Flux Capacitator

Well Sunday, in celebration of the restoration of power, I went with a friend to see Aeon Flux at the movie theater. Aeon is based on a series of MTV animated shorts from around 1995. I remember when they were on, and I remember how very strange they were. The idea that someone could take those disjoint story pieces and surreal setting, and create a whole movie, without requiring you to smoke something before seeing it, sparked my interest. I’ll ramble on about it shortly or longly.

I want to mention the appropriateness of Aeon’s surname. Flux is an interesting word. It is a flow of material or force, a change in force, or something that facilitates a flow or change. And for those that are uninitiated, that is exactly what Aeon is. She is an assassin: an instrument of change and changing herself.

I want to mention how I much liked the original series. It was one of the first series I ever watched that demonstrated some of the animation and plot types that frequent anime. The surreal and discontinuous nature of the series always made it a must watch for me.

As for the movie, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot, except for Charlize Theron. I wondered how someone could make a movie out of the near chaos that was the original series. However, the plot for this movie is much better than I expected. There is continuity, but there is also an air of confusion at the beginning that slowly clears. The world of lies that in which the character lives dissolves around her until the truth is revealed. The she changes the world. Flux.

I liked it a lot more than I was expecting to. I liked all the little things that paid homage to the original series, like the characters, devices, and settings. If you liked the original series, or like anime of various types, then you should like this movie. I think the 12% on Rotten Tomatoes is unnecessarily harsh. The users gave it a 64% instead, and that’s a wide gulf. I personally think it should have gotten about 34% on RT. Therefore I recommend all Aeon Flux and anime fans see the movie at a matinee showing. If not then it is definitely a rental. I might even have to add the DVD to my collection.

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The Wave Functions are Runnin’

Yes my friends I am writing this from the comfort of my own LazyBoy in my living room. That is correct. Duke Power has managed to get Franklin’s old friend to visit me once more, carrying all the joys and costs of said visits. The heat is running and the lights are on. The DSL is obviously working, but the phone isn’t. That may seem strange, but it isn’t the first time this has happened. The last time our phone line was cut. The phone company repair man said he had no idea how our DSL was working unless we were inductively piggybacking on someone else’s line. We are nothing if not odd here at The Manly Manor. So I write to express the subtle joy of peeing in the warm glow of incandescent lighting. And to indicate that I must now go and replenish certain foodstuffs that alas did not make it through these difficult times unscathed.

Woo Hoo. POWER.

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Damn electrons

So I’m sitting at work right now. As a favor to someone I offered to come into work in their stead. Yes I know that today is Friday. So I have scanned somewhere around 1500+ “bubble in the whole mark” tests in the past few hours. I plan on using this time in some interesting way next week, though I’m not sure how yet. The friend I shall extract future favors from. It may include some form of alcohol.

In case you were wondering, no there is no power at my house. I imagine all of the easily spoilable items in the fridge are doing there bacterial cha-cha right now. There are still hundreds of thousands of people in the Carolinas without power. I don’t mind the power off so much. What is annoying is that it is our two streets that are out, and 99% of the rest of the town has power. One you get out of town people start having problems again, but in town it’s just about only us. It’s annoying to see street lights all around your house, but to be denied the stored energy of some electrons yourself.

I awoke Friday morning to a 42 degree Fahrenheit house. I could see my breath. It was lovely. I did manage to use some Sterno cans to heat a pan that I used to heat my sheets up before I got into bed. I thought that was rather smart, if I do say so myself.

Last night I stayed at my sister’s place in G’ville. She had just gotten power back yesterday and offered to put me up for the night. So I had to drive back to Clemson today to run these blasted tests. But on the bright side, I got my mother a Christmas present while I was out. My mother has not needed anything for Christmas for the past 10 years, and it is always a challenge to come up with something. But now that is taken care of. And now I am going to rest my eyes.

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Sitting at Home, Originally

Well I’m sitting at home this morning because it’s freezing rain outside. Currently the University is on a 2 hour exam delay. Yeah the timing sucks. The employees are under a Plan A condition. There is a Plan A and B. Plan A is get to work when you feel you can safely travel, and you will be docked annual leave or simply not be paid for the time you aren’t there. Plan B is that the offices are closed, except for essential personnel, and you will be docked annual leave or not be paid. I’m waiting for all the 8 o’clock people to go by and then I will go. Hold on a minute…

Ok so a big branch just fell off my neighbor’s tree into my yard. I may let the landlord take care of that. The power is flickering occasionally. The landlords are supposed to have someone come by to put more insulation in the attic today or tomorrow. They were supposed to clarify which day yesterday, but today doesn’t look good. The reason is that there is about 2 inches of insulation in the attic. I’ve been trying for 3 years to get them to add insulation.

