Month: August 2001

Reason to love the web, part {next}

Check out these No-Effort Online Movies by Chris Coutts. I especially liked “tales for the l33t,” a stick figure version of Romeo and Juliet with dialog rewritten for the chat/ICQ generation. Roxor!

A Tolkien Encyclopedia

J.R.R. Tolkien’s tales of hobbits, elves, and other fantastical creatures have been pop culture mainstays since the 1960s and are finally coming to the big screen beginning in December. Mark Fisher, in a labor of love, is creating a beautiful, detailed Encyclopedia of Arda as possibly the ultimate reference to this masterwork of fantasy.

Related: Ranjit Matthew wrote up his recent effort to set up an intranet using open source software in the guise of Samwise Gamgee working for Frodo Baggins at Hobbitware.com. There is no mention of why Matthew uses this ‘literary’ device nor does it particularly add or detract from the tutorial nature of the article.

And for laughs, the folks behind SevTrek are doing it cartoon fashion featuring Fraudo and Gonedaft the Grey.

I like this word

German is an interesting language and some words “just don’t translate into English. My favorite is weltschmertz, which means “Sorrow or sadness over the present or future evils or woes of the world in general; sentimental pessimism.” Sounds like Maynard Krebs, doesn’t it? Say it out loud, weltschmertz.

Tonight’s movie: Chocolat

The best movies are all about emotion, about evoking an emotional response inside the viewer. Chocolat is all about that. There is a plot, revolving around a chocolate shop in a small French village in 1959, but the movie, nominated for five Academy Awards in 2001, is about pulling happiness straight out of your heart. The beautiful Juliette Binoche stars as the wandering chocolatier, Alfred Molina smolders through his own interior walls as the village count, Judi Dench and Carrie-Ann Moss as a mother and the daughter who can’t forgive her, and, not the least, Johnny Depp as a wandering minstrel. The cinematography by Roger Pratt (Batman, 12 Monkeys, The End of the Affair) is lovely, capturing the wind pushing Binoche, the light at a dinner party, a boat floating on the river. Sophisticated direction by Lasse Hallstrom (My Life as a Dog, Cider House Rules) and script by Robert Nelson Jacobs (Disney’s Dinosaur). A sweet, wonderfil film, watch it.

Yesterday’s book: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Stayed up half the night to finish the fourth Harry Potter novel. Longish but good pacing. Still surprised that I’m enjoying this “children’s series” so much but it is true. Harry’s quidditch playing was getting a bit old so instead she starts off with the Quidditch World Cup with HP as a spectator and Harry’s competition this time around is a test of wizarding skill against (older) students from two foreign wizard schools. You Know Who’s still the baddie behind everything but I have to hand it to Rowling, she’s really got this going good. And there’s even an HP weblog.

Today’s Movie: Once Upon a Time in China

If you like pure Hong Kong cinematic martial arts, Once Upon a Time in China is not to be missed. The video we watched was dubbed in English, which tends to take away from my enjoyment because the voices are so obviously fake and the dialog is so poorly translated. On a DVD I would have had a choice to use subtitles instead but… This is the first of a trilogy where Jet Li plays Wong Fei-hung. Wong is a healer and martial artist in turn of the century China, reacting to the intrusion of Europeans and Americans into China.

Is He the One?

I have someone very special in my life, who loves her privacy, so I don’t generally write about her or our activities together. She did give me permission to mention a test she took today on eMode, Is It Time to Break Up? The resulting analysis was very gushy but so true:

“Do other people say your relationship makes them feel sick? Ignore them–they’re not trying to drop a hint, they’re just jealous. And we don’t blame them–it looks like your relationship is perfect. So why are you wasting your time taking this test, anyway? You should be with your boyfriend, taking advantage of the passion that’s still in full-force.

On a more serious note, the respect and admiration the two of you have for each other makes your relationship a rare find. Not only do you feel a strong romantic connection, but you’re also extremely close friends–a truly wonderful combination. Please accept our sincere congratulations, and go enjoy the love you’ve found!”

To try some of the tests yourself, click here

Bill likes to be read

He has an ego, are you surprised? So he read this WebMoinkey article on Search Engine optimization by Paul Boutin and decided to add some meta tags (keywords, description, and abstract) to the pages on the website. This was easy to do since most pages rely on single function to generate the HTML header–don’t you just love modular coding? The Web Developer’s Virtual Library also has a good tutorial on the topic, with more detail on all the meta tags. Allegedly, using these tags will help this website show up in more search engine result pages and send more people over.

This will get blogged to death

Good thing Slashdot has some powerful servers because this post about Billy Evans is funnier than almost anything emailed to me in the last three years. Of course th post is completely off topic but who really cares?

