New Year's Superstitions

OK, ok, one more 2005 post: a nice list of New Year's traditions and superstitions, courtesy of Snopes.

Bye Bye 2005

The holidays have meant fewer posts, and before you know it - bam! - 2005 is about over and done with. A lot of newspapers, radio programs, and television shows are doing 2005 retrospectives (most likely because their news team is on holiday). I'm going to save you from reading a version of my own creation (though I toyed with the idea of doing a "things that didn't happen" list), and instead say: go out and enjoy the last day (and night) of 2005. See you next year!

GiveLobster.com: In The Running For Worst Christmas Present Of All Time

I have to hand it to the people at GiveLobster.com. They're really (I mean really) into lobster. And, for a mere $99 plus shipping, they'll send a six pound live lobster to your friends and family.

I don't know what's worse: the fact that the recipient of the gift will unknowingly open a box to find a big crustacean staring back at them, or the fact that the recipient now has to prepare the lobster (not something most home cooks are versed with).

Kofi Annan Needs My Help!

I'm disappointed in spam. It's getting more and more unrealistic by the day. Here's one example that appeared in my in-box today:

I KOFI ANNAN, secretary-general of the united nations,
would like to ask your partnership in reprofilling
funds over $250m in excess ,the funds would be coming
via a string of selected banks in Europe and Asia.

The funds in question were generated by me during the
oil for food program in Iraq.

I have been getting scandals/ controversy in this
regards, you can read more on the links below-

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/anna-a05.shtml

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2003/main042803.htm

You would be paid 5% as your management fee. please do
not write back directly to me via my official email
address as all further correspondence should be sent
to my private mail box. As soon as you indicate your
interest i will give further details, remember to
treat this mail and transaction as strictly
confidential.
I will wait to get your urgent correspondence via my
private mail box-at : kofi_general@yahoo.com

KOFI ANNAN,
SECRETARY- GENERAL
KOFI_GENERAL@YAHOO.COM
www.un.org

Right, Kofi's got a private mail box on Yahoo.com, eh? And what's with the backstory? "I've got some money from the oil for food program, and I need your help to launder it". C'mon, no more details? No shady backroom deals? No secret handshakes? Lame...

Napoleon Dynamite Ridicules Idaho, And Idaho Says Thanks

Idaho's legislature was so excited about the exposure Napoleon Dynamite has offered to their state that they decided to sign a bill into law commending the filmmakers. Wait a sec, folks - Napoleon Dynamite made fun of Idaho.

My favorite part of the bill:

WHEREAS, any members of the House of Representatives or the Senate of the Legislature of the State of Idaho who choose to vote "Nay" on this concurrent resolution are "FREAKIN' IDIOTS!" and run the risk of having the "Worst Day of Their Lives!"

Solar Panels For Your Prius

Want to get more mileage out of your hybrid, but don't want to make your own plug-into-the-wall mod? Solatec has released a solar panel kit for the Toyota Prius. Solatec's press release claims a 10% improvement in gas mileage as a result of using the kit.

So let's see, we have mods for recharging hybrids from the grid and from the sun. I'm still waiting for the flux capacitor add-in.

Guinness Is Made Of Isinglass!

Hold the phones. The Vegan Society recently gave out its 2005 awards. The winner of the "Vegan Raspberry Award", given to a product that should be (but isn't) vegan, is Guinness Stout. Apparently, it contains isinglass, which is a form of gelatin made from the swimbladders of fish.

In other news, Guinness gives you strength!

TatAD: Tattooing For Bucks

Did you wake up this morning wishing you had a temporary or permanent tattoo of a company on your body, in return for money? I sure didn't, but TatAD thinks is this a grand idea for connecting advertisers with advertising space (and taking a cut in the process, I'm sure).

Their basic argument: you like certain companies, and you pay to get their products or services. Why not get some money in return from them?

Quotable quotes from their About Us page (with fun comma splices to boot):

Is it wrong to use the art of tattooing to get people paid? Don’t look at it as the corporate world has initiated this, the people have, we had no potential sponsors when we began, only people who wanted to be sponsored.

Of course! For decades, people have demanded that their most personal of possessions, their skin, should be scrawled with brands and taglines. Thankfully, TatAD is there to fulfill this valuable service.

I disagree with TatAD on the claim that this cheapens the art of tattoo: I think it very well does, taking a dig at the very personal expression that the art form allows for. A tattoo ad doesn't reflect someone's person. It expresses their interest in selling a portion of their skin for money, turning themselves into a billboard.

I can't help but think of the cover of Kalle Lasn's book, Culture Jam, with a barcode tattoo on the back of an unnamed man's neck. Is nothing sacred from the world of advertising?

Adventures In The World Of Cat Excrement

Not too long ago, one of our cats began to poop outside his box. It happened once in a while, so we figured it surely must have been an accident on his part, surely. After about a month of this, the sans-box poop began to appear more frequently, and before long we had a daily treat of extra-box poop to deal with.

More recently, the situation escalated. We came home one day to the wonderful smell of cat pee in the closet where the litter boxes sit. Sure enough, someone had peed on the carpet outside the box (conveniently close to the poop that had also been deposited outside the box). A quick trip to the store yielded some Resolve carpet cleaner to help the situation. While it cured some of the smell, it didn't seem to break the habit of using the carpet as a toilet; the pooping and peeing continued.

I decided to turn to the illustrious Web for help. I read quite a few tips and tricks for getting rid of the smell in an effort to discourage repeat offenses (vinegar, enzymatic cleaners, Oxy-Clean, etc.). But one product came recommended by several people as a way to get cats back in the box: Cat Attract litter.

A trip yesterday to PetSmart yielded a 20 pound bag of the stuff. I dumped one of the boxes and filled it with the litter. I then showed it to our pissed-off (literally) cat.

As if by magic, he looked in the box, got in the box, pooped, turned around a few times, peed, and hopped out. Amazing!

I must sound like one of those Ron Popeil customer testimonials, but hey, the litter did the trick. No more carpet-for-toilet, thanks to the enchanted litter.

UAE's Gay Marriage Policy

I had to read this article more than once to fully grok the proposed punishment of the two dozen or so gay men caught trying to get married. Jail time? Lashings? Hormone treatments?

A representative quote:

“Because they’ve put society at risk they will be given the necessary treatment, from male hormone injections to psychological therapies,” [Interior Ministry spokesman Issam Azouri] said. “It wasn’t just a homosexual act. Now we’re dealing with a kind of marriage. There was a ritual involved.”

Compare with a quote from this press release from the White House:

Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society. Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all.

Note the similarity? Both positions are trying to protect society's status quo with respect to marriage. The first approach is extreme in our (well, at least my) eyes. But if the end justifies the means, is that means a constitutional amendment, or something even more severe?

I'm a big believer in a live-and-let-live approach to governance and society. I also believe if a person's action "crosses the distance of their nose", then it's of public concern. It's why I'm for public smoking bans, but it's also why I see the UAE's response (and, truth be told, the White House's response) to gay marriage as extreme.

Black Friday (Now Leaking Into Thursday) Is Still Not Worth It

Chalk one more up on the board of receding holiday traditions. Local news reports that the Quil Ceda Outlet Mall in Marysville is opening its doors to drooling shoppers eager for a fix at midnight. That's right - eat turkey, enjoy a slice of pie, rest, then get up and shop in the wee hours of the morning.

What's worse:

Major retail chains open on Thanksgiving included K-Mart, Big Lots, and Fred Meyer.

Great, one more way to cut into valuable family time free of the bustle of commerce and the pressures of shopping.

Black Friday is known to scientists and researchers to radically affect otherwise rational, logical human beings into becoming rabid and animalistic at the opportunity to score a great deal. Higher concentrations of unrest seems to appear at the bastion of low-prices, Wal-Mart. Note these examples, courtesy of this article:

Extra police were called to a Wal-Mart store in Renton to help control crowds of shoppers who pushed their way into the electronics department after doors opened this morning...

Things got out of hand at a Wal-Mart store in Orlando, Fla., where a man who allegedly cut in line to get a discounted laptop computer was wrestled to the ground.

Count me out. I'll enjoy a nice brunch, maybe cruise some online retailers for Christmas present ideas, and then head to a party. I'll be out that wonderful deal on a plasma TV, a laptop, or a sweater, but I'll be happier, I promise.

