American Idle

When you don't get out of bed until after 1 PM and then spend the next few hours reading and responding to your email, followed by another hour or two of Warhammer Online, there isn't much to say when you settle down to writing about the day.

I'm back at Starbucks for the first time in a week. For a Saturday night it's actually quite quiet in here. I've spent the last hour playing around on FaceBook and reading through headlines on the web, hoping the whole while that some topic of interest will leap to mind. While I'm amused to hear that Siegfried and Roy are staging a comeback, it doesn't seem like a full topic beyond a few idle questions. (Will there be tigers? Does anyone go see this show for anything other than a freakish thrill?")

One article on MSNBC caught my eye. It was about getting laid off and then taking a vacation. The point of the article was not getting caught up in the negative impact of losing your job, but, rather, taking the opportunity to expand yourself. I'm down with that idea 100% and that has been my goal these last few months... but I haven't proven to be very good at it. I set lofty goals and then have trouble following through on them.

I tried explaining some of this to my friend Russell last night. For the last 20+ years I have been fighting a problem with my writing. I get lots of good ideas for writing projects— *lots* of good ideas. They inspire me to write great things. Then, when I actually sit down to work on them, my motivation drains away with the very first sentence. By the time I reach the end of what could be called a paragraph, I am empty of motivation and desire. The idea might even seems worthless. I don't know why this happens, but it happens every time. It's as if the mere act of typing shoots a hole in the bottom of my bucket— I'm lucky to get a paragraph before the idea drains away completely.

Currently, I'm trying to find ways to motivate myself differently, to find away to circumvent this issue. That's the big reason for the birth of this blog. My immediate goal is to get myself in the habit of writing daily, and my eventual goal is to transition this effort to writing for profit. I have also been reading different books about writing— not books about the techniques or craft of writing so much as the "meta" of writing. One book that I recently picked up, "The Tao of Writing", seems to hold some promise.

I'm particularly looking forward to bloggin while I'm on the road these next few weeks. There's nothing like actually getting out and doing something during the day to trigger topics for blog posts. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Until next time.

"Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living."— Gustave Flaubert

Re-Kindle

I'm writing under the influence of a headache tonight. I shall endeavor to be entertaining nonetheless.

In my Kindle lovefest last night I neglected to mention a couple downsides to the device. The first is immediately apparent when you get your hands on it— the screen begs to be touch sensitive. Unfortunately, it isn't, and you have to do everything with buttons and a crude cursor control. Even knowing that, I find myself with fingers poised to touch words, etc. A quick use also finds one discovering that it isn't really interactive. It's meant to be a one-direction device. That is, info (text) goes from the device to you. There isn't any real flow in the other direction. For instance, you can't pull up a crossword puzzle and solve it on the device.

The remaining downside is by far the worst. I wasn't aware of this during my initial shopping trips, but apparently electronic book prices have been skyrocketing on Amazon. I confirmed this to a certain degree after paying more attention. Of course, I've been buying mostly bargain basement stuff so I haven't been greatly affected. However, when the first Kindle debuted, one of the selling points was that a huge amount of books would be sold for $9.99, including all bestsellers. I no longer see this advertised, and I'm seeing a lot of posts on the forums of people who claim that books that were a couple bucks last year are now fully as much as a paperback. I'm not happy to hear this. In fact, I looked up Ian Fleming, curious to see if there was a tempting James Bond omnibus, but I found all James Bond books priced at $9.99— more than it would cost to get a new paperback of each. Amazon claims that the publishers all decide the costs of the digital versions, but this is clearly wrong. If anything, a digital version should be cheaper than a printed version. It's as if the publishers, right on the verge of an explosion in digital sales, suddenly want to stick their heads in the sand like audio copyright holders and kill the burgeoning industry. It's infuriatingly stupid to me.

I still love my Kindle though, even though it's far from perfect. Like I said last night, it's the first device to come close to what I dreamed of. It's at a stage where I feel comfortable being an early adopter. I do look forward, however, to an iteration of the device about 5 years down the road, when touch sensitivity and interaction are supported. Then it will be an amazing device, and that's when it will cross the DVD threshold and become a must have piece of hardware.

Until next time.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."— Arthur C. Clarke

Be Kindle, Rewindle

OK, I'm going to brag on my new Kindle for a bit.

Let me re-state that. I'm not going to brag about having a Kindle 2. No, what I'm going to do is discuss some of the features with the hope that I can get some of my friends and readers excited about the new Kindle as well.

