MichaelRunyon.com – All Things Geek

Leah and I went to see the new Bond movie tonight, Quantum of Solace. I had read a few reviews of the film before going, and despite my initial excitement at the second film in the reboot of the series featuring Daniel Craig, the reviews adequately prepared me for what I was about to experience. 

The movie is violent…extremely violent. That is not to say that there is a spectacular decapitation or something controversial. Moreso, it is that everything near and dear to everything, save the MI6 agents and the lead female, is destroyed or killed. What’s wrong with this concept is that it is not adequately setup with situations or dialogue that make it important to the viewer. The viewer should feel vindicated when a premier villain is gunned down or dies in some ironic way. The viewer should gasp in astonishment at the candor of the villain, when their master evil plan is revealed. Here, there is none of that. The film makers wrote the plot and the dialogue with much the same manner that the hero executes them: cold-blooded efficiency. 

The climactic moments are all destroyed by elements that are revealed prematurely in other parts of the film, the villains are not properly setup, their evilness is not well conveyed or even well explained. The protagonists accomplish their goals, but their is no celebratory sex so common with the genre. There is no feeling at all.

Sure, this is supposed to be a brutal reboot of the series, a more down to Earth James Bond. But to strip away both all that make a good film and all that makes a Bond film is leave nothing for the viewer to enjoy. The inventive circumstances and remote locations are barely noticed amid the unthinking combat and brutality. We are never on the edge of our seat, because we know so little about what is going on. If we are to enjoy ridiculous circumstances, at least make them a little fun. Don’t thtow the baby out with the bathwater: it leaves the film taking itself too seriously and alienating its proud and historic heritage.

Overall Review: 5.1/10 

Well, i got back last night from a wonderful trip to visit Leah’s dad’s family in Greeley, CO. The mountains are beautiful there, and only about an hours’ drive away. It does a body good to see something besides corn all the time. Here’s the link to the Picasa album: http://picasaweb.google.com/mrunyon/2008ColoradoHernandezVisit

I also sent out this year’s notification emails for the gift registry last week. I gave the registry a little face-lift. Hopefully it will be more useful now. More changes to come, i’m sure.

I’ve got a mountain of work to do now that i’m back, so i probably shouldn’t spend too much time writing about all that I’ve been doing lately. Working mostly, and trying desperately to stop time from screaming by so quickly. Winter is upon us in full force; I can only hope to focus on getting my crucial work done before all hell breaks loose and deadlines start looming.

Hope that you all are doing well. Best wishes to you all as winter approaches and a new season begins.

I realized today that I always spell tomorrow “tommorrow”. Now, when I look at it in this context, it makes perfect sense to me that it’s spelled the way that it is. And clearly, I eventually recognize that this word is not correct when it comes out of my hands. Yet, I cannot stop doing so. 

I find this behavior to be fundamentally different than that of a “bad speller”, if you will. I am aware that I am spelling something wrong, and due to the corrective functions of the tools that I use on a daily basis, I no longer have to go back and correct myself. Yet, I still remain in my ways, despite all evidence to the contrary. 

What aspects of ourselves can we analyze and come away with no solution? I have bitten my fingernails (an admittedly nasty habit) since birth, and continue to do so, even ravenously, and most noticeably during times of stress. I also compulsively (and also sub-conciously, i might add) chew the inside of my cheek. I don’t even notice that I’m doing it most of the time. Yet, if I had to devise a solution to get me to stop doing it, would I be able to? Short of something drastic or autonomous, I doubt that it would be successful. 

Which brings me round to my point again: What are we to do with behavior that we understand, but cannot correct? Should I continue to worry that I cannot bring myself to find solutions to behavioral problems within myself? Or is it strange to be so self-analytical, that you might even consider something of this nature. To be sure, it’s pretty late in the game to be trying to correct some of these things; consider that they’ve been happening my entire life. But that shouldn’t stop me/us from attempting to bring about the best sides of ourselves. 

I won’t waste time going over all of the strange and depressing things that have marked this presidential campaign year. I’m pretty sure that even the most stubbornly ignorant people in America have heard quite a bit about both candidates. How much of what they’ve heard is the truth, though, is the real question. 