Thanksgiving Baklava

This evening we're heading over to a friend's place to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner. Granted, this is an American holiday, but what better excuse than the National Excuse To Be Gluttonous day to make a pan of baklava?

It was easier this time than last time I made it, and it turned out quite well. I eased up on the syrup this time so the top would remain crisp while the bottom absorbs the syrup.

It's currently sitting on the dining room table, its buttery honey vapors wafting through the house. It's taking quite a bit of self control not to devour several pieces in advance of dinner.

King And Bunny's: The Worst Local Commercial

Every weekday night, without fail, on UPN 11 around 11:50PM, this short little local commercial comes on. It's comprised of a still image of some people sitting amidst some washers, some logos, and other information about the business, King and Bunny's.

The voice over begins..."King and Bunny's!" it calls. In the span of no more than 10 seconds, it claims that King and Bunny's has the "Whammer Deals" on home appliances, repeats the name of the business, and...that's it. Commercial over.

What? What was that? What did I just see?

I can't decide what's worse about this commercial:

• The fact that it's not only short, but it's really irritating. The voice over grates on your ears after the 37th time you've heard it.
• The fact that it's shown every single weekday night, without fail. I get it already. King and Bunny's. The appliance store that thought a 10 second still image with a voice over would sell more Kitchenaids.
• The fact that it made me notice enough to check out their web site and blog about them.

Google Is Not Immune To Security Bugs

I heard today that Google released Google Base with a cross-site scripting bug (reported here, here, and here. For the non-geeks, this basically means that, for a period of time, you could use Google Base to get at a user's GMail or other personal information hosted on (something).google.com. Comforting, huh?

"But, George, no one is immune to security bugs!" you may say. Sure, bugs exist, especially in beta software. But these are basic, well-understood bugs we're talking about, not some obscure security hole that is hard to exploit.

Security is something that should be part of the "checklist to release this Beta on the web" list. It should be part of the team culture to ensure that these security tests happen. It's something that is typically learned the hard way, but something that is invaluable to learn once, and then leverage often.

Electric Sheep

Electric Sheep isn't new, but it's getting popular recently at the office. In short, it's a screen saver that helps make more screen savers. The ones produced are based on people's votes: popular screen savers live longer and pieces of them get reused in new animations.

I'll spare you the geeky computer science stuff - the graphics are pretty hypnotic.

Fish Flavored Ice Cream

What is up with sweet foods and drinks going seafood? I just posted about salmon soda when I come across this post about seafood ice cream. Liny Hsueh must be stopped.

Salmon Flavored Soda

Thanks, Jones Soda. I knew there was something missing in my soda options. That is, until you produced sodas with flavors such as Smoked Salmon Pate, Corn on the Cob, and Wild Herb Stuffing.

Quick, go suggest a flavor. Maybe Fraser Fir in time for Christmas, Boiled Egg for Easter, or BBQ in time for July 4th?

Bagpipes Are Not Detrimental To Your Health

According to this article, playing the bagpipes is perfectly safe. That is, assuming you're OK with risking Repetitive Strain Injury, hearing loss, marital problems, alcoholism, and a penchant for speaking in a Scottish accent.

Aluminum Foil Helmets Don't Protect You From "Them"

Thanks to the wonderful work of Ali Rahimi et. al., we now know that Aluminum Foil Helmets don't protect you from "invasive radio signals". Read the findings here. Of course, everyone knows that "They" had something to do with Rahimi's study, and therefore the results must not be trusted.

It's Voting Time

Tomorrow is voting day for many places, including Washington. If you're registered, and you don't vote by mail, go out and vote. If you're not registered, take the time tomorrow to do so for the next election.

At the very least, you'll help pick who you're going to blame if things don't go well during the next couple of years.

Come On Out, The Snow (Will Be) Fine!

I love the reports the slopes are presenting regarding the snow forecasts. "Put your mind at ease," they say. This season will be fine! Reporters in local media are doing the same, writing about how this winter season won't be like last year's, which was plagued with lower-than-normal precipitation and higher-than-normal temperatures.

Sure, signs point to positive. But there's implicit fine print here that you may recognize from another domain:

Past performance is indicative of future results and returns.

This should sound familiar to anyone who's invested in stocks, bonds, real estate, or the like. It's a disclaimer written in 6-point text at the bottom of those glossy ads that advertise high returns from a mutual fund, or a strong strategy of diversification from an index. They do so because, simply, you can't predict the stock market. And, despite what the ads say, you can't really base future results on what the past has resulted in.

I believe the same goes with weather. Even more so, actually. With stocks, bonds, and funds, you have a large number of variables that are impactful in the price of an investment (earnings, expenditures, products, services, acquisitions, divestitures, and the like), and the non-zero chance of scandals, crimes, and other "bad" things can all serve to drive the price of stocks up or down. So it goes with the weather; sure, we think that the rains/snow and the cool temperatures will continue. But all we have to base that on is two things: what we've seen to date, and what our weather models tell us. The models are great; kudos to the Jeff Renners of the world for making them. But they're not perfect, or even close to perfect.

Models and past results are enough to make a prediction on. But they're not enough to base a promise on. I'm all for a great snow season, both for the businesses and workers involved as well as the folks who enjoy snow sports. But I tend to be cautious & surprised rather than over-optimistic and disappointed when it comes to unpredictables like the weather.

Summed up:

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us
to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it. ~Patrick
Young

Safety Is Relative

I don't buy British American Tobacco's claim that they've produced a "safe" cigarette that cuts the risk of heart disease and cancer by 90%. According to this article, they've produced a cigarette using treated tobacco and a new filter designed to cut toxins emitted from the cigarette and, thus, going into the user.

I don't buy it, at least not fully. Reasons:

• First off, are these claims independently verified, not only the output of the cigarette but its effects on people? Clearly there's a market for feeling like there's a "safer" alternative, but is it true, or is it just a claim by the manufacturer?
• The smoke coming off the end of the cigarette is not filtered. Bystanders, as well as the smoker, inhales that end-smoke.
• Nicotine doesn't appear to be one of the toxins filtered out. That makes sense; why remove the addictive element from the drug? That said, nicotine isn't a great thing to be ingesting. For example, it can increase your LDL ("bad") cholesterol, and constricts your blood vessels which can lead to hypertension.

So Long, Vanilla Coke

Due to declining sales, Coca-Cola has decided to pull their roughly three-year-old Vanilla Coke and Diet Coke with Lemon flavors. From the article:

Analysts have said that one of the keys to the company's future is to
innovate new products that will help Coca-Cola capture more consumers who have
moved away from sugary soft drinks to diet versions, or to healthier low-or
no-calorie beverages such as water and orange juices with reduced sugar.

I wholeheartedly agree. It's novel to get a familiar cola flavor mixed with something new, like lemon, lime, orange, vanilla, cashew, spaghetti, or prosciutto. But, after the novelty wears off, you're either purchasing the variant along with the regular flavor, or have forgotten the variant and have moved back to regular cola.

Coca-Cola's #1 in the cola biz. Sure, it feels threatened and wants to match PepsiCo when Pepsi reveals they have a variant cola. But it's new and budding beverage markets where Coca-Cola will make head-way, not drag-racing with other companies on the best way to mix cola and Nutella.

Oh well, if you're truly addicted to the vanilla sugar water, you can always purchase the regular stuff and add some vanilla syrup to it.

Seattle Voting Guide: Web Site Showdown - King County Council District 3

It seems that Kathy Lambert is running unopposed for the 3rd District's Council seat. Oh well, I guess I can still critique her web site on its own.

