I've been watching BSG since it premiered as a mini-series. I admit that the show is entertaining and has just enough mystery/curiosity in it to keep me watching it. What I do find horribly annoying is that it's science-fiction is nonsensical (they have FTL, but nothing else). They try to merge in some quasi-allusion to religion (Neo in Matrix was bad enough). And the worst thing is that the characters have nothing concrete about them, they keep changing dynamically from a show-to-show basis. And somehow all the "critics" say that the show is sooo edgy and provocative. Hmmm, would they say that about a Soap-Opera???

I saw this post about "clues" being hinted in the recent episodes, and out of all the fanboys only one commenter wrote reply that made sense:

Yes, I'll bet he'll keep watching the show till the finale as will I. And while some fans have already admitted being immensely "sad" about the impending culmination, I, for one, will feel relieved that I have one less obligatory sci-fi show to watch.

Posted in: Television, Rants,

I finally got around to seeing the U2 3D and did it ever rock! It was released to IMAX theatres in February but I've been so busy to see it. Luckily I did before it stops playing at the end of this month. I know this old news to people who've seen it, but I really enjoyed it. I would even go so far to say that with some minor tweaking, I might prefer to see concerts like this, instead of waiting and standing for hours like I did for Vertigo in 2005. The last time I saw an IMAX show I was in Chicago and it was something about the Gulf War in 1993.

The "3-D" is really what makes it worthwhile. This was my first 3-D movie. At first it felt weird but you soon get used to it and some close up shots of Bono made it feel like you physically there. It was interesting how they made some parts stick out. Some scenes had fans jumping up out of the audience and instinctively I wanted to tell them to "sit back down" - almost as if someone was standing in the theater in front of me. Some shots of the sea of fans really were amazing. Other than that there were only a few times they pushed the limits of the 3-D effect. Once when Bono was drawing pictures in the air, they showed up for us. And once during the usual U2-is-gonna-save-the-world appeal there were words flying into the audience. Overall great for a first time, but really they could have done sooo much more!

The annoying part of the 3-D was the glasses were so bulky and uncomfortable for people who wear eye glasses like myself. The only other annoyance I had was that for some scenes my eyes would go "out of sync" and I could start to lose the 3-D effect and see the 2 composite images on the screen. Luckily it only happened at the end. I wonder if it was just me?

In any event it seems like IMAX theatres are popping up all over the place and I'm looking forward to more shows like that (non-nature based, like 99% of the normal 3-D material). I think some screens may be playing U2 for maybe another week if you haven't already seen it. For $12 definitely worth the price compared to normal theaters!

Posted in: Music, Technology,

As part of my normal morning activities, I have to do a quick visit to Dilbert.com to figure out if I should laugh, cry or be depressed about my job. Today morning I visited the site to find some horribly broken Flash based website. I could not view the comic strip at all in Mozilla Firefox for whatever reason. Internet Explorer showed the strip, but the site was still a little quirky. I saw a "Save" button which I thought was pretty cool, until it told me I had to login to use that feature. Normally I could save the image with a right-click. The only slight positive was it showed in color, but I don't need Flash to do that, nor does it matter: the brilliance of Dilbert showed colorfully in black and white.

On the blog (which I can't see in Firefox) of Dilbert's creator, Scott Adams, he gushes about the new site:

It seems as if I might be able search old strips which might be cool? Maybe "interact" with the script? See the old strips for free? Perhaps take the good with the bad.

To be fair the site says "BETA", but still, it disturbed my morning routine which is quite unforgivable considering Scott Adam's supposedly understands the cubicle culture.

Posted in: Funny, Internet, Rants,

One of my good friends finally got married this weekend. While I was quite happy for the bride and groom, personally I enjoyed the event in my own way. The wedding ceremony was an interesting experience for me. It was all in Chinese except for the readings and a few words in the reverend's message. The bigger thing for me was seeing people again that I hadn't seen in many years (some almost 11 years). Sitting at a large table laughing and catching up reminded me of my high school days (without the food fights). Looking around, everyone seemed pretty certain of their path in life. Some people had a lot to show for the past decade, while others maybe not as much. Sure enough, when I really think about it, I'm not at all surprised how each person's life has changed - myself included. I don't mean that in any negative way, just that I don't feel like anyone really explored uncharted territory. Who knows maybe the next decade will show us something else?

I intentionally missed my 10 year high school reunion last November. In some ways this made up for it. I really did have a great time.

So who's next in line?

Posted in: Life,

So anyone who has worked closely with me know that I like to write small. Small because, I think personally I can see "more" at the same time, and also, keeping small saves resources - mostly paper (trees, environment, ...). Sometimes I take it too far. Usually if I have an email or message I need to print that just would not fit on one page because of 2 extra lines, I would use the "book" feature that most printers have where each page would be rotated and fit on 1/2 the page - 2 pages on 1 sheet. This has always worked well for me.

So today I received an updated software spec. Previously it was about 20 pages, but now it had exploded into 30. I knew entirely what was in it, but for implementation I still found it easier to have a hard copy print-out next to me. The new finely detailed diagrams included took up whole pages, so my "2-for-1" trick would not help. Skimming over the document, I often saw 1 title on one page and because a diagram was so big it would jump onto the next page leaving sometime 95% of the previous page blank! This irritates me to no end! So I thought, "I am the one implementing this and it is only a temporary copy, so why don't I just tweak the spec layout?" And, so, I did. I reduced the bulky header and footer. I removed the ownership details. I removed the revision log. I tweaked the margins and brought it back down to almost 20 pages again. And it was good ... and I was just about to print it ...

Then my mind starts thinking. I don't like to have multiple hard copies, so I will have highlights and notes all over this. I'll probably use it in discussions and point out things to other people - all of whom will wonder why my spec looks so "unofficial". Then the page numbers will be all mismatched and I'll confuse other people. And when I need to point out errors or changes, I'll need to double check my locations. And what if I have to print this again? Should I save a "temp" print copy? So many questions. Why do I torture myself?

I printed it out, all 30 pages, untouched, exactly as I received them. My amalgamation of OCD, faux pas environmental awareness and over-thinking has gotten the best of me once again. Sometimes my petty attempts of saving resources just wastes time and, had I followed through with my original thought and later re-printed, would have wasted even more resources. Do I value my time? Maybe not enough.

Posted in: Random,