Sub-Eclecticism

Jingle Bones, from an old Disn…

2009-12-19T01:31:00Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Jingle Bones, from an old Disney Xmas album I imported from vinyl. Halloween + Xmas long before Jack Skellington! http://djwudi.com/1d (mp3)

AMC Theaters OKs Bringing In Drinks and Snacks

2009-12-18T23:18:32Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Well, no, they don’t. However, they sure seem to be encouraging it, even if that’s not their intent.

This morning, Prairie and I went to see a matinee showing of The Princess and the Frog, Disney’s latest traditionally animated film. The film itself was a lot of fun, and we both loved being able to go out and see real animation on the big screen, something that happens all too rarely in these days of CGI and 3D gimmickry.

Unfortunately, as much as we enjoyed the film itself, we’re running out of reasons to bother with actual theaters, rather than waiting for video. The latest eye-rolling bit of obnoxiousness? It seems that AMC Theatres has discontinued all “small” sizes of drinks and candy.

When I went to the snack bar, planning on getting a small soda, the menu board had a blank spot under the “small” column for both drinks and candy. Scoping out the sales stations, I noticed that while they all had spaces for three sizes of cups by their soda fountains, only two were stocked. Asking the soda jockey behind the counter confirmed it: AMC is “reconfiguring” their snack bar options, and there are now only two sizes of drinks, medium and large.

While even the small drinks weren’t all that small before hand, it appears that now, the smallest size fountain soda you can get is a 32oz bucket, for $4.25. I have no real idea what they’ve done with their candy lineup, but I’m betting they just re-labeled all the “small” boxes to “mediums”, and knocked the larger “medium” boxes up to “large”.

Just one more reason (along with the barrage of ads euphemistically described as “pre-show entertainment,” the crappy customer service provided by the staff of most theaters, and the absolute lack of public decorum from the majority of other moviegoers) why my theater-going experience is going to be ever more rare. On those rare occasions when I do go — both Prairie and I are thinking that we want to see the 3D version of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, which will be our first modern theatrical 3D experience (no, I’m not planning on seeing Avatar in 3D…at this point, I’m not planning on seeing it until it’s out on DVD) — I’ll be taking advantage of Prairie’s largest purse and bringing in my own snacks and drinks.

Importing a classic bit of hol…

2009-12-17T23:17:08Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Importing a classic bit of holiday vinyl: John Denver and the Muppets, A Christmas Together (“Piggy pudding?!?!?”) http://djwudi.com/1c

The new Alice in Wonderland tr…

2009-12-17T01:24:38Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

The new Alice in Wonderland trailer, though? Oh. Wow. Goregous. So very, very pretty. Might even shell out to see that one in 3D.

Links for December 10th through December 16th

2009-12-16T18:00:32Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Sometime between December 10th and December 16th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

20 Best Science Fiction Books of the Decade: "After much mulling and culling, we've come up with our list of the twenty best books of the decade. The list is weighted towards science fiction, but does have healthy doses of fantasy and horror. And a few surprises. This list is alphabetical, and not in order of awesomeness. All are equally great and worthy of your attention. In deciding which would make the list and which wouldn't, we weighed not only our opinions, but also those of the critical community at large - looking at how each book was received by reviewers for mainstream publications as well as science fiction magazines. There were many, many books we love that almost made the cut - if we'd let ourselves go it would have been more like the 100 best books of the decade."
Why Fake-Looking CG Space Battles Are Beautiful: "Television used to be full of space skirmishes… that looked kind of bogus. And yet, they're totally beautiful and make our inner children giggle with excitement. Here's why we love the faux space battles. The 1990s were really the heydey for wonderful but not-quite-convincing space skirmishes. We used to see tons of ships flying around our screen, often too many to count. Unlike Battlestar Galactica's quick cuts and weird handheld camera footage, these 1990s space wars were usually filmed with an unflinching eye or a slow pan, letting you see every computer-generated line and explosion. And it's totally awesome."
Octopus Snatches Coconut and Runs: "After turning the shells so the open side faces upwards, the octopuses blow jets of mud out of the bowl before extending their arms around the shell - or if they have two halves, stacking them first, one inside the other - before stiffening their legs and tip-toeing away. Dr Norman said: 'I think it is amazing that those arms of pure muscle get turned into rigid rods so that they can run along a bit like a high-speed spider. 'It comes down to amazing dexterity and co-ordination of eight arms and several hundred suckers.'"
Facebook’s New Privacy Changes: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: "Being a free speech organization, EFF is supportive of internet users who consciously choose to share more on Facebook after weighing the privacy risks; more online speech is a good thing. But to ensure that users don't accidentally share more than they intend to, we do not recommend Facebook's 'recommended' settings. Facebook will justify the new push for more sharing with everyone by pointing to the new per-post privacy options — if you don't want to share a particular piece of content with everyone, Facebook will argue, then just set the privacy level for that piece of content to something else. But we think the much safer option is to do the reverse: set your general privacy default to a more restrictive level, like 'Only Friends,' and then set the per-post privacy to 'Everyone' for those particular things that you're sure you want to share with the world.

