Archive for February, 2006
At the age of three i discovered that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, only to find that pythagoras had got there first.
“…to run for president you have to be either a politician or someone who runs a company…because as an employee you could never get the time off work.”
Right. Very perceptive. I think that for myself and, just guessing, the majority of other students in my class, the idea that it takes quite a lot of time to run for US president isn’t something that needs explaining. It’s a big place and there are lots of people to meet, placate, schmooze and suck up to. The idea that you can hold down a job as a shelf-stacker at Wal-Mart and do that whole ‘national campaign’ thing wasn’t something that I’d ever really considered, but thanks to one lady, I’m not completely sure to never be confused in such a way. Phew!
The American Government’s elite research body DARPA has created a game for troops that aims to teach common Arabic styles and approaches with body language. The game is important beecause body language plays such an important role in relations between soldiers and civilians who do not speak the same language.
One of the system’s creators says the training tool, known as Tactical Iraqi, has already been a great success. Hannes Vilhjalmsson, a research scientist at the University of Southern California, gave details of the Tactical Iraqi at a conference in St Louis, US.
The program teaches military personnel Arabic language skills and some key gestures such as an up-down movement with the right hand to ask someone to slow down and gives them tips such as removing mirror sunglasses when approaching local people.
I knew I chose the correct wing to join when we were told about our plans for this weekend. Though we’re sleeping rough in a barn that has, obviously, no heating and no running water, we’re still bringing our chefs along. Sleeping rough, with catering staff: the army life can’t be all that bad.
UPDATE: Alright Caroline… It was a typo! I know you don’t spell Gourmet as gormet, but I was writing this at just after five o’clock when running to get to the barracks on time. I just knew that if I didn’t write it then, I’d forget and never write it at all. I hate forgetting to write things even more than I hate poor spelling and typing errors. The thing is, I can avoid forgetting to write by simply doing it. Spelling and typing come with time.
On an unrelated note, I mentioned how great it is to essentially go camping with chefs; it is, but it really helps if where you’re going has running water. We had to drive about 20 miles to the nearest base to collect jerry cans of drinking water. Not great when you’re expected to march for a couple miles and run around with sandbags. That stuff is tiring!
A couple of weeks ago, on February 5th, United Airlines aired a commercial during the SuperBowl ‘XL’. I was really attached to the piece because, as an example of stop-motion animation it’s amazing. As an example of fine artistry it’s amazing, and as an example of imagination it’s perfect. The ad follows the story of a father going on a flight, and his son’s imagination of what occurred during the trip. It’s classic soldiers and fighting kind of stuff but with an artisan, Wiliam Morris kind of twist.
The action is set to what appears to be a version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with extra drumrolls and drama. What’s great is that the ad is so different to everything else that was aired (Google Video of Superbowl XL Ads). This isn’t being funny, or crude, macho, twee or mothering. It’s about family and having fun.
You can watch the ad on the united website:
Dragon movie (6 MB)
or watch a making of documentary Making of Dragon (31 MB)
Hello! I often get asked questions about Republican policy by greasy-haired liberal hippies. Seattle was no exception in Sept of 2005. It was teeming with them. May God bless you and America.
As CEO of Ohio Petroleum and Synthetics, I guided the stock to an all-time high before I left. It wasn’t easy to leave, but based on the advice of my wife, my children and the FBI, I knew it was time to go. When my golden parachute landed, I had quadrupled the share price.
Do I regret secretly dumping in the Ohio river? No sir. May I remind you there was a drought and I was merely “contributing” in an attempt to raise water levels, and didn’t want to call attention to my patriotism. Jesus wouldn’t have. This act of charity was spun by the liberal media and the hysterical mothers of some very, very, slightly deformed children.
Is it a spoof? The video on the site makes me think that it must be because he’s so blunt, but you never know. I really hope so because if it’s not, it’s so wrong…
In the latest update to the Apple Macintosh OS X Operating System, now labelled ‘10.4.5′, Apple Computer have penned a short request to would-be hackers to not crack the Operating Stystem so it can be used on generic non-Apple hardware. The request is only really notable because it is written in verse. Technologically adapt users around the world have jumped at the chance to make the Apple OS work with hardware than can be bought at any standard computer store, rather than at the Apple Store’s more significant markup prices, and have been racing to make the system work. The recent transition to Intel processors instead of IBM PowerPCs has meant that the OS has for the first time been able to run on Intel’s more widely available (and cheaper) processors because software is designed for the specific processor on which it runs. This Intel shift has lead to, amongst other things, the first reported OS X Trojan Virus on macrumors.com website forum designed to look like an image download. Macrumors is one of the most widely read Macintosh-related sites on the internet and so is a logical home to anyone trying to find a large Apple user-base.
The transition to Intel has meant that many Apple users are more fearful of Viruses and such problems propagating on the Macintosh network of users, an issue to which Apple has largely been thought to be immune. Virus writers have to be adept at writing for the less-used Apple development environment to create a virus and now that this environment is more akin to the Windows one, virus threats are more likely. So it is with this in mind that Apple’s software engineers write to warn users not to hack into the OS X system.
