Ploafmaster General

I'm not generally a fan of Lou Dobbs, but truth is independent of who says it:

The greatest crisis in this country today is the fact that the American people are not being represented by their government.

Lou Dobbs on A Daily Show with John Stewart, January 10th 2008

Last night I started and subsequently got sucked into David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross - his drama which won the Pulitzer in 1984. This short play (2 acts, about 100 pages) feels like a series of rapid-fire conversations which demonstrate the lengths to which desperate and/or ambitious men will go for their ends. Mugs sent this to me shortly after Christmas, and it was well worth my reading. I highly recommend it.

Had I bothered to research director Guillermo del Toro after I watched the incredible Pan's Labyrinth I would no doubt have noticed that he also directed the comic book movie Hellboy. Since I didn't look up the director, it wasn't until just now after reluctantly checking out the trailer for the forthcoming Hellboy II that I even bothered to check out del Toro's resume. I was curious whether he'd directed the first installment if he was working on the sequel, and sure enough, he did.

Now I've not seen the first movie, but del Toro did the screenplay with consultation from the comic book's author. Since del Toro wrote and directed Pan's Labyrinth, which was incredible, I think my curiosity is overwhelming my resistance to what seemed like a cheesy film.

Have any of my handful of readers seen it? Is it worth it? At least on the merits of its film-making?

Woof.

So those slides about which I was so pumped?

Well, it turns out I underexposed pretty much every one. I should've stepped down a bit on the shutter speed, I guess, because I had fantastic bright sunlight in nearly every picture I took. All the slides are dark, grainy, and not very enjoyable to look at - and even the best exposures still look like crappy tourist shots from 1947.

Oh well, learning experience and all that. On a lighter note, I learned that Richmond Camera will cross-process film upon request. Rawk!

Slate has an informative slide-show essay concerning the new digs for The New York Times. The wood floors in the lobby (obviously not pictured above) are glorious, but I bet they'll be a bear to maintain...

The A.V. Club has an excellent and lengthy interview with Anthony Bourdain, candid and acerbic as ever. Well worth the read.
(via kottke)

I had a message on my voice mail from Richmond Camera indicating that my roll of slide film has been developed, and the CD of digital transfers was ready for pickup as well. I'm eager to check these out, hoping that at least a handful of shots from the 24 exposure roll turned out alright...

If the digital transfers are decent, I'll probably try bringing in a few slices of cut negatives from recently developed film to have them digitally transferred as well. If THAT works, I'll probably have many more negatives scanned in since my scanner seems to provide rather disappointing results when I scan the prints.

Can somebody please tell me when it became acceptable to hold conference calls at full volume in your cubicle, even though there are clearly other people who work in the cubicle immediately beside you?

While I'm certainly watching the Giants at the Cowboys on Sunday afternoon, what do you suppose the odds are that Valerie will let me watch every playoff game this weekend? They all look like rather exciting games...

:-)

Ah, the iconic Xerox logo...40 years old, and still conveys a strong identity of technology in the realm of the printed word.

Until today. BEHOLD! Before you is Xerox's new dull identity, conveying something more like, "Hi, we're an upstart Silicon Valley tech firm in 1997 with no business plan! Would you like to buy some stock?"

(architect's rendering, I believe)

If you live in Richmond or simply love the River City as much as I do, you ought to check out the Richmond Downtown Master Plan. Jake tipped me off to this recently, and after checking it out I have to say I'm optimistic. I'm particularly glad to see the focus on mixed-use space and more so on increasing pedestrian traffic. Having read (and slowly still reading!) some of Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities, I'm encouraged to see some of these principals paid the attention they deserve in the course of urban revitalization.

The City Planning Commission is holding a public hearing for comments and such next Tuesday, the 15th. I plan to be there, and if you care about where you live (and that place is Richmond) I recommend you check it out, too.

