Afternoon with Kyriosity

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Following worship at church today, Valerie and I broke Sabbath by walking around Towson Town Center and indulging ourselves in idolatrous worldly materialism at the Apple Store.

I scoped out iBook accessories, and got some questions on handhelds answered by the Apple cultists store staff. We also looked at The Dane in IE6/Win98 on VirtualPC, and I contemplated leaving VirtualPC open in fullscreen mode to see if anyone would panic at seeing Win98 running on a Mac G4’s monitor.

We also ate Japanese. It was good.

All work and no play…

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Isn’t it funny how, right after I blog about The Shining, Jason Kottke posts this? (What really gets me is that typo in the 6th sentence. Does that mean he typed it all out instead of cutting and pasting, or did he just insert it there to make us think that?)

The Shining

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I’m watching The Shining. Jack is ranting about how important it is that he honor his employer’s contract, right after typing out a hundred pages of how all work and no play makes him a dull boy. Then his wife hits him with a baseball bat. And yes, I’ve noticed Kubrick’s constant use of Native American leitmotifs contrasted against the symbols of Western imperialism.

Why does it seem that Jack Nicholson is always in the role of characters named “Jack?”

McCann Erickson makes a stand

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McCann-Erickson Philippines threatens an ad pullout in the face of increasingly distasteful content on Eat Bulaga and Magandang Tanghali Bayan.

I applaud the move. Watching Filipino noontime programming has always been, for me, a grating exercise in dismayed abhorrence. Shallow, primitive, even predatory humor is inflicted on hapless contestants debasing themselves for a few pesos, while rows of women decked out like strip dancers prance about poorly constructed cardboard sets. It is a freakish, farcical carnival of debasement and debauchery, and the thronging masses, knowing no better, lap it up and ask for more.

Hopefully this move by McCann will help boot them — the TV stations and the viewing public — out of that pandering swamp. Would that someone could do the same for Filipino movies. Or MTV’s Jackass.

The Apple Cometh

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My path is set, the way is clear: I have ordered an iBook.

It’s a refurbished 12″ iBook G3/700 from Smalldog, with 128MB RAM, 20GB HDD, Combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, and Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar, I think). I paid about $1300 for it — a price I’m sure I’ll regret by the end of 2002.

Answer from the Smithsonian

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I just got an email today from the Smithsonian, in response to an application I sent in six months ago, for an A/V Operator opening. Back then I would have leapt for it, but now I’m wondering whether I should bother telling them they were too slow, and that I’m now applying for the Dictatorial Overlord of the Castle position.

Insomnia

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Just watched Insomnia. Dark, dark movie set in constantly bright summer Alaska, with Al Pacino powerfully portraying a dubiously principled Los Angeles cop. It amazes me, how Pacino is able to pull off these vicious, gritty roles again and again, without ever seeming cliché; I found his acting thoroughly convincing throughout the movie — and Robin Williams only slightly less so. Insomia is almost completely free of typecasting, triteness, or even good guys — though I felt some heart was missing from the whole masterwork, as I felt no emotional investment in any of the characters at the final, tragic end.

Or maybe it was just that I knew the ending beforehand. In any case, Christopher Nolan did a good job directing this one. Now I want to see Memento. (And that backwards Seinfeld episode, too.)

Where the McDeer Were

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Before heading back to Baltimore, I went to see the Post-Deer McDonald’s. The window had been boarded up, and it was business as usual inside. I had expected to see something; perhaps a news team, or at least a few rubbernecks, but there was no one but me: a smart mob of one.

(I don’t know what kind of marathon runners the RideGuide hires to determine “walking distance,” but the walk from Union Station to First St. NE and New York Ave was significantly more than “four minutes.”)

Photo taken with an Aiptek Mini Pencam 1.3MP.

Crazy McDeer!

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Two deer jump through a McDonald’s window, injuring four. Right here in Washington, DC. Where the heck do deer come from in the middle of the city, anyway?

Well, since the McDonald’s in question is right beside Union Station (from where I’ll be catching my train back to Bawlmer), I know where I’m having dinner tonight. Pencam ready. Oh, the adventure, the excitement! ;)

Maybe they’ll even have McVenison burgers.