Today's movie: War of the Worlds
The short version: It sucked.
The slightly longer version:
* There's something about Dakota Fanning that just makes me want to punch her face in.
* Sure, Independence Day stole all of its material from War of the Worlds, but at least that movie was kind of entertaining.
* Steven Spielberg just needs to stop making movies. Every movie he directs (e.g. Minority Report) or touches (e.g. AI) turns out terrible. Things drag, the ending is gimpy, and he makes Lucas look pretty good. Now that's sad.
* It wouldn't have taken much to make this movie entertaining: Just kill everybody. Especially the little girl and the little boy.
* The ending was lackluster; maybe it's 1950's thing when the book was written (I haven't read it yet, I hope it's better than the movie)
* On the upside of things, Tim Robbins pops out of nowhere for a scene, and Tim Robbins is good stuff.
* But then Tom Cruise, mr. scientology-weirdo, mucks everything up. Again.
To sum, the movie was bleh at best. Even Bewitched was better (but only because Nicole Kidman is in it, and she's crazy hot even though she's already 38). On that note, Cold Mountain was worth watching simply for the quasi-nude scene of Nicole Kidman at the end.
To make matters worse, the rest of the summer movies don't look very promising either (except for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).
After spending some more time here, I've concluded the following:
* New Jersey people move really, really slowly.
* The random sampling of East coast people I've seen so far have been conceited.
* Rich kids who grew up with other rich kids suck.
* Rich kids who grew up with poor kids don't always suck, but have a high risk of sucking.
* People I run into seem like the type who'd run away crying to the cops rather than standing tall and facing you like a man.
And finally:
* I don't think I belong on this side of the country.
In other news, my shipment of Boondocks comics came in the mail today. Considering Amazon's estimated date of arrival was somewhere between 7/2 and 7/6, I'm more than a little pleased with the prompt delivery. It feels good to know I'll be working there, even though I don't particularly like the concept of a steady job.
As I've gotten older, I've gotten progressively more anti-establishment. It's hard to read something these days and not have it point out some egregious flaw of our society. Damn the man! Power to the people! I should've been a black (yellow?) panther.
If you or someone you know is graduating between now and August 2006 and has a background in coding:
I'm looking to refer a couple of people to amazon.com's software development recruitment team. People who are in the Seattle area are preferred, but if you've got talent then that's good enough.
So drop me a line if you know somebody who wants a shot at getting a (pretty good) job.
There's nothing interesting about a man who never cheats on his woman because he never wants to. It is only when we look in the face of desire and force ourselves to walk away that our decision has meaning, has weight.
Got too much relationship drama? Here's a hint: put your winky back in your pants and keep it there. On the one hand, "just because you're married/in a relationship doesn't mean you go blind," but "just because it's there doesn't mean you have to put it in every hole you see."
Stop cheating, stop lying, and then either work things out or break up. Stop telling yourself you've already invested too much time in it and you don't want to let it go to waste because you're just wasting more time.
On a completely unrelated note, I recently watched Moonlight Whispers (a.k.a. Gekko no Sasayaki), which is rated R for "aberrant sexual behavior." After two years of searching, it was very entertaining. While I'm sure a lot of people who watch that movie will say the relationship is twisted, chances are it's better than a good portion of relationships you see people getting themselves into today.
I stopped by a record store (Virgin? Tower? I forget) in New York the other day. Big name music stores have never carried the kind of music I listen to, so I didn't expect them to have anything I listened to.
I guess what makes New York so nifty is that they actually have nifty stuff, including:
Amorphis
Pantera
Archenemy
VNV Nation
Given that selection, I wouldn't be surprised if they had Theriod, My Dying Bride, and maybe some other metal bands in there as well. Incidentally, they also carry Kraftwerk, which is like...massively old school.
On a completely different note, Eminem is the best rapper out there because he's the only one I actually enjoy listening to (as opposed to wanting to tear my ears out). Getting words to rhyme is not the hard part; getting the words to fit he rhythm and meter is where the challenge is. For reference, listen to his track about cleaning out his closet (I can't remember the track title), and listen to the "s" sounds in the lyrics. You'll see what I mean.
All the other rappers I've heard before (Jay-Z, Kanye West, 50 Cent, The Fugees, etc.) just seem like hacks after listening to him. A travesty of the English language, a butchering of the fine twists the words afford! Bleh.
Some things change, and some things don't.
When I was a kid in elementary school, I wore silly things like short short jean shorts and bright yellow t-shirts. When I was a little further on in elementary school, they decided to pseudo-implement a uniform policy and I would wear a dress shirt with dark blue slacks, and a sweater of some solid color over that. Ten years later, and my sense of fashion has taken a step backward, if anything.
When I was a kid in elementary school, I was really good at math. My teachers always gave me A's or better on all the assignments and quizzes, and they couldn't be happier with the progress I was making. On the other hand, they all said my writing was terrible. It was poorly developed, lacked focus, had no direction, and was barely on par for my age level. In that weird 1 to 6 point grading system they used, they put me at a 3 ("developing", i.e. almost retarded). Ten years later, things haven't really changed.
