A blog/journal about my life and the stuff I like. Popular subjects include music, guitars, gear, books, movies, video games, technology, humor.
We're back home. My thoughts on the trip are to be in a later post. Puppy update: we have decided to name our new puppy April instead of eclipse. We both agreed that we had kind of a regular name theme going with our other dogs (Lucy & Bridget) and we thought eclipse was not only too masculine, but that it sounded more like a name for a sportscar.
based on the true story of Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent responsible for what is considered the worst security breach in US Intelligence history. The story focuses on the short interval of time after the FBI had already begun an investigation into Hanssen. A young agent in training is assigned as his assistant to what is ostensibly supposed to be a sting operation to catch him as a sexual deviant with the true purpose of the operation being unknown to the young agent at the time. Chris Cooper delivers another great performance as the egotistical and domineering senior agent who looks at the entire agency and its personnel as being mentally and technically inferior to him. Ryan Phillippe plays Eric O'Neill and successfully captures the earnest but inexperienced stumblings of an agent in training.
He is tasked by his superiors to keep track of all Hanssen's activities, but at the same time develops a grudging respect for the experienced operative. The story revolves around the bond of trust that develops between the two men and the thin line the young man must tread to fulfill his mission while deceiving an agent who is probably one of the best in the agency at smelling a lie. The story is a fairly slow paced character driven drama, but retains its interest especially since its based on true events. I'm curious as to why they didn't cover more of the 15 years of spying and Hanssen's interaction with the Soviets, as it seems that would have been interesting to see as well. Overall a good espionage story.
in the same vein as the recent series of Chinese epics like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Hero" and "House of the Flying Daggers", this movie looks amazing if nothing else. It follows the story of the Emperor of China, his wife and their three sons, the crown prince being the Emperor's son from a previous wife who apparently died. The plot involves your typical sibling and family rivalries and the "interesting" relationship between the Empress and her step-son. The true fate of the crown prince's real mother and the struggle for the throne tips the plot towards a violent conclusion. This movie is more overtly violent with bloody battle scenes and seems to get a bit lost in the look as opposed to character development. I can't point out any glaring errors or weaknesses, but this movie just left me kind of weary at the end and wasn't near as enjoyable as the others mentioned. If you haven't watched these movies, you should check out Crouching Tiger or Hero just to see the cinematography and brilliant choreography of the martial arts sequences if nothing else. I don't normally watch martial arts movies, but these are more like art house films and the blocking of the various battles and stunts are some of the best I have ever seen.
We have all heard that phrase from a parent or other guiding figure in our childhood, that we are special. As a kid, I think most of us take this to heart and really believe that we are somehow different than everyone else and are approaching a singular destiny of some sort. As we get older we start to realize that we weren't the only ones hearing this phrase from our parents and the conspiracy is revealed. Not that it's a malevolent conspiracy or there isn't a positive benefit from these encouragements.
Having been to many different countries, most of which are economically far poorer than the US and other wealthy western nations, I have seen that being special all depends on your frame of reference. As a child my daily concerns were getting through school so I could come home and play, read a book, or watch tv. In some countries "hide and seek" is not a game, but a means of staying alive for one more day. If the situation is calm enough, they are given the privilege of scrapping and scraping for fresh water and a small morsel of food to get them through to the next day so they can do it again. For these children, special means you made it into adulthood with your physical body intact and your spirit still alive enough to carry on.
Anyone reading this is far more wealthy than most of the world. Having a computer and internet access is something fewer than 1% of the world's population enjoys. That is based on stats I pulled off the web, so it may be a percentage point or two wrong, but it still shows how unique the experience of surfing the web, reading email, or reading anything for that matter is. Not to mention running water, electricity, safe neighborhoods, access to healthcare, education, etc. For most of the world, these things are dreams and not something they would ever take for granted. Most of us reading this probably do.
Considering this, my cards are looking pretty good if I'm sitting at a table with people from places like Haiti, Chad, Rwanda, Bangladesh, Kosovo, or Iraq. Does this make me special? Have I taken the opportunities I could have in life and done something with them? I like to think I have tried to make the most of my situation and put in a good effort in most things I do. Still, have I really lived up to my potential? Have I taken all the wealth and power afforded to me in western society and really made something of it? It's a question I really can't answer right now. I have to wonder what the playing field would look like if everyone was on an equal footing.
