March 2006 Archives

I'm sitting here now listening to the sobbing of a feverish, plehgmy, miserable two-year-old who only wants his mama and his Nordy.

Poor little guy. :-(

People often claim that were born in the wrong decade. Maybe they yearn to live like a flapper from the 1920's, or regret not being a part of the swinging Jazz age. Perhaps they yearn for what they believe was a simpler, more slow-paced time. Me? I'm happy with where I am on the temporal plane for the most part. I try to neither romanticize the past nor assume the future will be rosier. My goal is to make due with what I have, and to make it better when I can. About the only time I start to wish I had been born, say, 30, 40, or 50 years earlier is when baseball season begins.

I love Bob's Quick Guide to the Apostrophe, You Idiots! My Dear Mother is a bit of a grammar Nazi, and some of it rubbed off on me. Misuse of apostrophes is one of our biggest pet-peeves. This reminds me of a story...

This is a bit of geeky post, but I can't help it.

We have a group scheduling program where I work. Anyone on the system can check my availability and "invite" me to a meeting. It's handy for group scheduling, and even though it takes away from me a modicum of control over my calendar, it saves up for having to type up and email my availability around whenever someone asks for it. Plus, I can always decline to attend a meeting.

The main problem it has is a total lack of knowledge about geography. Here's a typical problem:

Sussex University's Dunja Brill has concluded that goths are highly likely to become successful, well-adjusted adults.

"Most youth subcultures encourage people to drop out of school and do illegal things," she says. "Most goths are well educated, however. They hardly ever drop out and are often the best pupils. The subculture encourages interest in classical education, especially the arts. I'd say goths are more likely to make careers in web design, computer programming ... even journalism."

Ray has a placemat with a cartoony depiction of the United States. Each state is represented with an icon related to its major industry, a landmark, or an historical event. Washington has the Space Needle (which must piss off those in Eastern Washington), Michigan has a car, Wisconsin a chunk of Swiss (?) cheese. Some are quite puzzling, such as the armadillo for Arkansas, and what appears to be a small African-American girl wading in the ocean for South Carolina. For some reason, South Dakota is represented by a covered wagon (its backwards nature?), and North Dakota by ... a cloud. Or maybe it's a snow drift. Anyway, you be the judge.

By now, most of you have probably heard about the mass-murder in Seattle yesterday. If not, read about it at the Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, The Stranger, or KOMO-TV news web sites.

The victims were ravers who had attended a teen dance party earlier that evening. The Stranger's blog has reporting on news as it happens, and is already urging Seattle's leaders to not impose a useless ban on teen parties as a knee-jerk reaction to this event. Metafilter-ites (many of whom are from Seattle) are engaged in an active debate about, among other things, the legalization of the kinds of gun (pistol-grip shotgun) used in the killings or even (horror of horrors!) the issue of gun ownership in general.

The Stranger's Eli Sanders writes:

[Police Chief Gil] Kerlikowske, sensibly, seems to want a crackdown on the kind of weapons that enabled so many young people to be killed so efficiently.

"He was carrying a 12-guage pistol-grip shotgun. And of course as everyone knows, a pistol-grip shotgun is designed not for hunting purposes, but for hunting people. He also had a semi-automatic handgun, and he fired multiple rounds with both weapons."

...It’s not surprising that gun control was on Kerlikowske’s mind yesterday. As has been reported, less than 24 hours before the shooting Kerlikowske was given an award by Washington Ceasefire, this state’s major gun control group. The group’s web site doesn’t say exactly what the award was for, but I bet it was for his lobbying to close the “gun show loophole,” which allows people in Washington to buy fierarms at gun shows without background checks.

Seventeen other states have closed the gun show loophole. Not Washington. This year, two bills to close the loophole died in the state legislature.

“We’ve traced guns back that had been involved in crimes that were obtained at gun shows,” Kerlikowske told King 5 TV in December, in a report that’s posted on Washington Ceasefire’s web site.

I wonder: When they trace the weapons used in the Capitol Hill shooting back to their original source, will the original source be an under-regulated gun show?

According to some random "freelance" urban planner cited on Metafilter, Seattle has the 15^th best skyline in the world, scoring just below Dubai. (Metafilter discussion here).

The Seattle downtown skyline in interesting in that our most famous landmark--the Space Needle--isn't technically part of downtown. Yet most photographs you see, including the one on the "15 Best" page (below), are taken from a perspective that makes it seem as if the Needle is right there in the heart of things.

