Stop SOPA and PIPA
Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:10:47 -0800
Blog
Stop SOPA and PIPA
Cloverfield for Kids - Super 8 Review (Very Minor Spoilers)
Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:24:10 -0800
The first half of this movie is a compelling drama about children investigating strange events in the wake of a tragedy in small town America in the early 80's; the second half is a toothless horror/disaster movie where children save the day through the power of forgiveness. The movie works well when it keeps its focus tightly on the children and their families, and if it had been willing to be a smaller, more personal film, it could have been very good. Unfortunately, it was instead made to be a big budget Hollywood blockbuster. As the scope of the film widens, there's soon too much happening to leave room for the small moments and interpersonal relationships that made the early parts of the film so watchable, and yet, clearly aiming for its PG-13 rating, the action never produces a real sense of peril, which prevents the build-up of suspense that would have been necessary for the latter half of the movie to really work. In the end, there's an attempt to thematically tie together these two halves and make it feel like one cohesive plot, and enjoyment of this movie largely hinges on that final, pivotal scene: if it works for you, you'll likely leave the theater happy. For me, the connection it strains to make is just too big of a stretch, so I left unsatisfied.
Inspired by ABC's new series...
Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:10:16 -0700
Avoid Mad Area Driving School
Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:24:43 -0700
Mad Area Driving School completely failed to provide me with any service whatsoever.
First, I tried to contact them by email, but all they would reply is that I needed to call them. If they won't help customers by email, why do they publish an email address on their website?
So I took the extra time out of my day to call them, and we scheduled an appointment for an instructor to pick me up for a driving lesson. When the time came around for the lesson, I was standing at my living room window looking out over the street, waiting. Twenty minutes later, when there was still no sign of them, I called for an ETA, thinking maybe they were running late. No one answered their office phone, so I had to leave a message.
They never showed up, nor called for directions, nor made any attempt to contact me. I didn't hear anything back at all until the end of the following day, after normal business hours. By this point I had given up on them and already scheduled lessons through another company, so I didn't want to waste my time talking to them. But they called three times in less than an hour, so I finally answered just so they would stop interrupting my evening.
The representative on the phone identified himself as Jim from Madison Area Driving School (who I believe is the owner), then simply said, "You called?" He didn't seem to have a clue who I was or what he was supposed to be calling me about, even though I had left a pretty clear message. I tried to tell him I was going with another company and no longer needed his assistance, but he pushed so I gave him the time and address of my appointment and explained that they had stood me up. He immediately insisted that they were there, I assured him that they hadn't been, and he again insisted that they were. I said that I was there, so I KNEW they hadn't been, and that I didn't want to waste my time discussing it further; his only response was to hang up on me.
Now, even though I was frustrated, the owner could have salvaged the situation by simply apologizing for the mistake and trying to figure out how it happened -- in other words, by showing even a modicum of basic customer service skill. Instead, he all but called me a liar.
Despite that, I still want to extend the benefit of the doubt and assume that the owner was just going with what the paperwork said, not intentionally lying to me. But if the instructor had, say, made an honest mistake and went to the wrong address, why didn't they call me right then? They had my phone number. If he had just called, I could have given him directions and this whole issue would have been fixed before it even started.
I also want to make it clear that, though I was getting pretty frustrated with the phone rep (justifiably, I think), I remained reasonably polite throughout the conversation; I was not shouting, swearing or insulting him in any way, even though he was all but calling me a liar. Hanging up on me was completely uncalled for.
I can't comment on their instruction technique, but their office staff seems to be completely incompetent, and their customer service couldn't get much worse. The only way they could possibly fail more than they already have is if they try to bill me for the lesson they skipped out on (they haven't so far, but I'm watching my mailbox).
If you need driving lessons, I've had a mostly positive experience with my new instructor at 4 Lakes Driving School. But avoid Mad Area Driving School like the plague.
How did Blade Runner ever come to be considered a science fiction classic?
Sat, 17 Sep 2011 23:42:51 -0700
How did Blade Runner ever come to be considered a science fiction classic?
I realize it was made in the early 80's, so I'm willing to look past the garish soundtrack and laughable attempts at futuristic technology and architecture. And I understand that showing seas of blinking lights and giant animated billboards likely had more impact before that kind of thing was commonplace. But none of that excuses the film from being an aimless, lumbering morass of poorly shot scenes populated with dimensionless cut-outs in place of characters who give each other long, expressionless stares in place of exchanging lines of dialog (let alone actually acting). It repeatedly touches on ideas about identity and the nature of humanity that could be really interesting to explore, but unfortunately it only shoulders past them without so much as muttering "excuse me" as it plods inexorably towards nowhere in particular. The romantic subplot that seems like it's probably supposed to be a key part of what's supposed to pass for the plot is awkwardly introduced, and never really gets developed beyond a sex scene that might actually be rape if you squint a little, and a sudden and baffling declaration of love in the end. Though the movie does actually spend some time on the two characters together, the utter lack of chemistry (which might relate to the utter lack of personalities) makes this the most wooden attempt at romance I've seen since Hayden Christianson deadpanned his way into Natalie Portman's pants in Attack of the Clones. Seriously, I don't think I can come up with a single good thing to say about this movie. It wasn't even short. That was a full two hours of my life that I'll never get back.Google+ is an Epic Fail
Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:46:00 -0700
According to their initial marketing push, with Google+, Google set out to create the next generation of social network, one that would provide the nuance of real-life interaction that other social networks (i.e., Facebook) lack, in part by giving users better control over their privacy. However, the result, while intriguing in many ways, misses the mark so badly that one wonders if that was really even the target they were aiming for. To illustrate, let's contrast some key differences between Google+ and the biggest name in social networking, Facebook:
On Google+, "public" literally means public, and is visible to anyone on the Web whether they have a Google+ account or not, and can be found with search engines.On Facebook, even "public" usually means limited to Facebook users who are logged in. On Google+, much of your profile (which is required to include your full legal name) is forced to be completely public. This means even if you block someone, you can't make your on-line presence cease to exist to that particular person; simply by having a Google+ account, you're making your on-line presence public.
