Month: June 2002 (Page 1 of 3)

Guard cat

Took this picture of Raymond, the cat next door, last night. I really like the lines in this photo.

The fascinatingly-named Robert X. Cringely has written a sobering account of Microsoft’s newest stab at world domination: Palladium. As Cringely describes it, it’s Microsoft’s attempt to replace TCP/IP, the public domain protocol that runs the internet, with a proprietary protocol owned by Microsoft. They sell it as a way of making the internet more secure by exchanging every component down to your desktop computer’s processor with an MS one that will contain special encryption software. If that’s the case, it makes last year’s Smart Tags look like a spit in the ocean.

Is the whole world becoming an Onion story? I hope not.

Today marks the two-year anniversary of this weblog. It’s been at times frustrating, exhilarating, illuminating, intense, funny, sad, fascinating, and a host of other adjectives. I had no idea when I started this that it would literally change my life. But it has, in some ways I understand and some ways I probably won’t ever fully comprehend.

Mostly, when I think back on it, I think of the people I’ve met. People you meet through weblogs are unlike any other – you know things about them that maybe even their families don’t know, but you also often don’t know things that they willingly tell to the clerk at the post office. So it’s a strange combination. What I do know for sure is that my life is richer for having known them. I won’t name names, as you know who you are. And I don’t want to leave anyone out.

The writing is fun, but it’s also a continual struggle – am I writing for myself, or for my “audience”? What about things I really feel like writing about, but I don’t think are “appropriate”? I haven’t got a handle on that yet. This site is certainly much less personal than many weblogs, but I think if you hang around here for a while, you get a sense of who I am. I think I like it that way. My life is not an Oprah episode, and neither is words mean things.

I still think about why I do this, even after two years. Like most people, it’s a whole host of reasons: I want to be popular. I want to have a voice. I want to entertain. I want to promote myself on the web. I want to write every day to keep my brain working. It’s all a big jumble, but it’s kept me going for two years. And unlike many people (including some of my favorite webloggers), I don’t see myself “taking a break” or shutting down altogether. At times it’s frustrating, and at times I feel like I don’t have much to say. Who knows what the future will bring, but for now, I’m enjoying myself too much to stop.

You have been warned.

Thank you all for stopping by over the years to read these insane ramblings. It means a lot to me.

Normally, I would be all over this Pledge of Allegiance thing. I agree with Miguel that it’s basically a totalitarian tactic wrapped in warm fuzzy Americana. I think church and state separation doesn’t marginalize religion, but in fact benefits it.

But come on, people, don’t we have more important things to worry about in this country? How about that our president is a marginally literate, xenophobic frat boy? How about that we are searching around for the next culture which deserves to have “a boot in their ass”? How about that these debates are just the bread and circuses to distract us from the real issues?

Stuff like that.

It’s amazing what a check from a client, even a modest one, can do for your mood.

“God Bless America Day” would be pathetically funny if I wasn’t convinced that a possible majority of Americans might agree with this idea. Rather than making me laugh, that scares me.

But rather than write a rant, I have to admit that Michele said it much better than I could. (And special kudos to Miguel for his alternate “HFS Day” suggestion.)

Movie quote of the week

Thomas More: Be a teacher. You would be a good teacher – maybe even a great one.
Rich: And if I were, who would know it?
More: You! Your pupils. Your friends. God. Not a bad public, that.

“A Man for All Seasons” is one of the most quotable movies ever, with one of the most literate scripts imaginable. If you’ve never seen it, you’re missing something great.

Lots of talk on MetaFilter (now that it seems to be reachable again) about this incredibly ugly proposed design for a replacement for the World Trade Center towers. In the months since they were destroyed, I’ve gone back and forth about what I personally feel should go in the space. I guess I have problems with both extremes – a flat park seems too much like giving in, and renouncing the basic American idea of getting on with our lives. But building something even more grand and tall, as some have suggested, doesn’t seem right either. To me, that would be sort of the architectural equivalent of a Toby Keith song, if you get my drift.

Whatever goes there, I hope it’s beautiful. That four-sticks-of-dynamite-with-a-pyramid-on-top monstrosity linked above would not serve anyone’s purpose – I know that much.

This is one of the many times that I wish my father was around, since he was an architect with a keen sense of society and culture. I know he would have some interesting thoughts on the subject.

What do you think should be done with the WTC site?

Went to see two hyped-up summer movies over the weekend: “The Bourne Identity” and “Minority Report.” Both were well-made, with decent acting and direction, and both were exciting and involving at times. But they both took their interesting premises and did almost nothing with them. They are unfortunately typical of big Hollywood studio movies these days – mix a couple of big stars with a high concept premise, add some action, and bam, big box office.

Of the two, “Minority Report” is the more interesting and the bigger failure. It has consistently some of the most beautiful cinematography I’ve seen in years. It deals with the fascinating idea that crime is forseen by psychics, and then prevented before it happens – while still punishing the “guilty” (paging John Ashcroft!). It stars Tom Cruise and was directed by Steven Spielberg. But with all this going for it (OK the Cruise part is a stretch as a positive, but still), it totally drops the ball on capitalizing on the mind-bending premise. Despite all the near-future trappings, what we end up with is a pretty pat and predictable whodunit. For all its faults, Cruise’s “Vanilla Sky” from last year did a better job in immersing you in the high concept.

Is there such a thing as a good summer movie? I mean a really good one? I hope so. But these two aren’t it.

Words fail me. For once.