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| ... A Toast...to a new world of Candy and Monsters... | ||
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1.26.2005 | |
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Matrix Update Well, we watched the Entire Matrix Trilogy, plus Video Game Footage this past weekend. We didn't make it to the Animatrix (since over half of it is irrelevant, it seemed a bit like overkill), but that may not have been such a bad idea.After having some trouble with the first Matrix disc (and not being able to find my original 1999 DVD copy), we slogged our way through Matrix Reloaded. Separated from the hype, and given a bit of leeway as far as some of the CG goes (everyone knows, though some are lax to admit it, the CG in some of the fight scenes are a bit distractingly ill-rendered) - the Reloaded film is pretty darn good. the fights are exciting, the storyline and pace of the action is well conceived, and there is enough interest generated to make you want to watch the 3rd movie. Sadly, said 3rd film just doesn't hold up to its counterparts. Sure, the story is fascinating, and many of the sequences are fun to watch, but basically the film deteriorates into a CG-filled sci-fi mess with almost no story for forty-five minutes of its runtime, and basically no tension, suspense, or thrill. And very little audience interest. Too bad, too, because the end of the movie is really given short shrift because of an insanely poor editing job. You just don't care what's happening by that point - you've been deadened and desensitized by the boring Zion sequences. I almost wonder if someone knew it had to be taken out, but they just didn't because the whole sequence cost so damn much money. We'll probably never know. I think next time I try to watch Matrix Revolutions, I will substitute the incredibly boring Zion-under-attack sequences with parts of the Animatrix. At least then there will be some character development, and some people we give a crap about. Ok, I officially promise this is the last post I'll make about the Matrix movies. Thank you, and good night. Posted by sarcophage @ 2:24:00 PM Add or check out a |
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1.21.2005 | |
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I quit caffeine 15 days ago.
It all started with a trip to the dentist (who only kept me waiting 10 minutes... a fairly short time in the chronological lives of dentists... Actually, it was the dental hygienist/assistant that kept me waiting. I saw the actual dentist for about 9 seconds. "looks good," she said, after staring into my mouth for the length of time it took for me to blink). She had a stack of National Geographic magazines in the waiting room, and I took a gander (isn't that a male goose? I didn't take a male goose) at one of the issues. "CAFFEINE!! It rules the world! It controls your brain! It bites the heads off of small babies and animal crackers!" That was the headline. Or something like that, anyway. So I turned to page 42. The first picture that I saw (remember, this is NatGeo - there were a LOT of pictures) was a man holding up what looked like a disgusting, dripping-wet hornet's nest. It was grey, and had slime and hair sticking out of it... it also had a nasty wax build-up, like it had been using V05 too much. I read the caption: "A worker lifts up a ball of wax and caffeine, extracted from coffee beans to be sold in decaf containers. The extra caffeine will be SOLD TO SOFT DRINK COMPANIES WHERE THEY WILL BE USED TO ADD CAFFEINE TO SODA" !!! I was revolted! And not just in the Che Guevara way, either. I almost stood tall in the dentist's office, and screamed "Viva la revolucion!" - but I realized that a trip to jail would likely delay my dental appointment, so I kept quiet. I read on, and all the horrible caffeine symptoms were discussed at length - "Caffeine makes your head shrink!" "Caffeine turns your ears and teeth black and causes you to vomit motor oil!" "Caffeine will grow hair on your palms, your elbows and your EYES!" "Caffeine will lay eggs in your stomach and tear out of your chest!" So you get the idea. Anyway, I came across one area which discussed sleep - I've been considering sleep and my lack of mental acuity lately - some of which is attributed to a supreme blow to my self-confidence dating back to September, of which I am still recovering from... but another part is something I've been painfully aware of for awhile... I am finding it very difficult to concentrate and finish things when they take a long time. I guess I probably do have ADD, as those of you who have carried on conversations with me for the last oh, EVER, have probably already decided. So that's a little strange for me. I wonder if there's anything I can do about that? I have heard that caffeine can actually help alleviate this - somehow it boosts the concentration level, and obviously allows you to stay awake longer. I'm starting to wonder if I've used this as a crutch? I used to drink 3 or 4 or 5 cups of coffee a day, plus the occasional Mountain Dew or Coke - both of which have extreme caffeine levels. On the other hand, since I've been off the sauce for a few weeks now, I don't feel all that different. I'm getting better sleep, though - I think I am finally back to somewhat of a good schedule... I'm going to bed closer to 10:00 every night, and getting up closer to 7 (it's not perfect yet :) which is my goal. Hm. Well there you go, another babbling post from me - but I'm off the caffeine, and I feel like I'm doing pretty well with all ... THAT. Posted by sarcophage @ 10:47:00 AM Add or check out a |
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1.20.2005 | |