So, are you special?
we don't fool ourselves into thinking we live the ethic from which that phrase originates, but it's the only chance I'll probably have for a long time to say it because I'm actually here. We arrived Monday evening and Tuesday has been mostly taken up with getting the lay of the land. If nothing else, Vegas is GINORMOUS in scale now. Having been to a few well known landmarks around the world (Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Eiffel Tower, St Peter's Basilica) I can easily say that Vegas wins in the large and sparkly category. Of course it's all mostly decorative and aesthetically engineered to draw in tourists and get their money, but I have to say it's a bit overwhelming just from a scale standpoint.
and bought Police tickets for the Dallas show at American Airlines center in June. I won't disclose how much we paid for tax purposes :), but we did get a much better deal on Ebay than the Internet scalpers were charging. It seems like most of the scalpers offer very similar ticket options and prices for individual shows, so I wonder how many of them are unique sellers or if they are all part of a international crime syndicate. You definitely feel like you're buying your tickets at gunpoint when looking at the prices. And it's hard to resist when you see they have 2nd and 3rd row center seats available. As long as you don't mind dropping a cool 3 g's for a single ticket, you shouldn't have any problems.
We got 17th row center floor, so it should work out pretty well. (and our total for two tickets came out well under 4 figures). We saw Sarah Mclachlan at the same place on the 20th row and they were good seats, especially from an audio standpoint. Usually the better the view the poorer the audio in these big arena type shows. These seats are definitely an improvement over what I had for the Synchronicity tour across the street at Reunion Arena back in 1983. Now I just have to arrange to take time off to see the show since it's on a Wednesday. We are going to wait and find out our relocation schedule before we decide on where to see Rush. I was really tempted yesterday because someone was selling 9th row center nearer Alex's side for a decent price, but I decided to wait since the Dallas show may not be our best option.
The Police and Rush are two shows I most want to see this summer, and I feel like these may be my last opportunities (especially the Police) to ever see these guys live again. I think Rush puts on one of the best shows in the current concert market as well as compared to previous shows I had seen. They used to perform about two hours with most of the material drawn from the current album they were touring on. On the last two tours, the shows have run over 3 hours (with an intermission) and they have played songs from their entire catalog, including songs like Xanadu and Natural Science. They try really hard to please their longtime fans and it's great to hear those songs from that period of their career (AFTK through MP), which is definitely my favorite.
is in the works. I am changing over to Wordpress which should allow for much more flexibility, power and creativity in this website design. I plan on a full changeover once I return from vacation.
we chose our newest family member a few days ago, a black & white cocker spaniel puppy that is 9 weeks old. We will pick her up after we get back from vacation, and we can't wait. She's adorable (aren't they all?) and she'll be a welcome addition to our family. We're thinking of calling her Eclipse. Aeyong thought of the name and since it's both appropriate for her coloring and the name of a cool Pink Floyd song, I thought it would work well.
that's Gear Acquisition Syndrome for the unitiated. It's a phenomenon shared by most musicians, especially guitar players. It describes the seemly unquenchable thirst to obtain more equipment so you can achieve the magic "tone" that you are after from your equipment. The tone could be anything from clean to distorted or even more literal like the tone of famous player on a certain song. Although GAS isn't only about getting a tone you don't have. It could be because there's something aesthetically or functionally advantageous in a piece of equipment. In some cases it may be because you just want the same guitar that one of your heroes played.
I won't deny that I will buy more gear in the future, but for all practical purposes, any tone that I can't achieve is going to be related to my failings as a player or tweaker of my own equipment. Now that I have two Line 6 modeling guitars to go along with Guitar Rig modeling software, I have the ability to mimic a warehouse (literally) of different guitars, amps, processors, etc. I know it's going to require months if not years to get a decent handle on how to make it all work well. So, the result is that my GAS should be cured for at least two or three weeks anyway :).
Editorial Note (1 June 2010) - predicting the future was not one of my strong suits, at least in the GAS department...
I can endorse the June 2010 update by saying there will never be a cure for G.A.S. It can only be subdued temporarily...
actually the weather is quite nice today, but we did have some serious rain this weekend, so the official mowing season has arrived. And that's just FAN-FRICKIN-TASTIC, MAN! Seriously. The annual milestone inspection has essentially passed at work and we did pretty well without any serious deficiencies. Everybody has probably breathed a big sigh of relief and returned to their functional levels of ambivalence. I know I have. (anyone from work reading this should disregard that last statement as me just trying to sound cool and get back to something more productive than reading my blog). :) Aeyoung and I are looking forward to two weeks of leave starting next week with 5 days in Vegas. We haven't traveled much since we've been married (not counting the work sponsored relocations) and since I'm going to be going on an extended leave of absence next year, we want to take advantage of the time we have. The sad part is that we probably won't be doing any gambling other than throwing a couple of coins in a hotel lobby slot machine. We're not so big on giving money away with nothing to show for it. We plan on checking out the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam and whatever looks interesting in Vegas that week. We'll probably watch a few shows and just relax.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke - another B&N browse pickup. This novel is set in a similar time period to two recent "magical" movies (The Prestige and The Illusionists, respectively) and describes a Napoleonic war era England in which magic is a historical art/science that has fallen out of regular use by most of it's practitioners, who are called theoretical magicians since they all study and discuss it in great detail, but none of them actually can perform any magic. It follows the titular characters who both have different ways of actually practicing the magic and both have different opinions of what it's proper use will be in the service of their own priorities and those of the country. It's been called a sort of Harry Potter for adults, and I guess that's somewhat fair in that it is very English in tone and it's about magic. If you're main foray into literature has been HP, then this may not be your cup of tea, but lovers of good writing with an element of the fantastic will probably like this.
