This has been my longest dirth of bloggery. 20 days have passed since my last blog expedition, and I haven't even been infected with a fast zombie virus. Yes, we saw 28 weeks later last night, with an old friend. It was terrifying, heart rending, and apocalyptic. With 28 days later, these are the best horror films of the decade. There are only one or two good horror films a decade anyway, and these are excellent.
Blair Witch in the '90's, if you could trick yourself into buying into the hype.
Poltergeist of the 80's. The Believers was pretty good too. Oh, and The Hitcher. I think Alien belongs here too.
The Shining and The Exorcist in the '70's.
Hitchcock before that.
What am I missing?
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
The crap/worth ratio
So, through out my life there have been periods of great reading and periods where I'll read one book in a year. As I've matured I've tried to make sure that I always have some time to read. One of the few great joys of commuting on public transportation is the free hour of reading each day that one is offered like an hors d'oeuvre at a wedding reception.
In the spirit of documentation, I've been recording all the books I've read since the mid '90s. Of course, books serve several different purposes. Any mathematician, indeed anyone with a liberal arts education, knows that books impart knowledge. However, most of what I read is fiction. Within the genre of fiction there are categorical differences as well. For instance, Charles Dickens probably fits in a different space than Judith Krantz. Don Delilo probably has more in common with Dickens than with Krantz. Harry Potter, though, well, that's more debatable.
Literature has an amazing transformative power. At the end of any great novel the reader is a different person than when they started. This is not necessarily the case when one is reading a silly little science fiction book about cats in space, or a Stephen King novel. Sure, technically neutrinos have passed through your body, and isotopes inside you have decayed, so really you are changed, but you haven't been transformed by the book in the same way that you would if you finished War and Peace or A Farewell to Arms.
So, I've recorded all the books I've read in the last ten years, and I've rated them all as crap or worth. Thus was born the crap/worth ratio. I try to keep it about one. That is, for every Game of Thrones (the best fantasy book since the lord of the rings) I try to read something valuable. Of course, literature is valuable, but so is Barbara Kingsolver. Douglass Adams is fun, but too fluffy for worth. (Oh, it's wonderful, and you should read everything he ever wrote in his short life, don't get me twisted.) Nick Hornby counts, and Vonnegut counts, and David Sedaris counts. Neal Stephenson only sometimes counts.
I'm making it seem like the other books are crap, and that's not really what I mean. I guess what I'm really trying to say is that when I reread Narnia a few years back it was for entertainment only. When I read Beth Lisick's Everyone into the Pool, sure it was entertaining, but it was a poignant memoir as well. I ruminated more about the human condition through the consumption of the memoir than the fantasy, even though C.S. Lewis' moral masterpiece is so grand in scope.
Read, read anything. With every other book, push your boundaries.
In the spirit of documentation, I've been recording all the books I've read since the mid '90s. Of course, books serve several different purposes. Any mathematician, indeed anyone with a liberal arts education, knows that books impart knowledge. However, most of what I read is fiction. Within the genre of fiction there are categorical differences as well. For instance, Charles Dickens probably fits in a different space than Judith Krantz. Don Delilo probably has more in common with Dickens than with Krantz. Harry Potter, though, well, that's more debatable.
Literature has an amazing transformative power. At the end of any great novel the reader is a different person than when they started. This is not necessarily the case when one is reading a silly little science fiction book about cats in space, or a Stephen King novel. Sure, technically neutrinos have passed through your body, and isotopes inside you have decayed, so really you are changed, but you haven't been transformed by the book in the same way that you would if you finished War and Peace or A Farewell to Arms.
So, I've recorded all the books I've read in the last ten years, and I've rated them all as crap or worth. Thus was born the crap/worth ratio. I try to keep it about one. That is, for every Game of Thrones (the best fantasy book since the lord of the rings) I try to read something valuable. Of course, literature is valuable, but so is Barbara Kingsolver. Douglass Adams is fun, but too fluffy for worth. (Oh, it's wonderful, and you should read everything he ever wrote in his short life, don't get me twisted.) Nick Hornby counts, and Vonnegut counts, and David Sedaris counts. Neal Stephenson only sometimes counts.
