Tales of the Electric Monk

An open letter to Louisiana Congressman Cao

2010-06-16T11:13:00.002-05:00

During a congressional hearing on June 15th, Rep. Joseph Cao of Louisiana suggested to BP America chairman Lamar McKay that he commit ritual suicide (Source, source, and source). The exact statement made was: "In the Asian culture we do things differently. During the Samurai days we just give you a knife and ask you to commit hara-kiri." Mr. Cao's suggestion was particularly interesting since he is of Vietnamese, not Japanese, descent. I wrote the following letter and sent it to Mr. Cao's Louisiana office and am posting it here:

Dear Congressman Cao,

I was deeply offended to read of your remarks to BP America Chairman Lamar McKay suggesting that he should “commit hara-kiri.” While I can appreciate the emotion you feel for yourself and your constituents during this horrible disaster, your statement was completely out of line. We rely on our elected representatives to be rational problem-solvers; your statement was clearly intended to be inflammatory in nature. Suggesting that someone should commit suicide does nothing to contribute to a solution. You wanted a news-bite and in that I suppose you were successful.

You should offer a public apology to Mr. McKay for your remarks and reassure the American public that you will continue to work towards a real solution to the oil spill instead of engaging in such hateful rhetoric.

"Oh, The Things I'll Eat" - The Trip Back, part 3

2010-05-14T10:44:00.002-05:00

Oh, The Things I Will Eat

It would be disingenuous to claim that food is not a huge part of the reason I’m looking forward to going back to Buenos Aires.. I’m curious as to whether my memories of how good the food is are really accurate or whether it’s a case of rose-colored glasses. In either case, here are the dishes I’m most looking forward to:

Steak: Argentina is known around the world for the quality of its beef, so of course I’ll have to see if my grown-up, more discerning palate really thinks it’s that much better.

Provoleta: Take a slab of provolone cheese and throw it on the grill just long enough for the outside to get a little crunchy and the inside to get soft. Then, pour some olive oil on top and sprinkle on some oregano. Serve with bread.

Milanesa: Sort of a pan-fried veal cutlet. I usually had it topped with ham and cheese and, on a good day, a fried egg.

Ice cream: The ice cream in Argentina is much creamier, more akin to what we’d call gelato.

Choripan: A combination of the words “chorizo” (sausage) and “pan” (bread). It’s basically a sausage sandwich, served with baguette style bread with a super-hard crust. It’s best when served with chimichurri, a sauce which is delicious and defies description.

Pasta: Seriously, they eat a LOT of pasta in Argentina. I’m hoping to have at least some ravioli and a little cannelloni.

Wine: For obvious reasons I didn’t get a lot of the local wine when we lived there before, but Mendoza wine is world-renowned. I frequently buy Malbecs here in the States and I’m excited to see what they serve locally.

Dulce de leche: Sort of like caramel, but Argentines use it like Americans use peanut butter. It’s spread on toast or breakfast pastries, and they even blend it in with ice cream. I’ve never found it here in the States.

Parrillada mixta: This is definitely the most exciting thing on this list. Every year on our birthdays, my dad and I would go out and treat each other to a parrillada mixta, an event we lovingly called our "Guts 'n' Grease Galore Gala." A tray is filled with hot coals and grilled meats are placed over the coals so that they stay hot at your table. The selection of meats varies depending on which restaurant you go to, but it usually had some ribs, sausage, a couple pieces of chicken, some small pieces of steak. The good parrilladas had some more exotics stuff as well: morcilla (blood sausage), molleja (some kind of cow gland; this was one of my favorites), chinchulines (small intestine), and tongue. I even got one once that had brain. Getting a parrillada mixta is an absolute must for at least one meal while we're there.

We should be arriving in about 24 hours, and I’m having a really hard time deciding which kind of food I’m gonna go after first. Also, I’m hungry now.

The trip back, part 2

2010-05-02T14:30:00.001-05:00

When we go back to Buenos Aires in two weeks, it will have been almost exactly sixteen years since I left. I’ve been examining my own life and what has changed in those sixteen years and wondering how much Buenos Aires itself has changed since then.

My sister and I boarded the plane to leave Argentina on June 24th, 1994. I had just graduated from high school and this was my first time to travel without an adult - and I had my kid sister in tow, headed halfway around the planet while my parents stayed behind to pack up our stuff. I remember the date so specifically because we woke up on the plane on June 25th - my sister’s 13th birthday. I asked the flight attendant if there was something special she could do for my sister. I was hoping they might have a nice muffin or an extra dessert. She suggested I buy her something out of the SkyMall magazine. To this day I marvel at how that lady just didn’t “get it.”

When we left I was a kid, now I’m a grownup. I have a college degree and a nice house in the suburbs of Houston. I have a wonderful wife and two beautiful children (happy third birthday, Vanilla Bean!). I have agood job and pay my taxes. I am, by any measure, a bowl of vanilla ice cream - not necessarily very exciting, but nice and predictable.

Buenos Aires has always been a melting pot. I usually describe it as a European city that just happens to be located in South America. Many people assume that since Spanish is the primary language in Argentina, it must be at least somewhat similar to Mexico - nothing could be more untrue. The food, the architecture, even the racial ancestry of the people in Argentina is very Western European.

I don’t know how much it will have changed in the time I’ve been gone. Will there be a more unique, independently Argentine identity? Will there be a strong American influence? I suspect Buenos Aires will not have changed as much I have. I would never have described it as a particularly fluid society. When I lived there in the ’80 and ‘90s I think it was probably much the same is it’d been since the British were kicked out in the ‘40s and ‘50s. All that being said, I wonder how differently the 34-year old will respond to what the 18-year old left behind?

The trip back, part 1

2010-04-25T14:09:00.000-05:00

My parents were missionaries and took our family to live in Argentina for a time when I was young. We lived there for eight years during my late childhood. Next month, my parents, sister, wife and I will be traveling to Buenos Aires for a visit. This will be my first time back since I left after high school on June 24th, 1994 - almost 16 years to the day - andI find myself evaluating what growing up in Argentina meant for me, and how returning as an adult might affect me.

Unlike some of my missionary cousins (friends whose parents were also missionaries), we got to Argentina when I was fairly old. I was ten when we arrived in April of 1986; my sister was about to turn five. Since I spent my early years in the United States, I don’t call Argentina my original home. In college I would say Buenos Aires was my hometown more for the sake of starting a conversation than because of any sense that it was my place of origin. I was born in North Dakota and when I was a child we lived in Texas, so I’ve always had a bit of a hard time identifying where I’m really “from.” I learned Spanish fluently but don’t speak it quite as effortlessly as some of my friends. I don’t get many opportunities to speak it now and sometimes feel as if it’s slowly leaking from my brain. I didn’t develop the standard Argentine’s unbridled passion for soccer. My friends were mostly other American kids, or any of a broad selection of international kids who attended my high school. I certainly had friends who were Argentine and there are some I still communicate with today, but it would be disingenuous to claim that I could ever identify myself as Argentine.

All that being said, I still believe that the eight years we lived in Buenos Aires has had a subtle but still significant effect on my worldview. As a teenager growing up in a foreign country and attending high school with people from (literally) all over the planet, it’s hard to believe my perspective is the same as it would’ve been had my parents kept us in the Houston area. And I would hardly argue that my perspective is unique or more relevant for having lived in a farflung corner of the world, but it’s been interesting to look at how that time has defined my view of the world. I also wonder what it will be like to go back as a middle-aged, relatively well-off, pampered American adult with two kids.

More than anything, growing up in Argentina taught me that not everyone has it as easy as we have it here. That’s not to say that Buenos Aires is poor - far from it. But people there just don’t have the “stuff” that people here do. I remember coming back to the United States after having been gone for four years. I was thirteen. Everything here seemed so clean and the malls just had so much STUFF. The streets in the US are nice, the electricity is on all the time, and everything here is air-conditioned. Again, it’s hard to say what exactly I’m talking about here: everyone I knew in Argentina had a television, a car, plenty of food. But it just seems to me like we have a lot MORE of that stuff here in the US.

Notice I said that people here have it easier, not better. I’m not going to get on a soapbox and claim that people who live in simpler cultures are inherently happier than Americans - that’s really not my point at all. But I do strongly resist the notion that Americans somehow have it better due to our Americanism, that we are particularly blessed by God by simply being Americans and everyone else would be better off if they just tried harder to be like us. The processes that we have in place here in the US may work well for us, but it’s foolish for us to think they would be easily copied to any other culture. What I saw in Argentina was people who are just as happy and well-adjusted as Americans are. They love their culture and their country and their families as deeply and strongly as we do.

Finally, I was greatly affected by being a true minority. For the first two years we lived there, when I was in fourth and sixth grades (yes, I skipped fifth - long story), I was the only white kid in my school. Anyone who thinks that racial struggles are unique to Americans is very misguided. The fact of the matter is that I was treated differently, in both positive and often negative ways, because I looked and spoke differently. In sixth grade, my nickname was Leche (“milk”) because I was a LOT whiter than any other kid around me. I won’t claim that I was victimized or scarred because of the way I was treated, but I will claim that it has given me a different perspective on race relations.

Enough for now - this has dragged on long enough. Over the next couple of weeks, before we leave for Buenos Aires, I’ll discuss some other thoughts I’ve had about returning. Don’t let me forget to mention the food…

We should have known better

2010-02-19T13:51:00.002-06:00

For some reason, Vanilla Bean doesn't like Ann and me showing affection for each other. I think it's mostly jealousy - she thinks Mommy is all hers and doesn't like us holding hands or even necessarily talking to each other. We mostly deal with it by trying to ignore the screaming and protestations.

Last night, Vanilla Bean and the Monkey were in the tub. Ann and I were standing there, so I reached over and gave her a hug. Vanilla Bean looked up and very seriously said, "Stop doing that! Stop being so married!" We busted up laughing, and fortunately she realized she'd said something funny and laughed with us.

iPad vs. Kindle

2010-02-05T08:16:00.002-06:00

Yesterday a friend asked how I thought the upcoming release of the Apple iPad would affect the Kindle market. Obviously, it’s too early to tell for sure. No one knows exactly which books will be available on the iPad or what the pricing scheme will look like. More importantly, no one knows how Amazon will respond to the release of the iPad. That being said, there are a few things that seem apparent to me.

First, based on my own personal experience, Amazon recognizes that it needs to get the Kindle into people’s hands so that they’ll spend the money on e-books. This is a well-rehearsed business scheme: drive down the cost of hardware so that people will spend money on software that runs on the hardware. Hardware is usually a one-time cost for the consumer, but they’ll continue to spend money on sofware for as long as they own the device. Apple itself is familiar with this model; I’m sure they’ve made FAR more money selling songs on iTunes than they ever made on sales of iPods. Recently I dropped and broke my Kindle. The incident was entirely my fault and was certainly not related to any problem with the device itself. I called Amazon and they claimed it was covered under warranty (I’d read the warranty, and “user droppage” is not covered). They overnighted me a new device free of charge. This was about a week before the announcement of the iPad. Amazon knew that if I had to buy another piece of hardware I might be inclined to buy an iPad and they’d lose a customer who’d bought literally dozens of e-books in the last year. Their concern was not so much in ensuring they made money off selling me a new Kindle, but in making sure that they could continue to profit from me buying books.

Second, comparing the Kindle to the iPad is very much an apples-to-oranges comparison. There are people who are willing and cash-enabled to purchase $50,000 overpowered muscle cars with every accessory imaginable. That doesn’t mean there’s not a market for $20,000 Hondas that most people use to drive to their jobs every day. Likewise, a high-powered, flashy handheld tablet will appeal to a certain market, but this doesn’t preclude a market for lower priced, dedicated e-book devices.

Similarly, the Kindle seems like a much more likely gifting option than the iPad. Amazon sold an enormous number of devices during the holiday shopping period. It seems feasible to buy a loved one a $250, one-time-cost device like an e-reader. It seems less feasible that someone would buy their mother-in-law a $600 device that requires a $15-a-month data plan. The Kindle is a relatively simple device to use, with no montly data plan costs. This relative simplicity can appeal to a large group of consumers.

