31 July 2008, mid-morning
I was talking to Tyler about Ruby Fringe yesterday: apparently it was a crazy success. I’m still disappointed I didn’t crash their last party. I did have some of their left over beer last night on the roof of their office, so I guess that’s something. People are going on about the conference like it was Woodstock. The fact they aren’t planning on doing another conference may mean it will end up developing the sort of mythos that surrounds Woodstock. At least amongst super-nerds like myself.
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Technology | Current Events
29 July 2008, evening time
I have two pairs of glasses now, one from 39dollarglasses and the Mykitas I mentioned earlier.
I’ve been wearing the Mykitas since Friday, and they are quite nice. They are very light, and quite comfortable. They are apparently made out of stainless steel or titanium or something tough, and have some crazy all-most lifetime warranty. At least, this is what the lady at First Markham Place was saying.
The pair from 39dollarglasses aren’t nearly as nice, but they were way cheaper. They arrived today, so I haven’t actually worn them outside yet. They look kind of ridiculous on me. I guess I can wear them when I’m in hipster mode. (Shima didn’t notice I was wearing new glasses when she came in — even after I made a big deal about there being something she wasn’t noticing. Perhaps they aren’t as crazy looking as I think.)
And so my glasses story comes to an end.
[4] Life
29 July 2008, early morning
Matt recently wrote about how he uses the Inbox Zero method to manage his email. The general idea is that you don’t use your email inbox as a dumping ground for all the emails you need to deal with. You can read all about Inbox Zero on Merlin Mann’s web site. Like Matt I find the system works pretty well.
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Technology | Life
28 July 2008, early morning
Shima and I watched Shopgirl on the weekend. It’s a nice little story about a young lady from Vermont, played by Claire Danes. Danes’ character is living in LA and working at Saks Fifth Avenue when she meets two men: the first is a loser dude played by Jason Schwartzman, and the second is a wealthy old man played by Steve Martin. (The film is based on the book, also by Steve Martin.) I quite liked the film. The acting is great. Claire Danes in particular is awesome. The only thing I didn’t like about the movie was the narration, which seemed really out of place. That aside, it’s well worth watching. Who doesn’t like a melancholy romance? (Though it’s not that melancholy.)
The official Shopgirl web site.
Movies
23 July 2008, early morning
I watched the Dark Knight with my friends last night. It was oh so good. Christopher Nolan continues to do a great job of helping us forget the crap that was Schumacher’s Batman films. The Dark Knight opens with a bank robbery that introduces the audience to the Joker, and continues from there. At the start of the film everyone views the Joker as an unimportant crazy dude; by the end of the film he’s cemented his position as Batman’s arch-rival. Heath Ledger does a great job playing the Joker. The other important element to the film is of course Harvey Dent, Gotham’s newly appointed district attorney who is cleaning up the streets and trying to put all the mobsters behind bars. At the start of the film Batman thinks he will soon be able to hand in his cape, trusting that Dent will finish the work he started. If you are familiar with the comics, you’ll know this idea doesn’t work out too well. Aaron Eckhart plays Harvey Dent, and he also does a great job with the part. Actually, everyone does a great job in this film. It’s such a solid movie. There are of course silly plot points and gadgets and all of that stuff, but on the whole it’s a very dark and interesting look Batman. It goes without saying you need to watch this movie.
The official The Dark Knight web site.
[3] Movies
22 July 2008, early morning
A week ago I broke my glasses. I took them off to clean them and they fell apart in my hands. Seriously. I needed new glasses anyway, but it would have been nice to go looking for a new while I still had a pair I could wear. That evening I went to Dufferin Mall to get fitted for contacts. They didn’t actually have any boxes of contacts in my prescription for sale, but they did have a sample, which is what I left the store wearing. And so I manage to make it through the week with contacts. I hate wearing contacts, but what can you do?
On the weekend I headed uptown to play board games with Yang, and then to my parents place in Scarborough. The thing with contacts is that you can’t just take them off and put them on a nightstand. If I had been wearing contacts for a while I probably would have remembered to bring contact solution with me. Sadly, I did not. And so as I flushed my contacts down the toilet I thought about how I would spend the next few days blind — a man without fear.