First up on the home page, I'm immediately drawn to those two, animated .gifs of the U.S. and Washington State flags. Wow! That's awesome! How did she do that? If Kathy has that much control over the pixels on my monitor, think what she can do with King County policy! Needless animation: -2

Moving on, I see Kathy adds a personal touch to the home page by signing her name, and presenting it in the form of a graphic. Too bad her web designer doesn't know how to make transparent backgrounds. Bad graphic: -1

There's a navigation frame along the top. I'll be objective here and say that, indeed, the frames do offer you a way to navigate the site. They don't make it more efficient, mind you, since the site is pretty flat and the pages aren't that long. But, what's with the yellow background? White text on black boxes on yellow background doesn't do it for me. Color: -1

And, why do I need footer navigation that's exactly like the header navigation, which is always present because of the frame? Needless duplication of framed content: -1

I wanted to post a link to just the Endorsements page here, but the site has trapped the right-click on the header navigation buttons, so I can't copy the link directly. Needless trapping of right-click: -1

The photo gallery is decent enough. But, where are the thumbnails, so save low-bandwidth connections the time it takes to load every picture? Is Kathy implying that she's not interested in modem users' vote? Lack of low-bandwidth consideration: -1

Go to any form on the site, and, without entering any content in the fields, hit Send. Hey, you get a nice thank-you from Kathy! Hey, great job not validating the form! Lack of form validation: -2

Overall, Kathy Lambert's site scores a -9. I looked for some good content to give her credit for the information she was delivering, but there's extremely little about her opinions, platform, and so on. I guess running unopposed means you don't have to really care as much. Congratulations, Kathy, your web site wins by losing!

Mesmerizing

It took me a moment to realize that this was done using repeating background. Even though, it's still well done and fun to look at.

Seattle Voting Guide: Web Site Showdown - Seattle Mayor

Ok, ok, so the vote by picture thing maybe wasn't the best guide in the world (a fun one, nonetheless). How about we try a different angle to decide some key elections? Let's look at the information each candidate delivers through their web site. But, more specifically, let's judge the web site itself and use that as a metric for who to vote for. Sound fair? Of course not. Let's have at it!

As a general rule for this and future Web Site Showdown posts, I'll use the ever-popular and highly subjective Points System to grade each web site. Criteria will vary by web site on the basic premise of what strikes me as I visit each site. I'll focus primarily on the home page of these sites, only because I love to skim and don't have time to nit-pick every page.

First up we have Greg Nickels versus Al Runte.

Color and Branding
Nickels's site was created by someone who most likely is used to designing print ads. Look at that giant orange-on-blue "Re-elect" text. Very in your face. Also pretty ugly. A thinly-ruled orange and white background further distracts from the main content area. Nickels: -2

Runte's site is pretty clean and toned primarily with a blue color that fades into his Seattle waterfront banner. A good bit of white surrounded by a light blue background adds welcome clutter-free space to the page. Blue's also a good choice: lots of people like blue. Runte: +2

I'm surprised no one picked green, given we're the Emerald City and all.

Graphics:
Pretty poor Photoshop job there on Nickels's site of himself; you can pretty clearly see the white space haloing his head, due to a bad lasso job. Otherwise the graphics are average. Nickels: -1

Decent, albeit not great, shot of the city seafront on Runte's site. His headshot is nice and friendly, however; much better than his image in the voters' guide. Runte: +1

Content:
Nickels's site reads like a brochure. Not great, not bad. Nickels: +1

Runte's site is more like a blog, and feels much more current than Nickels's. The posts feel much more first-person and personal than Nickels's. Runte: +3

Layout:
Why does every page in the site have to feature that silly 3-step panel on the left hand side? Nickels: -1

Runte's site breaks no boundaries, but optimizes space in the center for content and doesn't repeat elements needlessly. Runte: +1

Useless Stuff:
Man, Greg, what is up with that banner of moving pictures at the top of your site? Try clicking on a picture - nothing happens! Why is that there? Also, why do I get to view every page as a PDF or in a popup, text-only window? Is there a reason why I get a breadcrumb on what is effectively a flat site? Hey, I get today's date at the top of the home page - thanks Greg, I forgot what day it was. Hey cool, I get to view only 5 news items on the News page. Uh...why? Why would I ever want to do that? Nickels: -10

Runte's site has some nit impracticality, but nothing that hit my priority list. Runte: 0

Missing Stuff:
Nickels, any thought to RSS feeds? A blog? Nickels: -2

Runte, you effectively have both. Runte: 0

Overall, we have Nickels at -15 and Runte at 7. Congratulations, Al Runte, your web site wins!

Standard Time Blues

We're back to standard time today. It's 5:30PM and it's pitch black outside. And, it's only going to get darker, sooner, as we approach the winter solstice. Hey, at least we have good coffee.

Seattle Voting Guide: A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Votes

Recently, The Believer published short book reviews based on one sentence selected at random from the book in question. Why limit this system to book reviews? What if we, say, look at people's pictures published in election guides, and use those to decide who to vote for? Great idea!

King County Executive
Both Ron Sims and David Irons look friendly enough, almost to the point of being neighborly. But, I don't know; being the Executive of King County requires more charisma. A higher level of poise and self-assurance, perhaps. An ability to enchant someone into going your way, one could say. That's why my vote goes with Gentry Lange. He's got that movie-star look of confidence, and that ability to hold your gaze while he tells you about his policy ideas on voting transparency. Pretty soon you'll forget what the topic at hand is, while you instead compliment Gentry on his well-tailored look.

Sheriff
Sheriffs are supposed to keep the peace. Most sheriffs I've seen (well, technically, they're Rangers) wear cowboy hats. Walker is a great example (played by that tirelessly obtuse actor, Chuck Norris). Now, who would look better in a cowboy hat, keeping the peace in King County? Sue Rahr, hands down. Greg Schmidt looks a bit too much like a television evangelist to garner my vote.

King County Council - District 1
Gosh, this is a tough one. Both Bob Ferguson and Steven Pyeatt look like high school science teachers. On that metric, I think Bob wins out on the techy/nerdy look. We need someone familiar with quarks on the council, after all.

King County Council - District 2
Larry Gossett is the clear winner in this photo race. He looks like a guy as comfortable sitting on the council deciding on policy as he does sitting in your backyard, enjoying a beer at a cookout. Brian Thomas looks downright angry at you, and Morgan Catha looks like he's fifteen.

King County Council - District 3
Well, Kathy Lambert is running unopposed. I think that's why she looks so happy. And confident. I mean, talk about the comfort of knowing that you're pretty much guaranteed another term. Has to be nice.

King County Council - District 4
Wow, more happiness here. Both Larry Phillips and Ed Pottharst are just so happy to have the chance to be elected. This is a toughie...can I vote for Kathy again?

King County Council - District 8
Ah! A competitor to Kathy's happiness - John Potter. So, my first impression of Dow Constantine is he has the slick and finesse of a lawyer (indeed, he received a law degree from UW). That may serve him well in front of a jury, convincing people that it wasn't actually the defendant, dressed in a chicken costume, who robbed that convenience store while doing the chicken dance. But this King County Council spot needs someone a bit more casual. More friendly. More "chummy". Thankfully, John Potter fills that role quite well. I mean, c'mon: he's bursting with happiness and is ready to buy you and your kid a present for Christmas just for you considering a vote for him.

King County Council - District 9
While I admit my first inclination was to vote for Reagan Dunn (so much finesse!), on second glance he looks a little too polished. District 9 needs someone who isn't afraid to get in there and get his or her hands dirty. Shirley A. Gaunt-Smith's got the edge here. Reagan's suit is just too clean.

Port of Seattle - Commissioner - Positions 1, 3, and 4
If you're a Port Commissioner, you better have some sea legs. A sailor's life have ye, maybe with a tinge of pirate, to be able to control what comes in and what goes out of our ports. To that effect, Lawrence Molloy trumps John Creighton, Richard "Rich" Berkowitz beats Lloyd Hara (nice mustache, Rich!), and Patricia "Pat" Davis is ahead of Jack Jolley (I'll give you that Pat needs a sailor's hat to complete the image).

City of Seattle - Mayor
Al Runte has that laser-like, no-BS look in his eye. Like a hungry tiger, he's ready to pounce on the issues facing Seattle and tackle them to the ground. To Al, Greg Nickels must look like a gazelle.

City of Seattle - City Attorney
Come on, Tom Carr. Could you find no other lawyer in Seattle to spar with on the field of election battle? This is why you look so bored. Stop dealing with the issues and start looking for an opponent!

Federal Way Fire Department - Commissioner - Position 1
Mark L. Thompson. I'm severely disappointed in you. Much more so than Tom Carr, see. You couldn't find one picture to submit to the election guide? What gives? I'm writing myself in for this one, despite the fact I don't live in Federal Way.

Seattle Popular Monorail Authority - Board Member - Position 8
The Monorail is in trouble. If voters pass the revised plan, we'll need someone intimately familiar with all facets of the project to make progress. Cindi Laws looks decent enough...but wait, there's something about Beth Goldberg.... Ah! She's outdoors, which is exactly where the monorail will be! Beth is in her natural element here; she has to know what's she's doing with stuff that's out of doors.

