Category: Personal

GENtle: ” is bioinformatics software for everyday molecular biology tasks.” This will be really handy because I have a biomolecular workbench in the kitchen, next to the toaster oven–don’t you?

If you haven’t seen it yet, the Serenity trailer (warning: link is directly to the large format QuickTime movie) is online and man does it look good. I’ll be there Sep. 30, not much doubt in my mind. I was a fan of Firefly as a TV series–yet another cool Fox show that the network cut down before it was barely started–and the trailer shows the same creativity and mystery plus a visual sharpness that one rarely sees in computer generated films. Very appealing. But then Joss Whedon has a track record for that.

Today also saw the release of Springsteen’s Devils and Dust, I picked up a copy but I might until the weekend so I can savor it. Then again, might not be able to resist the temptation. The VH1 Storytellers was nice but the editing and interruptions, the odd way so many of his comments were layered on top of the performance, just didn’t sit right with me and so didn’t sate my yearning.

And in a third medium, this year’s novel from Harlan Coben arrived today as well. The Innocent stays in the tense thriller genre of his last few books but does include a new Myron Bolitar short story in the American editions. In his newsletter Harlan wrote “I don’t want to say too much, but I will say, letting those two characters out for air has felt great–and I don’t know that I’ll be able to put them back in storage any time soon.” After five years and five novels, all good, not complaining, I’m sure ready for another tale featuring my old buddy and his friends.

The Smoking Gun have come up with more titilating items in the past but I am amused by the excerpts of Springsteen 2002 concert rider the guys posted that came to my attention today. Nothing that extraordinary compared to other acts’ demands but just seeing the level of detail is pretty impressive and the language, which is about as lawerly as you’d imagine.

Joe went and updated from the classic jennet.radio to the sleek and modern jenett., nothin’ like dropping a few letters to make yourself look young and smart.

If you’re left to two shots in injury time by a center back as the best scoring chances of the day, and both of those go untouched up to the stands, then losing 0-1 at home should not be a surprising result. Losing at home to a team in the relegation zone without scoring a goal or even seriously challenging the goalie but once is a shocking result. Not picking up even a point when the team you need to catch for the last and only attainable Champions League spot are down 1-0 themselves until an injury time equalizer is horrendous.

Rafa Benitez must have said to himself that his second level players need to prove they deserve roster slots and a game against the Londoners ahead of Wednesday’s CL match at Chelsea is the time to let them sink or swim. Xabi Alonso, just back from injury, was rested with John Welsh instead partnering Steven Gerrard in central midfield, Steve Finnan and Djimi Traore were on the wings instead of Luis Garcia and John Arne Riise, and Anthony Le Tallec was a third striker in a 3-4-3 formation Benitez had never previously shown. If the changes were fish we’d be flushing the loo about now.

Three EPL games left now, nine possible points: home to Middlesborough, at Arsenal and home to Aston Villa. Boro won 4-0 today against West Brom but otherwise their recent form hasn’t been good, a draw to Fullham and before that losses to Arsenal, Southampton and 0-1 to this same Palace squad; if there’s not too much hangover, whatever the midweek result, three points are reasonable to look for. Away to a team fighting ManU for the second spot and therefore automatic CL qualification is another matter and though we did beat Arsenal on our turf in November a draw is the best prediction even if scoring maestro Thierry Henry is still out injured. Villa is possibly the key match, a mid-table team we ought to beat at home and yet haven’t regularly this season.

Bolton moved into a fifth place tie with their draw today but have Everton, Portsmouth and Chelsea remaining and seem unlikely to push us down to sixth. Sam Allardyce has managed some surprises so can’t rule them out entirely but fifth or six place are equal for next season’s European play.

Everton have four to play and a four point lead: Fullham, Newcastle, Bolton and Arsenal (not yet scheduled but must make up the game postponed last weekend because the FA Cup semifinal). Six points seems attainable, either a win and three draws or two wins, and that means no chance for the Reds to pass their crosstown rivals.

Away and home to the league leaders for a spot in the CL final–the opponent on May 25 in Istanbul is likely to be AC Milan, though I’d be thrilled to see Damarcus Beasley’s PSV Eindhoven pull off the upset–thus becomes massively important. Roman’s boys have all but technically won the league running away, today’s 3-1 trashing of Fullham exposing their prime weakness as disinterest with no question of skill or creativity, and have topped Liverpool 1-0 in the league and 2-3 in the Carling Cup. Winning Europe, however, is now the only way back and anything less means UEFA Cup.

