Gay or Geek, wait, you're both right.

I know its been a while since I posted, let's not dwell on that fact. Now for the rant.

I like action movies. But I've noticed an annoying trend. An attempt to disguise dull fight choreography with cinematic tricks. Namely, rapid almost twitchy, movement of the camera.

People have told me that I over analyze things, rather than just enjoy the ride. But its the enjoyment that's the problem. My basic reaction to watching action that's obscurred by 'shakey camera' or an overuse of flare effects is frustration.

Action movies don't bring much to the table. They're rarely good stories, they rarely have quality character development. They bring dnamic, unrealistic action to the viewer. When that's abscurred, then I feel jipped.

I wish every action-movie director would watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer with an eye on how good action can be if you let the camera sit still for periods at a time.

/Rant off

Handspring got there first.

The first Smartphone I ever saw was the Handspring visor with an addon that made it work with TMobile's cellular network. Not long after, Blackberry joined the fold, but Palm Smartphones were first.

As with Creative coming out with the first hard drive based portable music player, getting there first means that others are going to come behind you and do it better.

I have owned 4 generations of palm/handspring smartphones. And I've been adamantly loyal. But the lack of high speed internet and the worst portable web browser in the world has had me thinking maybe it's time to switch.

I won't go with an iPhone. I don't like the hype, and I don't like their policies about 3rd party apps. Plus, I don't use Windows or Mac, so I can't run iTunes, anyway.

I looked today at the G1 with Google Android on it. The review I read was positive, and I'd consider it, tho, I don't want to switch from AT&T to T-Mobile. So, I'm sort of all over the fence.

But in the land of Palm, there are rumors about their next generation of operating system, based on Linux, as is Android and I believe the iPhone. They could announce something as soon as CES in January. So, I should wait to see.

But is Palm already dead? Will people develop for the new os in the face of Android and the iPhone? What to do, what to do?

I've blogged about my answer to intelligent design, before. The belief that the universe is so chaotic that if you want to see a pattern that suggests the existance of something, you can likely find it. It involves a bit of "turning a blind eye" to data that doesn't fit the pattern, but that becomes the debate between believers and non-believers.

Last night, I was having a long overdue conversation with one of my best friends, Evelyn. During the conversation, she related something that was told to her by a mutual friend on a singular date they had years ago.

Not sure what brought up the topic, but he asked her if she was enjoying the restaurant. She said "yes". He then asked her to start looking around and examine what's wrong with the restaurant. She found peeling wallpaper, damaged table and other things. The point he was making is how you experience something is directly affected by the context you create by your mindset.

If you look negatively at the world around you, you'll notice the negative. If you look positively (or, dare I suggest, neutrally), then you're going to see positive.

Evelyn and I talked about this for a while. I related my experience with weight loss. Before my sister's wedding in 2004, the idea of weight loss felt, to me, to be completely unachievable. Then, during the week approaching the wedding, my mind changed (probably the lack of oxygen, I was fat and Albuquerque is a high elevation). Suddenly, weight loss was accessible.

Nothing had changed about weight loss. I already knew how to lose weight. I didn't need any new information. My view of things shifted. And the impossible seemed possible.

I've experienced darkness before. I've been down and thought that that was it. There was no more hope. And every time, I came out of it, and the inaccessible, miraculously, became accessible. Solutions to the practical issues began presenting themselves.

I don't believe, as 12 steppers suggest, that a higher power intervenes on my behalf. I believe that Solutions always existed, and that turning my attention to them makes them much easier to see.

This all sounds so, very new-agey. I'm talking about the Power of Positive Thinking and affirmatively visualizing your goals. What that boils down to, for me, isn't some spiritual energy that I'm pouring out into the universe that will get me what I want. But, instead, open my mind to the solutions I want, cause when I'm open to them, then I can find them.

Tell me, does it still sound like new-agey bullshit?

I'm watching Dr. Strange on Cartoon Network. It's pretty well done and entertaining. But Dr. Strange is a more obscure Marvel Comic hero, so I don't expect many people to be interested. Probably why I like the movie.

Today I saw that Cartoon Network is airing a new Batman Series Batman: The Brave and the Bold. I'm SO tired of this story being told over again. There's a handful of comic book characters that get airtime. Batman and Spiderman are at the top of the list. It's starting to get tedious. There are so many great stories out there. Ugh.

I just took my resume down from Dice.com. I keep getting calls from recruiters and I start to wonder if maybe there are better jobs out there. I'm actually happy with my work, so not looking for something new.

The page 56 meme, inflicted upon me by urbear.

Page 56 Meme
* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the next seven sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"I've got something in my eye." Zubrette lied quickly "Garion was trying to get it out for me."

Garion stood blushing furiously.

"Really?" Aunt Pol said. "How interesting, Come with me, Garion."

"I--" he started.

"Now, Garion."

And that was the end of that. ...

From Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings.

Riding the Path train to and from Brian's a couple times a week, I've been exposed to something. A very pleasant, female voice coming over the loudspeaker reminding us to "be diligent and report suspicious activity."

I've been listening to this for months, and never thought much about it, until one day recently. How Orwellian is this? They want us to use our powerful intellects and bring them to bear on determining what's "suspicious".

a friend of mine just told me a story. He's a flight attendant and was approached by a passenger. The passenger was complaining about a guy with Arabic lettering on his t-shirt. Upon examination the Sanskrit symbol for Om was on his t-shirt.

I believe racial profiling is wrong. I think the law abiding, African American members of my family should be able to travel around this country unmolested.

