Now you Americans are more wowed by HDTV than Brits because of the awful default resolution (first 405 then 525 lines) of your normal broadcasts and sets as opposed to our default 625 line well defined behemoths.
I wonder why my country took a different track from your country? Could it be because the UK had a single provider (BBC) and this country was more decentralized? Or was it more related to TV being adopted earlier in the US with more "primative" resolution?
* * *
What is a "Chav?"
* * *
I doubt I'll take the plunge to get a new TV any time soon. We have a 15 year old CRT TV that does quite well, thank you very much. I bought that for Lisa as a birthday present before we were married. She's since told me that when I did that, she thought "Hmmm ... that's a pretty big investment. He must be thinking he's going to get this back one day." In other words, she took that as a sign I was considering marriage. Girls ... they're so crafty.
* * *
I'm back from Orlando. I'm sitting in my home office, alone in the house except for the cat. My fair wife is in Los Angeles serving as a whipping post for another part of our common employer.
* * *
I was just on the phone with members of the WSC, one of which was Mr. Cox. At one point I mentioned that I didn't have the complete picture of what had been accomplished. Cox then said, "That's because you live on the other side of the planet." It was said somewhat in jest, but like all things there's an element of true sentiment under the covers. I've long believed that moving to Tucson removed me from the "mainstream" of work back east. This is one more piece of evidence that it's true.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Chav TV Chic
Wow Google really have taken over Writely, making a blog post is like writing a gmail email now, it is an even better editor than before.
Now you Americans are more wowed by HDTV than Brits because of the awful default resolution (first 405 then 525 lines) of your normal broadcasts and sets as opposed to our default 625 line well defined behemoths. That notwithstanding, to your questions:
Q1 -- Is it true that standard, run-of-the-mill DVDs played on a standard, run-of-the-mill DVD player will not be as eye-poppingly good on an HDTV screen as "real" HDTV?
A1 -- Yes it's true. The problem is that the DVD images on the normal DVD platter are at 720x480 resolution. So when you play them on your HTDV (which runs at either 1280x720 or 1920x1080) you're not exploiting the TV as much as you could were you showing an image that was photographed at that higher resolution. You can buy new DVD players (known as "HD-Compatible" players) that use a process called "upscaling" -- upscaling mathematically matches the pixel count of the output of the DVD signal to the physical pixel count on an HDTV, so it looks smoother on the HDTV, but it's a fudge at the end of the day. And you have to match your native resolution from the DVD to ensure you don't get the same issue you see on a thinkpad when you don't display at the correct "native" resolution, ie. fuzziness. So I would carefully match any "HD-compatible" DVD player you acquire to the HDTV that you are going to use with it -- apparently most of them do a good job. There is a better option though, read on McDuff ..
Q2 -- Is there going to be "real" HDTV DVDs coming out soon?
A2 -- They are already here among us. The first question is when are they going to make DVDs with images of HDTV resolution like 1280x720 or 1920x1080? They do already! Clearly to store a movie at this higher resolution on a disk you're either going to need more capacity that the 8.5 GB or so of a current dual layer DVD disk, which is pretty much filled up by a 2-2.5hr movie at 720x480, or better compression, or both. Thus to your next question ..
Q3 -- What the heck is "Blue Ray"? I keep hearing that.
A3 -- So we see that current DVDs cannot exploit true High Definition playback and recording capability. So two competing camps have come up with the solution: "Blu-ray" and "HD-DVD", they are direct competitors (they are INCOMPATIBLE -- remember VHS vs. Betamax? :-) There are a bunch of manufacturers behind each technology, and someone is behind both (Thomson I think). There appear to be more "big hitters" behind Blu-ray so perhaps it will win. These new Blu-ray or HD-DVD players go further than the "HD-Compatible" upscaling mob mentioned in A1 above. These new ones are called "True High Definition" players. They both use "blue" (actually ultraviolet) laser technology and higher compression algorithms for storing the images of the movie, and the disks are bigger, a single layer Blu-ray disk is 25gb, a dual 50gb for instance (I think HD-DVD disks are half that size so 15/30gb). The images on both Blu-ray and HD-DVD disks are at 1920x1080 resolution, 'cept you can get a lot more on a Blu-ray. (Note: I have a question about how they capture at this high res, I guess the manufacturers must go back to the movie masters?)
If you go out and buy a movie in Blu-ray format or HD-DVD format (yes they are different!) then expect to pay 5 bucks or so more than a standard DVD, which seems reasonable.
These new players play normal DVDs and CD's also, and they can upscale normal DVDs like those in A1.
Oh and you can buy Blu-ray drives for your PC now, I'll be putting one into my new rig when I upgrade to a quad core Intel Kentsfield around Christmas time (the Kentsfields ship in Nov!). Incidententally, Intel say they will have 80 cores on a wafer by the end of the decade. How mad is that?
