My Wushu Blog

We went camping with Michele’s family this weekend:

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We forgot our nice camera, so all the photos were taken with either Droid, or Michele’s Droid. Mostly mine, because I had a full charge that pretty much lasted all 4 days (I charged it in the car for 30 minutes one day). Pretty nice for a smart phone, especially since I was using to take photos , movies play music off of it, I’m in love with the latest Buckethead album I recently purchased. I was able to do this by disabling the backlight, and all other things like WiFi and GPS, and profile syncing. There was no cell coverage up there, only Roaming coverage, and you can’t do much with that except make a phone call. Sheesh, who wants to do that with these things?

We did all they typical fun camping things, walk around the lake, swim (COLD!!), sleep in the freezing cold in layers of sleeping bags and blankets. You know, all the stuff I can stomach for about 2 days I help up well, and I made a bunch of jokes about “going out for a pack of smokes” and driving speedily back home

The kids had a lot of fun, and I posted a log of pics (and a video clip) here:
http://www.m87-blackhole.org/photos/2010-08-pinecrest/

With more comments, too labor intensive to do that much commenting and editing here in WP.

I was at my parents this weekend, and my Step Dad found it hilarious to look through a large box of old photos. We had a few good laughs and he gave me a few of the to keep for myself.

And now, for a freshly combed Coal:

Close Up:

The Left Overs:

I’ve had a good run with my Zune MP3 player, excellent in fact, and I would highly recommend that player to anyone who was looking for an iTunes alternative. Truthfully, I’d recommend one no matter what, but it is impossible to beat the ubiquitous nature of iTunes and the iPod, like it or not. I’ve had mine for over 2 years, and I only one had a problem where it locked up. For a Microsoft device, it is the most un-Microsoft like product out there. It was incredibly clean, stable (2+ years of constant running and only one lock up, most servers struggle for that kind of uptime), and the Zune software itself was probably the best media manager I’ve ever used. I can’t say enough pleasant things about the product, it really is well made. Here is a shot of the main interface:

Here is a shot of my profile:

BTW, I’ve received a “Silver” Badge for Pink Floyd, Buckethead and Smog. That means I’ve listened to their music at least 1000 times…

So, Sunday morning, when I asked Michele if she had seen my MP3 player, I almost leaked out a few tears when she opened up the Washing machine lid after the load was done and fished out my poor little 8GB Zune Player. There it was, a sad little thing, I felt like I found the family cat under the house or something. It was cold, a little damp, and completely devoid of life. There was a glimmer of hope, because I still kept the Extended Warranty papers… and it was for two years, which expired on 05/26/2010. The timing of this event was pretty comical.

Faced with a crisis of having to listen to the dreaded morning radio, I came up with two options. One, was to use what I had left in Best Buy gift cards (about $50), and get a new Zune HD (~$179). The Second option was to join my geek friends and get a smart phone.

I talked with my friend Steve for a bit, primarily to ask how well an Android based phone would perform as a MP3 player and Podcast manager. He said that syncing music is probably more laborious compared to what I was used to, but he said managing podcast’s with Google Reader is where it really shines. He mentioned that he will play podcasts at work in his desktop, and then continue it on his phone as if it were the same device.

In the end, I went with the phone, the Droid. I’m a bit sad about giving up my Zune, and I even softly whistled “Taps” as I put it back in its original box. However, I would like to take a little more advantage of what a “Smart Phone” can offer, and consolidate two devices into one. I guess it can make phone calls too, but I doubt I’ll do that very often.

Possibly the best action sci-fi I’ve ever seen. It is not as confusing as say Primer, not as mind-numbingly STUPID as Avatar but filled with great action.

I’ve seen a few headlines about the movies plot; how it might be ‘too smart’ for the average movie go-er. I think that is insulting to the average person, and I hope that movies like this will retrain the “industry” to continue to make “smart” movies instead of anticipating that the average person is a drooling slack-jawed yokel who is missing a tooth. The movie is not “too smart”, it is perfect. There is a lot of things you get to try and process, and the best part is the two days AFTER seeing the movie where you are still thinking about all the little details.

I didn’t see any commercials or reviews of this movie before hand, so I really didn’t know what it was about. I prefer this.
RANT
I feel that move movie trailers show way too much *visual* information. That is an important distinction to me. I can read the back of a book and get the outline of a plot, but nothing is spoiled. I can see an extended trailer for a movie, and what typically happens is you are given a voice over of the plot but then shown every major event in the movie. It is those small snippets that kill it. The best example of a ruined movie is the trailer for Surrogates.
END RANT
The movie is about mucking in someone elses mind to either extract or plant an idea, which makes this just as much of a heist film as a science fiction one. There is a team of people (The Spot Man, The Architect, The Chemist, The Forger and The Extractor), each person has their own sort of specialty. The one common task they all have is while in a shared dream state, one person has to be the host for the dream environment, and also be the anchor to bring everyone else back. This is where the movie gets complex, and very very interesting.

It reminds me of programming in two ways. The movie is basically a stack data structure. Last In, First Out. That might be hard from some people to follow, but all the move does is pop-off the stack in a very spectacular way. It also reminds me of a recursive function, but I’m not going to fully explain that.

