Mark L. Van Name's Blog, page 137

Transcendence

I left this movie with very mixed feelings.  On the one hand, as I usually do, I had a good enough time watching it.  It kept me reasonably engaged, even though the plot arc was clear from the start.  Johnny Depp turned in his usual odd performance, but for the most part I bought him as human; he was much better suited to the slightly inhuman, awkward AI that he played for most of the film.  The supporting cast turned in appropriate performances, with Paul Bettany delivering possibly the best character portrayal I've seen from him.  The subject matter is of great interest to me, so I enjoyed seeing other people explore the ethical questions involved. 

Despite all those positives, I can't come right out and say I liked it.  The best I can do is to say I sorta liked it, but I need that qualifier. 

Its biggest weakness may be that it added nothing new to this ongoing public and entertainment-media discussion.  Nothing felt at all new or original to me.  It also seemed to be unable to decide how it felt about the various people and organizations in its story.  Depp turned crazy--maybe--but he was also doing good work.  His wife, Rebecca Hall delivering a solid acting job, was the innocent victim--and also possibly the source of all the trouble.  The terrorists were short-sighted AI-age Luddites who murdered a ton of researchers--and who turned into kinda-sorta good guys working with the government at the end.  The power went out and stayed out all over the world--but everything seemed to be peachy-keen. 

Obviously, Transcendence was yet another of the many movies that you can't think at all hard about, because it cannot bear the scrutiny, but that's most films these days (maybe, probably, most films and works of fiction always).  Yet I did think about it afterward, and I'm thinking about it today, and so perhaps that's enough to make me give it a very qualified recommendation. 

Check it out if you are interested in this area and have the time, but don't go out of your way for it.

What I've learned recently from my Web site spam

I'm easy to find online.  If you want to reach me, all you have to do is
Until recently.  For a while--my hosting service now seems to have fixed the problem--spambots were using this form to contact me with a great many warnings and offers.  From these many, many messages, I learned the following:
I am on the edge of having a heart attack.I am going bald.I am in desperate need of a wide range of drugs to increase my sexual prowess.My testosterone is low.  My junk is entirely too small.I need instruction in love-making.With almost no work and only a little cash up front, I could make a fortune.I could work from home and make over $85K a year in only a few hours a week.And on an on.  

In short, all the spam that once reached me only through personal email addresses was able to find me via this form.

For now, I'm leaving up the form, because as I noted, my hosting service seems to have stopped the spam flood.  I'll hope it continues to do so.

If you would like to write me an actual message, feel free to use the form.  Please don't open your message, however, by trying to sell me something, because I'm likely to stop reading and delete it as if it were spam.

Meanwhile, I'll keep trying to figure out which drugs I need to buy from Canada and Mexico to fix all these problems I didn't know I had.

On interviewing for a job: Learning about the company and its people

No, I'm not interviewing for a job.  I'm writing this entry, which I expect will be the first of an on-again, off-again series, because over the last several years I've come to believe that despite all the available information, an amazing number of people fail at the basics in a job interview. 

One of those basics is that if you haven't done a lot of easy research before an interview, you've already blown it--or at least hurt your chances.  This preparation is easy, though it does take a bit of time. 

You should begin by going to the Web site of the company and reading a lot of its pages.  Learn about its products, its culture, its marketing, and its team.  Check out all the social-media venues in which it's active.  If it has YouTube channel, spend a little time there, too. 

If you're greatly interested in the company, consider doing basic searches on the names of the people with whom you'll be meeting.  Between Google and LinkedIn, you can often learn a lot about your potential colleagues and employers.  I'm not suggesting stalking or obsessive digging, mind you; just basic preparation.

To my surprise, an amazing number of people either skip this work or go to a company's home page and stop.  You can learn some information that way, but so much more is available that it's foolish not to take advantage of that information.

I'm not suggesting you do this, by the way, so you can suck up to the interviewers.  I think it's important because it helps you have as much context as possible for what you see and hear in the interview, and also so that you can make an informed decision about whether the company interests you. 

This is really just today's version of an old bit of advice that still applies to job-hunting (and to many other areas of life):  Do your homework.

LP

I'm probably the last person to discover this wonderful singer and composer.  I wouldn't even have heard of her were it not for Sarah's Twitter feed.  I now can't wait to hear her upcoming album, Forever For Now.

I'm not sure if it's everyone's cup of tea, but from the first five seconds of this song, "Night Like This," I've been unable to forget it or get it out of my head.

Enjoy it here.  

A question of etiquette

WARNING:  Adult content.  Do not read further if you do not want to encounter adult content.


In conversation yesterday, Kyle raised a question of etiquette that none of the etiquette books I've read (yes, I have read a few) ever addressed:  

"When you're getting a massage, and the masseuse is rubbing the inside of your thighs, what is the right amount of chub to show?"

To clarify, Kyle was referring to a normal massage, not one in a trailer with "Happy endings $100" and "All girl staff" signs on it.