I spent Sunday afternoon at First Markham Place. If you need to buy glasses there really is no better place in the city to go. After much soul searching I settled on a pair of Mykita glasses. Carvill’s sister apparently loves her pair off. They make these light titanium glasses – the sort of glasses that shouldn’t crumble in your hands. I asked them very nicely to rush my order, which they said they would. Surprised, I get a call the next afternoon letting me know my glasses are done. Of course I’m happy, but am now faced with the dilemma of actually picking up my glasses, which are trapped in the middle of nowhere. Lucky for me, Ali offered to pick them up, so I head off to Warden station to meet him.
And so I am standing in Warden station, holding a little white box that contains my new frames. I put them on. And then I come to the sad realization the right eye is way off. And so I headed off to Dufferin Mall to get contacts — again.
[2] Life
21 July 2008, mid-morning
I finished Patapon yesterday night. The game is so very enjoyable. The concept behind Patapon is a little hard to explain: it’s part rhythm game, part strategy. You control an army of little eyeball men, and you get them to do stuff by banging out drum beats that correspond to keys on your PSP. You send them off to fight a rival army, hunt animals, or fight giant monsters. (The trailer may explain things better than I just have.) The story line is simple, but cute. The art style is awesome. The only issues I have with the game is that you can’t pause a battle mid-fight, which makes it a pain to stop playing on the go. Besides that it’s a great little game. If you have a PSP you should definitely grab a copy.
Video Games
18 July 2008, mid-morning
I was using Twinkle on my old iPhone to check twitter as it worked a fair bit better than MobileTwitterrific at the time. MobileTwitterrific development looked to have stopped fairly early on, because Iconfactory planned to work on a version that used the official SDK. (Since I didn’t have a proper data-plan, I barely used either application, opting instead to use SMS to send and receive updates.) When the official AppStore launched, Twitterrific was featured front and centre, while Twinkle was nowhere to be seen.
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iPhone
16 July 2008, late at night
Over the course of a couple lunch breaks my coworkers and I watched Chugyeogja (The Chaser). It is damn good. The movie is about a ex-cop turned pimp who is trying to sort out who is stealing his girls. We learn quite early that they’re probably being killed. It’s a thriller of sorts, though at times it’s quite funny. The action sequences all have a very realistic feel to them — for example people are barely able to move by the end of long chase sequences. It is at times very violent — surprisingly so. The acting is superb. Yun-seok Kim, who plays the pimp, is amazing. I don’t know what else to say really, besides go find this movie. It’s one of the better films I’ve seen this year.
[2] Movies
14 July 2008, early evening
I went to Dufferin Mall to get contacts. I haven’t worn contacts in ages. They feel weird in my eyes, but I can see again, so that’s all that matters. While there I stopped by the Fido shop to see if they could add Visual Voicemail to my current iPhone — I hate normal voicemail, and the rates are the same. They told me, politely, no. I had already been told this on the phone — twice — but I like to ask around. Talking to various Fido reps I got the feeling my dreams of an iPhone first generation amnesty plan weren’t going to come true anytime soon. So I did what anyone would do: I bought the new iPhone. (It’s worth re-reading my last post on this topic, where I make fun of all the rich kids and yuppies I predicted would buy them. I guess I’m a yuppie.)
For those curious, I dropped my current value pack, which I added when I got EDGE working on my old iPhone, and added the new iPhone value pack — which is basically the same thing but with Visual Voicemail instead of normal voicemail, and no data rates whatsoever. On top of that I added what I really wanted, which was the 6gb/month data plan. All in all, that’s $27 more a month on my cell phone bill. I also sold my soul for 3 years, which is the part that really hurts. The thing is, I really wanted that 6 gig data plan. Rogers/Fido totally have my number.
I’ll have more to say later, but the GPS works, browsing is quick, and my headphones finally fit in the damn phone.
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[9] Life | iPhone
14 July 2008, mid-afternoon
My glasses just broke. Part of the frame that holds the lens in place snapped … while I was cleaning it. I guess it’s time for new frames. I’ve had these ones for a while.
I hate wearing fucking glasses.