Update: Apparently this is not a new message but has spanned the globe many times over. It has even been posted to the Urban Legends Reference Pages and that reference says it was collected in 1999. Update via long range sensors

Stripping for the news

This is surreal! The Naked News is web newscaster, showing streaming video news reports with ‘on-air’ talent who strip naked as they read the news. But the read real news! No pole swinging but one newsreader was giving a story on a disgraced African bishop as she pulled off her panties. The site offers some content free but also offers a membership for $9.95 per month. For your money you get full screen video (not just a RealVideo window) and downloadable news clips, though I’m not sure this is worth the cash.

Wired News has a report on recent talent auditions.

No TV Today

Amazingly, for me, I did not turn on the TV today. And, not being a working person at the moment, I was home plenty. But was on the computer and phone instead. Plus lunch with someone wonderful and dinner with a pal.

A former Green comes clean

Are we, as a global society, blowing the future health of our planet and therefore ourselves through foolish activities? Or is the truth something different? A Danish statistician set out a few years ago to challenge a prominent economist who doubted the claims of environmentalists. He found out instead that the environmentalists were, generally, wrong. Interesting reading. Then again, there’s the old saying: lies, damn lies, and statistics. But given the author’s bias you have to doubt that he’s playing games.

Tonight’s TV: NEXT: The Future Just Happened

A and E broadcast part one (of two) of Michael Lewis documentary NEXT: The Future Just Happened. Oddly, I’d just written on the book version a couple of weeks ago. Still haven’t read the book but decided to watch the show. The problem, at least with part one, is that it’s too much of a mishmash, going from teens doing adult things on the ‘Net to a roundtable with old fogie lawyers (one of whom happens to be Lewis’s dad) to a town in Ireland that is possibly that most heavily wired of any in the world. Yes, Michael, the Internet is changing things immensely. We get it. I don’t think I’ll make it to part two tonight.

The NY Times weighs in on the show.

Today’s book: The Talented Mr. Ripley

I was going to do my usual review/writeup but Bob Wake has beaten me to it. His review is much more eloquent than mine would have been. I wonder if I look anything like Bob Wake…

Ha! Read this great novel and you’ll understand that crack. And yes, Matt Damon starred in the movie version. Roger Ebert has an interesting review that covers the Damon version as well as a review of the French iteration called Purple Noon and starred French great Alain Delon.

Author Patricia Highsmith also wrote four other Ripley novels plus Strangers on a Train, which Alfred Hitchcock made into a stunning film.

Reds ready to launch for the top–Not!

After an exhibition tour to the Far East and a disappointing result at the Ajax tournament, Liverpool FC face a Champions League home and away against Finnish side FC Haka before launching the new Premiership season. In prep, the club signed three key deals with young stars, while manager Houllier conceded the league title to Man U. After last year’s three titles and Champions League berth, fans have to be disappointed that the club isn’t aiming higher.

Learn more about yourself

Recently, I ran into two sites that helped me understand myself better as a person. One is Star Trek Personality Test, which is “based on the fundamental personality configurations developed by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator…adapted it to Star Trek.” My result was an ENFP (Extrovert, Intuitive, Feeler, Perceiver). In Star Trek language, I share a basic personality configuration with James Kirk and Julian Bashir. I found the following paragraph of analysis very accurate and interesting:

“You’re deeply caring, sensitive and gentle, which, combined with your need to solve problems, may make you a little too eager to give others advice. You also process information very quickly, which may make others believe you’re not listening to them. Before you share your feelings, you have to have time to process them.”

The other test is HumanForSale.com, which “attempts to place a value on your life using a variety of criteria in 4 basic facets of life (physical,mental,lifestyle,personality).” The ite calculated my worth as $2,244,250.00, which is substantially above average, although it gives no breakdown of the answer. Questions included age, height, weight, gender, profession, income, state of residence, and whether or not one makes charitable donations. Youth, height and income seem to be significant in determining value for men, juding from the list of Today’s Most Expensive Males, who are generally much more valuable than Today’s Most Expensive Females.

Today’s movie: Planet of the Apes

We were looking for some action, some chest pounding, screaming action today. And hoping a bunch of apes could deliver. Did they? You bet. Tim Burton has reimagined Planet of the Apes, going back to Pierre Boulle’s original novel and mostly ignoring the cheesy Charleton Heston version–although the main character is American, not French, and he travels in time, not to another star. Mark Wahlberg keeps pushing the memory of his days as a Calvin Klein underwear model further and further into the dim recesses, Helena Bonham Carter shows the complexities of being an ape with a conscious, and Tim Roth is positively vicious as the human-hating general. Is Burton making a movie about racism and ignorance or an action flick?

Did you know Boulle also wrote The Bridge over the River Kwai, made into an excellent movie with Alec Guinness?