In case you haven't heard of it, the Kindle is Amazon.com's e-reader. I'm not exaggerating when I say this: About 20 years ago I started to dream of a handheld electronic reader. Ever since, I've had a really solid idea of the feature set I'd want in such a device. I made the choice to buy the new Kindle 2 because it is the first device to come reasonably close to my original dream. Technically, the Kindle 1 was the first device to do so, but it was ugly as sin. The new model has a much sleeker design and an improved feature set.

The new Kindle looks like an Ipod that has been run over by a steamroller. It is thinner than a paperback book but slightly taller ans lightly wider. Even with the optional leather cover, it is still thinner than most books. About two-thirds of the top surface is an electric ink screen, with a complete keypad of letters beneath and various function keys surrounding the screen. Electric ink is not like an LCD screen, which requires constant power to keep each crystal diode lit. The only time the electric ink screen requires power is when it is redrawn. At that time the screen flashes darkly and then the new text and/or pictures appear. This saves on power since you can view a page as long as you like without consuming any power whatsoever. There's a nifty bonus feature whenever you power off the unit. There are detailed author pictures stored on the device, and one is randomly drawn on screen at power down, remaining there until you turn the unit on again.

The Kindle has built in wireless connectivity— free wireless connectivity. It piggybacks on one of the major cellphone networks with no monthly access fee. The main point of this feature is to provide the user access to the Amazon store wherever he or she is, regardless of the time of day. (I'll discuss the store and reading selections below.) There is also a Search feature allowing you to look up information on Wikipedia or the web in general using this wireless access.

Among the smaller features, there are 6 different text sizes, allowing the user to read in comfort. The screen requires no backlighting and can be read under full light. There is a built in dictionary, and all you have to do is move the screen cursor to any word. The definition pops up at the bottom of the screen. Under the 'experimental' section header, there is also a text-to-speech application, allowing the device to read text aloud. There's even an MP3 player.

Buying books is a snap. I haven't used the built in store browser yet, but I've made several purchases with my existing Amazon account. The device ships pre-registered to the person who bought it. It is easy to re-register the device to anyone else however. I merely logged into Amazon and started selecting books. The next time I turned on the Kindle, they were downloaded and installed in almost no time. Currently, Amazon claims to have almost 300K texts available for purchase. This includes a couple dozen magazine subscriptions and daily newspaper subscriptions. (This was a must-have feature for me from my original dream design.) I signed up for subscriptions to the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, and Analog Science Fiction and Fact. The subscription rates to each are comparable to print subscription rates.

Before I list the other books I bought, I want to mention one other feature— maybe the coolest feature yet. You can upload your texts to the device. Each registered Kindle has an email address. To upload my own text to the device, I only have to send it to that email address in one of several different formats. Once received, it is converted and sent to my Kindle like any store-bought text. Very cool!

So, of course I went through an orgy of book buying to put some content on my new toy. Here's a list:

$4.79   150+ works of Walter Scott, including all his novels

$4.79   200+ works of Charles Dickens, including all novels and short stories

$4.79   200+ works of Arthur Conan Doyle, including all Sherlock Holmes stories and novels

$4.79   50+ works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, including all Tarzan novels, Mars novels, etc.

$4.79   the 6 Barsetshire novels of Anthony Trollope

$4.79   the 6 Palliser novels of Anthony Trollope

$7.99   The Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton

$7.99   Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr

$26.50   The Illustrated Guide to C#

My Kindle already has years worth of reading in it!

Now I just have to make more time to read.

Until next time.

"We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading."— B. F. Skinner

Pat Moment

I had a Pat moment tonight.

My best friend Pat is a teacher. Although it doesn't happen as often these days, we used to run into his students and former students all the time. (This could be because we don't hang out or go out to local places as much as we used to.) It got to be a running joke over the years.

Tonight I drove through Jack In The Box. After ordering I pulled up to the window and handed my money to the kid. When he handed back my change, he asked "Do you live on 41st street?" I said that I did. "I recognized your car, " he said.

I have to confess, a that moment I was a bit nervous. I don't live in the best neighborhood— as evidenced by my taser post from last week. So, I don't know how comfortable I am being recognized as I drive around. On the other hand, I have the only car in San Bernardino with big frogs on the side doors. For anyone who doesn't already know, I used to run a computer business on the side name RisingFrog Technologies. (No, I never made any real money with it.)