Though to be mildly fair, my standardized testing scores have consistently been higher in the verbal sections than the math sections. Why? Because the math sections are bullshit memorization nonsense that I just don't care enough t deal wih. Standardized testing: just one more way for the man (and when we say "the man," for the vast majority of people it's "the white man") to keep you down.
This past weekend, my coworkers/friends and I decided to take a trip out to Manhattan and wander aroundabout. Since the devil is in the details and less is more, I'll spare you the not-so-interesting fine print and reduce our sightseeing to easily-digested one-sentence blurbs.
Central Park: It's really, really, really, really, really big (and, disappointingly, apparently mobster free)
Guggenheim Museum: The only thing that sucks harder than retail pharmacy is modern art.
Times Square: It looks just like it does on TV, only bigger (unless you have a really big TV).
The Rockefeller Center: It's so big and sprawled out it ended up being kind of anti-climactic (but oh man did they have a lot of stores)
Radio City: We didn't have time to go in. Damn.
Riding the subway: It's like a weird cross between the BART and a really ghetto, crappy version of Japan's subway system.
St. Patrick's Cathedral: It's really big, really intimidating, and if I were an omnipotent being looking to strike fear into the hearts of the wicked, the potentially wicked, and devout believers, I would build a house like that. But bigger.
MTV: Much like the station itself, it sucked.
There's still a lot of other stuff I want to see:
Grand Central
Long Island (with the requisite Long Island Iced Tea)
The Statue of Liberty
The UN
The Empire State Building
The Chrysler Building
A Broadway show of some sort (Wicked looks tempting)
The Daily Show
A Chris Rock/George Carlin/whoever's still performing these days show
The Metropolitan Museum
A really shady area (the Bronx?)
A goth club/SM show/etc.
Then of course there's the list of things I'd like to see which I probably shouldn't put up for fear of legal backlash. I'm going to miss the decadent city life once I move to Seattle.
I saw Batman Begins at the midnight showing at one of the Imax theatres they have on Long Island. It was lots of fun.
I finally got my new LCD after a nightmare of a time getting it. An incorrect address, a mis-delivery, UPS ignoring my numerous calls to leave it at the local office, a wasted will-call trip, another mis-delivery, and yet another will-call trip in the dead of the night later, I finally have my LCD. It's very nice.
I've been coding almost all day for the past few days and so I have nothing to say right now. Come back tomorrow for more cynicism-infused diatribes!
6 nights, 7 days, 3500 miles, and a pocketful of memories later, we've reached our destination.
If you're interested in reaching me, I'm now in New Jersey, 5 miles out of Manhattan, living in a monster of a house.
How monster? It includes a ping pong room, a billiards room, a built-in gym, 6 bedrooms, a couple(!) refridgerators, and oodles of other stuff. Incidentally, this is the spare guest house, which is next to the main house (which is even larger). There are also several acres of backyard, including a gate to a 500 acre national forest with lots of hiking grounds and other outdoors fun.
This is so excessive it's great. If only I wasn't sharing rooms.
Quick intermission in road trip entries:
After some thorough thinking, I've concluded that at least one of the following facts must be true:
1) I'm incredibly smooth
2) Women pity me
We can verify the veracity of the above by taking into consideration the following facts, which have been proven true previously:
1) I'm not rich
2) I'm not good looking
3) I'm not hung like a moose
Given this information, the only possible way any woman would ever spend a night with me is if I was incredibly charming, or she pitied me. I would like to believe that I'm incredibly charming, but I think I'm going to have to go with the pity option.
Today: San Antonio, Texas to Houston, Texas
Distance: ~250 miles
Today's going to be fun in the sun, mingling with Texans and exploring the state I was born in.
Thus far, Jimmy and I have concluded that after you get out of California, there's a whole bunch of flat nothing. The midwest sucks!
Today: Tucson, Arizona to Fort Stockton, Texas
Distance: ~550 miles
Correction: We got adventurous, and went to San Antonio, Texas instead (+250 miles)
I've run into two kinds of feminists in my time: crazy feminists, and not-so-crazy feminists.
Since the word "feminist" is ambiguously defined, I'll treat it as "a person who feels women should be treated as equals as men" from here on out.
Let's consider the implications of this for a minute. In the state of True Equality, when women are as equal with men as they can possibly be (socially, legally, etc.) while still respecting the differences imposed by nature, women gain quite a number of advantages. The glass ceiling (in the context of promotions at work) disappears; women aren't denied jobs simply because they might get pregnant; the chance of a woman becoming president is just as good as that of a man becoming president.
Sounds like a pretty good deal until you consider the flipside. Equality can come from two angles: women assuming the current role of men, and men assuming the current role of women. I like lists, so let's make a list of some fairly simple things that will change:
If men assume the role of women:
* House husband'ing will be a valid way for a man to spend his time.