I'm making it seem like the other books are crap, and that's not really what I mean. I guess what I'm really trying to say is that when I reread Narnia a few years back it was for entertainment only. When I read Beth Lisick's Everyone into the Pool, sure it was entertaining, but it was a poignant memoir as well. I ruminated more about the human condition through the consumption of the memoir than the fantasy, even though C.S. Lewis' moral masterpiece is so grand in scope.
Read, read anything. With every other book, push your boundaries.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Exermacise
So it's easy to sit around and indulge. Sometimes I just indulge myself in daydreams, imagining what it would be like to just eat fast food and pizza every night, never exercise, not go to work, but just hang out with friends, sleep, and play. That'd be great. Of course, it wouldn't be as great as accomplishing the goals that I've set up for myself, love, travel, financial security, et cetera. The indulgence of slack would be great in that it would taste good and be so easy. Of course, when you gorge yourself on round table your blood leaves your head to go to your stomach, your mind slows down, you get a little release of endorphins, and you score a food drunk. Really, when I'm daydreaming about dropping out into slackdom, isn't my body just asking for drugs? Is this different than just wishing I could get drunk all the time, and buy cough syrup by the case?
It's more difficult to intentionally be cognizant about your own behaviors. I really enjoy playing basketball, tennis, and ping pong. Hackey Sack, soccer, frisbee I also enjoy. Yoga, weight lifting, jogging, these are work. I don't actually enjoy doing any of it. What I do enjoy, however, is the results. Those last three activities I do much more often that the previous six. Sure they release their own exercise endorphins, but they also keep me centered, keep my energy levels up, keep me healthy, and keep me strong. They are an important component of my life, and I wouldn't be able to cut it with out them.
It's more difficult to intentionally be cognizant about your own behaviors. I really enjoy playing basketball, tennis, and ping pong. Hackey Sack, soccer, frisbee I also enjoy. Yoga, weight lifting, jogging, these are work. I don't actually enjoy doing any of it. What I do enjoy, however, is the results. Those last three activities I do much more often that the previous six. Sure they release their own exercise endorphins, but they also keep me centered, keep my energy levels up, keep me healthy, and keep me strong. They are an important component of my life, and I wouldn't be able to cut it with out them.
Monday, May 7, 2007
A wedding of weekends
Our wedding is coming up in about 2 1/2 months. We still have a huge amount of stuff to plan: food, cake, invites, honeymoon, gifts, flowers, clothes, music - we still need to plan a plan of what we need to plan. We need a meta plan. However, both of us are working so hard, that when we get a day off, we just use it to decompress and relax. When we both get a day off at the same time, then we just get to spend some time together. We haven't made much time to get things done. But, we will! Somehow the time will be made!
Work for love!
Work for love!
Friday, May 4, 2007
Hot Fuzzy Genius
We went and saw Hot Fuzz last night. It seemed to be getting good reviews, and I loved the Nick Frost/ Simon Pegg wit that flowed through 'Shaun of the Dead.' I was expecting it to be fun and light, maybe not as good as 'Shaun.'
We loved it. It was the perfect crowd, with 14 year-olds innocently randomly going "Boom Chicka Waa Waa" in front of us, and arrogant but stunned older teens behind us. We were apprehended by the movie, and we all laughed at different types of comedy. The lowbrow for the teens, the scat for the kids, the irony for us - well, I like it all.
Then we came home to find out that the Golden State Warriors had won, upsetting the number one seed Dallas Mavs. I'm a local from Oakland, and now live in San Francisco. The Warriors are our team. I've always loved to play sports, but i haven't really watched a season of anything since I was a teen. This is different though. The Warriors always stink, so now that they are pulling out some magic, the joy and ebullience is infectious. There is community built on our local team.
Of course, it's not going to mobilize us out of Iraq and into Darfur, but that might not be bad. I'm not saying that we don't need to leave Iraq and get into Darfur, but that the sports might not be subtracting from the cause.
Let me explain. Marx famously said, "Religion is the opiate of the masses." He was talking about how people and movements are numbed by Religion. It wasn't a value judgement - he wasn't saying it was good or bad, he was just saying it was numbed. Of course, if it is used for nefarious purposes such as propaganda by a state or greed by a minister, then evil is certainly inserted into the equation. Well, organized entertainment, such as television, most film, some music, and almost all sports similarly can anesthetize a populace, or at least a statistically relevant portion of a populace.
