iMac for sale
I’m selling my 1.83GHz Intel iMac. If you’re interested, bid on it over at eBay.
Published by Seth on May 8th, 2008 tagged Apple, Technology | Comment now »
St. Petersburg by air
I wish I’d taken the time for a helicopter ride over St. Petersburg when I was there in 2004. These shots do a great job at revealing the grand architecture of Russia’s old capital.
Published by Seth on April 25th, 2008 tagged Russia Trip, Travel | Comment now »
Oscar Thoughts
Holly & I watched The Oscars last night, which were largely uneventful. Jon Stewart did a a decent job, but I don’t think he (and his writers) had enough time to craft jokes, due to the recently-ended strike. Probably my favorite moment of the night was the duo of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova winning for “Falling Slowly” from Once. I rented this disc a few weeks ago from Netflix, and absolutely loved that song the first time I heard it. I went and found it on iTunes to buy shortly thereafter. I was ready to be mad when Marketa didn’t have a chance to speak at the microphone, considering Glen had barely spoken for 10 seconds, so they should have had plenty of allotted time for her to say something. Major kudos to Jon Stewart for bringing her back out after the commercial to get her piece in.
Note to the Academy: Stop playing people off who aren’t rambling. Seriously, and if you are going to do it, bring in the music slowly. A few times they opened with a cymbal crash, which is rather rude, though I know it was because they were playing the theme to whatever movie the person was nominated for. Really, double the amount of time people have to give acceptance speeches, and I bet it wouldn’t add 10 minutes to the show. Most of the time is spent presenting, in commercials, in retrospectives, and waiting for the recipients of the “little” awards to make their way up from the cheap seats in the back. They should have at least as long to speak as it takes to make the trek from their seat to the front.
I also couldn’t help but notice how International the Oscars were this year. All four of the acting awards went to Europeans, as did almost everything else, though most of the roles they played were in American studio pictures. I’ve only seen one of the five Best Picture-nominated films this year, guess I’ve been slacking…
Published by Seth on February 25th, 2008 tagged Uncategorized | Comment now »
Racing for Research
My sister is running a 5K in Phoenix tomorrow, to raise money for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, who work to find a cure for the cancer that our dad was diagnosed with two years ago. Please consider sponsoring her in this race, as the MMRF is a great charity, receiving a 4 star rating from Charity Navigator.
Published by Seth on February 22nd, 2008 tagged Personal | Comment now »
Obama in Iowa
I didn’t think he could do it, but I’m very impressed. Obama won Iowa, and his victory speech was goosebump-inspiring. I caucused for Ron Paul, but I’ll be switching my registration back to Democrat now, and hope to vote for Obama (or Edwards, though that seems unlikely) next fall for President:
Published by Seth on January 4th, 2008 tagged Politics | Comment now »
Bonne fête to Holly!
Today is my wife’s birthday, and we’re celebrating it in Montreal. She didn’t know we were coming here until a few days ago, but was happily surprised (I hope). We had numerous delays on the trip here, arriving about 8 hours later than we were supposed to, due to delayed and cancelled flights due to weather, but we made it, and spent yesterday shopping in the Underground City, ice skating, eating copious amounts of meat at Le Milsa, and finished the day off with a pint of cider at Hurley’s, before collapsing into our beds.
On today’s agenda: The Montreal Biodome, and the fine art musuem.
Published by Seth on December 30th, 2007 tagged Uncategorized | Comment now »
Tucker Carlson on Ron Paul
Great article here from Tucker Carlson, talking about Ron Paul:
One thing you can say for certain: The crowds at Ron Paul rallies aren’t coming to be entertained. Stylistically, a Paul speech is about as colorful as a tax return. He is the only politician I’ve ever seen who doesn’t draw energy from the audience; his tone is as flat at the conclusion as it was at the beginning. There are no jokes. There’s no warm-up, no shout-out to local luminaries in the room, no inspiring vignettes about ordinary Americans doing their best in the face of this or that bad thing. In fact, there are virtually none of the usual political clichés in a Paul speech. Children may be our future, but Ron Paul isn’t admitting it in public.
Paul is no demagogue, and probably couldn’t be if he tried. He’s too libertarian. He can’t stand to tell other people what to do, even people who’ve shown up looking for instructions. On board the campaign’s tiny chartered jet one night (the plane was so small my legs were intertwined with the candidate’s for the entire flight), Paul and his staff engaged in an unintentionally hilarious exchange about the cabin lights. The staff wanted to know whether Paul preferred the lights on or off. Not wanting to be bossy, Paul wouldn’t say. Ultimately, the staff had to guess. It was a long three minutes.
Published by Seth on December 21st, 2007 tagged Politics | 1 Comment »
Merry Christmas from Hillary
Wow, Rudy’s commercial was cringe-inducing, but Hillary’s is just… well… it makes me want to puke. She needs to do a follow up ad that shows her having to pay off the credit card bill for those gifts in January…
By comparison, Ron Paul’s Christmas video seems genuine, and he wears the requisite red shirt:
Mike Huckabee’s commercial also plays as genuine, to me, though the “floating cross” is a bit disturbing. That said, I find it hard to believe that they actually came up with that ahead of time, it was probably a happy accident for them.
I think Huckabee and Paul have good Christmas ads, won’t win them many new voters, but they don’t turn people off. Rudy’s ad is just plain creepy and weird, and Hillary’s reinforces her image as calculating and her humor always just seems so forced…
Published by Seth on December 21st, 2007 tagged Politics | Comment now »
Merry Christmas from Rudy
I hope this is intended as a joke, and not a real ad, but I fear I’m wrong:
Published by Seth on December 20th, 2007 tagged Politics | Comment now »
Terry Pratchett
I’m saddened by the news that author Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with an early stage of Alzheimer’s disease. If you’ve never read his Discworld series, they’re quite funny, a very British skewering of modern society set in the typical fantasy setting of wizards and trolls. He also uses excessive and hilarious footnotes. Hopefully he’ll have time for many more books before his symptoms worsen, as he’s obviously still got his sense of humor:
“I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think.
“I know it’s a very human thing to say ‘Is there anything I can do?’ but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.”
If you’re looking for a great gift for an avid reader in your family, pick them up a copy of The Color of Magic, the first in the Discworld series. If you’re intimidated by getting into reading a whole series (which isn’t necessary in this case, the books are all related, and feature many of the same characters, but it’s not a continuous story line, by any means) then read Good Omens, which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman. It’s probably my favorite book of the last few years.