* It will be acceptable for a man to let his woman pay for all his meals, movies, etc.
* Men will be allowed to take time off from work to take care of the kids (moreso than now, that is)
* Men will be able to charm all sorts of women to do things for him (drive him around, work for free for him, etc.) simply because he looks good and has a talent for whoring himself out.
If women assume the role of men:
* Women will be expected to pay for dinners, movies, dates, vacations, etc., and if they're slow on the draw of their purse their guys will look at them expectantly, waiting for them to make their move.
* Women will be expected to drive their men around, and will be expected to wait outside or in the living room while the guy is 20 minutes late "prettying himself up"
* Women will be expected to provide the primary household income, with the only reward being the big piece of chicken (credit to Chris Rock)
* Women will be expected to fix the plumbing, lights, and other house-maintenance tasks around the house, with the only thanks being an occasional glass of lemonade.
Crazy feminists are the ones who expect to reap all the benefits of equal standing with men without any of the unpleasantry mentioned above (and more). They still want the guy to pay for their dinners, fix their houses/computers/cars/whatever, do favors for them, etc. What they're asking for isn't equality; it's to have men be their bitches. You could argue that it's only fair for women to have their time in the spotlight and be the dominant sex (you can try to deny that men are favored by society now, but people will laugh at you). This is going to be a hard sell, since ~50+% of the population thinks you're full of yourself and need to die.
The not-so-crazy feminists tend towards the middle ground, where the man and woman pay equally for all trips/meals/whatever, contribute equally to household income, child rearing, household maintenance, etc. This is a much more sustainable stance, since I'm sure there are a fair number of men who wouldn't mind saving a fistful of money, and maybe even getting treated to dinner by their women when they have a good day. There might be some men who feel threatened by the notion of women having an equal chance of landing the jobs they get; to these I say, "grow a pair and stop whining, bitches." A real baller doesn't need to worry about extra competition because s/he's still king/queen of the hill.
And just for fun, a couple of other interesting scenarios that would occur in a society where men and women were truly equal:
* Male bartenders/waitresses/etc. would make just as much in tips as female ones (ask you local bartender about the huge schism in the amount of money they make).
* Men would perform sexual acts with one another to get their fix of crack (see Requiem for a Dream for an idea of what I'm talking about).
* It would be up to the woman to apologize every time an argument happens (if you're a guy and your girl apologizes to you sometimes, count yourself lucky).
* A guy could call up his girlfriend and have her fix his computer/car/etc. That would be so awesome.
I received a random email today, saying that my contact information was found on "the main web page" and there's a 3 month Python consulting position in NY they'd like to talk to me about. So I ask a couple questions, and it turns out it's for a Senior Python Engineer position for a telecom company (a big one! They provide my cell phone service).
While really flattering, this is also really kind of creepy (in a strictly humorous way).
A few months ago Google contacted me too, saying they had found my resume on the web and wanted to talk to me about a product management position. As far as I know, the only place my resume is posted is off my webpage. So unless someone at Google is searching for 'i eat children' I'm not sure how they could find my resume.
Again, flattering...but kinda creepy (in a way that tickles me funny).
In any case, since I'm going to be busy this summer, if anybody has confidence in their Python skills and would like a shot at a 3-month consulting position doing web services, drop me a line (but nobody will).
After my recent foray into the worlds of Perl and PHP (two programming languages that are in really widespread use), I have learned this: I have been spoiled by Python.
The biggest problem I have with Perl and PHP is information which can be inferred automatically by the machine isn't, whereas with Python it often is. This then relates to one of the overarching themes of my life: automation. To put it simply: if something can be automated, it should be.
This, in turn, relates to my beef with retail pharmacists (and other monotonous professions). Work which can be done more efficiently by a machine should not warrant a 70-100k+ job. If people are smart enough to be pharmacists (under the assumption that it takes a certain amount of intelligence) then they would be put to much better use in other fields (e.g. become a research pharmacist, since we can't automate that now).
Some people say that taking away jobs like that is irresponsible, and we shouldn't do that. Using that logic, the industrial revolution should have been prevented, and we should be paying people to hand pick all our food and pay through the nose for it. Automation's where the future is: learn a trade that isn't easily automated, and make something of yourself.
Hello everyone. It's been a while, and I've been making a few adjustments to my blog (moderating sketchy comments, closing comments to old entries, etc.)
I'll be leaving soon. Here are my plans:
6/5 Sunday (that's this weekend): Leave for NY
6/11 - late August/early September: Start up work in NY
early September - ???: Move to Washington and work for Amazon.com
This means I will no longer have winter/spring/summer breaks, and I don't know when I'll be coming back to LA. It could be in a few months; it could be in a few years; it could be never again. I would like to keep in contact with as many people as possible, and so I'm going to post some contact information in a link (look at the menu to the left) when I get back tonight.
Time permitting, I'll continue putting down questionable and often tasteless thoughts here. Thank you all for continuing to read along over the years.