Flickr user Christopher Holland created this excellent little sculpture. I commented on the photo on the originating page:

"This is really cool! It appeals to both my nerdy-technical and creative/design-oriented sides.

I like the continuation of the air stream concept in the lines on the box top as well."

Anyway, I dig it :-)

Isn't it a little sad and disturbing that now almost nobody is paying attention to Iowa? Suddenly the whole news-scape has their collective eye on New Hampshire for the first primary election (again, only for the two major parties). I wonder how much attention will be paid New Hampshire after tomorrow?

I'm just sayin'.

Just writing a short post to congratulate my brother, Mugs, for his new job. For the sake of his online privacy, I'll not name the company, but it's a definite step up in his burgeoning IT career. His new employer will provide plenty of opportunity for growth and continued education, and represents a more stable work environment than the job from which he resigned today. He'll be spending this week with his family before continuing to take the computing world by storm on Monday the 14th.

Rock on, bro!

I think Jake will be pleased that I didn't go for the Aldo Hilarion :-)

These are my new kicks, and it's pretty cool to have some semi-casual shoes with real cushioning. They already fit very comfortably without having been broken in, so I expect them only to become more comfortable with time. And no, I didn't pay nearly as much as you might think - I got a pretty killer deal, actually.

Awww, phooey. It seems like you can't look anywhere in the media these days without seeing some crap about the Iowa Caucuses. So here we have people from one state with less then one percent of the population getting 'round-the-clock coverage because of a non-binding "let's consider who we prefer" event.

Forget that this is another example of the two major parties getting all the attention. Take a look at the lower right-hand corner of the graphic that Blankenship posted today. You see that? Only TWO people that won in the caucuses have made it to the oval office. And look how popular they ended up :-)

Okay, that's not too fair. Popularity isn't a rational measure of political capabilities. But really. Since this event gained widespread attention in '72, only two winners have entered the White House as president? Puh-lease.

I'll pay attention when something truly significant happens.

My father gave Valerie and I a spot of currency for Christmas, and I've decided to use a portion of it for several books I've had on my mind. Here's the short stack:

1. Kitchen Confidential Updated Ed: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly - This is the book that, as I understand, identified Anthony Bourdain as the grand curmudgeon of the culinary world. I've always enjoyed his essays, so I look forward to this memoir of his days working in haute cuisine.

2. The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen - Writer Michael Ruhlman's latest book, even he refers to it as a "Strunk and White's" for the kitchen. Should have some excellent essays and provide a fantastic reference for technique.

3. Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing - Ruhlman was involved with this book as well. But really - it'll teach me to make my own bacon. Need I say more?!?

4. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto - This is Michael Pollan's follow-up to The Omnivore's Dilemma, and I've been anticipating it's release since I finished the latter.

I couldn't really pass up the free shipping on Amazon, so now I have at least a week to wait for my volumes to arrive, but I certainly have plenty of reading ahead for 2008 :-)

So there's a whole lotta noise today about the Justice Department opening a criminal investigation over the CIA's destruction of two interrogation tapes.

Wait...they're still using tapes?!?

Before Christianity entered my household, my step-dad used to let my brothers and I watch pretty much any action movie he brought home. He's a huge fan of Schwarzenegger and Stallone, so fill in the blanks. My biological father never really cared what we watched when were were at his house, and he had HBO. This means I saw such gory glories as Commando, Predator, Terminator, and all three Rambo flicks before the age of 10. It also means that I'm all but desensitized to the over-done film violence in some modern cinema. While situationally disturbing, for instance, Se7en's graphic crime scenes did little to turn my stomach. So despite what I'd heard about the veritable river of crimson effluent in Tim Burton's adaptation of the Sondheim musical, it was with eager anticipation that I attended a showing of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Let me tell you, this flick is filled to overflowing with blood and violently realistic depictions of throat slitting (save for some over-dramatic squirting). But it's also filled with excellent music and fantastic acting. I'm already a fan of and quite familiar with Tim Burton's work, so I expected a heavy dose of black humor with the excellent direction, and I wasn't disappointed. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter made excellent leads (with surprisingly decent voices), and the supporting cast, especially Alan Rickman as the despicable Judge Tarpin, helped carry the weight quite well. The story was fairly simple, and great actors don't always make great singers, but this movie was a solid 4 out of 5 stars for me. I can't wait until Burton releases Alice and Wonderland...