Q4 -- Are HDTVs the new status rage in the UK they are in the US?
A4 -- Yeah the chavs love 'em !
Now you Americans are more wowed by HDTV than Brits because of the awful default resolution (first 405 then 525 lines) of your normal broadcasts and sets as opposed to our default 625 line well defined behemoths. That notwithstanding, to your questions:
Q1 -- Is it true that standard, run-of-the-mill DVDs played on a standard, run-of-the-mill DVD player will not be as eye-poppingly good on an HDTV screen as "real" HDTV?
A1 -- Yes it's true. The problem is that the DVD images on the normal DVD platter are at 720x480 resolution. So when you play them on your HTDV (which runs at either 1280x720 or 1920x1080) you're not exploiting the TV as much as you could were you showing an image that was photographed at that higher resolution. You can buy new DVD players (known as "HD-Compatible" players) that use a process called "upscaling" -- upscaling mathematically matches the pixel count of the output of the DVD signal to the physical pixel count on an HDTV, so it looks smoother on the HDTV, but it's a fudge at the end of the day. And you have to match your native resolution from the DVD to ensure you don't get the same issue you see on a thinkpad when you don't display at the correct "native" resolution, ie. fuzziness. So I would carefully match any "HD-compatible" DVD player you acquire to the HDTV that you are going to use with it -- apparently most of them do a good job. There is a better option though, read on McDuff ..
Q2 -- Is there going to be "real" HDTV DVDs coming out soon?
A2 -- They are already here among us. The first question is when are they going to make DVDs with images of HDTV resolution like 1280x720 or 1920x1080? They do already! Clearly to store a movie at this higher resolution on a disk you're either going to need more capacity that the 8.5 GB or so of a current dual layer DVD disk, which is pretty much filled up by a 2-2.5hr movie at 720x480, or better compression, or both. Thus to your next question ..
Q3 -- What the heck is "Blue Ray"? I keep hearing that.
A3 -- So we see that current DVDs cannot exploit true High Definition playback and recording capability. So two competing camps have come up with the solution: "Blu-ray" and "HD-DVD", they are direct competitors (they are INCOMPATIBLE -- remember VHS vs. Betamax? :-) There are a bunch of manufacturers behind each technology, and someone is behind both (Thomson I think). There appear to be more "big hitters" behind Blu-ray so perhaps it will win. These new Blu-ray or HD-DVD players go further than the "HD-Compatible" upscaling mob mentioned in A1 above. These new ones are called "True High Definition" players. They both use "blue" (actually ultraviolet) laser technology and higher compression algorithms for storing the images of the movie, and the disks are bigger, a single layer Blu-ray disk is 25gb, a dual 50gb for instance (I think HD-DVD disks are half that size so 15/30gb). The images on both Blu-ray and HD-DVD disks are at 1920x1080 resolution, 'cept you can get a lot more on a Blu-ray. (Note: I have a question about how they capture at this high res, I guess the manufacturers must go back to the movie masters?)
If you go out and buy a movie in Blu-ray format or HD-DVD format (yes they are different!) then expect to pay 5 bucks or so more than a standard DVD, which seems reasonable.
These new players play normal DVDs and CD's also, and they can upscale normal DVDs like those in A1.
Oh and you can buy Blu-ray drives for your PC now, I'll be putting one into my new rig when I upgrade to a quad core Intel Kentsfield around Christmas time (the Kentsfields ship in Nov!). Incidententally, Intel say they will have 80 cores on a wafer by the end of the decade. How mad is that?
Q4 -- Are HDTVs the new status rage in the UK they are in the US?
A4 -- Yeah the chavs love 'em !
The Absence of TV
I watch far less TV now than I used to. I'm not quite to the level you are. But in any given week I probably watch two or three hours. And that's usually on a spotty basis ... five minutes here; 20 minutes there.
I think it can be said without too much trouble that television has fundamentally transformed humans in a way that is not necessarily positive. I'll go further -- MTV is one of the most evil and corrosive forces in the world.
* * *
Techno-geek questions for you ... I understand that the feed coming off the standard DVD will not drive an HDTV screen to its most spectacular. I'm seeing references to DVD players that do some kind of digital enhancement that makes the DVD look better on an HDTV screen, but still not quite "real" HDTV.
Q1 -- Is it true that standard, run-of-the-mill DVDs played on a standard, run-of-the-mill DVD player will not be as eye-poppingly good on an HDTV screen as "real" HDTV?
Q2 -- Is there going to be "real" HDTV DVDs coming out soon?
Q3 -- What the heck is "Blue Ray"? I keep hearing that.
Q4 -- Are HDTVs the new status rage in the UK they are in the US?
I think it can be said without too much trouble that television has fundamentally transformed humans in a way that is not necessarily positive. I'll go further -- MTV is one of the most evil and corrosive forces in the world.
* * *
Techno-geek questions for you ... I understand that the feed coming off the standard DVD will not drive an HDTV screen to its most spectacular. I'm seeing references to DVD players that do some kind of digital enhancement that makes the DVD look better on an HDTV screen, but still not quite "real" HDTV.
Q1 -- Is it true that standard, run-of-the-mill DVDs played on a standard, run-of-the-mill DVD player will not be as eye-poppingly good on an HDTV screen as "real" HDTV?
Q2 -- Is there going to be "real" HDTV DVDs coming out soon?
Q3 -- What the heck is "Blue Ray"? I keep hearing that.
Q4 -- Are HDTVs the new status rage in the UK they are in the US?
Perils for Pedestrians
Have you ever seen a good flat screen with a true HDTV feed?
I've seen the screens but I'm not sure they were showing an HDTV feed at the time. I rarely watch TV, myabe twice a year, but I do watch DVDs - these days generally on a laptop, where the quality is very good indeed at 1600x1200 pixels (UXGA) but not quite HDTV, which is 1920x1080 at the 16:9 letterbox aspect ratio.
I've noticed that not watching TV, for 8 years now, has given me a little bit of a disconnect when talking to people, but it's one I cherish. I don't know "Lost" or "Pop Idol" from my elbow and so I hope that my responses to life are mine (or from DVDs or the internet :-) and not something that I absorbed from a TV.
Glad that you're cruising through the tough pitching down there, Mr. SOA.
I've seen the screens but I'm not sure they were showing an HDTV feed at the time. I rarely watch TV, myabe twice a year, but I do watch DVDs - these days generally on a laptop, where the quality is very good indeed at 1600x1200 pixels (UXGA) but not quite HDTV, which is 1920x1080 at the 16:9 letterbox aspect ratio.
I've noticed that not watching TV, for 8 years now, has given me a little bit of a disconnect when talking to people, but it's one I cherish. I don't know "Lost" or "Pop Idol" from my elbow and so I hope that my responses to life are mine (or from DVDs or the internet :-) and not something that I absorbed from a TV.
Glad that you're cruising through the tough pitching down there, Mr. SOA.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
$1,000,000
Me, cool? Ha! I'm a nervous wreck all the time.
* * *
By the way, I knew the answer to that question. But then again, I'm a child of that era.
* * *
Pretty good turn out here in Orlando. I'm not sure if that signifies anything. But it's a good, vibrant conference.
One presentation down, two to go ... then I go "zoooooom" back home.
* * *
I am re-reading the book "The Godfather" ... what a great read! With the movie firmly burned into my memory, the book is coming to life quite a bit. I can see where Coppola lifted key lines straight out of the book. Last night I was reading the part where they were planning the placement of the gun at the Italian restaurant where Mike was to meet with Sollozo and McClusky. As I was reading, I could see Abe Vigoda saying, "It's perfect. It has one of those old-fashioned toilets ... you know, with the pull chain."
Right now I'm into a section of the book that's going into excessive detail on Johnny Fontane (the Frank Sinatra character). Coppola wisely left most of that stuff out of the movie.
* * *
In preparation for my trip to Canada recently, I flew to Washington D.C. and stayed at the home of my former neighbor from that area. The two of us drove up together, as has been our practice for the last six years. He recently changed jobs, landing a position at a famous government intelligence agency with a three-letter acronym name. In celebration of that, he purchased a 50" plasma HDTV.
I like TV as much as the next person. But I do think there's a limit to how big someone's TV should be. These wall-sized things tend to utterly dominate a room. I think if I were to drop that kind of money on a flat-screen, I'd go for something smaller ... in the 35 to 40" range, but no more.
Those things do have remarkable pictures. Have you ever seen a good flat screen with a true HDTV feed? Remarkable.
* * *
By the way, I knew the answer to that question. But then again, I'm a child of that era.
* * *
Pretty good turn out here in Orlando. I'm not sure if that signifies anything. But it's a good, vibrant conference.
One presentation down, two to go ... then I go "zoooooom" back home.
* * *
I am re-reading the book "The Godfather" ... what a great read! With the movie firmly burned into my memory, the book is coming to life quite a bit. I can see where Coppola lifted key lines straight out of the book. Last night I was reading the part where they were planning the placement of the gun at the Italian restaurant where Mike was to meet with Sollozo and McClusky. As I was reading, I could see Abe Vigoda saying, "It's perfect. It has one of those old-fashioned toilets ... you know, with the pull chain."
Right now I'm into a section of the book that's going into excessive detail on Johnny Fontane (the Frank Sinatra character). Coppola wisely left most of that stuff out of the movie.
* * *
In preparation for my trip to Canada recently, I flew to Washington D.C. and stayed at the home of my former neighbor from that area. The two of us drove up together, as has been our practice for the last six years. He recently changed jobs, landing a position at a famous government intelligence agency with a three-letter acronym name. In celebration of that, he purchased a 50" plasma HDTV.
I like TV as much as the next person. But I do think there's a limit to how big someone's TV should be. These wall-sized things tend to utterly dominate a room. I think if I were to drop that kind of money on a flat-screen, I'd go for something smaller ... in the 35 to 40" range, but no more.
Those things do have remarkable pictures. Have you ever seen a good flat screen with a true HDTV feed? Remarkable.
Monday, October 09, 2006
It's Just a Job
You know what my real problem is ... what really has me down? I'm scared. Scared to death. I can't keep up anymore. Yet I work in an area where I'm supposed to be an "expert." People come to me expecting me to know everything about everything. I am saying "I don't know" with increasing frequency lately. There will come a point in the not too distant future where people will simply stop bothering asking me anything, for it's perfectly obvious I don't have a clue.
My dream is to know enough about something so I can be truly helpful to other people. I had that for a few years. But now things are advancing faster than I can comprehend. I think I get the "big picture," but I can't possibly grasp all the details. Take SOA/ESB ... the strategy I get. How to get WID to create a workflow to drive a non-SOAP service on Broker using SIBs I don't get. And even if I spent two weeks getting it figured out, that one thing is merely spit in the wide ocean of things.
Want me to get even more fundamental than that? Here it is -- I have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm stumbling along doing what I think is right, but I have no idea if it is. I'm told to "Help drive revenue and increase customer satisfaction!" But how does that translate to what I should be doing this week? Or for the next few months? I don't know. I'm not sure many people do know. Which is why, I think, we operate in such a reactive manner.
My dream is to know enough about something so I can be truly helpful to other people. I had that for a few years. But now things are advancing faster than I can comprehend. I think I get the "big picture," but I can't possibly grasp all the details. Take SOA/ESB ... the strategy I get. How to get WID to create a workflow to drive a non-SOAP service on Broker using SIBs I don't get. And even if I spent two weeks getting it figured out, that one thing is merely spit in the wide ocean of things.
Want me to get even more fundamental than that? Here it is -- I have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm stumbling along doing what I think is right, but I have no idea if it is. I'm told to "Help drive revenue and increase customer satisfaction!" But how does that translate to what I should be doing this week? Or for the next few months? I don't know. I'm not sure many people do know. Which is why, I think, we operate in such a reactive manner.
Response to apathy
I wonder what others do when they hit this spot? Find other sources of drive and meaning? Endure silently?
My response to this is to remember why I go to work. It's because I need to pay the mortgage and give my daughter some standard of living. When I was a child I lived pretty much on the breadline which meant I missed out on things like school journeys for instance. It means a lot to me to be able to write a cheque to allow Katherine to go on holiday with her chums - so for these privileges I work. Having said all of that, I think of work as a real chore, customer calls, presentations, meetings etc YAWN.
Work itself, at the moment there seems to be an incredible amount of unecessary complexity which leads to no benefit. Like the analogy of "it takes the same time to cross London by road today in 2006 as it took 100 years ago in 1906". We make advances but get no benefit from the advance due to the way we use the advance.
I console myself that although things look bad we are living through a time of exponential technology growth. Remember the population chart of the planet? The one that had the knee in the curve? Well before the knee the growth looks almost linear, it's hard to tell that the growth is actually exponential (ie. get the next point on the curve by multiplying a constant rather than by adding a constant).
Although our industry looks like it's at best growing linearly it's not -- it's growing exponentially, the same as any evolutionary system -- and the advances we will see after the knee will take your breath away, and you are part of it my friend!
This doesn't really help I know, finding meaning in technology is not easy, I believe that technology will bring us a choice -- a choice to live as long as we wish -- but as a Christian you may not want to hear that !
My response to this is to remember why I go to work. It's because I need to pay the mortgage and give my daughter some standard of living. When I was a child I lived pretty much on the breadline which meant I missed out on things like school journeys for instance. It means a lot to me to be able to write a cheque to allow Katherine to go on holiday with her chums - so for these privileges I work. Having said all of that, I think of work as a real chore, customer calls, presentations, meetings etc YAWN.
Work itself, at the moment there seems to be an incredible amount of unecessary complexity which leads to no benefit. Like the analogy of "it takes the same time to cross London by road today in 2006 as it took 100 years ago in 1906". We make advances but get no benefit from the advance due to the way we use the advance.
I console myself that although things look bad we are living through a time of exponential technology growth. Remember the population chart of the planet? The one that had the knee in the curve? Well before the knee the growth looks almost linear, it's hard to tell that the growth is actually exponential (ie. get the next point on the curve by multiplying a constant rather than by adding a constant).
Although our industry looks like it's at best growing linearly it's not -- it's growing exponentially, the same as any evolutionary system -- and the advances we will see after the knee will take your breath away, and you are part of it my friend!
This doesn't really help I know, finding meaning in technology is not easy, I believe that technology will bring us a choice -- a choice to live as long as we wish -- but as a Christian you may not want to hear that !
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Apathy
Enjoy yourself down there buddy, it looks like a comprehensive set of education.
You know what? I really, honestly, and sincerely don't care about any of this anymore.
I just don't.
There's a part of me that feels guilty about that ... that I should somehow find the reserve within my heart to think this stuff really matters. But I just can't find it.
Sigh ... I will give my three presentations and do the best I can. But I can't pretend to be excited about much of this anymore.
I wonder what others do when they hit this spot? Find other sources of drive and meaning? Endure silently?
You know what? I really, honestly, and sincerely don't care about any of this anymore.
I just don't.
There's a part of me that feels guilty about that ... that I should somehow find the reserve within my heart to think this stuff really matters. But I just can't find it.
Sigh ... I will give my three presentations and do the best I can. But I can't pretend to be excited about much of this anymore.
I wonder what others do when they hit this spot? Find other sources of drive and meaning? Endure silently?
Sunshine State
I am off to zExpo in Orlando
Enjoy yourself down there buddy, it looks like a comprehensive set of education.
+++
Ah, the T60p. I use a T43p, but I do also have a T60p, it sits underneath my flatbed scanner and runs virtual machines under Ubuntu Linux. The virtual machines are running a mixture of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and various Linux distros under VMWare's (now free) Server product. Having a Linux hypervisor is good as you don't have to reboot it for "patch tuesday" from Microsoft, proving a level of stable uptime to your VM's.
top - 21:28:07 up 84 days, 23:16, 1 user, load average: 0.50, 0.51, 0.46
Tasks: 89 total, 1 running, 88 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.3% us, 3.0% sy, 0.0% ni, 96.7% id, 0.0% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si
Mem: 2072836k total, 2024240k used, 48596k free, 24084k buffers
Swap: 3984080k total, 52332k used, 3931748k free, 1795776k cached
It's been continuously up for almost 85 days :-) (Note the SMP kernel for the Intel Core Duo in the T60p).
Why don't I use the T60p as my business laptop? Well, it's a little heavier than the T43p but the main reason is the power supply. For the last 5 years or so the power supply of a thinkpad has been interchangeable with the power supplies of earlier thinkpad models. But the T60p is such a power-hungry beast and the power supply for it is different from all those that came before. So now all my old power blocks - which seem to have proliferated to most rooms in the house - don't fit the T60p. So now when wandering around the house with a T60p laptop I also need to have it's power supply in tow. I got bored with that and leave it be now :-) Having said that the battery does last longer, but if it's on battery it runs slower to conserve power.
The other thing I noticed with it are some affinity problems, applications hanging unexpectedly being the result. I am sure these will get resolved with microcode/BIOS updates in the fullness of time however. All in all, a great machine.
Enjoy yourself down there buddy, it looks like a comprehensive set of education.
+++
Ah, the T60p. I use a T43p, but I do also have a T60p, it sits underneath my flatbed scanner and runs virtual machines under Ubuntu Linux. The virtual machines are running a mixture of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and various Linux distros under VMWare's (now free) Server product. Having a Linux hypervisor is good as you don't have to reboot it for "patch tuesday" from Microsoft, proving a level of stable uptime to your VM's.
top - 21:28:07 up 84 days, 23:16, 1 user, load average: 0.50, 0.51, 0.46
Tasks: 89 total, 1 running, 88 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.3% us, 3.0% sy, 0.0% ni, 96.7% id, 0.0% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si
Mem: 2072836k total, 2024240k used, 48596k free, 24084k buffers
Swap: 3984080k total, 52332k used, 3931748k free, 1795776k cached
It's been continuously up for almost 85 days :-) (Note the SMP kernel for the Intel Core Duo in the T60p).
Why don't I use the T60p as my business laptop? Well, it's a little heavier than the T43p but the main reason is the power supply. For the last 5 years or so the power supply of a thinkpad has been interchangeable with the power supplies of earlier thinkpad models. But the T60p is such a power-hungry beast and the power supply for it is different from all those that came before. So now all my old power blocks - which seem to have proliferated to most rooms in the house - don't fit the T60p. So now when wandering around the house with a T60p laptop I also need to have it's power supply in tow. I got bored with that and leave it be now :-) Having said that the battery does last longer, but if it's on battery it runs slower to conserve power.
The other thing I noticed with it are some affinity problems, applications hanging unexpectedly being the result. I am sure these will get resolved with microcode/BIOS updates in the fullness of time however. All in all, a great machine.
McGillis
In either case, Kelly McGillis looked good in the movie Witness, all of 21 years old that film now.
Yes she did. She did indeed. :-)
* * *
I am off to zExpo in Orlando. I present three sessions.
* * *
Sorry to hear about your airport experience in the United States. I'm a bit surprised that the same treatment isn't done in airports overseas. But as I sit and reflect on it, I seem to recall that security at Beijing airport was pretty light by U.S. standards.
* * *
I saw a movie on the plane back from Canada -- Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Anniston in "The Breakup." I like Jennifer Anniston ... I think she's a far better actress than many give her credit for. Still, this movie was a bad project. The movie is fundamentally flawed. The movie never establishes any reason why we should be sympathetic to the two main characters. The film starts and almost immediately goes into the two of them bickering. I could find absolutely no sense of concern or compassion for either of them. So for me, the movie was an uncomfortable experience.
Still, Jennifer Anniston is cute.
* * *
My new T60p shipped. I'll be its proud papa in a few days. :-)
Yes she did. She did indeed. :-)
* * *
I am off to zExpo in Orlando. I present three sessions.
* * *
Sorry to hear about your airport experience in the United States. I'm a bit surprised that the same treatment isn't done in airports overseas. But as I sit and reflect on it, I seem to recall that security at Beijing airport was pretty light by U.S. standards.
* * *
I saw a movie on the plane back from Canada -- Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Anniston in "The Breakup." I like Jennifer Anniston ... I think she's a far better actress than many give her credit for. Still, this movie was a bad project. The movie is fundamentally flawed. The movie never establishes any reason why we should be sympathetic to the two main characters. The film starts and almost immediately goes into the two of them bickering. I could find absolutely no sense of concern or compassion for either of them. So for me, the movie was an uncomfortable experience.
Still, Jennifer Anniston is cute.
* * *
My new T60p shipped. I'll be its proud papa in a few days. :-)
American Psycho
Yes I read about the detail in the case of the Amish girls and the reaction of the Amish community - it was in the news all of last week whilst I was in the US. There seems to have been a spate of such murders recently, I can only hope that the problem is not becoming more endemic than I thought it was in the first place.
I read that the Amish console themselves with the fact that the girls are in Heaven having the best time now with Jesus. This is well and good.
Maybe they'd like to think that the killer of the girls made it to Heaven also (having truly repented at the last moment) and that he is with the girls now and everyone is having a nice time, with all the bad stuff - the fear - forgotten. If so, then they are truly like Jesus and are perhaps a good example of what homo sapiens might be in the next stage of their evolution.
In either case, Kelly McGillis looked good in the movie Witness, all of 21 years old that film now.
I read that the Amish console themselves with the fact that the girls are in Heaven having the best time now with Jesus. This is well and good.
Maybe they'd like to think that the killer of the girls made it to Heaven also (having truly repented at the last moment) and that he is with the girls now and everyone is having a nice time, with all the bad stuff - the fear - forgotten. If so, then they are truly like Jesus and are perhaps a good example of what homo sapiens might be in the next stage of their evolution.
In either case, Kelly McGillis looked good in the movie Witness, all of 21 years old that film now.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
The Amish ...
Perhaps you heard the news that a man in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania murdered five young Amish girls. The story behind the act is sketchy and lurid, and I'll let it pass without further comment. But I do wish to report the following, and I'll do it in bullet format:
Bless them, those who forgive in the midst of such a tragedy.
- Charles Carl Roberts IV murders five Amish children and injures several others
- Charles Carl Roberts IV then kills himself
- The Amish community, victims of this awful crime ... attended Roberts' funeral and grieved with the Roberts' widow
- The Amish community has begun collecting money to assist Roberts' widow in this awful time for her
Bless them, those who forgive in the midst of such a tragedy.
Friday, October 06, 2006
EWR gate 53
I can't recall exactly how many times I have sat at this table in this airport bar opposite gate 53 waiting to get the Virgin VS02 plane home to the UK. 20 .. 30? I dunno.
US Airports embarrass me because I have to take my shoes off, which relieves me of my walking foot brace, so then I hobble around like the gimp I am and everyone looks at me, although I am getting much better at being the centre of attention than I used to be.
Whilst putting my shoes back on I thought about all of the times and years that I was fully bodily able and felt a loss. These emotions are sent to try us, to test how we cope with change and loss I think.
+++
Why would humans feel desire in the first place? Is desire a hangover from a hunger for food perhaps? The food which we need to survive but somehow the message gets short circuited so we think we need an iPod or a life-partner? Not sure.
US Airports embarrass me because I have to take my shoes off, which relieves me of my walking foot brace, so then I hobble around like the gimp I am and everyone looks at me, although I am getting much better at being the centre of attention than I used to be.
Whilst putting my shoes back on I thought about all of the times and years that I was fully bodily able and felt a loss. These emotions are sent to try us, to test how we cope with change and loss I think.
+++
Why would humans feel desire in the first place? Is desire a hangover from a hunger for food perhaps? The food which we need to survive but somehow the message gets short circuited so we think we need an iPod or a life-partner? Not sure.
Mid-East / Mid-West
Our calling those states "Midwest" is a veiled indication of our Islamophobia. :-)
The University of Michigan football "fight song" (song meant to rally the team) has the line, "... champions of the west." The song was written in 1901, or something like that, and at that time California was a state. So I'm not at all clear why it was still considered "the west." It probably harkens back to some ancient time when Chicago was considered the far western outpost of America.
To add to the irony, Michigan played in the first Rose Bowl football game in 1902. They played Stanford, which is in California. Go figure. Michigan won, 49-0. That was during Fielding H. Yost's tenure as coach. His teams were essentially unstoppable. They played a brand of football that would no doubt be unrecognizable today. And the worst college team of today would pulverize the best from that era. Back then, a lineman who weighed in at 200 pounds would be a freak of nature; now they commonly weigh in at 300+ pounds, are very strong and very quick, and often very tall to boot -- generally in the 6'5" range.
* * *
The world is fueled by fear and desire, not fear and hope. The statement about not seeing much hope for the world is perfectly understandable if one looks only at this world. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it seems to me desire is a derivative of something.
I also am struck again by how Dallas Willard very intentionally defined love and desire as two different things. Desire is a selfish thing, involving what I want. Love, by his definition, is a selfless thing, doing what is best for the other. And I'm also struck by how his definition does not include "doing what the other wants." Desire on the other's part may also be selfish and ultimately unhelpful to that person.
Yes, I know -- who determines what is "best?" etc., etc.
The University of Michigan football "fight song" (song meant to rally the team) has the line, "... champions of the west." The song was written in 1901, or something like that, and at that time California was a state. So I'm not at all clear why it was still considered "the west." It probably harkens back to some ancient time when Chicago was considered the far western outpost of America.
To add to the irony, Michigan played in the first Rose Bowl football game in 1902. They played Stanford, which is in California. Go figure. Michigan won, 49-0. That was during Fielding H. Yost's tenure as coach. His teams were essentially unstoppable. They played a brand of football that would no doubt be unrecognizable today. And the worst college team of today would pulverize the best from that era. Back then, a lineman who weighed in at 200 pounds would be a freak of nature; now they commonly weigh in at 300+ pounds, are very strong and very quick, and often very tall to boot -- generally in the 6'5" range.
* * *
The world is fueled by fear and desire, not fear and hope. The statement about not seeing much hope for the world is perfectly understandable if one looks only at this world. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it seems to me desire is a derivative of something.
I also am struck again by how Dallas Willard very intentionally defined love and desire as two different things. Desire is a selfish thing, involving what I want. Love, by his definition, is a selfless thing, doing what is best for the other. And I'm also struck by how his definition does not include "doing what the other wants." Desire on the other's part may also be selfish and ultimately unhelpful to that person.
Yes, I know -- who determines what is "best?" etc., etc.
The Midwest
Looking at the picture of the midwestern states - shouldn't they be called the mideast?
:-)
:-)
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Fishkill
Welcome back! I think we're simultaneously blogging, great photo which wasn't there a moment ago. It's 11:00 in Fishkill where I am and 04:00 in the UK. I'm looking forwards to flying back to the UK tomorrow evening (well actually I'm not looking forwards to the flight but looking forwards to seeing my daughter).
Had dinner in a steak house with a colleague from the UK, he thinks humans might be driven by fear and desire (not hope) .. didn't seem much chance for hope in his world ! I said that I needed to think about it. Thoughts?
Take it easy on the booze we're not getting any younger.
Had dinner in a steak house with a colleague from the UK, he thinks humans might be driven by fear and desire (not hope) .. didn't seem much chance for hope in his world ! I said that I needed to think about it. Thoughts?
Take it easy on the booze we're not getting any younger.
Back From Canadian North
I'm now safely back in Tucson, after having spent four days up in Canada. Four of us spent four full days there ... and drank 138 beers. I've learned my upper digestive system doesn't like that quantity of beer anymore ... I experienced some awful acid reflux. But I'm okay now.