========

You know, on a serious note, I bet these images actually do play a part in how people vote. If that's true, that's sad. Read up on your candidates and go vote, people.

Podcast Class?

This article on Purdue podcasting class lectures has me split. On the one hand, it's a great convenience in case you need to miss a class. On the other hand, it's one step closer to virtualizing the whole classroom experience. If you have the podcast, plus the class lecture powerpoint, plus online practice questions, plus IM/video chat with your TA...then, well, why are you physically on campus?

Maybe that's the point...it is, after all, cheaper for the institution. I still feel it's a suboptimal way to learn. Maybe I'm just an old hat, though. Still, I wouldn't feel like I was getting my money's worth unless I could actually interact (physically or virtually) with a professor, ask questions, get feedback, and so on.

Halloween Costumes

We spent this weekend going from costume ideas to actual costumes for next weekend's Halloween party. The results?

- Traci's going to be Rosie the Riveter, complete with blue coveralls, red bandana, boots, and a "Rosie" name tag.
- Yours truly will be Jesus, complete with robe, sash, crown of thorns, sandals, and stigmata on the hands and feet. I'll also wear my hair down for the occasion (hey, Irwin always thought I was Jesus back in college, when I walked out of the shower in a towel).

Should be fun. And, judging by others' costume ideas, the above are pretty tame in comparison. Fun times indeed.

Bird Flu Arrives in Greece

Well, it's happened. Bird flu has arrived on the island of Inousses, near the island of Chios, Greece (for reference, that's here). Articles state that testing of birds in areas near Turkey led to the discovery.

That's the bad news. The further bad news is that we don't know whether this is a trailing discovery of sorts, meaning that other birds (or people) have been contaminated and have moved to other islands.

The good news is that it should be relatively easy to contain this infection, given the nature of an island. The tough part, naturally, will be to control transports of birds into and out of the island, as well as the testing of local villagers to ensure they're not infected.

As some say, it's a "lottery" whether the flu will mutate into a form that transmits easily to and between humans. Better safe than sorry in this case, as our story on a preventive vaccine is not that great.

New Commerce Arrivals

I'm not big on malls, or shopping for that matter. But one of the better bath & body retailers (Lush) and tea purveyors (Teavana) have arrived in the 'burbs (Bellevue Square Mall, to be exact). Too bad they're not within walking distance, but hey, not having to drive 3 hours or order by mail is kind of nice.

Georgia Tech Gets A Bomb

This news report is pretty scary. I didn't expect Georgia Tech to be the center of any "terrorist act", whatever its motivation. I guess I was wrong.

I used to live in the Glenn dorm my freshman year, along with Scott and Irwin. I remember spending many a time in that courtyard between Glenn and Cloudman.

I'm eager to hear what the leads turn up, in terms of both a perpetrator and a motive.

Gillette Fusion: More Blades, Less Interest

Gillette, in pursuit of "a better way to shave", has announced plans for their Fusion line of razors. The big news? 5 blades.

Hard to contain your excitement, isn't it? I mean, 5 whole blades "spaced 30 percent closer together than MACH3 blades". Wow. I can't wait to try out that "5 blade Shaving Surface(tm)". I mean, it's got to be, what...2-blade-units better than the MACH3, right? Sign me up!

I'm seriously considering switching to a Merkur "Classic" Safety Razor. Nice write up here, courtesy of Cool Tools. $26 for the shaver & 1 blade, but then replacement blades are much cheaper than most other cartridge-based razors.

Seattle Monorail: Piñata, Anyone?

I'm sick and tired of the Seattle Monorail. The plan to build an elevated transit system in Seattle, approved on November 2002, has suffered piss-poor planning from the beginning. Some interesting background here, here, and, amusingly, here.

• In June, the Seattle Monorail board revealed the project would cost $11 billion dollars over 50 years, including $9 billion in bond interest. That's four times the initial estimated cost.
• The revised financial plan assumes car tab taxes will grow faster than most experts predict, according to Mayor Nickels.
• The "shortened" line that's currently being put to voters is, in my opinion, a hastily-drawn compromise that doesn't have clear cost/benefit numbers, and doesn't reflect any qualities of a well-planned, financed, and sustainable public project.

So, instead, I propose the following: let's cut the Monorail, and instead use the money we've collected to date from the car tab tax to throw a big party.

• We'll have an entire weekend of free food and fun in different parts of the city that the monorail could have (but won't) serve - Seattle Center, Ballard, Queen Anne, Alki.
• We'll have information about Sound Transit's light rail plans (which is actually being built) and alternatives to driving in the city.
• We'll buy a bike for everyone who needs it. No excuses for leaving your car at home for a quick errand, people.
• And, best of all, we'll make a humongous, life size, piñata of a monorail. Then, we'll hand everyone large sticks, and then tell everyone to beat the living crap out of the piñata.

Come on, Seattle: what better way to release some aggression over this most mis-planned, mis-handled, and embarrassing public project in recent memory?

North Carolina Pictures Posted

They're available here. Includes pictures of the Todd General Store, a historic place where folks like Doc Watson play from time to time, and hiking in the Blue Ridge mountains near Grandfather mountain.

Southern Smorgasbord: The Dan'l Boone Inn

Visiting the South has its perks. Summer lasts longer, for one. The people use creative expressions when speaking to you, for another. And the food, oh, the food. There's nothing like ordering tea at a restaurant and getting it iced and sweet by default, or ordering grits and ham biscuits and not have the waiter stare at you with a confused look on his face.

Enter The Dan'l Boone Inn, located in Boone, North Carolina. We had the pleasure of eating at this fine establishment a couple of nights ago. Walking into the restaurant feels like you're entering someone's home. Plates line a shelf near the ceiling, and simple wooden tables and chairs are arranged neatly in the main dining room. The story is simple: they bring out plates of food from a fixed menu. They refill all plates, save the ham biscuits, as many times as you want. And you can pack stuff home if you can't eat it all.

The food was quintessential southern: the biscuits and corn had plenty of butter, the fried chicken was drenched in a super-crispy, savory breading, the beans were well done and tangy (not steamed and green, as "Yankee beans" are referred to on occasion), and the mashed potatoes were topped with a thick, tan gravy. The waitresses bring food out and take your plates away on rolling carts. And, pitchers of sweet, sweet tea are everpresent.

You leave quite full from an evening at the Inn. It's hard not to; the food is just that good. This "reverse buffet, limited menu" system needs to catch on in other parts of the country. What better way to sample the best of a local cuisine?

Doing The Puyallup Fair

Last Sunday a group of us went to the Puyallup Fair. A quick run-down:

The Good
- It was certainly more fun than most of us expected. Quite a few food options, carnival games, and rides were to be had. Add to that barnyard animals, the RCMP, and a petting zoo and you make for a good day out of doors. We spent about eight hours there total.
- The food was great. BBQ, fresh Fisher Scones, fried corn fritters, sausages, lemonade. Mmm...
- The weather held up nicely. It wasn't hot, nor was it rainy or particularly cloudy for that matter.

The Not So Good
- Rides were more expensive that we expected. Tickets were $1 a piece or $14 for 20. Rides cost 3-6 tickets, with the good ones being 5-6. As for ride quality, we're talking typical carnival rides, a couple of small roller coasters, a quick water-splash ride, a Ferris wheel, and the like. Not bad, but not worth $4-6 a ride.
- Horses tend to poop. A lot. And it smells.

The Weird
- There was a large area devoted to infomercial-style commerce. Weird brooms, knives, sushi making kits, makeup, and window treatments were being offered. It was like walking through the Home Shopping Network. Weird. I think it worked: about half of the group ended up buying something.

Searching For Perfection: The PerfectManForMe.Com Mystery

We have a mystery woman on our hands, who through a web site complete with a survey, a blog, and 1" advertisements in the New Yorker, is looking for the perfect man. People aren't sure whether she's really using a web site to find a mate, whether it's a front for a dating service, whether there's really a "she" here, and so on.

Looks like the domain was registered on July 7, 2005, for one year. The web server seems to have an IP address out of Grove City, Ohio. The server runs two sites:
- www.perfectmanforme.com
- www.perfectman4me.com

The latter address was registered on May 20th, 2005, for two years.