In the zealous moral enlightenment of my youth, when I was formulating world views upon world views, I didn't realize that this didn't need to be a bad thing. I thought back then that people needed to work in their free time to save the world. They needed to be inspired to do so. Well, certainly many people are numb in our culture, but it turns out that some people are depressed instead. We need to strike a balance between the horror of our work, and what we are doing to the future earthlings, and our inner selves. If we are happy we can be more productive. So, for some, the Warrior's win will help us make the changes for which we strive.
We loved it. It was the perfect crowd, with 14 year-olds innocently randomly going "Boom Chicka Waa Waa" in front of us, and arrogant but stunned older teens behind us. We were apprehended by the movie, and we all laughed at different types of comedy. The lowbrow for the teens, the scat for the kids, the irony for us - well, I like it all.
Then we came home to find out that the Golden State Warriors had won, upsetting the number one seed Dallas Mavs. I'm a local from Oakland, and now live in San Francisco. The Warriors are our team. I've always loved to play sports, but i haven't really watched a season of anything since I was a teen. This is different though. The Warriors always stink, so now that they are pulling out some magic, the joy and ebullience is infectious. There is community built on our local team.
Of course, it's not going to mobilize us out of Iraq and into Darfur, but that might not be bad. I'm not saying that we don't need to leave Iraq and get into Darfur, but that the sports might not be subtracting from the cause.
Let me explain. Marx famously said, "Religion is the opiate of the masses." He was talking about how people and movements are numbed by Religion. It wasn't a value judgement - he wasn't saying it was good or bad, he was just saying it was numbed. Of course, if it is used for nefarious purposes such as propaganda by a state or greed by a minister, then evil is certainly inserted into the equation. Well, organized entertainment, such as television, most film, some music, and almost all sports similarly can anesthetize a populace, or at least a statistically relevant portion of a populace.
In the zealous moral enlightenment of my youth, when I was formulating world views upon world views, I didn't realize that this didn't need to be a bad thing. I thought back then that people needed to work in their free time to save the world. They needed to be inspired to do so. Well, certainly many people are numb in our culture, but it turns out that some people are depressed instead. We need to strike a balance between the horror of our work, and what we are doing to the future earthlings, and our inner selves. If we are happy we can be more productive. So, for some, the Warrior's win will help us make the changes for which we strive.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Language and Prose
I just wanted to share this from the 50's. I often do this myself, when I'm waiting in line with no book to read. Writing can be beneficial mentally, even if it's filler. Often I'll actually write a letter, so as to have an audience, even if I have no intention of posting or sending it.
A long way down
I just finished an excellent book, 'A Long Way Down' by Nick Hornby. Fabulous fabulous, with it's themes of depression and community, this book is a great portrait of one of the base human themes of modern society. Plus, it's darkly humorous and a rollicking good read. Secondary themes of bibliophilia touched me in personal ways, as I've been reading more voluminously, and enjoying it correspondingly more as well. I highly recommend it. It's intriguing, smart, easy, fun, and fundamental.
Existence is hard. We are very smart, and we know how to compare our situations to others. The other situations don't even have to be real, we can still compare. And therein lies the sorrow. Why isn't my life better, and more like something else? One tactic I've been using is seeing the little flowers that are hidden in the grass, the ones that are so small you don't really notice them unless you happen to be sitting or lying in the grass. You have to look really closely, but there is something beautiful there. Even sitting in line, or on a bus, or having a harsh day at work, when I get a second to stop and think, I can always find a little flower.
I thought this would just be a little trick in an arsenal of personal existence strategies, but it turns out to be very useful over all. You know how stress relief helps alleviate everything from allergies to insurance rates? The ripple effect from this observational paradigm shift has had a similar effect on my outlook.
Great books are nice too.
Existence is hard. We are very smart, and we know how to compare our situations to others. The other situations don't even have to be real, we can still compare. And therein lies the sorrow. Why isn't my life better, and more like something else? One tactic I've been using is seeing the little flowers that are hidden in the grass, the ones that are so small you don't really notice them unless you happen to be sitting or lying in the grass. You have to look really closely, but there is something beautiful there. Even sitting in line, or on a bus, or having a harsh day at work, when I get a second to stop and think, I can always find a little flower.
I thought this would just be a little trick in an arsenal of personal existence strategies, but it turns out to be very useful over all. You know how stress relief helps alleviate everything from allergies to insurance rates? The ripple effect from this observational paradigm shift has had a similar effect on my outlook.
Great books are nice too.
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