There IS a difference...

...between 128kbps and 256kbps. Slate has the goods.

Some things you might not know about hybrid cars in general and the Camry in particular.

1. In the first five to ten minutes, it uses the gas engine just like a regular car. After the vehicle warms up a bit, you can go into "stealth mode," where the gas engine stops running and you're entirely on electric power, under certain circumstances. But if you hit a stop light in those first few minutes, you're guzzling just as much gas as an Escalade.
2. Despite this, I've gotten "stealth mode" at speeds as high as 40 mph. After you've driven for a while, if you're going, say, downhill, the car will indeed cut out the engine and operate entirely on electricity. And if you have a light touch on the accelerator, it'll continue doing so when you reach level ground. Going uphill will always invoke the gas engine, though.
3. Watch out for pedestrians when driving slowly. It's amazing just how quiet the damn thing is when the gas engine is off. And if people don't see you, they tend to not get out of your way if they don't hear you.
4. The economy display is hypnotic. The dash has a section that displays exactly where the power is going--if it's coming from the engine or the electric motor, or if (when coasting or braking) the wheels are sending power back into the battery. Be aware of the road, though. As fascinating as it is, it will not be an excuse in your hit-and-run trial.
5. The MPG gauge is the tachometer for the '00s. Every car should have one of these, whether hybrid or not. It's a beautiful sight to see when, exactly, you're getting over 60 miles to the gallon.
   
6. It starts with a button, and opens with a touch! Maybe Toyota is implementing this with their whole fleet, not just hybrids, I don't know. But there's nothing quite like the X-Men feeling you get when you have a transponder in your pocket and your car unlocks when you touch the door handle. Bizarre...
7. The nastiest secret of all: despite all the technology, and the advance in years and gas prices, our '94 Saturn still got better highway mileage.

256k: $1.29. Sharing songs with your wife: Priceless.

Finally, DRM-free music available à la carte. Thank you, EMI. And may the rest of the labels follow. (And I eagerly await Amazon's entry into the fray, which will also be DRM-free and may be cheaper, in fact, than iTunes.)

Now, the question is: do I put my money where my mouth is and refuse to download DRM'ed audio? Make a principled stand, rewarding EMI but shunning the other labels?

Maybe. It's easier to do that than work for peace.

Al-Qaeda's Enabler.

Say what you will about Andrew Sullivan, this post is good enough to merit reprinting in full (boldface mine):

The president's press conference last week left me at a loss for words. Spluttering is not a real response. But how else to respond to a man who has spawned a catastrophe in the Middle East and then behaves as if it's his critics who are out of touch with reality? Then we get this latest news about pre-war intel from the WaPo and the dreadful but obvious reality in the NYT that every road ahead in Iraq - staying or leaving, surging or redeploying - is full of death, terror and chaos. The light at the end of this tunnel is hard to glimpse. But Bush is still proudly digging the tunnel.

What can one say? Well: we can say this at least. The president is right that al Qaeda remains a terrible threat to Americans. He is right to insist on this. But one core reason he is right is because he has been in the White House for the last six years. Al Qaeda surely never had a more helpful man in such a powerful place. After over six years of this presidency, Bin Laden is still at large. Five and a half years after Bin Laden's religious tools murdered 3,000 innocents, this president still cannot find or capture or kill him. Five and a half years after that dreadful day, al Qaeda's reach in the Middle East is more extensive than ever, centered in Iraq, where it was barely existent before the war. Over four years after invading Iraq, the security situation there is as grave as it has ever been. Tens of thousands of innocents have been added to the three thousand murdered on 9/11 - many of them unspeakably tortured and murdered by death squads or Islamist cells empowered by Bush's jaw-dropping negligence. Over three thousand young Americans have died in order to give al Qaeda this victory and this new platform.

Here is Bush's gift to the victims of 9/11: two new al Qaeda safe havens - in Anbar and in Pakistan. He gave Zarqawi a second career, by refusing to kill him when had a clear shot in 2003, and then allowing him to run rampant across Iraq for several years. Islamists, moreover, are far closer now to getting their hands on WMDs than they were when Bush became president - the very casus belli I foolishly bought to go to war with Saddam. Given the financial boost al Qaeda has gotten from the Iraq invasion, the massive propaganda coup they have won by Bush's authorization of torture, and the triumph of Iran as a consequence of Bush's non-existent "strategy", isn't it simply a fact that Bush is the best thing to happen to al Qaeda since its founding? Is not the record now clear that, whatever their intentions, Bush and Cheney have actually advanced the day when Islamist terrorists will kill and murder more Americans?

If a Democrat had been responsible for endangering America in this fashion, the Republicans would have impeached him by now. If a Democrat had bungled a war as obviously as this president - a war, moreover, that he has described as an existential struggle for our survival - the Republicans would long ago have Carterized him. Look how the Israelis have held Olmert accountable for his feckless war in Lebanon. Compared to Bush, Olmert is Churchill. If Bush's record in this war is "offense," then the only sane response is: so was the charge of the light brigade.

Just to anger up the blood some more, it's now clear, thanks to the latest Congressional report, that this president was warned starkly about the dangers of "a surge of political Islam and increased funding for terrorist groups" as a result of an invasion of Iraq. He was told that Iraq was "largely bereft of the social underpinnings" for democracy. He was explicitly informed that there was "a significant chance that domestic groups would engage in violent conflict with each other unless an occupying force prevented them from doing so." And yet he still sent a pathetically insufficient occupation force in 2003 - and refused to increase it for three years of growing chaos and mayhem. Even if you excuse the original recklessness, the persistence in it - until our current point of no return - is and was criminal negligence - a callous disregard for your security and mine.

The gravity of the mistake this country made in 2004 by re-electing al Qaeda's best bet is only now sinking in as deep as it should. I fear, however, that we have yet to experience the full and terrifying consequences of that historic mistake.

Pushbutton start.

We have put our global-warming money where our mouth is.

Yesterday, as we gassed up the minivan to go to Salisbury and visit my grandparents, I looked at the price--fifty-two bucks for three quarters of a tank--and something snapped. I got back in the car and said to K, "That's it. We need a hybrid."

Today, after glancing at the 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid, we drove off the lot in Carmax with a 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid. Forty-three MPG city, 37 highway. And despite being "used," it has less than 500 miles on it.

We're keeping the minivan for long trips, at least for now, so we are once again a two-car family (sigh). I'm fine with a smaller car--I would have been fine with a Civic or a Prius, for instance--but K is worried about it. It's my hope that we'll sell the Venture soon, though.

Funny how I get a "practical" car for my mid-life crisis! How lame!

Further impressions to follow.

See that "books read" list?

Great, another thing to be obsessed with...

A "review" of Five-Minute Dracula.

Shoot, I wish I had known about this back when I was doing those video podcasts...

Multiple choice.

A 35 year old man, embarking on an early midlife crisis, should do which of the following?

A. Buy a Mini Cooper.
B. Embark on a extramarital affair.
C. Grow his hair long and tie it back into a ponytail.

If you answered C, give yourself a point.

"It's over!" -- Strong Bad

Earnest closed last night with our most responsive audience yet. Now, I eagerly await the inevitable post-show depression.

It's strange, how one spends weeks rehearsing, bitching and moaning about what a pain it is to be staying up late and so on. But then the show opens and suddenly I could do it for ten weeks more. Instead, we close after only five performances! But that's the way PGLT does it.