* * *
I'm happy to hear the "a" has been recovered. If Neil Armstrong says he said it, then he said it. There's no chance a U.S. astronaut from Ohio of all places would make that up.
Note: In the United States, the term "midwest" refers to a collection of states that varies from 7 to 14. Regardless of the exact number, the midwest has a general reputation as being the "salt of the earth" or "the backbone" of this country. That reputation is probably waning of late, but certainly back in the 40's, 50's and 60's it held true. Ohio, being one of those states, strikes me as being the most midwest of them all, though some might argue for Illinois or Iowa. In any event, Neil Armstrong was born in Wapokoneta, Ohio ... and with a name like that you can rest assured anyone from there is as straightlaced as they come. :-)
I was born in Michigan ... also considered a "midwestern state," but I think for much of the time where "midwestern" implied steadfastness, Michigan was somewhat excluded from that. Michigan was the most heavily industrialized state in the early and mid 20th century, and I think that casts a different light than bucolic farmland.
Detroit, however, has a long-standing tradition and reputation as a) a great sports town and b) a great music town. The Detroit Red Wings (hockey) enjoyed considerable dominance in the 1950's (with Gordie Howe), and a resurgance in the last 1990's as well. The Tigers (baseball) haven't won as many "World Series" as New York, but they have a few. The Pistons (basketball) used to be pitiful, but became good in the early 1990's and again in the past few years. That leaves the Lions, our perennially awful football team. They had some success in the 1950's, but nothing since. And since about ... oh ... 1975 or so they've been simply bad.
The Tigers are currently playing the Yankees in the American League playoffs. The Tigers came out of nowhere this year to do quite well and get into the playoffs.
Detroit (and surrounding area) and music? Well, Motown, of course ... including Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder. But also Bob Seger, Rare Earth, the MC5, Alice Cooper, The Romantics, The Knack, Grand Funk (really Flint, but close), Eminem, Kid Rock ... and let's not forget the Motor City Madman himself, Ted Nugent.
* * *
I got up at 4:30am ET, which is 1:30am Tucson Time. It is now 3:03pm Tucson Time, and I am quite tired.
* * *
I'm happy to hear the "a" has been recovered. If Neil Armstrong says he said it, then he said it. There's no chance a U.S. astronaut from Ohio of all places would make that up.
Note: In the United States, the term "midwest" refers to a collection of states that varies from 7 to 14. Regardless of the exact number, the midwest has a general reputation as being the "salt of the earth" or "the backbone" of this country. That reputation is probably waning of late, but certainly back in the 40's, 50's and 60's it held true. Ohio, being one of those states, strikes me as being the most midwest of them all, though some might argue for Illinois or Iowa. In any event, Neil Armstrong was born in Wapokoneta, Ohio ... and with a name like that you can rest assured anyone from there is as straightlaced as they come. :-)
I was born in Michigan ... also considered a "midwestern state," but I think for much of the time where "midwestern" implied steadfastness, Michigan was somewhat excluded from that. Michigan was the most heavily industrialized state in the early and mid 20th century, and I think that casts a different light than bucolic farmland.
Detroit, however, has a long-standing tradition and reputation as a) a great sports town and b) a great music town. The Detroit Red Wings (hockey) enjoyed considerable dominance in the 1950's (with Gordie Howe), and a resurgance in the last 1990's as well. The Tigers (baseball) haven't won as many "World Series" as New York, but they have a few. The Pistons (basketball) used to be pitiful, but became good in the early 1990's and again in the past few years. That leaves the Lions, our perennially awful football team. They had some success in the 1950's, but nothing since. And since about ... oh ... 1975 or so they've been simply bad.
The Tigers are currently playing the Yankees in the American League playoffs. The Tigers came out of nowhere this year to do quite well and get into the playoffs.
Detroit (and surrounding area) and music? Well, Motown, of course ... including Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder. But also Bob Seger, Rare Earth, the MC5, Alice Cooper, The Romantics, The Knack, Grand Funk (really Flint, but close), Eminem, Kid Rock ... and let's not forget the Motor City Madman himself, Ted Nugent.
* * *
I got up at 4:30am ET, which is 1:30am Tucson Time. It is now 3:03pm Tucson Time, and I am quite tired.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Man and mankind
You may think that this:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4225505.html
is completely trivial but I think I'll sleep better at nights.
+++
I have shopped at Woodbury Common New Jersey today and noticed how large people are getting. I have therefore formulated a new deep.thought law which goes like this:
"Given an almost unlimited supply of food, humans will attempt to eat it".
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4225505.html
is completely trivial but I think I'll sleep better at nights.
+++
I have shopped at Woodbury Common New Jersey today and noticed how large people are getting. I have therefore formulated a new deep.thought law which goes like this:
"Given an almost unlimited supply of food, humans will attempt to eat it".
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