I like to get to work earlier than necessary. My office's hours are pretty flexible, so I could technically sit down to work as late as 9:30 AM if I so chose. This, of course, would require me to stay later in the day as well, and this I can't abide.

I'm the sort of fella who likes to arrive by 7:45, work through lunch, and be out the door by 4:30. This allows me to accomplish certain errands that require attention before 5, and I get to leave the office while there's still some shreds of daylight, even during these shorter winter days.

Well this morning, I wish I'd stayed home an extra hour or so.

I arrived at my usual time, and I was digging out from under a vacation's worth of email. I'd just about finished when, at 8:33, I noticed that my network connection had dropped. Before I could consider the impact, the fire alarm for the building went off, and we were all ushered outside. In the 30 degree cold. With wind. For a FULL HALF HOUR.

Thankfully, I'd brought my coat (and my phone, just in case). After we were allowed to return, we still had no internet or phone for a solid half hour while much of the employees milled about with nothing to do. Clearly, the network has been restored...though I have to admit I was kinda hoping for the sort of outage that would have sent us all home :-)

Hooray for 2008! The leap year makes my birthday on Election Day, so I think I'll take the day off to vote, then bitch-and-moan about the government :-)

Of course, I'm really excited about the Summer Olympics. I love watching the gymnastics, the decathlon, et al., and I'm really curious how it's going to work out in air-poisoned Beijing.

Here we are, minutes away from the kickoff for what may be the most watched season game for this NFL season. I'm wearing my Giants jersey and I'm antsy.

I don't honestly have high hopes for my boys in blue, but I am hoping to see Strahan put a few hits on Brady before the night is through...

UPDATE:
Alas. My Giants didn't pull through. It's pretty cool that another team has a perfect regular season now (we'll see about the playoffs), but I wish it hadn't been my fellas at the end of it all with the expectations and such. Anyway, it was an exciting game.

Merry Christmas to me. One of my Christmas gifts from Mugs and his wife was Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman". WOW.

I've read through it for the first time during this past week, and now that I'm back in Richmond I plan to re-read it with a pencil for note taking. I won't link it in the sidebar to Amazon because they don't seem to carry the fantastic and gorgeous Penguin Classics edition pictured above (which I received).

This is the second play I've read in as many weeks (after "The Iceman Cometh" by Eugene O'Neill), and it's my favorite so far. The tension throughout this short drama is so palpable that I was nervous from start to finish. I wish I could explain further, but I'm not yet prepared for commentary until I re-read it and gather my thoughts. In short, however, I was floored by the quality and content of this play.

I'll have a bit of catch-posting coming shortly. My travels are winding down as I write this on Thursday morning from a Holiday Inn Express in Fort Pierce, Florida. Today, after checking out Stuart Beach with Val's family, she and I will head north to Jacksonville. We'll be back in action (and Richmond) by Friday night.

ARRRRGGHHHH.

So that LaCie networkable external hard drive I have? Well, I've been having plenty of issues with this lately. I don't really feel like explaining everything now, but essentially I'd like to format the whole disk so it doesn't have this wonky server software on it, and I want it to function like a simple slave drive.

The problem is, I can't get the friggin' disk to be recognized as a simple mounted volume when I hook it up via the USB jack. Nothing I do can get that done. OSX's Disk Utility doesn't even recognize it as a mounted volume, so I can't do anything from there.

I'm at a total loss here, and I'm about to smash my face through some plate glass...