Part of me can accept when officials do it. but any old 'tard riding the path train? Unacceptable.

*rant off*

EJ: Now he looks masculine.
Ray: Oh come on, he's a personal assistant for Tori Spelling if he's anything.

You know the part in video games where you think you've hit the stride on a really difficult part? You think "This is overwhelming, but I may actually have a shot at it". But one missed button press and everything turns south? Yeah, that's where I am.

I hate the term. I hate it because it diminishes the point. The point that, on some level, it's just correct.

When I hear someone dismissing something as "politically correct", I get upset. It comes down to a question of values. Something is important to someone. But to another, it's not. These are differing values. Dismissing something as "politically correct" is saying "your values aren't worth my time and effort." But a large percentage of the time, I never feel that that much consideration has been given.

I had a friend tell me about something that made him uncomfortable. When I stepped in on his behalf, I was met with resistance about how being "politically correct" is ruining everyone's fun. What noone considers, tho, is the pain they're causing someone else. Because it doesn't hurt the speaker, they feel it shouldn't hurt anyone else. They're saying that their value system should supersede someone else's. Right or wrong, that's disrespectful.

I say right or wrong, because there are values I don't respect and won't respect. But I make that decision deliberately. And if I'm coming close to hurting one of my friends, then I need to stop and consider whether I've made the wrong decision.

You may not want to be bound by being "politically correct", but are you being just plain correct?

Charlie dragged me to see this movie. Was alot of fun, despite Perez Hilton being in it.

What amazed me, tho, was the amount of product placement in it. Gay products and websites. It's kind of interesting that the community supports itself with unashamed mainstream commercialism.

Applying for job
Failed to attach resume
No love for Raymond

TV's on in the background. TLC's show My First Home. There's a pretty, young, blonde, giggly girl (complete with highlights in her hair) who's just visited a mortgage broker and been confused by all the complicated numbers. Then in a typically reality TV confessional moment, she looks at the camera and says:

"I think shopping for a house will be more stressful than going to the mall."

Geez, I hate people, sometimes

How many fingers does Naruto have, anyway?

I have a client with an online intake survey done using a service with limited form validation features. They asked me if I knew any other solutions.

Flex, the application development framework based on Flash, struck me as ideal for this. I've studied Flex a bit, but have never had any opportunity to put it into action. So, I did up a sample survey with validation and server submission, to see how it's done.

Flex applications can be written in a mixture of XML and ActionScript. But, at the basic level, it should be possible to minimize the amount of ActionScript and do the bulk of the development in XML. This is appealing because the client will be more able to understand the source in "pure" XML.

I created the form, the validation rules and the submission pieces in XML only using the ActionScript shorthands when I needed data binding (another of Flex's benefits). But ran into one problem. The validators are powerful and work, except that invalid data doesn't stop the form from being submitted. The data gets sent to the server regardless of the validity of the data. The only way I can see to do it is to write ActionScript to check the form before sneding the data.

This isn't onerous, I just find it annoying. It seems so weird that this simple application got this far into development using xml alone, and then it just stops. It seems like a simple attribute or container or something could tie the validation into one submission blocking event.

Ugh, I hate it when technology disappoints me.

One of the most uselful utilities I've ever used is KDirStat (for Linux) or WinDirStat (the Windows Port of the same). This utility allows you to visualize your hard drive space and see what's being spent on what. The visualization may take a bit to understand, but once you do, it's very well organized and can show you where your drive space is being used. If you find yourself running short in hard drive space, these applications can easily help you figure out where you can get the most bang for your file deleting buck.

Just my geeky 2 cents.

My mom wants a website. She asked me to help. I told her, one of my design steps is to ask people for "3 websites they find attractive" so I can get a sense of what they like. This conversation followed:

Ray: Oh, ok, then 3 websites you find "attractive". I need to get a sense of your aesthetic.
Mom: LOL
Mom: Don't think I have an aesthetic
Ray: I've seen your house, you DEFINATELY have an aesthetic :P
Mom: Yeah, anything red
Ray: see, now, that was a bit of direction I didn't have before :P

What annoys me is how the home networking industry has muddled the definition of a "router". What we think of as "Routers" for home use are really a combination of router, hub or switch, wireless access point, and, in the case of airports, print and multicast sound servers. Normally, I'd be all "who cares" about it. Mac users, especially, want their one device that does everything, but when you want to break out of that model, the definitions end up being a problem. My friend asked me if he could move his printer to a different part of his apartment by buying another router? Yes, another Airport would do it, but that's more expensive than you need, look for a Wireless Print Server instead. And I never know how much I want to unravel what the industry has done.

[Edit: part of this got ate, had to rewrite it]

People want their computers to work, but they don't want to pay money for it. My friends frequently come to me with questions. The "needs approval" part of me, gladly helps them out. But sometimes, the reliance on me is burdensome and when it's part of someone's business, I start to resent giving it away for free.

Just had a conversation with a former associate. I'd helped them set up their email with a provider I'm associated with. Since then, we'd ended our consulting relationship (on ok terms). She still comes to me with questions (how do you do this in excel, can pdf's be used for that?). And I answer them. But she's got a significant problem with her email and she thinks I'm the only one that can help her (I'm probably best suited to help her, since I know more about the setup and her work habits). So, she's been coming after me to figure it out.

I finally took the awkward step to remind her that I'm not actually employed to do tech support for them and this is a bit more involved than "casual advice". She immediately offered to contact her boss about payment, which is good, but I HATE having these conversations.