[2] Life
14 July 2008, early morning
I shot the first of five rolls of Black and White film Shima bought me this weekend. I went cherry picking with her family, and a bright sunny day seemed like a good time to shoot with the Delta 100. I had planned to take notes about how I exposed each shot, but you’d be surprised how big a pain in the ass that actually is to do. I wonder how hard it would be to right a little iPhone application to let me track exposures on a roll of film, or make other notes. (Why start taking notes now? I bought another notebook I have no use for.) Cherry picking was more fun than I thought it would be. It was a nice day out.
[1] Life
I’ve been told that like liberty, you can’t put a price on owning an iPhone.
— Rishi Suchak
10 July 2008, early morning
The iPhone AppStore is live now. There is a lot of stuff on there now that looks pretty interesting. My phone has been jailbroken for quite some time, but the appliations available always struck me as half-assed for the most part. (There are of course exceptions.) Applications i’m interested in include: Jott, Evernote, Twitterific, NetNewsWire & Exposure. Also, the iPhone Remote application also looks pretty hype. The word on the street is that the AppStore works perfectly, though I haven’t had a chance to test it out myself. I need to sort out whether I can upgrade to 2.0 when it is released without re-locking my phone. (update: I should have know people would find the firmware early.) Such is the drama that comes with getting the phone so many months ago. The iPhone 3G officially launches in Canada tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how many Rogers sells. They seem to have been getting a lot of bad press, but do rich kids and yuppies read newspapers? I’m not so sure.
Update: The iPhone 2.0 software has been unlocked. Mind you, the actual software isn’t out yet, so the Gizmodo headline is a bit misleading. I think Gizmodo likes to cum in its pants.
[2] iPhone
My mom can’t feed me, my boyfriend beats me
I have sex for money, the hood don’t love me
The cops wanna kill me, this nonsense built me
And I got no place to go
They bomb my village, they call us killers
Took me off they welfare, can’t afford they health care
My teacher won’t teach me, my master beats me
And it hurts me soul
— Hurts Me Soul by Lupe Fiasco
6 July 2008, late at night
Ajantha Mendis won Sri Lanka the Asia Cup today. India were chasing a reasonable score of 273, posted primarily by Jayasuriya, but no one seemed to think India would have any trouble topping it. Sehwag looked like he was going to win India the cup all by himself when they started batting. All looked lost till Mendis came out to bowl. Holy shit. 6 wickets in his first outing in front of India. And India has a pretty nice batting line up. No one seemed to know what he was doing. He probably could have got 8 wickets had the captain played him more. I can’t recall the last match I saw where a single player had such a big impact on the whole game.
Life
6 July 2008, late evening
I finally watched The Last King of Scotland with Shima. The movie, a fictional retelling of the rise (and fall) of Idi Amin, was very well done. James McAvoy plays Amin’s doctor, and the movie focuses on their relationship. When McAvoy arrives in Uganda everyone is loving off Amin, McAvoy’s character included. The more time he stays in the country, the more he comes to realizes Idi Amin is a crazy son of a bitch. You are left aware he kicked out all the South Asians from the country, and that Amin killed a lot of people, but this all plays out in the background. Forest Whitaker does an amazing job portraying Idi Amin. All in all it’s a good movie, well worth watching.
The official The Last King of Scotland web site.
Movies
4 July 2008, early morning
Shima bought me a bunch of film and a gift certificate to use the darkroom at Imageworks for my birthday. I’m pretty sure I haven’t been in a darkroom since I was in high school. I have vague memories of Rishi trying to teach me how to develop and print, though I’m not sure I ever actually had to do so. I seem to recall Brian and Jordanna doing most of the printing in my last year at Woburn — the year I was on the yearbook. I was very prolific: I think a ton of my pictures ended up making it into the book. I’m pretty sure I didn’t print any of them. I need to decide what to shoot with all the film. I have: Ilford Delta 100, Ilford Delta 400, Ilford HP5, and Arista II 400. I’m thinking nothing but “artistic” nudes. And then I need to drag Rishi to image works and print it all up. Exciting!