On Facebook, you can make your profile private, so no one can even tell your profile exists unless you choose to friend them. Most importantly, on Google+, adding someone to your circles just means you want to read what they share with you. It is the same as bookmarking a website.
On Facebook, adding someone to your friends list is explicitly creating a mutually agreed upon relationship between two people. That's the key difference between Facebook and Google+: Facebook maps social relationships. Google+ maps reading habits. In other words, when Google set out to develop a new social network... they didn't develop a social network at all. They developed a publishing platform. Talk about an epic fail.
Windows 8 Preview
Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:19:04 -0700
I just watched a preview of Windows 8.
I've known for some time that phones and computers would eventually share an interface... But I thought it would be because phones advanced to be as powerful as computers; not because computers got dumbed down to be as primitive as phones. If this steaming pile actually becomes the next Windows, I think it's going to be a very, very profitable move... for Apple.QapTcha - Who knew CAPTCHA could be this easy?
Mon, 16 May 2011 18:53:00 -0700
Tired of squinting at distorted CAPTCHA text? QapTcha is a jQuery CAPTCHA plugin that uses an iPhone-style slider to unlock form submission. It's by far the simplest, most intuitive and least intrusive CAPTCHA system I've ever seen. It's free and easy to install, so I hope to see a lot more websites using it soon!
Want.
Fri, 06 May 2011 18:03:09 -0700
Walker's War on Wisconsin
Sat, 12 Mar 2011 19:32:09 -0800
With all the talk about unions and "collective bargaining rights", it's easy for those who have never been in a union, and who have never had the privilege of collective bargaining to begin with, to dismiss the furor over Walker's so-called "budget repair bill", thinking it doesn't affect them. But make no mistake: This fight is about more than unions. Walker's bill does much more, and much worse damage than that. It harms everyone in Wisconsin.
This law threatens the future of BadgerCare. Walker wants to completely eliminate Wisconsin's only women's health and family planning program, which provides cancer screenings, breast exams, testing and treatment for STDs, pregnancy counseling, annual check-ups, and birth control for 60,000 Wisconsin women and men. And he wants to repeal Wisconsin’s Contraceptive Equity law and allow insurance companies to discriminate against women by denying coverage for prescription birth control.
Governor Walker isn't only attacking the unions; he's attacking Wisconsin women and families.
Our nation's public education system is already troubled, and Walker wants to take roughly $1 billion away from schools and local governments. This will force communities to either raise property taxes to make up the deficit, or strip school programs down to the bone... Except Walker is also banning them from raising property taxes, so that communities that want to increase funding for schools (and other public services) will be unable to. So how can schools make up that deficit? Walker doesn't seem to care.
Governor Walker isn't only attacking the unions; he's attacking Wisconsin's children.
Walker has made one small "concession" to help communities cope with the loss of state funding: They're no longer required to provide recycling programs. On top of that, the new budget cuts a vital statewide clean water law that was passed just last year. It was hailed as one of the most important clean water laws since the federal Clean Water Act. Its loss could so diminish state clean water protections that the federal Environmental Protection Agency may be forced to step in to clean up Walker's mess.
Walker claims this is part of his "effort to remove potential impediments to economic growth". In other words, when big corporations don't have to bother keeping track of the chemicals they're dumping in our drinking water, it's easier for them to grow even bigger.
Governor Walker isn't only attacking the unions; he's attacking Wisconsin's environment.
Walker claims the salary cuts he's forcing on public workers, and the numerous public service cuts he's forcing on the entire state, are the only way to balance the budget. But his new budget also cuts taxes for wealthy business owners and investors, while slashing tax credits that help lower income residents.
That's right: Under Walker's new budget, Wisconsin workers will be paid less, taxed more, and receive fewer state services. The wealthiest business owners, investors and developers, on the other hand, will be making more than ever.
Governor Walker isn't only attacking the unions; he's taking your money and giving it to the rich.
Walker has declared war on the people of Wisconsin, and our only choice is to fight back. You may not feel like you alone can make a difference, but remember: You're not alone. Nearly 150,000 Wisconsin residents have already pledged to see Scott Walker recalled this fall. If you're ready to join the fight, the first step is to sign United Wisconsin's Pledge to Recall Scott Walker.
We have to wait until fall to make the recall official, but there's a lot more you can do in the meantime:
- Spread the word! Share this on Facebook, tweet it, or even (GASP!) talk to your friends about it;
- Donate to Planned Parenthood;
- Donate to United Wisconsin;
- Get down to the Capitol and keep protesting. Don't let Walker forget what he's up against!
(Sources: Planned Parenthood, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin State Journal, Express Milwaukee, United Wisconsin.)