Looks like a small operation, and I'd bet it's a real person here with few ulterior motives. Time will hopefully reveal more here. If this is truly a person on a mission to find the right man, then I'd say...wow, that's an expensive, time-consuming, voyeuristic way to do it.

We Don't Need Nostradamus. We Have National Geographic

Undoubtedly you've heard about the National Geographic article from last year describing in clairvoyant detail the events that took place last week in New Orleans and the surrounding areas, due to Hurricane Katrina. The description's accuracy is surprising every time I read it, however. An excerpt:

But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however...

A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it...

Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

Biking Is Cool

A few weeks ago we picked up some mountain bikes and joined the world of amateur bicycling. It's been years since I've ridden a bicycle, but I'd forgotten only one thing: how much fun it can be. It's efficient and fun to get around town on a bike, especially for local errands or just exploring a neighborhood.

Bikes can be crazy expensive. I went with a K2 Zed Sport. Decent, basic, gets me around.

I didn't realize how accessory-laden biking can be. I can see how one can go out of control on this stuff. I've focused on the essentials for now (front and rear visibility lights, bike lock, air pump, etc.). Sorry, no tight pants for me yet.

Next up: a better seat. I've been recommended to go with Serfas. Any other suggestions?

Hurricane Katrina Aerial Photography On Google

Google has posted a relatively small, but very recent, aerial photo of New Orleans post-Katrina. The images are from Wednesday, August 31 at 10AM, according to Google. If they have the data, it would be interesting (and probably very disheartening) to do a time-lapse from several points after the hurricane, as the city flooded.

Cars Of The Future Have It All Wrong

According to this article, cars of the future will vibrate, beep, and exude scents at you. Why? In the name of reducing accidents. The idea is that if you're not seeing that the car in front of you is slowing down, maybe a jostle via the steering wheel, pedals, or seat belt will grab your attention. And, if you're a stressed-out driver, wafting lavender or citrus scents may calm you down.

Fair ideas, I guess. But tell me: if the car already knows that the car ahead is slowing down, why not slow down with it? If most every car on the road had some look-ahead capability and could react to it using some basic heuristics, then one could argue we'd have fewer accidents that rely on the hand-eye coordination of the driver.

I think it's a significant hurdle for a driver to accept losing control of the vehicle at any time, even though the vehicle could be better at a specific task than the driver. Naturally, those drivers don't think anything of the planes they get in to travel, and how much of their trip is computer-controlled.

Waffle House, 50, Needs To Come To Seattle

I've spent admittedly too much time at Waffle House, which turns 50 this year, mostly during high school and college. In Dalton, where I grew up, it was the main meeting point with friends, where you planned what you would do next, or come back to after having done something.

Now, in Seattle, I miss the 24-hour appeal of WaHo. Even worse, other east-coast mainstays like Krispy Kreme have made it out to Seattle, with much fanfare. Why not Waffle House?

Checking their website, I see Colorado as the western-most border of WaHo-ness. I emailed them a note to request them to consider the Seattle area as a new store prospect. I haven't heard back from them.

If you're in the area, and you care to see them move out to the West, send them a note using this form, or call them at the phone number listed on that page.

Camping In The Olympics: Pictures Posted

Check them out here. Thanks to Michal for taking them.

Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts: Donate To Help

A friend of mine sent this around at work. It's a great list of organizations that you can donate to that will have an impact in the relief efforts underway due to Hurricane Katrina. The outpouring has been encouraging to date, but this disaster appears to be larger than anyone expected, so help is always needed and welcome.

• American Red Cross, 800-HELP NOW, 800-435-7669
• Operation Blessing, 800-436-6348
• America's Second Harvest, 800-344-8070
• Adventist Community Services, 800-381-7171
• Catholic Charities, 703-549-1390
• Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, 800-848-5818
• Church World Service, 800-297-1516
• Convoy of Hope, 417-823-8998
• Episcopal Relief & Development, 1-800-334-7626 or
• Lutheran Disaster Response, 800-638-3522
• Mennonite Disaster Service, 717-859-2210
• Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, 800-872-3283
• Salvation Army, 800-SAL-ARMY (725-2769)
• Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief, 800-462-8657, ext. 6440
• United Methodist Committee on Relief, 800-554-8583

Extremely Bad Canadian Rap

First Blood is proof that making good rap music is harder than it would first appear.

Hurricane Katrina Wikipedia Article: 16 pages in 4 days

I'm continually impressed by the amount of community reporting and fact-finding that goes on with people who post and edit content on the World Wide Web. Case in point: in 4 days, an article on Hurricane Katrina on Wikipedia has reached 16 printed pages. That's just awesome.

Is the article perfect? Not yet, since this is a developing story. That said, there's lots of factual information in there that I've yet to read in one place, be it a news story or another web site, including when and how the storm was first discovered, effects on different industries, and specifics on the response by military and National Guard.

Power to the commons.

Camping In The Olympics

We spent last weekend camping in the Olympic National Park, on the coast at Mora. Camping on the beach was a new experience, but a great one at that.

Saturday day was spent road-tripping from Seattle to Mora. On the way, we stopped in Olympia to have breakfast at their farmer's market. This one's much more small and quaint than Pike Place, but it has its charms. We also stopped for lunch at Forks, where Sully's Drive In offered up some great burgers, shakes, and slushies.

Arriving in Mora, we hiked in about a mile and half, close to hole-in-the-wall (see below). We found a great site to set up camp that was both close to the beach but secluded and shielded somewhat from the elements.

Saturday night was a bit rainier that we would have liked, but the overall natural beauty and peaceful surroundings made up for any wetness. A campfire, dinner, and s'mores, and fermented beverages wrapped up the evening.

The beach at Mora is pretty rugged. As this picture conveys, it's no Florida Gulf Coast beach. But there's tons of wildlife, especially in the tidepools, that you can explore.

Mora is a very photogenic area. We should get some pictures up here soon, courtesy of our friend's camera skills.

Iraq Is A Terrorist Training Ground

I quote from this article:

At the same time, some Pentagon officials now acknowledge that the
two-and-a-half-year insurgent war has turned Iraq into a terrorist training
camp.

U.S. intelligence indicates Islamic militants from several African
nations — Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan and Somalia — travel through
Syria into Iraq, where they get hands-on training in roadside and suicide
bombings, assassinations and kidnappings as well as counter-surveillance and
counter-intelligence against military targets, constantly changing their
tactics to counter American defenses...

And Pentagon officials now fear those freshly trained terrorists are taking the deadly lessons they learn in Iraq to other countries. U.S. intelligence indicates many of the
militants are returning home or slipping into Europe, where they may join
existing terrorist groups or create and train new cells of their own.

All that cost (of life and of money) only to see Iraq surpass Afghanistan as the top terrorist training ground makes me concurrently very sad, angry, and hopeless.

Lappert's Ice Cream May Be Diseased

We're big fans of Lappert's Ice Cream. They have great flavors, use good ingredients, and offer a nice variety of unconventional flavors.

Recently, while going to QFC to purchase some ice cream, we were surprised to see the shelves cleared of all Lappert's stock. We were a bit miffed at the possibility that QFC had decided to stop carrying our favorite frozen treat.

Today, over a week after the clear-out, Lappert's is back. OK, we thought, it's not QFC's fault. On one of the freezer doors, a sign was posted explaining the temporary disappearance of the ice cream. It seems a recall was in effect of Lappert's Ice Cream because of a Listeria scare. Sure enough, an article confirms the recall for all Lappert's Ice Cream produced through August 4th.

Listeria isn't a good thing. Gastrointestinal mischief is apparently just the start. Pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems are especially susceptible.

If you've got an old pint of the stuff, check the date.

Greek Air Tragedy Could Have Been Much Worse

The largest airplane disaster in Greece's history occurred last weekend, when Helios Airways Flight ZU522 crashed north of Athens last Sunday.

There's been plenty of speculation and mystery surrounding the circumstances of the crash. I don't want to speculate on the reasons for the crash, what the fighter pilots witnessed, or why the relative of one of the people on board lied about receiving a text message. I do want to talk about the disaster that didn't occur.

