We Should See Other Blogs

• Boing Boing – Documentary about the wah wah pedal
  2011-03-17
• Ars Technica – Feature: Made in America: small businesses buck the offshoring trend
  2011-03-07
• longform.org – 4Chan’s Chaos Theory
  2011-03-10
• Marginal Revolution – China fact of the day
  2011-03-14
• kottke.org – A Brief History of Title Design
  2011-03-16
• Today I Found Out – The First Domain Ever Registered Was Symbolics.com
  2011-03-14
• A view from the cycle path – David Hembrow – Stairs are dangerous – wear a helmet
  2011-03-16 – Sometimes it helps to get a sense of scale when solving “problems”.
• Power Line – USA Inc.
  2011-03-16 – Someone tell me that this some biased conservative claptrap.
• torontolife.com – Honour among thieves: the only way to get the best selection of television shows and movies is to steal them
  2011-03-16 – Canada’s a freaking internet backwater. We need more competition in this market.
• Uwishunu – Philadelphia Blog About Things to Do, Events, Restaurants, Food, Nightlife and More – A Northern Liberties Home Is Featured As The House Of The Month In The March Issue Of Architectural Record
  2011-03-15
• Bad Astronomy – Astro Noms
  2011-03-16
• Geek in Heels – Box vs. Animal
  2011-03-15
• Gizmodo – The Japan Coast Has Shifted 8 Feet Because of the Earthquake [Factoid]
  2011-03-16 – This is (in geological terms) a huge, huge shift.
• chrishubbs.com – Shared Items – March 15, 2011
  2011-03-16 – Looks like we’re all getting in the game here.
• CrunchGear – Yeah, I Could Rock That: AMD’s 5×1 Eyefinity Setup Looks Sick
  2011-03-16 – Holy crap!
• Gizmodo – Netflix Will Produce Network-Quality Shows of Its Own [Television]
  2011-03-16 – I was wondering when one of the distributors (YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix, Hulu, etc) would figure how to make money with original programming. Not just money, but site visits too!
• Design Milk – Destination Design: Whitepod
  2011-03-16 – I WANT TO GO THERE
• Psdtuts+ – Clever Conceptual Photo Manipulations That Tell a Story
  2011-03-16 – That’s one epic post.
• Boing Boing – Killing Bill C-393 would be a facepalm of the highest possible order.
  2011-03-16
• NYT > Technology – Bits: If You Bought Apple Stock Instead of Products
  2011-03-10

• 22 Words – A flowchart to help you determine if you’re having a rational discussion
  2011-03-15
• WebMD Health – Short Anus-to-Scrotum Length Predicts Poor Sperm
  2011-03-09
• Woot! – One Day, One Deal – This Pile Of Bills Is Making Me Touch My Head
  2011-03-11
• Best Design Tutorials – Billboard Advertising: A Creative Way to Advertise Your Business
  2011-03-11
• Gawker – Boob-Biting Snake Dies of Silicone Poisoning [Video]
  2011-03-14
• VentureBeat – 4chan founder: Zuckerberg is “totally wrong” about online identity
  2011-03-13
• intro – HELP Japan
  2011-03-14
• White Whine – A Collection of First-World Problems – Reality bites back at White Whiners…
  2011-03-13
• Godzilla Haiku – Not a haiku, but something to think about.
  2011-03-12
• The Daily What – ICWUDT of the Day
  2011-03-14
• morgsatlarge.wordpress.com – Why I am not worried about Japan’s nuclear reactors. | Morgsatlarge – blogorific.
  2011-03-15
• Boing Boing – HOWTO make Pop Rocks
  2011-03-13
• Boing Boing – Curvy wood floors use CAD/CAM to minimize wastage
  2011-03-15
• Ars Technica – Twitter tells third-party devs to stop making Twitter client apps
  2011-03-12
• Boing Boing – Japan
  2011-03-11
• The Resurgence – What Kind of People Are We Forming With Our Worship?
  2011-03-10
• NOTCouture – Engagement Ring Brass Knuckles For The…
  2011-03-09
• The Nerdist – Muppet Alignment Chart
  2011-03-09
• Download Squad – Internet Explorer and Safari first to fall at Pwn2Own 2011, Chrome and Firefox still standing
  2011-03-10
• The Daily What – Fun Fact of the Day
  2011-03-09

