learn Solaris
run a stable IRC server in Solaris
create a VPN in Solaris

re-read In Code: A Mathematical Journey
read/finish TCP/IP Unleashed (Unleashed)
re-read How the Web was Born
finish A Gift of Fire
read A Quarter Century of UNIX
finish Writing & Reporting News: A Coaching Method

brush up C++
brush up Java
learn Flash
learn PHP

write more, write better
obtain Nikon D60 and accessories.
learn photog

I had no idea what to expect from Watchmen as my only connection to the material prior to the movie was through the teaser with the Smashing Pumpkins’ The Beginning is the end is the Beginning. I knew from the trailer that there was once a group called Watchmen who defended the city back in the 30′s but they were long gone. One of them had been killed, so solving that mystery and avenging the murder was the premise of the film.

When we got to the theater, there were signs in the window warning that Watchmen had been rated R for intense violence and explicit sexuality, almost as if the film should have gotten an NC -17. Immediately, i was reminded of the Sin City debacle, namely, the alleged theater in Texas that only took cash because there were so many senior citizens going to see the movie and the theater didn’t want to refund the money or have a way for the patrons to stop payment on a check or credit card. I was also reminded of the headline Walt Disney’s Sin City does $21 Million Open Weekend and the aftermath.

Filled with a cast of accomplished, though unknown actors, Watchmen was very well acted. Through the twists and turns of the plot, each character got more screen time as their character’s backstory was told. The person to keep your eye on is this ensemble is Patrick Wilson. Wilson doesn’t have a long list of credits to his name. His most memorable credits are playing a fop of a boyfriend in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s film adaptation of his Phantom of the Opera and a pedophile that is in turn tortured by his victim in Hard Candy. (For a real treat, go grab a copy of Hard Candy to see a pre-Juno Ellen Page in the role of…antagonist?). Wilson does rather well playing the role of an overweight has-been–so much so, that it doesn’t feel acted at all, much like Rosie O’Donnel’s performance in Riding the Bus with My Sister.

Jackie Earle Haley–there’s not a lot to say about this guy. Yes, he was Rorschach who was, in some respects, the main attraction. But there’s only so much performance that you can put into body language and voiceovers alone–an actor needs to be able to emote. Morgan’s scenes as Walter Kovacs were distracting because I kept comparing him to William Fichtner.

Malin Akerman was a sexy Silk Spectre and as such was only so much eye-candy. Billy Crudup is one of those great character actors that you can never identify much like Gary Oldman: you only know they’re in the cast because the credits told you so. For the record, there are enough shots of the blue schlong to make women happy, but I don’t think that anyone other than a pre-pubecent teen will enjoy the elongated sex scene between Nite Owl and Silk Spectre.

If there is any lack of character, it is that of the Comedian in his older days. Granted, it wouldn’t have served the story for the Comedian to be around if he wasn’t in flashbacks outside of the opening scene, but it’s a damn shame. Despite his imperfections, I think his older, mellower self would have made a fine drinking buddy.

Zack Snyder doesn’t disappoint when it comes to showing the ass-kickings that are constantly being dished out, something that the younger generation will enjoy because they have no outlets for their angst. If this film will do anything to the “yute of America” it will be to turn them on to old sixties and seventies music. Nearly all of the choices for the soundtrack were sensibly used with the exception of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. This song was so disharmonious that it actually worked against the scene in question and made one want to head to the concession stand. I personally sung along to Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence”. It will be interesting to see which songs are downloaded and listened to by the younger generations that see this film.

The ending was anticlimactic. You didn’t really care about the antagonist and by the time you figured out what really happened, you really didn’t care. The film does seem to drag on and on even though you want more and more. I caught myself looking at my watch more than once trying to calculate when the film would conclude not due to lack of interest but due to wanting to get up out of my seat.

Speaking of the ending, I do have a gripe with this film’s final moments. After all is said and done, there’s no news to report on because evil has been abolished. The reporter turns to his editor and says “What should we run? That actor Reagan is running for President.” Now, I know that Reagan laughed at the joke when it was in Back to the Future. In fact, when they showed Back to the Future at the White House, Reagan had them stop the film, run it back and play the joke again.

I was miffed with this line because I thought it was yet another pot shot at one of the greatest Presidents that we had ever had. After I had seen the film, I ran into a buddy who had read the graphic novel. He said that this was in the source and that you have to remember that in the comics Nixon had four terms. Armed with this understanding, I can give the “joke” a pass, but I’m afraid that the younger generation will not fully understand the background to this line and will walk out of the theater hating a President they never knew.

All in all, I feel like it would be worth $6 to go see this film on the big screen.

I find myself constantly recommending Bodie and Brock Thoene’s The Twilight of Courage (specifically the hardcover) but am always displeased with myself because I never have both the dust jacket text and the Amazon.com user’s review in the same place. I can attempt to describe the book (and would be happy to answer any questions) but I think that what you see below is already perfect and fear I will just muck it up. Without further ado…

From the Dust Jacket:

Between the sky and the assembly, a cloud of red and black banners unfurled, fluttering in time to the trumpet blasts. The expectation of the gathering had reached a feverish pitch, exactly the right moment for their worship to appear. As if controlled by a single switch, all light and sound vanished. The arena was plunged into absolute blackness and total stillness with such suddenness that thousands believed they had been struck both deaf and blind in that instant. And then…a single spotlight reached out from the back of the stadium, stabbing the highest podium. As if by magic, the lectern was now occupied by the stern, brooding figure of Adolf Hitler.