Photography
3 July 2008, early morning
Tyler and Matt were laughing at me when I told them most of my music is saved as AAC files. It’s the reason my Muxtape is a bit lacking. I decided on this format a long time ago, after soliciting the opinions of my friends. AAC struck me as the format of the future, it being superior to the MP3 format and all. Reading what I had written then, I was working under the assumption that ACC would become as ubiquitous as MP3s. One day. Till then you can listen to RZA’s muxtape.
Technology
2 July 2008, mid-morning
I like reading about getting things done and all of that task management junk. I find it interesting to see how people keep themselves organized. For all of my reading on the subject, I am still incredibly disorganized. I was using a moleskine day planner for a little while, which worked reasonably well when I would actually use it. When I bought my iPhone I switched to using iCal again. You may recall I was using TaskPaper for a little while. With no way to sync stuff to my phone — neatly — I stopped using it for a long while. The latest development version is really quite nice, so I might switch back. There are some tricks out there to integrate it with an online version, tasko, which makes the whole system more appealing. Really, I should just copy whatever it is that Shima does. I think a part of me likes setting up elaborate organizational systems more than actually using them. (Are you the same way? You might enjoy reading this: iPhone Task Management a Go-go)
[6] Life
26 June 2008, early morning
When I met Shima she had long hair. And then it got longer. She wanted it longer still for the wedding. That out of the way, she decided it was time to chop it off. Now she has a bob and looks really cute.
[6] Life
23 June 2008, mid-morning
I wish my site was easier to search, because then I could link to all the comments I’ve made in the past making fun of the PSP. (I think my comments can probably be summed up thusly: the PSP was the console you bought if you wanted to play Lumines — and that’s about it. Oh snap!) Despite my making fun of it, the PSP soldiered on. There are two games I really wanted to play that were only available on the PSP: Crisis Core and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. And now that they are both out, the weekend seemed as good a time as any to buy a PSP. I have a red one. The fact they aren’t $400 anymore was a nice bonus. For now I’m enjoying Gods of War: Chains of Olympus: mindless button mashing is makes the subway ride to work fun.
[3] Video Games
20 June 2008, early morning
Shima and I watched Fire Wednesday night. It’s the first film in Deepa Mehta’s elements trilogy. Compared to Water, which I really enjoyed, I found Fire a bit weak. I think the film is a bit too heavy handed and in your face with all the Ramayana allegory. The fact they keep mentioning the story, and keep explaining the parts of the story Metha is criticizing, struck me as very lame. I suppose she was worried Western audiences may not be aware of this Indian religious literature. That aside, it was still a good film. The actors were great, and the story is well told. I think it’s worth watching.
Reviews of Fire on MetaCritic.
[1] Movies
19 June 2008, mid-morning
The wedding went well. It went really well. It was pretty much exactly how I wanted things to be: very casual. There was a wedding, and then there was a bunch of people spending an evening together. I didn’t want the wedding to be the main attraction. My friends were in saris, and they all looked quite lovely. The Persian girls did a knife dance. Shima and I fed each other honey. There was lots of photos taken. There was a team kata. We signed our marriage certificate on my dining room table, in the rush between the Hindu and Persian ceremonies. I hung out with Dave before the wedding, at my aunts house, while my cousin scrawled out the logistics of the ceremonies. I sat with Mahi in our living room late at night — I apparently missed a soul train. My uncle broke two coconuts, and did so like a pro. Shima’s dad read us poetry. I didn’t get to eat, but I did drink some scotch. Krishna’s friends did lots of hard work, and then drank all our beer — a fair trade. There were garlands that were swapped, and a thali that was tied — symbolically by me: my two aunts did the hard work. We traded rings, mine a battle to get on. It didn’t rain. Shima looked beautiful. My hair was too curly? It was a nice wedding. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Life
14 June 2008, early morning
I was going to write something late last night, but Shima doesn’t like it when I type away on my keyboard. (This doesn’t stop me usually, because a part of me likes to wake her up when I get home late and she’s already sleeping.) We’re getting married in a few hours from now. I had thought i’d be more nervous the closer this day approached, but no: I’m feeling just fine. Asking someone to marry you is one of those questions you should really only ask when you already know the answer. I’m sure there is a lesson to be learned with regards to follow through based on how I feel at this moment.
[5] Life