My blog banner graphic at the top of this page reveals how far the Needle actually is from downtown.

I've always been a sucker for an urban skyline, especially after living in a downtown Detroit high-rise with a panoramic view of the city, the river, and part of Windsor, Ontario. It was like having an ever-changing mural on one wall of the apartment. Some nights, I'd turn the lights off, open the window vents, and watch it as if it were a TV with the sirens and traffic providing the soundtrack. Thunderstorms were particularly impressive, and we had front-row seats for the Freedom Festival Fireworks. Detroit may not be a city that you'd want to see up close, but from up on high and at bit of a distance, it's actually quite pleasing.

Most photographs out there show Detroit from across the river in Canada, like this one:

(Copyright Dmytro Doblevych)

I could only find two shots close to the perspective I enjoyed:

(Copyright Dmytro Doblevych)

This was taken from the Deroy apartment building near Wayne State University (my alma mater), which is about a mile northeast of where I used to live.

It's hard to tell where this is from. It appears to be further east than the previous one, and possibly from further north.

I normally don't have much patience for BlogThings' "quizzes" (especially since their code breaks my XHTML validation), but since Oscar (and all of his blog inspirations) are doing it, I thought I would, too. And, yes, if he jumped off a bridge, I probably would, too.

This result is mostly accurate except I tend to get Americanos, which are just watered down espressos. I am awaiting the arrival of my Aeropress so that I can brew my own in my office. Yummmmm.

You Are an Espresso

At your best, you are: straight shooting, ambitious, and energetic At your worst, you are: anxious and high strung You drink coffee when: anytime you're not sleeping Your caffeine addiction level: high

My old friend Janet just wrote me to tell me that her book on African art has finally been published. Sure enough, it's right there on Amazon.

Art And Architecture In Postcolonial Africa (Amazon sales rank #224,993)

Congratulations, Janet!

I got to wondering how many other people I know have books out there:

• Me! (Well, it's not my book; but my essay is in it.) Contemporary Irish Cinema (Amazon sales rank #758,754)
• Holly! (Again, not her book but her essay's in it.) The Best American Essays 2005 (Amazon sales rank #12,046)

And that's it. I mean, I've known professors who have published books that they've then made me buy for their class, but I'm not counting those.

On the self-promotion front, there's Cinema and the Invention of Modern Life, for which I compiled the index; Acting Male: Masculinities in the Films of James Stewart, Jack Nicholson, and Clint Eastwood, in which I am thanked in the credits; and, finally, These "Colored" United States, of which I am practically the co-author (but that's a [bitter] blog post for another time).

I feel like even more of a iconoclastic rebel for going with a retro single-blade shaver recently. Even The Economist is chiming on blade-proliferation with an amusing article that applies Moore's Law to razor development.

And since I have The Onion on the brain, here's "Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades"

What part of this don't you understand? If two blades is good, and three blades is better, obviously five blades would make us the best fucking razor that ever existed. Comprende?

As Holly's frighteningly-photographic memory reveals in her comment to yesterday's "Happy Anniversaries" post, my account of events leading up to Amy's and my first date 6 years ago wasn't entirely accurate or complete (Holly: you and I will discuss this off-line, Missy.) Also, Liana expressed a desire to hear the real story, so here goes....

This Seattle Times article about the traffic on the I-520 bridge across Lake Washington employs adjectives such as "frustrated," "beleaguered," and "excruciating" in an effort to make us feel sorry for the roughly 80% of eastside commuters who drive alone in their cars into Seattle for work every day and who contribute to the very bottlenecks and traffic pile-ups in which they suffer.

It makes me think of an article in another newspaper: "Report: 98 Percent Of U.S. Commuters Favor Public Transportation For Others" (The Onion, 11/29/2000).

Since Amy and I aren't married, we don't have a traditional anniversary. So we celebrate several. Today marks the sixth year since our first date. Now, typical of us, there is some dispute over whether or not the events of March 21^st, 2000 constituted a "date" or not, so I'll let the reader decide.

Dudley Andrew was the head of my film studies department at Iowa back in the 1990's (he's now at Yale). Despite his being a generally all-around good guy, I often referred to him as "my arch-nemesis" since his approach to film was nearly the polar opposite of mine. Whereas my interests lay in the heady realm of theory and I approached film as a discursive medium, Dudley employed a more aesthetic manner that focused on the "poetics" of film.