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More apertifs from work... Ok, I don't even know what the word "Apertif" means... I think it's like a drink or something. But I needed a title, and sometimes blog entry content comes from the title :) Aw, come on, don't tell me that I'm the only one.Ok, that's bugging me, I have to go look it up.... ... ... I was right - looks like it's an alcoholic drink that's drunk as an appetizer to a meal. Sounds good to me!! lol Anyhow. So I'm at work right now, and I'm finishing up a test plan for this project I'm working on - I've been working on it for about 2 weeks. And the girl next to me (who has just moved in due to the extremely limited space we have because of construction) is playing at full volume, Mr. Mister's "Take these broken wings." Not that I'm actually complaining, I don't mind a little bit of music - in fact, I brought our ipod with me to work today.. but... geez. Ok, now we're on "Heartbreak Hotel" - no wait, she changed it... something unintelligible. Now it's ... um. Oh boy, I think it's... yep... it's... Journey. I also just realized she can see my computer screen. That is annoying. I don't think she's seen the post yet, but this is frickin' hilarious. Anyhow, where was it? Oh yes, typing a rather meaningless post today. I'm actually having fun doing this, though, so I will continue. Monika and I have begun watching "Sports Night" which we have had in our Netflix queue for about 6 months - I put it on there immediately after I put Babylon 5 on. And yes, it took us about 6 months to get through Babylon 5. B5 is an oft-made-fun-of show that is like Star Trek for nerds who find Star Trek not nerdy enough. It is rife with literary allusions and bears a slight similarity to the Lord of the Rings, despite it taking place in space. I better clarify that, lest I be pummelled by the spectacle beset hordes of B5 fans. Babylon 5 bears some similarities to LotR, but it is not by any means the same story. Early on, when some of the ... SWEET! She's playing Devo now! Anyway, when some of the LotR similarities got to be rather obvious, we were attempting to cross-reference the races seen on B5 to those from Lord of the Rings. For example, there is a race (actually two races) of beings that help shepherd the "younger" races into a new age by giving them arcane clues and by occasionally helping them out in battle... those races leave the galaxy near the end of the series, much like the Elves leave Middle Earth at the end of Lord of the Rings. As we were pondering this, I played one of the bonus features on the DVD, and the series creator, J. Michael Straczynski proclaims (loudly) "The story is NOT an allegory to Lord of the Rings! Yes, there are some similarities in the two stories, but there are vast differences once you start looking into it." Apparently this has become something of a pet peeve with the fans. So long story short, it ain't an allegory. Anyhow. Sports Night. I realize Dave has already gone through all of this, but I saw the dang show first!! :) Sports Night is written by Aaron Sorkin, of the West Wing fame - and there are a great many similarities between these two shows as well. Certain plot devices come up in both shows, actors are shared between two, and indeed even certain lines are used between the two shows. I guess Sorkin really wanted to make sure people heard some of his lines. The guy is a brilliant writer - he wrote the play "A Few Good Men" when he was 28, had it open on Broadway, saw it made into a movie starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson... moved on to The American President, one of Monika and I's favorite films... then Sports Night and the West Wing. Damn. I just realized Rob Reiner directed both a Few Good Men and American President. He sure knows who to write his screenplays. Anyhow, the dialogue is quick and witty - you miss jokes and other references the first time through, so the shows benefit from a 2nd or 3rd viewing... it's all just Very Good. < Posted by sarcophage @ 9:55:00 AM Add or check out a |
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1.18.2005 | |
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Matrix: Rewound A long time ago, I wrote an article for Gigmatrix.com about what I considered a modern-day travesty of Phantom-Menace proportions. Ok, maybe not that bad, but still pretty bad.I wrote about how disappointed, disgruntled, disingenued, distempered, disproportionate, dismembered and disincarnate I was about the final Matrix movie: Revolutions. I wrote about how it was blah blah blah, long and boring, and had no point, and they'd ripped off so much stuff from other movies. I wrote about how they hadn't thought things through and how nothing was resolved whatsoever, and that there really wasn't even an ending, it was just a point at which the film ran out. For Christmas 2004, I received the Ultimate Matrix boxed set, with all three movies, brand new commentaries, and way more Matrix Special Features than you can shake a stick at. Or even a large tree trunk at. And you know how I loves me some special features! I buy boxed sets by the percentage of special features to Actual Movie contained on the discs - if the special features outweigh the Actual Movie Content, I'll buy it. Ultimate Matrix has 10 discs. There are 3 Matrix films. Do the math. Anyhow, I scrounged up some time to watch the films and the special features, and have found that I really enjoyed Matrix Revolutions a whole lot more than I had originally. I realized how stupid I was on a first viewing to dismiss the movie. I also realized how much I had missed! My complaints that the movie explained nothing were unjustified... my complaints that the movie