" * Does CGI Ruin Movies?: "Watching movies where CGI has created entire worlds…may be technically impressive and the work of hundreds of artists up and down the moviemaking food chain, but none of it entirely convinces; there's a distance that we, as viewers, instinctively pick up on because what we're watching is so fake that it can't even convincingly fake verisimilitude. It doesn't matter how many how many hours or computer modeling programs have been spent to create 'lifelike' scenery or surroundings, it will always lack the element of chaos, the potential for mistakes, that makes it something we can believe (and lose ourselves) in."

I’m #reading Bloodsucking Fien…

2009-12-15T21:37:43Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

I’m #reading Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore - http://bit.ly/4BEIFn

Confirmed: A’s in all my class…

2009-12-15T17:04:14Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Confirmed: A’s in all my classes this quarter!Current cumulative GPA of 3.85. Not a 4.0, but I’ll take it!

Random happenstance: Found (an…

2009-12-14T22:37:26Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Random happenstance: Found (and picked up) @spitkitten’s novel Homecoming http://djwudi.com/1a at the Kent St. Vincent de Paul today.

I’m #reading The Starship Trap…

2009-12-13T23:36:43Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

I’m #reading The Starship Trap by Mel Gilden - http://bit.ly/8Vmb5p

4 of 5 stars to Under the Dom…

2009-12-13T23:26:19Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

4 of 5 stars to Under the Dome by Stephen King - http://bit.ly/8SgkwA

Got some very nice compliments…

2009-12-13T19:57:53Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Got some very nice compliments at the Norwescon meeting on the photos I’ve been taking so far. Quite flattering. Having fun being involved.

Norwescon party was fun last n…

2009-12-13T16:21:48Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Norwescon party was fun last night, but I was exhausted. Came home, zoned in front of the TV with Prairie, then crashed hard for ten hours.

DJ at the Merc last night play…

2009-12-12T16:11:35Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

DJ at the Merc last night played Front 242’s “Welcome to Paradise,” and the average age on the dance floor jumped by 5-10 years. #eldergoth

Wore all black to this afterno…

2009-12-12T00:48:22Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Wore all black to this afternoon’s holiday party. Prairie called me a lump of coal. “You got it,” I said. “I’m what all the bad girls get.”

Social weekend! Just finished …

2009-12-11T23:05:08Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Social weekend! Just finished the CWU Writing Center holiday party. Tonight, the Mercury. Tomorrow, Norwescon meeting and holiday social.

Woohoo! Final final is done. F…

2009-12-10T04:40:55Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Woohoo! Final final is done. Feeling good about all of them. Grades next week, I think. Aiming for another 4.0 quarter. We’ll see!

Final word count for my “at le…

2009-12-09T22:45:51Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Final word count for my “at least 600 words” final LAJ401 (Ethics, Diversity, and Conflict in Criminal Justice) paper: 1,910. That’ll do.

Links for December 2nd through December 9th

2009-12-09T21:00:11Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Sometime between December 2nd and December 9th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

What Is Google Voice?: "Ever since I got my Google Voice account, I have had to repeatedly explain to friends and colleagues what Google's free phone service is and (more importantly) what it isn't. If you, like them, have heard about Google Voice but still aren't completely clear about how it works and why you should care, here are some quick answers."
Start BitTorrent Downloads Remotely With Dropbox: "Now as long as you keep Dropbox and BitTorrent running, you can start torrents remotely. All you have to do is upload .torrent files to the Dropbox folder from wherever you are, using the web interface, and it should start downloading almost immediately on the other computer. I started doing this at the office, and it's worked for me without a hitch; by the time I get home, my downloads are usually ready. Give it a shot, and let me know what you think."
500 Internal Server Error: 500 Internal Server Error
Happy 30th Anniversary to Star Trek: The Motion Picture!: "30 years ago today, on December 7th 1979 Star Trek leapt from the small to the big screen with Star Trek: The Motion Picture. All week long TrekMovie will be celebrating the anniversary, beginning today with a tribute by Free Enterprise producer Mark Altman, that looks at the film and its place in history."
How to Create the Perfect Facebook Fan Page: A couple good tips, but the biggest is the FBML application. I need to install this and play with it for the CWU Writing Center Facebook page when I get some time.

But when Avatar explains away …

2009-12-09T18:54:10Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

But when Avatar explains away the giant floating rocks with unobtainium? http://djwudi.com/18 Made me laugh, and destroyed the illusion.

Second final done. Also did a …

2009-12-09T03:17:03Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Second final done. Also did a final presentation this morning. Just one final paper and test tomorrow. Almost done!

Read The American System of Cr…

2009-12-08T20:09:23Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Read The American System of Criminal Justice by George F. Cole - http://bit.ly/6uWUqK

One final down (LAJ300), two t…

2009-12-08T03:12:09Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

One final down (LAJ300), two to go (LAJ313, tomorrow; LAJ401, Wednesday). Then I’m done with this quarter and on winter break!

My ethics final paper has six …

2009-12-07T20:29:31Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

My ethics final paper has six questions, and a 600 word minimum. I broke 600 words just on the first two questions. Glad there’s no maximum!

Dear @seattletimes: Please fix…

2009-12-07T18:26:30Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Dear @seattletimes: Please fix your broken and annoying RSS feeds. Example: http://djwudi.com/16 Thankyouverymuch.

Prairie started putting Xmas d…

2009-12-07T04:22:55Z

Originally published at eclecticism. You can comment here or there.

Prairie started putting Xmas decorations up today. This also means that the Halloween decorations just came down today. We’re on the ball!