Well, I finally broke down and saw the movie Serenity. As well I should have, as it turns out, because it’s an amazing film. And unbelieveable film. Maybe the best scifi film I’ve ever seen, bar none. Certainly the best scifi-western. I would urge you all to go out sometime and see a matinee showing of it in a nice uncrowded theatre, just so good films that deserve to be winners actually are.

You know what’s interesting? Hollywood funding distribution is funny, that’s what. How so many banal films are made with money ranging into the hundreds of millions of dollars is beyond me – and why people go to see them is even further. In fact, so much of the movie-going populace is turned off by what HWood is producing these days that they don’t even bother to watch those top-ten grossing films anymore, if they even watch movies at all. I, for one, haven’t watched a single “blockbuster” movie this year unless I was with friends and had to seek the lowest common denominator in what movie would appeal to everyone.

Which is part of the industry’s problem. They cater to big audiences and leave the small ones behind. But is it so strange to imagine that you’d make the same sort of money with four small films that cost $25m in lieu of one film that costs $100m+? Not only that, instead of having hugely expensive films that go bust, you’d have minorly expensive films that go bust, and sleeper hits that basically cost only a tenth of what they’ll gross in theatres alone. Even out the money distribution. It doesn’t work anymore. We don’t like your stupid movies that focus on making us covet lifestyles while ignoring plot. We’re not drooling idiots with money flowing out of our pockets, waiting to spend it on whatever film has “adrenaline” or “octane” in the description.

Well, most of us aren’t.

dan (hates movies. loves movies)

Nothing to see here. Move along.

There’s something about people, as they say, and that something always seems to kick me in the back of the head when I’m not looking.

It’s motivation. Everyone has them. Generally, I think, people’s motivations are good. In Christian circles more than anywhere else. Mine certainly aren’t always good, but I like to judge other people – or try to – with a degree of love.

But you know what? Motivation is not the litmus test for the fitness of an idea. That’s like trying to tell something is a sheep because it has four legs.

When a person says “I meant well!” I usually like to ask why that should matter: once you’ve determined you have good motives you can just go ahead and never look back? No. Once you’ve determined you have pure motives or a reasonable faximile thereof, you come up with a good idea, a sound plan. In fact, in an entirely effective way, your motivations don’t really matter.

dan (the road to hell is paved with… well meaning people’s bones)

You know what bugs the crap out of me? Here’s what, and pardon me for sounding off about such things on my blog of all places. People that suggest you do something, and when you actually decide to do it, they go “Oh ho ho! Betcha can’t do it!”

I mean, what the fudge? Is that supposed to be a motivational technique of some sort? Is that supposed to give me the impetus to actually do it? Goodness gracious, affirmation is not the hardest thing in the world. If you make a suggestion and someone follows it, you pat them on the back and maybe offer to help in any way you can. The end. This is not a very hard thing to do, at all.

Imagine being at a praise evening planning thing, and suggesting that instead of some vapid worship chorus you play a hymn. Then, when the leader says, “Hey, that’s a good idea. Let’s do that!” you’re like, “betcha can’t play that hymn because you’re too used to that other crap!” How far do you think you’re going to get? Yeah, maybe it’ll produce some result because the guy’s going to want to prove you wrong, but in the process, you’ve made yourself into a gigantic ass, and any further suggestions you give are going be like a fart in a tornado.

There. I’m done.

dan (a little frustrated here)

Here I am at 123 Computer in Brampton, waiting for them to get my stuff together. It’s taking a while. But really, I should be out of here any time.