As the clouds of war gather over an unprepared Europe, the remarkable and stories of an international cast of characters unfold in The Twilight of Courage. Follow diverse and memorable personalities such as American journalists Josie Marlow and Mac McGrath as they narrowly escape from the collapse of Warsaw in the fall of 1939 and suddenly find themselves caught up in the events of the so-called Twilight War–when Hitler was preparing to march and the Allies did nothing to stop him.

Meet Polish mathematics genius Richard Lewinski who heads a desperate attempt to crack the Nazi secret code; brother Andre and Paul Chardon who organize an heroic defense of the French Calvary School in Lys; German Captain Horst von Bockman who is caught between the love of his country and the insanity of war, and David Meyer, an American pilot who, shot down during an air war, struggles to escape the German onslaught and return to the lovely English woman Annie Galaway.

From Mac’s expirences at Dunkirk to Josie’s expirences in Paris, The Twilight of Courage brings to life the cataclysm of war as seen through the eyes of men and women who faced unbelievable challenges in a time of crisis.

Intricately woven and impeccably researched The Twilight of Courage is a war story, a love story and a spy story wrapped into one unforgettable package.

The relevant quote from Amazon.com reviewer Tracy Groot on the paper back edition:

Under duress, I recently confessed my favorite Thoene novel: Twilight of Courage. (It’s like admitting you have a favorite child.) A friend of mine who has read only non-fiction books for the past 7 years agreed to read this one only because it is fiction based on fact. He loved it. (I, in turn, had to read a non-fiction book. He chose for me “Fate is the Hunter”, a book so well-written I couldn’t help reading it.)

I told my friend about the background to this book, which I know because I wrote a review in the Grand Rapids Press years ago: the Thoenes spent four months on a barge in Paris, with assistants, researching this work. They asked elderly Parisians this question: Where were you the day France fell? Seemed they all had a story. From those stories came this book. It’s what got my friend to read it.

That’s what I love about the Thoenes’ work. Winston Churchill said something about hinges, that isn’t interesting upon what small hinges events turn. The Thoenes seek out those hinges and give them a rightful place by recording them. Fact couched in fiction? Sometimes that’s the only way a story can be told. That it is told at all is the only thing that matters. From Marcus Aurelius…”Look beneath the surface; let not the quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee…”

Mallowcups for Bodie and Brock. Cheers for their dedication to rusty old hinges.

Time seems so elastic.

I got stuck at work for an extra half hour.

I think I started syncing around 2000 and finished shortly after 2100. Not too bad for moving all the apps, settings and documents.

Trying to get the external drive shared out via the GUI isn’t as intuitive as it should be…maybe I’m just too tied to figure it out.

Yesterday after work, I entertained whester. While I was waiting on him to get off of work (he had the late shift) I read a post about geo-caching. So, I headed over to geocaching.com and found You Can’t Get There From Here.

This was the first self-initiated geocaching adventure I had ever been on. I went once or twice with my first guru, who, coincidently, was the same reason I went to UAH.

I remember having to pick up a cache with a stick…it was on an overpass, but you could get to it via the sidewalk. I also remember walking around Area 51 and trying to follow clues and get more numbers for our find…I don’t remember figuring that one out. It’s amazing how the mind stores memories.

In either event, when whester told me that he was on his way to my place, I told him that I had a plan and would explain when he got here. Which I did. After we looked on the map and figured out how to get to the cache, we hit the road. Per usual, I over-though the entire puzzle and was looking in places that didn’t make any sense. whester stumbled upon the cache as I bumbled along in my theories.

We both agreed that we should go geocaching again some time in the near future.

And that’s when I started earnestly coveting the Nikon D60 since I had finally solved the laptop dilemma. I could document our hunts pictorially on my blog!

Well I’m beat and can’t think straight. I wrote this entire post on m0bil30n3 in bed. If this was incoherent rambling, I’m sorry and will make up for it later in some way I can’t conceive of now.

I broke down and bought a refurbed unibody. It’ll be here some time late next week.

2.0Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB DDR3 1066 Mhz memory
160GB HD

I may be offline next weekend for some “bonding” time.

Continue reading →

Well, here’s another one of those posts that I don’t think is real blogging.

So the wisdom tooth on the bottom right didn’t flare down, it flared up. I finally called Dad yesterday to get some relief. It took a while for him to get back to me, but we connected in the end. Since I was shopping in Walmart, I had him call the prescription in there and let me tell you, economically, it was the best decision I’d ever made. The last time I paid for a round of Amoxi, it was $14 at RiteAid. Yesterday, I paid a grand total of $4.

Yesterday I didn’t even feel sick. Yes, the tonsils were swollen, yes there were problems, but I felt worse when I woke up this morning than I did at any point yesterday. Well at least I got some grocery shopping and laundry done yesterday.

When I finally got home and settled, I had a bowl of chicken noodle soup and was going to work on the House post I’ve been promising. As soon as I finished my soup, my body shut down like a blackout. I stayed in bed a lot last night. So coming up next (I’m pushing for 12ish CDT today) is the House post!