10 June 2008, mid-morning
I haven’t had to write a Java program in ages. I think the last one I wrote was for CS341 (Algorthims), which would have been sometime in the Winter of 2002. After Algorithms all the courses I took used C++ — or were all about the math. Java looks a lot like C++, but the similarities end pretty quickly. The last time I wrote Java code it was all vim and the command line. Apparently that’s not the way people do things anymore. I’m downloading Netbeans – ever so slowly – now. I don’t think I’ve used an IDE since I was in high school. (Turbo Pascal, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.) I’m not a big fan of IDEs. I think they can sometimes hide too much of what is going on from the developer. With something like C++, I think it’s important to know how to cobble together a Makefile, and understand dependencies and the like. That said, I’m also not a big fan of doing crap work the computer can do for you. I’ll have to see how Netbeans works out.
[3] Code
9 June 2008, mid-morning
I generally try and keep this site devoid of too much detail about my life. In part, this is because my life is really not some stranger on the Internet’s business. Also, my life is pretty boring as peoples’ lives go. I like to think of funkaoshi.com as an impersonal personal web site. Of course, my life is now closely tied to that of another person, and so it bleeds through in other places on the web. It’s good to make note of important events in your life. We had a party this past weekend with some of our friends. Next week, a bunch of those people will be replaced by a bunch of brown people, and we’ll have another party. And after that we’ll be married.
[8] Life
6 June 2008, early morning
I suppose I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that Obama is going to be the Democrat nominee during the upcoming US elections this November. This is good. I have no real issues with Clinton, save for the fact she scares the shit out of me. It’s a bit disappointing that because she’s a women she has to act ten times as crazy as her competitors to be taken seriously. And her ass has been straight up crazy this election season. I’m not convinced it’s anything but an act: she never struck me before as being so far to the right. (Maybe I just don’t pay enough attention.) Enough on her. Obama is awesome. I think many people—myself included—see him as a modern day JFK. He has far more charisma than McCain, and there is really no comparison when we take a look at Bush. I want him to win just so I can hear him give kick ass speeches with some frequency. Of course, it now remains to be seen if Americans will still vote for the scary old White dude. I kind of think they will.
[1] Current Events | Politics
3 June 2008, early morning
Sick at home yesterday, I took some time to watch the season finale of Lost. I’d spend the next new paragraphs swearing, making gunshot noises, and otherwise causing a ruckus, but none of that really works over the internet. Suffice it to say, I really liked this season. I can’t wait for next season. It’ll be interesting to see how they do things now that – well, I guess I should stop right there.
[3] Television
27 May 2008, early morning
I have managed to cripple myself. My right shoulder is all sore—again—as I type this. I need a job that doesn’t involve sitting at a desk typing junk into a computer. I remember when I was a co-op at CI Funds, laughing at my boss who said slouching so much was a bad idea. Oh, how stupid I was. Children reading this: sit down properly when you use a computer; get up and walk around when you start to feel stiff; and for the love of god, exercise.
[3] Life
20 May 2008, late evening
The Time Traveler’s Wife was probably not the best book to read while Shima is away in Europe. It’s a story about separation, loneliness, waiting, etc. It’s certainly a lovely book, but it is kind of a downer when you already miss your favourite person. Nevertheless, it’s quite enjoyable. The book was first recommended to me by my cousin Jana, a serious-ass Sci-Fi fan. He explained the time travel, and how it makes for an interesting story. Much later, Shima’s friend Nina recommended it, making passing reference to the number of times she cried while reading it. Nina and Jana both probably have very different tastes in books, so I find the overlap here interesting. It takes serious work to appeal to such disparate demographics. The Time Traveler’s Wife is classic sort of love story. I felt it manages to avoid being overly sappy, and doesn’t veer in to the realm of chick-lit. Though the dialog is at times a bit awkward, on the whole it’s very well written. I think it’s worth checking out. Of course, if you don’t like reading, you can just wait for the movie.
Read an interview with Audrey Niffenegger at Bookslut.
Comics and Books
20 May 2008, early morning
The air is brisk and cool. The sky is grey, overcast. I walk to work with a touque on, my hands in my pockets. You can tell winter is fast approaching. No wait. It’s May. Seriously Canada?