First discovered on the OSX86Project.org website, a community which focuses on the movement from PowerPC to Intel (otherwise known as X86), the warning reads:
Your karma check for today:
There once was a user that whined
his existing OS was so blind,
he’d do better to pirate
an OS that ran great
but found his hardware declined.
Please don’t steal Mac OS!
Really, that’s way uncool.
(C) Apple Computer, Inc.
I saw the movie, got the t-shirt, handed tissues to the crying boy next to me. I know that it’s an amazing film, and though some people say it’s too slow, I’m a huge fan. It’s unique and it’s something new and it’s a great story to see.
Loved it.
The movie starts very slowly. The two men, Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), meet for the first time when they both are waiting at a ranching office, trying to find work. They don’t say anything to one another for the longest time, and this is in fact one of the beauties of the film because there is a sparcity to the dialogue. There seems to be a temptation to fill time with speech, with complex and pithy talking but Annie Proulx’s story doesn’t require this and luckily the producers of the film haven’t put this in. The life of the cowboy is clearly a solitary one, a concept that is pushed right to the end of the film with Ledger’s character never properly settling down, never really finding his feet and it’s not clear whether this is due to internal struggles with his own perception of self or because he is simply a solitary man.
However hard life is on the men involved, it must equally have been difficult for the families left to second-guess and wonder what is inside the mind of their father, son or husband. Michelle Williams as Alma Del Mar is fantastic in her depiction of the pain and suffering which comes with the second guessing of her husband’s double life. It becomes clear in time that the occasional postcards which Ennis receives from Jack are a sign to meet up for their ‘fishing weekends’ and in one shot Alma comes into the house struggling with groceries and picks up the mail to find one of these postcards contained among the assorted detritus. As she pulls the postcard out and turns it over, I was silently praying for her to throw it away, to burn it, to get rid of the evidence because, though we may have great sympathy for the men who can never speak of their love, the wife left behind gives the ultimate sacrifice. Her pain is unquenched, unfair and unwarranted.
The scenery of the film, set in Wyoming, though filmed in Canada perfectly frames the quiet struggles of all those involved. The stories told of the two ranchers who lived together and suffered at the hands of locals for it, the forthright negative reaction of ranching boss, played by Randy Quaid, who found out, and the risks associated with the ongoing love affair of the men while raising families all add to the sense of looming danger that matches the height and majesty of the scenery. Are the mountains meant to evoke the awesome climb that the men would have to face to gain recognition? Is there symbolism in the fact that they are so small in the face of things so big?
It’s a terribly haunting film in a way because there is a constant sense of loss even from the beginning. The pair can’t be honest with one another for a long time. They can’t talk about what they have, get past their upbringings and surroundings. As such their love will always be a broken one. Wilde’s thoughts of ‘a love that dare not speak its name’ echoed through my mind throughout the film and I wasn’t really hit by the horror of what really occurs until the next day. For though the film ends on a melancholy note, events do not unfold as one would expect and there is little happiness in the Wyoming wilderness. As a result you’re not really hit by what happens because it’s not dramatic in-your-face representations. Everything is hidden, slow, a little off-centre and in this way much like all of the rest of the film. This means, however, that it takes time to digest and the force of the tragedy takes time to sink in.The last flash image we catch of Jack is one that is not clear in its meaning. Is it imagination or reality? The fact that we don’t and can’t know only adds to the complexity of the story. In a place that is still very resistant to gay life even when it may bring economic strength, the cowboy life isn’t an accepting one.
All of this of course, couldn’t be possible without fantastic acting which is, in part, achieved by not overacting. All the performances are subtle and delicate, matching the reflective tone of the film. Anne Hathaway’s portrayal of Jack’s wife isn’t glam and gaudy as it could be for a Texan machinery vendor. There is very little Dolly Parton in her character and her eyes are full of fire and strength. There is an undercurrent to Lureen that is powerful and unafraid of her actions. The wives couldn’t be more different: Michelle Williams’ depiction of Ennis’ wife shows her eyes are constantly watering with tears and her face is constantly on the verge of melting. Not knowing where she is in her marriage or what to do has brought her to the edge one too many times and this shows in her face, a picture of pain. She is timid and afraid and after once catching the pair clutching one another, Alma never confronts her husband. She’s too broken to try. My favorite character was Ennis’ young daugher Alma Jr, who was played by Kate Mara. She is hardly featured in the film but her eyes are full of empathy and a kind of understanding. She has a rare beauty that’s soft and delicate which worked perfectly with her part. Of course Gyllenhaal and Ledger were excellent and this movie couldn’t have been made without their honesty and their performances. Gyllenhaal’s Jack appears to be more comfortable than Ennis in the skin of his sexually revolutionary character and his image is one of the good looking boy who becomes a good looking man. There is no ordinary ugly in him.Ledger was particularly good as, when watching, you never once think of him as Ledger the star because he doesn’t look like a star. He’s transformed into a bumbling, quiet, unassuming man who takes little from the world and puts very little back. He’s afraid of who he is.
It’s a great film to have been made, but it’s not the most enjoyable to watch. I loved it, and yet the idea of watching it again would honestly be a hard decision.
see also: Jennifer Makowsky at PopMatters on Brokeback Mountain