Sometimes I wish I hadn't given up my dreams of being a Working Actor. One of my co-stars, who is about a year out of college, has that dream, but seems to be managing to avoid all the mistakes I made (and she has talent to boot), so might well make it. Nonetheless, I want to grab her and say, "Don't give up! Don't look for safety! Keep at it!" But honestly, I doubt she needs that exhortation, least of all from me.

Besides, the fact that I'm having success at a community theater level is, quite frankly, rather like being (as they say) the world's tallest midget. The moment I tried to make it professionally, I'd be swarmed with rejection, just like I was when I (briefly) tried it ten or so years ago.

(By the way, I misspoke in the previous entry. I have gotten reviewed more recently than college--for Hamlet, Revenge! But that particular piece, which appeared in our local, volunteer newspaper, was written by... the husband of one of the cast members. So I tend to not count it.)

"Like an Elephant Sitting on your Lap!"

It's my first review since college! And my first ever in a non-school newspaper!

From the Baltimore Sun:

Zachary Brewster-Geisz is a charming Algernon, creating high comedy as he first gobbles all of the cucumber sandwiches intended for his Aunt Augusta and later devours most of the muffins in an eating contest with Jack. Brewster-Geisz creates high comedy with Karl Heimer's Jack and displays genuine chemistry with Katie Keddell's Cecily.

"We did it, we did it, oh yeah yeah yeah... no eating here tonight, you on a diet..."

How many unfinished novels do you have?

Occasionally, I get the silly idea that I want to be a novelist again, despite the fact that it's been nearly ten years since I wrote anything lengthy, prose or otherwise. Today I went through my laptop's hard drive and discovered two fragments, one of which was horrible, the other of which was actually pretty good, or at least had potential.

Both were for Nanowrimo (a concept which I love in theory but in practice drives me literally insane) and as such even the good one has its cringeworthy moments. Most annoyingly, the second one was conceived as a mystery, but now I have no idea what the mystery was about, or how it would have been solved. In fact, I could see it as a simple love story. Because it was Nanowrimo, I didn't make an outline or any notes or anything of the sort, and in truth I don't even remember writing it--were it not on my computer and set in a place based on somewhere I used to work, I'm not sure I would recognize it.

But maybe you would! Here it is. All rights are reserved at this point, but probably not for long. Read it and weep... or laugh, I don't care.

Seen this one yet?

1. Go to http://www.google.com
2. Click on "maps"
3. Click on "get directions"
4. Type "New York" in the first box (the "from" box at the very top of the page)
5. Type "London" in the second box (the "to" box next to it with arrow)
6. Click on "get directions."
7. Scroll down to step # 24

Via Achenblog.

The weather report.

Today is my father's birthday. He would have been 69 years old. That's why.

I just read SF author John Scalzi's treatise on writing, You're Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop. I found it at the local library. While adding it to my "books read" list, I noticed the current selling price.

Now I'm afraid to return it, lest someone with fewer scruples than me steal it and sell it...

(How a limited edition, signed copy ended up in the Prince George's County library system is a mystery to me, anyway.)

Paging John Linnell! (Or is it Flansburgh?)

My friend Pat has been indulging in a Star Wars theme this month, in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of its release, and it's been a real treat to check in each day to see the new YouTubiness--including the very first trailer, which I had never seen before.

But I especially wanted to highlight today's entry, specifically the second clip, for its musicianship. Sure, it sounds like a medley of the Star Wars themes played on an accordion would be pure Mos Eisley (we must be cautious). But listen to the arrangements this guy came up with. He really paid attention to John Williams' orchestration and translated it beautifully. His playing is adequate--there are a few flubs here and there--but his attention to detail is breathtaking.

In other news, tomorrow's weather forecast shows a 50% chance of loneliness, with late depression and a slight chance of tears. (Don't worry. All will be explained...)

Lyric of the Moment.

A new feature, shamelessly stolen from Medley...

Here's "True Affection" by the Blow, from the album Paper Television. Draw whatever inferences you like from the choice...

I was out of your league....
and you were twenty thousand underneath the sea
Waving affections
You were out of my league
at a distance that I didn't want to see
Down to the bottom

I wanted a junction, and often there was one
You'd surface face first and we'd share thought bubbles
and I still believe in the phrases that we breathed
but I know the distance isn't fair to cross

I was out of your league....
and you were twenty thousand underneath the sea
Waving affections
You were out of my league
at a distance that I didn't want to see
wanted you nearer

Your depths made a pressure that punctured my works
and all your fluids couldn't tolerate the force of my thirst
I love the place, where we shared our tiny grace
But just because it's real don't mean it's going to work

I was out of your league....
and you were twenty thousand underneath the sea
Waving affections
You were out of my league
at a distance that I didn't want to see
wanted you nearer

and true affection floats
true affection sinks like a stone
I never felt so close
I never felt so all alone

I was out of your league....
and you were twenty thousand underneath the sea
Waving affections
You were out of my league
at a distance that I didn't want to see
wanted you nearer

Five sandwiches; five muffins; sundry candy.

Come to the Bowie Playhouse and watch me stuff my face throughout Acts One and Two of The Importance of Being Earnest. Time is runnin' out!

EDIT: And whee, here's me!

Snxxxx....

It's been a whirlwind few days--we're in final tech rehearsals for Earnest and as if that wasn't bad enough, on Saturday I flew to Michigan for a day for my cousin's wedding, getting back into D.C. at midnight. The next morning, I drove over to the Bowie Playhouse to do a put-in (where I BUILT A WALL!!!) and cue-to-cue 'til 10 P.M. Since then, I've been at the theater 'til at least eleven every night; "taught" Tuesday morning at my daughter's nursery school; driven my son to Annapolis to see a special doctor; and attempted to get The Cell-Phone in order for the Jacksonville Film Festival, where it may not show after all because I got them the screening copy late.

I cannot remember ever being this tired, even when my kids were newborns.

I'm back!

At least, as much as I ever am.

I had planned to go into detail about Dad's death (within reason); transcribe the eulogy, describe the grieving process, and so forth. But on further reflection, I think those moments... belong to me, and to my family (especially my wife, who has been a tremendous shoulder to lean on, and I thank her).

By most definitions, Dad raised me alone, for good and for bad. So much of my own self-image is wrapped up in him that losing him, even though there was much resentment and anger between us over the years, is a major kick in the gut.

I suppose that's the case for any parent's loss. But in any case, there are some things that should be journalled, and some that shouldn't. I can see arguments on both sides for journaling this experience. But, for now at least, these experiences shall remain within me.

There's so much crap bumping around in my heart, I could write a novel. Just not a very good one.

Aching.

There aren't exactly hordes of readers waiting on my next post, but it's gonna be a while before I can put my thoughts down on paper (metaphorically speaking). And when I say "a while," it could mean six hours, or six months. I'm just not sure.

Dad and I weren't Bestest Friends à la "Gilmore Girls" or anything. Nonetheless, I've found it difficult to get through today without thinking, "I should give Dad a call, he'd get a kick out of that" or "I wonder what Dad's up to?"

More.

I'm at a Holiday Inn Express in Waterbury, Connecticut. I had a good dinner last night with my sister and her boyfriend. We decided on Friday for the memorial service. He wanted to be cremated, and though I hate cremation--I don't feel I can say goodbye to ashes--it's not my decision, it's his.