Tonight, in my search to find good Linux setup, I’ll be setting an Ubuntu box, a distro I’ve only ever heard good things about. We’ll see how that goes, but I’m going to see if I can set up a cron job to backup from a Samba share, roll it all up into a tarball, and save it in an autonamed directory. Time for some script-fu? Or am I going to find a program with a nice GUI somewhere in the midst of the 16,000 packages that I can get for Ubuntu? Who knows. An adventure this shall be, says Yoda.

So… I’m still waiting, and it seems like it’s taking forever. Not only that, but I don’t really have anything to write about. Okay, so I drank less coffee today than I have for a while – so what? Big deal, you say, except that I’m starting some sort of ripple effect at the shop and now Jerry is vowing to stop the black liquid as well. Cue flying pigs. (rimshot)

I’ve done something wonderful and artistic every night this week. Monday was photography, Tuesday was a story song. Tonight – well, who knows what tonight may bring? I certainly don’t. Whatever boils to the surface, I suppose.

My financial situation has never been wierder. I’m still in debt, but recovering fast. The odd thing about getting out of debt is that it’s like a snowballing sort of endeavor – the more you do it, the faster it becomes to actually get it done. Which is cool, because it may be difficult now, but eventually it’ll come easier, at which point I may also have some spending money. You know, to spend on stuff I don’t actually need.

You know what it’s like to live a workweek with five dollars in the pocket, a quarter tank of gas, and barely any food to help you make it through? Well, I do. But then, you might say I’ve made my own bed and it’s time for me to sleep in it. Fair enough. On the other hand, I have an interesting story to tell those children I plan on having one day, should God be so gracious as to grant me children.

Please, Lord, let those children not just magically drop down from the sky. I want them the old-fashioned way. Thanks.

I don’t mean to make mockery. I’m just thinking out loud.

My car… is interesting. I’m glad I bought a Focus. I’m also wishing I had gotten the windows tinted instead of ingesting massive amounts of crack cocaine. Hah. Fooled you! I’ve never sampled the stuff, or pot, or really any other halucinogen. Am I sheltered? I like it that way.

What’s up with people who can’t handle eccentricity? It’s what makes life delightful and quirky. Some people don’t like lumps in their pudding; and I for one have pity on that condition.

I like puzzles and figuring them out. I’m pretty good at it, too. I’ve sometimes wondered if I should have perhaps been a detective or a doctor, but I think the blood and guts might freak me out a bit too much.

What about you? What are you good at?

dan (is asking a question of his readers)

I was listening to the radio earlier this morning, and an advertisement struck me as odd. The announcer tells me that “ReMax will get you the very highest price for your home. List with us.” Or something like that.

I occurs to me that if ReMax gets sellers that highest price for their houses, wouldn’t a home sold with a ReMax realtor raise flags in your head because according to their ad, it’s bound to be more expensive?

dan (of course… people don’t think like that usually…)

This morning was Lord’s Supper, except that it was more like Lord’s Lunch, since we never actually eat it as a supper. But the I guess to sup doesn’t mean so much dinnertime as it does just to sit down and eat. Or chew for a few seconds and swallow. I don’t know.

I drove home early today: I wasn’t feeling well, in case you wondered. This entire weekend has left me feeling sort of queasy, and I couldn’t put my finger on it if you asked. But then, you haven’t, so I won’t go any further.

This week will be different. I swear to it. I haven’t the time anymore to sit around and watch the dust collect on my few posessions; instead I want to explore something, although I’m not sure what it’ll be that gets found, or where I’ll find it waiting.

There’s coffee at Starbucks, and it’s waiting. Or weighting, like the dead-end conversations I always find there. It’s a place to go and outline simple facts, to make rational decisions as if they’re called for.

Why isn’t life more like a movie? Well, I know all the answers, but none of them seem satisfactory right now. Life is a whole lot more like the book of Ecclesiastes, and that’s a none-too-cheery little bit of inspiration right there.

Maybe I should have been a cowboy.