Some industry watchers have stated that people will avoid buying the large-screened Kindle DX since it only costs 10 dollars less than a much more capable iPad ($489 versus $499). I agree, but I still think the comparison is moot. As I stated at the beginning, much depends on how Amazon chooses to respond to the release of the iPad. Instead of increasing the capabilities of the Kindle to try to compete with Apple’s tablet, they should focus on reducing the cost of the device to continue to appeal to a consumer market that wants something simple and cheap (with a battery life measured in weeks rather than hours). Here are a few ways Amazon can do that:

· Get the cost of the Kindle below $200 (from its current price point of $259). I suspect that many people will not even consider the comparison between a $200 e-reader and a $600 tablet. A three-fold cost difference puts these devices into completely different market brackets.
· Incorporate a color screen into the next generation of Kindles. In terms of reading, I don’t personally believe that having a black-and-white only screen is hugely important. However, the lack of a color screen is widely perceived to be a disadvantage, so removing this barrier will be an important way for the Kindle to remain relevant in a digital-media market.
· Most importantly, Amazon needs to focus on getting books onto their device. As I have stated in a previous post, the single most important factor in choosing an e-reader device is whether the books I read are available on the device. All the features in the world are meaningless if the books I want to read aren’t there. Amazon should be doing whatever it takes to get publishers to stay with the device, even if it means increasing the price point from their standard $10 scheme.

Amazon’s main job is to separate itself from the iPad as they are not likely to be able to compete with Apple on its own turf. Nor do they need to; if they play their cards well, there’s absolutely no reason the Kindle can’t continue to be successful in a post-iPad world.

PS: I recognize there are other very good e-book readers out there. I'm only discussing the Kindle because it's the one I have and the one whose business model I understand best.

Tourism in Haiti

2010-01-21T12:33:00.004-06:00

CNN posted an article today about the controversy surrounding Royal Caribbean's decision to resume sending cruise ships to their private resort on Haiti. Many are criticizing the company for the move, saying tourists shouldn't be enjoying the high-life while people continue to die nearby. The company has defended its decision saying that bringing tourism to the island contributes to the health of the economy. They also argue that diverting the ship to another destination wouldn't actually help anyone on the island.

I must admit that at first glance the thought of enjoying a day on the beach just down from Port-au-Prince does seem tacky at best. But as I continued to explore the idea, it occurred to me that the discussion is really one of scale. Haiti has been and will continue to be one of the poorest countries in the world. People died of malnutrition and disease there long before the current disaster, and yet the cruise ships came. In ten years, people will still be dying of causes that the tourists could never comprehend, and yet the cruise ships will come. If I, as an individual, didn't care about or contribute to the solution before, cancelling my cruise now won't actually affect the outcome.

I must confess that I have struggled with my own response to the disaster in Haiti. It is a hugely catastrophic situation, to be sure, but again I contend that the scale of the situation is what disinguishes it, not the specific suffering involved. Every day, everywhere, people suffer just as miserably and I look away. Why do I feel more inclined to try to ease the suffering of Haitian earthquake victims but didn't feel so inclined two weeks ago to lighten the load of the Haitian poor?

Please let me clarify that I completely recognize the wealth that I live in. I have never known a single day of poverty in my life. I can think of twice that I have seen poverty, real poverty, personally. When I was 17, I attended a community service trip with my school to Chaco, an area in northern Argentina. I remember seeing the rural poor, people who lived in small, self-built shacks with no utilities. About a year later, I went on a mission trip to Paso de Aguila, a bordertown in Mexico. We worked in what I can only call a slum, and I still marvel at the conditions of the people there. But mostly, I have continued to live my upper middle-class life, happy to enjoy uninterrupted warm water, electricity, and air conditioning. For me, poverty is not being able to take a vacation this year or having to wait yet another year to upgrade to HD cable. I do not know what it means to actually wonder where my food will come from, or question if my child will catch a water-borne illness, or if that child will die if it gets sick.

So let me try to come back around to my point, if indeed there is one. I have always lived, still live, and will continue to live in a world where I am more privileged and wealthy than almost everyone else in the world. How am I to live globally, not focusing on the affluence of the people around me, but on the stark, endless poverty that so much of the world lives in? In two months, when the cameras have left Haiti and the cruise ships return guilt-free, will I still care about the people who live there?

This is why my friends are awesome...

2010-01-18T15:16:00.002-06:00

I am posting here for your perusal a conversation that took place between me, my old friend M, and a co-worker/friend named G. It began with my claim to G that I had once pulled a knife on a guy and her disbelief at the awesomeness of this fact. To back up my claim, I sent the following note to M, who'd witnessed said knife-pulling:

M, I have a story that needs vouching. G (also on this e-mail) does not believe that I once pulled a knife on a dude in Buenos Aires. Do you remember, we’d gone to see a movie, and you had your camera and a bunch of CDs in your bag, and those two guys split us up and I pulled a box cutter on him? PLEASE tell me you remember so you can back me up here!

M, being the manly friend that he is, responded:

Dear G,

The tale C has spun is actually true. However I remember things a little differently. I was 17 so C was probably 18 and the night before this event I had spent the night at C's house. I'd brought a ton of CD's over because we were gonna make mixtapes (what kind of 12 year old girl sleep over party was this?). Anyway, the next day we decided to go see Schindler's List in Belgrano, a district in Buenos Aires that's kinda like Times Square. After this 4 hour behemoth of pure cinematic feel good sunshine, we walk into the heart of Belgrano a bit dazed. Remember I still have my bag filled with CD's with me at this time as I haven't gone home yet. This is where my memory differs somewhat from C's. C says he remembers two "dudes" trying to mug us. I remember two 13-14 year old boys trying to mug us. Since the street is crowded with people these two dudes split us up pretty easily, trying to engage us in a conversation. The one dude gets me behind a bus stop poster and tells me to give him my bag. I laughed and said no because I swear he had to have been 13 years old and I knew I could take him no problem. I walk from behind the bus stop poster AND I SEE C WHIP OUT A BOX CUTTER AND STICK IT RIGHT IN THIS DUDE'S FACE!!!!. Shock and awe Ginny. Shock and awe (this should be C's gmail handle). The dudes run off. I am standing there totally dumbstruck. As I recall I said, "That's the manliest thing I've ever seen..."

The End.

To this day I cannot watch or think of the movie Schindler's List without thinking of this event.

Shock and Awe,

M

At this point I feel the need to respond one last time:

I would like to point out this one awesome fact: When M thinks of Schindler’s List, he does not think of Liam Neeson saving children, or of the atrocities of war and holocaust. No, these are not the images that come to his mind. By his own admission, he thinks of me, standing proudly, waving my knife in a wanna-be mugger’s ugly face.

Please, no labels...

2010-01-15T08:50:00.001-06:00

I hate being labeled. I understand the need to categorize things, to sort things in our minds, to organize the world around us in an attempt to understand how things work. My children love to compare things and understand the similarities and differences between the objects around them. This is an entirely human response. But I would hope that we’re a little more profound - a little more complex - than the quaint labels that people would like to stick on us.

Do not try to call me a conservative or a liberal. My opinions and beliefs on specific issues are driven by thought and argument, not because of someone else’s agenda. On some issues, I hold a more politically conservative opinion (I am pro-life and pro-small government), but on other issues I would be called a political liberal (I am pro-gun control and against the death penalty). I am fully willing to argue my belief on any one of these issues independently. But I won’t defend any of them against a charge of being “conservative” or “liberal.” The labeling is meaningless outside of a discussion of the issue itself. I have voted for both Democrat and Republican candidates based on the issues that I feel are important at the time and the candidate’s stance on those issues. Voting this way requires a lot more effort than simply choosing the “D” or “R” box on the first page, but it more accurately reflects how I feel about the officials that represent me.

I even flinch from being called a Baptist. I proudly attend a Southern Baptist church for two reasons:

I was raised in a Southern Baptist church and feel more comfortable in the structure and traditions of that denomination.
In general, the doctrine of the Southern Baptist denomination holds fairly closely with my own beliefs.

However, I would hope that someone wouldn’t merely look up “Southern Baptists” on Wikipedia and assume they understand what I believe about any given issue. There are, in fact, practices with which I do not agree, but I stand firm with the fellowship of believers to which I am bound. I attend a Baptist church, but do not assume you understand everything about me because of that.

Despite our need and desire to categorize the world around us, there are rarely such simple black-and-white differentiations. We should challenge ourselves to understand issues and the subtleties and complexities of people’s opinions, rather than be lazy and rely on simple labels to define how we respond to those around us.

For those considering buying an e-book reader

2009-12-16T19:33:00.001-06:00

This year, I bought my first e-book reader, the Kindle 2. I'd resisted buying the first generation Kindle. Despite my love of gadgetry, I try to avoid buying first-generation technology. The price tends to be very high relative to the usefulness of the technology (there’s a premium fee for being an early adopter, as iPhone buyers learned when the price of the device dropped drastically mere weeks after its initial release), and I prefer to wait for bugs to be worked out. I was a little wary about going the e-book route; I couldn’t imagine giving up the feel of paper, and I was concerned that the books I wanted to read wouldn’t always be available. Nine months after getting my Kindle, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back.

Right now, there are three primary competitors in the e-book reader market: Sony’s PRS, Amazon’s Kindle, and Barnes and Noble’s just-released Nook. While each one has some technical advantages over the other, my belief is that the storefront availability of books is much more important than any hardware differences. Regardless of how good the reader itself is, it hardly matters if the book you want to read isn’t available on it.

I’m worried that, as the e-book market itself expands and stabilizes, we might even see some publishers retaining exclusivity rights to certain devices; i.e., Publisher A will only put their books on Reader X, while Publisher B will only put their books on Reader Y. This is similar to the current videogame market, where some games are only sent to certain consoles, so if you want to play every game out there you have to own every console. Ultimately, I don’t believe this business model is sustainable for e-books, and we’ll end up with something more like the current downloadable music model, where the files you download are standardized and playable on any MP3 player - likewise, the books you download will ultimately be readable on any device.

If you’re considering buying an e-book reader (and you very well might be, as it’s one of the big sellers this holiday season) and are trying to decide which model to buy, I would encourage you to go to the device’s website and see if the last five or ten books you read are available for a specific device. The website Ebookchoice.com can help with this by showing what books are available by device, but their catalog doesn’t seem complete yet. Again, I can assure you that it won’t matter how great the hardware itself is if you can’t get the books you want toread.

For the Kindle, I’ve learned that not every book I want to read is available, but there are certainly enough available to keep me reading. The advantages of owning the device far outweigh the slight decrease in availability, but those advantages may not be relevant to everyone.

Multiple readings

2009-11-30T15:15:00.003-06:00

As a rule, I try to avoid reading multiple books at once. I'm not great at juggling multiple storylines or thought processes, and once I start a book I like to press through it as quickly as possible so I can move on to the next one. That being said, I'm actually moving back and forth between six books all at once right now:

Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining and Bad Attitudes... in You and Your Kids by Scott Turansky. This is one we're reading as part of a small group with some friends. We're supposed to get through one chapter a week, so it'll take about three months to get through the whole thing.
Choose the Life: Exploring a Faith that Embraces Discipleship by Bill Hull. Part of ANOTHER small group we're in. I'm about halfway through. It's very challenging to my long-bred idea of how to "do church," and there are elements that I find very difficult to come to terms with. But it's certainly pushing back some of my horizons.
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann. This is my current "fun" book, the one I read while relaxing in bed or laid out on the couch. It's a story of post-Victorian era explorer Fawcett and his quest for a lost city in the Amazon jungle. Basically, it's about a guy way manlier than I can even conceive.
NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson. As a rule, I find parenting books kind of faddish. It seems to me that parenting should be a pretty instinctive thing. I don't mean we shouldn't THINK about how to parent, or that it should be EASY, but that over-analyzing it doesn't seem like the right approach either. This book documents studies showing that much of what we would consider the obviously correct approach to parenting can be wrong. This is one of the most eye-opening books I've read in a long time.
Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages by Daniel Nettle. This one is a tough read, so I usually only get through a chapter or so at a time. The writing isn't really superb, and many of their conclusions seem a little naive and politically-motivated, but the subject itself is interesting enough to keep me coming back.
Christianity's Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution: A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First by Alister McGrath. This is the book that is absolutely kicking my butt. I asked a friend of mine for a suggestion about a biography of Martin Luther and he steered me to this epic tome about everything Reformation-related. I've found that I can't read it right before bed - it gets my brain spun up and I have trouble going to sleep. The problem is that the book is enormous, so it'll take me quite a while to get through it. But as a protestant Christian it's amazing to me to see the way so much of what I believe came to be.