I remember one conversation I had with him that I didn't appreciate at the time concerning "non-narrative moments" in film. He had a term for it that I've forgotten, but the gist of it is that movies sometimes contain shots, scenes, or elements that lie outside the narrative structure (story or plot) and contribute solely to the film's emotional impact. A fellow-graduate school (the one who coined the phrase "Lucidity is Fascist") referred to them as "transcendental moments." They can range from a brief glimpse of something to a full-fledged battle-scene-type spectacle.

In watching my all-time favorite movie, Blade Runner, the other day, I was reminded of this as Blade Runner contains one of the single most "affecting" transcendental moments on celluloid...

The Seattle Mariners may not be very a good baseball team of late, but they have the best commercials.

Having recently gone through an obscenely expensive and ultimately empty "branding" exercise, I thought I had experienced the absolute bottom circle of marketing hell. And then the Washington State Tourism Office comes up with this as our new state slogan:

SayWA

One mock advertisement shows tourists taking pictures of the Columbia Gorge. "SayWA: This is the sound of jaws dropping." More than one observer noted that dropping jaws are generally silent.

Others said "WA" reminds them most of a baby crying, or a toddler asking for water. Even the slang basis for it — "Say what?" — is a response to something nonsensical or stupid.

"Thirty-five years ago I smoked dope and probably could have come up with something like that," said Darrell Bryan, general manager of Victoria Clipper, the largest tour operator in the Northwest. "To me, it's better to have no slogan than to come up with something like that. There's too much scratching the head about 'What does that mean?"'

En route to looking up something else, I happened upon the Moscow News web site. Check out these headlines/stories. What the hell is going on over there?

Estonian Driver Accidentally Runs Over 10 Wild Boars in One Day

Pack of Cigarettes Explode Tearing Man's Hand Apart

Mechanics Remove Grenade From Gas Tank After Russian Driver Complains of Car Malfunctions

2 Cannibals Convicted of Murder After Cooking Russian Man for Dinner

Russian Customer Finds Corpse in Secondhand Car From Japan

Doctors Say Moscow Frost Saved Taxi Robber With Knife in Head

Ukrainian Woman Faces Trial for Sucking Teenage Boys' Blood

Thieves Posing as Policemen Steal Truck Full of Butter

I wonder if syndicated columist Eugene Robinson reads my blog?

Or maybe, for once, I'm plugged into the Zeitgeist...

Please forgive the oh-so-clever academic paper title of this post. At least I didn't use a colon.

Amy recently read all 47 Harry Potter books in, like, a weekend. She now belongs to the group of avid Potterers who will stand for hours in frigid weather to purchase J. K. Rowling's next tome while the ink on the pages is still damp. The Out-laws--who are responsible for indoctrinating her into this cult--sent her the DVD boxed-set the other day, and over the course of the last two nights we watched the first film in the cycle: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (which should be "Philosopher's Stone," if I'm not mistaken....)

We had seen the movie when it first came out, but neither of us remembered too much about it as we didn't yet care about the books. I remembered that it was an enjoyable piece of fluff, and it wasn't too bad a second time around four years later.

But, just as Harry's forehead scar starts to burn in the presence of danger, the scars I suffered as a film studies graduate student pulsed and throbbed as I watched. Avid readers of "Out of the Mist" may recall a previous post entitled "Plot Problems and Technology" in which I discuss the challenge to modern narrative to come up with problems and obstacles for the hero in light of technological achievements that exist to solve those problems. Well, just as Arthur C. Clarke once equated technology and magic ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic") so too does the Harry Potter film reveal that magic presents the same narratological problems as technology.

On this lovely spring-like day, we took the bus to the Ravenna neighborhood and strolled around a bit taking in the sunshine and the scent of cherry blossoms.

Today's Seattle Times reported that local business leaders are lashing out at the political criticism that led to a state-owned Dubai company's backing out of a deal to manage cargo ports on the east coast. Bill Center, president of the Washington Council on International Trade, says "It is a victory for the bad guys. I can't imagine anything Osama (bin Laden) would be happier about." Center has a right to be concerned as the UAE's main trading relationship with the United States is the purchase of Seattle-based Boeing's airplanes.

In this context, it's clear that "bad guys" are members of Congress who expressed concern over the Bush administration's quasi-legal and certainly-shady plan to transfer partial control of U.S. trading ports to a business based in a country with links to terrorism. Even though the administration tried to made it clear the port security would not be transferred, valid doubts remained and, finally, the company withdrew its bid.

