Rick’s Wedding – Set One.

Katie’s Wedding – Set Two.

Words will supervene soon as scheduling sanctions constructing constructive commentary.

Someone over at Nintendo Wii-land decided that it would be a good idea to have each console have a sixteen digit unique ID. So my Wii can meet your Wii and they can become lovely little friends and play all their games together. Oh wait. No, such a system is sadly not to be. Each game also has its own twelve digit code which must be input to play that game with your friend. And not only that but it seems most (all?) games require it to be done by both parties, so I need your code and you need mine, a one-directional code entry does not seem to prompt any sort of confirmation ability.

Getting past all of the inanity of the system however (when a perfectly good console ID exists), it seems it will be a necessity to share each individual game code with everyone and the best way to do that is to copy Patrick Wagstrom’s method of posting all his Wii codes on a page dedicated to … all his Wii codes. Thus, in my copy a great idea way, I have created my own list of Wii codes for those of you with Wii’s to friend me up.

From some of the worst movie special effects I have seen to the absolute best comic book to film translation I have seen, beating out even my personal X-Men love, with an overdose of attitude, a decent story, amazing graphics, well thought out future interfaces (OK, some), and the promise for this to just be the first in the series. This is a movie that I found tolerable enough to see two weekends in a row (I know, I never do it, but Ben & Allison & Elliot wanted to go, and so as they say: when in Chicago, go see a movie … again).

Gosh but if you haven’t seen this movie, you probably should. I mean what else are you really doing with your time that is so important that you can’t go see Iron Man, it certainly isn’t Prince Caspian or Indiana Jones, and it better not be Speed Racer, so I expect you will be getting on seeing this. Alright. Good.

Turns out I went to Chicago three and a half weekends ago and well, never got around to mentioning it here. So now I will. My old RIT roommate, no that is silly … two of my absolute best RIT friends (ok), Ben and Allison moved to Chicago after they both graduated from RIT last summer, and while I thought I would make it out there to visit in January things were too busy and finally got out there this May.

Elliot and I drove out there, conveniently with Elliot using the no-gas lever in his car, causing it to require no gas while still going – I know, ask him about it – and got in Friday night. We went out to eat Mellow Yellow one of the fine Hyde Park Dining Establishments (I mock but it had good food).

Saturday morning we went to the Museum of Contemporary Photography, which had some really interesting stuff, and was totally free – so go do that other Chicago people, though today is the opening of Talkin’ Back 5: Chicago Youth Respond. We were there for their last exhibition and I think we all agreed on most enjoying the work of Dionisio Gonzalez one of his pieces, though not one we saw – those don’t seem to have found the internet, pictured below.

After the MOCP we wandered, had a snack at the Corner Bakery, Ben rushed us around while taking pictures, we saw Iron Man (review forthcoming… that is how far behind in film reviews I am) for the second time, met up with Ben’s law school friends and ate Thai downtown, and played a bunch of Mario Kart. Oh also I forced everyone to go to Noodles & Co. because I miss that restaurant so much in Pittsburgh. If I could wave my non-existent magic wand and make one chain decide to set up shop in Pittsburgh it would easily be Noodles & Co., easily.

But enough about noodles, let’s talk about cats. Ben & Allison got a cat, her name is Izzy, like Isabella, but not like The Fountain (look Austin commented!) also, she doesn’t like to come out and play until you turn off all the lights and pretend you are going to sleep. Then she will let you pet her and even take bad pictures of her in the dark. Like this one:

Anyway great times were had by all, and I already miss Ben & Allison terribly, and am excited to go back. And yes, it was my last fun trip (alright, and first) with Elliot before he heads back to Seattle. Both his pictures and my pictures are up on flickr.

David thought it would be a good idea to watch all of the Star Trek movies, I consented – watching through a set of films that are certainly part of the backbone of American-dork-sci-fi-culture seemed prudent, especially with the release of the new J.J. Abrams: “Hey Look We Are Building The Enterprise On Earth Because We Can Even Though It Is Clearly Non Canon,” sometime next year. As the movies go, I have firm memories of all the The Next Generation films, and then some brief memories of whales and caves, also knowing that I certainly had not seen all of the older movies. But while this seemed like such a good idea at the time, within about ten minutes of the first movie I was seriously questioning what I got myself into.

The first installment of Star Trek on the silver screen is not good. At all. It does all the things that are frequently complained about of bad science fiction movies of the last few years: it has a poor script, no character development, an unrealistic (OK, maybe they all are) story, and most severly puts all of its marbles into special effects. Unfortunately special effects, and definitely 70s era special effects look so childish forty years out that this is painful to watch. The music visualizations in Windows Media Player outshine these scenes which just drag, and drag, and drag you down into the heart of an early voyager probe which has transformed into a monster killing, Milkdrop cloaked, machine that just wants to hang with the creator.