The nice thing is that all of these except Choose the Life are on my Kindle, so I'm not having any trouble keeping track of where I left something. Hopefully I can finish a couple of these out before Christmas and get my list down to a (relatively) more manageable four books.

Flashforward

2009-10-30T11:12:00.001-05:00

Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This is one of the most poorly-written books I've ever read. While an interesting basis for a sci-fi book, the execution is extremely sub-par. Sawyer writes like a fifth-grader who is telling his class about a summer trip to Disney World.

Much of the book takes place at CERN, a particle accelerator in Switzerland. Sawyer adds details about the location clearly included only to prove that he's been there, completely unnecessary details like where the fire extinguishers are located. I understand the need to include details in order to create a picture in the reader's mind, but much of the minutiae he includes is completely extraneous.

On the opposite end, the characters are shallow and underdeveloped. Many are there simply to create a structure on which to develop a plotline; we care little about where they're going or why. Ultimately they seems like a set of people who are all just wandering in different directions with no clear purpose.

Most annoyingly, the characters have a tendency to deliver long, very artificial diatribes that allow Sawyer to communicate his philosophies. Science fiction has a long history of comparing and contrasting science and theology, and when done properly it can be very thought-provoking. In this case, the practice was too in-your-face, too overt to be taken seriously. I did not for one minute believe that these characters would actually have conversations such as these.

The book was the basis for ABC's new television show of the same name. Seeing parallels between the events of the book and those on the TV show is interesting. The premise of the book itself is intriguing, but the flaws are too numerous make it worth struggling through.

View all my reviews >>

Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English

2009-10-22T09:37:00.001-05:00

Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English by John H. McWhorter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Since I listened to his downloadable lecture series about linguistics earlier this year, I've enjoyed McWhorter's down-to-earth but well-informed way of communicating how language has evolved. This book focuses primarily on how the English language itself has come to be, with an emphasis on how Celtic and Norse languages influenced Old and Middle English. McWhorter is good at describing rather dry topics in ways that keep the reader engaged. I suspect this isn't the last book on this subject that'll grace my Kindle...

View all my reviews >>

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 - 7:35 PM

2009-09-10T19:29:00.000-05:00

I rinse out the rest of my beef stew from the bowl and put it in the dishwasher. Ann has listened to me cry tonight for things even I can't comprehend. She understands that it is hard to deal with all the unknowns of the situation. She understands that we'll probably never know anything about the recipient, how he lived, how he died. But she knows that there was no other choice to be made. We had an opportunity, a moment in time to do something for someone else. We can't even say whether it was successful or worth the effort. But, she says, we would do it exactly the same way next time. She is - as always - right.

The National Marrow Donor Program connects people willing to donate bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells to people genetically identified as possible recipients. The success of their work is dependent on having a large database of potential donors in order to create the best matches for those in need. To learn more go to Marrow.org, or consider joining the registry.

Thursday, January 15th, 2009 - 12:30 PM

2009-09-09T19:29:00.000-05:00

Today is the first day we'll be conducting an integrated sim with the Japanese simulator for the HTV mission. I've been preparing for this sim for about a year now and am totally living on adrenaline. As the adrenaline slowly wears off, I plan to transition to caffeine. The ten-hour sim doesn't start until 3:00, but I want to have plenty of time to get ready, to mentally prepare for a long night of what are sure to be some very stressful situations. My cell phone rings; an unknown number. It's a representative from the National Marrow Donor Program. They think they've found a match and would like me to come in for further testing. I agree, set up an appointment to go to the blood bank, and hang up. Added to the stress of the upcoming simulation, it feels like too much to process right now. I file it away for later, remembering the last two times I got this call and how it turned out to be nothing. Probably won't be anything this time either.

Saturday, February 28th, 2009 - 8:30 AM

2009-09-08T19:29:00.000-05:00

Ryan and I stand among a crowd of thousands. Somehow I'd let him talk me into participating in a 5k run with him. Anyone who knows me at all knows that running isn't really my "thing." In much the same way that root canals aren't my "thing." Later I found out that the run was scheduled for the same day as my first round of shots. I complete the race in about 35 minutes, crossing the finish line with the theme song from Indiana Jones blaring through my iPod. After a short break I go back to my car, put on a clean shirt, and drive to the clinic.

Martha is already there waiting for me. I know what to expect but I'm not a huge fan of getting shots. Today I'll get two of them. After the blood draw. And let me tell you, those two shots hurt a lot more than those tiny little needles would lead you to believe. I have to sit with her for an hour after the shots to make sure I don't have an adverse reaction.

I go home feeling a little shaky and a lot tired, but I suspect that's mostly because of the 5k. Martha will come to my home every morning for the next three days, each time giving me two more injections of filgrastim. At the end of it all, I will have received a total of ten filgrastim shots. My only hope is that it might turn me into something cool, like Spider-Man. I will ultimately be disappointed as "achy" is not, apparently, a superpower.

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 - 9:00 AM

2009-09-07T19:29:00.000-05:00

I am, of all things, excited about a day off, especially on a Wednesday. The last couple of months at work have been very busy. I have two small children at home. The thought of sitting in a chair all day long reading books and watching movies is very appealing even if I have to have blood sucked out of my body by a large machine to get the day off. I have three DVDs in my bag (The Dark Knight, Madagascar 2, and Wanted), and I've even brought my brand-new Kindle.

My entire body is sore. The filgrastim injections I've received since Saturday have increased the amount of peripheral blood stem cells in my system, resulting in flu-like symptoms. Mostly I've just been tired and my back has ached. It's certainly not incapacitating, and nothing compared to what the recipient has been going through. But it gets old after a while, especially after the late-night simulation I had on Monday. Hot showers and ibuprofen help some, but I'm ready to have this stuff sucked out of my body so I can get back to normal.

Martha is there with the technicians. They expect the procedure to take about four hours based on my size and the number of stem cells the recipient requires. I tell them I've got at least six hours of movies so they can take as long as they need. The room is very clinical in appearance but then, it is a clinic. There are several couches and they show me to mine. Over the next fifteen minutes the technician inserts a needle into my left arm that draws the blood out and sends it through a centrifuge machine, separating out the layer of peripherical blood stem cells. Another line feeds into my right arm sending everything except the PBSCs back into my system.

Over the course of the day others come and go for treatment. A middle-aged woman is wheeled in next to me. She is clearly very sick, presumably with cancer, and is receiving chemotherapy. I think about the last time I sat this close to someone receiving chemotherapy treatment and hope her story ends as well.

I refrain from drinking very much. Once I'm hooked up to the machine there's no un-hooking so if I need to pee they draw a curtain around me and hand me a plastic bottle. Fortunately this is only necessary once over the course of the day. Admittedly the process is much simpler as a guy but handling all the equipment with one arm mostly incapacitated and the other completely immobilized takes a little more concentration than normal. Going through the process once is more than enough.

An LCD TV is mounted within easy viewing distance and the technician is happy to swap out movies as often as I want. The apheresis machine requires constant management by the technician and his company is appreciated.

We sit next to each other for seven hours.

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 - 4:00 PM

2009-09-06T19:29:00.000-05:00

The technician takes the tube out of my other arm. It has been a long seven hours. The stem cells were not as concentrated in my blood as they'd hoped and the apheresis took longer than expected. Physically, I feel better than I'd feared I might. I don't have the light-headedness I sometimes feel after a blood donation which makes sense since they put all the blood back in. Mostly I'm just tired of being in that chair and want to go home. And I'm relieved that my contribution to this process is effectively over. In some ways it feels a little anti-climactic - a lot of effort for a small bag of yellow fluid. Especially since that fluid is basically just the extra cells I had floating around. But he needs them. In a week or so he'll receive a massive dose of chemotherapy that will kill all of his bone marrow. The stem cells they just sucked out of my body will be injected into his. If the transplant works, his blood type will change from whatever it was before to mine, AB-positive. The stem cells will begin creating new, undiseased blood and his leukemia will disappear. If the transplant doesn't work, he'll be left without a way to make blood and will die within days. I can't think of a much better definition of "last-ditch effort."

Mid-April 2009

2009-09-05T19:29:00.001-05:00

My phone rings and I find myself talking to Martha. It's been about six weeks since the procedure and I've eagerly awaited this call. No one has ever accused me of being an optimist. I tend to plan for the worst and hope for (but rarely expect) the best. Martha tells me that my recipient is doing well. The transplant appears to have been successful and he has recovered enough to go home. Other than that, the details are sparse. There's no prognosis, no talk of how much longer he might live. There's certainly no use of the word "cured." But under the circumstances this is the best news I could've expected. I picture a frail man being taken to his car in a wheelchair, pushed by his wife or maybe his grown son. He's still weak and tired all the time but there's a little hope for his future, a chance at a few more years. Maybe.

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 - 12:30 pm

2009-09-04T19:29:00.000-05:00

My phone rings and I find myself talking to Martha again. I haven't spoken to her since I got the good news several months before. Her voice is as always cheerful, but she tells me that I might not be so happy once she tells me the news. My recipient has had a relapse and died. I'm stunned but not entirely surprised. He was in his sixties and the transplant is risky under even the best of circumstances, with about a one-in-three chance of being successful. But the last I'd heard was that he was doing well and had checked out of the clinic and gone home. I had assumed that his recovery was progressing and he was moving on with his life. Finding out that he'd died was an unexpected end to this journey. Martha asks if I want to stay on the registry. I reply that I do, update my information, and then hang up. I'm not really sure how to feel at this point, but there's work to do, so sorting this out will have to wait until later.

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 - 7:30 pm

2009-09-03T19:29:00.001-05:00

Ann and I are sitting across the table from each other. I'm amazed at how little flavor food has when one has been crying for 20 minutes straight. She'd made a delicious beef stew several days before and we are having leftovers. Even after several shakes of Tabasco sauce, it tastes like warmed-up cardboard with extra carrots. I'm somewhat stunned at the intensity of my own reaction. People I don't know die all the time. I know nothing about him, not even his real name. I don't know where he lived, what he looked like, whether he had a family. I never met him. All I know is that he was in his sixties and that he died after his disease relapsed. And yet I am mourning his passing. I wonder if these extra four months gave him time to meet a new grandchild or to make it through another birthday. Or maybe he was just sick the whole time and the treatment prolonged the suffering. It's startling how much I am struggling over the what-ifs and unknowns, and I wonder if I'll ever know more than I do now.

Written sarcasm

2009-09-01T14:10:00.003-05:00

Sarcastic speech is an art-form largely based on body language and tone, neither of which are effectively communicated in written text. Far too often a carefully crafted biting remark is completely lost on the reader. I recently heard someone suggest that we need a font to denote sarcasm. This idea is, of course, nothing new and certainly not my own, but I offer a different take on it. Therefore in my writing I will be instituting a new standard: squiggly brackets shall henceforth border a sarcastic remark. Besides, when was the last time you used brackets for any other purpose? Examples would be:

I saw the report you wrote yesterday. {Good job.}
Your dog puked on my sweater. {Thanks for that.}
{I think Transformers 2 was a serious work of art.}

A wireless world

2009-07-24T12:06:00.001-05:00

I’m becoming convinced that in the very near future, within my lifetime for sure, there will be very few products that have wires. Wireless data transfer is already very good and getting better. Things aren’t quite to the point where high-definition video can be streamed real-time over wired connections, and doing so wirelessly is still some time away. So until then, you’ll need to keep a cable running from your computer to your television if you want streaming real-time. But progress is being made, and I suspect that within ten years or so most every data transfer will be possible over wireless connections.

The big hurdle is, of course, power. No matter how great your home wireless connection, you still need to plug your laptop in from time to time. There have been some preliminary techonologies that allow very short-range power feeds via magnetic induction. But now a company has stated that within a couple of years they will have a commercial product that can supply power from several feet away. Set up a few of these in your house, and you might never need a plug again. I can imagine an iPhone, 3 or 4 generations from now, that has no external plug at all. All power and data needs would be supplied wirelessly. Now that’s the future!

Funny names of popes

2009-07-13T20:53:00.002-05:00

Pope Hyginus (AD 136-140). He was the cleanest pope up to that time.
Pope Hilarius (AD 461-468). Despite what you'd think, he actually had very little sense of humor.
Pope Gelasius (AD 492-496). Known primarily for having invented Italian ice cream.
Pope John XXIII (1958-1963). Seriously, dude. There were 22 other popes before you named "John." Maybe it's time to come up with something new.
Pope Lando (AD 913-914). Lando's not a system... he's a pope.