Kyle was leaning toward a middling amount, on the theory that showing none would be insulting to the masseuse but that going full tent-pole would be intimidating.

When I asked a few women, all of whom declined to let me name them here, for their opinions, I found no consistent answer.  Responses included

"None; if you want that kind of massage, go somewhere else."

"None; ask them to turn up the air conditioning."

"Enough to show interest but no more." 

What's your answer to this unexplored matter of etiquette?

A Kickstarter program I recommend

Prodigal Farm, a local farm and artisanal cheese maker that produces some wonderfully tasty goat cheeses, has started a Kickstarter program to fund the building of a facility for aging some cheeses.  I am all for this program, because I'd love to have aged goat bleus, goat-milk combos, and other hard cheeses in addition to their current softer, younger offerings.  I supported the program by pledging a bunch of seats for a dinner that Sean Fowler, the chef of Mandolin, will host at the farm if the campaign succeeds. 

Right now, these good folks are way short of their goal, with pledges totaling just over $10.5K of their $45K target. 

Check out the program.  If it interests you, and if you pledge for the Sean Fowler dinner, and assuming the program succeeds, all you have to do is let me know you want one, and at the dinner I'll give you a personally signed copy of a first edition of one of my novels.

By the way, I don't know these folks and have no financial interest of any form in this farm.  I just want to support what strikes me as a good thing for our local foodies and our community.

What flavors won the ice-cream tasting?

Since I posted a picture of the birthday party ice-cream tasting offerings in
I'm sorry to have to report that the results were entirely inconclusive.  We had so many people at the party with so many different preferences that no unanimous winners emerged.

Having said that, two flavors stood out as winners among almost all of the tasters:

Best salted caramel:  The Parlour's salted butter caramel

Everyone I know who likes this type of flavor loves The Parlour's version of it.  Smooth and creamy and just the right blend of these ingredients, you can never go wrong ordering this one.

Best intense chocolate:  Jeni's dark chocolate

I've raved about this flavor since I first tasted it some years ago, and it is still an amazing treat.  Though a minority preferred Ben & Jerry's chocolate therapy and a couple of other flavors, for my taste and money the Jeni's is the best.

All of the ice creams on hand were delicious, but none garnered as many comments as these two.  I highly recommend both.

The Raid 2

An Indonesian film with subtitles that runs two hours and twenty-eight minutes and features no actors you'll recognize.  A sequel.  A director you've probably never heard of whose main claim to fame is the previous film in this series. 

Despite the impression those facts may leave, The Raid 2 is one of the most fast-paced movies you are likely to see this year, and one of the best action films since The Raid: Redemption, its predecessor.  Writer/director Gareth Evans has created one of the most over-the-top, violence-packed sagas ever.  Astonishing fight sequences alternate with character-building scenes and sharp looks inside Indonesian gang culture in a film that is not for one second dull. 

If you're wondering if this is yet another of those movies that only I like, consider that as I write this entry the film's Rotten Tomatoes critics rating is 80% and its audience satisfaction rating is 94%.

If you like action sequences and can handle violence that goes way over the top, do not miss this movie.

By the way, I have to believe that Hollywood will soon snap up Evans, though he is supposedly signed to The Raid 3--and has Tony Jaa (of Ong Bak fame and next year to appear in The Fast and the Furious 7) on board for that one.  I can't wait to see if he can translate his pacing and penchant for crazy fight scenes to American crews and American big budgets.

Things that piss me off: Not owning the bits I buy

When you buy an ebook from most outlets, including Amazon, the leader, you don't really own that ebook.  That pisses me off.

The thing is, even though you may think you're buying an ebook, you're not.  You're licensing it.  The "seller" has the right to freeze your access to the book by freezing your account, and Amazon has even in the past wiped purchased books from a Kindle account.  I know the license makes clear you are licensing, not purchasing, but that's just bullshit.  When I buy bits, I want to own them.  I want to be able to store them anywhere I want, use them on any device I want, and generally treat them like any other bits I own.

More to the point, I want to treat the bits like any other product I buy.  If I want to loan a CD or a book to a friend, I can.  I can store those items where I want.  Etc.

I must note here that not all outlets behave this way.  If you buy an ebook from Baen, my publisher, you not only own it, you get it in multiple formats and can do whatever you want with it. 

I understand the piracy concerns of the outlets, but I just don't think they're worth worrying about.  If someone wants to steal my ebooks, nothing I can do will stop them. 

I want to own the products I buy, even if those products are digital.  Until I can, this aspect of ebooks will continue to piss me off.

I didn't see this show at TED

because I was at TEDActive in Whistler, and Chris Hadfield played these songs at a show, an impromptu event that Amanda Palmer organized, that took place in Vancouver.  I sure wish I had been there, though.



Then Palmer sang "Astronaut" for Hadfield.



Very cool indeed.