had no point were unjustified... my complaints that it was all just a huge incoherent mess are completely unjustified... The truth is, I simply just didn't get it the first time around. Revolutions included so much data, so much change all at once, that it is overwhelming to the viewer. There is no Architect Room scene in this film - a scene in the prior Reloaded which was for many, at 100 minutes in the first "Whoa!" moment of the 2nd film. Everything is given to the viewer, but only in pieces... you have to fill in the gaps, if you so choose, on your own. Meanings behind visuals shots, meanings behind names, meanings behind anagrams of names. Sometimes the symbolism is overt, and a little bit clunky - bouncers outside the Hel club call fallen "angel" Seraph "wingless." But these tiny hints are what open up doors to other realizations about the characters in the film. Seraph - guardian of the Oracle, but also a program whose usefulness to the machines has ended - an exile, and probably a former One. the Merovingian - ruler of the underworld, the club Hel is exactly that - but the Merovingian is also a reference to a group of French kings said to be descended from Christ. Also a probable former One. Sati - an obscure reference to a form of the Hindu goddess Parvati - she holds the power to change the Matrix, similar to the man who was originally born inside. She is a new breed of program, who can change huge things about the Matrix, not just small bits of code like the Merovingian's piece of cake. Interestingly, she was born "without" a purpose to the machines - in other words, she has never had a reason to live, and was created simply as a symbol of her parents' affecton for one another. Anyway, I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that this flick has a lot more going on that meets the eye... action, yes there's plenty of it, but the real amazing part of this movie is how they were able to cram all this detail in and still "wow" audiences on a different level - in their mind instead of their eyes. Truth be told, first impressions are a bitch to me - Faith No More's "Angel Dust" is one of my favorite recordings, yet I hated it (along with their follow-up, King For a Day... Fool for a Lifetime) upon first listen. So it is with Matrix Revolutions... while I do not fear that I will call this my favorite film(s) of all time (all three movies are one long narrative), it's definitely in the top echelons, and several steps above Ernest Goes to Jail. I guess it's a reminder to myself, to others, not to let first impressions dictate your real opinion of something. Or a reminder to go watch the Matrix trilogy at least one more time. And call me if you don't get it :) Posted by sarcophage @ 5:13:00 PM Add or check out a |
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1.14.2005 | |
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And ANOTHER thing! Software development, for me, is all about the User Interface."For me" of course means "there's a heck of a whole lot more to it, that I couldn't even begin to understand, and this is pretty much the only part I like working on." When you're developing a UI for computer software, you have to consider a couple of things: that the UI is "easy" to use (which is an impossible idea to quantify), and that the "social interface" is both appropriate and consistent. What the hell is "Social Interface?" you might ask. "It sounds like a sex program for robots!" It's definitely not that. But it is a real idea that needs to be considered in all designs, whether it be on the web or in a desktop software application, or in the 2-button menu on your washing machine. "Social Interface" means creating a design that does exactly what your users expect it to do. And that's really damn hard. It means basically predicting what people who've never used this particular software before (but presumably have previously used a computer) are going to expect the software to do when they click here, drag there, use this menu, use this shortcut. Microsoft has done a phenomenal job of it - largely because they have so many products that they've developed or purchased, and they've done a great job of integrating all of their similar functions into their software. Think about it - when you go into MS Word, and you hit Control+C or Open Apple+C, you expect the software to copy whatever text you've selected, and to re-paste it in a new location when you hit Control/Open Apple+V. Every single MS product uses those same shortcuts, and the same menus, and the same navigation - and we just take it for granted, because everybody has used Microsoft products (yes, mostly Office, but other programs as well), and you kind of just don't think about it. Think about how maddening it is when you try to use WordPerfect or some web tool developed by another company - what would you do if they didn't use Ctrl+C to copy stuff to the clipboard? What if you had to hit Ctrl+Shift+L because "C" was already taken up by (C)reate a new document? What would you do? Where would you find out how to do it properly? Go to the menu? What if there is no menu? I've seen software that hasn't taken these things into consideration, and it is maddening. Anyway, Social Interface is about a lot more than what happens when you hit Ctrl plus a letter.. it's about navigation too, and about laying out your application so that people can visually tell where they are and what they're doing at all times. Using tabs is very popular nowadays - if you have 5 sections to your software, you have 5 tabs that look like manila folders, and you select the "folder" you want to use to do your next task. Things like considering icons - Ooh, here's a good one - What do you think an icon that looks like a magnifying glass would do? Make your document bigger, right? That's what it does in Photoshop, anyway. But (here's where Microsoft actually blew it) in MS Word and Excel, there are 2 magnifying glass-looking icons... and neither of them make your document larger in the screen. One is a magnifying glass on top of a piece of paper, which does your "print preview" and the other is for the "Document Map," which is a tool so infrequently used it's not even funny. So that's a bad move... but you can't win them all, and Microsoft has so many people working on so many things there are bound to be a few pieces missing every once in awhile. But you'd think they'd realize it eventually...! Social Interface (and indeed UI design in general) is pretty fun, and very little time is usually given to it. I think I've just figured out what I want to start doing with my software career. Git along, little dogies! (sic) Posted by sarcophage @ 11:34:00 AM Add or check out a |
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For Shame... Today as I was rushing with the rest of the rats to catch the Orange Line at Ballston on my way to work, I noticed that the "up" escalator from the lower level was closed for repairs. Thinking nothing of it, I continued along, and was passed by a salesman type in an ill-fitting suit sprinting to reach the escalator a full 5 seconds before anyone else.I also noticed that there was a blind man who the ill-fit suit had nearly bowled over - slowly walking (on his own, impressively) over to the same escalator. I chuckled to myself as I noticed the sales guy was having trouble keeping pace while hanging on to his briefcase, raincoat, the ill-fitting suit (I said it was ill-fitting!), and the morning companion to any and all Metro travellers - an Express newspaper. The man was swinging wildly to and fro, and suddenly stopped dead at the top of the escalator - dangling precariously over the top step, which turned out to be moving in reverse... it was going back up. The man gathered his wits and his intertia and made an Olympic effort to spin himself on his toe, continue his speedy pace around to far escalator, which was actually going down. As he leapt before my eyes from near-death survivor back to Honest Joe, umbrella salesman, the blind man made his way to the escalator which was going in the wrong direction. Honest Joe mumbled something about "wrong. Wrong way!" and skidded around the corner to his goal. I was already going down the escalator at this point, having seen Honest Joe's dilemma a full 19 minutes before he had, and I realized something... The blind man had no idea that the escalator was going up - and would not until he tried to put his foot on the step... Would he stumble and fall? Would he be able to hear the difference between and up and down on the escalator? Would he curse the sighted for not telling him more than "wrong. wrong way." right before his certain doom at the hands of an evil reverse-escalator? All this is going through my head in the ~5 seconds it took me to assess the situation. I looked up, and saw the blind man setting foot on the escalator... it rejected the foot. He tried another time - again rejection. Confused, he turned around - completely unhurt... but he had missed the train. The doors closed, and I went on my way to the Virginia Square stop, feeling like a complete jerk for not helping the poor man out. Something haunted me, though - the blind man had turned his head directly at me when I was going down the other escalator... as if he could see me. As if he knew I could have helped, but didn't. Posted by sarcophage @ 11:13:00 AM Add or check out a |
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1.13.2005 | |
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Those crazy eyes... So I'm at the optometrist's for 2 hours last night... getting my "free" (ie covered by insurance) glasses examination, contacts examination (because they're different, but I've never figured out how), and all the little bells and whistles on my new "free" glasses.The bill was $135. So I'm thinking to myself... "I know why I got charged this much... that's my copay for the 2 exams, and the $40 anti-reflective coating that I have to get so I can see the computer and drive at night... and the (I thought this was bullshit) "lens buffing" so that the edges are clear, rather than opaque... and I'm just thinking "that was pretty expensive for being "free." I know they mark the stuff up like crazy so they can charge the insurance companies more, but DAY-UM! I remember going to Sam's Club once and getting glasses/contacts and the whole bill was something like $150. No insurance at all, either - just the 2 exams and a set of glasses. I believe the contacts were extra, but I didnt' get any contacts last night, either! So anyway, that seemed pretty ridiculous to me. Anyone else had similar experiences with "free" stuff? Damn the man. On the bright side, I really like the new glasses I got - they're the super-minimal kind, which are basically just lenses and a little wire on your nose, and 2 wires on the sides - drilled right into the lens. Pretty cool, I think. And I'm starting to hate my other glasses, so it was a nice change. I'm also trying out a new contact lens which is pretty good - it's some new material which lets your eye get more oxygen than the regular material they use. I think it's supposed to be easier to wear for longer, (think the new "Day & Night" 24 hour lenses) and it's kinda dry because the water content is lower due to the new material. But it's not half bad. Posted by sarcophage @ 9:25:00 AM Add or check out a |
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