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food

2009-07-08T22:52:00.001-05:00

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food by Jennifer 8 Lee

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I never thought there could be a book this interesting about Chinese food. Lee's ability to relate Chinese cuisine in America to how Chinese themselves have integrated into our society had me enthralled. Her basic premise is that Chinese food is more American than apple pie. Think of it this way: which have you eaten more often? She analyzes every aspect of Chinese food: the true (and surprising) origins of fortune cookies, how soy sauce is used, where General Tso came from, and even how the ubiquitous Chinese food delivery box was developed. This book is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in Asian food and cuisine, especially as both are related to and defined by American culture.

View all my reviews.

Transformers

2009-06-25T08:53:00.002-05:00

I went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen last night. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. I should clarify what the criteria are for earning a star. One star is given for each of the following:

robots
explosions
robots fighting
military vehicles
military vehicles exploding fighting robots

It was actually exactly what you expect from a Michael Bay Transformers movie. DO NOT go see this movie if you want plot, depth, character development, or "good" cinema. If you want to be entertained for two hours by amazing special effects, then I highly recommend it.

I do NOT, however, recommend watching the IMAX version from the front row like I did. It was sort of like watching your TV from six inches away. My visual cortex was completely overloaded by the end of the preview.

So this summer I've seen Star Trek, Terminator: Salvation, Up, and now Transformers 2 and I gotta say I've been impressed with all of them. Well, Terminator was so-so, but the other three were really very good. The only movie left on my must-see list is Harry Potter. I don't think I'm even going to bother with G.I. Joe.

Just something to think about

2009-06-16T08:47:00.000-05:00

Preach on, my brother. Preach on.

Failure analysis

2009-06-04T18:47:00.002-05:00

The loss of Air France flight 447 is a horrible tragedy. I can't even begin to imagine the pain of those who lost loved ones on this flight.

From a failure analysis perspective, it's an interesting study in what happens when there is very little data available. There was no communication from the crew before the accident. It happened over open water in inclement weather, making access to the accident site difficult. Most of the wreckage has presumably sunk in water that may be as deep as 15,000 feet, making recovery at best difficult and most likely impossible. For accident investigators recovering the black boxes is critical; the chances of such a recovery are very slim.

80% of airplane accidents occur three minutes after takeoff or eight minutes before landing, so a mid-flight accident of this type is pretty rare.

With the small amount of evidence available, people have been making lots of very sketchy presumptions as to what happened. The plane was flying through a storm, but the area actually has a low incidence of lightning, far less than what you'd see over land in the continental US. Planes are actually struck by lightning approximately once every 1,000 flight-hours, but the last lightning-related aircraft accident in the US was in 1969. Planes are pretty robust when it comes to withstanding lightning hits.

Some have suggested it could've been a terrorist attack, but there's no direct evidence that this is what happened. There was a bomb threat several days before against an Air France flight from Buenos Aires to Paris, but there was no evidence the threat was real.

In most airline accidents, which usually take place over land, engineers have an enormous amount of debris and data to analyze. Forensic investigators have become very adept at piecing the evidence together to determine an initial cause. In this particular accident, the scarcity of evidence and the low probability of finding much more mean we may never have a good idea what happened in this accident. At this point, any guesses about the crash are very much conjecture - the fact of the matter is that very little is known about what occurred. There's not much to do but let experts analyze what little evidence there is and hope they can reach a decent conclusion, but I suspect that's not how this story will end.

The finer things

2009-06-03T14:04:00.002-05:00

I am a man of sophistication, one who enjoys a good pinot noir or Corinthian leather bedsheets. But this... this is truly beyond even my own cultured palate.

When is it okay to key someone's car?

2009-05-22T08:40:00.001-05:00

WARNING

2009-05-19T08:46:00.004-05:00

The Surgeon General has determined that exposure to excessive levels of cuteness could cause drymouth and/or nausea. Women who are pregnant or may become pregnant should not view these pictures. Men who are pregnant should consult their physician.

I love these pictures because they really seem to capture the kids' personalities.

The Monkey is always looking around him, trying to understand how things work and fit together. He's pretty intense, and doesn't often have a lot of time for niceness and formality. He's polite, but he'd just as soon be done with the conversation so he can move on to dismantling a flashlight or digging a hole in the ground. More than anything, he wants to understand how and why, and the questions rarely stop. He is very good at reaching a logical conclusion, even when I don't necessarily want him to get there. Last night he was looking through a Star Wars book that had pictures of assassin robots. He asked what they would do if they caught us. I said they would rub peanut butter in our hair and it would be very hard to clean up. He smiled, and then said, "No, I think they'd kill us." And then it was on to the next thing...

Vanilla Bean is as sweet as they come. When I got home from work last night, she screamed and cheered for me, nearly falling out of her chair at the table in her attempt to get to me. All because I'd been awesome enough to drive home from work. She will sing and dance on cue, or without a cue. She loves to show off, and she LOVES to have your attention; her attempts to garner that attention over her brother are often hilarious of themselves.

Watch the video below, and you'll understand exactly what I'm talking about:

Dancing, corn on the cob, and a tunnel from cbalmain on Vimeo.

Where do they learn this stuff?

2009-05-17T16:57:00.001-05:00

The other day, the Monkey gave me a pretty accurate description of how a jet engine works.

He also just described both an enema and a urinary catheter.

I have no idea where he learned any of it.

More about me - just what you wanted!!

2009-04-21T10:54:00.002-05:00

The rules:
Answer the questions on your blog, replace one question you dislike with a question of your own invention; add a question of your own.

Why do you blog?
I just like to keep a journal of things I think about. It’ll be interesting to come back to it over the years and see what sorts of things were on my mind. And, as for all bloggers, there’s a little bit of narcissism.

Do you nap a lot?
No, although I’ve considered taking up the habit.

Who was the last person you hugged?
Vanilla Bean on the way out the door. Imagine hugging an actual vanilla bean. Now imagine it 17.4 times sweeter. Then add a dollop of whipped cream on top. That’s what it’s like hugging MY Vanilla Bean.

If you were a tree, what tree would you be?
The kind that drops yucky sap on people when they walk by.

How many?
42

Have you ever had an altercation with the police?
Nope. I’m totally subject to the Man.

What was the last thing you bought?
Lunch at this AWESOME pizza place in town - La Candelara or something like that.

What are you listening to right now?
The guy in the cube next door discussing the weather. So I’ll probably crank up the Pandora soon. (UPDATE: I have since cranked up Pandora, set it to my movie-music station, and am listening to Jerry Goldsmith's score of The Medicine Man.)

What is your favorite weather?
Cold and rainy. Last Saturday was perfect. Except for the part where the car almost flooded.

What’s on your bedside table?
A clock-radio and a lamp. Oh, and a box with my laptop power adapter.

Say something to the person/s who tagged you.
COOKIES!

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be?
That’s an easy one: Vancouver. I’m still not sure why I haven’t packed up and just moved there.
Favorite vacation spot?
A cruise boat anywhere.

Name the things you can’t live without:
My cell phone. The Internet. Ann’s homemade breakfast burritos. If they made an Internet-connected burrito with integrated cell phone, I’d buy one.
You should put these two things together, Science.

What would you like to have in your hands right now?
The case full of Star Wars action figures that my mom gave to some poor kid. To make up for it, I’d sell one of the action figures, give the money to the poor kid, and put the rest of them in a display case over my bed.

What is your favorite tea flavor?
Earl Grey. Hot. (Bonus points if you get the reference)

What would you like to get rid of?
20 pounds.

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
That little sushi restaurant in Tokyo.

What did you want to become as a child?
Either a pilot or an astronaut. I figure I got pretty close.

What do you like better, e-mail or telephone calls?
Don’t waste my time making me listen to you on the phone. I can ignore you much more effectively by e-mail.

What do you do when you get time alone?
I have two small children - what is this “alone” you speak of?

Fathering is...

2009-04-21T10:11:00.000-05:00

Being able to pretend it's nap-time with your daughter with the left side of your body while wrestling with your son on the right side.

World War Z

2009-04-19T08:03:00.000-05:00

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
One of my favorite movies is Contact. Besides the fact that it has Jodie Foster, I like it because it's less about alien contact and more about how people would react if we really DID contact aliens.

Likewise, World War Z isn't so much about zombies as it is about what people would do if there were a real zombie infestation. As much as possible, Brooks keeps a realistic bent to the events in the book. The infestation is presented as a highly virulent disease, and the author "interviews" people all around the world about how humanity recovered from the disease. Each story is told by a different person, from a different perspective. As a result, the reader is presented the facts exclusively through the experiences and biases of the characters in the book. It's a book that ultimately is much more about humans than zombies.

I'm not a particular fan of horror books, but if there are more of them that are written this well and executed so intelligently, I'd definitely read them.

View all my reviews.

Hierarchy of toilet papers

2009-04-17T08:03:00.000-05:00

From best to worst:

Charmin Bathroom Tissue Plus a Touch of Lotion with Aloe
Charmin Ultra
Cottonelle
Quilted Northern
Angel Soft
American hotel toilet paper
Wal-Mart generic
Japanese hotel toilet paper
Argentine toilet paper
Argentine hotel toilet paper
Argentine gas station toilet paper

How to know...

2009-04-15T11:12:00.002-05:00

When both sides of the argument can trot out so many experts presenting so many facts, how is someone supposed to both stay open-minded and make a rational decision? When both sides can scream so loudly, shake their fists so boldy, and use such strong language, how do you know which one is right? If I choose to listen and analyze, think and ponder, how do I respond to those who would claim I am indecisive or wishy-washy?

When both sides are completely opposed, and yet each one is utterly convinced that they are completely right and the other completely wrong, how are those caught in the middle supposed to choose?

If I choose to not participate in the shouting match, how do I make my voice heard over those who would choose only to shout?

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

2009-04-07T19:21:00.002-05:00

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
It’s been at least 15 years since I read Jules Verne’s classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea the first time in high school. Since then I have earned an engineering degree and gotten SCUBA-certified, both of which, needless to say, lend me a new insight into Verne’s work.

When reading 20,000 Leagues, it’s crucial to be aware of the time in which Verne wrote. The book was written in 1870, in an effectively pre-industrial France. Submarines of the time were horrifically primitive by any modern standard, so Verne’s premise of a submarine that could cruise the world, completely self-sufficiently, operated solely by electricity, must have seemed like complete fantasy at the time. His idea of men wearing suits that allowed them to walk around on the sea floor was a technological impossibility. Today, of course, nuclear submarines and SCUBA gear are, if not commonplace, at least well-understood by most.

Interestingly, Verne showed a keen fascination for electricity at a time when few understood its possibilities as a power source, particularly for vehicles. Nemo’s Nautilus is completely powered by electricity, although it’s never completely explained what the actual FUEL source is. At a time when coal-powered steam engines, or even old-fashioned cloth sails, drove sea-faring vessels, the author is able to fairly accurately predict how submarines should and eventually would be powered.

Verne’s predictions for how SCUBA-gear would work are both eerily accurate and completely outrageous. At one point the narrator implies that two different plumbing systems exist in the tank, one for inhalation and the other for exhalation, and the user blocks off one or the other with his tongue, moving his tongue back and forth with each breath. I have to assume that even pre-Industrial Frenchmen had heard of check valves, so maybe I just read that wrong. On the other hand, Verne is able to describe a remarkable example of a chemical rebreather, even if some of the details are wrong

Also of interest is Verne’s perspective on nature and Man’s relationship with it, a perspective which I assume is distinctly Victorian. The characters are clearly respectful of nature but they firmly believe in Man’s dominion over it. The Nautilus itself is set forth as an example of technology allowing Man to conquer Nature. Several references are also made to the near-limitless energy resources the Earth has to provide, an interesting counterpoint to today’s struggle for long-term energy efficiency.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is absolutely required reading for any sci-fi fan. Verne set the tone for what would become modern science-fiction. A dense read, to be sure, but completely worth it if only for the insight into the mind of a 19th-century visionary.

View all my reviews.