It was easy to trick Marissa into watching this movie, a simple slight exaggeration that the film, while being animated, was about Lincoln, compelled her to see it. However The Amazing Screw-On Head, which actually concerns Abraham Lincoln’s top spy and right-hand man, who happens to be just a head that can screw in to a number of bodies. This short episode, a pilot, for a never green-lighted tv series is pretty great, however no need to go through Netflix, the whole thing is available online.

Let us now take an easy definition for Emergency like say: a sudden, urgent, usually unexpected occurrence or occasion requiring immediate action. Good. Now, it turns out the Art Store on Craig Street has suddenly started a clearance sale and urgently wants all of us to immediately come buy their products which may be (up to) 75% off!

Walking past the other day a mutual acquaintance of you, fair reader, and myself, asked: Are they going out of business? To which my answer was – no no, they have had giant signs up since the day I arrived in Pittsburgh (two years ago), however things have only become an emergency as of the last few weeks. How unexpected.

I have never wanted the nice weather to come back this much. I don’t know what happened to me, if it was the warmth from traveling last summer, especially just spending so much time out in the sun in the badlands and cheyenne and albuquerque, and white sands, or if this winter was particularly cold but I find myself really feeling deprived of the light of our local star.

Pittsburgh is just starting to get nice out though and so Kristen and I had our first outdoor dinner of the spring/summer tonight at Murray Avenue Grill and it was real great. I am excited for summer, warmth, sun.

Intelligent commentary on Battlestar episodes could be a challenge. One that I am ready to fail at. However so that I can actually use things like specific events and proper nouns these posts are going to be absolutely full of spoilers. So if you don’t want to know, just don’t read it.

I have a really hard time with this episode, the first standard ep. of the season (the internet unanimously seems to be calling Razor, episodes 1 & 2 of season four), and most of my dislike for it spans from an … interesting decision at the end of last season, which I will bet had less to do with where they wanted the series to go, and more to do with coming up with something really surprising for a season finale.

Two things I want to talk about from this episode, which I think should quietly disappear as not-so-relevant and one of those episodes where everyone talks a lot and then we all immediately forget it.

1. The new intro: Twelve cylon models, seven are known, four live in secret, one will be revealed. So this seems incredibly short term to me, as I find it hard to believe that only one of them is going to be revealed all season (won’t they all be?), so are they going to change this halfway through the season (yes). And even past that, this used to summarize what the series was about, cylons rising up and fighting back. I do think the whole show has become too focused on who the cylons are, who are the final five, who is the missing one, blah blah blah, and lost sight of the interesting questions about what it means to be cylon or human?
2. And more important, yet related, now that they have revealed these four cylons whom are living in secret, does it not seem like every single character on the show is a cylon? It should – because they all are. Thus ridiculous scenes can be created with cylons looming in the back of every shot, since … well humans are in short supply. We will now joke that Adama & Adama can just walk around saying “Good thing there isn’t a cylon in the room” at which point the camera can zoom to, well basically anyone for … umm tension?

Tomorrow at 10pm is the fourth, and possibly maybe, probably (love?) last season premier for Battlestar Galactica. Considering the first three-episode sequence that made up last season’s premier is likely the best television I have ever watched (yes, well – I don’t watch much – really any, television) I should be looking forward to tomorrow evening.

Yet, I look on warily. The end of season three made me really angry (mostly with the writers/producers) and they have some work to do if they are planning to win me back. I don’t want to get into the specifics of that, as it could include spoilers for people who are not completely with it – and I am still willing to entertain the possibility that over the next twenty episodes they can make me come to agree with the direction of that which has happened.

But since depending on who you believe (and when you believe them) this is the end of the road, I will watch it through to that end – I owe it that much in loyalty points. And even if the end is all bad electronica covers, earth-addicted toasters, and a numbers game … I could always drown myself in fan fiction.

ha.

Ok, back to catching up on movies now that my site looks … interesting (so many colors!). Over break I watched Hotel Chevalier (again) and The Darjeeling Limited. Which was fun. Except Katie was tired and went to bed during it, and I think Phluff also missed some chunks. It made me decide that I really like Anjelica Huston. I enjoyed it but it is not the best ever. I also like Adrian Brody I think.

Oh also, Hotel Chevalier was much better than the real movie.

This is the first film I have posted in a while that I am actually going to give a low rating to. I blame my general positive attitude on very pruned selection (my own and Elliot’s) through increased Netflix usage. This one snuck onto the list somehow and while it did win the 1997 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film… it just doesn’t do it for me.

