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| eyes |
Posted 2009-06-30 15:51:16 by
Jim Crawford
So it turns out I've had astigmatism all my life. The optometrist said I “see very well for someone with [my] prescription.” (A funny way of phrasing it, because he was about to give me my first ever optical prescription.) Apparently, aside from the corneal deformation, my eyes are in great shape. It's never been a significant handicap, which is probably why previous optometrists have never deemed it necessary to take action.
I've been talking to friends who were old enough at the time to remember when they first tried corrective lenses, and as you might expect, the reaction was uniformly shock that there was this enormous band of information that they hadn't realized they'd been missing out on. I'm not expecting that kind of revelation, but I am looking forward to being able to crank up the resolution on my monitor.
And as you may have noticed from the occasional post about goggles, I'm a fan of having awesome eyewear, so I'm looking forward to that too.
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| method acting |
Posted 2009-05-27 21:52:36 by
Jim Crawford
Working through a list of Star Trek: TNG episodes I compiled out of top ten lists and recommendations from friends, since I feel like I'm geek-culture-deficient in this area. I probably know more Star Trek lore from jokes I've heard than from actual episodes.
I'd forgotten forgot how didactic Star Trek is. It's a tossup as to whether I'd've enjoyed it more as a teenager. At this point in my life I already know that time travel might screw up the present and that you should appreciate friends while you still have them and that androids-as-property is slavery, but on the other hand I also have a lot more patience nowadays with being told things I already know.
| <pf> | worf is really giving beverly the evil eye |
| <dw> | yeah, he'll do that |
| <dw> | he does the jaw grind thing too |
| <dw> | i always liked that |
| <pf> | being a method actor can't be good for your teeth |
| <dw> | they're probably fake anyways |
| <dw> | in ds9 he buys a ferengi tooth sharpener. it's a great sequence |
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| not-porn porn |
Posted 2009-05-11 00:37:50 by
Jim Crawford
There might be an extant word for the concept, but I've been repurposing the word “porn” to describe media that people like for reasons other than that it's good. For instance, somebody might go see a movie simply because it has zombies or gun-kata or Natalie Portman in it. Somebody might listen to music because it has a lot of square waves in it, regardless of whether it's “well-made” or has “artistic value.” So when I say I've been repurposing the word “porn,” I mean I've been using terms like ”zombie porn,” “gun-kata porn,” “square wave porn” and “Natalie Portman porn.” These are a bit misleading, which is one reason I'm looking for a better word.
Another reason I'm looking for a better word is that “porn” has negative connotations. Which, full disclosure, is one of the reasons I originally chose it. But lately I've been wondering whether the only difference between the people who like “well-constructed plots” or “interesting character arcs” in their movies, and the people who like zombies in their movies, is their preference in bullet points.
Examining the kind of media I personally am snobby about, the consistent pattern I see is that its consumers enjoy it because it has a certain pattern, despite it being otherwise execrable. So while I love a good chip tune (for instance, this incredible 6/8 mixolydian chip rock porn), I'm irritated to see NES-nostalgics fawning over a song just because it happens to have square waves in it, regardless of the quality of the music itself.
It's becoming clear to me that my concept of “good” basically consists of patterns that I enjoy without knowing why I enjoy them. Which is not to say that once I've figured a piece out, that I stop enjoying it -- that might be the difference between porn and art. Art, you enjoy without understanding. Porn, you know exactly why you enjoy it.
And that's okay! Maybe I'll keep using “porn.” Maybe the word itself could do with some rehabilitation.
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| troboclops - hate edge |
Posted 2009-05-03 19:29:58 by
Jim Crawford
Back in Summer or so of 2008, Cameron got a bunch of recording gear and software and started a jokey electro-punk band called “Troboclops” with his friend Jesse, basically as an excuse to learn how to use the gear. Since then, he's given that stuff up to work on more serious material, closer in style to his punk roots. Which I personally consider to be much less entertaining, but he's the type who considers comedy to be inherently worth less than other forms of art, and a man's occasionally gotta sack up for what he believes in, right?
Anyways, before they broke up, they and Matt and I shot a music video using a cheap digital video camera and prosumer lighting rig that Matt had in his closet from back when he'd been going to film school. The footage lay fallow for half a year, but after much badgering I managed to get ahold of it so I could put together a cut:. . .
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| april microblog digest |
Posted 2009-05-01 17:36:29 by
Jim Crawford
From http://twitter.com/mogwai_poet.
Had to recover four days worth of posts from the partial-mirror of this log on Facebook, because Twitter is run by incompetents. . . .
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| how to learn |
Posted 2009-04-09 22:55:31 by
Jim Crawford
I've never been able to pick up a new technical skill by sucking down a book; I need a project to provide a concrete and practical impetus to give me a reason to learn. But now that I'm older, the project itself needs to be practical. A toy compiler won't cut it. (Note that for my purposes, entertaining-to-other-people counts as practical, but by contrast, a toy compiler would be entertaining only to myself.)
For instance, I'm fascinated by Erlang and I want to learn it, so I've been trying hard to come up with a fun-yet-practical project to build with it. The closest I've been able to come is an OpenGL implementation subset, which fits the tool and would be a lot of fun to make, but fails the practicality test hard; the world so does not need another mediocre software renderer.
Still want to learn it. Still racking my brain for an appropriate project. ... maybe it would help if I had a seriously multicore CPU to take advantage of.
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| jogging |
Posted 2009-03-29 22:28:56 by
Jim Crawford
I've been going out jogging pretty much daily lately. It took less just a couple of weeks for it to surpass Dance Dance Revolution as my favorite form of exercise. I've been trying to suss out why, and though I haven't quite put my finger on it, I have enumerated the following virtues:
- Exercise releases endorphins.
- It's aerobic, so you asphyxiate, which is a natural high.
- It's a repetitive motion, so you enter a meditative state.
- You're constantly passing by new scenery -- I've been jogging in different places at different times of day to enhance this.
The odd thing is, I would expect DDR to provide all these pleasures plus the additional pleasures of playing a game. Perhaps the downtime of selecting a new song is enough of a negative to tip the balance.
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