Hierarchy of Mexican food

2009-04-06T08:03:00.001-05:00

A hierarchy of Mexican food, from lowest to highest:

Jack-in-the-Box or Dairy Queen 99 cent tacos
Microwaveable taquitos
Burritos sold at gas stations
"Mexican" food from north of the Mason-Dixon line
Taco Bell
Taco Cabana
Pappasito's
Generic Tex-Mex restaurant
Lupe Tortilla
Food sold out of a taco truck with a name like "La Mosca Loca"
Food actually made in Mexico

Pipe cleaners

2009-04-04T09:56:00.004-05:00

When I was a kid and we used pipe cleaners for projects, I have to confess that I always wondered why it was called that. I mean, obviously it was used for cleaning pipes, but I thought they meant the water pipes in my house. I never could figure out how this flimsy little thing was supposed to be used for cleaning pipes.

"Ma'am, it looks like you've got a dead cat stuck in your toilet. But don't worry, I have all the necessary tools right here."

It wasn't until much later (like, mid-20s?) that I figured out what "pipe cleaner" really meant. Now I find out that they're changing the name. Ann has informed me that on two separate occasions she has seen them referred to as "chenille stems." There are only a couple reasons I can think of why they would change the name:

Kids can't figure out what "pipe cleaner" means. I myself am a living example of this. But who cares? That's not what it's being used for anyway. And if you're a kid smoking a pipe using material you picked up at Hobby Lobby, then you make me sad for multiple reasons. Do you think a kid is going to be able to figure out what "chenille stem" means? I'm a grownup and am not even sure what "chenille" is.
They're afraid of making references to pipes. Like, the smoking kind. I get political correctness. I understand that words have power and we need to be cautious in how we use them. But I doubt many kids are going to take up smoking because they made a llama out of something with a smoking reference in its name.

Although I'd be a little worried about the kid who made Aliens out of pipe cleaners, but for completely different reasons.

Extinct animals

2009-04-03T11:41:00.002-05:00

If you've got a few minutes, this is an interesting article that includes photographs of animals that have gone extinct.

Preach on, brotha...

2009-03-30T11:18:00.002-05:00

From xkcd.com:

Jesse Cook

2009-03-26T15:35:00.002-05:00

One of my more recent Internet discoveries (thanks, Laura!) is the awesomeness that is Pandora. This is one of those applications that really shows the power of what the Internet can be. You tell it a song or artist you like, and it goes out and finds music that sounds similar. Not just stuff from the same genre; most any online music streamer can do that. Every song in the Pandora database has been tagged with certain musical elements (based on the Music Genome Project), and the application draws from that database to play music that sounds like the input you made. I tire quickly of hearing the same music over and over, so being able to define a certain style and hear multiple artists is great. It’s the perfect place to discover new music that you would’ve never found otherwise. And it’s totally free.

Also, Pandora works through my Squeezebox, which is one of the coolest things ever. More about that in a later post.

One of the artists I found on Pandora was Jesse Cook. His music is described as rumba-Nuevo Flamenco with percussion and afro-latin influences. (And get this, he's a Canadian born in Paris. I KNOW!) His music is absolutely some of the coolest stuff I’ve ever heard. You can get a taste of it on Amazon, or just load up Pandora yourself and type in his name. Devout Baptists should probably avoid it, as you WILL want to dance.

Obama on Leno

2009-03-20T08:17:00.001-05:00

Say what you want about his politics, but the guy does have a certain charm about him...

Best advice ever given

2009-03-18T08:03:00.000-05:00

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape.
You don’t spit into the wind.
You don’t pull the mask off the ol’ Lone Ranger.
And you don’t mess around with Jim.

Thank you, Jim Croce.

Golden Buddha

2009-03-17T08:03:00.000-05:00

Golden Buddha by Clive Cussler

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I'm always wary of books by popular authors that are written with someone, such as this initial outing in the Oregon Files, written by CLIVE CUSSLER (with Craig Dirgo). Does this mean Cussler wrote it with Dirgo helping out from time to time, or (as I suspect) did Cussler create the universe and the concept, and then Dirgo actually wrote the book itself? Regardless, this first offering in Cussler/Dirgo's new series starring Juan Cabrillo left something to be desired.

The concept itself is sound: an undercover, high-tech super-boat and its crew sail around the world performing what are effectively mercenary missions. This is Pop-Tart reading - you can consume a lot of it in a small amount of time, but it's ultimately not very filling. While I like the premise, the text itself seems somehow cumbersome. There are a lot of characters, few of whom are fleshed out enough for the reader to keep straight. The storyline itself is pretty contrived (we're meant to believe twelve guys can take on the entire Chinese military?), but I can go with that. Mostly the book just seemed like so much fluff - a lot of words for very little return.

All that being said, I understand that Golden Buddha is the weakest in the series, so I might give it one more try and see if Cussler/Dirgo (or Dirgo/Cussler) can focus the storyline and characterization a little more in the next book. Until then, I think I'll go read a Dirk Pitt book - some pure, unadulterated Cussler.

View all my reviews.

Watching Watchmen

2009-03-16T12:02:00.002-05:00

Ann and I went and saw Watchmen last night. It is an admittedly high-quality film; the special effects are top-notch, and it's a very faithful representation of the book, which had an elaborate and very interesting storyline. It's also a very intense movie which certainly earns its R rating. This is not a movie I'd want to watch with my mother-in-law. I'm just sayin'...

If you don't know what Watchmen is, however, or have never read the book, I can't imagine that this movie would hold any appeal for you. My only draw was in seeing how the book itself was adapted for the big screen, and if I hadn't already read the book I don't think I would've been able to follow the storyline at all. Ann was a trooper and sat through all two hours and forty minutes with me, although we both agreed that I now owe her three chick-flicks to make up for it.

A possible future for technology

2009-03-08T14:48:00.002-05:00

It's been amazing to watch the steady progression of personal technology, especially over the last ten years or so. It's almost impossible to predict where we'll be in another ten - futurists have a way of being completely wrong about what's coming down the pipeline. Admit it: the types of technology we use today are completely beyond the imagination of someone living fifty years ago. I don't even know how you could describe "reading a blog on the Internet" to someone who doesn't even understand computers.

All that being said, I'd like to take a stab at predicting what technology might look like in the future. Specifically, I'm going to guess what sorts of technology my son will take with him to his freshman year of college. The Monkey just turned five in December, so he should be going to college 13.5 years from now, so I'm discussing what might be available to him in the summer of 2022. I'm going to assume that he'll have the higher-end of consumer electronics, which isn't too big a leap given his already evident proclivity for gadgets (and my tendency to be willing to purchase them).

As a point of reference, let's look at what sorts of technology were available 13 years ago, around the summer of 1996. At the time, the cell phone market was just beginning to take root in the US. I myself had a decently-powered computer (I think it was a 486) and it probably had a first-generation 3D graphics card. The first Palm Pilot was released in 1996 (although I didn't get one until late 1999); it had half a megabyte of onboard memory, almost laughable by any modern standard. All televisions were tube-based; the first flat-panel screens hit the market in 1997. The hard drive in my computer was about 500 MB in size, about 1/1000th what I have now. I'd never even heard of an MP3 file, although I was admittedly a little behind the curve on that one. The only Internet connection I'd ever used was dial-up.

Today I have almost continuous access to the Internet through my work and home computers, the wireless network at home with several devices connected, and my cell phone. The iPhone has changed the idea of a palm-held computer. My graphics card has as much onboard memory memory as that old hard drive, and my current hard drive holds 300 GB (with a planned upgrade to 1 TB). In fact, the smallest thumb drive available on Newegg, at 1 GB, costs less than five dollars. I challenge you to find a non-flat-screen TV for sale. And Stephen Colbert recently did a (quite funny) joke about how outdated dial-up Internet is.

Okay, so that's where we were, and that's where we are. Obviously much more could be said about how far technology has come, but you can surely come up with your own examples. So here are my predictions for what the Monkey will have with him when he starts college in 2022.

He will not carry a laptop or desktop. His only computer interface will be through a hand-held device, probably about the size of a cell phone. It will, of course, act as a cell phone, but it will also serve as every other computing device he needs. It will have the capability of interacting with a monitor and keyboard, probably wirelessly. He'll be able to walk up to any available workstation, consisting solely of a monitor and keyboard, and it will with little or no effort connect to his device and customize itself to his liking. He will have no other use or need for a separate computing device.

Chances are his data will not even be stored on this device, so it will have no need for internal storage. It will have an always-on connection to the Internet, and every bit of data he needs will be stored on remote servers. For example, he will not "buy" MP3s off a service; he will have a subscription that gives him access to his music, which will be streamed as required to his device when he needs it. Losing the device will be almost inconsequential; you just go buy another one, tell it who you are, and all your information is available. This sort of technology exists in a primitive form today. I use the Steam gaming service. I buy a copy of a game online and download it to my computer. If I go to another computer, I can log in to the service, download another copy of the game, and pick up where I left off.

There will be no difference between a computer and a television. Instead of waiting for a specific timeslot for a television program, the Monkey will simply be informed on his handheld device when the program is ready, and the next time he's near a monitor he can watch it through the device, again streamed realtime while he's watching it.

I suspect books will still exist as we think of them, but they will be far more rare. The Monkey will be used to reading books on his handheld or a monitor connected to the handheld. "Old-style" books will be reserved for particular needs: large color pictures, easy reference, or maybe just nostalgia.

To the Monkey, immediate access to any piece of information will be completely natural. Navigating the enormous amounts of information available on the Internet will be second-nature and he will be able to process the information in ways that are alien to me now (and probably will still be then).

Note that I'm not making any sort of statement on whether this technology is "good" or "bad." My simple point is that I think this is where technology is headed in the next decade or so. It seems far-fetched, but when you reflect on how far this sort of wizardry has progressed in the last 13 years, it doesn't seem too out there. I'll revisit this topic from time to time, but until then plan on meeting me back here in the summer of 2022 to see if I was even close to the mark.

FutureGeek

2009-02-26T15:44:00.000-06:00

The Monkey spent the afternoon inventing a walkie-talkie. It has an antenna, a movable switch and (not shown in this video) a solar-powered rechargeable battery. I'm not even kidding. It also has pretty good range, as apparently it can be used to talk to people in space. Pretty impressive specs for three bucks worth of plastic.

You may have to turn up the volume... apparently my phone doesn't have a great microphone:

The Monkey's new invention from cbalmain on Vimeo.

A single tear rolls down my cheek.

The Internet - the way it used to be...

2009-02-26T11:18:00.001-06:00

No matter what you think of Stephen Colbert's style or politics, it's hard to deny that he's a funny guy. This clip was on last night and had both Ann and me laughing pretty hard. It's also interesting to watch this clip with the understanding that my children will never get this joke.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

1997 Flashback

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Funny Political News

Christian Bale Parody
Joke of the Day

GraphJam

2009-02-25T20:04:00.001-06:00

I made this!

moar funny pictures

Is socialism bad? If so, why?

2009-02-21T08:03:00.000-06:00

With the election of Barack Obama and the implementation of his policies to shore up the worsening economy, I’ve heard a lot of people throw around the word “socialism.” I will freely admit that I do not understand economics; I have little education on the subject, just enough to know that it’s incredibly complex and that there are a lot of people who are way smarter than I am who still don’t understand what’s going on. So I ask these two questions in complete seriousness:

What exactly is socialism?
Why is it such a horrible thing?

People typically say things like, “Socialism will make us like France”, or worse, “Like Soviet Russia!” without really explaining these statements. Getting beyond the political ramifications of a socialist agenda, does it really make for bad economic policy? Should I expect my children or grandchildren to be standing in bread lines and buying Levis on the black market because of Obama’s alleged socialist agenda?

Lite Brite

2009-02-19T16:15:00.002-06:00

The standard modern Lite Brite ships with a small, sealed bag of 200 plastic pegs. However, if you allow a 5-year old to open the bag of pegs, and he does so with the bag upside down, and the pegs spill out onto the kitchen floor, the number of pegs will magically increase to 15,000.

Dancing Queen

2009-02-17T07:57:00.002-06:00

I've been terribly remiss in my posting lately. Things have been busy at work, the kids have been sick off and on, and Ann and I managed to get away for a cruise last week. I'll get back into the posting-groove soon but until then please enjoy this latest video of Vanilla Bean dancing...

Vanilla Bean dancing it up from cbalmain on Vimeo.

A good belly laugh

2009-02-02T08:03:00.000-06:00

Today for lunch we had grilled bratwurst. Normally the Monkey loves sausages, but he was a little wary this time. Ann served him some, he looked at it, and said, "What's this?" I said, "It's bratwurst." There was a pause, and then he said:

"Raw horse?"