After a second, the kid went on. "I live by Seventh Heaven." Seventh Heaven is a little windowless market two blocks down the street. It's bigger than a quick stop mart, but nowhere near the size of a real grocery store. Despite having lived in this neighborhood for 20+ years, I've only been in there two or three times— and not at all in the last five years. It is terribly convenient... but there's always a pretty rough crowd hanging around outside, and I believe someone was shot there a few years ago. Like I said, there are no windows, and there are bars at the cashier. It's not a relaxing place to shop— not even for a few minutes.

Then the kid added, "I used to go to school at Shandin Hills," which is the local middle school about ten to fifteen walking minutes away. It turns out he used to walk past my place every day and knew my car well. I'll just have to believe for now that he isnt the kid who scratched a big line the entire length of my car. Or the kid who scratched an anarchy 'A' in my paint.

He said his family used to have chickens, and I was immediately reminded of some neighbors just one block over who used to have chickens that wandered into the street all the time. When I mentioned those chickens, he said that his family sold the origianl chickens to that family. Small world!

All in all, it was a weird midnight encounter, but not an unpleasant one.

Oh, and Jack's new Chicken Biscuit sandwich is really dry. It needs something.

Until next time.

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle."— Plato

Of Boredom and Gauntlets

Ugh.

I just erased the few paragraphs I'd written. It seems I don't really have anything to write about tonight.

Before signing off tonight, however, I thought I'd drop a tease about something that's coming up: The first annual "Five Poems a Week" poetry challenge! That's right, shortly after I get back from vacation I'll be posting a least one poem a night, at least five nights a week. There is no end date, and the challenge is to see how long I can do this. They will doubtlessly be awful poems, and I'm sure some will be as short as haikus, if not exactly haikus. (In the case of a day spent writing haikus, however, I will post all of the haikus that I write that day, not saving any for a future post!)

I've always wanted to write poetry but I rarely make myself do so. No more! Mark March 23rd on your calendar!

Until next time.

"A powerful idea communicates some of its strength to him who challenges it."— Marcel Proust

The Count is 2 and 0

The light flashed again.

There is a ridiculously over-wired intersection by my house— over-wired to take pictures and video of transgressing cars, that is. Special poles and overhanging beams were erected to hold all the camera equipment. There must be 30 or more individual cameras, lights, etc. Since the intersection went live a few months ago, I don't believe I've ever been through it without seeing one or more flashes while waiting for my turn.

If possible, I go out of my way to avoid this intersection because I hear the fees for getting caught at one of these intersections are astronomic. I can't afford astronomic. I can't even afford near-earth orbit. But, lately, I've been impatient and have chosen to drive through a few times when I could have gone around. Last week I saw the lights flash when I seemed to be the only person in the intersection, which made me very nervous. Tonight they flashed again when I saw lots of other cars lined up to cross the intersection— but mine was the only car inside. In both instances, I believe I did nothing wrong. The lights were clearly green in my favor both times. But, again, neither time did I see any other likely victims. I hope that I don't come back from my next vacation to find one or more tickets waiting for me.

I do have a theory about this particular intersection. As I said, I don't recall ever going through and not seeing the lights flash— sometimes as many as three or four different times. Yet, I've been through many other wired up intersections without seeing flashes. I wonder if this particularly intersection isn't flashing a lot as a sort of psychological deterrence. In other words, maybe they're just trying to scare us.

I had to turn in my rental car this afternoon.  *sigh*  I miss it already. It was wonderful to drive for the last four days without having to worry about whether or not the car was going to overheat or break down at some point. I was able to drive in a relaxed state of mind for the first time in months.

It sure was difficult renting the car in the first place, though! I always rent through Enterprise since they seem to have the cheapest rates. Although, Enterprise creeps me out because the employees all act like members of a giant cult. I can't put my finger on it precisely, but there's the air of desperation and cult-like intensity to these people at times. But, they'll rent me a car, so I put up with it. Since I don't have a major credit card— only my MasterCard-stamped bank card— it's a thoroughly humiliating process to get a car though. I had to fill out a form with all sorts of info about where I live and where I work. I also had to provide references. Then, because my card is somehow inferior to that mystical real major credit card, they have to pre-run my card and put a lock on $250, which lock is released once I return the car and the final tally is settled. (In the past, if the rental is long enough to exceed the $250, they lock another $250 when the line is crossed.) I also had to bring two utility bills to prove that I lived where I live. Like I said, it's humiliating. I didn't even get a great car out of it all— I got a PT Cruiser with a horrible turn radius and serious acceleration issues.

