Books I'm Reading

One of my pet peeves is reading more than two books at once. They end up laying around everywhere. That said, I am currently in the middle of at least five:

1) Deception Point by Dan Brown. Like his other non-Robert Langdon thriller Digital Fortress, this one is fast-paced and fairly intelligent, but not nearly as engaging as the ones with the driving character of Langdon. Brown's bookshelf contains only 5 selections; this finishes out my DB reading list, with Angels & Demons being my favorite of his.

2) Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz. Okay, I haven't really started it yet, just read the first few chapters to see what it is like. I recently burned through Odd Thomas, my first foray into Koontz, and it instantly became one of my favorite novels. I have always had a sneaking suspicion that I would enjoy Koontz's work, but have never read any until now. (Well, except for the Christmas book he wrote with his dog!)

3) The Complete Hitchhikers Guide [To The Galaxy] by Douglas Adams. I thought this was hilarious when I was younger. I hope it is not a sign that I am getting too old, but this time around I find the humor to be mildly amusing at best, and very contrived. Oh, well, "Don't Panic."

4) Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard. Proof that the American Dream is very much alive and well, if you know what the dream is. It is a positive rebuttal to the expose Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, which I read previously. While Ehrenreich takes the negative view that the little guy just can't get ahead, Shepard goes out and proves otherwise. I do think that both novels are entertaining and each serves a purpose. Nickel and Dimed does a great job revealing the psychology of low wage workers and employers. It is very interesting to read the two sequentially.

5) The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell. I had never heard of this guy, but I recently read Pirate Latitudes by the late, great Michael Chrichton, possibly the most purely entertaining book I have ever read. I was in the mood for some more historical fiction, and Costco had the 5th book in this series for sale. Since I wanted to start at the beginning, I headed for my local public library. (Also the same way I discovered Odd Thomas. Book #4 in that series is currently out.)

Now I just have to tell myself not to start any more books until I finish these!

The Coolest Video On YouTube

If you haven't seen it yet, you owe it to yourself to watch the video for This Too Shall Pass by the band OK Go. The group that produced the treadmill choreography" video has outdone themselves with this warehouse-sized Rube Goldberg Machine. The machine is timed to the music and the action becomes larger and more chaotic as the video progresses. The cinematography is great, and the video was done entirely in one take. To top it off, it's not a bad song either!

Giving Up on Twitter

I have had the sneaking suspicion for a while now that twitter is completely, totally, utterly useless. Yes, that is probably overly redundant, but I think it gets the point across. As I review my twitter usage, I find that I mostly use it for updating my statuses on other sites: Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Well, I rarely use MySpace (last time I logged in was circa 1987) and I don't want my Facebook status to be the same as my LinkedIn (supposed to be more professional, you know...)

I am following a few friends, who apparently do the same thing with their statuses, so I can just check them on Facebook. I am following some retail sites (NewEgg and Woot) but I realized that I don't want to buy anything; when I do, I can just go to their websites.

I think that as the technology evolves, twitter or something like it could become useful, but it is currently just one more distraction. So, I am pulling the plug. After I post this, I am deleting my twitter account. I don't think I will miss it.

Julie & Julia & James?

Kristin bought me a copy of the Julia Child cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" for valentines day! We watched Julie & Julia a few months ago, and it is a cute, inspiring movie. I always enjoy seeing examples of people who can find their passion in life. For Julia Child, it was cooking. For 'Julie' it was writing. For me? I am still trying to find that perfect recipe. Pun intended.

Should I repeat the process of Julie & Julia, cooking every recipe in Julia Child's cookbook in a one year time-span, to see how difficult it really was, and to learn something about myself in the process? Well, probably not, but I am looking forward to cooking some of the recipes and documenting the results here.

Inglourious Basterds Review

Viewing Medium: DVD (redbox)

Previously Seen: No

My Rating: A-

My Tagline: Good clean Nazi-killing fun

My Recommendation: If you like Tarantino in general, just go ahead and buy this one...

I enjoyed almost every minute of this latest Tarantino work. From the very beginning, he lets the acting shine through, utilizing close-ups and long takes for a feeling of tension the whole way through. Often he will focus on one character's reaction to a scene, rather than capture the entire scene. This gives it a very personal feel.

The title and promoting of he film is somewhat misleading, because the plot follows three separate but converging attempts to kill Nazis, not just those of Brad Pitt's basterds.