I haven't seen Ann laugh that hard in a long time.

Books for the cruise

2009-01-26T08:03:00.000-06:00

Ann and I are going on a cruise in two weeks, sans kids (this is a vacation, not a family trip). During our last cruise, I managed to read three books cover-to-cover in seven days, so I figure that on this five-dayer I should be able to get through two pretty easily. Here's what I'm considering:

Joel Olsteen's Your Best Life Now. I know, I know - but here's the deal. People bag on this guy CONSTANTLY, and admittedly I do too. But to be honest, I don't really know what the guy's preaching, and it'd be interesting to know what the message is straight from his mouth. The only problem is I think I would be embarassed to be caught reading this by the pool.
Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope. Again, I know... but the fact of the matter is that this guy is going to be president for four to eight more years and I want to know where he's coming from without the filters of biased journalism.
The Last Colony. This is the third book in John Scalzi's sci-fi series, the first book of which I read on the last cruise and absolutely LOVED.

So besides these three, I'm at a loss. Any suggestions?

16 Things About Me

2009-01-24T14:27:00.003-06:00

Last week, T tagged me to come up with sixteen things about myself. After putting it off, here's my list:

1. I consider Raiders of the Lost Ark to be the greatest example of cinematic art ever created.
2. I have dived to 120 ft deep and climbed to the top of Mount Fuji, but otherwise I’m not really much of an outdoorsy person.
3. My favorite hobby is PC gaming, one I've enjoyed pretty much non-stop since we got our first computer in 1986.
4. If I could wear shorts every day of my life, I totally would.
5. I am married to the single most patient and understanding person on the planet.
6. I never believed the idea that kids were all that different, until I had two kids of my own who are totally and completely different.
7. I love to read. Lately I've been on a kick about polar and naval exploration and food history, although I always enjoy a good sci-fi. Unlike T, I can't handle reading more than one book at a time.
8. I am fortunate enough to work at a job that I consider to be just about the coolest in existence.
9. I will eat anything at least once.
10. I love sipping a good wine (I'm a horrible Baptist), although I probably wouldn't know a good wine from rotten grape juice if I were tested on it.
11. My idea of the perfect date: takeout Freebirds and a movie rental. Fortunately, Ann thinks that's a pretty good date too.
12. If I could choose how to die, I want to be hit by a meteor.
13. I can juggle three balls really well and three pins so-so.
14. I can't play a single musical instrument, although I'm a decent tenor.
15. I consider Lost to be the greatest television show ever made.
16. It's really hard for me to come up with 16 things about myself that anyone else is likely to find interesting.

How not to design electronics

2009-01-13T18:58:00.004-06:00

I'm sitting here on a phone conference with some people in Japan, using my home cordless phone connected to a headset. I'm at a desk, near a charging station, and the battery on the phone is showing low power levels. I'm not moving around and don't plan to, so I figured I'd drop the phone on the charger to make sure the battery doesn't die while I'm talking.

You totally know where this is going, don't you? As soon as I place the phone on the charger it disconnects the call. The call with about eight other people, most of whom are in Japan. What kind of electronics design prevents me from using a phone at the same time that I recharge it?! Come to think of it, I can't think of any other piece of gadgetry I own that doesn't allow me to operate it while it's being charged. This is also the same phone system that doesn't let me use two handsets on the same call (which my last cordless system did let me do). So if I'm in a call and the battery is running low, there doesn't appear to be either a way to swap to another phone or to charge the one I'm using.

AT&T E1813B user rating: 5 Stars of Sucking out of a possible 5.

Oh, yeah, and they're ugly as sin.

A Christmas conundrum

2009-01-11T08:03:00.000-06:00

Ann and I have never made a huge deal about Santa Claus. When I was a kid, my parents told me the truth about Santa when I was about six, and I recall thinking that I kind of already knew it was all a big myth. I want my kids to have enough fun with it to not ruin it for the other kids, but I also don't want them to ever have reason to question the REAL Christmas story.

A couple weeks before Christmas the Monkey and I had the following conversation:

Me: "Hey, buddy, you know Santa Claus isn't REALLY real, right?"

Him: "Yeah." (Long pause). "But if that's true, then who leaves the presents under the tree?"

Me: "Well, Mommy and I do."

Him: "But then who leaves the presents for you and Mommy?"

Me: "Mommy and I leave those presents too."

Him, after another long pause: "But then you know what the presents are."

Me: "Yeah, that's right."

At this point I made a critical error. I blinked. I imagined his confused little mind, and somehow thought I would make it better by blurting out:

"Unless Santa really does it."

Him: "Daddy, you're making this ALL up."

And that was the end of that conversation. He'd determined that I had no idea what I was talking about. About a week later, out of nowhere, he asked, "Daddy, who really leaves the presents under the tree? For real?" I said, "Mommy and I do." I guess he decided that I'd told him the truth this time, because he said "Okay," and that was that.

Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops

2009-01-09T08:03:00.000-06:00

Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops by James Robert Parish

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
An interesting, if somewhat dry, look into the decisions that resulted in some of the biggest movie flops in history. It's amazing how often people can see a major disaster coming and for whatever reason choose not to cut their losses while they can. Of course, this is a problem not relegated to the movie industry and I found myself trying to apply the lessons-learned from this book to my own projects. What am I working on today that I might someday look back on as being an obviously bad idea? Am I being blinded by pride or overcommitment or desire, so much so that I walk off a very evident cliff?

Parish's writing style tends to be a little dry with several sections of the book feeling like filler. He also has a very strange tendency to (over)use parentheticals - just like I did there. I can't tell whether it's a bad technique, but it tends to be distracting. And it'll be even MORE distracting now that I've pointed it out.

Also, Warren Beatty sounds like a real jerk. I'm just saying.

View all my reviews.

Random question

2009-01-08T21:51:00.002-06:00

What mythical creature would you most like to eat? Here are a few options:

Unicorn. I suppose it would taste a lot like horse.
Dragon. Crunchy on the outside, gamey on the inside.
Chinese dragon: The same, but with more MSG.
Mermaid. Particularly good when prepared as sushi.
Yeti: More hair than meat.
Leprechaun. Best when served with a side of Lucky Charms.

Feel free to come up with your own.

Videogames as art

2009-01-08T08:03:00.000-06:00

In the videogaming community, there's an ongoing debate as to whether games should be classified as art. Unfortunately the discussion usually comes up as a way to protect particularly graphic games, such as Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto franchise. The argument goes that since games are inherently art, they are protected by the First Amendment and thus their creation or distribution should not be limited by the government.

The idea that all games can be classified, and thus protected, as art is clearly ridiculous. Obviously, some photography is clearly art. Hardly anyone would argue that Ansel Adams' photos of the American West are anything less than artistic beauty. This picture, on the other hand, is not art:

That's a picture of my left foot that I just took. Movies provide a similar example: classics like Casablanca, high-quality animated films like Beauty and the Beast or just about anything created by Pixar would all qualify as art in my mind. Caddyshack, on the other hand - not so much. Although it is a phenomenally funny movie.

All this is to say that I recently completed a video game that I do think qualifies as art. Bioshock has been out for about a year and a half but, due to limitations with my computer, I didn't start playing it until about two months ago. Everything about this game is a testament to what games can be when they are crafted carefully and skillfully. It takes place in an underwater dystopia with an art deco/Ayn Rand-ian motif. (All screenshots come from Gamespot.com).

The art decoration is simply stunning - a world is created that is both fantastic and believable, with distinctly separate but consistent environments.

Keep in mind that the above screenshot comes from inside the game engine. This is what the game actually looks like when you play it.

I won't get into the storyline, but it should suffice to say that it is one of the best I've ever seen in a game, and rivals anything I've seen in a movie or even in most books. The mid-game twist was the best experience I've had in a game since Knights of the Old Republic.

Even the characters in the game are carefully scripted and created. The primary enemy boss, called a "Big Daddy," is amazingly realized as an overpowered drone in a deep-sea diving suit.

The world is populated by the standard shooter game cannon fodder, but also has unique personalities that you encounter and interact with that will leave you thinking about them for a long, long time.

From a technical standpoint, the game still holds up startlingly well even 17 months after it was released. The water effects are easily the best I've ever seen in a PC game, the lighting is well constructed and well utilized, and the scope of the environments is staggering.

All this is to say that Bioshock stands as a rare example of a game that clearly can stand as a work of art. Games in and of themselves are not intrinsically art, but this one truly exemplifies that careful crafting can result in a product that is far more than the sum of its parts.

The rough days are coming...

2009-01-06T11:11:00.003-06:00

Yesterday Ann came in to the kitchen and found Vanilla Bean looking like this:

Sure, I guess it's cute now, but in another ten years she's gonna want to be doing this for real. And Daddy won't be very happy about it...

Another smiley video...

2009-01-05T08:03:00.002-06:00

I know there's nothing worse than a blog that doesn't actually generate any NEW content, but merely posts links to other stuff on the Internet. That being said, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to show this video. The creator, Matt Harding, was sponsored by Stride gum to travel around the world and video himself doing this goofy dance - and then see if he could get other people to do it as well. The result is a strange but uplifting little video that showcases what sort of bizarre stuff the Internet can spawn. If you're not grinning fifteen seconds into the video, then you need to figure out where you left your soul.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Tea blends

2009-01-02T08:50:00.004-06:00

I recently created a tea-blend on Adagio - Earl Grey with a hint of vanilla. I've got it on order and it should arrive early next week. You can check it out here. I also ordered a blend called "Pirate's Spice," which combines vanilla oolong, pumpkin, and rum. If this goes well, I may try some other blends as well.

All I got for Christmas

2008-12-28T13:38:00.002-06:00

There aren't many better ways to know what people's perceptions of you are than to see what they got you for Christmas. Here's my loot-list for this year:

Three books: The Mammoth Book of Polar Journeys, Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops, and Life's Little Annoyances. Clearly I'm a reader, but not a particularly serious one.
The expansion for 1701 A.D., one of the most awesome PC games ever.
Power Grid, a bizarre-looking European strategy board game from the same company that made one of my favorites, Puerto Rico.
A Bluetooth headset, to satiate my inner geek.
An electric knife.
A teapot.

I'll let you make your own judgments as to what sort of person I am based on this list.

So what gift did you get that best fits your personality?

Life's Little Annoyances

2008-12-28T13:29:00.000-06:00

Life's Little Annoyances: True Tales of People Who Just Can't Take It Anymore by Ian Urbina

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
An interesting, albeit very quick, read, Urbina recounts stories of people who got fed up at the little annoyances of everyday life (excessive cell phone charges, tailgaters, telemarketers) and decided to do something about it. In general, the stories read more like accounts of grumpy people who are just being ornery, but a few of the entries are humorous and even useful. My personal favorite: the guy who adjusted the sprayer on his car's rear window to spray onto cars that are tailgating.

A moderately entertaining distraction, but not a book to approach too seriously.

View all my reviews.

Great commercial

2008-12-17T14:06:00.001-06:00

For some reason, this video makes me totally happy. The song is "Let Your Love Flow" by the Bellamy Brothers and I just downloaded it from Amazon.

Beards of Our Forefathers

2008-12-12T08:03:00.000-06:00

Wondermark: Beards of our Forefathers by David Malki

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wondermark is a webcomic written by David Malki in which he adds dialogue to reprints of Victorian-era panels. In principle, the idea sounds ridiculous, but the humor comes in applying modern-day issues and speech to what are, effectively, really old pictures. It's certainly a unique brand of humor, but I've found it significantly smarter than most webcomics out there (which isn't saying much), without being snooty or condescending.

Beards of Our Forefathers is just a print collection of the comics that have appeared online, with some commentary and additional content added by the author. It's a great, light-hearted, easy read that definitely draws out a few belly laughs.

View all my reviews.

The Areas of My Expertise

2008-12-10T08:35:00.001-06:00

The Areas of My Expertise, by John Hodgman

This is by far one of the most random, bizarre, and yet still funny books I've ever read. Hodgman (the PC from those "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" commercials) has written an almanac, in the old Benjamin Franklin style. The catch is: everything is completely made up. He talks about the discovery of the furry lobster, and recounts how hobos took over the country for several years at the middle of the 19th century. I know, it doesn't sound like it makes any sense, and that's because IT DOESN'T. If you could take the randomness of a Douglas Adams book and combine it with the journalistic integrity of Dave Barry, and then somehow make it even more bizarre, you'd have something approaching this book.