[5] Life
13 May 2008, early morning
I watched Street Health Stories and the Interventionists last night at DIGIN to DOCS. Street Health Stories features a few homeless people discussing their lives; this narration is played over portraits of them taken by 4 ladies who were at one time homeless. It’s basically an attempt to put names and faces to statistics on homelessness. I thought it was a well executed film. The Interventionists looks at a new unit within the police force that deals with mentally ill people: a police officer is paired with a psychiatric nurse, and they attempt to diffuse situations that would normally be dealt with by EMS or the police. They try to divert people that would normally be sent to jail or to the hospital to services in their area, unless this isn’t feasible. It struck me as a smart and effective use of resources. Both films were interesting.
The discussion after the film went the way most of these discussions seem to. I get the sense that people in the area feel no one listens to their concerns — which is probably true — so whenever they are given a chance to speak, I find they are generally far too antagonistic. The people who came to speak were all basically working to improve the lives of the homeless in Toronto. They really aren’t the people you need to demand more from, since they are fighting the good fight. The fact they might be based downtown, rather than in our neighbourhood really isn’t something you can fault them for. I see this sort of thing happen all the time. Adam Giambrone is by far the most responsive of the elected representatives in the area. And because he’s the most accessible he is the one that gets bitched at the most. Silva and Ruprecht basically hide for 4 years and no one in the area cares — worse still they elect them again. And people are surprised nothing changes?
You can learn more about the Interventionists and Street Health Stories at the NFB.
[3] Movies | Bloor and Lansdowne
12 May 2008, mid-morning
I hop on the 191. It’s 8:45, so I ask the driver if he stops at Atwell, just to be safe. He replies, “yes.†I sit down and start reading my book. When I look up again the guy across from me looks to be hopping off the bus on the highway. I think it’s a bit strange, get back to reading my book, then look up again to realize I have no idea where we are. I get up to talk to the driver.
— Where are we? Do you stop at Atwell?
— Where do you want to go?
— Dixon and Atwell.
— We’re at Bellfield and Highway 27.
— Where is that? Where is Dixon and Atwell.
— It’s 5 minutes South. pause I missed the stop.
— OK. Well, I’ll get out here then. pause Thanks.
— Sorry.
And so I started walking South on Highway 27. Now, I wouldn’t have been too bothered about the whole affair had the driver bothered to announce that he’d missed the damn stop. Seriously, WTF TTC?
[4] Life
12 May 2008, mid-morning
I watched Ironman over the weekend with a few of my friends. The film was brilliant, easily one of the best comic book films done to date. (In my mind it ranks up there with X-Men 2 and Batman Begins.) The film goes through the origin story of Ironman, changing the story somewhat to make it more contemporary: instead of being injured in Vietnam, Stark is injured in Afghanistan; he is saved by an Afghan scientist instead of a Vietnamese one; instead of fighting the commies he is fighting Islamic Jihadists. (I think there are a few other differences between the comic and the movie, but nothing too drastic.) Robert Downy Jr. is a perfect Tony Stark. I can’t imagine anyone else playing the part now. Ironman is a fun comic book film; it doesn’t try to take itself too seriously. It is at times very funny. Ironman is well worth seeing.
The official Ironman website.
[3] Movies
9 May 2008, early morning
Tyler mentioned on his blog, in passing, that one reason he likes jQuery more than Prototype is that the formers syntax is a bit object-oriented.
prototype has syntax which strikes me as antithetical to OO principals. for example, Element.hide(‘comments’) instead of $(’#comments’).hide().
I was thinking about the above while writing some Python code at work. I now prefer Ruby to Python, but it took a little while for me to warm up to Ruby. Ruby has a very terse syntax, and there is a lot of room in the language to write programs that look like that are composed of magic and pixie dust. (This is especially true when you look at Rails code.) Once you have written a few programs in Ruby it is a bit easier to see what’s up: where people have decided to leave brackets off, etc. Ultimately I prefer Ruby because if I want to know how long a list is, I can do so as follows: [1,2,3].length(). In Python, the same task is accomplished as follows: len([1,2,3]). The later just seems ass-backwards to me now.
(Python’s object-oriented programming support seems pretty half-assed, but I’m no expert in the language so my opinions of it may stem from my ignorance more than anything else. Still, what’s with all the self parameters. And __init__? Come on, you can do better than that.)