The service will be a simple, off-the-menu lunch at Dunville's, a restaurant in Westport where Dad and I had dinner almost every night from the time I was in middle school to when I graduated from high school. (And Dad continued going until he moved out of Westport.) Many of the people who work there still remember him. It really was like a second home.

I'll be saying something. I'm not sure what just yet.

Thanks to everyone for your condolences. It means a lot to all of us.

This blog entry has no jokes.

My father had been having, as he put it, some "trouble with the post office." You see, back in December, we sent him his Christmas box, and a month or so later it came back, having never been picked up from his local post office. He asked us to re-send it, noting "Please leave at door," and so we did. Then it came back again, marked "no such person at this address." So I called him, and he said, in a rueful tone, "yeah, I need to get in touch with them. I'll fix it, don't send it just yet, I'll fix it." I joked that maybe I should deliver it personally, drive up to Connecticut and hand it to him, y'know? He laughed.

That was several weeks ago, and the package, still in its Priority Mail box, was sitting by our desk. We had chatted several times since--he had recently found Rooster Spice and would occasionally call to tell me what he thought of an entry (using the Comments box never crossed his mind, I guess). We last spoke on Saturday--a week ago yesterday--and he seemed in good spirits. We compared notes on being Presidents of cooperative nursery schools--coincidentally enough, he was a President, just like me, when his first kids were in preschool. K was also chatting with him occasionally about his family, for her genealogical research, and he was very interested.

This morning, around 11, my older sister D. called me. Dad died sitting in his chair in his apartment in Woodbury. He may well have just fallen asleep there--there was no sign of a struggle. We're not sure exactly when it happened, or why.

I'm someone with a theatrical imagination and a melodramatic bent. There have been a few times recently when I hadn't been able to get in touch with Dad for several days, and I "rehearsed" my reaction, as it were, if I found out he died. When it happened for real, it was a bolt from the blue, an utter shock. I was thinking to myself that I should call him--today is Easter, after all--but I figured I would do so in the afternoon. An hour later, D. called.

Now, I'm still processing. I suppose I'll rent a car tomorrow and drive to Connecticut, but I don't know what will happen next.

In the meantime, I opened the package. There I found the presents I expected: a photo album featuring our kids over the past year, and a copy of Thomas E. Ricks' Fiasco. And also, a Christmas stocking. We had expected him to come down this Christmas, so we bought it for him. When it turned out he couldn't, we decided to send it. I had forgotten.

I think he would have gotten a kick out of the stocking. And I know he would have enjoyed the book. But I really wish he had been able to see the pictures. Even more, I wish he had gotten on the train and visited us for Christmas, like we were planning. Failing that, I wish I had hand-delivered the presents.

He was 68 years old. Goodbye, Dad...

I always feel like...

...somebody's selling me...

My main issue with vlogging...

...is that I respected Matt Yglesias much more before I heard what his voice sounds like.

Rolling Stones on K's PDA?

Well, I'll be damned, Steve Jobs was telling the truth. In May, the iTunes store will offer DRM-free music from EMI's entire digital catalog (except the Beatles). OK, it's thirty cents more than the DRM-ed versions, but they're also higher quality--265kbps AAC as opposed to the current 128. Why not Apple Lossless, Steve? And when will indepedent artists get in on the DRM-free lovin' action?

Hey, Browncoats!

Did you know that the makers of Done the Impossible, a documentary about the rise and fall and rise of Firefly, have released the movie as a legal torrent under Creative Commons?

Houston, we have HD! In a very esoteric fashion, anyway...

As one might expect, grabbing HD frames from the MPEG-2 TS stream, and converting them to H.264 for the Apple TV, is a process fraught with danger, whether from the Long Conversion Time of Doom, the Horror of Out-Of-Sync Audio, or the Terror of Low Disk Space. But I tell ye, here are the programs you need on Mac OS X to make all your troubles vanish:

• iRecord, as mentioned in this space previously;
• iSquint, the iPod converter which also does a serviceable job converting for Apple TV; and last but not least
• MPEG Streamclip, an absolutely essential editor for MPEG-TS files.

All three of these items are absolutely free. For best results, especially if you want to edit out commercials, you should also buy Apple's MPEG2 player component for QuickTime, which is $20. But if you're fine with fast-forwarding, à la TiVo, you can do it all for free. Read on...

First off, you need a compatible HD cable box. I have the Motorola DCT-2600, the standard non-DVR digital box from Comcast. If your cable box has a FireWire output, it'll probably work.

Set up your recording in iRecord's intuitive interface. For me, I was taping Bones (a guilty pleasure my wife and I share; I like Emily Deschanel, she likes David Boreanaz). Fox is a 720p network. If you're taping on ABC or Fox, no scaling is needed; any other network broadcasts at 1080i, so you'll lose some resolution, as the Apple TV doesn't play 1080. In any case, I set the machine to record on Wednesday from 7:59 to 9:00 P.M. 8 to 9 would have been fine, too, as it turned out. (Needless to say, you'll have the computer connected to the box via FireWire at the appropriate time.)

Once the recording is finished, open MPEG Streamclip. If you haven't already, go to the Preferences window and check the box marked "Fix streams with data breaks." This is absolutely essential to make sure the audio and video sync up throughout the stream. Now open the MPEG-TS file you just recorded. It may tell you the file is not legal; hit "Open Anyway."

Now, if you don't have the Quicktime MPEG2 component, you'll get a warning and a play bar will appear, but no picture. No worries. Choose "Convert to MPEG..." from the File menu. You're transforming it from a transport stream to a picture stream (like those used on DVDs) but with no loss of resolution. You need to do this conversion so the aforementioned "Fix streams with data breaks" will apply to the new stream. You could just as easily convert it to a new TS stream as well.

When you've got the new picture stream done, open iSquint and drag the new file to the iSquint conversion list. Select "Optimize for TV" and "H.264 encoding," then hit the Advanced button. Now, enter a resolution of 1280 x 720, a data rate of 4500 (or so... in my experience you could go down to 2000 and still have it look OK), and a frame rate--this is important--of 23.976. If you put in a straight 24, you can get judder, since the original stream is running at 59.94 FPS. You should also choose an audio bitrate of 160 or less. Hit Start. Several cups of coffee later, you'll have an .mp4 file suitable for dropping into iTunes and syncing to your Apple TV! (If you have Quicktime Pro, you can open the .mp4 file in Quicktime, edit out the commercials, and save the result as a self-contained movie; the .mov will also play on the Apple TV.)

If you have the MPEG2 component, you can take iSquint out of the equation entirely. Open the first file (the MPEG-TS you recorded with iRecord) in MPEG Streamclip and edit it directly. MPEG Streamclip uses an in-point, out-point system for its edits; see the in-program help for details. Pay special attention to where the MPEG2 keyframes are; you can use the Go To Keyframe command in the Edit menu liberally. (MPEG Streamclip will choose appropriate cut points for you if you don't do this, but I prefer to have the control.) Then, instead of choosing Convert to MPEG, you can choose Export to MPEG-4 to convert directly. Again, you need to make sure "Fix streams with data breaks" is ON in Preferences, otherwise you're doing absolutely no good.

The bit rate, frame rate, audio bit rate, etc. settings are similar to iSquint. Just be sure you choose the 720p scaling if you've recorded a 1080i stream. I haven't done a 1080i stream yet, so YMMV. In particular, I'm not sure whether the frame-rate would still be 23.976. But I think so. You may also want to choose "de-interlace" for a 1080i file.

