The Barbarian Invasions - NetFlix Review
Sat Apr 30 2005 11:52 MDT #Our latest netflix movie was 'The Barbarian Invasions' or 'Invasions barbares, Les' if you prefer. I arty, weird, french canadian movie on death, and families and life. Depressing, but excellent. Intellectual, funny, serious, and simply not boring. A good movie, well shot.
I'm going to give it 1.5 thumbs up. Well worth the price of a ticket, and if you have netflix you really really should watch it -- but only when you are up for a movie on death, regret, heroin, and family. It's pretty heavy at points...
Free Culture: Property
Fri Apr 29 2005 11:03 MDT #On our recent trip up to Denver I picked up a copy of Standford law professor Lawrence Lessig's latest book Free Culture (it's online for you to read, licensed under a Creative Commons licence.)
I've just gotten to Chapter 10, "Property" which covers a lot of ground on the history of property, much of it stuff you know but don't think of even when thinking about IP. The big point for me was from the constitution, which codifies Intellectual Property as a second class kind of property, requiring government compensation for any seizure of actual property, while not only requiring no compensation for removal IP rights but also requiring such rights be term limited. It also only allows congress to grant IP rights to promote progress, not for any other reason.
A very different kind of right indeed, and something the publishing houses of all stripes would rather we do not think of. And they've succeed at that. They've also extended copyrights term over and over from a mandatory registration for 14 years + a 14 year renewal to an automatic copyright for the life of the author plus seventy years (95 years for corporate authors). And with the advent of digital media, where every use of IP is a copy, they've expanded their powers to control who can use what, on what device , for how long, and what usage. Things they never controlled with a books, but completely control with PDFs, DVDs, etc.
It is a vast power grab, and one our government is not addressing. And the people are a not, yet, outraged about. This needs to change.
And Everyone should read this book
Harold And Kumar go to White Castle: Netfix review
Thu Apr 28 2005 12:22 MDT #Last night we watched "Harold And Kumar go to White Castle", a stoner comedy, but as it turns out a good stoner comedy. Pretty hilarious, although they humor certainly sunk to some pretty attroucious lows at points, it maintained an over all quality.
On the whole funny, light, very enjoyable movie. To quote from an imdb review "Unbelievably funny - The smartest 'dumb' movie I've seen in years"
2 thumbs up - even though it's not what you'd call a quality movie.
Cat Room
Wed Apr 27 2005 09:35 MDT #2 weekends ago we spent Saturday making Thor an outdoor play room. It was actually pretty easy - We build one frame wall, chicken wired in a fence, the wall and some nooks and crannies. Then we hung netting to make a ceiling. Then it was on to making walkway, scratching posts, and toys. On the whole a fun weekend project, that Thor is using A LOT. A real quality of life improvement for him :)
Bolinho de Bacalhau
Mon Apr 25 2005 15:14 MDT #The NY Times is running an article on Bacalhau - the dreaded Portuguese Salt Cod. This was all over Portugal - and never good. And I like fish. The particulars are on a Brazilian version, which sounds good. Maybe good enough to try again, after all Ta Lin has Bacalhau :)
Moab
Mon Apr 25 2005 08:55 MDT #So this weekend Rachel, Thor and I took the 6 hour drive up to Moab, and met Mum. She'd driven down from Provo, were she'd spent the week on business.
It was, as always, pretty amazing. We hit both Arches and Canyonlands, both the Needles and Islands In the Sky districts. Amazing. Did a several walks - all our old favs + a few new ones including a nice one in Islands In the Sky we'd never done before. The picture attached is from that hike.
The weather was perfect -- though because the weather was perfect and this was high season - Moab was mobbed. Lots and Lots of people. Lines where ever we went to eat -- though we did have some good food. Arches was also some what full.
Sunday was a bit more overcast, which was actually good cause we all got just a little bit of sun burn on Saturday. Sunday was the day we did the Needles and we took Thor -- which was interesting, he didn't so much like the dirt road for instance :). Also the ranger at the gate warned us that coyotes like kittens -- be double careful! :)
On the whole a great weekend. Much, much fun and we should do this much more often.
Breakfast
Wed Apr 13 2005 09:14 MDT #Breakfast was delicious, nutritious, and absolutely stunningly beautiful this morning.
Pounce 'N Boots
Thu Apr 7 2005 21:31 MDT #Pounce was a prince amongst cats, sweet and caring, adventurous and playful, with a forceful personality. Today April 7th he was struck and killed by and automobile, on our otherwise quite country road.
Not yet a year old, he'd already seen a lot - 3 states is a lot for a cat. He'd had at least 2 owners - and many people cared for him. He was adventurous and playful in life and presumably he was returning from one of his adventures when he died - so he died as he lived.
He also died swiftly after a happy life, in the country. We were often jealous of both his life style and his leaping abilities :) (for which he will long be remembered)
We are desperately sorry to see him go, and the world is a worse, and lesser place without him.
USA Today Has a Clue
Thu Apr 7 2005 14:04 MDT #A USA Today Op/Ed about the Freedom of Information act and Secret information, shows that they have a clue. This is an excellent piece, which no doubt got wide exposure do to USA Todays incredible readership. I'm quite happy about that :)
Found via the ever excellent Schneier on Security
NetFlix Review: ChungKing Express
Fri Apr 1 2005 11:20 MST #So last night's NetFlix movie was 'ChungKing Express' which simply amazing. I think that when it was released it's marketing sucked. At the very least I always had it stuck in my mind as a Chinese 'Like Water for Chocolate'.
But it was not so. It's very bright, interesting movie. Amazingly well shot, a bit of action but mainly a relationship film. Good writing, character development -- everything. The director was Kar Wai Wong of the simply amazing In the Mood for Love . Had I known this I would have been much, much more into watching this movie. Also in the good people column - it stars Tony Leung , of general Hong Kong fame -- but particularly from In the Mood for Love.
Two Thumbs Way up!