But here's the catch - it's still kind of funny. You get to reading, and you just sit there and shake your head because none of it makes any sense, but you keep reading, and the sheer ridiculousness starts to get to you. When you're reading his 400-entry list of hobo names, you start giggling once you get past the first hundred.

This book is NOT for everyone. You've got to be in a mood for something well-written but completely silly.

Pet peeves

2008-12-04T15:43:00.002-06:00

“Its” is a possesive pronoun. Example: “I took its candy and ate it while it cried.”
“It’s” is a contraction of “it is.” Example: “It’s not fair that I took its candy, but such is life.”
“Your” is a possesive pronoun. Example: “Give me your candy.”
“You’re” is a contraction of “you are.” Example: “You’re going to give me your candy or you’re going to receive a sound beating.”
“There” is used like “here.”
“Their” means “it belongs to them.”
“They’re” is a contraction of “they are.”
“i.e.” is an abbreviation of the Latin “id est,” meaning “that is.”
“e.g.” is an abbrevation of the Latin “exempli gratia,” meaning “for example.”
These two terms are not interchangeable.
“Thou” is a second-person prounoun, equivalent to “you,” but not when used as a direct object. Use it as you would use “I.” “Thou took my candy” is correct. “I took the candy from thou” is not correct. For that case you would use:
“Thee.” Equivalent to you when used as a direct object. Use it as you would use “me.” “I took the candy from thee” is correct.
“Thy” is a possesive pronoun, equivalent to “your.”

Not a geography major

2008-12-02T10:55:00.001-06:00

I just had the following exchange with a Sprint operator:

“I’d like to know how much it would cost to place a call to Austria from my cell phone.”

“Of course, sir, I can help you with that. Where did you say you wanted to call?”

“Austria.”

“Australia?”

“No, Austria.”

“Can you spell that, please?”

“A-U-S-T-R-I-A.”

“Okay, please hold, sir.”

Three-minute hold.

“Thanks for holding, sir. I have the information about your call to Aus… Austra.. Aus…”

“Austria.”

“I can’t even say it!”

“Yeah.”

Sigh...

2008-11-26T11:38:00.000-06:00

In case you don't know what I'm talking about...

How to Survive a Robot Uprising

2008-11-18T18:48:00.000-06:00

How to Survive a Robot Uprising [UNABRIDGED] by Daniel H. Wilson

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is one of those books that is presented very tongue-in-cheek, similar to The Zombie Survival Guide: what do you do when the robots begin to take over the world? Anyone who's seen a sci-fi film in the last, well, ever, knows that the day is coming.

The secret to these types of books, where a completely ludicrous situation is presented completely seriously, is to never ever blink. The author has to maintain the illusion that he's serious the entire time, even though we the readers know that he's not.

The difference between this book and The Zombie Survival Guide is that this one is actually educational: Wilson was a PhD candidate in robotics when the book was written, so the book actually describes real, present-day elements of robotics development and what the future might hold.

The book is a quick, easy read, and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in how robotics actually work, especially if you're willing to have a bit of a sense of humor about it.

View all my reviews.

I have a bad feeling about this

2008-11-18T00:39:00.002-06:00

I have a project here at work that will be fully realized at 3:00 pm, January 15th, 2009. I'm trying to assess the threats to that project, and I made the following estimates:

There are about 40 independent problems that could cause this whole thing to be a catastrophic failure.
I know of about 20 of these problems.
I understand 10 of them.
I am currently working to solve 4 of them.
I figure maybe two of them have any chance of being solved in time

We dance a lot at our house

2008-11-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

Aretha Franklin is a popular choice.

Kids dancing from cbalmain on Vimeo.

Now send me money

2008-11-14T11:45:00.002-06:00

The most awesome birthday gift ever

2008-11-12T21:50:00.002-06:00

Last week, for my birthday, Ann got me the most awesome birthday gift ever: clothes. Normally, clothes are the lamest gift possible (except for maybe deodorant - I actually got that as a gift once). But in this case, it was perfect.

Okay, let me explain. First, you have to watch the following clip from the classic comedy Three Amigos. To set the scene: it's El Guapo's 40th birthday, and he's feeling a bit self-conscious about his age, so Jefe is throwing him a party.

Three Amigos from cbalmain on Vimeo.

I was born on October 31st, 1975. So this year, for my 33rd birthday, Ann got me a sweater. And because it's such an inside joke for us, the inherent lameness of the gift is overcome by its staggering awesomeness. Thanks, babe - you rock.

What "Quantum of Solace" means

2008-11-11T13:14:00.005-06:00

The new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, comes out this week. Bond movie titles are often meaningless relative to the plot of the movie; this one however seems particularly bizarre. The title is actually that of a Bond short story that has nothing to do with the plot of the movie. In the story, Ian Fleming describes a Quantum of Solace this way:

"Quantum of Solace - the amount of comfort. Yes, I suppose you can say that all love and friendship is based in the end on that. Human beings are very insecure. When the other person not only makes you feel insecure but actually seems to want to destroy you, it's obviously the end. The Quantum of Solace stands at zero. You've got to get away to save yourself."

A quantum of solace is the smallest amount of feeling that a relationship requires to stay alive. Once that measurement reaches zero, there's nothing left to the relationship. Who knew that a Bond movie title could be so profound?

Oh, and QUANTUM is the name of the evil organization in the movie, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

72 hours

2008-11-05T01:49:00.003-06:00

Now that the election is over, here's what I hope for: 72 hours to get over it.

McCain fans, you've got 72 hours to mourn the loss, groan for what could have been, fear for what will be. Then, take down the yard signs, peel the McCain/Palin '08 stickers off the bumper of your Chevy, and get behind Obama. Because, for better or worse, he's the guy now, and if you don't get behind him, your fears may become self-fulfilling prophecies.

Obama fans, you've got 72 hours to celebrate, revel in the uniqueness of this moment, shout about the change that's coming. Then, take down the yard signs, peel the Obama/Biden '08 stickers off the bumper of your Prius, and move on. Because you can still screw this whole thing up if the spirit of divisiveness continues.

Mr. President-Elect Obama, you've got what you wanted. The American people have spoken, you've been given a mandate, and you've got a lot to prove now. I am very cautiously optimistic that you can pull this off, that you can raise our standing in the world and start to pull us out of this economic hole. You've been given the trust of our nation, now run with it. Prove to me this change you keep talking about is a good thing.

And Republican party, you've been given a mandate too. In four years, it's my sincere hope that you will present the American people with a good alternative, someone who people can embrace as much as they appear to be embracing Obama, someone who can be respected both by the nation and by the world.

And now, I shall step down from my soapbox.

Postcard #1 from the Wasteland

2008-10-30T14:56:00.002-05:00

Bethesda, the company that created Fallout 3, also developed Oblivion, another amazing RPG I played a couple years ago. One of their trademarks is to set the first level in a confined area, teach you a little about the game, and then turn you out into the Real World. Fallout 3 is no different.

The first 30 minutes or so of the game are spent in Vault 101, an underground labyrinth of tunnels. When you step out of the tunnel to look out at the world, the screen is bright white, as if you’re blinded by the light. This is the best part about the game, that moment when the expectation and excitement of the world you’re about to explore sets in. This is what I saw:

You can find a higher-resolution version of the picture here. Remember that ultimately I'll be able to go to every place you can see in this picture. Note the sign labeled “Scenic Overlook” in the foreground and the ruins of the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument way in the background. Apparently ads featuring these ruins had some people upset in Washington, D.C.

My character’s name is Plebius (a name I commonly use in these games). He’s a quiet type, but he’s handy with rifles and great at picking locks. I’ve made it over to the town of Megaton, which you can just see on the right side of the picture, and which has a live nuclear bomb sitting in the middle of it. Apparently I’ll ultimately get to choose whether to detonate the bomb or not. Plebius is kind of an anti-social type who likes explosions, so I suspect he’ll end up pushing the button.

Fallen

2008-10-30T08:03:00.000-05:00

Fallen by David Maine

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
David Maine's sophomore outing is just as engaging as his previous work,The Preservationist. This is the story of Adam and Eve, their banishment from the Garden, and the effects on them and their children, particularly Cain and Abel. This is the story of WHY. Why did Eve eat the fruit? Why did Adam eat it as well? Why did Cain hate Abel and ultimately murder him? The blanks are filled in, and the characters, so dimly understood from the Bible, are fleshed out.

Obviously this book is not canonical; it's truly a work of fiction. But it forces the reader to at least consider these characters as real people, people who were motivated by a difficult life and a lingering sense of failure. Adam and Eve are forced to spend hundreds of years of their lives living beneath the shadow of "what-if," and this shadow looms over their children as well. Cain and Abel are developed into two extremes: Abel the optimistic, blindly-trusting, perhaps dim-witted good son, and Cain the bipolar, brooding difficult one.

The book is constructed in a way that forces you to focus closely on what's happening. I won't give it away - you'll understand what I mean by the second or third chapter - but it's really an interesting way to write a book that I've never encountered before.

Once again, Maine has taken some very sketchy characters from the Bible and built a plausible if fantastic world around them. If you liked his first book, you'll like this one. The Book of Samson is now fully on my list as well.

View all my reviews.

Preparing for the Apocalypse

2008-10-28T08:39:00.004-05:00

I suspect that when many people think of video games, Super Mario Bros for the NES comes immediately to mind. That was truly a defining game for my generation and established a standard for years to come. Of course, EVERYONE remembers Pac-Man, the game that started the video game crazy of the early ‘80s. Was there anything cooler than those sit-down Pac-Man booths at Pizza Hut? And then there’s my Dad, who still believes that Janitor Joe is the pinnacle of interactive computer gaming.

We’ve come a long way since then. Today, Fallout 3 comes out.

Doesn't look much like Super Mario, does it?

To be honest, I never played Fallouts 1 or 2, but somehow I suspect this game will be incredible. Set in a post-apocalyptic Washington, D.C., the universe is completely open-ended. You can become any type of person you want: a sniper, a spy, a smooth-talker, a liar, the good guy, the bad guy, or anything in between. Fallout 3 was created by the same people who developed The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the game that holds my personal record for most time played; last I checked I was at about 120 hours. I love this type of role-playing, where you can go out and do anything you want to do and become anything you want to be. I strongly suspect this game will grab me by the throat and keep me engaged for a very, very long time. I’ll keep you updated on my travels. When I start playing tonight, instead of setting out on any particular quest, I’ll just start walking, say, north – and see what kind of trouble I can get into.

Parenting is HARD!

2008-10-16T08:47:00.000-05:00

Monkey: But Daddy, I want it to be dark now.

Me: Well, we have to wait for the sun to go down.

Monkey: I wish we had a remote control to make the sun go down faster.

Me: Well, God controls the sun, not us.

Monkey: How does He make the sun go down?

Me: It doesn’t really go down, the Earth just spins and so it LOOKS like the sun is moving.

Monkey: So how does God make the Earth keep spinning?

Me: Um, he started it spinning long ago and it just keeps going because of... um… (some mumble about rotational momentum).

Monkey: So how did he make it spin long ago?

Me: Umm, well, there were these accretions disks and it just kind of started spinning and… well… it’s complicated.

Ann: Nice recovery.

If Canadians didn't have Pilgrims...

2008-10-14T15:15:00.000-05:00

Then why do they have Thanksgiving?

You can't deny it

2008-10-11T08:03:00.000-05:00

Immaculate Conception of the Shark would make an awesome name for a rock band.

My idea of a great meal

2008-10-10T08:03:00.000-05:00

When I was growing up in Argentina, my dad would take me out on my birthday to get a parrillada mixta, which we called a "Guts 'n' Grease Galore Gala." It was a mixed grill of meats, some of them normal by American standards, some of them not so much. The exact meats that were served varied, but the picture below gives you a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about:

Picture used with permission from Buenos Aires Daily

Man, that was some good eatin'. I didn't really like the kidney or morcilla (seriously, you've not seen gross till you've seen someone spread morcilla on bread - thanks for THAT image, Dad). But I could eat molleja and chinchulines all day long. I even got a parrillada once that had "seso" on it - look that one up. In case you didn't know, molleja is sweetbread, which is apparently the thymus gland. Sounds a lot more disgusting when you call it that.