Be warned, MPEG Streamclip takes a lot longer to export than iSquint. On the other hand, the second process takes up a lot less disk space.

I realize, with my teeny weeny readership, most of you are probably scratching your head and saying "whaaa?" But if this helped, or if you have any questions or corrections, please do leave a comment in this post.

Edit: after writing most of this, I finished the Bones export. After about a half-hour, judder appears in the stream, as though the exported frame rate is not quite synched with the original frame rate. Perhaps 23.976 is not the magic number after all. Working...

Another reason the well-off are different.

As long as I'm quoting other blogs who are quoting other people, here's David Iglesias (via Digby), on part of the reason he won't run for political office:

And, frankly, I’ve got a practical matter. I’ve got four kids—all girls—so I’m going to have four weddings and four college educations in the next 15 years, and based on what members of Congress make…just do the math! It’s not very encouraging.

A rank-and-file member of Congress makes $165,200.

Granted, unless you're within driving distance of the Capitol, you essentially have to have two houses (since, according to the Constitution, a Congresscritter must reside in the state which they represent). Nonetheless, give me break; $165k ain't chicken feed. Iglesias can choose not to run for office for whatever reason he wishes. But don't try for my sympathy because you'd be getting a pay cut.

Don't call me stupid!

Jacob Weisberg pulls a Jamie Lee Curtis:

I am seldom bothered by minor errors from a good writer, but Roberts' mistakes are so extensive, foolish, and revealing of his basic ignorance about the United States in particular, that it may be worth noting a few of those I caught in a fast read. The San Francisco earthquake did considerably more than $400,000 in damage. Virginia Woolf, who drowned herself in 1941, did not write for Encounter, which began publication in 1953. The Proposition 13 Tax Revolt took place in the 1970s, not the 1980s—an important distinction because it presaged Ronald Reagan's election in 1980. Michael Milken was not a "takeover arbitrageur," whatever that is. Roberts cannot know that there were 500 registered lobbyists in Washington during World War II because lobbyists weren't forced to register until 1946. Gregg Easterbrook is not the editor of the New Republic. "No man gets left behind" is a line from the film Black Hawk Down, not the motto of the U.S. Army Rangers; their actual motto is "Rangers Lead the Way."

"And the London Underground is not a political movement. Those are all mistakes, Otto; I looked them up."

(Via Andrew Sullivan.)

It's made of wood... A WITCH!

Oh, this is something I'd love to put together.

The adventure continues...

Another Apple TV resource site: AwkwardTV. Yowza.

Apple TiVo!

Thanks to an anonymous commenter for pointing this out: AppleTVHacks.net

It's looking like this thing could be a new homebrew platform. People have got XviD working, SSH and VNC, and of course upgraded hard drives. Yowza!

Personally, I doubt I'll be cracking open the case or anything, at least until a year from now when the warranty expires, but this is some cool stuff, man.

I've had some minor success using the FireWire output on my cable box, and a little app called iRecord, to turn my laptop into a DVR. Converting the resulting MPEG-TS file into a 720p, 24fps H264 .mp4 file, using iSquint, allows it to sync to the Apple TV no problems. And hey presto, there's the hi-def DVR that I wanted, oh, two years ago.

I tested it with eight minutes of Nova, which is broadcast in 1080i at 30fps. Although there was of course data loss--going down to 720p and 24fps--it still looked a heck of a lot better than the 640x360 AVI you'd get from BitTorrent (well, if anyone torrented Nova, that is).

It appears that Apple has changed its "maximum playback requirements"; before release they said the box could only play "progressive main profile" H264, whatever that means, and although the specs still say that, some of the other formats have expanded, notably MPEG-4. However, iSquint creates Simple Profile videos--for the iPod--and they work beautifully.

I can say, however, that the 24fps barrier for 720p is currently insurmountable--30fps wouldn't sync, and I doubt it would stream either. But I wouldn't at all be surprised if this barrier disappeared in a subsequent software update.

For reference, here are the settings that I used in iSquint to make it work (click the Advanced... button to open the drawer):

• Resolution: 1280 x 720
• Video Bitrate: 5000
• Framerate: 24
• H.264 encoding (of course)

Holy Samurai!

Rashomon is on the Internet Archive?!

iTV was easier to type.

For the first time in a while, I'm an early adopter. I usually talk a good line--"Yeah, I'm gonna buy the iPod nano TODAY, and I'm camping out for the Macs with Intel too!"--but in actual fact, the purchase usually comes quite a bit later. But not so this time; yesterday at 3:30 I shouldered my bag of provisions, kissed my wife goodbye, and journeyed into the wilds of the Columbia Mall to hunt an Apple TV.

I returned an hour and a half later, trophy in hand, and immediately hooked it up to our gigantic (in depth, not screen size--it's a tube, y'see) HDTV via a horribly expensive HDMI cable. The device found our WiFi network instantly, I entered the WEP encryption code and then a shorter code to identify the iTunes on our iMac, and ba-ding, it began syncing to our iTunes library instantly.

Many people have complained that the resolution of the video sold by the iTunes store doesn't look very good on an HDTV. To me, it looks no worse than your average DVD, and that's good enough, given that we don't have a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player. But I did a quick test with one of my animations, specially rendered in HD for the occasion, and ta-da! it worked!

Karyl had just finished reading James Patterson's Along Came a Spider, so she was hinting strongly that we should buy the movie from iTunes--as a test case, don'tcha know--so, what the hell, we did. Although we only watched about half of it, being tired parents and all, we were pleasantly surprised to discover it streamed perfectly over 802.11g, no n required.

Coming up later--results of experiments in converting HD content! Can Apple TV actually play more formats than advertised?

Thanks for the revelation, iTunes...

Morgan Freeman was on The Electric Company?!

I wonder, is it time for the Rooster Spice podcast to return?

It took a while, but I finally finished Enemy Combatant. It's one of those reads that is gripping, but so disturbing and depressing, that you need to read it in many separate sessions.

I wonder whether we'll ever find out the whole truth about what has been done in America's name during this so-called War on Terror. And I wonder whether we will ever stop it.

"We," he says. Like I couldn't take some steps myself, if I wanted to. But I guess I'm just an ordinary German...

Homeward sun.

Since this was posted on Crooks and Liars, I doubt my select audience of three hasn't seen it before, but just in case, here's a lovely video of two of my favorite musicians, Paul Simon and George Harrison, performing a duet of two of their best songs.

The Mac OS bug you must know about.

Via Mike, a public service announcement. If you use Mac OS X, read this NOW. I'm serious.

The Enlightened Bracketologist.

This is great fun. But they should have included Butch and Sundance, damn it.

OK, now I'm in a foul enough mood to talk about this again.

In comments, Godfrey wrote:

Upon re-reading and reflection, I'm not sure I really understand what you're saying after all.

"I wrote down my deepest feelings as a type of therapy for years, but it was only when I blogged that other people wrote back" sounds like you feel the writing back is a good thing.

And yet when people show concern — when they give a rat's ass about what you say and "[try] to help" — you call them "sensitive people" who "get unnerved", as though having people care about you is a kind of imposition.

So what do you want?

I DON'T KNOW. Which is, in a nutshell, the problem.

Do I consider it an imposition when people care about me? Yeah, in a way I think I do. Because deep down in my heart, I believe I don't deserve people who care about me. I mean, come on, look at me. I'm sitting here whining about how my life is So Damn Hard and I mean--come on, I don't even have a fucking job! Aren't I the kind of guy who just needs to be shunned and ridiculed?