The crash occurred in a lightly populated area. The nearest house was 400m away. We have family friends who have a vacation home in Grammatiko, and who were there at the time of the crash (about 2-3km away). They drove over and witnessed the dozens of fire crews putting out the fire and dealing with the wreckage. But they also witnessed how the crash didn't affect other homes or people on the ground.

The tragedy is very awful and very mournful, to be sure. My thoughts go out to all of the families and friends affected by the crash. But I also stop and think how much worse things could have been if the plane crashed in a more heavily populated area.

And then I wonder how it came to be that the plane crashed in a remote area. And then I start speculating.

The Blue Angels Are Scary

Two weekends ago was the culmination of Seafair 2005, a celebration of airplanes, boats, and other mechanical widgets. Every year, the Blue Angels come and perform their air acrobatics for the crowds. The Angels practice during the end of the week, and perform on Saturday and Sunday. Their performance entails flying over the city when doing approaches, formations, and other tricks.

Now, if you've ever seen the Blue Angels, you know they are very skilled. You need to have quite a bit of skill to fly an F/A-18 Hornet mere inches from each other in a set formation, and to maneuver in sequence with the other planes.

That said, accidents happen. A crash happened as recently as 1999, killing two Angels as one plane was landing. The article references a prior accident in 1990, and a fatality in 1985. The total number of Blue Angel pilots killed in air shows or training is 23.

While these accidents are not common, they put at risk not only the pilots but those on the ground. If a pilot loses control while flying over an urban area, how many other lives will be lost as the plane hits the ground?

Air shows are not safe, in my opinion. Case in points are made here, here, here, and here. And, when you have an air show over a heavily populated area, the chance for accidents grows. I'm not against having air shows, but can't we have them in less populated areas?

Update (4/24/2007): I just learned of an accident in South Carolina. According to the details collected on a Wikipedia article on the crash, the Blue Angels were flying in a show in Beaufort, South Carolina, and during the show, Lieutenant Commander Kevin Davis's F/A-18 Hornet went down. Details as to the reason for the crash won't be released for a few weeks, but a local article on the crash does report that houses in the vicinity of the crash caught fire.

I'm truly sorry for the crash and for the loss of life. That said I do hope this incident causes air show organizers and the Blue Angels to re-evaluate some safety procedures and flight plans to ensure safety for both the pilots and those on the ground.

Ferrari Boat Car

Livio de Marchi is a man who's very good with wood. Very, very good. Livio's art includes necklaces, shirts, golf clubs, bags, hats, and socks made out of wood.

He's also taken to large-scale efforts. Livio has made a few life-size automobiles, including a Ferrari F50, a 1937 Jaguar, and a classic Volkswagen Beetle.



This stuff is amazing. Read on...

TransportTrends post, showing images of his wooden cars.
Livio de Marchi's virtual museum, with more details on his work.
A profile on MostlyGlass.com.
Ashland Hardwood Gallery's page, including some glass sculpture.
Another gallery page on Lievehemel.nl.

Roadside South

We recently traveled to Atlanta for two weddings spanning two weekends. In between, we travelled down to Destin, FL to see my sister and brother-in-law. On the way, I took some roadside pictures. Here's the gallery.

Review: Junebug (SIFF 2005)

Junebug is a film about opposites coming together. Urban and rural. Northern and southern. Cosmopolitan and folk. Uptight and relaxed. Happy and sad.

The story is straightforward; two newlyweds travel from Chicago to North Carolina in search of a folk artist and his work. The wife is the urban art gallerist in search of the next big thing, while the husband is returning to his hometown in rural NC. As part of this trip, the husband's family has a chance to meet his new wife. In short order, we see how both of the newlyweds are outsiders; the wife because of her education and upbringing, and the husband because of his departure from his hometown.

The real joy from this movie is not in the story or even in its message, but in its delivery. Hailing from the South, I could relate to most scenes in the movie. A question about local customs, an uncomfortable moment while sharing one's past, a potluck dinner that includes a gospel song, and sibling rivalry all come through with honesty and clarity. The acting is very casual, and the actors' candid work makes you feel like you're just another person in the room, watching the confused looks and the awkward moments pass by. I came away from the film feeling I had been reintroduced to several people I have known, in situations I have seen them be part of.

Overall rating: 9.0 /10.0

Details:
Runtime: 107m
Country: USA
Language: English

Review: Vital (SIFF 2005)

I have to admit, when we bought tickets to see Vital, we were expecting a horror movie. We were wrong, but in a good way.

Director Shinya Tsukamoto weaves a fairly intricate, slow-to-reveal tale about a Japanese medical student and his attempt to uncover his past. Recently, this student was involved in a car accident that left him an amnesiac, and killed his girlfriend. The accident caused the student to become a recluse, until an anatomy textbook brings his fervor for his studies back to life. As he and his fellow students work on dissecting human bodies, the student discovers he is operating on his dead girlfriend. As he dissects more of the body, the lines blur between dreams and reality, as the student tries to reveal his opaque memories of himself and his girlfriend.

What's most interesting about Tsukamoto's treatment of the film is its almost casual pace in building the emotions in the main character. There's no direct impact, no horror shots, no ghosts around the corner to surprise you, and no gruesome scenes to drive the points home. Instead, this tale focuses on the student's evolving emotions to create the sense of loss and discovery that the film ultimately conveys.

Overall rating: 7.0 /10.0

Details:
Runtime: 86m
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese

Review: Frozen (SIFF 2005)

Frozen focuses on the story of Kath, a woman living in Lancaster, and the mysterious disappearance of her older sister, Annie, two years ago. Kath lives a relatively normal working woman's life in a relatively small city, but seems to be haunted by Annie's disappearance, so much so that she's seeking help from a therapist.

Kath's last living memory of Annie is some Closed-Circuit Television footage of Annie walking down an alley, away from the camera. In reviewing the footage one day, Kath notices an odd image on the tapes. She travels to the alley, and there she begins to have visions of an alternate reality in which clues of Annie's existence appear.

The movie oscillates between Kath's daily life, her therapy sessions, and her increasing exploration of the alternate universe she's discovered. As is expected, not many people believe Kath's experiences to be true, including her therapist, but this doesn't stop her explorations. Eventually, we find the answers to Kath's visions as the movie builds to its climax, and we see Kath's alternate universe collide with her reality.

Shirley Henderson does an excellent job playing Kath in the film. Her passive, shy, yet obsessive characteristics come through exceedingly well, yet she doesn't overdramatize or overplay the character's emotional state. The result is a very honest, believable performance.

The camera work in the film is equally superb. Some excellent shots during the alternative reality sequences clearly indicate a "dream-like" world, but a sinister one at that with a very defined blue and white color palette and striking contrasts in the exposure.

Overall rating: 9.0 /10.0

Details:
Runtime: 90m
Countries: United Kingdom
Languages: English

Review: Dreamship Surprise (SIFF 2005)

On the heels of the German comedy Night of the Living Dorks, we saw another great German comedy, Dreamship Surprise. Dreamship (its proper German title being Traumschiff Surprise - Periode 1), spoofs popular American sci-fi franchises, most notably Star Wars and Star Trek, including plenty of takeoff jokes and silly situations.

The premise is probably familiar to any sci-fi film aficionado. The year is 2304, and humans have colonized Mars. Now, the people on Mars have turned a bit sour, and their leader, Regulator Rogul (think Emperor), along with his first mate, Jens Maul (think Darth Vader), want to attack Earth. Their armies are on the way, and the leaders of Earth, led my Queen Metaphor (think...oh, you get it) have no alternative but to call on the crew of the Dreamship Surprise for help.

Surprise is manned by three very ebullient men: Captain Kork, Mr. Spuck, and chief engineer Schrotty. Simply put, they're very gay and are focused on training for the Miss Waikiki song-and-dance contest. Instead, they're summoned to Earth (via a taxi driver, Rock, and his spaceship taxi) and commissioned by the Queen to travel back in time to 2004, where a UFO brought knowledge of space travel to humans, which led to the Mars colonization.

Mishaps abound, leading the Queen, our three Surprise crew members, and the taxi driver to jump to different points in time, courtesy of a couch-turned-time-machine. All the while, Jens Maul is pursuing our heroes in time with a flying-scooter-turned-time-machine. The result is some predictable but very amusing scenes as our heroes interact with people from times long past.