The acting and cinematography were above average all around. Brad Pitt was fun to watch, although his best lines were already viewed in the trailers for the film. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the charming yet sinister Col. Landa played by Christoph Waltz. He definitely stole the show, which has already earned him several awards, and he definitely has my vote for Best Supporting Actor.

My ONLY complaint is that QT shot this film in some places as if it were another Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill. It's so good that it does not need to be interrupted by his standard character-intro sequences, or by grating, annoying soundtracks during the violent scenes.

Overall, it was good clean Nazi-killing fun, with superb acting and direction. The way that the different storylines came together could have been reconciled better. (There are three unrelated conspirator plots that converge on the same location, and apparently ALL are successful, without endangering the others?) I rate this film "91 out of 100 Nazi scalps."

First Movie Seen In 2010: "2012"

Viewing Medium: Theater
Previously Seen: No
My Overall Rating: D
My Tagline: What can I say, Avatar was sold out.
Recommendation: Skip it.

This was truly a disaster movie. It was also ABOUT a disaster! I seriously think '2012' was the most predictable movie I have EVER seen. *Disclaimer: I have never seen 'Free Willy;' Please don't tell me what happens...* Yes, I expect the basic plot to be predictable in a movie like this, so I can forgive that if the filmmakers offer something new. This movie offered nothing new. The characters and scenarios could have been picked out of a catalog. "Estranged ex-wife and kids, check! Somber president, check! Misguided government official, check!"

The visual effects, which I thought would be the reason to see this film, were decent, but didn't impress me very much. The predictability killed any excitement from the action. The movie was scattered with many extraneous characters (such as the scientist's father) which were obviously intended to create emotions for the main characters (and the audience) when killed off. It didn't work.

Another major drawback is that throughout the flick, the characters' survival is mostly by luck, not because of their own heroic efforts. Sure, they did some good driving, flying, driving again, and then flying again, and then driving again, then swimming, then finally boating to escape the end of the world! But if the earthquake/fireball/tsunami/etc. had been just a few feet closer they would have been toast many times.

Overall, I was bored by the predictability. In this film about cataclysmic violence, the producers would have been more than justified in killing off some unexpected characters, even characters that the audience likes. But first they would have to create some good characters, so I guess that's out!

Now the fun part: I pick apart holes in the plot. ***SPOILER ALERT***

When John Cusack's character brings the kids back early from camping at his ex-wife's request, she invites him for breakfast. He says he's late for work. If he ended he camping trip early, he should still be on vacation.

As mankind is getting ready to evacuate, the Somber President(tm) stays behind to "warn the people." His warning doesn't save anyone (he doesn't even give anyone his place on the escape ship) and he doesn't appoint a new leader, which causes predictable power struggles, endangering humanity's survival.

At the end of the film the floodwaters recede after only 27 days, and they head for Africa to rebuild. I doubt the continent would be habitable any time soon, specially after the flooding and elevation changes they describe.

The governments of 46 different nations kept secret the near-term destruction of earth and the construction of at least 7 super-cruise-liners for 3 years. From the look of the film, these are bigger than aircraft carriers, which take 7 years to build. Here is a good article that breaks down some of the challenges of building such a ship. Even if it was financed by billionaires as in the film, the ships would require an ever-expanding circle of secrecy to build, exponentially increasing the chance of discovery. The more people who know the secret, the more escape tickets you have to provide, and the more worthless currency becomes. What good is a billion euros after the end of the world?

The Facebook Rebellion

Manifesto: We must have an open social stream standard. Something that does for social media what HTML does for the World Wide Web. Imagine if Facebook or something like it was not owned by just one company. Imagine if you didn't have to look at ads just to see what your friends were up to. Imagine if you could choose whatever interface you wanted to view your social stream, and sort the data however you wanted. What if there was a singular way to access your entire social network without being captive by a particular company or site. What if there were multiple, customizable interfaces available to view your social stream?

Is Facebook getting too big for its britches? It is already trying too hard to control the data, the users, the interface, and to compete with twitter, instead of Embracing it. Twitter itself is a good start: LinkedIn and MySpace are already syncing status updates with it, which is cool. But what about syncing contacts, pictures, videos, links, blog posts, documents, projects and everything else? An open social standard would allow ANYTHING to be shared, across different social networks.

My solution: Still use Facebook for now. Still use other social sites until something better comes along. Any true 'content,' I will post somewhere else as well as Facebook. Why should Facebook alone get the sole benefit of our collective contacts and content? I will link to my content on twitter, and Facebook status.

I will still use Facebook for what it's best at: finding and keeping in touch with friends, old and new!