this novel) is a romantic figure in that he instills so many social norms of our society in the boy or son. Social norms only become so through reinforcement from people and forces external to a father / son relationship. Without reinforcement, the notions of regret, shame, and overall morality are not instilled over the same period of time. The product for me was a pair of characters that felt like someone was trying to write something play on current sympathies at the downfall of realism.

The biggest problem was the writing style. I sensed something was wrong pretty quick when I saw that there were certain contractions not following convention – but not in a uniform manner.  Maybe there was a rhyme or reason to it, but it’s not apparent to me or the other people I know who’ve read it.  Then the prose just began to go farther and farther into this “look what vocabulary I can use” kind of feel. Let’s take this single sentence as one example.

The sacred idiom shorn of its referents and so of its reality.

I read that and immediately wondered “who the hell writes like that?”  I’d hope someone took note that it’s not good for a reader to wonder why bother going on reading a book you just bought and are only 1/6th of the way through it… Now I wish I stopped there and got it out of my house. I should have read another one of my wife’s vampire novels laying around for a more fulfilling experience.

Upersay

The super bowl came and went… Colts lost…  Saints won.  I’m not that upset, but a lot of people around here certainly are.

Few things about the whole things from my little experience.

One, I’m sort of happy the Saints won partially for the whole good for New Orleans part.  But I’m more glad the Saints won because if the Colts would have won, I’d get a lot of crap for being from Indy next time I’m down in New Orleans.  After seeing LSU fans rail against Notre Dame fans a few years ago, they are pretty brutal to their face.

Another thing is the Purdue and Drew Brees thing. I was at Purdue during Brees’ tenure as starting QB, and he was pretty darn good.  He would have won a few key games if it weren’t for a crappy placekicker.  But I have a lot of Purdue friends and relatives who are absolutely gaga over him now that he’s won a super bowl.  I’ve rooted for him over a lot of other QB’s, but this whole new level of exultation is just a little much for me right now.  Why?  Because I met the guy on a few occasions, and I only have a respect for him as a football player.  He may have improved since then, but he was not even remotely considerate back then.

take the glasses off

Back a few weeks ago when I reviewed Avatar, I knew it was a big deal to a lot of people.  I didn’t think it was that big of a deal though.  It is, after all, just a movie.

Then I hear some things here and there…  And then it wins a few big Golden Globes…  Now I become annoyed, and hence I blog.

So the award thing is pretty annoying.  I just hope the academy awards don’t turn out the same.

What’s really been a wonder for me is the effect the movie seems to be having on some…  The people who feel “depressed” because our world is just so boring in comparison to Pandora (I’m not making this up)…

My response to this?  Get an F***ing life.  If that’s the way you feel, then you haven’t seen the world you’re inhabiting.

Seriously…  I’ve done a fair amount of traveling, but not that much.  From what I’ve seen and know is out there, our world is just as amazing in it’s splendor, and a billion times more amazing in it’s realism.

Environmental Adjustmemt

So I’m back to posting when I can on the iPhone. Things got real busy, real quick… And I don’t have the time to post like I wanted.

So why am I so damn busy?  Because I was offered a short term contracting gig on top of my other media production load.

I’m technically a “consultant”, which makes me feel a little dirty in these times. It’s really odd jumping from small creative firm to massive corporation environment developing a large e-commerce site.

Not only is the coffee weak, but in less than a week I’ve already had someone try to hijack a few of my ideas in a brainstorming session… I’ve had many tech problems thanks to poor quality machines bought in bulk…  There are other things, but in general it’s just more than a little odd to adjust.

So anyway, it’s Thursday, and I have a full calendar for a while…  Fun stuff…

So go Colts! If I see you, I’ll beore than happy to hand out high-5’s…

Avatar: behind the glasses

So last week, I braved the cold and crowds to go and see Avatar at one of the newer megaplexes.

My expectations were a mix of high and low.  I had very low expectations from the previews I have been catching for the past year.  The higher expectations are form the reviews extolling both the effects and the overall awesomeness of the movie.

2-Cent review up front: I’m glad I saw it in the theater, but it underperformed for me.  So let’s get into it.

The Production

There are a few things unknown about the movie.  I can’t find specific amount of the film that was CG.  Some accounts claim that 100% of the film is computer genera generated.  Other have said that it’s actually in the order of 80% of the film that is CG.  I’m not sure.  The other guessing game that’s going on is the final budget of the film.  The consensus of what I’ve been gathering is that it’s somewhere in the 300 to 500 million dollar range.

The CG

The CG is amazing.  The CG is overpowering at times.  The CG is the film.  Without the CG, there is no movie.  The thing is that this is a fictional imagination of an alien environment that is quite fantastical.  I feel that it was kinda taken a few steps too far just for the sake of being visually stunning.

Sure, what reference does anyone have for how an alien land looks and has evolved – but so much is vibrant, different manners of locomotion, glow in the dark, and even interactive in manners that feel too imagined.

The 3D

With amazing CG, this was also developed to showcase how amazing CG could be utilizing 3D to take the theater experience to a new level.  I think it was definitely an experience, but I’m not sure if it’s something I want to become a trend.

There have been widespread accounts of viewers feeling vertigo or motion sick because of the 3D experience.  It’s basically something that can’t be overcome in scenes showing depth of field in a movie given how the human eye works.  I’ll try and quickly explain. Notice how in movies there are things in focus, and things not in focus? That is generally intentional. But when showing large environments akin to mountain ranges and such forcing a focal point on the human brain goes against how we are used to taking a scene in.  Humans look around and their eye focus on different depths and uses relative sizes and shapes to interpret an environment.  The 3D environment created in Avatar only allows the user to see what the director wants you to see in focus.  If your eye wanders in any of the large scenes and tries to focus on the background to gain perspective, you can’t overcome the simulated lens blur forced onto you.  Hence the motion sickness.

The Story

This is by far the weakest link of Avater.  It felt…  Too easy…  Too idealistic…  and mostly, too convenient.  It was way to easy to see this trying to be an apology from a white man to the Native Americans.  Or maybe it was an apology from an insanely rich white man to the natural resources squandered from corporate humankind.

My big thing was that for a world full of so many glowing, savage, primitive creatures and gravity resistant mountains – an intelligent bi-ped with a complex culture with no written language seems more than just a little implausible and way out of place.

The Overall Experience

First off, if I’m going to pay $3 for 3D glasses, I’m going to keep them.  That’s more than nickel and dimming.

As I said in my snap review, I’m glad I saw it in the theater.  Despite it being an amazing showcase of entertainment technology, there are limitations in how the technology is currently understood as well as a story lacking in many ways.  If you’re going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over so many years to make a film, I would hope for something much, much better.

It’s a shoe in for a lot of effects awards.  Maybe some sound or editing awards (I don’t think it’s worthy).  I’ll be damned if this gets any acting, cinematography or best picture awards.

If you’re into effects and the progression of entertainment technology, then you have to go see this in 3D while it’s in the theater.  If you’re more into story and good movie making, you don’t need to go see this in 3D, or even a theater.  If you’re feeling guilty at the treatment of indigenous cultures, then just buy a copy of Dances with Wolves – because Costner needs the money more than James Cameron.

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