I can’t quite explain why, it was mostly well filmed, the plot was somewhat interesting, but in the end the storytelling guise led to what was in my mind an incredibly disappointing and anticlimactic ending. Also, in someways the film was just too simple, too straight-forward, too neat.

I think we will have to head back to more closely following the Chlotrudis list which Character is notably absent from.

I was reading some article (link now lost to the internet) of overrated and underrated things of 2007 and Atonement kept hitting the overrated side, the british writers/critics were not into it.

I loved it. I enjoyed the british beauty quality (even if Ballard might complain it was a costume drama — though it wasn’t all that old!), and it followed the story well enough that I wasn’t upset. I did find the ending more abrupt than I would have liked it, they could have slowed the whole thing down a bit more, for my own tastes, and I think also the tastes of the above critics. But it is fast enough to keep anyone interested, and terribly horribly sad (of course I cried, always do – mostly at the Luc Cornet scene); about halfway through I was told by Marissa that this movie was sad, I responded warning her: it is only going to get more sad. She refused such a possibility but then found it to be true. Anyway you should all go see this film because movies are pretty and sad – however if you plan to read the novel (wonderful) do that first.

p.s. one of my favorite recurring themes, they made typewriter clicking into some really wonderful music. I should look into getting the soundtrack.

I am at something like twenty-six hours of being awake. I am convinced that this is the way to fix my sleep schedule which constantly gets off because my body really likes to sleep for about 12 hours and then stay up for about 16, leading to a really normal natural cycle.

Although I still feel totally awake right now, I have been a bit hyper all day (I partially attribute this to the amazing 60degree weather we had today here in early January in Pittsburgh – as the girl I was walking behind told her friend in front of the Pitt Union – I think this must like totally be global warming // friend-girl responds: I think I like it? ) and have probably said a bunch of crazy things to people.

So what if I post some charts on all the crazy short messages I have broadcast out to the internet over the last year – convenient because I seem to have tons of these year2007 posts backlogged.

The following charts show my Twitter stats from 2007. Except actually they are my all time Twitter usage – I realized this because ever since I installed Leopard at the very end of October I stopped twittering, because for some reason Twitterific didn’t load on launch, and I kept forgetting, excuses, excuses, blah, blah, blah, end of the semester – and I ended up not twittering all of Nov. & Dec., which means those big bars on the chart are from last Nov. & Dec. Which is fine.

If you have twitter (and a mac) you can also do this – the script was created by Damon Cortesi and if you don’t have a mac there is also a web version linked over there that doesn’t need Numbers which above uses.

I also have the post-lunch peak that gruber noticed, an awkward Thursday drop that I can’t explain, and I have very low @results, because I really just post updates, I don’t use it so much for conversations. Maybe that could be a resolution for 2008.

(for those of you playing along at home – the bad ideas are in bold. — jk, I like Pittsburgh)

Drove back to Pittsburgh today. Hung out with Jenna and Erin. Plan to go see No Country For Old Men tomorrow. Had a good coffee experience, need to write that down. But for now, nothing.

Do you know how long it takes to cut all these out? (Actually not that long, and it was pretty fun.) More about it soon. Happy Thanksgiving.

I am at home now. So some of the posts are going to be like this. Short.

Nels posted that gmail changed and though I have switched back to using gmail since it syncs with the phone now that it has IMAP, I have completely ceased using the web-app. Well it turns out they updated the web app, specifically with URLs that are linkable and also a new contact organizer/viewer. Also it seems they neglected to test on Safari.

While they used to just disable features in Safari (like gchat in the browser – which is now on, too bad, I liked it gone) it seems their new approach is just to just have them looking really funky. I can’t really even explain what kind of layout is going on here (it should look like this – scroll down ), normally when I see problems like this I can identify what they are doing wrong in the style sheets, but here I am pretty much clueless. Since everything is generated on the fly based on the javascript and then added into the DOM, there isnt any real html to go off, but my guess is that it is calculating absolute positions in correctly (it gets even worse on resize ).

Anyway this just made me laugh, I really like the idea of the engineers at google just dropping these random text fields and buttons on the page. It sort of looks like they just threw all the functional components up in the air and this is how they landed.

Weddings seem to be all the rage.

I fear I may have entered a time in my life where many of my friends, close relatives, random acquaintances, and complete strangers will marry and I will attend. This summer my first paternal cousin married, and this experience along with a number of conversations focused on the concept and practicality of marriage, in concord with discussion of upcoming weddings has led to what became this post.

