Chris Braak's Blog, page 41
February 21, 2011
While I'm on the Subject of Electric Cars
Why do they make electric cars that you have to plug in, instead of cars with removable, briefcase-sized batteries that you could switch out at the gas station for charged ones? The station charges the old batteries, you drive right away. It would work basically exactly the same as propane tanks. Filed under: Braak
The Braakmobile
Some people, if they had $300 million dollars, would try to put Firefly back on the air. I would probably do something stupid with it, though, like build exactly the kind of car I would want to have if I became a crimefighter. Obviously, the best car for crimefighting (and in general) is the Batmobile. [...]
February 19, 2011
Borders and Its Last Dying Days
I went to the Borders at the mall, today. It is closing, so they are having a huge sale. Well, a store-wide sale. Most of the books are only 20% off; even the ones that used to be on the 3 for 2 table, but I guess it's not like Borders gives a shit what [...]
February 17, 2011
I Speak TV: 'The Chicago Code'
When it comes to police dramas for me, the list pretty much begins and ends with "Homicide: Life on the Street." It wasn't the first to inject the notion of realism to cop shows ("Hill Street Blues" gets that honor, though that show was before my time), but it was the first that made me [...]
February 15, 2011
Some Thoughts on Borders
Borders, you may have heard, is going to be filing for bankruptcy. They will divest themselves of 200 stores at first (at first), out of their 640-some. I have said that I think this is a strategy meant to allow them to easily shed the worst of their liabilities, and to make the remaining infrastructure [...]
La-z-links
Still shaking off the mental cobwebs of winter. I've decided that our groundhog-based tradition of sorting through the season should instead be replaced by a personal barometer: whenever it is that you first say, "Christ I'm Sick of This Season!" simply add two more months. That is how long your personal winter will be. Come [...]
February 10, 2011
Historical Theater Can Suck It
Moff (sometimes called "Josh Wimmer", as is the custom of his people) a little while ago wrote a post questioning the value of criticism. I have been meaning to write something lengthy in response to it, as I think he makes some interesting points, and that it's an interesting topic of conversation. This isn't going [...]
February 9, 2011
Alien Geometries
My name is Ryan Crutchfield and I am a system architect and application programmer with a master's degree in archaeology that I never get to use. I am a regular contributor at weirdthings.com and my twitter stream (@rc6750) will more than likely bore you to tears. I have a predilection for stories, usually of the [...]
8 (or so) Thoughts on 'The Social Network'
So I finally got around to seeing The Social Network and…hm. Well, Spoilers, except you already know everything that will happen in this movie (for reasons I'll get into below). As a film, it's pretty solid, though its analysis of Mark Zuckerberg is about as subtle as Orson Welles' Charles Foster Kane (in fact, I'm [...]
February 7, 2011
On the Gawker Redesign
That Gawker was redesigning has been known for a while, as has the new format. Denton made it public some number of months back, and people were complaining even then. But, to be honest with you, I've been expecting something like this for a lot longer. Undoubtedly, this is due in large part to pessimism [...]