I laughed nearly constantly during the whole movie. Sasha Baron Cohen is one of those rare comedians who is willing to do anything to serve the movie and the laugh. If you're not already aware, he plays a "cultural ambassador" for Kazakstan on a trip to America to promote his country. He enters into a variety of situations with apparently completely unwitting participants. It appears to be a sort of Soviet Bloc version of Jackass without all the stunts on the surface, but it's a very intelligent commentary on how perception and presumption color our behaviour much more than reality. To see how a variety of people treat Borat (from both the wealthy and social elite to the more average Americans) tells us a lot more about ourselves as a society than it does about Borat, who represents the extreme version of most Americans concept of people from his part of the world. Having spent six months in Kosovo, I can say that while his character has a ring of truth (and he is completely convicing, never breaking character the whole time) to him, it's all exaggerated for effect. The amazing thing is that no one in the film seems to realize he is an actor and take him as an actual representation of the typical man from Kazakstan. Definitely one of the most intelligent comedies I have seen in several years. Sadly, most people will just see it as like an exploitation for laughs movie, which it isn't.
A very stylized graphic novel adaptation of the story of 300 Spartan soldiers who defended their country against thousands (depending on what history you believe) of Persians who were running roughshod over much of the civilized world. It's a combination of Gladiator for context and Sin City for the look, with more archetypal characters in the lead roles as opposed to going for real accuracy. Not for the squeamish, blood and interesting ways to separate it from the human body are explored here. Still, it delivers on what it promises and it was a good movie for the style. Worth a rental if you're not inclined to pay movie theater prices, although you need to see it on a big screen to enjoy it.
don’t look now, but things have changed again. Today’s version of the story has me moving to another state later this year and then going overseas early next year. Tune in later this afternoon when I will find out that I am in fact not going anywhere but now must insist that I am King Richard III, dress appropriately for my title, and annex southern Arkansas in the name of the empire. And then, tomorrow, I will be moving to another, different state later this year, and then going underseas next year. Until it changes, again. Followed by another change. Which will be immediately followed by, another, different change.
(always good to quote Metheny, I feel). The inspection that has many at work gnashing their teeth and grimacing draws closer. I guess it’s unavoidable that people will have to be scrambling at the last minute for these things. I still hold to the opinion that if everyone was diligent towards their tasks all year long then the inspection wouldn’t be so stress inducing. I’ll allow that even if we were so lucky as to be blessed with 100% dedication and industry among all our workers, that a measure of panic would still set in before any inspection, so perhaps it’s just the nature of these things and not necessarily particular to a staff of both dedicated and indifferent.
The last week has been tumultuous to say the least. On the professional side I have learned that I will deploy overseas (I won’t go into details). That last part was as of 22 Feb and now on 6 Mar I can say that it is no longer valid. There was much argument and posturing between the various levels of my supervisory chain. The end result is that my name is on the lips of far more people than when this process started, so it’s more of a matter of when and not if I’ll eventually go overseas or not.
I saw this while browsing at B&N and it caught my eye. I have seen his novels on the shelves for awhile now but never picked anything up. This won every major Fantasy/Horror award the year it was published and it looked like a nice modern fantasy with elements of Clive Barker/Stephen King set in America at the turn of the new millienium. After reading the novel I considered it a good read, although I had my doubts as to whether it was worth all the awards. I'm not sure about the other novels it was competing with, so maybe that's not fair. Gaman introduces some pretty cool concepts in the ideas that Gods of all religions and myths survive based on the faithful and their support. As people began to emigrate in great numbers from Europe to America around the time of the colonies, many of the old religions and Gods began to lose supporters in the old world. This eventually motivated many of the Gods to come to America as well, in an attempt to follow the faithful. The story focuses around an ex con and his hiring by a mysterious character with a nebulous past. Without giving the plot away, it's based on what happens when the old Gods have to compete with the new "American Gods" of television, the internet, etc. The God's avatars are all fairly normalish characters walking around in the story and interacting with each other. It's definitely a nice modern twist on the concept of religion and set in the backdrop of a very different America.