Regardless of the deal's viability and actual benefit to the U.S. economy, all I can say is: what did the Bush administration expect? After its "If you're not with us, you're against us" rhetoric after 9/11 managed to demonize the entire Muslim world, it suddenly expects U.S. citizens and Congress to view the Middle East as more variegated and complex for the purposes of a huge commercial transaction and for the sake of continued free trade. "No, no, no," they're saying, "the UAE aren't part of the Axis of Evil; they are our friends." They ignore mounting evidence that the UAE served as a veritable financial center for al-Qaeda, and manufacture evidence that Iraq had something to do with the terrorist organization. When it suits their political needs, they remind us of the Arab-ness of the 9/11 hijackers (none of whom was Iraqi), but seem unconcerned that at least two of them were from the UAE.

They should have thought of all this before embarking on the campaign to convince the American people that anyone who worshiped Allah was a potential terrorist.

I just learned that I've been nominated for a "Community of Innovators" award where I work. How 'bout them apples!?

Each year, the College of Engineering honors its outstanding staff, teaching assistants, and faculty who make innovative and meaningful contributions to our community.

I'm all a-twitter. Seriously.

boing boing is linking to a fascinating debate on the existence of God carried out by two scientists &mdash Daniel Dennett, author of Darwin's Dangerous Idea, and Richard Swinburne, author of Is There a God?. It's good to see this kind of debate; one that doesn't devolve to a screaming match with the theist ultimately invoking faith, engaging in character assassination, or tripping up over circular logic (even though there is some of that in Swinburne's responses.) It's pretty long, but highlights follow under "Continue Reading."

The 2006 Formula 1 race season starts this weekend in Bahrain. Whereas F1 is the auto racing gold standard in most of the known world, the U.S. market is dominated by NASCAR, for which I hold tremendous disdain. Formula 1 cars are like rocket ships compared to NASCAR's tractors. I would make more use of the snarky expansion of the NASCAR acronym — Non-Athletic Sport Centered Around Rednecks — if "centered around" wasn't such poor grammar.

F1 isn't just about driving around in circles as fast as you can go. There are no oval circuits in F1, and, in fact, F1's governing body is constantly trying to regulate the cars to keep speeds down to increase competitiveness. There is probably more drama and intrigue off the track than on as teams constantly work around these regulations to redesign their cars to eke out precious RPM. Refueling and tyre-change strategies often vie for attention with speed. The whole sport pits engineers and strategists (and drivers) against policymakers, which makes it more a chess game played at 150 km/h.

Eons ago, when I was smart-ass graduate student attempting to prove that one could write academic papers about anything, I wrote a paper about Forumla 1 auto racing. Not only did I get an 'A', but the paper was selected by a conference on popular culture and I got to travel to exotic Bowling Green, OH, to present it.

The gist of the paper is that the sport helps create a cultural expression of "techo-fear" — it is the embodiment of both technological excess and the efforts to contain it. In reviewing it, I have to admit that it's probably the least bullshit-laden of my academic papers. I wish it wasn't so jargon-filled, but I stand behind my analysis of Formula 1 from a decade ago, and present to you "How Can One be a Formula 1 Race Fan? Fear, Technology and the Politics of Excess"

I work with this extremely funny guy whom I'll call "John." The other day, the facilities manager sent an email to everyone in John's building to notify them about some upcoming construction work related to the deployment of wireless networking. The facilities manager asked people to contact him if they had any concerns about how the work might disrupt them, and to send any questions related to wireless networking to me.

John took him up on the latter. Here are his questions, and my response.

So, I was wrong about the first to go from ANTM, but I don't feel too bad as I was just going by photos. After seeing them in action ... man, there are some supremely unattractive women in this lot.

First, an apology for the prolonged silence (two days!). The Oscars took the wind out of my sails, and I've been extremely busy at work. If I get assigned to one more "task force," I might just have to ... uh, take someone to task for it. Or force the issue. See, I'm so brain-dead I can't even be funny anymore (Audience: "What does he mean, 'anymore'?"). But, I'm pretty well caught up now, so here am I with some nonsense again.

Excitement is coursing like electricity through Chez Steel today, not because former President Carter is speaking less than 200 yards from my office but because a new "cycle" of America's Next Top Model starts tonight.

