Rope swing

I've just started watching The Bridge to Terabithia, and so far I'm enjoying it. (I see it's based on a book but I never read it.) Solid fantasy story (I'm usually not into fantasy), and all the actors are Ab Fab.

Update: Unlike Narnia and such, most of the story takes place outside of the Magical Kingdom, and I think it's a very good story. When the magical stuff starts to happen though, it has some very kool creatures, and excellent effects to make them. Very nice.

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Two kids are using a rope swing from a big tree over a stream, and I was reminded of one we had in our garden. It was over the lawn in our big Weeping Willow, and it was used so much that there was not a blade of grass in a wide circle under it! I think it didn't even have a bar at the bottom for sitting, but it had a very big knot you sort of sit on when you were still a kid and small and light.       :-)

Lord, how much fun that was, just this simple rope. Either when we were a bunch just hanging out and chatting, or when I was alone, just thinking. I remember I would swing in a circle and get to the tree with my legs, and then push off into the opposite circle and get to the tree from the other side and so forth. I enjoyed the precision I could do this with after some practice. As well of course as simply the joy of the movement.

And it was good for something to do while thinking. I am an over-thinker, it's compulsive. My mom said I was "born an adult", I was never the carefree kid. Even at two or three I would stand in the playpen, looking very seriously out at the world through the bars, trying to figure everything out. Haha!


Oh, by the way, another thing I did aaaaall the time was climb. I think I spent more time in tree tops than I spent sitting in chairs.

Very Zon

Very Advanced

Very Advanced! from Eolake Stobblehouse on Vimeo.
Astonishment.

Upgrades do it

My blu-ray player died, and I bought a new one. Of course like we know, it's smaller, cheaper, and lighter. But here's what threw me: the picture quality is dramatically better than my old one, which was less than... 18 months old. It was the same disc and the same TV. And yet...

I did not see this coming. I have a simple mind. Who's a geek now? Not me!

Bruce said:
Apparently Blu-ray players are as much computers as they are players. they run Java, and do a significant amount of signal processing of the data they read off the disk, which is then transmitted to the TV. ... 
The quality of what you see on the TV depends on the quality of the signal processing (hardware and software) done in the blu-ray player. I have read some reviews that suggest buying a 3D capable player, even if you don't ever want to go to 3D, because of their superior computer power translates to superior 2D pictures.

Thanks, Bruce. Actually the one I bought happens to be 3D capable, so that may explain some of it.

The one thing that still bugs me about disc boxes is that virtually nobody makes a user-friendly interface for the remote control. You should be able to feel easily where your hand is, and not look at it every time before you press something. And the Stop button should be far from Play and Pause.      :-)

"Return"? To what?

It's funny how old terminology lives on. For example I enter some text in a Search field on my iPad, and then I can click the Return button to activate it. And somebody born after 1980 might well be excused for thinking "return?... return to what? The previous page? The previous app?" They may never have seen a typewriter, with a lever which Returned the paper carriage to the start of a new line.

For that matter, on bigger computers there is often a Return and an Enter key, and they often do the same thing. But then: sometimes not. Huh.

(I'm sure I'll be enlightened and corrected with technical details about this, thanks beforehand guys.      :-)

"Mo-cap"

I've just watched the recent version of A Christmas Carol, and though it did a good job of presenting Dickens' superb story, I feel a bit surprised that Motion Capture films don't seem to me to have the visual richness and detail that most CGI films (such as Pixar's) have. I'm not sure why. Well, it may be related to mo-cap trying to make realistic humans, and CGI movies generally don't, as yet. It's a tough nut I'm sure.

The expanding economy

I think it's a peculiarity that:

1) The economy is expected to expand continually and forever.
2) Many, many companies are in deep doodoo if their market is not growing pretty rapidly.

You'll notice that everybody panics if the growth in a market is less than the growth last year!

Seeing as how there's a limit to the population, it just seems to be a sucker bet to hang your hat on continual expansion. I think it would be more sound having a business which simply has a stronger foundation.

It's like a big vehicle (a bus for example) which would explode if it ever drove slower than, say, 50 miles/hour. Hey, somebody should make a movie like that, I'd call it "Velocity". Could be a hit.

Rollei 35, a classic

I think it was the Rollei 35 which when I saw it in a book in the seventies kick-started my passion for quality compact cameras. And I still think it's one of the most beautiful compacts ever made. Surprisingly heavy too, very solid build.

I just love that you can have a pocket camera which can, within its operating parameters, deliver image quality equal to a big pro camera at four times the size and weight.

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Of course the famous Minox 35 is even smaller and much lighter. But in the end it's plasticky and I never felt the beauty of it in the same way.

As a teen I couldn't afford a Rollei 35, but I did have a Japanese knock-off with the same gate-design. Dang, what was the brand? Despite having no focusing aid, it was a really good camera though, I took many pics with it:

Yes Man

Just watched Yes Man with Jim Carrey. Highly enjoyable. And it has Zooey DeWhazname in it, doesn't suck.

Gaga/Madonna

In late nineties I heard some wonderful music in a restaurant. I researched what it was, and couldn't believe that it was actually Madonna!
I still think Ray of Light the album is outstanding.

The same happened today, I heard some music on a web site, and I liked it. I used a handy app called SoundHound on my iPhone, it listened to it and told me it was Lady Gaga! Oh no!
But oh yes. So now I've bought her collection/album The Fame Monster over UK iTunes. (Two dozen songs for only five pounds (eight bucks) by the way, good deal.)

Ebert returns

Film critic Roger Ebert returns to TV with facial prosthesis.
Good for him. I have not read or watched all that much of his work (it was not generally exported to Europe), but what I did catch was really good.

Another article.
The show is necessary in today's entertainment world, Ebert says. "Can you think of another TV show that deals with the movies as movies instead of as celebrity showcases?"

I bet.

Hyper and lazy

I have a hyper-active mind and a super-lazy body.
I really wish it were a bit more evenly divided!       :-)