Monthly Archives: August 2016
Last April I finally bought my way into the touchscreen generation when I bought an iPad Air 2. After roughly four months of daily use, I have developed a very definite love-hate relationship with the pad itself as well as with the apps on it.
When I say “love-hate relationship” I don’t mean that in a casual ‘some stuff is good, some stuff not so much’ way. I mean, I really love certain aspects of it and think it’s wonderful, but I’ve come to deeply and very seriously loath a whole lot of others.
And I can’t quite make up my mind which one wins. The final analysis seems to be that I’ll go on using it — for better or worse, it’s a part of my life now. In that sense love won, and I really do love the parts that work for me.
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6 Comments | tags: Apple Corporation, apps, ebooks, fingerprints, gmail, Google Earth, Google+, iPad, keyboards, microfiber cloth, Microsoft Windows, Numbers app, Redshift app, touchscreen, toys, YouTube | posted in Brain Bubble, Computers
In its early days, circa 1990, social media provided a ready platform for fan communities of TV shows and movies. I spent a lot of time in a group devoted to Star Trek. We fans believed the creators were aware of our groups, that they even silently monitored them, but it was very rare that they ever engaged us.
Today the power and allure of social media has broken down the wall. Artists of all stripes use these public platforms to reach, and be reached by, fans. The visible connection between artist and fan has never been stronger.
And as always, there’s a Yang to the Yin…
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Leave a comment | tags: fanatics, fans, Ghostbusters, Harry Potter, infantilization, internet, interweb, Leslie Jones, remakes, sequels, sharing, social media, tyranny of the majority | posted in Brain Bubble, Movies, Society, TV
How is it that I live in a world in which the graph above is real?
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18 Comments | tags: Ani Kokobobo, Anyone But Trump, democracy, Democratic Party, democratic society, Donald Trump, election 2016, GOP, Hillary Clinton, HRC, Jennifer Rubin, Julian Zelizer, Khizr Khan, Michael Grunwald, politicians, Republican Party, Rosalie Chan, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster | posted in Brain Bubble, Politics
It has become self-evident that the interweb is a game-changer in human society. It is generally welcomed — rightfully so — as a big step forward in terms of access to information. More crucially, it’s a giant step forward in sharing information, which is what Tim Berners-Lee originally intended.
But, as with any powerful tool, there’s a Yang to the Yin, and something as extraordinarily powerful as the web is bound to have a strong Yang balancing that Yin.
If we consider the web as we know it as beginning in 2001, we’ve had 15 years to study the effects.
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16 Comments | tags: internet, internet communication, internet of shit, internet of things, internet tubes, interweb, messaging, mobile devices, notifications, sharing, smartphones, social media, Tim Berners-Lee, toast | posted in Brain Bubble, Society, The Interweb
There is no question ‘the urge to write is strong in this one’ but these days I’m weary (on many levels) of writing structured blog posts. At the same time, after so many years of writing for presentation, it’s hard to relax one’s own rules enough for a major style change. But it’s what I keep reaching for.
Seeking that, as well as catharsis from a world that has either gone mad, or — at the very least — is driving me mad, I realized, a-ha: Brain Bubbles! While intended for off-the-cuff passing thought posts, many turned out as collections of related (or unrelated!) thought bubbles.
So pop the cork and let the bubbly flow…
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Leave a comment | tags: Anyone But Trump, comment section, democracy, democratic society, Donald Trump, election 2016, GOP, NPR, politicians, Republican Party, social change, social issues, social media, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster | posted in Brain Bubble, Politics, Society
Yesterday’s post was a rant; this one counters with a rave. The bad news is that it’s my even earlier writing chops from three years prior to the Stargate review, plus — as this was essentially an email — the writing is especially informal and unstructured.
The original plan was to write a new piece on Grand Canyon, because it’s one of my all-time favorite films, and I wanted to do it proper justice. The “review” you’re about to read I wrote shortly after seeing the film for the first time, so it lacks any thoughts I have about it after 25 years and many viewings since then.