I decided a while back, after doing some research, to abandon the practice of voting on the candidate, and voting for the ideals that I hold. After doing some personal investigation (with the aid of some websites) that I most closely align myself with the Green Party and the Libertarian Party. I am very much for the Constitution re-instatement platform that those affiliated with the Libertarian Party have been pushing lately. I feel that a true step towards the core values that the Constituation put into place would be a very good thing for this country. 

I was talking to my parents and sister the other day about how strange it was to find so many people who had such strong opinions about one candidate or the other without much basis. Certain relatives on one side of the family tend to repeat the somewhat fearful phrasings of the right, going on about Obama’s Muslim background and the abortion issue. I don’t really have a problem with them expressing their fears about those aspects, only lamenting that they are making such a large difference in their minds, versus some other aspects that I find to be much more important, such as the economy or foreign policy. 

Unfortunately, in regards to the war in Iraq, there appears to be no clear definitive difference between the two candidates. McCain seems to hold true to the right’s mantra about us leaving Iraq means signalling weakness. Obama has hinted at the idea of beginning to leave Iraq almost immediately after taking office, but I don’t recall much being made of an immediate and total withdrawal from either candidate. And even Obama has stated that perhaps we should focus our efforts in Afghanistan once again, to attempt to eliminate the root cause of the initial threat. I can’t say that I’m much of a fan of our troops being stationed in either place, as I feel occupation of either country is unjust, not to mention poorly executed. 

This brings me to my main point: neither of these candidates offers the radical change that I am looking for, and I feel that America needs. Sure, they have their differences, but they are very, very similar in almost every aspect. All this jockeying for votes seems to draw out their differences, but during these crucial times, it seems to draw them much closer together (as far as issues are concerned). Each party makes their common cracks about stereotypes about the other party, and round and round we go. But at the end of the day, aside from some grandiose talk about fixing problems that we could easily avoid, a great majority of the problems that we face will remain no matter which candidate is chosen by the populace.

This is the time for a 3rd party to rise to legitimacy. Many of the candidates who represent them are fairly well known. Ralph Nader is probably known to a great many of Americans, though I rather doubt that the positive associations outweigh the negative. In 2004, I was one of only 18,058 people in the entire state of Indiana to vote Libertarian (Michael Badnarik at the time) for the presidential election. Indiana had 2,463,830 people vote in the 2004 election, so 0.73 percent of Indiana voted Libertarian. Not a strong total.

Given the radical difference in policies between Nader and other 3rd party candidates and the 2 main party candidates, it’s really a shame that they aren’t given more of a chance to make themselves known to the American people, to offer Americans a chance to invoke true change in the country. Unfortunately, without the staggering funding that the candidates have brought to bear on this election, and without the white-hot focus of the corporation-owned media news outlets, they don’t stand a snowballs chance in being actually elected. The last successful independent candidate was Ross Perot, and many would argue that his success was largely because of his personal wealth, allowing him to enter the households and consciences of many more Americans than today’s independents. 

Coming full circle, despite these candidates near-impossibility at becoming elected in our 2-party oligarchical system, I still feel that it is best to vote on the issues that you wish to become present in our government, and not for a particular candidate. Too often we fall into the polarizing sensationalism of the media (you’re either on the right (republican) or on the left (Democrat)), and allow ourselves to enter that mob mentality that gets us collectively nowhere. Until we can stop fighting bloody, expensive wars amongst two parties that behaved in almost exactly the same fashion for the past 20 years, I don’t think there is much hope at all for real change to had, despite what some fresh-faced Senator from Illinois might want you to believe.

But, hoping against hope, if he is elected, I can always be pleasantly surprised. Until then, however, I will continue to cast my vote where I hope it will do the most good: another brick in the slow rebuild of 3rd party legitimacy.�

Today, i was stopped in the parking lot of the Post Office and asked a few questions by WSBT about concerns about the bailout and the economy. The goal of the questioners was to find out what people had questions about, concerns about. I mainly talked about what I thought caused it, and what the ramifications would/will be. Therefore, I barely made it in the clip. The last interviewee who says “I think it will affect everyone”….that’s me. Too bad that I tried to sound intelligent with my answers and they chose a clip that shows me talking out of the side of my mouth, wearing a dirty looking shirt…there is no escaping the stigma.