Still, it was nice to drive for a few days.

Until next time.

"Traffic signals in New York are just rough guidelines"— David Letterman

And The Obvious Joke Goes To—

I would like to claim that I have no idea why I watch the Oscars ceremony every year.

Growing up I don't recall seeing more than a few minutes of the show in any given year. That and all other award shows were never the chosen fare in our house. Indeed, today, the Oscar show is the only award show I will watch as I find them all to be universally frustrating and self-important. So why do I bother with the Oscars? I watch it with friends and we generally do what we can to have the most fun with the telecast. We bet on all the categories— only a quarter except for the Best Picture category, which rates an entire dollar. In the early years we also mocked large portions of the show. Before the invention of far-too expensive TV's, it was common for us to shoot rubber-tipped darts at the most obnoxious celebrities. ("Take that, Celine Dion!") In other years we shot plastic disk guns or laser pointers at the TV. Now, because there are a couple excitable children present, we refrain from toy use but still bet on the individual awards.

My personal theory why the show itself has generally gotten duller year after year is because the celebrities involved have gotten duller. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the works of your Kate Winsletts and your Cate Blanchetts and your Phillip Seymour Hoffmans and your Adrian Brodys, etc., but these people make absolutely lousy celebrities. All their shine is on screen. In an ideal world where the movies themselves were the only things that mattered that would be enough, but the Oscar ceremony itself is a celebration of the spectacle of Hollywood— and there's just not much spectacle left. 

Even the movies themselves reflect this dullness. I know Hollywood has always celebrated the epic movie, but I blame the decline of movies on one movie, The English Patient. Giving the Best Picture Oscar to this movie was an acknowledgement that content no longer mattered, that all you needed to do was make your movie long and fill it with people for whom English is their second language. The English Patient is all veneer wrapped around three hours of yawns. Since then, the movies and the celebrities just seem to go through the motions.

So many scripts are exactly the same. They're not genuine stories with true beginnings, middles, and ends. They're simply contrivances for action sequences or Oscar moments. So few movies have the cajones to stick to their story all the way through to the end. Just look at Hancock. The first half of this movie was a solid comedic character study based on the premise "What if there was one super-hero in the world and he was unreliable?" That's a great premise for a movie, and the central relationship of the movie, that between Will Smith's character and Jason Bateman's character, really carried the first half of the film. But then the movie veers off in horribly new direction and barely manages to be more than a train wreck by the time the credits roll. Someone somewhere decided that a character comedy wasn't a big enough movie for Will Smith and thus the second half of the movie was completely re-written. The story was tossed in favor of an attempt to make more money.

I don't mean to go on a wild diatribe against Hollywood and the movies. I enjoy seeing movies— even bad ones at times— and I wish I could see more of them. No, I mean to keep this diatribe focused on why the Oscar show is so dull. Movie after movie gets cranked out, with every scene adjusted to produce the most revenue. Whole scripts are lifted from one successful movie and dropped into sequels. Hollywood itself barely seems to care about what it pours down our throats. We're so inundated by the bland and the repetitious that we're barely more than sheep in a pen surrounded by screens. Then, once a year, Hollywood dresses up and tries to put it's most glam face forward, tries to make us believe that Hollywood matters. In reaction at home, we sit in front of our millions of TV's and yawn because at some level our brains can't be bothered to remember which one is Kate Winslett and which is Cate Blanchett. Or maybe that one's Gwyneth Paltrow?

OK, stepping off my soapbox, I will admit that this year's show was a smidgen better than last year's. Hugh Jackman was an adequate host; although, I would rather that job be handled by a comedian again in the future. My favorite moment of the night was probably Sean Penn winning his Oscar for Milk. I'm not a Sean Penn fan and I didn't see the movie, but I was glad to hear him 'go poltical' for a few moments in favor of gay and lesbian equality. That moment made me tear up very briefly. My second favorite moment of the show is the quote at the end of this post.

You know, the other telling truth about the Oscar show is that this year after the awards were over, I didn't feel compelled to see any of the movies I'd missed.

Oh, and the obvious joke from the title?: Slumdog Millionaire proves there is absolutely nothing in this country that can't be out-sourced to India.

Until next time.