Each dream environment, or Object, on the stack is ultimately in the mind of the “Anchor”, but the Architect designs the actual environments. By far the coolest character is not the main character Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), but the Point Man played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Every second his in on the screen, he is either doing or saying something that is completely awesome. The tumbling hallway sequence is astounding!

I don’t want to say anything else about the movie. I have really liked all of Christopher Nolan’s movies (The Following, Memento, Insomnia, Batman stuff), so it is no surprise I enjoyed this one as well. It still catches me off guard about how good it is.

Friday was the first class where I really sparred. It was the first class where I was punched and kicked, repeatedly, in the head. It was about what I expected. It didn’t hurt, and I had a fun time doing it, though there are some lasting effects.

I did feel a little out of it for a while, and that was a combination of many things. First off, I got hit pretty hard a few times, and Juan (one of the coaches) gladly landed a well placed kick to my head. I also didn’t have my abdominals tightened up enough at the last second of a round with another guy and got nailed pretty good there. Also, sparring seems to be 2 to 3 times more difficult, cardio wise, than the normal drills we practice. Did I mention this is all we did during class? Aside from the warm ups, it was bout 40 minutes non-stop of sparring. We’d switched partners every round.

Both coaches, Stephanie and Juan, have been asking me over the past few weeks if I have all my sparring gear. I took this as a hint, so while I wait for my head guard to come in I was able to borrow someone else’s Friday. Juan has been pretty excited about my progress, and started asking Stephanie if I could begin. So, as Juan partnered up with me and let me have it, I felt a strange sense of pride and accomplishment. It was nice that he didn’t seem to baby me.

The other part of sparring that still feels odd, is punching someone in the face. I wouldn’t say we are all “friends” there, but we are very friendly. That would be like punching a friend (specifically, in the face), or a loved one. I had a really hard time doing it.

When I think about it, the only other times I’ve truly hit someone was back in grade school. Keep in mind, when I say “hit”, I really mean mindlessly flailing my arms. At those few very times, there was a mixture of fear and anger (mostly fear), and that really takes you out of the moment.

Here, with your own classmates, there is no anger or even a little rivalry going on. We all work together, and I like every person there, even if during normal drills they are aggressive or spastic. I like to use that as an opportunity to learn; adapt to someones else level and push myself.

What I’m getting at is it was very difficult for me to really hit someone in the face. I wasn’t afraid, and I wasn’t angry, so I kept thinking in the back of my mind “But I don’t want to hurt anyone…”. After getting knocked around senselessly a few times, I eventually adjusted, and figured we are both in this for the same thing.

After a while, it became a little easier to become less reactionary and try and plan things. What I really started to get good at was either completely blocking a punch to the face, or taking it in a less hurtful way

Still, it is Sunday, and my left ear is still tender, and my nose still has the strange smell and feeling that it got punched, my legs are sore and my knees are bruised from kneeing another guys knee. Oh, and my jaw is KILLING me. I was clenching down on the mouth piece a lot, and it is sore from that.

We have next week off, so by the time we start up I should have all of my gear. Looking forward to it.

I did sort of thrown down the gauntlet with one of my previous posts.

Dad, I no longer doubt that you truly are my biggest fan

Livermore is probably a tie between myself and Jenny, but mostly me because I might check out a post from work… daily…

Michele and I saw this in the theaters when it came out, and I just re-watched it the other night. Both times,  I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t think it would hold up to a second viewing, so I’m not even sure why I tried that hypthesis out, boredom I guess.

The first, and probably the best, thing this movie has going for it is atmosphere. Between the scenery and almost overbearing score, it oozes a subtle tension. It is not overwhelming, just enough to keep your eyes peeled open, and your butt glued to the seat. The second, and close tie, is the story, acting and dialog. It is all very good, and I really like the era this takes place in; post-WWII, were everyone calls each other ‘boss’ or ‘chief’, smokes unfiltered lucky strikes, and resolved most conflicts with “fisticuffs”.

The main premise is two US Marshals are sent to a isolated metal institution for the criminally insane because one of the patients went missing. The movie quickly moves to the conclusion that there is more to this case, since it was physically impossible to the patient to ‘escape’. So, the likely conclusion is someone must be covering something up… or so it would seam.

Now, both of Marshals are in a quandary. They have their perception of the evidence that is presented, which includes other inmates and the staff also says, as well as the administrations reluctance to provide any real help.

To top if off, the missing patient suddenly re-appears. She is totally unscathed, and cannot recall where she has been the last few days.

After all of that, Teddy Daniels reveals his own personal reasons for coming to Shutter Island, and he intends to “blow the lid off of the place”. Not all is what it seems, but you’ll just have to watch it. Maybe twice, it is certainly worth it.

Michele and I purposefully did not make any July 4th plans, because we both silently and secretly waited for Steve and Summer to invite us down. We’d mumble back and forth “So, no fireworks in Antioch this year…”, “Yeah, maybe Steve and Summer will invite us down…”. As it got closer to July, there was a possibility that the two of them had other arrangements, and we might have to fend for ourselves!