Here’s a link…

http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/29969904.html 

In an attempt to re-invent myself in small ways, I recently thought of shaving off my goatee. I’ve been growing it since mid-way through my first semester at college, and with the exception of a particular bad shave job, it’s been on my chin in one manner or another for 4 years and 7 months, give or a take a bit.

I don’t know what prompted it, but I am always for changing it up, given that the change is not too drastic or risky. So when I thought of shaving the goatee, well, that tugged a bit at the security blanket side of me. I covered my chin with my hand, thought of how I might look without it. I was none too impressed. Yet, I feel an overwhelming urge to attempt to change up something about my appearance, that has been in stasis for quite some time. Not that I am looking for anything in particular, but it annoys me that this little thing can cause such consternation.

My wife urges me to reconsider, stating that I will look fully 5 years younger if I do so, and that she likes it. Given that others have to look at me much more than I do myself, I am wont to give their opinions some consideration, but consider, too, that it will grow back in a short time. 

So, the question still remains….shave it, or don’t shave it?

I am certainly not the first to make the clever pun of referring to whatever addictive object or concept that rhymes (in any way) with Crack as such (Blackberry/Crackberry, World of Warcraft/World of WarCrack, etc). How juvenile…:) But to say that StackOverlow is akin to CrackOverflow would be an understatement.

Crack, er, StackOverflow was released as a private beta from the creators of Coding Horror and Joel on Software (Jeff Atwood and Joel Sposky, respectively) about 6 weeks ago. I joined the private beta pool (which was by request/invitation only) about 3 weeks ago, and found the site to be a great idea, if the original users were a bit caustic (very picky about staying within the realm of realized discussion and answers). However, the endless searching of topics that you know about or want to know about quickly rose the site to the level of Wikipedia for me. To clarify this point, let me explain…

I love information. I love to study data, read it, extrapolate it, make judgements, etc. It’s little surprise that I chose my current profession (web developer/programmer) given this analysis, as I primarily work with data, often creating reports, etc. Wikipedia is perhaps the largest and complete source of interlinked information ever (save the entirety of the Internet), and one can get lost in its vast caverns of subjective and interesting information. I have put in mental stopgaps to prevent me from blowing an entire afternoon reading about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge or the frictional density of osmium, as Wikipedia would be glad to instruct you about.

StackOverflow is quickly becoming a programming/development specific source like that. There are already 12,000+ questions on the site, some with hundreds of answers. It’s a mass collaboration of those who share a like profession (and sometimes, mindset), and their collective knowledge of whatever subject is being discussed. Not only are you drawn into the site to find some question to answer your problem, but you also feel drawn to help others find the answer to their problems via the information that you know. A great deal of the time, there is no clear answer, and the questioner is left to decide for his/herself what the best and most plausible answer is.

I’m not particularly inclined to seek out questioners who I think can benefit from my answers, but I don’t deny that there is a good feeling when a question/answer is well-liked by the community. With a community that appears to be as talented and professional well developed as StackOverlow seems, that kind of rapport helps to keep one from feeling totally isolated, as is often a common consequence of solo developers.

Unsuprisingly, there are not that many question regarding Coldfusion, as Jeff and Joel’s audience tends to be more .NET/PHP developers. Not that it bothers me that much anyway, as I don’t consider myself to be a totally Coldfusion developer. I attempt to remain fluent in as many languages as possible, though some of the core ideas of some of the languages keep this possibility from being easier than it is.

That said, I have thus far found StackOverflow to be a better source than simple Googling in many of the less definitive questions, ones that warrant discussion by the members. This is particularly interesting, in that one of the stated purposes of the site is to become a definitive, searchable source of information, much like a wiki, where one can take their searchable problem.

So, a word to the wise…stay away from StackOverlow. Keep doing your job or learning about other things, not on the Internet. Keep me and the other information addicts safely away, lest you get sucked in yourself.

