THE WHALE OF IGNORANCE HAS MOVED TO SAVEITFORYOURBLOG.BLOGSPOT.COM
  ¶ 7:31 PM 0 comments

  Five minutes ago I rediscovered this quote from my high school yearbook: "Bliss in the unhappiness of knowledge." I attributed it to Peter Heller. Then I couldn't figure out who the hell Heller was or where I got that quote from. "Bliss in the unhappiness of knowledge" yields zero hits on Google. But through Google Book Search, I was able to find exactly where it came from. Wee!

Anyhow, that seems like a good quote to close out this blog with.

Bliss in the unhappiness of knowledge.  ¶ 8:30 PM 1 comments

  What's most f-ed up about this situation described in the NY Times:

1. The 22 year-old man marrying the 14 year-old girl.
2. The man being prosecuted for statuatory rape.
3. The fact that they named their child 'Samara', after the evil little girl in "The Ring".

  ¶ 1:43 AM 0 comments

  Yay Jesse Jackson, in the NY Times: "The Rev. Jesse Jackson called for the Federal Communications Commission to investigate [Pat Robertson's call for Hugo Chavez's assassination], just as it did when Janet Jackson's breast was exposed in the Super Bowl broadcast in 2004. 'This is even more threatening to hemispheric stability than the flash of a breast on television during a ballgame,' Mr. Jackson said."  ¶ 8:18 PM 0 comments

  I've developed something of a soft spot for Mike Tyson (Iron Mike, not Iowa Mike) because, disturbed though he is, he also comes across as surprisingly (maybe pathologically) self-aware in his interviews (one from after his most recent fight, and another from a little while back with The Sports Guy), which is probably not the best attribute for a boxer. Here's a memorable snippet from the more recent interview:

"I just don't have the desire no more, I don't have the stomach to do it no more. I don't even kill insects in my house. I just don't kill anything no more. I used to kill pigeons, rip their heads off, 'You dirty rat pigeon!' I don't even have the heart to kill an animal no more. I just changed my whole life in general. That probably could have changed the way I fight."

  ¶ 12:29 AM 0 comments

  Best Mets moment in years: Dae Sung Koo (a lefty, no less) rips a double off a 91 mph fastball from Randy Johnson for his first hit sincce high school in his second Major League at-bat -- more miraculous if you saw his first at-bat where he stood at the outer edge of the batter's box with no intention of swinging. (which I did, thanks to MLB All-Access). Then he scores from second on a sacrifice bunt when Johnson leaves the plate uncovered with a nifty headfirst slide.

Better yet, Tim McCarver says, "I'm going to go out on a limb say that thus far in this young season this is the biggest give-up at-bat" right as Randy Johnson delivered the pitch that got ripped to the gap. Priceless set-up.

Then, with Reyes getting set to bunt, McCarver says, "If it's not a perfect bunt, a guy like Koo could be an easy out at third" right before Koo scores from second on the bunt.  ¶ 7:10 PM 1 comments

  Revenge of the Sith was not very good. However, I watched The Empire Strikes Back afterwards, and was pleasantly surprised that *seeing* the backstory in Sith did make some of the moments in Empire more poignant (e.g., when Luke/Leah have their ESP moment, and the Vader/Luke confrontation), more than simply knowing the backstory had on previous (re)viewings.

More striking is how Empire is incredibly more emotionally engaging than Sith (which isn't saying much), despite the fact that the dialogue is just about as cheesy. I think there is probably an illuminating critique that could be made of the prequels based on the premise that George Lucas fell prey to the grandiose empire-building impulses of the Dark Side and thus lost any feel for the individual, but I'll leave that to a Star Wars freak to fill out. The out of control scale of the CGI sets/characters are probably the clearest example of this -- a product of ambitious control freakdom that winds up sucking the life out of human beings.

The most obvious advantages that Empire has are its physical sets (and storm troopers, yoda, et al.) with their textured, sometimes dingy, feel, and visually quieter, smaller, human-scaled, human-paced combat, which make the acting and action better and emotionally accessible, in spite of the cheesy dialogue that remains a constant throughout.
  ¶ 12:55 AM 0 comments

  According to the US Census (click on components of class, occupation) database administrators (3rd most esteemed occupation, out of 447) are held in higher esteem than post-secondary school teachers (25th most esteemed).  ¶ 11:15 PM 0 comments