So, last week, the phone finally rang. Whew, what a relief.

After some deliberation, we decided that it would be best if we stayed two nights in Monterey. I was very hesitant, mostly because spending the night in Monterey is very expensive. I’m so stingy that I forced us to stay in a small and crappy Super 8, rather than a decent hotel with more breathing room. Thats right family, suffer for my scrooge McDuck mentality while I swim in my vast riches!

We left Saturday morning to hit up a children’s museum. Steve and Summer met us there after lunch, which is kinda odd because they paid $7 each to go into a small children’s play area. I’ve barely accepted the responsibility of my own kids, so even when my friends are okay with being around my kids I sort of think, “But, why would you do that? They aren’t even yours, and they are kind of tedious and whiny.”

My point is, Steve and Summer are very very nice people, nicer than me in fact, so I’m glad they still like to invite us over.

After some play time, Caralyne rode with Steve and Summer to Peets while Michele drove me to An Olde Town Tattoo Parlor so I could pop in and say hi to Glenn. He was in the middle of prepping someones leg for a tattoo, so after he peeled off the transfer paper, he ran out and happily greeted me with a big hug. Since Michele and Owen were waiting, I didn’t want to keep them waiting too long, so I told him we were staying for the next two nights and we’d get together on the beach tomorrow. He also invited us to the BBQ that the Tattoo parlor was having, it was their two year ‘birthday’, cake and all, but things were tightly compacted into our schedule as it was, so we didn’t make it.

We briefly went to the Dennis The Menace park, but after 10 minutes, it was blatantly apparent that Owen was over exhausted and in need of sleep. He fought hard though, it was a strange mixture of him laughing hysterically while crossing the unstable ‘Indiana Jones’ bridge, then collapsing in a fit of crying rage. Actually, that sounds a lot like my “Rose Peak” hike… Yup, he’s my kid!

The following day, we took the kids back to the Dennis The Menace park. This time, we had a full nights rest behind us, so we got to do a bit more running around.

The park is pretty nice, there are a lot of really cool slides, tunnels, climbing equipment, etc..

Around Lunch time we stopped by Trader Joes to pick up some last minute food items and ran into Summer and Steve there. We decided to grab lunch, but split off into two groups. Michele took Owen back to the Motel to nap while Caralyne and I got something to eat with Summer and Steve and hung out at their apartment for a while. Caralyne and I played Super Mario Brothers 3 on the Wii, then prepared for the beach BBQ.

All the attendee’s showed up around the same time, which is pretty darn impressive. What was also cool is Steve sent out a Google Latitude URL to the guests so they knew exactly where to meet us on the crowded beach. Pretty sweet! it is really neat when technology can help you plan and properly mobilize the entire group with a few simple tools like GPS and email. Those of us without cool smart phones (Glenn and myself) had to rely on smoke signals, my special eyes, and wandering.

After a late evening with some fireworks, we finally got back to our room around 10:30pm, tossed Owen in bed, and hit the hay.

The next morning we packed up, checked out by 10am, and met Steve and Summer at Peets for coffee/breakfast, and then hit the Aquarium. Steve always gives us a well planned guided tour, and I get to hear stories about all the display, posters, and exhibits.

Around 3pm we grabbed lunch and headed home. It was a nice conclusion to our pleasant weekend in a cooler climate with our friends.

While I feel the films title is really shallow and hokey, the movie itself really stands on its own. Oh, and this is your subtitle warning: it has them!

I felt like I was watching a classic Twilight Zone episode, where an ordinary middle aged man finds himself in a strange and perplexing situation and clumsily adapts to all of it. Clumsy at first, towards the end, or maybe I should say the begining? Hector, our protagonist is doing quite well at making quick and harsh decisions. The transition is pretty brilliant, I hardly noticed it until I really thought about it all.

So, what is Timecrimes about? It is based around time travel and the paradox of free-will. Let me offer a graphical representation of the movies plot:

The movie takes a 24 hour window and layers and warps it on to itself a few times, and it does it well enough that you are not left with lingering questions or laughing at obvious plot holes. You will be left with one perplexing question and the end, and that is “How did it all start?”

My only complaint is that it is SO well done, and the plot is so perfectly packaged up, it is easy to put it all together very early on. No a big deal, it is still nice to see how it all goes down.

It is very good, and I would put it up there with Primer, another well done time travel movie.

I like the check out Google analytics to see how this website is “useful” to the internet. Let me tell you, the internet is not at all interested in how your wonderful author, Mike Carlson, is doing. The internet is interested in how FreeBSD is doing:

What is even more interesting is that most of my visits come from other countries:

Check that out, folks in Barcelona and Moscow check out this site more than my Dad does in Lodi ( come on Dad, I thought you were a fan?). Antioch doesn’t count, that is just me updating and re-reading my own posts (does that make me vain?).

When I started digging into the referrals, I saw that my Samba and FreeBSD posts were linked in a few forum discussions on a Russian Samba site, a Swedish PC site and ServerFault.com. It is nice to know that other people find this information useful, so I’m going to continue writing up my fun tech experiences and put more effort into those posts.