True story: my aunt was scheduled for some type of intestinal surgery, so my dad went down to the butcher shop and bought a pile of raw chinchulines, effectively a bunch of small intestine. He grilled them up, took a picture of us chowing down on them, and sent the picture off to his little sister. An idea that's twisted, yet so awesome - sort of like the chinchulines themselves.

I truly miss this type of food, and believe me, it's not something available around here. Throw in some of that incredibly hard, crusty bread and you've got yourself a great birthday meal. I'd pay a lot for that these days...

Yeah, I'm pretty much that cute.

2008-10-08T21:40:00.000-05:00

Vanilla Bean dancing from cbalmain on Vimeo.

You've taken your first step into a larger world.

2008-10-08T08:03:00.001-05:00

On Saturday, the Monkey and I watched the first episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the new animated show on Cartoon Network. I've been reluctant to introduce him to Star Wars up to this point - it's got some decently scary stuff, and the themes would certainly be over his head. I'd decided I would wait until he's six or so before he comes face-to-face with Lord Vader, but this cartoon has given me an out.

It's a goofy, definitely-kid-oriented cartoon - and we both love it. We can both appreciate the awesome "lightsaver" combat, and it doesn't help that I stop the show every three minutes to explain the oh-so-elaborate plot. I had to explain that Count Dooku is the bad guy, and then explain that he's trying to take over the galaxy, and then explain that the galaxy is sort of like the whole world, only bigger. His favorite character is Yoda, who he calls "the little guy."

Now I just need to convince Ann to let him dress as Yoda for Halloween, I'll break out my Obi-Wan outfit, and it will truly be a glorious day.

Can't have it both ways

2008-10-07T23:05:00.000-05:00

An interesting set of quotes from Senator McCain during tonight’s debate:

“I'm going to ask the American people to understand that there are some programs that we may have to eliminate.”

About two minutes later, he said:

“I'm going to tell you Americans we'll get to work right away and we'll get to work together, and we can get them all done, because that's what America has been doing.”

So which is it, man? Are we going to have to eliminate programs, or are we gonna get it all done? Because, you know, it really can’t be both.

Tina Fey was BORN for this role...

2008-10-06T12:05:00.001-05:00

Awesome reason to vote for McCain

2008-10-02T15:06:00.003-05:00

This article on CNN claims the following about how Maine Republicans are responding to Palin:

"Local Republican officials told CNN they were thrilled to have Palin on the ticket, saying her accent and love for guns made her someone independents and Democrats uncomfortable with Sen. Barack Obama could relate to."

What better reason could there be to vote for someone than that their running mate talks funny and likes weapons? Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you your next President of the United States:

Who will win the November election?

2008-09-29T08:33:00.003-05:00

I added a little poll to the right side of this page: who do you think will win the presidential election? Notice that I'm not asking who you think should win, but who you think will win. And if you're one of those, "YEAH! RON PAUL '08!! HE'S GOIN' ALL THE WAY TO THE WHITE HOUSE!" types then just don't even bother voting.

Things I just don't get

2008-09-26T12:11:00.002-05:00

You know how sometimes there are pop culture phenomena that just don't make sense to you? I mean, I'm sure these make sense to SOME people, just not to me.

Tila Tequila
Crocs
George Carlin
Heavy metal
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Ape-hanger handlebars
Paul Shaffer
Combovers

Star Wars: Outbound Flight

2008-09-25T08:03:00.000-05:00

Star Wars: Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Anoter run-of-the-mill Star Wars book, pumped out to appease the Star Wars masses (myself included). It's not that it's a bad book, it's just that it's not really good. Sure, it gives General Thrawn's origin story, and it fills in some of the blanks between Episodes I and II. But ultimately it's just that - filler.

Zahn is forced to work within the content already predetermined by the movies. As with any prequel material, the fate of the main characters is known. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are never in any real danger, since we both know they have to show up for the next movie. The other Jedi are completely expendable, since they'll either die now or die at the end of Episode III. And, of course, we know Thrawn will succeed since he's the star of Zahn's classic Thrawn trilogy of novels, which really set off the Expanded Universe in 1992.

I suppose the point of a book like this is not to know WHAT happens, but HOW it happens. Zahn is able to set up a few interesting scenarios, and he really shines when describing massive space-battle scenes. His description of the political machinations onboard Outbound Flight are interesting, if ultimately irrelevant to the central plot.

Overall, not a bad read, but I would only recommend it for the most hard-core and completist of Star Wars mythology fans.

View all my reviews.

The coolest guy I've ever met

2008-09-23T08:04:00.000-05:00

I recently had the honor of meeting Gene Kranz, arguably the most famous flight director in NASA’s history. In case you don’t know who I’m talking about, he was played by Ed Harris in the movie Apollo 13.

Gene Kranz

Not Gene Kranz

For a NASA geek, meeting Gene Kranz is about as cool as it gets. This would be like meeting the Pope if you’re Catholic, or John Wayne if you’re my dad. Kranz was the guy in charge of mission control during the first Moon landing and during the Apollo 13 ordeal. He set the standard for how manned spaceflight mission control is done, and many of his philosophies are still being used today.

We’d gone to Cheddar’s for dinner and I saw him and his wife eating at a nearby table. I summoned up enough courage to go over and introduce myself. Despite the fact that I was interrupting his dinner, he was extremely friendly, shook my hand, and asked me about my work at NASA. We only talked for about 30 seconds, but I was impressed that a guy as famous as he is was willing to put down his fork to talk to a relative nobody for a few seconds.

A geek project

2008-09-20T10:48:00.009-05:00

Someday, when I have all the money I could ever want to throw away, it'll be time to build my ultimate geek retro-gaming console cabinet. I'll collect all the consoles I've ever owned into one place, buy the best games I ever had on it, and spend some time reveling in the joys of old-time video gaming.

Starting at the bottom would be the Atari 2600 - what most people probably remember as their first console.

Everything about this console screams early-'80s cheese. I mean, faux-wood on a video game console?! That thing looks like my aunt's old station-wagon. I still remember when my dad brought this home for me when I was six years old. It had the horrific slider-switch in the back that allowed you to switch from the antenna input to the console input. Apparently there was a time when TV manufacturers didn't think TVs would ever need more than one input (I think my current TV has something like seven). I cut my teeth on the classic Atari game Combat, which looks ridiculously primitive by today's standards but was freaking awesome at the time. This was the console that ended up getting packed up and taken to Argentina, and thus was my only gaming console until we came back to the US when I was 13. Seven years on one console. My mom probably made me give it away to some poor kid, along with all my Star Wars toys. A single tear rolls down my cheek...

Must-have games: H.E.R.O. That's it - no other game would be required.

Next up in the retro-gaming cabinet would be, of course, the Nintendo Entertainment Console, or NES. This is what most people still think of when you say "Nintendo."

I VERY specifically remember receiving this one. We'd been overseas for four years, and coming back to the US when I was 13 was like summer camp, a birthday party, and Christmas morning all rolled up into one. I'd told my parents that the two things I wanted to get when we got home were a skateboard and an NES. They got me both (trying to make up for giving all my stuff to poor kids, no doubt). The morning after we got back to the States, I opened this bad boy up and plugged it into my grandparents' television. I still recall the distinct joy of playing Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt for the first time. I mean, the console shipped with a gun! How awesome was that?

Must-have games: Contra (duh) and Double Dragon, both received Christmas Eve 1989 at my grandparents' house.

Oh, and one more bit: I got my NES in the summer of 1989. It'd been released in the US in 1985. It's not entirely clear to me why this discrepancy wasn't evident at the time, although I suppose being isolated in South America for four years helped.

The NES was my gaming standard until I graduated from high school in 1994 and came back to the US for the final time. I'm not sure what happened to it, but I suspect some poor kid got it too. Anyway, the next console in my retro-gaming rack is a slight discrepancy in that I never actually owned one. During college, my sister had one as did my fiancee's roommate, so I spent a lot of time playing the Sega 16-bit Genesis:

It's too bad Sega got out of the console business after the Dreamcast, because the Genesis was AWESOME.

Must-have games: Aladdin and Biohazard Battle (which I now own emulated on the Wii).

After I graduated from college, I decided it was time for me to get a grownup console, so the next one in my rack would be the PS One:

To be honest, I didn't really play it all that much - I've always been more into PC games, and the Playstation has got to be the polar opposite of what I enjoy about gaming. It's more arcade-y, action-y, fighting games, and as I've aged I've developed a stronger taste in strategy oriented games. I kept the console for a few months and ended up re-selling it on eBay. One thing about the version that would go in my retro-gaming cabinet: it has to be the PS One version, pictured above, not the standard Playstation. Because look at that thing. It's sexy.

Must-have games: Masters of Teras Kasi. Widely considered one of the worst fighting games ever made, but I played it a ton, and you could play as Princess Leia in her steel bikini, so what's not to love?

The final entry in my retro-gaming cabinet would be my current console, the Nintendo Wii.

I won't make any final statements on what my must-have games for this console would be, but I suspect Force Unleashed might be on there.

To be fair, except for the Wii games, I could probably get every game on this list emulated for free on my PC. But the point is not to have the games themselves, the point is to have the consoles that I remember so fondly from the past 25 years. So one of these days, I'll place a few hundred dollars worth of bids on eBay, build a five-tiered cabinet, and reserve an entire weekend to relive the past.

PS: Mom, if you're reading this, I just thought of a great way for you to make up for having given away all my stuff to poor kids.

MY translation

2008-09-18T13:18:00.003-05:00

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal."
-Matthew 6:19-20, New American Standard Bible

Here's the Modern Electric Monk Translation version of the verse:
"You know all that junk you've got in your house? Yeah, well, there's a pretty decent chance that something like, oh I dunno, a hurricane could come through and mess it all up. Not that it's bad to have that stuff, just maybe don't put too much stock in it. Instead, think about putting your investments into a more secure portfolio, like one that NO ONE COULD EVER TAKE AWAY. Yeah, think about it."

You want me, Ike? Come and get me!

2008-09-12T19:47:00.003-05:00

We're holed up at my in-laws in Sugar Land, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the monster known as Ike. My brother-in-law, his wife, and their baby are here, so the nine of us are spread out all over the house. We've already gone through a game of Ticket to Ride; next on the list is Puerto Rico. We've got enough food to feed a football team, and enough water to last us well into January. There's nothing left to do but wait.

Best part so far: we've started a pool to bet on when the power is gonna go out. I think it'll be two in the morning.

Spore unleased

2008-09-09T06:36:00.005-05:00

I've looked forward to Spore, the new release from Will Wright, longer than any other game I can remember. It was originally announced more than three years ago and news has trickled out regularly ever since then. I finally got my copy on Sunday and, I gotta say, it's pretty stinkin' cool.

I've always enjoyed Wright's games. I played the first version of SimCity on our PC when I was a kid, and I stuck with the series even through the almost impossible SimCity 4. I was hooked on The Sims for quite a while, and it still is the only PC game I've ever gotten Ann to play. I still remember the Christmas break (long before children came along) when we would take turns: one of us would work on house projects while the other would play The Sims. After an hour, a timer would go off and we'd switch places.

Spore is definitely a wide game - spanning the evolution of a lifeform from single-celled organism to galactic dominator - but it doesn't seem to have the depth of something like SimCity. To call it a strategy game, thus putting it in the same category as something like Civilization or Sins of a Solar Empire would be a gross mislabeling. The creation tools are astoundingly complex while still being easy to use. It remains to be seen whether this game will have the longevity of Wright's other works. Will I still be playing it in two months, or six months, from now? Will the user-created content provide enough incentive to keep coming back for more? Will I drop 30 bucks every few months for the expansion packs? It's hard to say. But what I can say is that I wish I could ditch work and go home to play right now!

One editorial comment: there's been a lot of badmouthing of this game because of its DRM process. I hate DRM as much as the next guy. I've never bought a song off iTunes because I felt their process was far too heavy-handed. But knocking this game in general, and specifically the tactic of flooding Amazon's ratings board with negative reviews, is completely uncalled-for. I guarantee you that most of the people who gave it negative ratings never even played the game - they were basing their judgment solely on the presence of DRM. And I would guess that the vast majority of people who buy and play the game legitimately will never encounter the DRM block as an issue. This is another case of the Internet getting people all riled up over nothing.

More details on my creations are forthcoming, but for now, enjoy this little widget showing my first character, the Vengari.