After a pretty hefty dry spell in this area during the latter part of August and early September, the South Bend area experienced between 7-11 inches of rain between Saturday morning and Sunday evening. The 7-inch one day total for Saturday is the standing record for single-day rainfall in this area. The news played many clips of families with heavy flooding, especially those in low-lying areas. I went out briefly on Sunday afternoon and found myself soaked. There were a great many near-impassable places, with quite a few unlucky sedans floating through the puddles. Happily, I saw quite a few people in better equipped vehicles jump out to assist their neighbors.

My roof withstood much of the downpour until Sunday afternoon, when the heaviest rain occurred, due in great part to Hurricane Ike making its way up to the Midwest. A small leak from the top of my dormer caused a small drip leak that put a small puddle on my floor. The rain subsided shortly after finding the leak, so I thought that would be the extent of my problems, but sadly, I went thereafter into the basement and found quite a few small puddles of water that had risen through the floor of the basement. I went rapidly searching around for wall or ceiling leaks, but finally concluded that the water table had just risen enough to come up through the cracks in the foundation.

Probably about half of the laundry in the laundry room got wet, and so we had to divide the wet from the dry, for proper washing. Very time-consuming and frustrating, all the way around. I can’t complain too much, given the extreme circumstances. There was very little damage, mostly just annoyance. I will have to follow up on the roof leak, however, since I now know that the minor repairs done last summer were not enough to hold off extreme weather.

Notre Dame beat Michigan soundly today, 35-17, in a game heavily influenced by rain in the latter half. Michigan made some key errors at the outset of the game, and I, along with the rest of the doubtful Irish fans, watched in disbelief as Notre Dame went up 21-0 in the first quarter. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Michigan fought back, somewhat, to their credit, and established a good running game against the Irish, something that I think Notre Dame needs to work on, as it was a repeat feeling from last week against SDSU. Notre Dame excelled in all aspects of their offense, getting exceptional field position many times due to interceptions, fumble recoveries or other errors by Michigan, and scoring in the red zone extremely well. They only seemed to falter once the rain came on heavily, and started to pound the ball via their backs and much improved offensive line.

Notre Dame can have few complaints about this game, though Charlie Weis did suffer a knee injury during a strange play where an ND player was blocked out of bounds and rolled over Weis’ leg. The replays showed a grisly bend of the leg towards the impact. The report at half-time was that the MCL and ACL was torn, and he would be seeking surgery this week. Yikes! That kinda thing doesn’t happen too often.

I have somewhat strengthened hope in Notre Dame after this win, though Michigan essentially gift-wrapped it for them with their many mistakes. Michigan hasn’t proven themselves a quality win yet, either, with their shaky win over Miami of Ohio, and a loss to Utah (though with Utah’s new ranking, that is looking less bad all the time). We’ll find out the new couple weeks whether the Irish are returning to their old ways, when they play MIchigan State at East Lansing and then Purdue at home. Purude took No.16 Oregon to two overtimes, so they will be a quality opponent.

Friday night I saw the new Cohen borthers movie, “Burn After REading”. I actually convinced my wife, sister, and mother to join me in watching it. It helps that the movie has serious star power and appeal in Brad Pitt and George Clooney. I also love John Malkovich in pretty much everything that he does.

The movie is the next in a long line of black comedies from the Cohen brothers, who have been making many movies like this over the years. Even in last  year’s smash hit, “No Country for Old Men”, they incorporated a bit of the situational black comedy, where something shocking or ironic happens, and the audiences just has to laugh at how absurd or unexpected the action or twist was. Don’t be confused, however, by my description. The plots in all of their movies are well constructed, and “Burn After Reading” is no exception.

I did not find the movie as successful as some of the other Cohen brothers offerings, and thought that a few points in the movie were a bit weak, and a few points of the dialogue seeminly forced, but did enjoy myself overall. I am not certain how much my anticipation of the next offering from one of my favorite directorial talents played into my enjoyment. I feel a fair amount of confidence that the same movie, played with different actors, would have been just as successful, but that the same movie, directed by others, would not. It’s the small things that they do that make it great, along with great dialogue and excellent storyline.

I would put this movie somewhere above “The Ladykillers” and somewhere below “The Big Lebowski” in terms of enjoyment and success. I did enjoy the movie, but feel that it will not have the staying power that some of their other offerings have enjoyed.

Overall Synopsis: 7.7/10