Over the past months I have collected a short series of notes and general pieces of advice for those planning or considering some matrimony in their own lives.

These notes are mostly my opinions, other people’s opinions, or complete lies, and as sarcasm is my truth – it is unlikely you should follow these instructions, unless you are seriously insane or looking for a good time.

In Regard To Planning

• If you are going to pick a date that has some trivial numerical significance such as July 7th of the year 2007, remember that our calendar was quite arbitrarily started and your thirty-eight thousand closest friends likely had the same trivial idea. Note today is the eleventh of November, or 11/11 which I think makes today full of super specialness!
• It has been suggested that the best time for a wedding is in autumn or winter. Spring and summer are both highly frowned upon. Especially summer, it is just too hot so please stop doing that.
• The area where the wedding reception should be held should be relatively close to the location of the wedding itself. And by close – I mean walking distance, the walk can however, be lengthy if it is an interesting walk. This will remove the awkward hour where the guests must fumble around in their cars or arrive ridiculously early. Currently I am recommending museums for receptions, that way if the people are boring, there is still something interesting to look at.
• Photo-shoots between the wedding and reception are frowned upon and you can do that before hand. Seeing the bride really isn’t that bad, you like looking at her, that is why you are getting married.
• Churches are hard to find these days, it seems all the good ones are shutting down. However many other buildings are just as pretty, and some people like modern architecture. Consider art galleries, museums, science centers, historical landmarks, libraries, universities, or the spectacular outdoors.
• A suitable altar (or backdrop for the ceremony for those of you who were unable to find a church or are heathens) should be found, I recommend little backlighting from stained glass, a solid color/texture, and a non-reflective surface (for example, the above … do you have any idea what is going on there?).
• Also it is expected that the altar is raised about four feet, what is even more useful is stadium seating and the best: stadium seating where the aisle is raised or spaced so that as the wedding party walks down the aisle, everyone can see them (free popcorn, not allowed).

Guests

• Guests should be invited in at least the following ratio: For every guest invited more than ten years above your (bride/groom) age, two must be invited that are your age. (Note the mean age of the wedding should be no more than ten years above the age of the older of bride/groom)
• Guests will be expected to dance at the reception when the dancing occurs. This hinges on the average age of attendees being low. In an exhaustive array of measured samples less than 10% of people over 60 years of age have been shown to dance (vigorously), yet even that 10% tires quickly.
• Some say it is necessary that all guests will be expected to speak English, if they cannot speak English than they will be expected to become highly intoxicated and sing karaoke (if English is not the native language of the bride/groom or the wedding is being held in another country please swap out English in this statement with your language of choice).

Choices

• Picking meal options is difficult and for best results a buffet of varying ethnic cuisines is recommended. If you must have guests pick their meal at RSVP, make sure the choices are specific, with lists of ingredients. Never should an option be simply called “Vegetarian” unless the only other option is simply called “Slab of Meat.”
• I want my readings to be chosen from novels, with variety. I want the congregation to be familiar with the characters. I want them to laugh and I want them to cry.
• Normal Christian type psalms and music of that variety is fine. I feel like Classical is appropriate. Phantom of the Opera songs are near the line. ABBA is over the line. Bjork is highly recommended.
• For some reason at wedding the Catholic Church (and maybe others? I am suffering a lack of experience here) actually steps back and does not have people walk around with collection baskets picking up the expected twenty dollar bill (recommended?) per family. I don’t know why this is, if they are going to do it every Sunday, they might as well do it at a wedding. I recommend having this done, and requesting a cut, probably something like seventy percent, fifty if you are more religious.
• The wedding should have a program guide, possibly with instructions, and the names of attendees and their relationships. Also it should provide short bios and pictures, especially of the guests who are single. This will be useful at the reception.
• The wedding should also have a website, a videocast, and probably a live blog. I expect up to the minute updates for those who could not attend: “Oh oh, she tripped walking up the aisle a little, but I think I am the only one who noticed (me and the whole interwebs).

The Rehersal & Occumpanying Dinner

• This is going to be the biggest day of your lives, make it a production.
• Practice twice, and real practicing, like get your full pretend on. I expect the readers to read and the vows to be said.
• The rehersal dinner should only be moderately good. This will cause the wedding to be even more pleasant in comparison.
• The bride/groom should cry while speaking to their closest family and friends, real big tears. This will cause other people to cry, because crying is contagious and then later you can all laugh about how silly you were.
• It has been suggested that some sort of action also take place: a person jumping through a window, a fight between two relatives, or an angry ex-boyfriend/girlfriend should appear unexpectedly.