I spent most of this evening metaphorically curled up in a fetal position, even as I cooked pasta and sauce for dinner (yeah, I can't cook worth a damn either). I have all these commitments this month which I won't detail here, but they are all way the fuck out of my comfort zone, and I'm just at sea about how to proceed. The only saving grace is that come April 21st they'll be gone, assuming I'm not straitjacketed by then. Yet I know--I know--that if I were qualified for these various things (all of which I signed up for of my own volition!) they'd all be a piece of cake. They are not rocket science.

I may have used this before, but in my friend Mike's breakout show, he made a point how everyone really believes they're competent at their job. Go on, raise your hands if you feel you're competent. It's a miracle! No one who reads Rooster Spice is incompetent! All the incompetent people are stuck at Eschaton or something! (This joke works better in a theater--"all the incompetent people are wandering the streets, wondering where 21 Dog Years is playing!")

Well, it's a horrible realization when you determine you are, in fact, incompetent. That's got to be the explanation, right? I mean, I've got a hundred-thousand-dollar education and I can't even manage being a professional parent, for God's sake! The only reason I'm not homeless (or dead) begins with a K and I'm married to her. (No, this is not hyperbole; without my wife my depression probably would have sent me to the streets. Or a Pulitzer, maybe.)

The lighthearted post from a couple days ago masked a real question: what am I going to do when the kids are in junior high? I don't fucking know. The idea of re-entering the workforce fills me with absolute terror. The notion that I could make a name for myself as an independent animator is utterly ridiculous, not to mention far too expensive to contemplate. (Travel and entry fees add up, and I have made exactly 100 dollars on any of my films over a four year period.) So what do I do? Continue leeching off my wife for the rest of my life?

(On the other hand, no one ever accused a housewife of leeching off of her husband, back in the day. But most housewives actually kept house. Ask my wife when the last time was I cleaned the bathroom, and then be prepared for the riotous laughter.)

I know this post is the adult equivalent of "everybody hates me, waaaah!" and it sure seems like I'll never get past that. So don't bother treating this as a serious call for help. I'll be over it soon enough, until next month when I get stressed and tired again. It never gets any better (or, indeed, worse), no matter how hard I try.

Emily Bazelon:

What's troubling about preschool admissions, in the end, is that they reveal how narrow the preferred range of demeanor for little kids is. We want 2- and 3-year-olds to be sunny but not loud, perceptive but not shy, energetic but not hyper. We want them to conform. Your genius friend who can't sit still or your tech-savvy officemate who avoids eye contact? They'd be in the reject pile.

Beware the ides of March.

Caesar: Dude, some dude wearing a sooth told me today's gonna suck.
Antony: Dude, why?
Caesar: Dude, I dunno. Yo, Brutus!
Brutus: Yo, me! (Stabs Caesar.)
Caesar: (Checks watch.) At two, Brutus? (Dies.)
Antony: I better bury him.
Brutus: That'd be honorable.
Antony: Yeah, you'd know about that. (Kills Brutus.)
Cleopatra: Get over here, you big stud.
Antony: No, that's the other play.

A great encounter.

One of the things I love about old Greenbelt is how neighborly it is. If people have seen you walking around town, it's like they know you instantly, no questions asked. We all have a common understanding, after all, in all these tiny, cooperatively-owned townhouses.

For instance, this morning as I was walking back from dropping E off at her nursery school, I passed a man and his daughter, who were (presumably) walking to her bus stop, or maybe their car, on the way to elementary school. I had seen them a few times before, and he must have gathered that I was a stay-at-home dad, because out of the blue he asked me where E was going to be when she's out of nursery school.

"Oh," I said, "she'll be at the elementary school."

"And what are you gonna do?" he laughed.

I knew this question well, so I just shrugged and laughed. He laughed, too, saying, "I tell ya, my wife would say to me, you gotta get out of the house and start workin'!"

"Well, I do some work from home, it just doesn't earn me any money."

"Oh, no," he said, "I don't mean now, but I mean, you know, when it's junior high, what are you gonna do then?"

"I don't know," I admitted.

"I tell you what you gotta do then," he said, leaning in conspiratorally. "Start havin' more babies...!"

A decent article about reconnecting children with nature.

Thank you, Congressman Stark.

If you can read this, you are too close.

Someone once said that you should write as if everyone you care about is dead, meaning that an author can't be encumbered by worry over what others will say about his or her writing. (Besides the usual, "damn, too many run-on sentences" and the like.) Whoever said it, no doubt they said it before the Internet age.

Take Rooster Spice, f'rinstance. I started blogging in 2002, long before Google was a verb, and I did so under my real name. I knew that it was possible that people I knew personally would find me, but I didn't care about it; if I had something to say, I said it, even if it made people worry that I was cracking up, or worse, suicidal. For one thing, I figured anyone who knew me would know that I was a moody type in real life and within a few days I would be back to my usual chipper self. Alas, my friends are not, in fact, equipped with telepathy, and so when I said that I was suicidal and/or a danger to others, they--gasp!--believed me, and tried to help. I wrote down my deepest feelings as a type of therapy for years, but it was only when I blogged that other people wrote back.

This was part of the reason that I quit blogging for several months, and then came back psuedonymously. Of course, by then, the damage had been done and the bookmarks had been set, so I went back to my real name eventually. And so, more and more people discovered the Spice: friends, brothers both close and long-lost (and if you're reading, Owen, send me your address because I owe you a Christmas card, damn it), and finally, mom and pop. Mom sometime last year, I think, and Dad very recently. Oh, and the wife, of course, but I never tried to keep it a secret from her.

So, that's fine, I can keep things to a civil tone so that all you sensitive people don't get unnerved. (If you detected some bitterness in that sentence, dear reader, that's your problem, not mine.) But jeez, on some days, I sure do miss the therapy. But when what I have to write would not only worry my friends, but most likely hurt and sicken my family, well, what's a therapeutic blogger to do?

(Cultivate real-life friendships, I suppose. Good luck with that.)

And that doesn't count the cardboard itself.

Recently I made a significant purchase: a new 3D animation suite. While I was able to get my old one for only $199 (plus yearly upgrades of $99 each), this one cost... shall we say, quite a bit more.

So when it came time to recycle the cardboard box it came in, I had mixed feelings... sure, it was so big that it contained mostly air, but still--that was two thousand bucks worth of air!

If They Might Be Giants shilled for Chevrolet.

We're in a road movie to Berlin
Can't drive out the way we drove in
So seek out this last Suburban
And we'll go...

Cucumber sandwiches, anyone?

Thanks to all for your input during the Great Earnest Dilemma of '07. The result? I will be playing Algernon, the part I was shooting for, on May 11, 12, 13, 18, and 19. Come to the Bowie Playhouse to watch me make a fool o' myself!

The importance of being insane.

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.

That can also, these days, define "foreign policy."

So, here's the quiz for my vast audience of five or six:

Last night I went to audition for a local production of The Importance of Being Earnest, one of my favorite plays since time immemorial. I'm thirty-five years old, and the male leads are in their late twenties, so it may be my last chance to play either of those roles, ever. Without sounding too cocky, I'd say my chances of landing a role are pretty good.