Amy and I watch two shows: Gilmore Girls and ANTM. What began as an ironically-detached activity sometime during ANTM Cycle 3 has become something we plan our week around. When Tyra and the girls aren't on, we feel strangely empty, lonesome, and a little on edge. But starting tonight, that magic spark of excitement enters our lives again and we will begin to feel a renewed sense of purpose as we spend the next 13 weeks learning who will follow in the famous footsteps of Eva, Naima, and Nicole.

OK, so the ironic detachment is still there. But we like the show, and we're not just a little ashamed to admit it.

I have to say, though, the current crop of gazelles doesn't look all that inspired. Here's my overview of the competitors and my pick for who's packing her bads and going home tonight.

Tonight, I hang my head in shame. Like Penelope's suitors, I am punished for my hubris. The humble pie I eat tonight is both bitter and cold.

Fifteen and nine. Sixty-two-and-a-half per cent. Pathetic.

Since records have been kept, I have never missed more than 3 Academy Awards in a given year. I have never gotten Best Picture wrong.

Ladies and gentlemen, gentle readers, friends and family ... a defeated man blogs before you tonight.

But enough about me; let's talk about the show itself.

Counterfeiters Rush to Ensure Red Ink Cartridges Are Full

Forgers Set Aside a Couple Hours Next Weekend to Figure Out Ways Around New Security

The U. S. Treasury released new, colorful $10 bills into the wild on Thursday, according to an article in the Seattle Times. The Treasury Secretary said "the government plans to redesign the currency every seven to 10 years because 'staying ahead of would-be counterfeiters is a top priority.'"

Don't get me wrong; I'm all for strong security measures. As an IT professional, a large chunk of my time is spent trying to prevent the theft and ensure the integrity of my users' data. But security must be implemented as part of an overall system, and not via a couple new whiz-bang do-dads here and there. When a vendor pitches me a product he says will "ensure" the security of my data, I politely end the conversation. When the U.S. Treasury says that red ink will "thwart counterfeiters," I have to laugh.

This latest gimmicky attempt to stymie counterfeiting is a textbook case is what not to do to ensure the integrity of the currency system, and is a cautionary tale for the implementation of any security system. Here's a list of reasons why the current efforts of the Treasury Department will do very little to reduce the problem of counterfeiting U. S. money.

As I discussed in a couple previous posts, I have a pretty good track record for predicting Oscar winners. Plus, I have a Master's degree in film studies! I need to do something to justify my student loan payments.

There are no big races to speak of in the major categories, or even most of the minor ones. The only thing that's at all suspenseful about this year's Oscars is whether John Stewart is going to crash-and-burn like David Letterman. And Whoopi Goldberg. And Chris Rock.

Without further ado, here are my predictions for the 2006 awards, coming up on Sunday, March 5 at 5:00 PST/8:00 EST.

Two quick updates:

1. Thanks to Pat for his comment on "New Tunes" with a link to the video of Public Image Limited's "Seattle" — my New Favorite Song. Check it out for yourself. That Johnny Lydon; he's so crazy!

2. My earlier post about the Midwest reminded me of something. When I lived in Iowa, another non-native friend of mine, Mel, was telling me about her weekend in which she drove for 45 minutes to a Go-Kart track, drove a Go-Kart in circle for 45 minutes, then drove 45 minutes home. She initially categorized the experience as indicative of "postmodernism" (the simulacra, and all that) but then thought: "Maybe it's just Midwesternism." Thereafter, trying to define the distinction between "postmodern" and "Midwestern" was an ongoing effort in our circle.

Maybe you had to be there.....

At a task force meeting yesterday, the chairperson was doling out assignments for contacting the CIO's of various state universities to speak with them about our group's project and get some information. I volunteered to take Wisconsin, since I knew people there. The leader then assigned me Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio since they were all, as he said, "in the Midwest." To me, them's fightin' words!

It was exactly two years ago (then, a leapy February 29th) that I set off on the cross-country trek that ended at my current home of Seattle.

The original plan was to make the journey in three days. My first night would be spent in Rapid City, South Dakota — a phrase I cannot utter without hearing James Mason/Mr. Van Damme in North by Northwest smugly reviewing all the places he thinks Cary Grant/Roger O. Thornhill is scheduled to visit ("In two days, you are due at the Ambassador East in Chicago. And then at the Sheraton-Johnson Hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota."). My itinerary allowed myself enough time to visit the site of Van Damme's demise, Mount Rushmore, the next morning before heading off to Butte, Montana. Then, on the third day, I'd arrive in Seattle with plenty of time to meet with our leasing agent and get keys to our apartment.

But things didn't work out that way.