Code | Technology
8 May 2008, early morning
Shima and I watched Leon (known in the US as The Professional) last night. The movie is about the relationship between a very young Natalie Portman, whose family is killed by in a drug dispute, and Jean Reno, who plays a hitman. Reno ends up taking care of Portman after her parents are killed. This is the second time I’ve seen the film, and it was just as good as I remember it. The gun fights are crazy. The stars all are wonderful playing their respective parts. I think it’s one of Luc Besson’s best movies. (It is certainly a cult classic.) If you watch the film, be sure to watch the international version. The original version cuts out 22 minutes of the film. Apparently some of the sexual tension between Portman and Reno was a bit too much for viewers. The film also stars Gary Oldman. Who doesn’t like Gary Oldman? I love the film.
Read reviews of the The Professional at Rotten Tomatoes.
Movies
3 May 2008, early evening
The last film I watched at Hotdocs (last week!) was S&M: Short and Male. The movie is a humorous look at the adversity short people face. Basically, there are countless studies that show if you are short you are destined to make less money and be ignored by women and all other sorts of great stuff. The movie is actually pretty informative, and covers a lot of interesting ground. The problem with the film is that a lot of the characters are kind of annoying. And, as far as I can tell, everyone they profiled is actually really successful. The film is sending conflicting messages. It’s an OK documentary.
S&M: Short and Male was the last film I saw at Hotdocs 2008.
Movies | Hot Docs 2008
With more supply than got demands
Still they take it from my people who got the lands
Cuz overseas pays Gs
They don’t understand
That they wearing dead men on their necks and hands.
— Red1, Keep the Beat
30 April 2008, early morning
Shima and I sorted out wedding rings in the afternoon. She left for Karate, and I left for the Carlu. I was out with some of the Well.ca boys and girls yesterday night. Ali, Alex, and Chris were in town for Startup Camp North. They chose the event to launch Startup Index, a project they are working on along with the guys from Startup North. And I use the term ‘they’ loosely, since as far as I can tell, Chris does all the work. (Oh Snap!) I always feel a bit out of place when I go to events like this. At the Rails Pubnite, people always gave me this look of both disappointment and sympathy when I told them: a) I had a job b) writing C++ code c) for a company that hasn’t been a startup for a very long time. At this event, people assumed I worked at Well.ca, since that is who I was sitting with … and then I would correct them, and you could see that glimmer of disappointment. Of course, that didn’t last long, because Ali would inform them that I’m a Ruby guru, or a Rails master. I suppose that’s not a total lie, but it’s pretty close. That said, I’m going to have to start introducing myself as, “Ramanan: Ruby Master,” from now on. I think you just need to say stuff like that enough and it becomes true. Well.ca is the biggest online pharmacy in the world. Or it will be anyway.
[3] Life | Technology
30 April 2008, early morning
After Betrayal I went for a drink with the rest of my movie watching compatriots. We walked over to the Green Room, which was close to Bloor Cinema, where the next screening was taking place. Movie #2 of the day was Football Undercover, a German/Iranian film about the difficulties in setting up an exhibition match between the Iranian women’s football team and a football team from Germany. It is trickier than you would imagine. The more interesting portions of the film are those shot in Tehran, showing you the lives of the football players living there. The actual match is fun to watch as well, as the women fans get a bit too rowdy for the morality police. I thought it was an entertaining enough film, though a little bit light overall.
Football Undercover was the 8th film I watched at Hotdocs 2008.
Movies | Hot Docs 2008
29 April 2008, early morning
The best film I saw at Hotdocs this year was, by far, Betrayal (Nerakhoon), by Ellen Kuras & Thavisouk Phrasavath. The film is narrated by Thavisouk, and the focus of the movie is primarily on him and his mother. The entire film is beautifully shot. Kuras is a cinematographer by trade, so this is probably to be expected. This film is her directorial debut. There is so much going on in this film, it was incredible.
During the U.S. military’s covert operations in Laos in the early 1970s, Thavisouk Phrasavath’s father was recruited to help the CIA. But when the Americans withdrew and the communist regime gained power, Phrasavath’s father and thousands of others were declared enemies of the state and imprisoned. At the age of 12, Phrasavath made a harrowing escape from Laos to Thailand and eventually to New York City, where the hardships of an immigrant’s life forced him, his eight siblings and his resilient mother to face an entirely different kind of war.