However, the final performances conflict with the Jacksonville Film Festival. I know the director of programming, you see, and she's all but guaranteed a spot for "The Cell-Phone" in their shorts programs. Anything could still happen, of course, which is why I'm not saying it's been officially accepted until it's been, well, officially accepted.

Now, given that for most festivals I have to buy my own travel, hotel, etc. this wouldn't be an issue. I'd simply elect to not attend. But Jacksonville is apparently unique; they pay the filmmakers to attend. Room, board, travel, the whole shebang. And given how important face-to-face interaction is in this biz, can I afford not to attend?

(Of course, I'm not sure whether shorts auteurs are given this treatment. It may only be certain filmmakers. The blurb I read wasn't entirely clear.)

The mercenary in me says, "OF COURSE you should go to Jacksonville! This is an opportunity to get ever-closer to your ultimate goal of taking over the world of short animation!" The social animal in me says, "But you've not acted since the summer, and you may never play this part again! Besides, wouldn't it be great to have a hobby outside the house again? What shall become of a man who gains the world and loses his sanity because he's stuck in front of a computer animating all the time?"

So that's my dilemma: Earnest or Jacksonville. For the sake of argument, leave aside the possibility that I won't get cast, or "The Cell-Phone" won't get programmed, either of which would solve all my problems. Here's your question: does deciding to do Earnest, as opposed to attending Jacksonville, qualify as a new definition of insanity?

Come on, lurkers, now's your chance to join in the fun! Just hit the "0 comments" link below! It's easy! And make it quick, because if I'm gonna not do Earnest, I'd like to let the director know tonight, which is the final night of auditions.

Rah rah sis boom bah!

The Danish Poet won!

The Danish Snow-it. (ugh...)

Tonight is Oscar night, and though I long ago tired of watching the event, I would be remiss if I didn't point out my pick for Best Animated Short. The Oscarspice goes to: The Danish Poet, a gorgeous little story, beautifully made, with which The Cell-Phone was lucky enough to share a screening at NYC Shorts. You can even buy it at iTunes. I highly recommend it.

And that's probably the closest I'll ever come to an Oscar nod. (But who knows?)

Meanwhile, in the real world, it's snowing again, and after nearly two weeks of having my daughter home (she had her winter break last week, and half the previous week was cancelled because of the ice storm), I'm ready to construct a giant umbrella above the entire county, just so the schools will open on time tomorrow. I NEED MY SPACE.

You go, George!

Takei, that is, who shares his thoughts on that homophobic NBA player.

Paging George Harrsion, in the "My Sweet Lord" aisle...

How depressing is it to be poking through the iTunes store and listen to Camper van Beethoven's Take the Skinheads Bowling, and then come to the sudden realization that you unconsciously ripped off its chord progression for what you consider the best song you wrote by yourself (right-click, save as)?

White.

While we're certainly not as snowbound as NTodd, nonetheless the powers that be decided to give the kids a second day off today. This was a cause of great glee for D, but great sadness for E, who still enjoys nursery school at this age.

Prince George's is a big county, so I can only assume that south of us, it's still difficult to get around. But in our town, everything appears to be completely passable. All told, I would have rather had them at school. But what do I know...

First thoughts on Vegas.

I had been there before, but I hadn't flown in. I was wondering whether there were slot machines at the airport. I was not disappointed. Hell, there were even some beyond the security gates.

Worst billboard ever: "CARROT TOP--exclusively at Luxor."

Driving at night from Vegas to Boulder City was a scary experience for an Easterner. First of all, it's dark and clear. Really dark and really clear. Strange shapes float into vision and you can't tell what the hell they are, until you realize they're mountains--sitting right next to the road. This doesn't happen in the Appalachians--you're a part of the mountains. Out in Nevada, it's flat, until it isn't.

Upon sunrise, the mountains look like large-scale piles of quarry dirt. It's possible that's actually what they are. Lake Mead is man-made; why not man-made mountains, too?

We don't need no stinkin' liberty!

I'm currently reading a book called Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantanamo, Bagram, and Kandahar, which is about exactly what its title implies.

It occurs to me this is probably not a good book to bring into the airport today.

On a related note, be sure to read this op-ed in the Post from a former interrogator in Iraq. Many on the right-wing will no doubt call him a traitor for writing this piece. I call him a hero, despite his crimes, for speaking out now.

I wish, I wish, I wish that this stain on America had never happened.

Business trip.

Tomorrow's the big day; leaving for Dam Short Film Fest. And as always happens just before a big trip, I'm wondering why I'm doing it. All expenses paid--by me. No money involved (though to their great credit, Dam Short does provide a $75 travel stipend, and one of their sponsors is providing me with a free hotel room). And almost no chance of winning any awards (I tend to do well at new festivals, and not so well at established ones).

All this... for a hobby, essentially.

Now, I know that it's a great privilege to be able to Follow My Art in such a fashion, and that I should be grateful that I'm well enough off to do so. But that, essentially, is my point.

For you see, there are so many other artists out there who are so much better than I am. In fact, they're so much better that they get paid, professionally, to animate. Which means they don't have time to make their own films, let alone travel to festivals. So why am I allowed to do so?

Sigh...

Anyway, I'll be leaving from Dulles tomorrow evening. Maybe I'll make the evening reception tomorrow night, but I doubt it. I'm not even sure if I'll bring my laptop, so don't watch this space for updates.

Apple Wins, Apple Loses.

Apple, Inc. and Apple Corps have reached an agreement, and it looks to be permanent. So does this mean we're finally going to see Beatles music and videos on iTunes? Let's hope so...

Doctor Who and the French Dalek.

This is priceless.

Your call cannot be completed as dialed.

I'm happy to announce that The Cell-Phone will screen at the Cleveland International Film Festival this March. Woot!

A Day with the Duke.

Here's a lovely article from The New Yorker circa 1970, about Duke Ellington.

I love the Duke.

Raisin Toast.

About a million years ago, I wrote a blogoir (blogged memoir) about starting a theater in the wilds of central Maine. Well, here's another perspective on it--hat tip to Mike for finding it.

"Boomer" is also the dog from Independence Day.

Damn, damn, damn.

DAMN!

(Translation: why am I getting addicted to Battlestar Galactica three years too late?)

Bought the first season on DVD with leftover birthday gift cards. As if I wasn't wasting enough time watching Heroes and Lost!

It just goes to show, those iTunes promotions make a difference. Wouldn't have even begun paying attention otherwise, since we don't have Sci-Fi.

Fortunately, though, Universal HD seems to be showing this season's episodes on Saturday nights. And I don't have a social life anyway, so...

Ruh roh, Raddam!

The debate over whether 24 is a Republican show continues with the following comment:

The right wing’s analogy that 24 proves the need for torture and reinforces that terrorist cells are in our midst is refuted completely by Scooby Doo who never had to torture to get the truth out of bad people, found that the people who wanted to scare everyone were always authority figures who would benefit financially from fear and are better than Jack Bauer because they could solve the misdeeds in a half an hour that Jack Bauer takes a season to do.

There! A complete refutation of their argument by fighting their imaginary characters with other ones. The solution to Iraq is the get the Mystery Machine over to Iraq as soon as possible. The war will be over in half an hour with hilarious highjinks along the way.

Shame on the wall.

My son went on a field trip to the White House on Tuesday. He had a good time.

He also came home with an 8x10 photo of the President and First Lady. And I'm spending each day hoping against hope that he doesn't do his usual thing and ask that we hang it up in his room.