But I’m all about clearing my weblog backlog (the blog bog), so here it is in all its informal gushy glory.
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4 Comments | tags: Alfre Woodard, Danny Glover, Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon (movie), Kevin Kline, Lawrence Kasdan, Los Angeles, Mary McDonnell, Mary-Louise Parker, Meg Kasdan, modern life, Steve Martin, violence in movies, violent society | posted in Movies
You read the title correctly, dear Reader, this is, indeed, a review of a movie that came out 22 years ago. (And tomorrow I plan to post a review of a movie from 25 years ago!) This blog of late is operating in a personal archeology vein (or would vain be the better word in this case?) as well as a sociopolitical one. Remembrances and Rants R me!
The two reviews this weekend are very Yang-Yin in nature: I really hated, Stargate and really loved Grand Canyon (in fact, it’s one of my all-time Fave Five movies). Yet the former film spawned a multi-film and TV series franchise, so there ya go.
If anything, the amusing thing is how much I hated the film. It passed some threshold that put it forever on my blacklist…
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2 Comments | tags: James Spader, Kurt Russell, Roland Emmerich, Stargate (movie) | posted in Movies, Sci-Fi Saturday
With modern live moving at such a fast pace, the span of a week often moves things along rapidly (even when one has deliberately taken the rat race off-ramp). My personal life doesn’t change much (’cause of that whole off-ramp thing), but the world at large careens along in its usual Zippy way
But as I continue the summer project of converting my long-time storage room into an office-library (as intended when I moved in back in 2003), I do unearth long-lost personal archeology finds that take me back. A few bits go back to high school, but a lot of it is from college.
One significant find is from a few years after…
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4 Comments | tags: Anyone But Trump, democracy, Democratic Party, democratic society, dialectic, Donald Trump, election 2016, GOP, Hillary Clinton, HRC, Khizr Khan, Olympics, politicians, Republican Party, social issues, social media, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster, tyranny of the majority, US Constitution | posted in Life, Politics, Society
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably spent a fair amount of time wondering what is the deal with tesseracts? Just exactly what the heck is a “four-dimension cube” anyway? No doubt you’ve stared curiously at one of those 2D images (like the one here) that fakes a 3D image of an attempt to render a 4D tesseract.
Recently I spent a bunch of wetware CPU cycles, and made lots of diagrams, trying to wrap my mind around the idea of a tesseract. I think I made some progress. It was an interesting diversion, and at least I think I understand that image now!
FWIW, here’s a post about what I came up with…
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2 Comments | tags: 3D space, coordinates, cube, dimensions, geometry, line, point, rectangular coordinates, right angle, square, tesseract | posted in Math
Speaking of big strike outs, my Minnesota Twins continue to slog along at the bottom of the pack. Things actually got a bit exciting just before the All-Star Game break, but the last week or so suggests the Twins are reverting to the hapless form from the first few months.
The Twins played their 108th game of the season back on August 4th. That’s two-thirds of a season. As of their first third, things were looking uglier than ever in their history. Fortunately, the second third here was significantly better, and July was even kinda awesome.
The batting has definitely improved, but the pitching is just killing us.
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2 Comments | tags: American League, Atlanta Braves, baseball season, Major League baseball, Minnesota Twins, MLB, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, The Twins, Twins, Twins 2016 | posted in Baseball
Logos con carne 
BB #50: Blog Bubbles
Seeking that, as well as catharsis from a world that has either gone mad, or — at the very least — is driving me mad, I realized, a-ha: Brain Bubbles! While intended for off-the-cuff passing thought posts, many turned out as collections of related (or unrelated!) thought bubbles.
So pop the cork and let the bubbly flow…
Continue reading
Leave a comment | tags: Anyone But Trump, comment section, democracy, democratic society, Donald Trump, election 2016, GOP, NPR, politicians, Republican Party, social change, social issues, social media, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster | posted in Brain Bubble, Politics, Society