Oh shit. A transformer just exploded down the street. Now there is no power at the house. I guess it’s time to go to work. Cable was out, hence wasting time writing this. However, DSL was still running just fine. That’s one of the reasons I like DSL. It seems more dependable. But since the power finally went out, there isn’t any way to post. So off to work I go.

Now I’m at work. Roads are fine. There seems to be branches and trees down all over the place. I got to my usual morning work building, and I get an e-mail saying I need to go to my afternoon place. Gol dangit. Now I have to go back out and switch buildings.

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I like games. Yes I do.

I like games. How about you?

Ars Journals had another nice link up to PBS about a page they have up about gaming myths. The page is actually a small piece of a much larger pie about gaming history and influence. It’s actually a really good page, and as a plus it’s PBS. It does a good job of debunking the common myths non-gamers seem to have about gamers.

I give it another 10 years for the gaming generation to grow a little older and the whole controversy will have shifted to something else. It always strikes me as funny and sad that people can’t look at history and tell that gaming is the exact same thing that happened to television, hot rodding, and all sorts of other new activities that youth embraced more than their parents.

I could rant on about this subject, but the article covers it pretty much.

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Friggin belt

Friggin’ dryer belt broke last night so that the drum stopped turning. Of course it was during the first load. Luckily my neighbor let me use his dryer. I took the belt off and the damned thing just snapped. There didn’t seem to be any unusual wear, burns, or overheating. It looked like someone grabbed it and pulled. I’ve got to try to get a new belt now. Hopefully it won’t take long to get here.

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An Extensive Wardrobe

I went to see Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe yesterday with some friends. Another friend of mine had already seen it. I’ve never actually read the books. They are one on the long list of books I didn’t read as a child that I must try to fit in somewhere. Anyway, let me ramble on about the movie. I’ll try to refrain from spoilers.

Basically, there isn’t much to spoil. It’s about four siblings that travel to a magical land called Narnia. They meet some people, do some things, and overcome some other things. That about covers it, without actually covering it.

It’s interesting because the movie wasn’t as jam packed and jelly tight as I have gotten used to in movies based on fantasy books. However, looking at the book of slightly over 200 pages, the size of the 7 book set, or the 528 page complete set in one book, I realize that this book is nowhere near the Herculean size of the Potter (Holy crap look at that price. Hmmmm.) or Lord of the Rings (Dang look at that price too. That’s why book stores are evil places.) series. I actually found this slow pace to be rather refreshing. I have noticed that the HP movies have become increasingly fast paced and abridged, thought I haven’t read them either. I’ve felt like I was watching an action film or I was on a rollercoaster in the last one. It’s not good when you can tell things have been cut out in the transition from book to movie, even when you haven’t read the book. It’s actually to the point of being confusing and distracting. I hope they plan on splitting the next book into 2 parts or something to combat this. I’d hate to see a good series go bad. TLOTR wasn’t too bad about this, but those were 2.5 – 4 hours long for each movie. This one was about the right speed for a children’s book/movie.

I was reading something about C. S. Lewis a few weeks back and it said that he hadn’t wanted movies to be made about the books, especially by Disney. I can’t find the original place I read that but here is one thing I did find with limited search time. Not having read the book I can’t comment on the validity of the Disney interpretation. (All movies based on books are interpretations.) I will say one thing, given the greatly reinterpreted, sanitized, humorized, abridged, and sell your soul types of movies Disney was making at the time, and continues to make, I don’t blame him for not wanting it put on the screen. Given that, I have one thing to say. This is probably one of the least Disneyfried^© movies I have seen in a long time. On top of that, the CGI done for the animal characters was top notch. I had to keep telling myself that that wasn’t a lion. Plus the transition from CGI to real object for touching or laying on didn’t show any of the usual weird color or textural changes that are often evident. I give it an A+ on almost everything, except the mouths of some of the minotaur as they roared. I also agree with Scanime that the lack of blood was interesting, but it only really became apparent after one thing, that I won’t mention.

