June 29, 2005

Carma post by Defective Yeti

Another very funny, but with a grain of real seriousness mixed in, post by the always funny Matthew Baldwin, aka Defective Yeti.

Posted by aarondf at 03:39 PM | Links | Comments (0)

Quiz

Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer - in most cases of course impossible to tell unless you actually recognize someone but quite amusing nonetheless. Via Paul Phillips' blog.

Posted by aarondf at 12:01 PM | | Comments (0)

June 27, 2005

Movies: Intimate Strangers and He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Both of these are moderately recent foreign (French in both cases I think) films that I got from Netflix which were quite interesting in their own ways.

Intimate Strangers is about a woman who ends up with a tax lawyer as her psychiatrist after knocking at the wrong door and not giving him a chance to point out her error till too much was said and he was intrigued by her story. The movie is kind of slow but quite interesting. ***1/2

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not stars Audrey Tautou of Amelie fame in a very strange role and film of which I should say little to not give it away. The movie is fascinating but not really that pleasant. **1/2

Posted by aarondf at 04:55 PM | Movies | Comments (0)

June 23, 2005

Cute Wordplay - Gnorts!

A bunch of people are convinced that the appropriate greeting when
meeting a space alien is "Gnorts."

Why "Gnorts", you ask?

It simple. In the heavily-orchestrated, gov't-disinformation-rich Apollo
Moon landing program, what was the name the gov't used to refer to the
first man who landed on the Moon?

"Neil Armstrong."

Yeah, right, as if that's his real name. Turns out it was in code.
Backwards, it is:

"Gnorts, Mr. Alien!"

from Eric Albert.

Posted by aarondf at 02:39 PM | Miscellaneous | Comments (0)

June 21, 2005

The flag is a symbol

Excellent article related to the Flag Burning Amendment in the Denver Post. Link from IP list.

Posted by aarondf at 11:29 AM | Links | Comments (1)

June 20, 2005

Interview with Richard Garfield

The latest in Tom Vasel's interview series is an absolutely excellent one with Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic and RoboRally among others. I found his comments extremely interesting and sense something of a kindred soul gaming wise in him.

Posted by aarondf at 11:11 AM | Games | Comments (0)

June 16, 2005

Movies: Better off Dead

John Cusack is his usual funny, likable self in this 1985 dark comedy. However, while this movie has some absolutely hillarious individual moments, it is overall bland and entirely predictable. ***

Posted by aarondf at 01:36 PM | Movies | Comments (0)

June 13, 2005

Dark Star Orchestra

Went to see the excellent Grateful Dead cover band Dark Star Orchestra on Friday evening and had a great time. They came on at about 8:10 and played till after midnight with a 30-minute set break. I had seen them play before at the Oregon Country Fair but what I didn't realize is that not only do they play Dead songs but in many cases they actually duplicate entire shows but Friday turned out to be a rare original setlist and not a dupe. They played a number of older (70s era) songs that I didn't know at all but still had a great time and danced the whole time. They aren't quite the Dead but close and the much smaller, more intimate venue made up for a good part of the difference. I got there just in time and still was easily able to grab seats in the 3rd row center section and have room to dance.

I was sorry to leave Peter's birthday/dance party so early to go to the show but have to say I am really glad I did. Both the music and the dancing style at the DSO show just appealed so much more to me - at the party I probably would have just played games but I get to do that all the time and the DSO show would have been stupid to miss when it was so nearby. Also too bad it was conflicting or I might have been able to get others to join me for the DSO show which would have been really nice.

Posted by aarondf at 01:32 PM | Events | Comments (0)

June 09, 2005

World Poker Tour - Bay 101 Shooting Stars

I was really annoyed with this episode as I thought the very worst player at the table won as he got lucky time after time, the most notable being the hand where he could only win on runner-runner 7s and got them - a 249:1 shot against. Gus I thought played by far the best and made some absolutely amazing (and correct) calls only to have the odds go against him several times. Danny Nguyen, the winner, has to be given credit for aggressive play but it was basically uncontrolled aggression and only worked for him due to his wild luck.

Posted by aarondf at 11:06 AM | Games | Comments (0)

Movies: Howl's Moving Castle

I was hoping for greatness and this wasn't but even a middle of the road Miyazaki movie is excellent. Gorgeous visuals and cute, funny and endearing characters (the dog and scarecrow were my favorite) as always. ****

Posted by aarondf at 11:04 AM | Movies | Comments (0)

June 03, 2005

Movies: Cinderella Man

Went to a free screening last night of Cinderella Man which I thought was very good. A very strong cast were all at the top of their game and the boxing cinematography was astoundingly good. Predictable feel-good piece but very well executed. They gave out a limited number of nice quality shirts and hats too - giving out swag is pretty common at these things but these were of better quality and more understated as ads than is usual. ****

Posted by aarondf at 12:07 PM | Movies | Comments (0)

June 01, 2005

System of the World finally done

I finally finished Neal Stephenson's 3rd and final volume of the 3000 page Baroque Cycle last night after reading it (just the 3rd book I mean, not the whole cycle) off and on for fully 6 months. I had it out of the library (and renewed as much as I could) about 75% of the actual time. The series is very interesting but is a slog of the first order (particularly System which lacks the adventure yarn pieces of the earlier books) and I am really glad to be done. Now I will switch over to the equally long (but at least for now a single book) Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell which I also started months ago but only got a short way into.

Posted by aarondf at 12:07 PM | Books | Comments (0)