Dreamship Surprise plays off of other sci fi movies well to make its jokes, but doesn't linger too long on any of them. The result is a well-made, fanciful, relatively high-budget sci-fi spoof. One more point of evidence that German cinema can be (and is) funny.

Overall rating: 8.5 /10.0

Details:
Runtime: 87m
Country: Germany
Language: German

Back From The Southeast

I've been remiss in posting for a while due to being in the Southeast US for a week for two weddings and a jaunt down to Destin, Florida. Fear not, no sharks were seen. Coming soon on this blog:
- Pictures of interesting road signs on the way from Atlanta to Destin, Florida (preview: "The Best Butts in Alabama" can be seen on one)
- The top 5 reasons Atlanta is (and isn't) cool, and what's changing in the ATL as of late
- How clouds and rain seems to follow us wherever we go (and, strangely, we don't mind)
- Catholic weddings and receptions, and being the partner of the maid of honor

And of course, a wrap up of SIFF reviews and back on a real-time schedule.

Wish me luck.

Review: Waiting for the Clouds (SIFF 2005)

Waiting for the Clouds is a combination history lesson and personal story. The movie depicts an elderly woman who lives with her ailing sister in a small Turkish village. The woman, with an almost perpetual forlorn look on her face, is somewhat recluse and perceived as a bit off by her fellow villagers. A stranger visits the town one day, and jogs her memory. From this encounter, the woman sets off on a trip to connect with her familial roots. We leave the woman at the end of the film only as she's opened the door to her past.

While slow to get off the ground, the movie captures village life in Northern Turkey alongside a woman's conflicted past with her present. The events the movie base on were real, yet little known or understood about this time period overseas. The acting in the movie is excellent, and the scenery is shot superbly; the eponymous "clouds" scenes in the mountains were truly haunting.

Overall rating: 8.0 /10.0

Details:
Runtime: 90m
Countries: France / Germany / Greece / Turkey
Languages: Turkish / Greek

Review: Night of the Living Dorks (SIFF 2005)

Before watching Night of the Living Dorks, I admit I hadn't been exposed to much German comedy before. I think I chose the right entrance in the genre. This is an excellent, light-hearted comedy that plays off of themes in zombie and teenage-high-school movies at the same time.

The basic premise revolves around three dorky high school students who don't get any respect. After a night in a graveyard with some Goth kids and a spell gone bad, the trio ends up in a morgue, zombified. They're not your George Romero zombies, mind you; their personalities are intact, and in fact they've gained a few skills:
- They don't feel pain, and are pretty strong
- They like raw meat
- Their body parts are more easily detachable

The movie is much more bent on teen comedy; it's the zombie premise that puts the twist in the expected scenes (with a girl, against a bully, attending a party, in a class, etc.). The jokes are frequent and consistently funny; there are quite a few laugh-out-loud lines and images in the movie. All in all, a movie worth your time if you're in the mood for a film that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Overall rating: 7.5/10.0

Details:
Runtime: 90m
Country: Germany
Language: German

Review: Hostage (SIFF 2005)

SIFF 2005's only (mostly) Greek film was another fine offering from Constantine Giannaris (director of One Day in August, a SIFF offering from a couple of years ago). Hostage is a fictional story based on a true event of an Albanian who holds a Greek bus hostage in northern Greece in 1999.

The film almost immediately plunges into the conflict: very soon after the opening credits, we see a young man climbing into a bus, and a few minutes later he is holding it hostage. Soon after, he lets most of the passengers go, but holds seven of them hostage. His demands: 500,000 Euros and passage to Albania. His threats: an automatic gun and a live hand grenade.

Greek authorities tail the bus, and approach the hostages and the Albanian when he stops. The scenes are markedly conversational: the hostages talk to the police, asking them to fulfill the Albanian's demands. The police do indeed bargain. The hostages also ask for cigarettes and pizza, as if they're holed up somewhere, cramming to finish a project. These scenes between hostages, hostage-taker, and police are much less tense than one would expect see in a American action movie.

But these scenes serve the film's core theme: the hostage-taker is seeking freedom from prior failings (and framings) in a foreign land. He first and foremost wants to clear his name; he's not interested in the news cameras that follow the bus, nor does he get overly aggressive with any of the hostages (considering the circumstances, of course). Rather, the hostages begin to become somewhat compassionate with the hostage-taker (I'll leave it up to you to decide whether they were suffering from Stockholm Syndrome).

Giannaris does a good job keeping the momentum and tension up in the movie, and he delves below the surface with more than one character on the bus; only a handful remain relatively flat (predictably for sake of time, though everyone gets at least a few lines for us to paint a sketch of their personality from).

Once the bus crosses the Albanian border (much to the disagreement of the Greek police chief), the movie takes a dark turn. Giannaris casts Albania as a Wild West compared to northern Greece, and it is here where, sooner or later, we expect the bus to come to a halt.

Giannaris was at the screening I attended, and answered a few questions after the movie. He mentioned that the film didn't do well in Greece, noting that Greeks didn't like the way it portrayed themselves. Granted, Albanian/Greek relations haven't been the best of late, but as a Greek living outside of Greece, I think it was a fairly accurate portrayal. It's these kinds of movies that bring forth an artistic version of the truth that will help two countries and cultures come together over their differences, so I applaud Giannaris in his efforts in making what he must have known would be an unpopular movie in his native land.

Overall rating: 8.5/10.0

Details:
Runtime: 90m
Countries: Greece / Turkey
Languages: Greek / Albanian

Review: Warsaw (SIFF 2005)

On the heels of Hawaii, Oslo comes another movie involving characters of separate trajectories bound together by relationships and events. Warsaw shares the theme of love as a unifying (and destructive) force with Hawaii, Oslo, but I believe the similarities fall away from there.

Warsaw depicts a day in the life of different characters with different goals. A woman stops in Warsaw on the way to Andalusia with the hopes of finding love. A man leaves an orphanage he has lived in for most of his life to find a job. A fruit farmer arrives in the capital with the hopes of finding his long-lost daughter. A confused, aged war veteran can't find his way home.

Director Dariusz Gajewski places these characters together only at the very end. The audience sees the interconnections between the characters slowly uncover themselves, but the characters are not as quick to catch on; they pass each other on the street, unknowingly.

The character development and storyline was reasonably good in this film, albeit with a somewhat weak tying-together of the storylines at the end. But, the most striking part of this film for me was the portrayal of Warsaw as a new, modern Eastern European city, versus the Warsaw at the conclusion of World War II that we've all seen in film footage. The film depicts modern Europeans going about their lives in a modern (and snowy) capital city, with scenes that could play out just as well in Berlin or Edinburgh. For those of us who haven't traveled to Poland (myself included), the film becomes a peek into modern life in the city and challenges viewers to remake Warsaw in their (potentially stereotyped) minds.

Overall rating: 6.5/10.0

Details:
Runtime: 104m
Country: Poland
Language: Polish

Review: Hawaii, Oslo (SIFF 2005)

There's plenty of movies that involve a range of unrelated characters that are tied together with a singular place or event (like Amores Perros, or Kilometer Zero). They're tricky to make in such a way that they don't seem forced. Hawaii, Oslo falls into this camp of movie, and it fortunately does a great job of not only avoiding this trap, but being inventive on top of it.

Hawaii, Oslo is primarily a movie about love; brotherly love, romantic love, friendship love, parental love, and love (or maybe it's compassion) between strangers are all presented as part of the storyline's intertwining of characters and plots.

These are the threads, or character sets, in Hawaii, Oslo:

• A couple who is having their first baby, and who then discovers that it has a debilitating disease that only an expensive American clinic can cure
• A suicidal pop star who is saved by a papergirl on her morning route
• A couple of orphaned boys, angry at the loss of their father and risking separation into separate foster homes
• An institutionalized kleptomaniac and his long lost love, who both agreed to meet at the age of 25 if they were both single, and an institution nurse who watches over them.
• The kleptomaniac's brother, who receives an escort from prison only to rob a bank and try to flee the city.

Reading the above list, one would think this movie is about the most depressing of the genre. Quite the contrary; Erik Poppe manages to squeeze quite a bit of situational humor and humanism out of the characters and their interactions. He also slowly uncovers the mysteries of each character for you, without explicit lines or cues shown all at once. The result is an engaging movie that leaves you feeling love for the characters, adding to the movie's core theme.