I only really became an adult, politically speaking, during Clinton's presidency, but I'd like to think I could stand having him hang up Reagan or Bush I's picture, were one of them the current President. But this Bush....

Molly Ivins has died.

She was the author of Bushwhacked, Shrub, and countless columns critical of the President.

And it's probably callous to joke about it, but I have to ask... have they checked her for polonium-210?

Dahlia Lithwick:

In order to win extradition for [Dutch citizen and alleged terrorist Wesam al-]Delaema to face trial in the United States, prosecutors had to make a raft of promises to the Dutch authorities that would be insulting to American perceptions of the rule of law, were they not so completely well-earned over the past few years. The defendant will be tried in criminal court, not by a military tribunal. He will not face the death penalty, even though under our law his crimes could warrant it. He will serve his sentence—possibly a life one—in a jail in the Netherlands, not here. And, perhaps most astonishing of all, the United States had to agree that Dutch courts will be able to review and possibly modify the terms of the American court's sentence once Delaema is returned to the Netherlands. The American judgment, then, is not necessarily final. And all this because, according to Delaema's attorney, the U.S. government no longer can be trusted to treat its prisoners humanely. Clearly, the Dutch authorities agree.

Giving Notice!

Hot on the heels of my HD revelations comes this letter from D.C. Shorts:

Discovery HD and DC Shorts are proud to introduce a very special HD (high definition) FILM COMPETITION. A special showcase of short films created, edited, and produced in HD will be screened using the latest HD projection equipment. We select films from every genre -- with a special focus on films suitable for broadcast on the Discovery HD network. After the screening, filmmakers have the opportunity to speak to the audience in a moderated discussion. A single winner chosen by audience voting and a special panel of judges, which include HD filmmakers and acquisitions staff from the Discovery HD network. The winning film will be optioned by the network for possible broadcast to millions of households across the country.

This is what I'll be submitting under this year... NOW I JUST NEED TO MAKE A MOVIE.

And now...

... to put my money where my mouth is, here's an example of a movie file that might work with Apple TV, according to Apple's tech specs. (5 and a half seconds, 750K.) For now, you won't be able to watch it unless you have QuickTime 7, though. But when your Apple TV arrives, why not drag the file into iTunes and see if it syncs?

On Macworld 2007.

For me, far cooler than the iPhone were the details about the Apple TV box, specifically the revelation that it will support 720p HD content. Now, this isn't a big deal from the iTunes Store perspective, which only sells standard definition content--so far. But for an independent filmmaker, suddenly, bam! there's a new distribution channel that can go directly to a viewer's TV with all the ease of use of iTunes.

You see, there's nothing stopping me from releasing a high-definition movie on the Internet right now. But most people would watch it on their computers, and that's only if their computers were powerful enough (most aren't as of this writing). But if Apple TV takes off, there will be a significant number of people who can download hi-def content off the 'Net and watch it on their television--directly, no computer middleman, just drag the movie to iTunes and let the Apple TV sync itself.

(Is it possible to do that now with a Windows Media Center-type PC? I don't know. I haven't done the research.)

In any case, I'm super-excited at the possibilities. Could it be that by the time the HD-DVD and Blu-ray wars have played out, HD on DVD will be irrelevant? As a consumer, I still prefer solid discs, since they're less likely to be lost in a hard drive crash (and the DRM is easier to defeat). But as an artist, I say: bring it on.

Moore's Law marches on...

Conservatism and Me.

According to Andrew Sullivan, I'm a conservative!

That is, I don't hold anything to be absolutely true regardless of evidence, and I go through the world with an empirical outlook. Funny, that doesn't describe "conservatism" to me at all. Could it be that "conservatism" is merely "whatever Andrew Sullivan agrees with at any given moment"?

No, that's probably unfair. It's more likely that, as a self-described liberal, I have a different outlook on conservatism. After all, for most of my political life, the primary conservative focus has been what Sullivan describes as "fundamentalism," which he defines as pretty much what you would expect, a belief that one has cornered the market on Truth, damn all evidence to the contrary. How else to explain the insane anti-Clinton juggernaut of the 90s, the desire to suppress the teaching of evolution, the rationalization of torture? (The last two, at least, I should note that Sullivan has strongly condemned; I don't know his thoughts on the first.)

Still, even if I feel that Sullivan's conservatism isn't really conservative, as I know it, that doesn't matter; the ideas should be judged as ideas rather than examining how well they fit into a certain box. Although I haven't quite finished the book, I think the ideas thus far are well worth debate.

That's not true with regards to a conservative thriller novel I just finished, Empire by Orson Scott Card, about a modern United States civil war. And here, I am going to show my angry liberal tendencies in full-blast.

Never mind that it's the right wing that has legalized torture and tried to claim that habeus corpus doesn't exist in the Constitution. Never mind that it's President Bush's political rhetoric which has claimed that a vote for Democrats is a vote for terrorists. Never mind the ridiculous number of laws that have been broken by this administration in the pursuit of "terrorists." No, in Card's world, it's the Left that disregards the Constitution and launches a civil war. Thanks, Orson.

He's a good writer and the yarn pulls you along. And it's not as though there aren't sympathetic liberal characters in his narrative. But there are no, repeat no, unsympathetic conservatives; the right-wingers are all sweetness and light, even as his characters compare Al Gore to the Unabomber (yes, really!). But there are plenty of insane lefties to be found in Empire's pages.

And the revulsion at the "liberal media"! Give me a frapping break, Mr. Card! Have you read the Washington Post op-ed page lately? Have you noticed that all the major news outlets are corporate? Yet, again and again, we're told that everyone but Fox is slanted to the progressive. (And lest you feel that I'm inferring Card's views from those of his characters, much of this comes from his Afterword, non-narrative and in his own voice.)

To Card's credit, his ending is much more subtle than this review might lead you to believe; I found it satisfying and plausible. But the notion that there is a Leftist Establishment, just waiting in the wings to overturn the United States' constitutional democracy, is utterly ridiculous--even more so now after the 2006 election (which, to be fair, did happen after Empire's publication).

After all, to paraphrase Digby, it's true that there are wackos on both the left and right. But it's only the right-wing wackos that actually make money at it. When's the last time you saw a best-selling book by Ward Churchill? And say what you will about Michael Moore, he's not encouraging people to take "head shots" at federal agents.

More Frilled Shark Madness!

A couple more interesting things about frilled sharks:

• The New York Times' take on the capture (thanks, Dad), and
• A brief view of the shark in its natural habitat from NOAA--hit the 320x240 link for best results.

"In My Language."

If a woman who is severely autistic, so much so that she cannot even communicate in a traditional sense, can create a work of such beauty, power, and clarity nevertheless, what right do I have to worry when my son zones out for a few minutes at a time? He's gonna be okay...

Watch the whole thing.

(Via Andrew Sullivan.)

Schwa.

When you have nothing to post, post about schwa.

Frilled Shark.

This is the stuff of nightmares--an ancient shark, barely evolved from the prehistoric era. Almost never seen alive, but these videographers managed to snare some footage.

Snow!

At last, snow in D.C.! Looks like global warming is a hoax after all.

lonely T.

K is in Florida today. I blame society.

Hooray!

Scott McCloud has finally released Chapter Five and a Half of Making Comics.

Books 2006.

I'll be changing the Rooster Spice template in a couple of days, and though I doubt it'll be anything Sooper Exciting, it will mean that my Books Read in 2006 list will change to Books Read in 2007. So, look at the list now if it interests you.