On one level the film is really about just how big an impact the bombs the US dropped on Laos have had on the Laotian people. The first portion of the film will most certainly fill you with some ‘Fuck America’ rage. The footage of the bombs being dropped over Laos is both amazing and beautiful, and horrible and disgusting, all at the same time.
And then the story moves forward and you find yourself watching a movie about the immigrant experience. I knew the film was going to be awesome when we are shown a scene of a younger Thavisouk showing off his long hair and tattoos. Text on the screen informs us we’re watching footage from Brooklyn, 1985. Kuras looks to have been following this family’s life for over 20 years! I can only imagine how much film they had to wade through to make the movie they ended up with. The narrative they’ve managed to put together works so well. The movie covers a lot of ground, but never feels disjoint. Thavisouk seems to find his bearings in the US, but his brothers and sisters end up rebelling quite hard. At my high school you saw this exact same thing play out with the Tamil kids who escaped the civil war in Sri Lanka. I think this is a very common experience. The fact that Kuras has all this footage of the family’s first years in the US is what really makes this portion of the film work so well.
I don’t think I’ve been at a film where you can hear so many people crying. It’s a bit unsettling when you can hear grown-ass men sniffling behind you. Betrayal was a brilliant film.
Betrayal was the 7th film I watched at Hotdocs 2008.
Movies | Hot Docs 2008
28 April 2008, early morning
My Hotdocs posse and I watched a series of short films on Friday. The screening began with Lovely Andrea, and was followed by Je Suis Une Bombe, Cock Fight Song, Time Flies, and Perfect / Growing Older (Dis)gracefully. Lovely Andrea was about a woman searching for a photograph she posed for in 1987 for a bondage magazine in Tokyo. I enjoyed the film, it’s a strange peak into the porno world. Je Suis Une Bombe was probably the coolest film of the lot. A woman in a Panda suit dances like a stripper, then takes of her head and says a poem. (I suppose its something you need to watch.) Perfect / Growing Older (Dis)gracefully looks at widow living in Liverpool who gets a makeover in order to look more trendy. It was very enjoyable. All the films were a bit more quirky then your typical Hotdoc film I suppose. None were an exhaustive look at any subject.
Hotdocs is over. I still need to write about Betrayal (easily the best film I’ve seen at the festival), Football Undercover, and Short and Male.
Lovely Andrea, Je Suis Une Bombe, Cock Fight Song, Time Flies and Perfect / Growing Older (Dis)gracefully were the 6th set of films I saw at Hotdocs 2008.
Movies | Hot Docs 2008
24 April 2008, early morning
Following The Red Card I saw Where Do We Belong, a film about the life of Afghan refugees and their Iranian brides. The movie consists primarily of interviews with Afghan men and their Persian brides, sitting in their homes with their families. The first half of the film takes place in Iran, and examines how the Afghans are treated by the Iranians. None of the Afghans are considered proper Iranian citizens, even if they were born their. Their children are also without rights. (If an Afghan women marries a Persian man, then their children are proper Iranian citizens.) Basically, life in Iran if you are an Afghan kind of sucks. (I have a hunch that life in Iran sucks in general, but I haven’t lived there myself.) The later half of the film looks at the lives of Afghans who have been deported back to Afghanistan. I’m not sure what this part of the film was supposed to convey. There are dog fights, polygamy, child marriage, and lots of ignorance and abject poverty. So, life in Afghanistan seemingly sucks more than life in Iran. The second half of the film seemed like a showcase of the ways in which Afghanis are so provincial — if Iranians held a low opinion of Afghanis before, I don’t think the film does anything to change that. Where Do We Belong was shot quite well. The director has a good eye. Like many Iranian films I’ve seen, its pace is very slow. Where Do We Belong was an interesting movie.
Where Do I Belong was the 5th film I watched at Hotdocs 2008.