Overall rating: 9.0/10.0

Details:
Runtime: 125m
Countries: Denmark / Sweden / Norway
Language: Norwegian

Review: Izo (SIFF 2005)

Having spent 2 hours with this movie, I'm not going to spend more time than is necessary with this review. Izo is quite simply a movie about a crucified samurai who transcends time and space to return to the world of the living and wreak havoc. Like most of Takashi Miike's films, this movie has plenty of gore and blood. However, unlike some of his other films, this one is also chock full of pointless philosophical drivel, badly-choreographed fight scenes, an irritating folk guitar soundtrack, and bad CGI. It's a disappointing product from an otherwise unique and talented director.

If you're really curious, rent it. If you're not, simply avoid it.

Overall rating: 1.0/10.0

Details
Runtime: 128m
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese

Review: The Art and Crimes of Ron English (SIFF 2005)

Pedro Carvajal's documentary about Ron English, the artist known for his illegal billboard art, was a great foray into this talent's career. The documentary depicts two segments of Ron's art: the first, focused more on political and anti-corporate messages formed as art, and plastered onto billboards, and the second, where this art is moved into the medium of canvas and oil paint and gains accreditation through gallery showings.

The first portion was certainly the more amusing; anyone who's been irritated at a large, blaring billboard shouting an unagreeable message will take to Ron's "liberation" of this medium. The billboards he creates are certainly of a liberal bent (anti-Bush, anti-war, anti-tobacco), but are more than just scrawled words on a sheet of paper; this is real art that Ron spent time creating and displaying. Ron's reasoning was that he wanted his art to be public; sure, the politics behind it are motivating too, but he claimed having his work locked up in a gallery or in someone's home is not what he wanted.

Interesting, then, to note the latter half of the film, which is Ron's foray into oil paint. His paintings are photographic and realistic, but depict unusual circumstances (kids smoking with KISS-style face paint, Homer Simpson urinating on a campfire while others look on). But his style is unique, and his skill is great, evidenced by the popularity of the gallery showings that are displayed in the film.

Has Ron given up billboards? The film leaves you with a sense that the answer is "no". Sure, Ron's art has matured beyond the public and illegal to more traditional forms, but one can see from the documentary that Ron seems happiest when he's creating, or installing, his billboard art for the masses.

Overall rating: 7.0/10.0

Details
Runtime: 78m
Country: USA
Language: English

Review: North Korea: A Day in the Life / Seoul Train (SIFF 2005)

Our first documentary of SIFF 2005 was actually a pair: two documentaries about life in North Korea and life for those who try to escape it.

North Korea: A Day in the Life is a snapshot of events for one family on a typical day in North Korea. The family awakens and has breakfast. The mother takes her daughter to kindergarten, and then goes to work in a textile mill. A son goes to attend an English class. They return home, and over dinner the grandfather recounts stories from the war. The power of the film comes from what's presented. Director Pieter Fleury received permission from the Ministry of Culture of the Democratic Republic of North Korea to film inside the country. This means they reviewed the film's contents. This also means that not a trace of poverty, disease, prisons, or anything else related to the current regime of North Korea was shown.

What was shown is the Orwellian presence and control that the North Korean regime currently imposes on its people. Pictures and statues of Kim Jong Il are everywhere. Kids are taught how he was benevolent and a man of the people, even when he was a young boy. Patriotic music is piped into production factory floors. Anti-American sentiments run rampant, with the West blamed for most evils, past and present, including the frequent power outages. Workers perform organized work-outs at specified times of the day.

A sense of confinement and enclosure are felt while you're watching this movie. Not only is everything artificially clean, happy, and orderly, but there's no way out of, and no way into, this system. To many in the movie going about their daily lives, North Korea is practically the entire world.

Coming off of this documentary, the perfectly-paired Seoul Train shows a more realistic view of North Korea, and also follows refugees who are trying to escape the country. An underground railroad exists to shuttle refugees from North Korea to safer areas, like South Korea and Mongolia. China, however, is not a safe area: China considers nearly all North Korean refugees as illegal immigrants, and returns them to North Korea. Furthermore, escaping North Korea is punishable by imprisonment, forced labor, and death.

The film shows three things: true life of rural border towns in North Korea with a hidden camera, interviews with government officials and humanitarians, and the stories of a set of refugees and their attempt to arrive in a country that will accept them for what they are.

The images of North Korean rural life are in sharp contrast to the first film; here, you see clear evidence of the famine that is plaguing North Korea (the movie explains that international aid is routed to party loyalists, and denies from others). The interviews with officials and humanitarians shows both great intents and bound hands, as everyone complains that no one can do anything. Finally, the underground railroad depicts people taking life and law into their own hands, with heroic people risking their freedom in an attempt to provide it for other people.

Overall rating: 8.0/10.0 , 8.5/10.0

Details
Runtime: 48m / 54m
Countries: Netherlands / USA
Languages: Korean / English, Korean, Mandarin, Polish

Turning Off The Tap

Victrola Coffee, a local coffee shop in my neighborhood, is trying out something relatively new: no Wi-Fi on the weekends.

Blasphemy, you say? Interestingly, they've found their weekend audience has morphed from a sea of people with laptops who don't interact with each other, to one that's more welcoming and less solitary.

Now to install those cell phone blockers...

Review: Three...Extremes (SIFF 2005)

This was our first movie for the 2005 film festival, and a midnight movie at the Egyptian theater at that.

This movie is a collection of three shorter films by three directors:
- Dumplings, by Fruit Chan (Hong Kong)
- Cut, by Park Chan-Wook (South Korea)
- Box, by Takeshi Miike (Japan)

The three movies differ quite a bit from each other, both in theme and in style, so it's worth discussing each one separately.

Dumplings is an exploration of the idea of unattainable, perpetual youth. A former actress is aging, and is seeking some modern Fountain of Youth. She visits a woman in her home, who prepares some special dumplings for her. After about 3 minutes into the movie, you understand the ingredients of these dumplings are not normal. After about 5 more minutes, you realize that this dumpling chef is a purveyor of cannibalism.

The actress returns to the woman for ever-increasing dosages of dumplings. When the actress asks for the most potent dumpling the cook has, things get out of hand.

The interesting thing about Dumplings is that it creates shock and surprise out of relatively normal themes: the fear of aging and the length people run to subvert it. If you remove the tension created by the music, the camera work, and the actors, the topic at hand is not completely out of this world. Sure, you don't find many people eating their own kind in urban areas across the world, but they do some pretty wacky things to make themselves look younger, not all of which are any less strange than this.

Cut is pure, rising tension, on the lines of an movie with an overreaching premise that the main characters need to do or avoid. Cut involves a director of a horror film who, after returning to his home from shooting a scene involving a vampire, is knocked unconscious by an intruder. When he awakes, he finds he's in a movie set with his wife, a child, and a distraught film extra who's been in several of the director's films. The director is harnessed with an elastic band that limits how far he can move. His wife is tied up with piano wire stretching from an unseen ceiling, and her fingers are glued to a piano. The child is bound and gagged to a sofa. The film extra wishes to punish the director as a way of punishing his projected failures in life. He challenges the director to commit an act of evil to save his wife.

Most of the movie therefore hinges on the director's internal plight, his wife's physical plight, and the child's innocent involvement in this constructed game of the disturbed extra. Things end less predictably than you might think (with only a bit of foreshadowing), but the visual imagery of the torture, both physical and psychological, is fairly intense and carry throughout the film.

After these two somewhat gory films, I was expecting a similarly bloody offering from Miike, director of the very violent Audition. Not so; Box is an exploration into a personal, painful past. A recluse of a woman, who is an author, has perpetual nightmares about her death involving plastic, a man, snow, and a box. Between this line, you see unfold a personal history of this woman and her sister as carnival performers. The two performed a dance/acrobatic show involving contorting themselves into two boxes. They were mentored by a man who appeared to take preference in the sister over the main character. Then, an accident occurs.

Box is the most visually interesting and slow-to-reveal movies of the three. It's much more cerebral than the other two. Rather than trying to scare you, it tries to put you into the mind and body of the main author character. And it succeeds; at the end of the movie, you're not frightened. Rather, as the last scene fades to black and the closing credits appear, you realize you feel quite sad.

Overall rating: 7.5/10.0

Details
Runtime: 118m
Countries: Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea
Languages: Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin