A black cat has crossed my path - again

About 2am, I was watching Empire Falls courtesy of my tiny god, when I heard a noise outside like a small child. After hearing it again, I decided to investigate - it's 2am and all - and found instead more what I expected - a lonely cat.

The cat and I came to an understanding - she understood that I would pet her for a while, in exchange for which she would stop making noise. I drew the line at letting the cat inside, which she clearly wanted. I think it's the neighbor's cat, and the neighbor feel asleep without letting her in.

The cat is black, just like the cat I lost eighteen months ago. And just as friendly. That makes it hard not to let her in, but I think she'll be all right.

Update: Empire Falls is very good, and folks who like small town stories and have HBO should check it out.

Update 2: HOLY CRAP I was NOT expecting that! It's not just the story of a sleepy town after all.

"Sith" beats "Matrix Reloaded" for 4-day record

According to StudioBriefing, which reports a 4-day total of 158.5 million for Sith and 134.3 million for Reloaded.

I find the juxtaposition of Revenge of the Sith and The Matrix Reloaded quite delicious, since the reason I dislike both movies has to do with bland and inconsistent characterization. In Reloaded, we have Neo, a quiet master hacker who six months after promising a revolution in the Matrix still hasn't figured out that there are doors with locks all throughout the Matrix. (This is all the more ridiculous because breaking computer 'doors' and 'locks' is a common metaphor for hacking).

In Sith, we're presented with Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader not through the greedy desire to gain power through evil, but because he was duped into evil to save his loved one.

In Reloaded, Neo is a hacker, but not really. In Sith, Vader is evil, but not really. While both films are quite flawed in other ways, this is the fatal flaw of each film.

It's also sadly ironic how two of the best-grossing films of all time serve mainly as a warning to filmmakers of what doesn't work.

Write and Rewrite

When I started writing in grade school, I hated the "write, rewrite" philosophy. I could always say what I wanted to say the first time, and looking at the text again was a waste of time. Even if the first draft takes longer, it was still faster than doing it twice. Of course, this was in the day when rewriting something meant actually writing it over again. On paper.

My "no rewrites" policy served me well, even through college and the professional world. At work, I would often submit "draft" copy to other people for review and comments, but I never considered that rewriting per se. It was just a way to keep people happy by incorporating their feedback.

In the course of working as a professional writer the last few years, I've had a lot of occasion to rewrite the work of others - and I've grown pretty good at it. I can rewrite "on the fly" without having to slow down and stop parsing the text.

The other day I stumbled on a story I began a few years ago - and as I read through it I was shocked to discover that I was rewriting it on the fly too! But the weirdest part is that it was actually fun. It's not a laborious process anymore.

It seems that at some point I passed a milestone as a writer and didn't even realize it. That's just one of the ways life sneaks up on you, I suspect.

Amateur Psychology Experiments are Fun

(Programming Note: From time to time, I'll be using this blog to post anecdotes from my simple life as a way to keep them from morphing unrecognizably as old age tightens it grip on my feeble neurons. I apologize in advance if they're not very entertaining.)

I stayed in my college town during the summers - rather than take classes, I would find student work on campus. Sometimes I ended up working food service, usually washing dishes. In the summer, the University would host various week-long academic or sports retreats for schoolkids. One day, the dishwashing machine was down, so we were giving out food on paper plates with plastic utensils. That left about five of us idle in the dishroom, watching kids dump their garbage in the bins and stack their trays on the shelf.

The trays were blue and red in equal proportion. We always left a small stack of trays on the shelf, so it would be obvious to the kids where they go. This gave me an idea for an experiment. We made two stacks, one red and one blue, and then watched what happened.

Most of the time, the kids would put their tray on the correct stack, assuming that there was some rule or custom where the stacks had to be monochromatic. Some kids would carelessly put their try on the wrong stack - we began handicapping the odds of those kids getting into college themselves. Sometimes, the chaperones would notice this, and gently chastise the child, showing them how to put the tray on the right stack! It was hilarious.

Even more entertaining, though, were the kids who would look around furtively for nearby chaperones, then put the tray on the wrong stack intentionally. Some would even glare at us defiantly. The most fun, for us, was speculating on how long a prison term such malcontents would end up serving.

Human nature at work.

Dating Etiquette for Men, Rule 42a

Men, after violating rule 42, do not - under any circumstances - giggle.

Dating Etiquette for Men, Rule 42

Men, when she is seated across from you eating an ice cream cone, and you are dipping your spoon into a cup of ice cream, do not allow the phrase "phallic symbology" to enter the conversation.

I've blogged previously about the bad corporate art at work..here are some pictures of the items I mentioned. See if you can match the photo to the pieces described earlier:







I'm apparently not the only one who doesn't think much of it:

Spring has Sprung

The other day, as I came home, I noticed that the ducks that frequent the pond outside had been busy...and some new ducklings are here!

Adam Baldwin is a class act

At the Serenity screening last Thursday in Seattle, Adam Baldwin came to greet the fans before the movie and sat for autographs afterward. Adam was very genial, almost shy, really, and he made it a point to shake everybody's hand. I've stood in probably 30 autograph lines, and that was a first. I wasn't even prepared for it.

He posed for photos with my friend Steve (as you can see in this fuzzy cameraphone pic):



and signed my Firefly disc:



Thanks, Adam, on behalf of all Seattle Browncoats.

P.S. Hey, Adam, where can I get a Serenity shirt like yours? :D

"Ideal" traits in dating

Single people always talk about their ideal person - I even blogged about the subject earlier. We all like a particular hair color, body type, attitude, activity level, etc. There's nothing wrong with establishing these ideals; they serve as filters. Human brains are largely filtering mechanisms, and the filters help us make sense of the world quickly, and identify what's important from what's not important.

The danger lies in the fact that filters can also serve as blinders. They can hide some of the things that are important (magicians take advantage of this all the time). Lest we forget, the whole reason we invest in relationships in the first place is to be happy. We establish the ideals because we think that's what we need to be happy. But if you are happy being with someone who doesn't fit your ideal, don't let the ideals blind you to what's really going on.

It's been said that "true" artists destroy any work they create that's less than perfect. But life is never perfect, and all too short to miss out on opportunities for greatness just because we desire perfection.

New Digital Camera

I have bought a new digital camera, a Canon PowerShot A95. Here's some reduced images.

The fountain in front of my apartment:


Our hero in front of said fountain:


One of the ducks who frequents the fountain, and wouldn't let me get close enough for a better pic:

A short review of Serenity

Serenity is not the Firefly that fans know. Serenity is the Empire Strikes Back of the Firefly saga. It is dark, gritty, bloody, sad and revealing.

As the movie begins, we are treated to a flashback that artfully explains both the origin of the planets in the Firefly 'verse, and shows us how Simon Tam freed his sister River Tam from a facility where she was being tortured by cruel experiments at the hands of scientists working for the ruling body, the Alliance Parliament. We are also introduced to the man who must hunt down River Tam before she can damage the Alliance with what she knows (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

We then meet the crew of Serenity, captained by Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), a very dark soul who will do anything to make sure his crew can keep flying. Mal's ship, Serenity, is named for the battle of Serenity Valley, where the Independents lost their last great battle against the Alliance in the war for Unification. Since then, Mal has kept to the fringes of the Solar System in his ship, pulling jobs both honest and dishonest, as far away from the Alliance as he can get and still keep flying. For viewers of the series, this is a slightly different Mal than the Mal we knew - his heart is heavy, and dark, and his dealings with the crew are sharper than we're accustomed to seeing.

Through the course of the movie, we meet Reavers, an underground broadcaster named Mr. Universe (played artfully by David Krumholtz, of Numb3rs) and the mysterious Miranda, who holds the key to River's insanity.

The journey through the movie is intense. The Alliance is hell-bent on getting the girl back, and will kill anyone and everyone who gets in their way. Thrilling space battles will make you cheer, character moments will make you laugh, incredible fight scenes will make you gasp, and the pain you see will make you cry. It is an emotional roller coaster.

The acting is wonderful. I'd especially like to single out Morena Baccarin's (Inara Serra) performance. There is a moment where she silently exhibits three emotions in the space of two seconds, a touching moment in a role that otherwise isn't explored in detail in the film.

Serenity premieres in theaters on September 30th. I highly recommend it. However, I can't honestly promise that it will have the same impact on first-time viewers as it will on fans. I would have to see the movie again to evaluate it from the standpoint of a viewer new to the story. I can promise that you won't have to be a fan to follow the story and be entertained.

Quote of the day

"Voters think all politicians are liars. So telling them that someone is a particularly effective liar doesn't work."
- Anonymous, via Max Boot of the LA Times.

Fixing the new SAT

Apparently, the new SAT essay section is flawed; 90% of the time you can predict the score based on the length of the essay, and the College Board doesn't even care if you get the facts right.

But, I have a solution to both problems! If the intent of the essay section is to judge writing style over substance, then remove substance from the equation. Give each student a set of bullet points to incorporate into an essay - a set of facts they don't have to check. Allow them to draw their own conclusions, if you want. Such a mechanism would not only keep us from rewarding kids for BSing the essay section, it would also tend to make the essays much the same length.

Time Warner has lost the data for 600,000 employees from a tape backup failure.

Sounds like something John Cleese will need to sort out.