Movies | Hot Docs 2008
24 April 2008, early morning
I watched two Iranian films last night, the first of which was The Red Card. A strange film about the murder/sex scandal involving Iranian soccer star Nasser Khani, whose wife was murdered, presumably by his mistress, the outspoken “Shahla” Jahed. This looks to be the OJ Simpson trial of Iran. It’s a very bizarre film, mixing court room footage, interviews with Khani, and video Shahla took of her and Khani in private. The film is worth watching if only to hear Shahla’s testimony. There is lots of wailing, which is something Persians like to do. Red Card was a cool film.
The Red Card was the 4 film I watched at Hotdocs 2008.
Movies | Hot Docs 2008
22 April 2008, early morning
I watched My Mother’s Garden last night. The film, by director
Cynthia Lester, is all about her mother’s compulsive need to hoard things. Their family home is literally buried under piles and piles of garbage. Her mother sleeps outdoors. Cynthia describes loosing her room to junk when she was a girl, and eventually leaving home at 13. Her brothers were also effected by her moms illness, one joining a gang, the other turning to booze. Now adults, the family reunites to try and save their family home, which the city has threatened to take away from the mother. Lester has managed to capture both the humane and charming side of her mother, and the neurotic and irrational side. Her mother is an an endearing character, and I suspect part of the reason the film works so well is that her mother — despite all the crazy — is so very charming. You see all the ups and downs as the family tries to deal with a very stressful situation. It is at times quite intense. The film was excellent; you should watch it.
My Mother’s Garden was the 3rd film I saw at Hotdocs 2008. It was shown with the short Ground Floor Right There is a brief Q&A with Lester on the Hotdocs web site.
[1] Movies | Hot Docs 2008
21 April 2008, early morning
La Carona was followed by Searching 4 Sandeep, an Australian film written, directed, and starring Poppy Stockell. The film follows Poppy as she begins a long distance relationship with a closeted British Punjabi girl Sandeep. The movie starts with Poppy waiting for Sandeep for their first meeting in Bangkok. It then jumps back 4 months to give you the story that lead up this meeting, and then moves on from there. As the movie began, I thought to myself, “what a lame choice to follow up La Carona.” It starts off quite light-hearted and cheesy. The movie is certainly funny throughout, but as the relationship becomes more and more serious things become a lot more interesting and heavy. The film touches on a lot of subjects, but perhaps most interesting is the relationship between Sandeep and her family as she comes out to them. Sandeep was given a camera early into the film, and some of the stuff she filmed is quite intense. Searching 4 Sandeep turned out to be a very good film.
Searching 4 Sandeep was the 2nd film I saw at Hotdocs 2008. This film screened with La Carona.
Movies | Hot Docs 2008
21 April 2008, early morning
Saturday afternoon I watched a double bill at Hotdocs The first of the two films featured was La Carona (The Crown), which was about a beauty pageant taking place in a medium/high security prison in Bogotá, Colombia. The directors followed four of the girls who are competing in the competition, showing you how they are preparing for the event, and giving you some of their back stories. It’s a strange film: it is at times very happy and upbeat, but there is always this very bleak undercurrent that runs through the whole film. All the women have clearly had very hard lives. I enjoyed the film very much. It’s certainly worth checking out.
La Carona was the 1st film I saw at Hotdocs 2008. The film screened with Searching 4 Sandeep.
Movies | Hot Docs 2008
19 April 2008, early morning
Shima is destroying my ability to sleep in. I woke up at 8:30 today. It’s saturday. That’s just not right. I guess it’s time to be productive.
[3] Life
17 April 2008, early morning
I had chocolate milk tea yesterday at the Ten Ren at Empress Walk. I think the tea I used to get at the Market Village Ten Ren were sweeter — it must be the brown cow — but this was still really good. Before yesterday, I can’t recall the last time I had bubble tea. I used to get bubble tea all the time. My life near the end of high school involved a lot of bubble tea (and lemon coke). My friends and I would go to Axia or Ten Ren several times a week — easily. Axia still exists, but when I walk past it now it’s lost all its charm. When we were in high school the girls who worked there were cute, and it was open late. Ten Ren at Market Village closed down a while back. When they stopped letting you smoke inside its business suffered a lot. It’s a shame really, that was the best bubble tea shop in the city. I think as the years pass the place gets more and more mythic in my mind. It makes me very nostalgic when I walk passed where it used to be in Market Village.
[1] Life