So, I enjoyed the movie. I recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy. I also recommend it for children, over the age of 8. Younger than that it’s up to the parents to know what their child can handle. I say for the lovers of fantasy and normal pacing, it’s well worth the price of full admission. For people who merely like good movies I recommend the matinee showing. I think this one might have to go on the DVD purchase list. I can’t wait to see if there are any good extras.

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Woo Hoo South Carolina

Ars Technica had a nice article about the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's review of the science education standards for the 49 states. South Carolina flew by with an A for it's science standards in K-12. In fact SC is on the front page of the review as one of the standards other states can look at as ways to improve. While the report is on standards not execution, I like to take a little pride in SC at least setting it’s bar pretty high.

Anyway, Woo Hoo. Way to go SC.

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Know your History

Well it’s that time again. After much ado and waiting, I finally finished reading A History of Knowledge by Charles Van Doren. It took me a while because of other things I was doing and reading at the same time. I should e done with the requirements for Materials for Automobile Bodies very soon as well. I’m on the verge of starting Cryptonomicon, but that one is going to take a while. The friggin thing is 1168 pages and like 8 point font. It’s insane. I’ll probably have to throw another book in the middle of that too just to break it up. But enough of that rambling, lets get on with the new rambling.

I’ve read a few books in my day, and this is one. Bad joke. I bought this book on sale, and I’m glad. I don’t recommend its purchase, but I do recommend it for reading. That is if you like the history of ideas.

This book should really be a History of Western Knowledge. It’s pretty Eurocentric in nature, but Europe has had one of the largest impacts on knowledge change and dissemination. Some other areas of the word are covered in the beginning, but they fall by the wayside around the time of the Greeks.

The book is interesting because it doesn’t necessarily cover facts so much as it covers how knowledge was created and spread during the different times. The coverage of the past is pretty good and gets you thinking outside of many of the normal ways of looking at the past and past knowledge. It looks at how knowledge changed and therefore changed the way people thought about living and what life should be like. It actually took me a while to get to understand what he was talking about. I’m an engineer and rather exacting in certain things. I had to alter my thinking of the past and past peoples and relationships to begin to understand the ideas at which he was trying to get.

When the book gets to “present” time it gets funny, because the book was first published in 1991. Some of the predictions for the last decade of the 20^th century are rather funny in hind sight. The predictions for the 21^st century are even more peculiar. I have to say I disagree with many of them, but they are excellent conversation starters. In fact I would say that is the biggest draw of the entire book. I want to read this book in a book club of my friends and then discuss it over beers. That would be almost perfect. This book is also an interesting companion to Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. I have a review of that here. The books cover similar events and times in very different ways. That leads to interesting interaction of the ideas, both complimentary and contradictory.

In all it’s an interesting read and a recommended borrowing book for people that like history, knowledge, and thinking. In fact I offer my copy to any of my friends that would like to borrow it. But, don’t bother buying it.

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Pom for now and Pom for later.

As I have mentioned before, I have an affinity for pomegranates. A friend of mine mentioned that he had read that they could be opened and the arils could be frozen for later consumption. Well recently my grocery store became a dumping ground for pomegranates. I say that because there was a pile of about 200 or so. I picked through and got the best feeling and looking 8. A lot of the others were a little soft feeling, and in my experience that denotes very ripe with a 15 % chance of being rotten. So I took the firmer ones with good coloration. Anyway, I have attempted the freezing, and the initial test is promising. The arils seemed to survive without getting mushy.

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I looked, but no Tom Cruise

So I spent a few hours yesterday cleaning out the hall closet turned pantry. It’s one of those things I’ve been putting off. I started putting it off for a few months, and then it stretched out. I made a couple of half hearted attempts to clean it out, but I finally bit the bullet. I probably threw out 90 lbs of stuff: old canned goods, boxes, etc. I recycled the containers I could, but there comes a point when you reach diminishing returns on washing a container to recycle it. So now there is a lot more room in the pantry closet.

Oh and for my friends out there that read this, the bottle of Holiday Cheer has received a pardon from the governor. That is correct. I still have that thing in the closet. As far as I am concerned it has earned its right to move with me indefinitely. Currently I am waiting on it to reach sentience. It may even end up in my will.

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