What are my impressions of said list?

Well, first of all, I read 45 books this year, assuming I accounted it correctly. This leads me to believe that when President Bush said he had read 60 books by August, he was lying. What a surprise! Look, let's put this another way. I'm known as a fast reader. Most people would call me unemployed (they would be wrong, but that's what they'd call me). And I managed to read 45 books in the entire year. Meanwhile, the President says he read sixty books in eight months? When does he find time to do his job?

The surprise of the year was probably World War Z by Max Brooks, an entertaining yet surprisingly serious examination of what would happen if, well, zombies happened, told as an oral history. Several major characters are, shall we say, loosely based on major political figures of our time, including a certain medical doctor from New England, who comes off as one of the most sympathetic people in the book.

Nonfiction-wise, two must-reads were Fiasco by Thomas Ricks and The Great Deluge by Douglas Brinkley. You owe it to yourself to pick them up.

My wife would want me to also mention The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon, a novel set in a near-future where autism can be cured before birth; the protagonist is a member of the last generation of autists. It's beautifully written and hits very close to home for our family.

Terry Pratchett is an old favorite, of course, and I continue to hotly anticipate Kage Baker's Company novels.

I should also mention the countless children's books I read at bedtime. Maybe that's how the President got to sixty.

Post deleted...

... because it was mean.

To Anyone Who Owns a Roomba And Has Noticed that it Backs Up Erratically for No Discernable Reason (Especially on Carpets), regarding Cliff Sensors and the Cleaning Thereof:

To Anyone Who Owns a Roomba And Has Noticed that it Backs Up Erratically for No Discernable Reason (Especially on Carpets), regarding Cliff Sensors and the Cleaning Thereof:

Compressed air is your friend.

Pat, you're a prince among men.

Achenblog on the Surge:

As you know, I soar like a mighty raptor above the partisan fray, so please judge my modest thoughts here as nothing more or less than objective fact and incontrovertible truth. It's clear that the president is going to do what he wants to do even if that means, in essence, an executive annulment of the recent election, and a back of the hand to Baker-Hamilton, the Dems, the moderate GOPers, the Joint Chiefs, and the many brigades of retired generals who think this thing has been an epic fiasco. There was a retired general last night on the radio program "The World" who spoke for many, I'm guessing, when he said that when you're in a hole the best thing to do is stop digging.

I pretty much agree with him. And with Digby.

Mom will kill me for this.

I turn 35 today.

In honor of this, here is a true story I blogged about 3 years ago and which I still find amusing.

Sorry, Mom, but maybe if you had never Googled me...

iLust.

Heeaaarghhh...

(Okay, it's no surprise that I'm drooling over a widescreen iPod. What does surprise me is that K is salivating too... but I should have known, given that she's a certified PDA nut. And the iPhone is, basically, a phone, Palm, BlackBerry, and iPod rolled into one. Oh, and it runs OS X, too. I wonder how long it'll take the iPodLinux folks to crack it?)

Department of Duh.

I bought a compilation of songs by the Who yesterday.

It took me a full day to realize that "Mama's Got A Squeezebox" is not, in fact, about an accordian.

No Bet in the Field!

Thanks to a generous grant from my wife, I'll be traveling to Boulder City, Nevada--a dangerous 25 miles from Las Vegas--to participate in the Dam Short Film Festival. I'm flying in the night of Friday, February 9 and back on Sunday the 11th. And I AM NOT TOUCHING A SLOT MACHINE OR CRAPS TABLE.

Fun fact: the director of Dam Short is Lee Lanier, who co-created Day Off The Dead, an award-winning short film made in Animation:Master, my software of choice.

Not so fun fact: last time I was in Vegas (1999), I lost nearly three paychecks at the casinos. (Note to self: never take a trip to Vegas when your wife is pregnant, even if it's for a job.)

At the very least, I know I won't lose any paychecks this time. (Don't tell anyone it's because I don't get any paychecks anymore.)

I'm hoping another member of the Soap Opera team will be there, so he can do all the gambling for me.

Hoo-rah.

Welcome to 2007. Do you live near Boulder City, NV? Come to the Dam Short Film Festival and see Soap Opera! It appears to be closing out the Animation screening on Saturday February 10. More details to follow, maybe.

Rocks right now...

• Redline, a racing game from Ambrosia Software (Mac only, bitches!)
• Inform 7, a complete rewrite of the language used to write Z-code (i.e. Infocom-esque text adventure) games. Now in natural language. I can't emphasize how cool this is, even if I never do anything about it.
• The Nutcracker Suite performed by the Brian Setzer Orchestra.

And that's it, apparently. I need more rockin' in my life.

And yet I still don't have my own entry.

If Mike's name-drop is to be believed, I am one degree of separation from John Hodgman, and therefore only two degrees from two other Jons. Freaky.

Ask New Orleans.

I've already written about our practice of wrapping Christmas lights around newspaper, and writing messages thereon to be read the next year.

This year I opened up a string which we had last used on Jan. 1, 2005, right after the Asian tsunami. I had written "Any natural disasters of note?"

Sigh.

Hair Care or Digital Audio?

I got them all right on the first try. I'm quite surprised.

Hm...

Clearly when I said "liveblogging," I meant "two posts in one and that's it." But nonetheless, I'm writing this from the new iMac. I haven't really had a chance to do any speed comparisons, processor-wise, but I will say this: transferring videos to an iPod is a hell of a lot faster under USB 2.0. That is all.

Installation Liveblogging!

11:58 A.M.: Well, the new iMac arrived this morning. I'm not using it--I'm currently on my PowerBook, watching it transfer files from the old iMac. (Yes, we now have three Macs and a half of a Linux box. So sue us. We still only have one television.)

Favorite moment so far: watching K fruitlessly try to figure out where to put the Apple Remote. There's a magnet on the side of the Mac which holds it, but she was placing it on the front of the box and watching it drop several times.

Least favorite moment: watching the Transfer Assistant tell me that my old computer had about 4.9 million gigabytes of data in my home folder. Now there may be hard drives out there that hold that much, I don't know; but I'm pretty sure that my circa 2003 iMac only has an 80 gig drive. This would be, I'm pretty sure, a catalog problem with the old hard drive that I've been trying to fix for years.

So it's only transferring the Applications folder. I'll have to transfer the rest over manually. I'm not too excited about that, but what are you gonna do?

Updates throughout the day.

1:25 PM: I think I need to get a new Wacom tablet driver. After the apps and so on were transferred, a dialog box popped up that said "Tablet driver not operating because you aborted." So I hit OK... and it came back. So I hit OK... and it came back. This continued until I had finished the setup assistant and booted into Mac OS, when I ran the program to remove the tablet software entirely.

Now I'm manually transferring the files from my old home folder to the new one. Yawn...

Code Monkey like remixes.

So there's a Code Monkey remix contest goin' on, and being the huge Jonathan Coulton fan that I am, I just had to enter. So get your dancing shoes on and rave to this:

Code Monkey (Zach Brewster-Geisz remix) (4.3 MB, 3:54)

If you don't know the original song, you should listen to it and buy a copy here. Come on, it's only a buck.

What Kind of Dawg?

Hip-hop-happenings at the Gonnas myspace page. Just uploaded a new mix of our canine hit, "What Kind of Dog Do You Wanna Be?" There's also a new mix of Whoa up which I posted Thursday. Please listen and dance and enjoy!