Rogers Cadenhead, one of my SportsFilter buddies was smart enough to register a few of the likely pope name domains before the recent election and his bet paid off, he owns benedictxvi.com, and the media coverage the last two days is immense, the link is to the clip of him being interviewed on this morning’s Today Show. I was amazed at how together he was, and funny! Before you get twisted on how this nice guy is going to exploit religion, he’s already announced the domain is the Vatican’s for the asking and in the meanwhile he’s donating this week’s ad revenues from all his sites to Modest Needs. A real mensch, my grandmother would have said.

After hours trading is not an especially good indicator of the next day’s activity but when a stock as big as GOOG is up 10 9.53% you still need to take notice.

Mr. Pumping Irony, glad you found some useful information. Here’s more: searching your site on a term that is not found results in WP coughing up a not found template-ish error. No problem if the search is successful. Do I know you?

From The Big Guy, get your real contact information at Find-A-Human, IVR phone system shortcuts that will let you break out of voicemail menu jails at many hard to reach American companies. Put together by self-confessed phone geek Paul English. Extremely useful!

I’m intrigued and confused by Individual-i. Who are these people? What are their goals?

I’m working on some WordPress implementation issues and Cake. Both are not easily resolving. 24 was good but seems to be pulling out the old formula list. Uncommon Knowledge showed that Intelligent Design ‘theorists’ are more interested in using their intelligence to justify personal belief than in developing science.

This was a total hoot. Cross super kung fu fanatics with a soccer competition against a team lead by an evil megalomaniac and over the top acrobatics. That’s what you get in Shaolin Soccer (Siu lam juk kau). Stephen Chow does a Woody Allen, he’s the writer, director and star, and now I’m really looking forward to his Kung Fu Hustle that opens Friday. Very strange and hard to describe, nothing like anything we get from Hollywood, just totally worth your time.

recommended

Just saw a commercial for Kicking & Screaming and I am confused. Is Will Ferrell so hot a commodity that Robert Duvall isn’t even worth a mention?

Cake PHP framework: “Cake is a framework for PHP, based on Rails.” This is definitely a project I want to see flourish, I think Rails is terrific but then again I do have four years invested in PHP.

How is it that The Political Teen got accepted into Google News and Dave’s Scripting News can’t? Google Bloggers, let’s see some answers.

Does it strike anyone else as odd that Jon Udell seems to tag all his articles to del.icio.us? Is this going to be the next egoboo? I hope not. Jon’s stuff is usually interesting but the next 10,000 people to have the same idea are less likely to achieve the same quality, and then there’s the ticking time bomb of spammers.

Jon Carroll’s recent column in the SF Chronic, Unitarian Jihad, is really funny. Carroll says something important, that I want to say, but with far more humor than I’d be able to muster. George Packer pointed out last year that The Revolution Will Not Be Blogged and I agree with him yet for the time being this is our platform. Some good examples: Matt’s rant yesterday on privacy, Garret’s bit today on Frist, Karl’s on the bankruptcy bill expose the lies from the other direction.

These movie set photos of Brandon Routh as Clark Kent don’t do much to get me excited about the upcoming Superman Returns flick. Did Routh get cast because he looks so much like a young Christopher Reeve? Given that the film is directed by Bryan Singer, should be plenty good. Just sayin’.

For the first time in a long time, with the possible exception of the most recent Mustang, I’ve seen an affordable American car that looks hot: the Saturn SKY. Should show up at dealerships next (2006) Spring as a 2007 model year offering with a price tag around $25,000. One question, at least for now, is: How come none of the pictures feature the convertible top closed? All the websites have the same half dozen photos. Not claiming this sporty coupe will compete on performance or overall with ‘low end’ Mercedes, BMW or Toyota models (does the Solara convertible fit here?) but if General Motors can produce a decent quality car this should sell.

NBC is putting Third Watch to sleep after a few more episodes but from the promos being run you’d think this was the proud end of the second coming of, oh, Hill Street Blues rather than the nearly invisible petering out of just another mediocre series. Not to be singling out this show or even NBC because almost every network does it for every show that lasts more than two seasons. And the more times the suits do this, the more annoyed I get.