The Ceremony

• When walking up the aisle be sure to pause every three or four feet. When you do this look to the left and smile, then pause, then look to the right and smile. This will assist the audience in their photography.
• Make sure that people can see you and hear you (but not smell you, no smelling should occur – tasting and feeling can be okay, depending on the wedding). I expect to hear your vows, not just a few muffled noises.
• Icelandic wedding tradition requires that all females sit on one side of the room and all men on the other. This is good when one side of the marriage equation doesn’t actually have any friends or family and the whole place looks unbalanced (it is more likely the gender balance will be even). Plus this gives the whole place the feel of an awkward middle school dance.
• I expect the priest to ask if anyone has any reason they should not be wed. If this doesn’t happen you are sure some in the audience feels like they are missing their chance to stand up and make a scene. Plus movies equal reality.
• Something planned by the bride/groom should happen that no one else knows about. Remember you are in control. It is your day. It is your day.

Creating Perfection

• Hire a designer! (Unless you think you are good enough yourself, which you likely are not.) Allow them to define the look and feel of the entire event. This should start at the invitations and carry over to the program, the decor, the style of the cake.
• Contrast in outfits. The bride/groom should provide complete contrast. If the bride wants to wear an all black dress than the groom should be in an entirely white tux, if the opposite is true I expect the groom to be wearing a black shirt with his black suit – fear not, it is fashionable.
• Speaking of, white dresses overrated. It was cool when Queen Victoria did it – but I completely support anyone who plans on choosing an outfit that they can wear again. This was how it was done a century ago and it is not a bad idea.
• Priests are also overrated, and break the color contrast by standing between the bride and groom. Tell him/her to stand off to the side if you feel he/she is necessary at all.
• A dress code should be given for the guests. I recommend the following: Jeans for all men, shirts should all be white, red, or black, ties are allowed but also should remain white, red, or black – quiet patterns are acceptable; for the women, dresses or jeans and fancy shirts, again recommended colors are white, red, and black, however pink is also acceptable. Black or white pants are acceptable instead of jeans, however jeans are encouraged, they give good texture.

At some point, and maybe in a future post I will explain why and when people should get married. Remember, marriage may not be for you. If you are a hipster or even a bit indie you might not want to get married, because marriage is currently not “cool.” Also if you are gay, you probably don’t want to get married right now because you likely can’t and even if you do it might not count later. If you like to use the term “living in sin” you might not want to get married because it is really fun to say, and if you do the marriage thing you will only be able to use it to recount the good old days. Plus divorce can be messy and is even harder to pull off in style.

In conclusion, your wedding is going to be remembered in photographs, videos, and its internet presence. Many of these suggestions will help make these lasting memories in media turn out better. It is also important to remember to have good lighting, food that will not be too messy. I recommend hiring at least two photographers (or a team) and do exactly as they say. I also recommend having some sort of raffle or prize, which will convince people to stay longer at the reception (especially if the prize is good). This way the reception will have a decisive ending and not people leaving from the moment dinner is over. Plus who wants to spend four hours saying goodbye to each guest as they get bored in turn. A striking conclusion the evening will leave a lasting impact on those who have attended such a celebration, and will further convince them that your wedding is better than theirs could ever be.

My friend and fellow Computation, Organization & Society-ier Peter worked/helped/coordinated bringing the Neo-Futurists to Carnegie Mellon.

They performed the first of two shows tonight; the second is tomorrow at 9PM in Porter Hall. They performed Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind (doesn’t too much light make anyone go blind?), a collection of thirty ever-changing plays performed in exactly sixty minutes–yes they have a timer on stage.

This works by providing each member of the audience with a “menu” with a list of the thirty titles, and they string across the stage a clothesline with thirty pieces of paper pinned to it, each with a play number on the front (and the title on the back for their own reference) which they pull down as the audience calls out the order of the pieces.

They are all written by members of the Neo-Futurists, and people seem to have designated plays that they perform thus the playbill is dependent on the present members. TMLMTBGB has been continuously performed for the last nineteen years with two to twelve plays being swapped in and out each week, they tell us.

The pieces range from hilarious to existential and personal to profound. I believe my favorite was “A Green That’s Hard to Describe,” a paint-swatch dance that defines the only two shades of green that are hard to describe are: the sea under a crimson sky and vomit; while recalling issues of sexuality and self-image.

Anyway, if you are in Pittsburgh, go to their show tomorrow, if you are in Chicago they do this thrice weekly (I think) and enjoy having bubblegum thrown at you by someone dancing the entire Madonna Confessions step (while the other members play jenga on stage); learning what the coupon kimono is; defining raisins; and witnessing stereotyped gypsies steal from you.